Little tiny Nova Scotia rocking chair...

So I found this TINY rocking chair on Kijiji here in Halifax...LOVE at first sight...and the price was RIGHT (twenty five whole dollars)!!

Here's the "before..."

Look at this lovely detail...YUM...

And here are the "afters..." having used Annie Sloan Chalk Paints (Louis Blue as a base, then Old White). You know, I just HAVE to say...I am NOT normally a "trend" kind of gal...and chalk paint is most DEFINITELY a "trend" in home decor blogland...but I GET it!! I love love LOVE this paint!!! You can use it withOUT a primer...NO prep necessary...I am absolutely positively in LOVE with this paint!!

Here are my "after" pics. This one is with ONE coat of Annie Sloan Old White over a wash of Louis Blue...beautiful coverage...no priming...hard to capture the lovely finish, but read on...

OmiGOSH, see this detail!?

This is JUST chalk paint and a little bit of sanding, then a coat of Annie Sloan Clear Wax with TEENSY bit of Annie Sloan Dark Wax in the crevices...within ten minutes of painting...LOVE!!!

Hmmm...what else can I do?

Inkjet transfer with a dictionary definition!! To do this is SO simple...print your image in reverse (if it has words), then "transfer" it to your base by rubbing it with the back of a spoon...SO easy!!

After the transfer, I painted with ordinary brown acrylic paint...here's the "in process" pic...

Here's the finished dictionary definition, with a little Benjamin Moore Lichen Green paint mixed with Old White, dry brushed on the chair seat. I did this because one wall of my livingroom is green, and this chair will sit against that wall...

I wanted just a little "something else..." (lol)...aren't we ALL like that?? So I used a favourite Dreamweaver stencil (Leaf Heart, LL 318) with Dreamweaver Black Matte Paste on the chair back...LOVE it!! It's just that little "extra" I wanted...

Et voila! Finished! Total cost $28.00

Thank you SO MUCH for stopping by and listening to/reading the ramblings of an old gal. I'm entering this project in the fabulous Annie Sloan House of Anne Chair Affair contest hosted by Anne Skougard...check it out...you have two more days to enter for a chance to win TWELVE quarts of chalk paint!! Be STILL my HEART!!

Here's my printable dictionary definition for you if you're interested...would love to see what you do with it if you use it! Look what Catherine did with this graphic over at Catnap!

I'm partying with these fine bloggers, who do SO MUCH to share the artsy talents all around blogland.

Wishing you time spent with those you love, doing the things you love...THANK YOU for visiting!

Companion piece...and a printable...

This is the re-do of the second chair of a set I bought for an embarrassingly low price. I redid the first chair here. Here's a "before..."



I used my trusty Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (Old White), paired that with a printable shared by a kind blogger (I'm SO sorry I didn't record who'd done it...if it was YOU, please let me know so I can give credit where it's due!). I did the inkjet transfer technique to get a faint image, then painted with black acrylic craft paint.

Then I chipped and distressed a little, waxed all over with Annie Sloan Clear Wax, used a tiny amount of Annie Sloan Dark Wax for a little vintage look, and applied three coats of Minwax Polycrylic to the seat and rungs where it'll get the most wear.

Love love LOVE this little bar chair!!

...a close-up...

I'm partying right here and with these fine bloggers.

I've also entered this project for the "House of Anne Chair Affair..." check out her generous giveaway! It's on till July 31st! Check her out and add her to your list on Facebook...under...of course...House of Anne! I buy all my chalk paint from Anne now...FAST shipping! WOOT! Great for those of us too impatient to wait. ;)

Finally, THANK YOU from the bottom of my Nova Scotian heart, for the compliment of visiting my blog. Wishing you a day filled with the closeness of people you love and the things you love to do!

PS THANK YOU so MUCH to young Jerri for featuring this piece over at

...and for the feature by Laurie and Rob at



...and to Maria for her feature, over at



...and for the feature at




...aaand for the feature by Ms Denise over at



...aaaand for the feature by Ms Vanilla Bean too!


Oh my...life is just so very...GOOD!!
PS Have had many bloggers ask me where I found the definition, and I still have no idea, so I recreated it as a 300 dpi jpg, as closely as possible. It's easy to resize. Please help yourselves! If you use it, I'd love to see what you did!

My "new" chair...

Yesterday, my resupply of Annie Sloan's Old White Chalk Paint arrived from House of Anne...WOOT!!! I've been collecting little pieces ready to be transformed, and here's the first!

This is another Kijiji find...a GENUINE Bass River bar chair, HANDmade right here in Nova Scotia by a company (sadly) no longer in business. I bought two of these for a whopping ten dollars each. Bass River Chair was formerly known as the Dominion Chair Company, a 150 year old homegrown business. They're branded with the logo underneath (which I did NOT paint over!), and the last factory burned down in 1989, so these little gems are true collectors'pieces and will be staying with me FOREVER!

