Feeling Blue

Good afternoon dear friends & readers,

It really all started with this "little article" below . . .

A gift from a friend earlier in the year . . . she thought it "looked like a bit of me" ??

Now even though I love the colour blue, for some reason I have no blue in my house except for a ruffle curtain at my bathroom window.

So the "little article" got put in the bathroom & everytime I looked at it I thought to myself  "I really do love that shade of blue"

Off I trot to my local hardware store, "little article" in hand. 

Now the men in there are well used to me by now with my grand schemes & my budgets of zero ... usually, they hide from me.

However, there is a new man working there - a lovely young man who took the time to go through the colour charts with me & attempt to mix me a testpot

Resene "Escape" we thought might be the right shade of blue ... Yes I liked the sound of that !!!!

Backing up a bit from this story now . . . my friend Joyce works in the Church Op Shop in my little town.

This shop is only open 2 mornings a week & is not large, but I would definately consider it the cheapest Oppie in our town.

When I went in a couple of weeks back to deliver some books & clothing articles, Joyce asked me if I was interested in the two tables below ... $5 each

As you can see I had begun to sand one down here already

Although they certainly weren't shouting out to me to buy them, come home with me they did.

Joyce's boss Raewyn asked me what I did with the wooden bits ... I explained how I paint them up & revamp them.

She came out with an assortment of oddities that I could have, that she said "they couldn't even sell for 50c"

These items below were in the assortment ...

AFTER a good scrub - they weren't quite this clean to begin with

Sometimes when I get given things, they eventually DO end up on my burning heap - some things are just beyond repair or revamping.
I wasn't too sure about the fate of this little wooden bowl below

Firstly, I decided to have a go with the two breadboards using my new pot of Escape

The blue is Escape & the Green is Amulet

Three coats of paint per board later & I was really pleased with how they turned out.  I decided not to sand the edges & just stay with the colour ... I added a simple teatowel wound around each board as I thought this might make an attractive gift.
Many years ago I used to make artificial bread twists & varnish with a thick lacquer - I found a bagful in my cupboard & added one to each string tie - purely as embellishment.

The bowl was destined for the burning heap but then I had an idea (an epiphany as my son would say)  ... I painted the bowl with my Escape & then lightly sanded the edges.  I also drilled 4 holes in each little scallop edge

With the addition of a small silver charm tied to each hole, I thought this might make a sweet little trinket dish 

perhaps the ideal gift for a young girl for her jewellery ??

One of the tables also got the Escape treatment . . .

I actually undercoated both little tables with my cream wall paint twice to give a coating to the dark wood underneath.  This makes it easier to apply any colour & gives a good base for the paint to adhere to.

Though my original intention was to leave the tables plain like the bread boards, I ended up just ever so lightly sanding the edges.  I liked the way it gave a slightly time-worn appeal to the whole look of the table - don't take off too much, just a very light rub is best.

On any given day the scene above is what my dining room looks like - it can be pouring down outdoors but I can still manage my small paint projects by the fire ... occasionally I have to pick the odd cat hair out of the end result !!!
You can see by the picture that I undercoat the darker articles first with my cream wall paint.

These two dark cane baskets were in an Op Shop bargain bin quite some time ago.  I didn't especially like the dark colour so gave each one a fresh coat of coloured paint ... Escape & Amulet - the gorgeous green I am eternally indebted to dear Catherine for recommending to me.

The green one I lined with my treasured Tilda fabric & the blue one got a base made from some vintage sheeting fabric .... a nice fresh look to a dated old cane basket I thought.

You will be pleased to read dear friends that Miss Pippi is definately over the worst of her surgery now . . .

.  .  .  even if somedays she needs a little rest whilst climbing out of her bed !!!!

With a few more projects needing my attention, I am off to Escape some more
Thank you so much for popping by today - your visits most certainly make my day
Be kind to yourselves & to each other,
with love & friendship,
Julie, Blackie & Pippi x0x0x