GeorgiaPeachez

Feelin' Zippy

What to do with a pile of vintage metal zippers?

Romantic Country Cottage Today!

Today is the Romantic Country Cottage Party over at Karla's blog.  Be sure to stop over and you will find links to many, many creative bloggers who have shared pictures of their homes and stories about why they love them. 

I started sharing yesterday with a trip down memory lane about a renovation paint job that I did to the brick fireplace wall in my family room.  I promised an updated picture of how that wall looks now.

Now while I wouldn't call my style romantic country I do love old things, I love to repurpose and recycle, I love sea shells, I love old silver and I do love country chic.  Here are a few more pictures of things around my house that I love.  Enjoy!

 

   

More Transformations

I was thinking about doing a post and bragging about all the painting that I have done around this house.  I have painted so many miles of trim here I feel justified in boasting a bit.  Then I remembered about the before/after pictures that I took in the family room of the makeover. 

We moved into this house 2.5 years ago and I believe it was about 9 months after moving in that I tackled the transformation of the family room. 

My family room is directly off the kitchen.  I have a 1970s home so it does not have a great room, but rather there is a large doorway from the kitchen into the family room. 

That room is extremely dark because it has no windows but it does have a large sliding door onto my screen porch.  I love my porch but it doesn't allow much direct light into that room. 

The room had worn berber carpet, a dark wood beamed ceiling and a brown brick fireplace wall with built in bookshelves.  Very 1970s!  My husband was completely opposed to painting the brick.  We took out the carpet and put in a light laminate wood floor.  We painted the dark wood ceiling and beams bright white. 

This picture shows that wall and you can just see the painted ceiling above.  The built in bookcases actually slid out of the openings.  See how brown the brick is, yuk!

We found a product on the internet that is a faux painting treatment that makes the brick look like a different color rather than painted brick.

It is a five step process and here is the wall after the base coat and steps 1 & 2.  The bookcases look so much better painted white!

Here we are just prior to the final step which is to add some of the base color as the top coat.

What a transformation.  This is probably the easiest painting technique that I have ever done.  It only took part of one day!  I have since painted the mantle white also. 

I should have included this before, and I have already been asked where I got this great brick paint, it is called Brick-Anew.

Tomorrow is Karla's Romantic Cottage Party so I will be posting pictures of areas in my house that are my favorites so come back tomorrow and I will post a current picture of this room.

Will Work for Jewelry

I luv jewelry.  Diamonds, gold, platinum and especially pearls.  I also adore costume jewelry and vintage jewelry.

I have for some time been collecting vintage jewelry pieces with the idea of a wreath or collage in mind.  There was a gal on eBay last year that sold the most divine wreaths made from vintage jewelry. 

Recently at the new Goodwill store here in Hampton I found a mirror with a flat unfinished wooden frame that was just screaming out for some type of make-over.  So I painted it up and pulled out the glue and the old jewelry and went to town.

It took a LOT of jewelry pieces, pretty much depleted my collection but the results are stunning!

I am always on the lookout for beautiful and unusual jewelry pieces.  I wear jewelry everyday, I feel naked if I leave the house without earrings and my bracelets.  I have a couple of bracelets that I wear everyday. 

I love this bracelet from Annette Wright at Divine Invention.  The eye beads are supposed to have protective powers that will surround the wearer with positive energy and success!  Yeah, it's from California!  I receive  many compliments on it, I love it and wear it constantly.

A recent purchase from etsy is this fun set from Lu Lu Sparkles.

My friend Kelly in addition to be a fabulous graphic artist (she put together my logo and business cards) is a jewelry artist too.  I really need to talk to her about opening an etsy shop!  She knows that I love pearls and she made this gorgeous set for me.

Every spring in Hampton we host a huge quilting show and I discovered a wonderful artist there.  She makes jewelry from vintage buttons and her designs were just stunning.  Her name is Pamela Welty and her business name is victoriasbuttons@bellsouth.net.  She doesn't have a website at this time and as far as I know she only sells at shows on the east coast.  Look for her at your next quilt show.  I bought a ton of pieces from her and I was supposed to give most of them away, (supposed to, didn't say that I did give it away!)

I am always prowling the estate sales and yard sales for pretty pieces, here are some that I found at a local resale shop.  They are all from a local estate.

That is just the tip of the iceberg!  I didn't show any of the pieces that my mother in law has given me, she has excellent taste!  Maybe another day.

My Beautiful Model

I have always wanted a vintage dress form.  I love the muslin covered ones with the cage on the bottom.  When you can find them they usually go for big bucks. 

A few years back my sister Carol purchased a vintage dress form, the kind used by seamstresses that have several adjustable parts.  She painstakingly took it apart and covered each panel with a gorgeous vintage barkcloth.  My sister is a master seamstress herself and she took meticulous care to match up the pattern and the dress form turned out to be a stunner. 

So jealous I couldn't stand it I started looking for my own dress form to cover in a similar fashion and turn into an accent for my sewing studio.

I didn't find a vintage one, I didn't recover anything myself, what I did find was this lovely.

I found her on eBay and the person that created her is none other than Janet at Shabby FuFu.  Janet made her using a foam mannequin form and covered her in beautiful vintage Glencourt Roses barkcloth and pink cotton velvet.  I love her and such an elegant lady needed an elegant name so I call her CoCo. 

She is my wonderful model and I use her always when photographing my creations for eBay or etsy.

Here she is modeling a scarf that I just created for my etsy shop using my vintage fabric and lace scraps.

Now she is modeling one of my totes.

Here she looks stunning with my jean jacket and vintage barkcloth era scarf.

