Nesting places

I am a "fat bird addict."

There. I've admitted it.

It's spring time, and fat birds (and their nests) are popping up all over my house! Here are a few:

Where are they building these nests?

Oh, yes. On top of the candleholders!

And yes, bunnies make nests too!

Did you notice the carrots?

Many thanks to Homework for such a cute idea!

This little bird found an interesting perch...

...he's inside an old sewing machine drawer!

Look at the eggs...a collecting of twine-wrapped and sheet-music-wrapped eggs.
What unusual birds I have!

But wait...there's more...

This little bird found a home on the cabinet at the top of the stairs.

I didn't forget my big black bookcase...

I think the eggs will be well-protected inside a cloche, don't you??
(There are a few yarn-wrapped eggs in there.)

And then there's the entry table...

I **LOVE* Spring!!

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38 Flowers

The first piece of furniture I bought to kick off my spring-painting-frenzy was NOT the first piece of furniture I finished!

My first purchase was this Bassett dresser. I looked at it a couple of times before I broke down and bought it...after all, my husband did leave town...and his space in the garage empty! :-)

Here she is with all her drawers taken out and the handles off...my camera and I still need to develop a better relationship.

Maybe we would if I didn't keep having affairs with furniture...

It's definitely a little bit "retro."

I picked up a quart of "oops" paint in a beautiful aqua blue. My plan was simple...paint the wood blue, paint the pulls and metal trim silver, and spray on a coat of polyacrylic to protect it all.

It didn't quite work out.

EPIC FAIL!!!

I wish I knew exactly what happened. The paint went on beautifully, and all was dandy until I sprayed on the polyacrylic. Then, without warning, ugly yellow stains started to seep up through the paint! It didn't happen everywhere...but it looked awful wherever it did.

I almost swore.

I wasn't willing to give up at that point.

I thought to myself,

"Maybe I can still work with this! I'll make it look like it was on purpose!"

So I decided to glaze it with my Minwax polyshades, just like I used for the cute side table.

The above was a result of that so-NOT-inspired decision. Need a reminder? Here it is again:

It looked like it had been dragged through the mud.

There was nothing left to try. I had to let it dry for several days to let the poly cure--so I could sand it off . And I started over.

Since I had to do all that work over again, though, this time I decided to step it up a notch.

I used my Silhouette (I never mentioned I got a Silhouette for Christmas?? Well, I did!) to cut out dozens of vinyl flowers...

...and I randomly placed them in a cascade across the top and down the front of the dresser.

I liked it. I thought about leaving it like that...but in order to protect the vinyl, I would have had to have tried the polyacrylic again. THAT I was not willing to do!

So using a metallic white acrylic paint, I carefully painted in all of the little vinyl stickers...38 of them, to be exact! It was cold in the garage at 10 o'clock at night. But it was quiet!

The result was a cascade of lovely, shimmery, barely-there flowers.

The "bluer" pictures were taken with the flash on. Those show the flowers better, but it makes the dresser look brighter than it is.




As you may have noticed, I used the original hardware, but I sprayed it all silver. It was missing two of the tiny knobs, so I used two cute blue flower pulls from Hobby Lobby.


I gave up on the polyacrylic idea completely, and, for the first time, tried furniture wax. That was an epic adventure in and of itself! But after many, many, many applications and LOTS of rubbing, I am very pleased with the final outcome!

So there she is...38 Flowers. What do you think?

April Blog of the Month – For the Love of a House

Most of my favorite blogs are those which feature renovation projects and/or design. Joan’s wonderful blog, For the Love of a House is both – making it one of my all-time favorites and the April RDH blog of the month!

Joan and her husband moved from Texas to New Hampshire and are currently restoring their beautiful farm house. You can read their incredible and inspiring story of how and why this move transpired by clicking here.

As a former antique business owner, Joan’s impeccable taste and style can be found in every room of her house – especially her magazine worthy kitchen and living room.

The current renovation project at For the Love of a House involves the repurposing of a barn into a mud room and storage room. Like many houses of this era and locale, Joan’s house included an attached barn which originally housed livestock. The barn will now accommodate these two new spaces.

Antique iron gates from Argentina – shown below - will serve as the entrance to the mudroom. I can only imagine how beautiful the rest of this area will be and I am looking forward to seeing this space as it progresses.

Another favorite aspect of Joan’s blog is her creative use of salvaged items. Besides the above doors, Joan also designed this incredible headboard project.

Joan purchased the large antique wood garden gate posts thinking they would make perfect headboard posts – boy was she right! Using the posts and salvaged barn boards from the property, the on-site carpenter created a beautiful piece of furniture which is sure to become a family heirloom.

To see more of Joan’s beautiful house and inspiring style be sure to visit For the Love of a House.