Waving My Brush Around ........................... (Part 1)

Greetings dear friends & readers & Welcome to Spring 💚

My absolute favourite season of them all !!

Thank You all So Much for your positive & encouraging comments regarding my Mantle in my last post - you are all such a kind bunch out here in blogland 😊

My neighbor has just delivered this sweet little dried arrangement for more pet feeding duties & it looks just perfect 

on my new/old mantle.

Seeing as it's not actually surrounding a fire like it's original purpose is - I wasn't sure what to actually put in front of my mantle

I found these vintage suitcases in my sleep out - left over from display props in my craft cottage.

I quite liked them stacked up together so an inkling of an idea was born  ..............................

I painted each one by the fire - what a faff of a job this was & Yes -  I had the furry supervision that I usually have 😉

Originally I painted all 3 with cream chalk paint but I didn't like them all the same, especially alongside the 

cream mantle - very bland.

So I used the remnants of the Pastel Rose testpot (picture frame in my last post) & some leftover pale duck egg 

that had gone rather hard but I was able to mix some water into it.

I loved the combination of the 3 pastels together.  💕

I had ordered a new Re-design transfer from Paint Me Vintage & I thought the flowers would look pretty scattered across my 3 suitcases.

The cardboard swing tags are from The Joy Within - purchased on my last trip down to Mum's.

I even found an old original leather luggage tag that I painted & applied a floral transfer to. 

They are just the perfect size for under my mantle and the best bit of all  . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . I was able to fill them with my grandson's toys, books & puzzles thus doing away with 4 random

 baskets & boxes cluttering up scattered around my lounge !!

This narrow wooden shutter was also a purchase from Paint Me Vintage ... I gave each side 2 coats of vintage white chalk paint.

It is just the right width to sit on my mantle.

Yes I found some old fairy lights in a drawer last week & have wound these all across my mantle ... The Mr just 

rolled his eyes 😉

Our small craft group were due to meet up at Maureen's.

The girls had expressed interest in learning to apply transfers at last month's meeting so I told them all to bring an opshopped item that they had painted 

Gail had ordered a couple of tranfers & we cut them up & worked out a price for each one - the girls had so much fun & said it was all totally addictive !

( Click on the pic's to enlarge & see them more clearly )

Gail had painted a small oval coffee table, 2 waste paper bins & a cute little wall cupboard

Maureen had painted a container that her husband had made her for their en-suite, & Sally had painted a rectangular op-shopped tray

I had hauled these 2 heavy ceramic pots out from under my house - I'm not sure who they originally belonged to but I emptied out the weeds & soil, scrubbed them & painted by the fire - a pale grey (leftover) chalk paint.

After applying a transfer to each one, I gave them 2 good coats of wax,  then planted them with some of my spider plant babies that I first started off in this post back in April

Thanks so much for staying with me through this lengthy post dear friends,

I will be back in a few days with "Part 2" as my paint brush has sure been getting a good work out lately !

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend - be kind to yourselves & to each other,

With much love & friendship to you All,

Julie & the furry ones x0x0x0