Making a pact with myself ................

Greetings dear friends & readers

Please tell me what is different (And wonderful) about the picture below ???

For those of you that noticed ... Yes indeedy there is No cat basket on the table !!!!!!!!
 Just a lovely jug of flowers,  a candle & Not a cat hair in sight !!!!

(long may it last)

                                                                  

Last week, I made a pact with myself .  .  .

pact ... to agree .... an agreement or compact between two or more parties or nations ...

The pact was that I would remove two items per day from my sleepout & either give them away, throw them away or do something with them
It began easily enough .... there are a zillion empty cardboard boxes in there, so it was simple enough to just remove several of those.
Until The Mr pointed out to me ... it's all very well stacking up piles on the deck table but you actually need to do something with them!!!

So I began with the smallest articles first .  .  .

Two small wooden bowls & a serviette holder/ letter rack from the Church Op Shop
The little carved wooden bowl got painted using my Cottage Cream wallpaint, then lightly sanded & made into a pincushion using some of my pretty Tilda fabrics

I loved the way the rough sanding seemed to make the carving on the side show up more

The taller wooden bowl got the same treatment, but I added some pompom trim & braiding to the middle to break up the depth of it

The little wooden serviette holder (or letter rack) got painted & sanded quite heavily to give a real chippy paint effect
I then added some brass embellishments & found a cute pack of cottagey serviettes to complete it.

This wooden letter rack got the same paint & rough sanding ... then embellished with some wooden butterfly cutouts ... this is able to be hung on the wall or can stand up all by itself   :-)

And last - but by no means least - this cheap wooden slatted box got painted & very lightly sanded ... just to add a touch of shabby chic to it

 I lined the bottom with a lovely scrap booking paper ... actually a "christmas paper" apparently ... but on sale for half price !!

Just a simple embellishment for the ends completed it

I have been lucky enough to have been gifted two gorgeous vintage items this past week
The first is this unusual teapot ... an elderly customer wondered if I might like to paint & plant it ??

I am thinking with its twin spouts it might be useful for when I have large groups having a cuppa here?
The second item was this gorgeous old woollen blanket - a gift from my lovely friend, Marie

I had not seen a blanket in this beautiful mustard & grey colouring before & I just adore it.

Thank you so much for your visit here today ... the sun is out & I am off to garden in a shady spot .  .  .

.  .  .  in this garden here actually by the old wringer washing machine.
I hope the rest of the week is kind to you dear readers,
with much love & friendship,
Julie, Blackie & Pippi Longstocking
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