Hmmm, I never know whether to call these barstools or chairs...I suppose they're a little of both?

So here are some "befores..."

I've entered this project for the "House of Anne Chair Affair" and wicked awesome and very generous giveaway. Those of you living in California would be SOOOO LUCKY to be able to take classes with Anne! Siiiigh...I WISH...meanwhile, I have to find my way around in lovely Nova Scotia, with the help of generous bloggers.

See the supportive struts here and in the next pic...

Initially I thought I'd take them off, clean them and paint them with Rustoleum Hammered Copper. Alas, that was not to be. The supports were welded on. So...plan B was hatched. I'd heard that Annie's Chalk Paint could also be used for painting metal...hmmm...couldn't hurt, right? Worked BEAUTIFULLY!!

So...I scrubbed the chair with TSP, let it bake in the sunshine, then painted completely with Old White. Then I transferred a damask image from Graphics Fairy onto the seat, resized the same image smaller for the back of the chair, then transferred each by scraping the back of the inkjet-printed image on the chair.

Once that was finished, I clear waxed and dark waxed averything, chipped where I wanted chipping, and finally painted three coats of Polycrylic on the seat and back and rungs, where most of the wear will happen.

I am TICKLED PINK with the results!!

Here's the chair, although you can't really see the images transferred here...there's a better shot at the end of this post.

Close-ups:

Once more, the finished chair, in all its chalk paint and chippy goodness. You can see a larger image if you click on it. I'm partying here and with these fine bloggers.

Finally, THANK YOU from the bottom of my Nova Scotian heart, for the compliment of visiting my wee blog. Wishing you a day filled with the closeness of people you love and the things you love to do.

Lamp update

I really like these lamps; have had them quite a while, and decided to change them up a little today. The bases are beautiful; painted/chipped/glazed those last year. The current shades are jute covered...a challenge for painting! For this go-round, I added the upholstery fringe first...

then hand painted a simple stylized Eiffel Tower with a sample of black paint from Sherwin Williams. I did another one with Fleur de Lis on each side of the tower, but didn't like it so much. So now I think I'll need to hunt for two MORE matching shades. Thrift shops here I come! Hmmm, maybe I'll just recover the first one. Now THAT'S a thrifty idea! :)

OH! And that little table you see will soon be another Annie Sloan Chalk White re-do, as soon as my re-supply arrives. I've been so lucky to have been to Paris twice during the past few years, so having some of these things around me help me to remember those very special times in my life.

And speaking of blessings, must end this post with a couple of pics of my wee grandkidlets who are spending their summer with me here in Nova Scotia. This was their swim this afternoon at the lake a few minutes from where I live.

I count my blessings every . single . day.

I'm partying here and here and here and here.

Thank you SO much for visiting today! I wish you delightful times spent with the people you love and doing the things you love to do.

PS Thank you thank you THANK YOU to Teri for featuring my lamp!!

This makes my eastern Canadian heart HAPPY!!

Birthday gift sign...

Oh my...a dilemma.

What to give to a friend who has everything...a wonderful marriage to a great woman, a lovely home, a successful career, and all the toys he needs.

Ummm, how about a broken cupboard door? (lol)

I started with this one from our Habitat for Humanity ReStore.

That little gap in the corner is easily repaired with my trusty wood filler.

I painted it Old White, with Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint, chipped it up, designed in Photoshop,

did an inkjet transfer of the caduceus and the letters, then painted over the caduceus with soft brown paint, and the letters with black acrylic paint.

I wanted it to look like a sign from a doctor's old office in France. Eight of us vacationed together in France and Italy last fall, so I thought the French might make a more memorable statement.

I used one of the brand new Dreamweaver embossing stencils in two corners, positioning the stencil, taping it down, spreading white matte embossing paste over it, then letting it dry. Using embossing paste is as easy as frosting a cake, and I just LOVE the raised texture the paste gives to little projects like this!

Once the pasted image was dry, I repositioned it, pounced Top Boss Embossing Ink over it, and applied Stampee Embossing Powder as an adhesive, heated that with my heat gun, then applied metallic leafing over the now sticky raised surface.

Then I brushed the excess leafing off with a bristle brush, and this was the finished result:

Et voila...this is his birthday gift for the party tonight! I hope I was able to achieve a bit of an "old worldly," look, and, more importantly, I really hope he likes it, and that it doesn't end up reincarnated yet again full circle as as another junky cupboard door.

I'm partying at Time Travel Thursday, and here and here and with these wonderful decor bloggers this week.

Thank you so VERY much for stopping by. I'm SO grateful for your comments! Wishing you a wonderful week with people you love, doing the things that you love to do!

PS Sending a great big hearty Nova Scotia SHOUT OUT to Liz and to Maria for featuring my sign...thank you thank you THANK YOU!!!

My very own place...

