Tray Chic

I got this tray at a garage sale:

It's quite big and I've decided I'd like to make a sign out of it.  I know exactly how I want it to look, but I have no idea how to do it!!  So I need your help, all you fabulous do-it-yourselfers.

I want the following images transferred to the tray.  I want it to look antiquey and wonderful so,

This would be the centerpiece of the tray (horizontally) with a fleur-de-lis on either side

I don't actually want the words fleur-de-lis on it, I just love the style of the image.

So how do I do this??

So looking forward to hearing all your creative ways of doing things.

Thanks for your help!

Garage Sale Saturday! This week's finds...

Oh boy  I love garage sales!!

See my new old door??  No clue what I'm going to
do with it yet.  For now it will decorate my patio.  Oh and it was
free!!!

$2 and only used a handful of times! See the original
price tag?  $62.99!! 

A bit bigger shot for full effect!  The rusty brass thingy found at the dump
is a firepit, I think! It's a bit shallow for wood, I'm thinking charcoal briquets might be nice :)
(the foil bubble wrap on the windows is a necessary evil,
planning to replace it one day with working shutters)

A shot of the potting shed sign I whipped up in 5 minutes.
The lantern on the table is a find from a few weeks ago ($1).

Not garage sale finds, but I also picked up some more stones (free) for
my patio

It's beginning to look the way I envisioned it!!

Actual vintage doorknob set (not
a reproduction) 50 cents!!

and my other door from a garage sale long ago that I bought for $1.  This is
the inside of my shed/studio/workshop that I am cleaning up.
Still looking for solutions to cover up all the insulation, maybe
a wall of old drawers instead of the shelving units??

Also this ginormous tray for $3 - 18x31 &
I have no idea what to use it for.
Any bright ideas anyone??

Hope your weekends were equally fruitful!

Have a great week

Linked to An Oregon Cottage
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                My Repurposed Life
                Mod Vintage Life
                From My Front Porch to Yours

Country Road

I painted this last night.  The weather turned cold here again so I stayed indoors and worked on my basement workbench project.  When I came upstairs to check my dashboard for new posts, I was inspired to paint this picture.

I love autumn the best of all the seasons, the colours are so beautiful, the days are sunny and crisp and I love wearing sweaters...  call me crazy but the dog days of summer get me down.

So here is a tribute to autumn.

Hope you like it!

Cheers!!

11x14 acrylic on canvas

Linking to:  

At Sunset

I know when I've got it right because I fall in love with what I just created...

I'm so happy with this painting now.  I can picture myself in a boat, watching the sun sink into the end of the earth.  It's a far cry from the way I left this work of art.  At that time I had been trying to paint my own version of a painting I fell in love with - click here to see that post.  When I came back to it, I decided to stop trying to imitate the inspiration piece I had found and create my own vision, feeling my way through rather than seeing it.

Loved the sky but the water was wrong.

I loved this version, too, but the colours in the water didn't seem quite right and I wound up

painting over it to come up with the blue water version above.

So I hung it on a wall and lived with it for a month or so.

As with all my inspirations, they take over me all of a sudden.  I was home for lunch and felt compelled to get out my paints and have at it.  I didn't let myself think, I just let the paint flow from my brush...  With the sky painted over with pale yellow and blue and more pale yellow added to the waves and the hills, the painting grew a life of its own.

I'm much happier now.

Isn't it amazing how dark and moody this painting became when I painted the sky a darker colour.  I even added highlights to the hills and more highlights to the water, but it looks completely different.

So cool.

Have a great day!

Linked to:  French Country Cottage
                 Romantic Home
                 Shabby Nest

Sewing Box Makeover

I have a sewing box that is the perfect size and shape.  It's well organized and has lots of little holders for needles & pins & buttons & all the other stuff you need for sewing.  It's also got a nice sized base for holding bits of leftover material.

The downside???  It's a relic from the late 80s and looks it:

I had a square of yellow and orange patterned fabric leftover from another project.  I also had just a little bit of BM Dijon paint leftover from my last house.  I thought the material and the paint colour would go together well (altho I really wanted turquoise but didn't have enough of the material I really wanted to use :( ).  Anyway, so I decided to try and paint over the wicker with regular pearl latex paint.  If the paint doesn't last, oh well, I can always use spray paint and do the project over again with a different fabric.

So, two coats of paint later and miraculously, JUST enough fabric to do the job:

Cheers!

Linked to:  DIY Design
                 Saavy Southern Style
                 The Brambleberry Cottage
                 Freckled Laundry

Summertime, patios and weeds...

