Summer Fun

Well, we haven't had much of a summer here yet, but we aren't ones to let a little thing like unusually low temperatures keep us down.

I'm not much of a camper.  I like to sleep in my own bed.  I do love being outdoors, though, and I love food cooked over an open fire.  Well, one of the benefits to living in the middle of nowhere is that you can just pull some weeds out of the weed patch, pile up some rocks in a ring, and build a fire.

John Henry thinks roasting a hot dog over a fire is the best thing EVER!  (And yes, that is my boy wearing a winter coat out on a 65* night.  Poor think hasn't got an once of fat on his body to keep him warm.  He burns every last calorie he consumes.)

Leo thought it was pretty awesome too.

That night John Henry and Lincoln laid out their sleeping bags in the playroom, played the Wii together until an hour past John Henry's bedtime (at which point he could hardly hold his controller) and "camped out" together without having to brave the cold and wet weather.  Leo and I happily slept in our own beds.

Look at that handsome man I married.  My boys LOVE their daddy, and especially love a special night with him.

The boys and I also took an afternoon and checked out Omak Lake.  It's a beautiful lake and the boys had a ball.  

One of Leo's all time favorite snacks is sand.  He was in sun, sand, and water heaven.  Both my boys LUV LUV LUV the water.   I dug him a hole at the edge of the water so he could splash without sliding too far into the lake.  Of course I was never more than 5 feet away from either boy, but it was a good solution so he could still play in the water.

It was a little cool for a day at the beach, about 70*.  However, John Henry is a fish and forgot all about being cold as soon as we got in the water.  

It was a lovely day.  We are looking forward to finding more fun outdoor activities to enjoy as we get further into summer.

It's in the box

So, those of you who know me personally know I kind of have a problem with my cell phone.  OK, it's not the cell phone's problem, it's mine.  I loose it, I loose the charger, I forget to charge it, I don't check my messages, etc.  It's bad.  I know.

Well, I can't promise that this solution will solve all those problems once and for all, but it should help.

I've been looking for one of these bread boxes for several months.  I finally found one at a yard sale for $1.00.  I snapped it up!  I took it home, sanded it a bit and gave it a light coat of the same soft yellow I used for The Buttercup Chair.  The I distressed the livin' daylights out of it, gave it a coat of wax and a good buffing, used a 1.5inch spade drill bit to put a hole in the back of it. . .

We now have a place to store and charge all of our electronics.  Hurray!

Just don't expect me to be checking my voice messages any more oftne.

Pretty and Practical

So, just so that you all are aware, I am insane.  I decided on Tuesday to participate as an artist in an event here in our small town this Saturday, as in tomorrow.  Yes.  I have lost my mind.

So, chaos has ensued and anything that isn't moving is getting painted.

Today I finished up another chair that may or may not make it down to the event. . .

Isn't she pretty?  I love the contrast of the elegant fabric on the cushion with the distressed wood.

I painted it a fairly warm cream color, distressed, dry brushed over everything with a pure white, distressed a bit more, and then finished it off with a dark wax.

The fabric was an upholstery sample that I had in my fabric stash.  I've long thought it was pretty, but didn't know what to do with it.  

The chair itself lent itself to this juxtaposition as well.  The top has clean straight lines continuing down the back, however, the front legs are much more decorative.

This chair belongs in a sewing room, I think.  Something pretty, yet practical.  Where would you put it? 

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I'm sharing at
Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Friday
Restore Interiors' Restore It Wednesday 

Art in the Park

Yesterday I participated in Omak's Art in the Park as a vendor.  It was a last minute decision.  I decided to go for it on Tuesday.  I worked like a crazy person the rest of the week to get ready for it.

The weather was terrible and I sold very little.  You would think I would be upset, but actually, it was a good experience.  I have a lot of things ready of the next show that I am going to do and I have more photographs to submit for bigger shows that want to see your booth set up, and I know I can deal with rain.  Nothing some drop cloths and a little extra wax on hand can't fix!  (It also helps that today I got a call from someone who decided to buy one of my pieces and is going to come pick it up tomorrow.)

So, here are some of the photos I took.

Hmm, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the picture doesn't do a great job of showing the booth.  I think it looked pretty cute and I'm very picky about merchandising.  I do need work on the backdrops.  They were a bit of an afterthought, as they were required with the rain, however, I do think that I would always want to have at least one on the back to keep what ever is behind the booth from competing visually, so while the drop cloths and the sheer fabric were great, they need to be fine tuned.

I got my logo done and created a sign.  I love how it turned out.  I even had someone try to buy it from me.  I may be doing more of these kinds of signs.

It's funny how different shows, even in the same town, can have such different results.  See the sign there on the left, I sold all but one of them yesterday.  At the last show I did (in the next town over, about 2 miles away) I only sold one.  Strange, huh?

