Amarrei's Rocker

     Am I reverting back to my childhood, or channeling my inner child?  It sure seems like it, my last three posts have all been about things for kids.  I swear this should be the last one for awhile.
     Last summer my mother-in-law bought a cute little rocker at a yard sale for her newest great granddaughter.  Now it wasn't bad to start with, but it had that '60s French provincial thing going on, so I thought maybe we could bling it up a bit.

Zara's Apron

 Well, I thought I was done making aprons.  Don't get me wrong, I love making them, but I just didn't think I would need anymore, anytime soon.  Last summer I wrote how to make 3 aprons out of a shirt and a pair of jeans 1-shirt-1-pair-of-jeans-3-aprons .  For Christmas I made my daughter and two beautiful granddaughters aprons out of one shirt, and my son-in-law a barbecue apron out of some canvas with a duck on the pocket that I printed off the computer.  Sorry, no pictures of theirs, I was in a hurry to get them mailed off for Christmas.  So, like I said, I thought I was done until a friend called up and asked if I could make an apron for her granddaughter Zara.

Children's Rolltop Desk

 Late last summer I stopped at a church rummage sale looking for Christmas Decorations for our space at Paris Flea Market.  I had no intentions of buying anymore furniture since our shed was already pretty full of projects to work on during the winter.  Now some people I know won't go to a sale unless they can hit it early in the morning on the first day.  Not me!  I'm one of those crazy people that make quick turns anytime I see a garage sale sign.  Don't get me wrong, I do plan out my Friday mornings so I can hit the best sales first, but I also love catching sales late in the afternoon of the last day when everyone is ready to shut down.  That was the case with this adorable little desk.

Selling a Piece of My Childhood

    You know how it is when you go to an antique store and see an old toy or something marked "vintage", and you think "jeez I used to have one of those, am I considered vintage?".  Well I guess the answer is yes.

The Rusty Leopard

The Rusty Leopard - Sounds like the name of a great cocktail doesn't it, but no it's my name for this old oak desk chair.  I picked this up at a really good yard sale last summer for $10.  The cast iron mechanism was all rusted on it but worked, the caning on the seat was shot, and someone had already stripped the wood. (Sorry, I thought I had a before picture but I guess not.)  My husband thought it would be nice refinished back to the original oak, but I've seen too many around like that for sale so I wanted to do something different.  He also thought I was nuts when I said that I wanted to leave the mechanism rusted, but I knew I wanted a more industrial look to it.  My first thought was a Pottery Barn knock off black with some type of upholstered seat.  It sat around for months until I finally found this wild fabric for $1 at our local thrift store.  It got a couple of coats of black paint that was leftover from some other projects and then I wove some nylon straps around the seat frame and upholstered it with the faux leopard.  When I went to put it all together the shade of black was too soft and didn't go well with the fabric.  I figured with the rusted cast iron, and the colors in the fabric it could use a little brown tint, so I glazed it with some Martha Stewart Black Coffee glaze.  Have I told you how much I love this stuff?  I used it with a gray base coat for my zinc dresser, RH Style Zinc Dresser and know I got a completely different look on black.  Well my wild white bench that was upholstered in a faux snow leopard sold in a week, so hopefully this will have the same results.

Partying at:

The Chicken Chick
coastal charm
savvy southern style
beyond the picket fence
pjh designs