A Cinderella Story

(The song playing is "In My Own Little Corner" from Rodgers and Hammersteins Cinderella, sung by Julie Andrews.)

Take one really sad looking footstool.....

Add a beautiful vintage needlepoint seat cover.....

Sand the blue paint off of the stool (normally I would just prime and paint over it, but it was in really bad shape). Paint the sad little footstool RED..... purposely leaving some on the wood stain showing through.

And TA....DA...... You have a sweet cottage footstool to stick under a coffee table and pull out when needed.

It adds a little pop of color without taking up much space.

p.s. I know I said I was going to post what was going inside the frame from the previous post, but I have to pick up something tomorrow to finish the project. I will post it sometime this weekend.

Gold

You have seen this painting before. We bought it in Italy. The frame I bought on Ebay a couple of years ago. I loved the old patina look on this frame.

Recently I purchased another similar frame on Ebay. And I thought it was going to be just like the first one. BUT, it wasn't. It was just plain bright gold. No patina...no aging...

So I went out to my shop, grabbed a couple of spray paint cans. One is "Hammered Gold" and the other is a flat Black. I sprayed the gold onto a piece of aluminum foil. Then I sprayed the black on top of that.

In the next step I wadded up a lint free cloth, dabbed it into the paint and started randomly dabbing it on the frame.

The picture above shows where I have started in the bottom left corner. The picture below shows the corner before any paint.

Below is the finished frame...

A close up of the finished faux patina....Not bad!!

Stay tuned and I will show you what is going inside this frame in the next post.

Why Not Make Functional Items Pretty Too?

Unfortunately, my laundry room is really small. It really is not even a laundry "room". It is the pass through from the garage to the kitchen. Big enough for a washer and dryer and upper cabinets. There is no room to store or use an IRONING BOARD.

So, my ironing board is hanging on the INSIDE of my master bedroom CLOSET door. Every time I open the closet to get dressed, I see it.

And to be HONEST, the closet door does get left OPEN a lot. That ironing board was quite ugly. The cover was blue striped and stained. I forgot to take a before picture, but believe me, it was not a pretty sight :-).

I found someone on EBAY that makes TOILE ironing board covers! Her Ebay name is Old Lady On The Porch.



So now, I actually like opening the closet door!!

If you are not a TOILE fan, she has ironing board covers with birds, florals, retro, Tuscan, Batman, 3 Stooges and much more...

Let Me Tell You 'Bout The Birds and The Bees...

I spent some time in the garden this early evening with my camera. The birds and the bees were very accommodating! (Please click on the pictures to enlarge for detail).

Look on top of the Bloom sign I bought from Donna at Donna's Art Blog. On the right side...see Mrs. Hummingbird? She is a female. The male Ruby Throated Hummingbirds have a red throat. Beneath the sign is the hummingbird feeder.

These sunflowers are the smaller variety. They are in my front courtyard. You will see them in the background in another picture here. See the sweet honey bee gathering his nectar?

This is a new project I just finished. I didn't create this idea. About a year ago I won a giveaway and someone sent me this...only the one I received arrived broken :-(. So I loved the idea sooo much I took the broken one....painted it red and added the red willow cup and blue willow saucer. Then I filled it with birdseed. It could also hold a candle.

See the sunflowers in the background I talked about earlier?

This is another hummingbird feeder in our courtyard. All of our colors in the courtyard, from flowers to feeders to pots are all red, yellow, lavender or blue.

What colors are in your garden?

Nesting

My company has left. We had a wonderful time. Now I am getting settled back in my nest. I will be around to visit you all soon!

Company Is Coming - See You In a Few Days.

July Madness Sale!

Between now and July 31st, I am having a JULY MADNESS SALE on the following items on my website! These items are going to be 50% off for my blog friends only. Limited quantities - while supplies last.

Charming Bird's Nest Candle

Adorable Rabbit, Bird, Bird Nest Tray.... SOLD! Thank You!

Oh My! Look at this cute mug! Aqua on the inside and a sweet bird and nest on the outside....

Matching Cake Plates!!

And finally, these great mugs....

Simply go to http://www.lavenderhillstudio.com/ , click on SHOP, click on Nesting and you will find the items. You will need to Register to make sure the coupon works. At check out you will be asked to input a coupon code. The code to use is "blog", without the quotation marks. You will automatically receive a 50% off discount. If for some reason it does not give you the discount...email me at lavenderhillstudio@mchsi.com . Happy Shopping!

Friends

"Make new friends, but keep the old ones, one is silver and the other gold."

I have been very fortunate today. I got to meet two blog friends. One in person and one on the phone. And the most amazing thing is, it was at the same time and one of the friends lives in AUSTRALIA!!

