busy month, part deux...

this poor little pumpkin was having asthma issues but we decided to try 

and shoot the pictures anyway because the 

weather was so nice that day and it had been so miserable on every weekend before that.  

she lasted about 1/2 hr....poor honey...

daddy had just met us at the house because he came from work...
and had to rescue the little princess

so we weren't able to finish the shoot as a family
but we got some of mama and her boy

we will reschedule later this week, weather permitting.....this is michgan after all...

just a little peek at what i've been up to in the last month....

two weddings.  the first, a darling couple who got married on labor day weekend....

on a cold gray, windy day

which didn't stop us in the least from having loads of fun.

you will see more on them in the upcoming week.....

the following weekend, another wedding that i found out about the day before i shot it....

i love spur of the moment.  it was another gray windy day, but a bit warmer...it was in a pretty little chapel in a strip mall located on a freeway.  because it was so spur of the moment for them to have me take their pictures, they hadn't planned for a place to take photos after the ceremony.   well, as luck would have it (and i do get lucky so many times) there was a field between the strip mall and a gas station.  can you believe the color???

the older little boy came up to me in the chapel and whispered to me "i didn't wear any socks"  and started giggling.  so being the 'have fun at any cost' type of photographer i am took the 

boys behind the strip mall

and had some fun. 

older sister wasn't very happy about mama getting married again

but little sister was having a ball.....

more on them soon too.....

i think my favorite of the day was the one where grandma started to lose control of the situation.  

i really think those make the best pictures of all!!!!

there always has to be one with a finger in the nose, doesn't there?

this lovely couple with the cutest little boy was the brother of the bride and came to my house 

the following weekend for their pictures

and we road tested the blue sofa...i love it....

and them.....

and that was half of my month....more soon!!

The final result....

i like this much better. 

i can still see the details...

but it doesn't look dirty anymore like it did here...

small changes 

big difference....

before

and after.

and done...


linking up to layla's blog 
here

the finishing touch....

i glazed the buffet but i'm not sure about it.....  (click to enlarge)

here it is in it's space before i glazed it.  little stinkers ran in front of the camera just as i was taking the picture.....and i couldn't wait to put my halloween decorations on it...

here is a close up of the door.

and here is the glazed version

which looks okay on the doors.
but
when i looked at the entire piece

i kinda freaked out and felt that it just looked dirty.

the leg on the left has not been glazed yet

i do like how it brings out the detail in the grooves but the drawers bug me.
soooooo, what i think i'm going to do is water down some of the original color and lightly wash some of  the color back in....

what do you think?? should i leave well enough alone or lighten it up a bit?

it looks so different than when i first brought her home, remember?
from this..

to this...

to this

the hutch wasn't meant to be....

i really wanted that hutch...

however, shannon called me on friday and excitedly told me

"mom, i found the perfect piece of furniture for you"!!!!

she had gone to a flea market that she has been trying to get me to go to for a couple of months.

of course, i was at work and wasn't getting out for a few hours.

so she sent me an iphone picture of it.....

it was a cruddy picture but good enough that i knew that it was exactly what i been looking for.

a wonderful jacobean buffet.  

i finished up at work as fast as i could, snuck out and headed home.

 i stole borrowed my neighbor's minivan and headed out to the flea market and found it hiding under a bunch of junk.

i paid the man, had them load it into the van (thank you, laura) and brought that bad boy home...

here is what she looked like when i got her into my garage new furniture reworking space.

i love her curves

 her detail

 and her knobs and pulls

i sanded the top and filled some of the defects with wood filler. 

now i fully intended to sand and paint this project myself. 

don had just rolled his eyes when i asked him to help me take it out of the van.

however, 

saturdays in the fall in michigan mean university of michigan football games.

don is a michigan man.  

he graduated from u of m.

he loves football..

but he cannot watch a michigan football game.....

it's a long story.  but that will be the subject of a future post...

so he started sanding...(because it keeps him busy and diverts his attention from football)

please ignore the beer in the corner.  i use it for cooking....really!!

beer and buttocks, or michigan football...hmmmmm

i chose michigan football.  so while he sanded, i kept an eye on the game....(we won)

and i picked out a beautiful shade of turquoise, a lovely robin's egg green

and he got busy painting.....

the games last 3 hours, so when the game was done, so was don...

and he paints with one of those cheapo paint brushes that are like 2 for a dollar. 

now all i have to do is layer a nice gray or espresso glaze on it so all of her 

lovely details shine through.

and i left the best part for last...

oh no, it wasn't 35.00

it was 20% off of 35.00

$28.00.

here is the final paint job.  i love the color.   i just need to decide on the glaze now....

i painted the hardware with a oil-rubbed bronze spray.  i love it...

we touched up the missing paint on the back right leg...
and i turned the drawer pull on the top left side.

i will post the final pictures later.....


linking up at
http://creatingahouseofgrace.blogspot.com/2010/10/we-have-been-busy-and-twice-owned-party.html
http://linda-coastalcharm.blogspot.com/2010/10/nifty-thrifty-tuesdays-no35.html
http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/2010/10/fireplace-for-my-dream-library-welcome.html
http://www.perfectlyimperfectblog.com/and http://www.inthefunlane.com/2010/09/fresh-coat-friday_24.html
and http://www.storiesofahouse.com/2010/09/project-diaries-volume-1.html
http://www.bluecricketdesign.net/2010/09/show-and-tell-get-your-link-on.html
here too...http://www.domestically-speaking.com/2010/09/39th-power-of-paint-party.html
http://primitiveandproper.blogspot.com/2010/10/piece-of-work-wednesday-link-party.html
http://decormamma.blogspot.com/2010/11/frugalicious-friday-giveawayjunk.html



edited to add....
i have had some friends ask what kind and color of paint i used for this project....
i used behr premium plus paint in a satin finish.  when i sent hubby to home depot to get the paint with the swatch, he left the swatch at the store so i don't know the exact color.  it is very similar to the
martha stewart living tidewater msl 121
paint swatch, though...
for the glazing i used ralph lauren glaze from home depot and just mixed black acrylic paint from hobby lobby until i got the gray that i liked.

the glazing results are
here:
http://camerasandchaos.blogspot.com/2010/10/finishing-touch.html

and you can see the final result
here:
http://camerasandchaos.blogspot.com/2010/10/final-result.html