New Painting Hot Off the Easel...

Hey!  Those cows are staring at me!

Ok, whatdya think... I started this painting a month ago, and was really frustrated with it, so just let it sit and gave it dirty looks, like how am i gonna make you work???   

Finally settled down to mess with it today and i'm feeling it's pretty much done... i tried to be a little imperfect with it all, and a little more loose...

but looking at it now on this post, i already see something else i want to change on it... and i've lost my light..

oh well, i will just have to wait till next weekend... which is aggravating as anything!

of course i added a touch of pink to the whole thing...

And now i'm gonna go bug Mr. Fairytale... and get him to pull down my faux flocked frazier fur... first time i've used that many F words in a row...

(without someone having to cover their ears...)  

...oops, did i just say that...

the end...

Still Messing Around in the Bedroom, and Some Other Stuff...

So, here is my bedside table, a little dresser i found at the Goodwill for $19.99...  a $10.00 mirror i painted and random stuff... 

the mirror is a little too small, not exactly what i wanted, but it's what i had...

 plus, i've been trying to tie the whole room together...  mrfracturedfairytale's bedside dresser is brown, and on it i have the door from my little cupboard in the kitchen, it has this awesome wavy vintage glass in it...

usually there are like at 10,000 books and papers and magazines on his desk, it's clean now because we had to move stuff so he could finish painting...  

 My friend Karan with the amazing shop, had these old window frames, and she let me try one out,  what do you think?  I can get 2 of them, one for mrfractured's dresser,and one for mine...   

she was pretty horrified, and said , "you mean you're going to be matchy matchy"???

And i was like... 

 "oh heck yeah... i love symmetry." 

Joni from the Cote de Texas blog , says either you're a symmetry person or not, I definitely am, probably because my life is so choatic, i love order with a passion...

So what do you think, one on each side?  They really draw the eye up, and actually it looks pretty amazing in person... 

hmmm,...plus, i could always put mirrors in them...

 

I'm mulling over painting mrfracturedfairytale's dresser white...but it's really boxy, and i don't know if he'd like that... but, you know i'm giving it the old evil eye...

I'll send pics when i get the other window frame this weekend, and we'll decide...

Anyway, i wanted to show you guys this amazing handbag i found at this little shop near work called "Pennies for Change"... It's like thrift type shop, and they sell stuff to support battered women...

It's handmade, and the original price tag on it is $250.00.  It is for sale for $45.00,  it is well made and BEAUTIFUL!  It's made by a breast cancer survivor.  Read the tags... there is a peachy pink bra that lines the inside... If anyone wants me to go grab it... i can see if it's still there today... 

I would buy it, but i have to have a ginormous handbag to carry all my stuff....  

anyway... check it out...

and i'll leave you with  this pretty christmas display from the Elegant Relic, one of my favorite shops in the world... 

just look at that wonderful old cupboard,

...So pretty....

the end...

Well, I Painted My Bed White...

Ok, so i really really waited a long time before i painted my bed white.  I liked the brown, and i wanted to be sure painting it white wasn't just impulsive and following the  fad of white painted furniture.  

But, I finally realized that I've like white distressed furniture for like around 25 years, probably some of you haven't even been alive that long!,  and anyway, if I've liked it for that long, then it can't really be a fad... at least not for me...

plus... this isn't like a million dollar bed or anything ... it's pretty dinged up

Here it is brown...

If my bedroom was painted blue, i would have left it brown, because those colors are perfect together... but since my bedroom is now this beigey gray, it all looked too muddy to me, 

Plus from the dining room i can see into the living room and bedroom, so in an overall view, I thought the white would look good with my white slipcovered chairs,

...that they would kind of play off of each other...

so i decided to go for it. 

I found some Annie Sloan paint in a little town close to me and i bought some "old white"...

This is the bed after 2 quick coats, it's not distressed or waxed yet....

What i really really liked about her paint, is the way it "grabs" whatever you're painting.  Loved that....

I decided to paint the oval in the middle a little different color, i have plans for that oval, maybe some little white flowers or leaves or something....

I want a better mirror for over the dresser, so i'm watching the curbsides!

sorry, i'm not showing the whole room, i'm still messing around in there trying to get it all right... I have to touch up the "Dream" over the bed, i was gonna paint over it, and decided not too... so i had to paint around all those little swirly letters... fun 

 and you should see mr. fracturedfairytale's bedside dresser... omg...  it looks like a hoarder lives only on the dresser...  he's so perfect in every way and very tidy , and  i keep thinking just leave him this spot, but ummmmmm....

I might have to tell him someone broke in the house and stole all the 6 million books and papers off of his dresser..

you think that would fly?

 I'll post more photos when the room is more pulled together... hope we haven't all died from old age by then...

Soooo, anyway, how many of you are enchanted by old photos..