I have an area in my yard that I dearly want to make into an attractive grass-free patio.  I want to use natural materials and grow lots of thyme that will spill over all the gravel and sand that covers the area.  Unfortunately, the weeds are overrunning this area and with our new anti-herbicide/pesticide bylaw, I can't spray to get rid of them  (any of you gardeners out there have any tips on what will kill weeds that doesn't hurt the environment???).

It's been a very slow process, especially since the weather has turned very hot and humid and I now move like a snail when I go outside.  Other than that, I'm happy with the way the space is coming together.  I've set up a place to sit with a pretty wood bistro set I got from Winners a few years ago.  It's been painted a couple of times because the original paint finish didn't stand up to the weather, but I love it.  And I've dotted some rusty old pieces around it to doll up the area.

The flagstone patio I'm slowly installing (as I find flat stones).  It's working out brilliantly and it's FREE!! 

My little bistro set

No clue what this is, my boyfriend found it at the dump and scooped it for me :)

My garage sale find lantern

I love growing hens & chicks in little pots

See my weedy gravel???  (not the stuff close to the patio set, that's my newly
planted thyme!!
Also need to find something more attractive to edge my latest garden.

At least the plants are growing well.  Must be the influence of the weeds!!  Here's a view of my freshly painted shed/studio doors & the pallet fence:

More weeds... 

No doubt it will take me the rest of the summer to finish this project, but I'm liking the way it's beginning to look.  Besides, the true joy in life is in the journey - right?

Fresh paint job for the potting bench & the old storm window I found

Another shot of the patio stones

And the free door I scooped at the dump :)  Yay for me!!

More of my favourite plants:

Cranesbill Geranium "Max Frei"  - My all time favourite cranesbill.

Sedum Black Beauty

Rosa Radrazz blooms all summer
aka the Knockout Rose

Sedum Acre

Happy gardening!!

Linked to:

An Oregon Cottage
Fishtail Cottage
At the Picket Fence
Funky Junk Interiors

Where Bloggers Create 2011

This post was originally created for the
Where Bloggers Create 2011 Link Party

Two years ago I began to change my life up.  I decided it was high time I began trying things that I had been afraid or intimidated to do because I wasn't an "expert" at it.  I don't know where I picked up that attitude to begin with, but I was ready to be rid of it!!   So I made a pact with myself to do at least one thing per month that I had never done before.  I began learning all sorts of things and little by little, I began to feel really alive again.

So last year I bought a house all my own and began fixing it up.

Part of my new attitude led me to buy art kits and splash paint around on paper because I had always wanted to but ...  ya, you know what I mean.

I LOVED painting.  I painted lots of pictures, all different styles and that felt great, too.  Then I started up a Twitter account and discovered the world of blogging and all you wonderful ladies who are so willing to share what you do, how you do it and answer questions about it.  I am so in awe of most of you - particularly the carpenters among you!  WOW.  You're all so talented.  You inspired me to pick up tools and start DIYing:

You also inspired me to start my own blog which I began working on in February this year.

My whole house is my studio - I blog and surf the net in my home office, I paint pictures at my desk too (and in the living room, dining room, kitchen and even with my canvasses spread out on the floor).  I haven't got an easel so I use every surface imaginable.

I study books on decor, art, design, gardening and do-it-yourself in my living room.  I pack magazines &  design books everywhere I go.  I paint furniture in my laundry room (or in whichever room the piece is located) and I do all sorts of projects in my yard.  I've begun building stuff & using my 5 piece Makita tool set.  Now I've begun fixing up my shed so I can do projects in there too - and in my tiny little basement workshop that I'm still fixing up.

My home office is pretty plain, I haven't spent much time decorating it but the space gets lots of light and it's bright and airy, so I love hanging out in there.  Here are the photos:

My desk, some of my paintings are on the wall
I have so many paintings now, they're stacked up all over the place!!

My reading spot, in theory anyway, usually there's a cat sitting in this chair.

Eloise

Maggie

Storage for all sorts of stuff!

My paints & brushes are in the straw bag, magazines that I can't part with and
paintings stacked at the side complete this corner (lovely styling don't cha think?? lol)

More of my paintings

I love this Christmas ornament so much that I keep it out all year.
The wire basket is full of inspirational pictures and more of
my paintings (can you say OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE??)

Yup - more paintings

The shed I'm turning into a workshop.  I'm not ready to show the inside yet
it's a work in progress (read "it's a big mess inside")

And my ray of sunshine, constant companion and the best little dog I have ever owned:

My Lucy

So that's it, folks.  My blogging career in a nutshell.  Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers,

Anne


Linking to:
Family Brings Joy Roomspiration
Where Bloggers Create 2011 Link Party