These things remind me of my father

There are so many things that remind me of my father.

One of the main things I remember is his extreme patience with me.  He was always kind to me and was not critical or judgemental about my shortcomings.  I remember how kind he was to me as a small child and the time he would spend with me.  He would talk with me a lot and would be interested in how I was feeling or concerned with my struggle with depression.  I would always think that the next thing would make me happy but he would always remind that the grass was not greener on the other side - just different!!  This has proven true over and over in my life and I can truly say that at 54 I have learned this.  I don't look for the next thing to make me happy anymore I just enjoy where I am and what I am doing and really try to make each experience great!!

I share a lot with my father - we are very much alike.  He was always late because he was doing 1 more thing before he left or just plain not fretting about being on time.  Unfortunately I seem to have learned this trait as I have good intentions but am always about 5 minutes late everywhere I go.  I have his love for beauty - it almost makes me crazy with delight and whenever I see a sunset or a beautiful sky I am reminded about his passion for these daily events.  I remember him yelling across the draw - Robin - you've got to see this one.  I was reminded by my brother Chuck this last week of how he would show you a plant and you would tell him you had seen it and he would say but look at the uniqueness of this one.  Each one was truly unique to him and special.  His spirit lives on in many of his children and as my brothers age I see so many of his mannerisms in them and it truly amazes me of God's creation of man and how genetically we in families are connected.

I inherited his knees!!  I have had both replaced and had crooked legs like him and had them surgically straightened.  This has put a damper on my love of gardening but I have been doing Zumba and seem to strengthening them so I feel hopeful I will want to garden again.

The other thing I share with my father is love for wood and fixing old pieces of furniture and making them beautiful.  When I work with old furniture pieces I feel a real connection with my father and I can hear his voice in my head as I remember the things he taught me and just the many hours I spent with him in his shop observing what he was doing and spending time with him.  I think this gave me a real appreciation for finishes and doing things well.  I have been taking some pictures of furniture I have redone and want to start recording them on my blog.  Here are a few pieces.

I am painting this dresser for a cute young mom that I painted the bed for that is pictured further down.

This is a desk I purchased from an estate sale - the original was a honey maple color which was quite dated.  I repainted it with chalk paint - the bottom is in old ochre and the top is painted in duck egg blue.

Here you can see the distressing a little better - I think it turned out beautiful.  It is for sale at This Old New House in Spokane, Washington.

This is an oak stool which Kari found for me it was just a brown oak.  I painted it with red chalk paint and distressed it.  My sister Lori bought it for her photography studio.

This is a bed frame that I repainted for the same lady I am painting the dresser for.  She had purchased it and the paint was peeling off and I repainted it for her. I also distressed it.

Another view of the bed frame footboard.

This is a view of the headboard.  It was beautiful!!

This is a shelf that was painted white and I painted over it with chalk paint - distressed it and the white came through.  It is available for sale at This Old House.

This is a very old chair that I painted with chalk paint.  My sister Lori purchased it for her studio.

This is a table I painted with chalk paint and distressed.  The colors underneath came through and added great depth and interest to the table.  I sold this at the 2 Women Show.

This is a magazine rack I painted with red chalk paint.  I sold this at Julie's show she had in Spangle.

This is a magazine rack I painted with green chalk paint.  It is currently for sale at This Old New House.

This is a piece I got at Thrifty Living on Pines in the valley.  I painted it with pink chalk paint and sold it.

I thought I'd better let you know I was still alive!!!

My title of the post says it all.  I thought I'd better let you know I was still alive!!  My summer has been very hectic and it is finally settling down and I will do better at staying connected on my blog.  I have been putting a lot of things on my Etsy site and trying to figure out what direction to take with my business.  I have been dejunking - taking things to the thrift store - cleaning out closets and just trying to simplify my efforts and my life.  I have been working at cleaning out my spot in the garage and not bring anything else in.  I have been working on cutting out Christmas ornaments and pincushions for the craft shows I am going to do this fall and just working on getting organized.  That said I feel that it will happen - I will get organized!!!  I just have to guard against getting too busy and going to many directions because then I am not effective at anything!!

One thing I am going to do this year is I am volunteering my time to the PTSA and am going to serve as treasurer.  I feel I need to be active in the community and this is a way I can serve.  This will accomplish 2 things - I will help the PTSA and I will get to know some of the people at the school.  So I will give service and get socialization which I really need - I have felt very disconnected from Jim's school and as he gets older I want to be more connected not less. 

I don't have a lot of time to write today but just wanted to make a quick post to say "Yes - I am still alive"!!  Yours truly - Robin

What you can do with a little Paint!!

Well I stated in my first post that I was going to do a post on upcycling furniture, home furnishings etc.  I have been out in my garage busily painting up a storm and having a great time!!  I love what you can do with a little paint and a few great undiscovered out-dated finds.  Here are a few before pictures for you to see.

One of the things you want to look for when painting home furnishings are the lines in the piece.  If you can look past the color and look at the lines - many things look unexciting because they are brown or just outdated - but when you paint them they look great!!

The light aqua I hand brushed because I liked the color and you can't find all the colors you want in spray paint.  I used a spray paint for the bright aqua candlesticks.  I forgot to take a picture of the candlesticks before I painted them but they were brown.

These pictures are before I have sanded them to add a distressed look and accent the lines.  I painted them with 2 coats of paint (hand brushing).  If you use spray paint it is best to spray several light coats as it will run if you spray too heavy.  If you are painting over wood you want to lightly sand the piece before you paint it so that the paint has something to stick to. After the paint completely dries take 80 grit sand paper and lightly sand the edges to distress the piece.  Wherever you sand will expose the underneath color and cause the lines of the piece to stand out.  Don't despair if you oversand and don't like it.  The nice thing about paint is you can always start again and repaint over the area you sanded too much.

This reminds me of a memory of the past.  We did a lot of crafts growing up and we had made dough art and we were painting our creatures.  I remember I had it looking just right and then decided to do a little more shading and thought wow, this shading is great and kept adding a little more until I had shaded way too much and it looked bad.  My mom said Oh well, you can just paint it again and start over.  I learned the hard way that less is more and it is better to start out with a little of shading or in this case sanding and you can always sand a little more.  (But don't feel bad if you have to start over - I have learned that lesson by trial and error!! -and yes - I have had to repaint certain items as I thought - wow - this sanding looks great!! and then ended up doing too much and had to start over!!)  The next pictures will show the result with sanding.

It's interesting the difference in color taking the picture inside and outside!!  They are the same candlesticks!!

 I forgot to take a before picture of these candlesticks but they were gold.

So before and after - as I said what you can do with a little Paint!!

Here is a preview of my next painting projects to come - I found this cradle at a thrift store for $5.00.  It was sitting outside looking quite forlorn and neglected.  I'm sure glad I found it and am going to rescue it.!! 

I found this cute desk at an estate sale and paid $20.00 for it.  I think I will paint it white, change the knobs and voila -  I will have a very updated adoraable piece of furniture.

Stay tuned - to see the transformation!!

I hope this post was informative for whoever reads it.  You can do so much with a little Paint and a bit of vision.  It is a great way to rescue something old - give it new life and also be thrifty!!  If you have any questions or need an opinion, just email me at rafoutch@gmail.com and I will try to help as best I can.  Happy painting!!