New Stool & a Sign

Hello Everyone!

Jumping in today to share a couple of projects I recently completed.  The first is a cute little stool that needed a bright face lift. Sorry I don't have a before picture for you.  It was a dirty white that just needed to be brightened.  This little stool goes in my sewing room to sit at my crafting table.  I decided to go with a bright yellow. Here she is.....

Don't ya just love the yellow?

  Next is a project I did for my niece's birthday.  I had seen a similar idea somewhere out there in blogland but didn't have the exact materials they used so I adapted.  Isn't that what crafting and copying borrowing is all about? Anyway, we were given some fence boards by a neighbor.  There wasn't enough to build an actual fence. (That would have been nice. I could use a fence here or there.)  Sorry, I digressed for a moment.  As I was saying, there wasn't enough for a fence so my dear hubby cut them up for me to use for crafts. Yay!
So take a few boards, add some paint, words, pictures, clips, scrapbook paper and what do you have?

This

I don't know if my niece is done having children but I'm taking a wild guess that if she isn't, there will only be one more.  I could be wrong. Stranger things have happened. ;) I wanted to allow for the "next" child so I did three sections and just gave her a few different quotes or sayings about children and motherhood.  That way she could change out every so often. This little project gave me all kinds of fits (in little ways) that I won't go into now.  In the end, it turned out pretty well.  I didn't take progressive pictures because frankly, I was figuring it out along the way.

So there you have my two newest projects.  I've also been working on little flower headbands for my newest great niece. They are coming to visit soon so I wanted to have several to choose from.  The left-overs will probably make it onto Etsy at the end of next month or will go to JBF for their spring sale. That's all for now so until next time...

Have a blessed day,

maggie jane

What I've been up to lately and a sneak peak at...

Hello Everyone!

I promise I've been working on my chairs so I can show the whole school room done.  I still have the curtains and a few signs but that may have to come later.  Anyway, I have 2 out of 4 chairs complete and the others are almost there.  Hopefully, tomorrow (or is that today?  I think it is after midnight as I type this. Yikes!) I will finish the other two.  But, I have one niece that has bugged  asked me to show the chairs so here you go.

One green and one red that have been slightly distressed.  The green one has been a little more distressed than the red.  Red tends to turn pink if you sand it down too much so I just hit the edges on the red one.  And, I guess I'll go ahead and tell the colors of the other two, sigh, even though I really want to surprise you, sigh.  Just kidding.  The other two are yellow and turquoise.  I warned you they would be colorful.  

I have also been working on gathering up some ideas, frames and such for a gallery wall up my stairs.  I was able to find a few frames at the local Salvation Army.  All they needed was a little black spray paint.

I had two more in the house that I sprayed later so they didn't get in on this picture.  Anyway, they turned out nice and I'm anxious to start working on my wall.  I will share all that when I get it done.  Hopefully, I will be able to work on it some this weekend or next week.

Next, I did a little revamping of a bulletin board that was given to me.  It was really ugly.  I have to confess, I was in a bit of a rush to get this done.  I was putting it in a JBF children's consignment sale and had put it off until the last minute.  I say all that to say that I didn't get a good before picture.  However, through my first coat of brown paint, you can see how ugly it was.

It had stripes and triangles in not very pretty colors.  I actually ended up painting this white but I wanted a darker color underneath to kind of hide all the previous colorfulness. ( Is that a word?)

So then the white paint went on and then some distressing.

I finished up with a coat of Feddes & Sons light colored wax to seal it.

The cork part had a couple of minor scuffs that I would not have worried about if I was going to keep it myself but since it was for sale, something had to be done.

So, I added this really cute polka dot material from Michael Miller.  The dark dots are brown so that kind of picked up the brown from under the distressed spots on the frame.  However, my cutting job wasn't as perfect as I was hoping for.  Remember, I was in a hurry.  

So, I looked around my sewing room for something to use on the edges.  Brown seemed to be the color of the day.  I found this brown ribbon that was just the right width to cover but not "take over" the bulletin board.

There you have it; a revamped bulletin board perfect for a baby boys room, a laundry room, school room or just anywhere you want it to go.  If it does not sell at JBF, it will be available in my Etsy Shop.  Also for JBF, I have been making headbands for little girls, infant & toddler sizes.  I only had time to make 3 so if they don't sell, they will also go to the Etsy shop.  Once again, I forgot to take pics before I bagged them for the sale so you will have to excuse the pics.  I think you can get a general idea though.

So, that is just a little of what has been going on around here.  Besides the two chairs to finish, I have a dresser that I'm repainting, a little cabinet that is almost done, and a bridesmaid dress to finish.  It has been a busy week but nothing compared to last week with the whole hot water heater episode.  Next week is looking even better.  Tuesday I have scheduled to take pics of my sister-in-law and her family.  This is the one whose daughter is getting married on the 15th.  I am super excited to do this.  I have been stalking researching many photo blogs to get ideas and technical advice.  I am not a professional but I have always had a love for photography and have taken many portraits for friends and family.  I took some classes in high school and college but that was eons ago.  So many, in fact, that digital wasn't even an option.  Ok, I don't want to age myself that much.  Digital was just around the corner from my college days.  I really didn't get "into" digital until about 6 or 7 years ago.  I was a steadfast believer in 35mm film.  Now, I'm digital all the way.  So I say all that, to say I'm hoping for some really great shots next week.  I have some fun ideas up my sleeve.  We'll see how well they translate from my sleeve to the camera. ;)  Well, I guess that is it for now.  Stay tuned for more furniture redos, completed school room and maybe a few from the photo session.  Until next time...

