Annie Sloan has arrived in Roscommon

So there I was sipping my iced lemonade, reading my book and enjoying the sun alfresco at a local eatery and I overhear a conversation  ........... "oh yes she has the Annie Sloan paint in the shop now"

Hold the front page guys, it's happened.

Annie Sloan paint has finally come to Roscommon. 

Ding Dong !

Now you know I'm an old fashioned crafty girl and quite against a lot of the shortcuts that have come on the market over the years i.e. card toppers (where is the imagination and design in sticking something ready made on a card I ask?) bow makers (rolling my eyes to heaven) and crafty kits that have literally every bit of design/imagination and thought taken out of them that even the most un-crafty person in the world could put them together.  But this, Chalk Paint, I whole heartily approve of!  Who has time for sanding and priming when pinterest, facebook and instagram are bombarding us with new project ideas every minute of the day ?? :O)

Where was I ?

Oh yes sipping ice cold lemonade, sun shining bla bla over hearing conversations ........... and the words Annie Sloan were mentioned and my ears pricked up.

Super excited to say that ETL in Roscommon are now stocking Annie Sloan paint.  Here's the pic to prove it :O)

So what is Annie Sloan paint I hear you say and what's all the fuss about ?

If you're  a visual person (like me) just skip all the text below and head over to pinterest and check out my Annie Sloan Love board or Annie Sloan's own board.    Otherwise read on

Annie Sloan is an actual person :o) a trained painter who has written several books about painting furniture.  A few years ago she opened a shop and launched a brand of paint she made called Chalk Paint and the rest, as they say, is history.  It took off a storm !! Every blogger/upcycler out there was raving about it !!

Yes I know you're still saying Why? and what's so special about it?  Well the main thing is you can quite literally paint anything yes ANYTHING!  and as if that weren't fabulous enough you don't need to sand, prime or do any prep to the surface you are painting.  You just paint it and that's it!  Yes seriously, trust me, I've done it many times and it works (and alas no I am not on any sort of commission, but Annie Sloan if you're out there and fancy sending me some samples etc that would be nice). The cupboard above I painted with one coat of imperial red and it was perfect.  It was previously painted with cream satin wood paint.

After you paint your piece you can leave it as is or, if it is going to have something put onto it i.e. a table, you need to wax it with the Annie Sloan wax. Otherwise it's has a very matt chalky finish, which personally I like but it's not a traditional paint finish that everyone would be used to.

Enough of my sales pitch for Annie Sloan.  You can find out all you want about her, her paint, the colours etc on her official website or just head into ETL in Roscommon (on the square in Roscommon town, opposite Bank of Ireland) where you can buy sample pots or full tins of the paint.

Now I'm itching to get painting but just can't decide what to do first !?  I've got a little collection of items building up in my shed including this lovely box I got at a boot sale.  Hmmmm options are endless !!

Have you used Chalk Pain?  What did you think?  Did you do a course or just buy it and give it a go?  Would love to hear your comments and links to projects you have done.

Happy Painting lovely Bloggers!!! 

Cocktails in the Caravan

Well here she is, my little Dot

I've been DYING to tell you all about her and share all the pics but have held back - God that was hard!!

I got her in January and for quite a while she was left in my Dad's yard in a rather sad and depressing state but as and when I got time she was stripped bare and turned from drab and dreary to my lovely little Dot.

When she arrived she was a little battered to say the least.  Afterall she was home to a dog!  Yes, I kid you not.  But I didn't care.  I knew with a bit of tender loving care and a bit of michellemadethis magic she would be a cinderella in not time.

So the clean up began.

Brace yourselves for the before pictures, they are pretty grim!!

The outside wasn't too bad, just needed a good clean and all the moss scrubbed off (can't really see that in the pic)

The inside however was pretty grim to say the least

But you know me - I just love a challenge!!

Once I removed all the furnishings, scraped the lino off the floor and gave it several cleans with bleach and disinfectant it was lathered in white paint!

Then the fun stuff happened ...

I made pretty curtains for it out of an old white linen table cloth with some lace edging

and started adding lots of lovelies to it.

Here's what it looks like now :O) 

Sorry the pics are a bit dark, will take more on a brighter day.

What do you think?

To celebrate and give me a deadline to get her finished I organised a party

Cocktails in the Caravan

These were the invites I sent out 

The dresscode was polkadots!

Needless to say it was a great night and Dot got her name.

Her full name being "Dotty Carafanny" after several cocktails and lots of laughter but I'm sticking with Dot for short. 

Do you like her?  Do you have a caravan too?  Would love to see the pics.  

If you, like me, are dotty about Dot and all sorts of caravans check out my board on pinterest.

Keep Calm and Paint it White

I've decided this is my new motto!

Well not really 'new' as it's something I have always done :O)

I can't help myself.  The minute the paint tin is opened and I've painted one thing I'm looking around to see what else I can paint :O)

Is it just me??

A lick of paint does wonders!

Remember these? I got them from my Dad's cousin Matt (thanks Matt!!!)

They were in his shed with all his carpentry bits and pieces.  I had asked Matt to keep an eye out for something similar for me to make a kitchen island and a few days later he arrived at my house with them.  I'm ashamed to say they have sat in my shed since then. 

