Painting Has Begun

The painting has begun.  I have been itching to start painting furniture pieces for quite some time and the process has finally started.  How exciting!!!

This is my first completed cabinet.

Last fall, my hubby was driving down the road when he spotted this nightstand.  Screech!  I could hear him hitting the brakes from here (just kidding!).  The nightstand was free on the side of the road and he thought it was an antique so he stopped to pick it up.  Unfortunately, it turned out that it wasn't old at all but it was cute all the same.  This would be a future project.  

This is how it looked when it followed him home.

I have to be honest, I'm not sure if I even remember seeing it although he insists I did.  I was recently looking for a starter project to make sure I felt confident in painting the bigger, more important pieces of furniture.  He suggested I paint the nightstand in the garage.  What nightstand?  I'm sure he thought I was nuts.  It's not like me to forget about furniture of any kind.  These photos were taken just before I began my sanding.

I painted it an off white and it looked extremely plain.   I hadn't reattached the knobs yet but it looked boring and needed a little pizzazz.  I wish I had taken a photo at that stage of the process.  I decided to distress it a bit.  I've had experience in distressing on wooden snowmen, etc. that I made many years ago but never on furniture.  You work hard to get that perfect finish then turn around and destroy it.  My hubby was scared for me.  I told him I was a bit scared myself.  But at that moment I decided to live dangerously ha ha.

I used the palm sander prior to painting but decided to hand sand when I began distressing it.  I figured it would allow me to control how much paint was removed and to do it slowly until I obtained the look I was trying to achieve.  The palm sander would have worked fine too but I wanted to make sure the original stain remained.

I love how the stain shows through.

I'm pleased with how it came out.  My hubby really liked the distressing once it was completed.  Now I just need to figure out where to put it.  That falls into the category of redecorating which we're currently working on.

More furniture is being worked on and I'm hoping I'll finish a dresser this weekend.  Since time is not on our side right now, we have decided to work as a team.  My hubby will sand and I will paint.  That way we can both be working on something at the same time.

Thanks for stopping by to see what I'm up to.  I hope this inspires you to go and paint or create something yourself although most of you are already way ahead of me.  I'm always in awe of all the creativity out there in Blogland.

~ Kelly ~

Spring is Coming

Hi Friends,

For those of you experiencing full blown Spring weather in your neck of the woods...BEWARE...there are some colder pics in this post LOL.

Each day I have the pleasure of driving past Georgian Bay on my way to and from work.  Georgian Bay is a large body of water on the Great Lakes.  It's always such a beautiful sight.  I look forward to seeing how the scenery will change each day depending on the weather conditions.  Four days ago, the sun was bright in the sky and the water (or should I say ice) was blue.  I made a decision to pull over and snap some photos.

 

 There are a lot of swimmers in this area during the summer months.  It's hard to imagine that at the moment.  Brrrrr!!  The sand is visible though...that's always a good sign.

It's hard to imagine that two months from now the tourists will be arriving for the long weekend.  There is an inviting little campground very close to this area and it will be full.  They definitely won't be swimming on that weekend.

We had a fairly mild winter this year and the water remained open with the waves rolling in.  Once March hit though we had a few extremely cold days, everything changed and the lake quickly froze.  At least on the surface.  After that we had a thaw, it melted and then froze again.  You can still see open water farther out but in this particular area, it's frozen closer to shore.  Just down the road, the waves are rolling right in to the shoreline.  I'm guessing the water is a little deeper in that area.

It looks like gentle, rolling waves froze on the spot.

I decided to take the back roads home from work on this day.  It's hard to tell from this picture but I have driven up high above the water onto the Niagara Escarpment.

 

Another road on the way home.  There are many large hills throughout this area but they don't seem to show in the photo.  You can see the water off to the upper right of the photo.  In the summer and the fall months, it is an absolutely beautiful drive.

While I was driving my granddaughter, Lily, home last week along a different portion of Georgian Bay, I stopped to show her the gentle waves rolling in.  I opened her window so she could hear them.  As the water was a few feet down from the road, she asked why the waves weren't coming up to us and asked if it was because they were scared of us.  I laughed.  That little girl keeps us laughing, she's always saying something unique as the little ones often do.

The next photos are ones that I took back in mid February and never had an opportunity to post.  I thought the homes were so pretty so decided to share them anyway.  Sorry...I know Spring is on it's way and these contain that four letter word "SNOW".  So bear with me if you can...

This one is a beautiful red board and batten.  It seems to sit on it's own surrounded by bush on a country road.  So pretty!  These photos were taken at dusk so you can't see how beautiful the red truly is.

This is a stop sign just down the road from my home, in mid February I believe.  Can you see it?  You have to look close lol.  The snow wasn't that deep but the drifts on this particular road were.  They kept the road plowed of course but the drifts would fill in quickly.  This reflects how strong the winds can get in this area.  The snow around the stop sign is now completely gone.

This is another home that I love, I do have a weakness for stone houses.  This one is quite old.

I hope you enjoyed your little tour.  All of the snow is gone again but that can change in a day.  We did have a really nice taste of Spring for a bit but Old Man Winter tricked us again.  Now that we're almost into April, things should definitely be looking up.  Although the robin's have been here for a little while, I saw my first one yesterday.  What a wonderful sight.  The birds seem to be telling us Spring is near.  We have been hearing and seeing so many more and they're quite active.

Thank you for stopping by and as always, I just love reading your comments.  Have a wonderful day!

~ Kelly ~

Another Craft Room?

Hi Friends,

Life has been busy and I decided to post something before you forget about Homespuns 'n Hayfields completely.

The old wooden spools of thread in the vintage jar were picked up at the local thrift store.  They're for display only unless I get desperate for a certain colour of thread.  I love the old wooden spools.

In a previous post, I gave you a sneak peek into my craft room.  I was almost finished setting things up when life changed.  Well...that craft room no longer exists.  To make way for my daughter and Lily moving in, parts of my craft room were temporarily relocated to our bedroom.  The temporary relocation of course lasted longer than expected but things are starting to be on course again.

Unfortunately, I never really created much when it was in our bedroom for 8 1/2 months but I did have good intentions.  I always do lol!!

After my daughter and her children moved out last month, we started to reorganize the house.  It has been a major undertaking.  Basically, 6 rooms are being relocated at once.  I need to start thinking on a smaller scale don't I?  Maybe 1 room at a time?  My original craft room is now in the process of being set up in a different bedroom upstairs so my hubby can have that room for his man cave (hockey room).  The poor guy has been waiting a while.  To all the ladies out there...crafting is more important than hockey right?  LOL!!

All I can say is "what a mess".  We have made great progress with moving the furniture but now we're down to the smaller details which takes some thinking.  We don't have any time to paint, etc. so the rooms are being decorated as is for now.

 

This cabinet was purchased for $20.00 at the Chatsworth Garage Sale 2 years ago.  I have recently decided to paint it since some of the veneer has come off.  It should give it a fresh new look.  I can't believe this garage sale is only 2 months away already.  That means Spring is right around the corner.  I can't wait!!

This is the next "sneak peek" into the craft room.  This bedroom had been turned into a kitchen many years ago and we have now ripped out all the cupboards except for the one you see in this photo.  We're going to keep it for now.  The wallpaper is definitely not a choice we would have made but it will have to stay for now.  I don't think it's that bad actually but it's not what we're looking for.  Sneakers of course stopped in to assess the situation.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of the craft room(s).  Come back again!!

~ Kelly ~