Remember this Buffet? Well, Jenn who lives in Georgia, purchased it from me. And since she only lives 4 hours from me we decided to meet half way so I could deliver it to her and save shipping charges (I mean, look how huge this is! Shipping charges would be sky high!)

So, Mr. LHS and I drove 2 hours and Jenn drove 2 hours. We met in a Starbucks parking lot.

Here is a picture of BEAUTIFUL Jenn and me. Jenn is an amazing mixed media artist. Check out her blog Sweet Eye Candy Creations, here.

Isn't Jenn beautiful! She is so sweet! I am so happy we had a chance to meet in person. When we pulled into the Starbucks parking lot, she was on the phone. I got out of my car and she said, someone wants to talk to you!! And handed me her cell phone.

Oh MY Goodness! I was so surprised to hear Natasha's voice! Natasha and I have know each other for over a year. In fact, she is the one that helped me start my blog!! We met because we were both part of an online shopping mall.

Now, what is REALLY amazing is that Natasha lives in Australia! And we have never really "met" in person. Jenn and Natasha are friends too. So Jenn emailed Natasha and told her we were meeting. Natasha called Jenn and TADA!! We were able to actually talk on the phone.

This is Natasha. She also is an amazing artist! You can find her blog here, Artistic Creations by Natasha Burns.

I am so thrilled that I got to meet Jenn in person and Natasha on the phone. They are both so talented and sweet. I can't wait until we can all meet again...

Thank The Lord For The Night Time

Mr. Lavender Hill Studio has been busy adding lights to our courtyard.


We enjoy sitting outside and listening to the night sounds.

Miss Maddie looks pretty good in the night light, doesn't she?

I need to thank a couple of wonderful fellow bloggers who have nominated me for these two awards. I really appreciate them!

First, Amy at Winterberry Creek nominated me for the Brillante Weblog award.

The rules for receiving this award are:1) Put the logo on your blog.2) Add a link to the person who awarded you.3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs.4) Add links to those blogs on yours.5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs. I would like to award this to everyone who comes and read my blog! I appreciate each and every one of you!

The next award is from Jen at Sanctuary Arts For The Home. Jen is an amazing furniture refinisher/remaker/artist! I am truly honored to
receive this award!


Jen said,
"
I've decided to give out my first award... A while ago, in an earlier post, as a joke, I called myself the furniture whisperer... well, after cruising around all of these really fantastic blogs, I decided that there are some really talented people doing some really awesome re-purposed furniture make-over's out there and they needed to be recognized....Furniture re-purposing not only keeps some great stuff out of landfills... But, what a great palette... something so well-loved to be loved again...

So the only rule is,when you are given the award, you must pick one and only one blogger who's furniture make-over you love and think is really innovative or creative and pass it on ...."

So, I am passing this award on to Catherine at Catherine Holman Folk Art. Catherine is an amazing folk artist, and she is also a truly wonderful furniture refinisher! The link above goes to one of her post on instructions on how to crackle finish a piece. Please take some time to visit her and go through some of her older posts. She is just an amazing artist!

Chalk It Up....

When I think about CHALK, I think about chalkboards, erasers, school, math, science. My thoughts were changed this weekend.

My city, Hendersonville has many events downtown. One of these events is called Chalk It Up. This event is free....both for the "chalk artists" and the public. It started 3 years ago - see the link. This year's event was this past Saturday.

The weather was beautiful. No rain in sight - which you can imagine would create havoc with a chalk coloring contest on the city sidewalks!

Here are just a few of the pieces of "art".

There are children's, youth and adult categories....



All of the participants receive a sidewalk square and a box of colored chalk...

Time for lunch...there is a new restaurant in town. Part really cool coffee shop and part restaurant. You can eat inside or outside. It is called The Living Room. We had the best Reuben Sandwich ever....YUMMY!

Back to viewing the art....

There were several patriotic pieces.





I think the artist have about 2 hours to complete their pieces. Then awards are passed out in each category.

A fun way to spend a Saturday. These pieces will stay on the sidewalks until the rains wash them away. For the first few days it is fun to watch all of the pedestrians walk AROUND the paintings in the middle of the sidewalk.

What did you do for fun this weekend?

Working on Keeping A Wonderful World

Here is the answer to the most often asked question......

Paper or Plastic?????


That's right. The answer is Neither.

Sometimes the best way to jump into something that seems time consuming - like saving our environment - is to take the small steps.

Being environmentally conscious, isn't really too hard.

You can start by bringing your own bags to the grocery store.

Just in case you are interested in where I got these cute bags from...look above. Not only are these bags cute...they are made from organic, all natural material. Check out the website at Terra-Tote .

Can you share one small thing that you are doing to help keep this a Wonderful World?