Now she is wearing a vintage bed jacket that I bought at an estate because it is the most beautiful shade of blue in quilted satin and has pretty little MOP buttons.

Whether she is wearing props or just standing alone in all her glory she is my favorite model!

My Creations for the Paper Dress Garland Swap

Heather over at Speckled Egg is hosting a fun swap, the Paper Dress Garland Swap.  When she announced the sign up for this one, I jumped right in and thought "oh, this will be a snap!"

As always though when I have the pressure of a deadline looming that panic mode starts to set in. 

The guidelines for the swap were to create 5 dresses on cardboard approximately 4" x 6" using paper, cloth and any type of embellishments.  I made my dresses on a very thick cardboard.  Fabric is my medium of choice so that is what I used. 

First I came up with this pretty party dress.

I used all vintage elements here, satin jacquard, lace, rhinestones, black velvet and appliques. 

Once I got this one created, I was at a momentary loss for how to continue.  Then the lightbulb finally went off and I pulled out my collection of vintage patterns.  Using the patterns as inspiration I have recreated those dresses using my vintage fabric scraps.

I love this one, I used a carved bone button for the belt buckle and tiny baby MOP buttons for the dress and I even topstitched the pockets.

This one is my favorite!  I stitched little darts on the bodice!

This one is from new fabrics but embellished with vintage millinery flowers.  More darts too!

This one is a cute little house dress.

I started my sewing career at a very young age handstitching dresses for my barbies and then started sewing my own clothes when I was 10 so this little project brought back some fond memories!

Check out all the creations for this swap on Flickr here.

I was recently tagged by my friend Susan for the middle name game and like her thankfully I have a short one, Gail.

G - Gotta Have It!  I am an impluse shopper, always have been.  When I decide I want or need something I zoom right to the store or the internet and pick it out.  No shopping around, debating, mulling or indecision for me!

A - Anal.  Ok, who isn't just a bit.  I am a Virgo, the perfectionist.  Everything has it's place and don't you dare move it!

I - Inventive.  I am pretty damn good at creatively solving design ideas.  I love to take trash and turn it into a treasure.  Furnished my whole house that way.  Redecorated 4 houses that way.

L - Loyal.  One of my finest traits. 

This was a fun game, so now I am going to pass the fun along to my BFF Beth and my sister Carol.   Go girls!

It Pays to have Friends Who Are Master Scrappers!

A scrapbooker, aka scrapper I am not.  When scrapbooking first came out in the craft stores, I paid little mind.  Then when craft stores expanded their single aisle devoted to scrapping to several, I still paid no mind.  When entire stores devoted to scrapbooking started popping up, I thought to myself "that won't last". 

Well, you proved me dead wrong all you scrappers out there.  Apparently there are armies of you, lined up elbow to elbow at organized "crops".  Cruising the caribbean all the while scrappin'!

My scrapping friends are horrified by the boxes of unorganized photos shoved in the closet.  The Creative Memories consultant was dumbfounded at my complete lack of interest and absence of checkbook when I attended my girlfriends CM party as a show of support for her and her free food.

My best friend master scrapper Tammy doesn't hold it against me, she stills loves me in spite of my lack of enthusiasm for the art of scrappin'.

She bestowed on me for my recent birthday the most tremendous and generous gift, a family scrapbook of my own!  She toiled through my disorganized pictures, she sorted, she cropped and she embellished.  And I am forever grateful because she created for me the most FABULOUS album EVER!

First she sent off the album to be embossed.

Here are a few pages.

 

These are just a few of the wonderful pages she did about my girls.

These pages are about my sewing studio!  WOW!

My garden, isn't the mosaic so cool!

Who needs to be a scrapper with friends like Tammy!

Satisfaction

It was an arduous task, wallpaper stripping is not for the faint at heart.  Everyone that read this blog entry knows how I feel about stripping old wallpaper!

My guest room is now finished and the improvements are dramatic. 

Here is the before, ugly 80's textured wallpaper with mauve tulips and shiny accents.  AWFUL!!

Drumroll please. . . . . .

It is just magical the transformation that comes from just a few gallons of paint! 

Don't you love that beautiful picture of the three women!  That is three generations of my husband's family; his mother, his grandmother and his great-grandmother.  Beautiful black and white photos of beautiful women.

I am still on the prowl for a new bedside lamp.  I don't know what possessed me to buy this one a few years back at the mall! (brain fart I guess??), so I am scouting around for a vintage lamp to go with the fabulous mid-century bedroom set that is in this room.

I told my husband when we moved into this house 2 years ago that this could be "his" room for an office/study.  In other words, "honey, you can have this room and I get the rest of the house to decorate"!

However, he left town for a few days and I moved mountains to get this room redecorated before he came home and tried to have some input!  But the makeover is a success, he is pleased with the results and I have a soothing and comfortable room for my guests. 

An Apron Full of Roses

I have a new stack of fabrics in my studio that are just the yummiest pinks and roses.  These luscious fabrics are some of the Barefoot Roses line from Grand Revival Design. 

Pop on over to Tanya's blog and see all the wonderful things she is working on for this line of fabrics that she has designed. 

I was inspired to created an apron for my Etsy shop.  I plan on using up all this fabric on creations for the shop. 

Maybe more aprons or a tote next.  These beautiful fabrics also combine very well with some of my vintage textiles.  Maybe that is where I will go with these next.  Mix and match with some yummy satin brocades, oh yeah!

Birthday Sisters!!

Birthdays are always special, but my birthday today is made even more special because I share it with my big sis Carol.   

We share a love for sewing and crafting, a love for dogs, a love for our siblings, a love for our mother, dimples, brains and wit!!

Happy Birthday Sis!  xoxo