Two girls and a barn sale!

If you've been following along this week, you know that Megan & I have had a busy week of painting. Well today we decided to take the day off and head off to our favorite barn sale. Wow, that sure was a good decision. The barn sale was having a yard sale! What could be better than that? Here are the goodies that made their way home with us!

The tennis racquet is going in Ryan's room and the azaleas sign is going out in the garden.

We love homemade ice cream around here and this is a really cool old freezer.

A roll of upholstery webbing, a toolbox that's going to become a planter and some fun vintage croquet mallets.

Hey, it's never too early to be thinking about Christmas!

The pail and clock are Megan's.

The knobs are for my newly painted bedroom furniture.

I just love this scale!

All sorts of treasures!

I am most definitely a scarf girl!

The fan is for Megan.

She's working on a globe collection too.

And she even found a great deal on a pull-down world map!

The industrial shelf is just totally awesome! We had to snatch that tag quickly. It went home with Megan too, sigh!

No, the Toms didn't come from the barn sale, but I've wanted a pair for a while now and we just happened to find some after lunch. Aren't they cute?

Lunch was a treat too. We ate at Bryan Voltaggio's new casual eatery Lunchbox. If you happen to be a Top Chef fan, then you'll definitely remember the Voltaggio brothers. And after a bit more shopping, we hit Ben & Jerry's for a dessert fix before heading home. ..... Now that was pretty much a perfect day!

There's whole lot of painting going on around here!

Yesterday I told you that Megan was coming over today to help with a painting project that I've wanted to tackle for a very long time. We started the morning the way all painting days should start, with a basket of warm and delicious coconut muffins - oh my gosh these were good!

But then it was time to get to work. I already shared my inspiration photo from Pottery Barn. 

It's been taped to my bedroom wall for weeks, along with assorted paint options.

Finally I just started painting samples on the wall ... pretty much everywhere.



And finally over the bed. You see where this is going, right?

Look closer ... compare the beds. Pretty close, right?

 

Okay, so maybe mine would be a very big, very chunky, very brown, dark pine Colonial-style bedroom suite from the 70's.

And yes, I do believe that would be an eagle, how patriotic!

This furniture was our wedding present from my husband's parents. What can I say, we've been married 33 years. It was quite stylist at the time. My husband says it's vintage now - ha! I say it's just sad! This might just be the ultimate test for the power of paint. And today was the day to finally give it a shot. We're painting the larger pieces right in the room since the walls are not done yet and new carpet is on the way. Did I mention that this furniture is really, really heavy?

The headboard and drawers made it to the driveway.

That's a total of 18 drawers! Megan started us off by removing all the hardware. Let me tell you, that girl earned her coconut muffins this morning. And we painted all day long. Even  my husband was impressed with how much we got done!

 

You didn't really expect a big reveal just yet, did you? Megan will be back first thing in the morning. Stay tuned ... there's a whole lot of painting gong on around here! Fingers crossed that the next time time you see this furniture you'll be loving it's fresh new cottage style!

Epic Fail

Just so you know that not everything goes according to plan .....

We're still in the middle of a whole lot of projects around here and things are a bit disorganized. I'm an organized girl, so that makes me a little cranky. In a effort to maintain my sanity, I took a break from painting yesterday (yes I wore real clothes with no paint stains) to get some organization done. I've been tryng to come up with a new way to store 30 years worth of photo albums. Does anyone even use photo albums anymore? Anyway, I decided to take over the top shelf of Megan's closet. And yes, I was concerned about the weight of the albums, but I thought it was worth a shot. ..... Well, as you can see, it was an epic fail and the albums came tumbling down! It was one of those slow motion kinds of things - nothing I could do but watch it happen! The shelf itself turned out to be plenty sturdy, but the screws holding the brackets came right out of the wall. 

And when my sweet husband came home last night, all he said was, "Oh my!"

Mark (yes I have a contractor on call), if you're reading this, I'm going to need a little work done in the closet.  Yes, the very same closet you just finished painting!

Now where am I going to put those darn photo albums?

Okay, back to work! Megan is coming over tomorrow and we're going to tackle a painting project that I've been thinking about for years, yes years! I need to have everything ready so we can crack open the paint the minute she gets here. And just so this post has at least one pretty picture, here's a sneak peek at the inspiration for tomorrow's project .....

I'm excited and a little scared all at the same time! Let's hope this one goes according to plan!

Be Inspired Features and Link Party #23

Happy Tuesday! Welcome back for features and party day!

I know it's not officially summer just yet, but it sure feels like it here in Maryland. We've had temperatures in the 90's and it already feels too hot to paint - yikes! But based on the links this week, you've been getting all kinds of projects done. Here are just a few that caught my eye.....

You've seen her talent featured here before, but this time around, Korrie from Red Hen Home decided to try her hand at vintage inspired canvas art - oh my goodness - this girl just blows me away!

And I'm totally over-the-moon for this adorable potting table from Northern Cottage! What a sweet vignette! And have you noticed that little vintage trucks are everywhere right now - super cute!

Check out this fabulous Rustic Modern Mirror from Tanya at twelve-O-eight. She shares the complete tutorial and I know you're going to want to make one too!

I love this bright and happy desk and chair combination from Kathy at Petticoat Junction. It's going in the room where her granddaughters stay when they come to visit. There is a boy's room too. I love that!

Sayuri from Vintage Breeze totally transformed a very plain waterfall dresser into something seriously beautiful. You must see the before and after to compare!

Danielle from Silver Pennies shared her Ship Shape Dresser with fun nautical stripes and beautiful brass hardware. And in case you haven't noticed, brass is making a comeback!

Stripey Cat Production shared this Pumpkin-tastic Desk. The color is yummy and those legs are sweet! And sure enough, more brass hardware!

And speaking of yummy and sweet, Barbara from 21 Rosemary Lane shared her tried and true recipe for the The Best Sugar Cookie Ever. I'm making these for our next tag sale!

Okay, I could keep going and going. You all really are so very talented and I'm honored that you take the time to share here! Thanks so much for linking up and linking back! If you've been featured, feel free to grab a cute little button from the sidebar!

 Now on to this week's party! The guidelines are simple...

* Link up your furniture makeovers, DIY projects, home decor, crafts, recipes, thrifty finds, etc... We want to see whatever is inspiring you at the moment!


* Grab a party button and please add it to your post!


* Be sure to follow along with us!


We'll be back next week with features and a brand new party.


Now let's share some inspiration!

Trestle Table and Chairs

This sweet little trestle table and set of four chairs came by way of a yard sale. I love it when you find a table and chairs all together!

There really was not a thing wrong with them other than the fact that they were just very brown. I am not particularly a fan of oak and maybe they matched just a bit too much.

I thought the chairs were especially sweet!

So I kept it really simle and just painted the table in a creamy shade of homemade chalk paint and I just cleaned up the chairs.

I love it when a table and chairs relate, but don't necessarily match.

It would have worked just as well the other way around - painting the chairs and keeping the table natural wood.

The table got a light distressing ...

and a coat of wax for durability.

This set would be perfect in a cottage kitchen or

maybe on a screened porch for summer dining!

I'm linking to.....