Some know that I have my three little grandkidlets spending the whole summer with me here in Nova Scotia. They are veritable bundles of energy, with only two speeds..."Go nitro" (to quote the youngest) or stop! I'm having the most amazing time with these little guys...here are some pics (first one with their cousin) from our latest oceanside excursion:

Now you KNOW...with the three of them here, there are the inevitable little jealousies popping up all over the place. One of the most frequent has been their mutual coveting of a counter height stool as they watch/join in kitchen goings on.

Easy fix!

I scoured Kijiji here, found two more similar stools, and VOILA! They're tickled pink!!

I've used the last dribbles of my Annie Sloan Old White Chalk Paint; I had quarter of a can left, and this is what was left when I got to the end of this project:

I'm going into SERIOUS withdrawal here folks! I've been stalking the postman for my new paint on its way from House of Anne, but at least I had enough to finish this project.

So, here are the three stools before:

The one in the foreground was the cause of many boy-battles (lol), and the two in the background are my new acquisitions, a little worn and ready for a facelift.

Here's one after stage one with my trusty palm sander:

Now, I must tell you, these little stools make me SOOOO happy!! First of all, because I paid a whopping FIVE DOLLARS EACH for them, and secondly, because they were manufactured right here in Nova Scotia by Bass River Chairs, formerly known as the Dominion Chair Company, a 150 year old homegrown business. WOOT! They're branded with the logo underneath (which I did NOT paint over!), and the last factory burned down in 1989, so these little gems are staying with me FOREVER!

So, first I scrubbed everything down with TSP, let them bake in yesterday's hot sun, then got to work last night.

My grandchildren, like all kids, have unique little personalities, and I have "Grammie names" for each of them. Here's the youngest, Connor, helping me sand:

He's our "nitro boy," into EVERYTHING and always going a mile a minute! So HIS Grammie name is "My little Hurricane."

The middle boy, Avery, is quieter, contemplative, and loves being with Grammie (THANK YOU God!), doing anything at all. When he was tiny, he'd call me "Bubbie," so that eventually became my Grammie name for HIM..."My little Bubbie." That's him in the waves above too.

The oldest is Morgan...a "glass-half-empty" kind of boy (lol) who has to know where EVERYBODY is, EVERY minute of the day. When he was a wee toddler, he liked to actually be physically connected to one of his parents every waking moment, so he was quickly dubbed "My little Shadow."

Now I've seen decor bloggers transform stools and chairs with 1-2-3 and un-deux-trois, but my boys decided they wanted their Grammie names. When they're NOT here, they''ll make interesting conversation pieces (lol)

Okay, now that you've had a long-winded introduction to these precious children in my life, here are the completed stools:

"Peace y'all..."

"My job is to make Grammie laugh, so here I am hamming it up..."

...aaaand...my little Hurricane!

I stained the chair seats with Minwax Onyx Black (my FAVOURITE stain these days), painted the rest with my last dribbles of Annie Sloan Old White Chalk Paint, chipped up the paint, waxed all the white with Annie Sloan Clear Wax, then a TINY bit of Annie Sloan Dark Wax for a more vintage look.

This paint sands and chips SOOOO beautifully...and it dries so quickly that you can do that literally within minutes of the paint being applied!

When I reached the end of painting them, i had maybe three tablespoonsful of paint left over. I mixed that with a little ordinary black acrylic to get a soft gray, and hand painted their "Grammie names" on the seats. Finally, I finished everything with two coats of Minwax Polycrylic...knowing full well that these little things will get a great deal of wear (lol).

This is the project I've entered for the "House of Anne Chair Affair" and wicked awesome and very generous giveaway. Those of you living in California would be SOOOO LUCKY to be able to take classes with Anne! She's a faux finisher extraordinaire, and has been to England learning all about chalk paint directly from Annie Sloan! Siiiigh...I know I know...envy is a SIN, right?

Okay, today is August 8th., and I've just received news that I WON the Chair Affair sponsored by Anne Skougard of California!!!

I am absolutely positively FLABBERGASTED!!! This means that I receive one quart of my very favourite and utterly FABULOUS Annie Sloan Chalk Paint every month for a year!! Now, this might not seem like a big deal to some folks...but it sure IS to ME!! I have to order my paint online, and between shipping and customs, it ends up costing me well over fifty dollars a quart.

AAAAND...several NEW COLOURS have just been released.

Oh my oh my oh my...BE STILL MY HEART!!! Can you tell I'm EXCITED!?

If you haven't tried this paint yet, and if you enjoy upcycling furniture...you just HAVE to try it. I order mine directly through Anne...right here...fast shipping for the impatience in me (lol)

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU Anne!!!

Okay...my little grandson is saying "Breathe Grammie, just breathe!"(lol)

I'm also partying here and here and here and with these wonderful decor bloggers this week.

THANK YOU for visiting, I feel blessed with every single comment you leave. Wishing you a day filled with the people you love most and things you love to do!

PS Giving a great big hearty Nova Scotian shout-out to Ms Tara for featuring these!

...and Mary at Redo 101 for the feature too!