Edwardian dressing table in milk paint...update...

Wow! Sorry about the delay there folks. Life has well and truly gotten in the way! I have been otherwise engaged with teaching Year 2 to sew, being a single parent while the husband works abroad, surviving a week with THREE seven year olds birthday parties and creating a plumbing crisis.I thought it would be a nice surprise for the husband if I could change the bathroom taps...

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A Look Behind the Curtains With Sherry Hart @ Design Indulgence

Hello!I'm so glad to be back with another post of Look Behind the Curtains with one of my favorite designers/blogger, Sherry Hart!{If you didn't see my first post of this series, please go here to see my interview with Marianne Simon.}If you have not read or follow Sherry's blog, Design Indulgence you definitely need to put this on your list! She has the greatest sense...

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New Purchases

Thought I'd share a few new things that I've bought for the house. I just bought the plain white pillow and the yellow floral pillow from Pottery Barn for the family room. The textured pillow in the corner was from Target. Just brought this baby home from World Market yesterday for the family room. I really like it. I just need to find a lamp, some art on the wall...

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A Sweet Smell of a Fundraiser and a Giveway

One of my daughters has been given the wonderful opportunity to go on an educational tour of China this summer with some other 8th graders (incoming Freshman actually). I am so excited for her to go on this trip and expect her to come back with so many stories, memories and knowledge of a new country.While this is such a great experience, it does come with a hefty cost to...

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Furniture from friends and the Friday flea market...

I've had a lovely week. I brought a new piece of furniture in from the garage to work on. A friend gave me this. It's an Edwardian dressing table. Don't I have nice friends?   It fits quite nicely between the pile of flooring and the pushed back dining table. This isn't really a 'before' shot as I've already removed the mirror section and refinished the top....

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Gesso mirror and snow...

We've had quite a dumping of snow here in Hertfordshire and my daughter had the day off school today as a result. Blogland is full of stunning snow pictures. Until now.Sorry. It didn't stop snowing at all yesterday which made for very grey pictures. And I took two pictures and then the camera battery died. Husband and daughter taking the car boot sale vintage sledge for a...

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Sick and Tired

I got it... I got the flu. Knocking on wood, our family seems to have a pretty good immune system. While I hear horror stories from friends of their middle of the night explosions of bodily fluids from their kids and being sick for days, I have sit back and thanked God that we don't have moments like that in our house. I am not sure what we are doing right, but maybe...

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Painting with gesso...

I first used gesso around 15 years ago to try and restore an old frame. It was something I had to mix from rabbit skin glue and chalk if I remember rightly. The frame turned out quite rubbish anyhow and I never went down that road again!More recently I have stumbled accross the wonderful work of Rosemary at Villabarnes and been intrigued to see that she paints with gesso,...

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Sorry, crates AGAIN and a winner...

Sometimes when I've given something a makeover, it's still not entirely done. My painted crate being one of those things! It was looking very dark in the pale living room...I've given both crates (well, crate and drawer) a wash of emulsion, very watered down and wiped off and I like them much better now. They look a bit more muted and driftwoody and suit the living room better.I...

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