Everyone loves these, but not enough to buy them.  What do you all think, do they look too simple?  People feel like they can make them easily themselves?  I'm not sure I will be making more.  I think they are deceptive.  They were a pain in the butt and without specialized software I'm not sure I would have had great luck.

Lots of love for the Buttercup Chair, but no one took her home.  I'm sure she'll find her place soon enough, though.  She is just so charming.

Well, that's it.  I'm exhausted - still.  However, this show was much easier to get ready for than the last one, and I think that each one will get easier and easier.  Something about what practice makes. . .

:)  Goodnight.

Build Me Up Buttercup

I picked up this sweet little chair this weekend at a HUGE garage sale. I found a few other little treasures too, but this one was calling my name this afternoon when I looked around my workspace and realized I needed something fun and happy to get me out of one of those Monday bleary feelings.

I couple of coats of a light, airy yellow, some distressing, some dark wax and. . . thank you little Buttercup Baby Chair. You built me up and you didn't let me down at all!

A happy chippy finish.

Cute curves.

Pretty legs and don't you love the crossbar on the bottom?  I love the little things like this that make pieces of furniture special.

I could see her sitting in the corner of a kitchen where your best friend might sit and chat while you are baking.  After you pull that hot bread out of the oven this little chair is happy to hold your apron for you while you and your girl friend have a fat slice w/ honey butter.

Or maybe she would look pretty in a front entry, there to greet you, offering you a nice place to take off your shoes at the end of a long day.

I could even see her on a dreamy enclosed porch, waiting for a neighbor to drop by to share some lemonade with.

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I'm sharing at
Between Naps on the Porch's Metamorphosis Monday
Primitive and Proper's Piece of Work Wednesday

Dresser Revival

My awesome friend, Sarah, picked up a couple of very nice/super scary pieces of furniture for me at a garage sale awhile back.  They have been sitting in her basement waiting for me to retrieve them.  On my last trip to Seattle I was able to bring one of them back with me.

You may have noticed that I'm really bad at remembering to take 'before' pictures.  Well, at least I have some this time, not good pictures, but you get the idea.

This poor dresser had been covered in a thick coat of enamel paint and judging by how beat up it was and by the various motorcycle racing stickers on it, had gone to live in someone's shop or garage before Sarah rescued it.

Paint stripper was the only way this nasty stuff was going to come off.  It took three applications which included two chemical burns to my forearms.  Paint stripper is not nice to work with.  I was wearing long rubber gloves, but I splattered the goop up above my gloves a couple of times.  Luckily, as soon as you rinse in with water it stops burning and it didn't leave any kind of redness or mark, weird, huh?  Just be careful would ya!  Oh wait.  It was me that wasn't being careful.  :)

So after the stripping there was a lot of sanding and then. . . .

Yes, I know it is missing a knob.  It only came with seven.  I have actually ordered some vintage knobs off of etsy, but I thought I might like to tie the color into the front a little more, so while I am waiting for them to arrive I painted the knobs.  I may only replace the top two with the vintage knobs, or I may go get another plain knob to match these from HD and paint it to match.  I'll decide when the knobs show up.

The top and the drawer fronts are stained Minwax's Ebony.  

The body is painted a beautiful teal leaning toward blue.  As usual, I mixed the color.

I used a dark wax everywhere I had painted and distressed all the edges.  Oh, I forgot to mention that I didn't fill in any of the dents or divots, and a few of them even still have hints of the blue paint in them.  It really adds to the history and character of the dresser. 

 I waxed the tops and the drawer fronts with a clear wax and buffed them to protect them and give them a subtle shine.  I have a hint to share with anyone who is trying out wax for the first time.  If you go to HD to pick some up, skip the painting section and head over to the floor cleaning/ restoration area.  I had been using Minwax's finishing wax, however, it is very hard and difficult to work with.  I didn't care for it.  You can warm it slightly and it makes it easier to work with, however, in the flooring section you will find Johnson's Paste Wax (the second one pictured on the link page.)   It is MUCH nicer to work with.  It is soft and lovely and applies to the wood easily.  Bonus: it is about half the cost of the Minwax finishing wax!

OK, how about one more shot of this lovely dresser.  This one is for sale for $160.  Email me at applehouserevival at gmail dot com if you are interested.  If I don't sell her first she will be going into my space at Apple Annies.

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I'm sharing over at 
The Shabby Chic Cottages's Transformation Thursday
Thrifty Decor Chick's Before and After Party
The CSI Projects Garage Sale Finds and Make Over Link Up
Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday

Embrace the Adventure

Sometimes you set out for the ocean and you end up in the mountains.  Sometimes your GPS fails.  Sometimes you prepare for Cozumel and end up in Helsinki.

I love the ocean and the mountains.
I think my GPS box is possessed.
I would love to go to either Helsinki or Cozumel.

