Saturday, December 5, 2009

Whimsical Deer Silhouette-new item at A New Patina!

Well, I am still working on Holiday items for my etsy shop. Today I have a new item-a whimsical deer silhouette-SO CUTE!! I just love him. There is something about silhouettes that is really grabbing my attention lately so I thought I would try my hand at it.




I used a vintage frame that was in my grandma's basement, a wood silhouette that I covered in patterned paper and antiqued, a vintage Christmas light reflector and some other glittery accents. I hope he finds a home soon or I may just have to keep him myself! (Josie really wants to keep him)  Have a great day!

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

From Formal Living Room to My Creative Haven!

When Tim and I bought this house about a year and a half ago we both agreed that we would not need to do anything other than MOVE IN. I love the house, don't get me wrong....the first week I made Tim paint the one wall in the family room that was HUNTER GREEN. If you know me you will know that hunter green is SO NOT ME. So under protest he got out all his paint gear and went to town.
We lived in peace for about a month. ONE MONTH. Then I decided "Who needs a formal living room? We will NEVER use it! WASTED SPACE!" Since I have a degree in Interior Design and over 7 years of experience in this field my creative juices started flowing and I opened up my 3D home architect and went to town. I am proud to say that no walls were moved in this transformation, but what a transformation it was!

Unfortunately I never took photos of my room before I changed it. Somewhere I have photos from the previous owners but I can't find them right now! So here is my office soon after we finished it September of 2008. I have moved things around a bit and added some accessories, but the bones are the same!

This is "Command Central" Computer and TV (look at that old thing!) I need to hide the cords better! The lighting is horrible in these photos-sorry about that! Tim and I built these cabinets. Wouldn't you think that I would have taken some pictures along the way? nope. We purchased a sprayer at the local woodworkers shop and it was great! I used a Hirshfields oil-based primer and paint after I filled the grain in with grain filler and sanded FOREVER. I just didn't want the grain to show. I love the hard paint finish-it is very durable and I can clean pesky marks with my Magic Eraser. We had to figure out how to get lighting in this room since there wasn't any so I came up with this solution. We ran crown moulding all the way across the top and hid the wiring above-arn't the chandeliers cute? I hide all my printers behind the curtains in the open shelving on the sides.


My French Country sofa-I just love this! I know not everyone likes this style (my husband and sister included) I purchased it at Goodwill for $50.00. The cocktail table came from my Great Grandpa-it was in an old store in Northfield and then went to my Grandma-she gave it to me. I keep all my stamps and inks in it.

a view to the front door/entryway. I do think I would like to add french doors or curtains here at some point-it is hard to keep this room looking good, and it is the first room you see upon entering our house.

This is my work space for crafting. The armoire was one I found at a garage sale for $60.00 and we had it in the family room in the other house. I almost sold it because I didn't think I had a use for it-What was I thinking? Good thing I held onto it because it is perfect in here! Inside I have two sets of old metal library card holders that house all my embellishments and drawers to hold my 12 x 12 paper. Under the painted desk top is a small chest I found at Goodwill on the same day as the sofa-it was something like $20. I keep all my punches, adhesives, and tools in it. The tiny stacked drawers were my Grandma's and hold my foam stamps and the three vintage file cabinets came from an antique sale. You can see the corner of the rug-I found that at a garage sale for $40-it is from Pottery Barn and is an 8x10-LOVE IT! Ultimately I would love to have wood floors in here too, but for now it will stay carpet.

So that is my office! I never did tally up the total cost of making the cabinets but whatever it was it was well worth it-the whole family spends so much time in this room. It gets MUCH more use than it would have as a formal living room.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Hop on over!

I am not doing as well with this blogging thing as I would have hoped. I guess I should be happy that I have been so busy with crafting for etsy that I haven't had time to blog....
I have however had two blog posts on my OTHER blog http://anewpatina.blogspot.com/
Have a great day!

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Snow Dawgs.....

It is October 10th. OCTOBER TENTH PEOPLE, and there is SNOW. Now I do love me a nice snow storm, but this was a little early for me. And not a storm, but still. We woke to a little snow this morning and that made the kids happy. Happy and cold and wet. When all was said and done Jadyn and little neighbor cutie Grace had made some snow friends. Sorry about the photo quality-did I mention it was COLD outside?


So here are Jadyn and Grace holding their creations. Jadyn is holding the turtle collection and Grace is holding her snow dog-it is a golden retriever named Goldy and Jadyn's lamby named Snowy. Needless to say there was concern that their little snow friends would "die" so they are now living happily in our freezer. Happy Fall into Winter everyone!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Paperless


I am going to try for a paperless kitchen so I made these little flannel napkins to use rather than paper towels or paper napkins. Tim said this morning "You do know that you are going to be washing those EVERYDAY don't you?" And yes, I do realize that I will be adding MORE laundry to my never ending laundry stash, but so be it. Now that my lovely laundry room is finished I need more excuses to be in there right?



I am hoping that the savings will be worth it but that remains to be seen. I also purchased a 24 pack of "bar towels" at Sam's Club the other day and I plan on cutting them in half to make 48 smaller towels to use for the everyday clean-up that I would have normally use paper towels for. Off to find some wonderful flannel to make bibs, burp cloths, and napkins for Etsy!

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

THIS I know...

A very good friend told me to write what I know.

THESE are things that I KNOW:

I am not a great story teller or writer
I am not always fun to be around
I have aquired the taste for wine

Today I decided that I was going to FINALLY start blogging, yet didn't know what I was going to write about. Then Jen's words came to me: "Just write what you know"

As I walked outside to take the kids to school I noticed something sitting on the table out on our front step.


Don't look at the plants too closely-this is the time of the year that I lose interest in keeping my plants alive.

ANYWAY, see the things close to the front of the table? Look closer.


Can you see them? Those are Josie's GROUSE FEET. She went hunting with Tim this last weekend and I am guessing she was showing off her feet. Yep, I KNOW I am the only house in the Walden neighborhood that has a pair of grouse feet on their front table. So there you have it, I am writing about something I KNOW.