Cutting a Watermelon

We absolutely love watermelon at our house!!! This past week, we have went through 4 of them and this is no joke! I use to just slice them in half and dig out what I could and throw it in a bowl.  We would eat a little bit of it and then it would get pushed to the back of the refrigerator and we would forget about it.  Our little boy is always asking for a snack and he loves watermelon so I needed to make it easy for him to grab on his own!

I have had great luck this year with picking them out.  Look for a darker green skin and tap it to make sure it sounds hallow.  You can always ask your grocery store produce clerk to find you a good one too!

First thing, give the watermelon a good wash and scrubbing.  This is a crucial step as you are making several cuts and there are many germs and contaminants that can be on the skin.  I always use a fruit/vegetable wash and wash off with hot hot water!

Cut your four sides off so your watermelon has four flat sides, like this.

Next cut strips.

 It should look like this when looking at if from the top!

Now turn your watermelon and cut it the other way to make spears like the picture below! 

It is now an easy bite size piece!

Bag it up and put it in the fridge!  It is now a great EASY snack for your family!

I know cutting it this was has made it a lot easier for our family! 

Reupholstered Slipper Chair

chair had been sitting in storage for way to long. We decided it was time to tackle it!   Before it could be gorgeous, we had to remove the nasty fabric which was literally tacked down with over 2000 staples.  It was a huge pain!  Sorry about the horrible before picture, I took it on my phone and didn't realize it was this bad.

I gave it a few coats of Old Ochre, distressed it and my part was done!  My grandma on the other had had her work cut out for her.  However, she is an amazing seamstress & upholster, so I was far from worried.  You name it she can do it!  She took the pattern and cut the new fabric and went to town!  It felt like she was done in no time!!! I think it came out absolutely amazing.  It was one of those projects that I wished was for me!  

Look at those legs!!  She also added a very detailed trim to give it more of a finished look! 

We are so excited it is starting to warm up, so we can start sharing more projects with you!!!

Heirloom Vanity in Paris Grey & Old White

We were contacted by a customer's friend about refinishing an antique vanity, that was passed down to her. We tossed a few ideas back and forth about how to refinish.  At first she was thinking about re-staining it.  She then sent me this picture from Elizabeth & Co and this was our inspiration for her vanity!

Elizabeth & Co

Here is a picture of the before, you can tell it was a very loved piece!  We sanded it down completely, which if you have ever sanded down mahogany you know that it is so hard to remove that reddish tint. The top drawer was missing a handle and we searched high and low to find something similar and had no luck. We ended up filling the holes and drilling a new holes on the top two drawers! We also did some filling where the veneer was chipping, after all this we were ready to paint. 

We gave it a coat of ASCP in Paris Grey on the outside and a few coats of Old Ochre on the drawers and top and then a few coats of Old White over that.  The reason I gave it a coat of Old Ochre before the Old White was to help cover the pink color bleeding through.  It seemed to really help.  

She asked for a pop of color in the fabric and we we found this great print at Hobby Lobby.  

  I love the detail on the middle drawer!

This piece really had great character that we were able to bring out in the distressing!

 

I love that we got to refinish a piece that belonged to her grandmother and make it beautiful for her! It makes me sad when people get rid of pieces that belong in their family because they can't envision what it could be.   It is absolutely amazing what a good sanding and a can of paint can really do! 

I hope you all are enjoying your weekend.  Colorado is getting rain/snow, so we are stuck inside today!

Chateau Grey Hinged Top Desk

We stumbled across a very cute desk and chased down the man to tell him we wanted it.  We honestly couldn't believe no one had snatched this baby up.  Yea, it was ugly but it had a good shape, the inside was really cute looked like it was decoupaged with an old vintage advertising paper and it had so much possibility!

We decided on painting it in Annie Sloan Chateau Grey.  I am really loving this color right now,  it is such a good versatile and neutral color!  It had a really weird finish on it but I sanded it a little bit to take the shiny finish off and then gave it a couple coats of paint.

 I took it to a couple shows but furniture doesn't seem to sell in the winter like it does in the summer and so it is now in our house and I am not complaining at all!  :)  I love that I was able to use it in our living room this holiday season!  Who knows it may be here to stay!

I had to show off my enamel tub that I got last weekend at a show!  I absolutely love the color green and anything enamel!  It makes me so happy!  This holiday season, I am also loving me some plaid!  Is there anything you are loving this holiday season?  

What have you worked on lately?  

Burlap & Vintage Lace Tree Skirt

My grandmother out does herself every time she creates something. She is truly amazing at everything she puts her mind too. Last year I told her to make some tree skirts out of burlap. She did and all of them sold! :) So this year she got a little bit more creative and came up with these beauties. They are available in our ETSY shop.

Aren't these just gorgeous??  

I hope you all are having a wonderful Holiday season!

Media Stand

I got this at the beginning of the summer and it really wasn't pretty but I saw what it could be.  Last month, I had a repeat customer ask me to find her something to replace their current media stand. I sent her a picture of the piece but she wasn't completely sold on it because it sat so low to the ground and had some details she wasn't crazy about.  I told her that we could add a little bit of height with new legs and get rid of details she didn't like. No clue why the cut the legs off. I guess they cut it off so we could add them back! :) They thought about it for a while and she was ready to customize it.

I added about 3" with new legs and got rid of the X on the doors.  We gave it a couple coats of ASCP in chateau grey. Then added some new hardware. 

This piece was a lot of work but when you get an email telling you how happy they are with their purchase all the pain goes away! :) 

What do you think?  

Old Car Door Turned Shelf

While out hunting a few weeks ago, we saw this and my mouth dropped.......

The man who was selling it said it was from a 20's or 30's vehicle,  I knew it needed to go home with us.  

My grandma and I talked about it and we decided to buy it!  We had no idea what we were going to do with it but we loaded it up in the truck.  When we got home, I thought this needed to be in a MAN CAVE!  In order to be in a men's den it needed a shelf.  I pictured it hanging on a wall with a fine bottle of wiskey and a tumbler glass.

My husband added a 1x 6 and then a 2x2 to stabilize the shelf.  We stained the shelf, gave the body a light sanding and then gave the whole thing a coat of polycrylic.  It was ready to head to Paris St. Market.  We set it out and an older man came by looked at it and about fifteen minutes later he was back, he bought it!

I guess you could say we are ecelectic buyers.  We like to mix it up and get items that will appeal to different buyers.  We have our main style but adding some one-of-a-kind pieces like this makes our jobs fun!

 Would you have bought it?  If so, what would you have done with it?

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