I love them, especially when i find someone like this lady

I love her...

look at the flowers in the shabby pot beside her.. and her little attitude...

and check out this mom and her daughter...

I just look at these photos, and it blows my mind, that this is a moment captured in a person's whole life, with loves, and children and parents, and pain, and birth, and smells, and sweat... 

a whole universe...  and how they have come and gone... 

and it gives me the strangest feeling...

And, one last thing... check out these crazy things my friend is selling in her shop...

they are old roots, and hand made...

she's gonna make them into light fixtures..

freaky cool, huh?

the end...

Upstairs Bedroom - You Know the One Where the Adult Kids Come Stay With You and Leave it Trashed...

So... warning, warning... When kids grow up and turn 18, they don't leave.   Well, actually, they leave, and then they realize stuff like paying for your own heat, and gas and housing and stuff really sucks... So they come back home, and then they trash your house, and leave all the stuff they don't want, and go have fun.  And then when they run out of money, they come back and do the same thing again, until they're like 52...

So if you think they will move out and happily and safely go on with their lives, 

you're on crack.

plus they leave the dog or the cat, or both....

So basically this is the upstairs room where they stay, AFTER I've cleaned it up for the four thousandth time...

In this photo, you can still see the plastic corners on the little flower print,  i found two of them at TJ Maxx for $12.99 each, and i was deciding whether or not to keep them...  They're each different but the same, and i decided i do like them... so they're keepers,

and the plastic was removed

Here is a full view of the room, at least the best i could get with my iphone...

when we were thinking of buying this house, i told the realtor, if the owner would leave these two beds, we would buy it... because i loved the stripes

the room was red when we moved in

and we painted it this wonderful color called "Carolina Inn Club Aqua", i think it's valspar paint

Is it me, or is that an insanely long name for a paint color?

The rug was given to me, the side table from le dump...  the little chair has one arm broken off... 24 year old son, you know the one who puts texas pete on everything he eats, his clothes and on the carpet...  

right now, the room is in the process of cleaning up from my kid, so there are no pillow cases on the pillows... they're missing... 

Ok, so i'm exaggerating about the kids, sort of ... 

I actually really like them alot

...mostly when they're not here...

Mr. Fracturedfairytale's kids are actually "normal", and really cute,  and for now,...  they are finally pretty much on their own,  living way more interesting lives than we are... 

He and I don't really don't want to be interesting, 

we like how boring we are...

  

My kids, (21 and 24 years old)  are not quite there yet... 

they still make my eyes twitch, and my hair fall out, and cause me to take prescription medication... 

they do stuff that totally freaks me out, and i'm like what???!!!

GAAAAAAHHHH!!!

and then they're fine, 

 then i have to go into recovery for 2 weeks afterward...

until the next crisis

but i'm sure that's only temporary...

(i know, on crack)

the end...

Little Fall Wreath...

So I'm not that great doing the fall decorating thing with lots of pumpkins and hay bales, and cornstalks and stuff...

I want to buy a bunch of those creamy colored cinderella pumpkins, but they're darn ( i actually use a much worse word) expensive if you want several, which of course i do...

But i did mess with my raggedy little wreath some... added a little $1.00  from Michaels pumpkin stick to the wreath, and picked some seed heads from my black eyed susans, and tucked them in it... I like them because they look like polka dots...

at this point i'm sure you're wondering if everything i do has to have pink in it....!

I'm actually wondering that right now too...

so, i thought maybe i'd show you a totally different color, so you don't get pink eye..!

I don't usually get excited over red, only sometimes... but i saw this in a shop, and it was so so pretty with the white inside and the little lights... it just glows...

ok, back to the usual...

Gaaaaaaaaaaah, Pink again

and ruffles!!!

The last of the roses... I love that they have a massive burst of blooming their little butts off right before it gets really cold...

kisses to them...

"Abraham Darby"

"Eden'" literally bloomed all summer, in spring she went crazy and showed off with hundreds of blooms, and then after, a few here and there without fail...

I guess i'm just froof, ruffles and pinkness, i have no idea how i got this way...  

my mom wasn't at all...

but i will totally use a chain saw and a jig saw and a drill and most power tools...

 and i drink beer, and vodka...

and i cuss alot... 

alot

while wearing ruffles!

favorite skirt in the world...

This is a photo in a vintage crackley mirror, i like it that it obscures flaws...

I'm trying to pose here...

ok, here's something to never ever do... when you get to be anywhere near my age... 

never look down at your face in a mirror...

like when you're painting one and it's on the floor, and you look down... omg 

and when you're trying to take a photo with your iphone, don't  accidentally turn your iphone camera setting so that it shows your face...like from under your chin...  

you'll be like "holy mother in hell",! do i look like that!!!

omg, it's horrible horrible!

see the over the knee socks that only go over one knee...

thrift shop jacket,

thrift shop pearls...