Sometimes I just need to be reminded that even though it might be frustrating to only have a bathing suit to wear skiing, that with some creativity and flexibility I can probably figure out that even if I can't go skiing, I will very much enjoy relaxing in the ski lodge's hot tub while taking in the beauty of the mountains around me!

With that in mind, I decided to create a sign to help me remember to "Embrace the Adventure."  I wanted it to have an old skiing/hunting/mountain lodge feel to it.  Not my style, but then, isn't that one of the main purposes of this blog?  For me to learn to marry my love of eclectic shabby chic with log house design and for all of you to enjoy watching me stubble through it!

So here it is hanging on the wagon wheel that is on the front of our house.  Yes, we have a real, full sized wagon wheel on our house.  No, I didn't put it there, it came with the house.

I made it from a beat up piece of plywood from our scrap pile.  I didn't even bother to paint the board before I painted the letters on.  They are hand painted, by-the-way.  I wanted it to look hand painted and rustic, so I figured what better way than to actually hand paint it.

After the letters were painted I glazed it with three different colors, roughed it up and bit and well. . .

As a friend of mine would say- It was an adventure.

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Hey, the boys and I also found yet another awesome use for drop cloths.  Come find us on facebook to see how we put it to work today.

Vintage Love

So, it turns out my great story about the redemption of a long forgotten nightstand by the daughter of the original re-finisher is not accurate.  In fact, it's total bunk.  You know when someone says something to you and you take it to mean something else.  Yeah. 

It turns out that the dresser lived in my sister's basement for many years.  She isn't sure where it came from, but she's asking her husband so we can unearth the mystery!  I'll keep you updated.

In the mean time. . .  I told you about the giant trailer full of treasures that my parents brought up to me when they visited last month.  I thought I would do a series of posts about some of my favorite things that were in that trailer along with some of my own favorite finds.

The item in the trailer I was most excited about was this quilt.

  

Oh how I love vintage quilts. 

This one is particularly special because my grandmother made it.  It has been in her house for as long as I can remember.  Once, while I was visiting with her, I was admiring it and told her that if she ever decided to get rid of it that I would like it.   Well, a few months ago they began rearranging some of their furniture and their rooms and, wouldn't know, the bed this quilt was on was headed to my sister's house.  My wonderful grandma remembered that I loved the quilt and instead of putting it away in a linen closet she sent it up to me with my parents. Aren't grandma's the best!!!

The back in yellow polka dots and to add to the sentimentality of the quilt, my nephew's newborn photos were taken against the backing and used in his birth announcement.  

It is a full sized quilt, made of 8 inch squares, tied at each corner w/ yellow and green yarn, and hand bound.  

There are 26 different prints and 7 solid blocks.  My grandma put them together in a 'perfectly random' combination.  Here are a few of my favorite combinations of blocks.

Thank you, Grandma.  This truly is a much cherish treasure in our family.  In fact, John Henry has 'borrowed' it the last two nights to sleep with.  Eventually it will take up permanent residence downstairs in our entertainment/ play room to keep us all toasty while we enjoy a movie.

At Long Time Waiting

Last month my parents came to visit the Apple House for the first time.  They pulled up a trailer full of goodies for me and got all my crap out of their storage - you know, since I moved out of their house 14 years ago.

Among the treasures they brought me was a sad little night stand that was in pieces.  My parents had acquired it some (decades? mom?) ago with the intent to refinish it, but never got to it.  Well, at least as far as this dresser in concerned, I was happy to be the Solomon to my parents' David (which is actually my dad's name.)

The top and the drawer front were pieced back together, stained with Minwax's 'Provincial'.  I don't know what kind of wood it is, but the stain brought out all of the beautiful variation in the wood and is just beautiful.  A coat of clear wax made it shine.

The body and the shelf were painted a pretty light artichoke color that I mixed myself.

I then distressed the paint and glazed everything with a light brown glaze.

I just love the details on this nightstand.

The trim going up from the body to meet the beveled edge of the top is such a nice touch.

The legs are what make this piece hard for me to give up.  They are just so charming.

Well, Mom and Dad, what do you think?  After 30 or so years of waiting for a makeover did I do it justice?  Do you think it's happy to finally have a new look?

This beauty is for sale.  It will be going to my new space at Apple Annie's in Cashmere, WA.  Yep, that's right, I'm making myself official!  I'll post more information about that soon.  For those Washingtonians out there who have no idea where Cashmere is. . . I didn't. . . . It's half way between Leavenworth and Wentachee.  If you're headed to Chelan you drive right by it!  So stop by on your way too or from your summer adventures.  It's one of two very large antique malls right together.  It really is an antique treasure wonderland.

I'm sharing this over at Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Friday, Restore Interiors' Restored it Wednesday