I removed the top part, sanded them down, joined them together and covered the top with some oil cloth.  The plan is to eventually get a nice wooden piece on top or a piece of glass , not quite decided just yet.

It's great to have all the extra cupboard space and they are also the perfect height for baking compared to the table I previously had.

What do you think?

However, I finally got round to painting them a few weeks ago.  

Paintings with a knitting theme

Sorry - again for lack of posts!

I really need another few days in my week.

Thankfully I'm off for mid term now so hopefully I will catch up.  Right now I can't see how and feel pretty overwhelmed but hopefully I'll get there.

I thought some of you might like these paintings.  I've spent the entire weekend scouring books in the library and trawling the net looking for an artist that "inspires or resonates with me" as part of a college assignment and after (finally) deciding on knitting as my theme I've settled on one.  I've chosen Johann Georg Meyer von Bremen as a few of his paintings are of girls knitting.  I really enjoyed the last painting i did with the knitted doll so I'm looking forward to trying out some more.  

An Afternoons Amusements
Johann Georg Meyer von Bremen

image source here

Tending the little ones

Johann Georg Meyer Von Bremen

image source here

Making a bouquet
Johann Georg Meyer von Bremen

image source here

Young Girl Knitting
Johann Georg Meyer von Bremen

image source here

Of course the more I researched the more artists I found so now I'm totally confused about who to go for !?

The Little Knitters
Albert Anker

image source here

Knitting Girl. Albert Anker

image source here

This is my fav of them all ....

A Careful Stitch

Emile Muniuer

image source here

assigmnet and then I came across this link here!  So annoying!   

Happy Wednesday everyone :O)

Painting

So here's what's been soaking up most of my time lately.

We started this painting last week in college.  I have to say when I started I wasn't too impressed, hence not sharing it with you all :o) 

However as the hours and days have passed I've persevered with it and am a little happier with the result.

I'm really trying to get the texture of the knitting right but it's soooo tedious to paint and I'm so impatient!

Almost there !!

For those of you who want to try this yourselves I used acrylic paints and it's painted on primed (50/50 pva and white emulsion) cardboard.

Da da!

Anyone know how you actually spell that??

What I'm trying to say is I finished the chair :o)

It's gone from this ...

to this ...

What a difference a bit of white paint makes!  That and a very quickly sewn up patchwork cushion made up of scraps of fabric leftover from my summer bags.

And the frame has gone from it's original nasty fake gold finish, originally seen here (God that was Feb 09, I told you I had a lot on my to do list!) to this fabulous pink blackboard ...

My to do list is increasing by the minute so this board is going to come in handy!

Yesterday, all within half an hour, I was talking to the RTE about a future programme, an Interiors magazine about future features and an Interiors shop about another project.  On top of that I've got briefs for assignments at college and homework to do so it's going to be another busy weekend!

Before all that I've got a few of my etchings in an art exhibition opening tonight so I think I deserve a couple of glasses of vino. 

If you're in Roscommon come along .... details below.

Have a lovely weekend everyone x

Busy weekend

Hope you all had a lovely weekend

mine is a bit of a blur

from sewing to painting to baking yummy bread

I packed a lot in for sure.

I got all the aprons sewn up and they are being delivered tonight.

I gave my pyjama top/jacket another re-vamp. 

Added some buttons ... that you can just about see!

and a ribbon to the back

If you look closely you'll see it says Burberry and if you look closer you'll see fragrance!  How's that for thrifty :o)  I doubt anyone will notice, well apart from all of you who are reading this :o)

I made the most delicious brown bread, so delicious it was all eaten and I have nothing to show you.  I'll just have to make another one this week!

I also got a lot of painting done.  The chair is almost there!  I got a little distracted with painting pink black boards. 

Yes 'pink' blackboards, there is such a thing!!  (she says wearily after several discussions with various hardware shop owners who laughed at me when I asked if they stock it!).

Hopefully next weekend will be a little quieter, somehow I doubt it as I have two of these lovely pieces to revamp yet.

The plan is to join them together and make an island unit for my kitchen.  I'm totally torn with regards to painting it grey to match the kitchen or stripping it ... What do you think???

In Progress

In case you haven't noticed I love quotes.  One of my many favourites is  ...

"Begin with the end in mind"

Like I've often said here, I have a real problem with going to car boots and charity shops as I see potential in everything!!  There's always something that can be 'done' to rejuvenate an old piece of furniture or clothing.  But before I buy something I always 'begin with the end in mind'.  I will know exactly what I'm going to do with it before I part with my money.

When I bought the chair below, originally shown here, I knew exactly what I was going to do with it and it's almost there.   Here's a few pics of my work in progress ...

I started by giving it a good wash and scrubbing it down with some disinfectant (you never know where these things have been stored!).  Then I removed the old fabric and seat pad with a stanley knife.

Then I ripped up a brown bag and used it to make a pattern for the seat.

I'm using the pattern to make a patchwork cushion for the seat pad

and finally I'm painting the chair.  White ... of course!

Finished pics to follow, hopefully over the weekend.

In the meantime ...

"Do not let what you cannot do

interfere with what you can do"

John Wooden