Ruffles...

Pink...

and kisses to you guys for putting up with me...

the end...

A Funky Little Lamp Redo

I found two of these lampshades at the thrift shop, and loved the shape, but one of them was falling apart... so i decided to rip the fabric off and just go funky with it....

of course it had to have a big bow, which might make some people gag... but i love soft satin bows...

 i found this garland of little white seedy things at the thrift shop too, didn't have a plan when i bought it, for now it is just wrapped around the frame...

 Here i just laid an old remnant of vintage embroidered doily over the top, just to see what it would look like...

I also got a wild hair, and decided to add some gray to my coffee table....

 I just painted on the gray, and then wiped off the the top so that the gray was mostly in the creases...

 What do you think?

 see that long drip of paint on the top... that's how messy i am when i paint... it came off ok though...

 

this color is called Brandon Beige by Benjamin Moore, the color i recently painted my bedroom...

 

Soooo anyway, what do you think?

 paint the whole thing gray? 

paint it all back distressed white like it was,

or do it like this... with just part of it gray?

 

Finally... last weekend we went to the grand opening of the most darling, adorable, shop... "Nest"  in Burlington, NC...

Heather had recently relocated to this new shop ... 

I hope she dosen't mind if i show some photos of what she had..

 

How clever is this drum shade with little white lights, and the price, unbelievable... $25.00 !

 

just look at this amazing and versatile dress...

yummy pillow..

.

and just look at these baby hats... they're to die for

 

plus she had homemade potpourri loaded with big yummy chunks of dried orange peels and cinnamon, and i don't know what else, but it smells heavenly, and you could get a huge scoop for $5.00!

 

The shop was amazing, and so fun, and loaded with shabby chippy furniture and things...

Heather is so talented !

If you're anywhere near... you should definitely go to "Nest"

The end...

First Attempt at Making a Dreamcatcher... and Some Killer Eye Makeup Remover...

Ok, so since Rachel Ashwell has a dreamcatcher and since Tausha from Simply Me has a dreamcatcher, and since i think they're just cool, I decided to make my own...  I watched a video on youtube, and went for it...

See the tag  that says "sea," ... well i won a giveaway from Kerrie at Sea Cottage ...  

she tucked in several tags with the beautiful prints and cards she sent me... I LOVE them !

so of course i used one on something special...

 I went to Michaels and bought a wooden embroidery hoop, and some sinew, that's the stuff you make the webbing to catch the dreams with ...

 I had an old dress i bought at the thrift shop, just for the pretty fabric, and the pink lining from the dress, and some white fabric that i tore into strips,  and some netting stuff, and so i just went at it... 

after watching the video a couple of times...

 

 It was pretty simple actually, just wrapped the fabric around the hoop, no problem....

I was definitely a little iffy doing the webbing part,  so i'm pretty sure it's not officially dream catcher quality webbing...  

ok, .. so it was a webbing battleground, with sinew pieces everywhere, getting totally  tangled and having to redo it twice... 

but i think for a normal person it would be easy...

It was kind of fun though... i just put random things on it, like a little shell, and a dried rose and a crystal... i tied the strands of fabric on the sides with this sweet thin lace that was inside the dress..

I kind of like it...

and I love love my cards and tags and prints from Kerrie

I can't even bear to take them out of their ties and packaging yet.

You see the cute pumpkin... Well under that print is a print of a Sandollar... 

You know how some things have good energy...

Not only is her work precious, with soft beautiful colors, and well presented...

it also carries good energy... you can feel it...

Finally i want to share some of my favorite face cleaner girly stuff... you know, the stuff that is your "go to" favorite.. 

this is mine..

 The Logona is an oily makeup remover, so if you don't like oil,  you may not like it...  But, i think you should try it anyway... 

oops, i guess that sounds totally bossy... sorry

anyway, my eyes love it, and the skin around my eyes feels soft and happy and dewey after i use it.. and it smells lovely

 

I used to buy it at Whole Foods, but they don't carry it anymore, so i like it enough to order it online... 

I use waterproof mascara, and it works great removing it...

The other product i love is the Avalon organics lavender face scrub... I remove the eye makeup with logona, then give my face a good scrub with this wonderful stuff...

it's got those little grains in it, so it's an abrasive type scrubber... 

after i use it my face feels so clean, and renewed and my cheeks are pink... and it smells lovely...

used to get that at Whole Foods too, too bad for Whole Foods, they don't carry it anymore... i order it online too..

after all that, i use something else from Whole Foods, that i won't bore you with right now, that is if they still carry it ! 

and then a moisturizer... 

and that concludes my story of a dreamcatcher, a beautiful gift, and eye makeup remover...

...what?...

...that is soooo random...

the end...