Have a blessed day,

maggie jane

New Table

Hello Everyone!

I finally found a table for my school room/game room.  This isn't exactly what I had invisioned in my head as the "perfect" table.  However, it is becoming just that.  One of the things to make it perfect was the price.  I stole bought it for only $20 bucks.  That was for the table and four chairs. 

This is how it all happened.  On a Friday, I stalked Craigslist for garage sales in my area that might have tables for sale.  I found a Saturday only one that listed two table sets.  I was really excited.  They said they would open at 7:00 am.  So I decided to be one of those irritating people that get to garage sales early.  (Irritating if you are the one giving the garage sale and trying to get everything out.)  I set my alarm and arrived at the sale 15 minutes early.  To my dismay, there was a pickup already backed into the driveway with a table and chairs already loaded up.  "No way!"  I guess this old man was an early riser, irritating garage saler like me.  Anyway, I thought, "Well, they advertised two tables.  Surely they still have the other one."  Well, I looked around and saw, "What?  No table?!"  So I took a few deep breaths and then sweetly asked the lady if she still had another table.  To my relief, she said, "Yes.  It's still upstairs."  So she brought it down and my first reaction was dismay.  It wasn't what I was looking for.  However, I took a second and third look and asked the price and bam! it was mine! 

This is what it looked like in its original state.  An Ethan Allen solid wood table that once was round but didn't fit their dining room so they cut two sides off and made it more oval.  It also had a leaf to make it longer.

Here are the four chairs.

So, I decided to make a go at painting and distressing this table.  The chairs will have to come later.  Unlike the desk that we just made for our bedroom, I decided to spray paint.  I still am not sure what I am going to paint in my school room/game room so I went with a neutral white.  I almost wish I had done it a color because white is a pain to cover when using spray paint.  But the bright side of all this is that I had already decided to distress it so not having the paint cover perfectly didn't become a problem.  So here is what it now looks like.

White vintagey goodness.

Styro under legs to keep the dirt and gravel off the paint.

Close-up of distressing.

spindle leg

I wish I could show you how great this looks in my school room/game room but since it still isn't finished, that will have to come at another time. That was one of my projects to get done before school starts.  Alas, it still isn't done.  However, I might be having a few friends over next week to help me get the rest of the wallpaper off, the walls washed down, and ready for paint.  Fingers are crossed on that one. 

So that's the lastest project here at Jane of All Trades.  Etsy sales have picked up so I need to replenish my stock.  I'll keep you posted on that as it develops.  Don't forget to enter the My Memories Suite Giveaway.  So until next time...

Have a blessed day,

maggie jane

New Desk for Bedroom Office

Hello Everyone!

Hope you had a wonderful 4th of July with lots of fireworks and yummy food!  Today, I am going to show you the new desk that my hubby built for me.  We have been talking for a while about putting a desk in our bedroom so we would have a place for my laptop and maybe another computer for hubby.  Last week, I showed you the start of the desk.  Today, I finally get to show you the finished product.  But first, I will go through a few more pics of the process.  I have to say that I learned a few things and would probably do things a bit different next time.  We decided to stain the pine wood a dark walnut color first.  Then we I painted over that with white paint.  The idea was to sand it down a bit to show the dark color underneath.  Well, that is what we did but it took a lot of elbow grease to sand off two layers of paint.  I should have stopped with one layer but I was wanting the part that was staying white to be a little more "white" and smooth.  So, I went with two coats.  After it was all done, I put two coats of clear wax to give it a nice finish. Keep in mind that this is a long desk so it was a lot of work all the way around.  I'm fairly pleased with it.  The distressing didn't turn out quite like I had envisioned but it is growing on me.  So, here is where we started.

This is the pic I show last week.

Stained desk.

Painted desk.  (Don't mind the mess.  Our porch was being used as a workshop)

Recruiting the hubby to help with the "elbow grease".

Don't be too jealous of my paint clothes.  They have history all over them.  And, it was a very hot day hence the pulled up sleeves.  Boy, I need to get rid of my farmer's tan. ;)

Here she is! This is minus the desktop computer.  That will go in the bottom of the left hand side.  We also need two chairs and a lamp.  The basket in the middle is for trash.  

A close-up of distressing and baskets.

My side.  You might be able to tell that I have already started filling up my baskets with all things "office".  Fun!

I found this cute little dish at TJ Maxx and the cup/pencil holder at Tuesday Morning.  I am going to be making new mousepads for both the hubby and I that will match better with the colors or theme of our room.

So, there you have it.  I'm excited to have this project done.  I am going to be on the lookout for chairs.  I really don't want office chairs as they are a little bulky.  However, to make everthing fit right, we had to make the desk a little taller than a normal desk.  And, being that I am a little shorter than the average woman (5'3"), I am going to have to find a taller chair.  I have thought about bar stools so I can just tuck them under the desk when we aren't using them.  They won't be as comfortable though so I haven't decided.  I'll let you know when I find the right thing.  The best part about this desk is that we saved a lot of money and got the desk in the exact length that we wanted.  And, we can say, "WE BUILT THIS OURSELVES".  Accomplishments! :)
So until next time...

Have a blessed day,

maggie jane

Linking up to:

Ginger Snaps: wow me Wednesday #6
Handy Man, Crafty Women: Wicked Awesome Wednesday
Somewhat Simple: Strut Your Stuff Thursday Link Party
Shabby Chic Cottage: Transformation Thursday 

The 36th Avenue: Share Your Awesomeness Thursdays

DebbieDoos: Newbie Party
My Repurposed Life: Catch as Catch Can
Miss Mustard Seed: Furniture Feature Friday