The Tigress in her new home

The Tigress has been delivered to her new home: 

We're so glad that she has not only found new owners who love her as much as we do, but they are friends of ours, so we can visit every once in a while . . .

September 15, 2012 ... A day worth documenting!

*CAUTION: this is a pic-heavy post. But it was a day worthy of a lot of pictures!

Three tired moms, weary from the hectic schedule fall brings, were all looking forward to a day dedicated to coffee, adult company, and lots of vintage goodness.

Creekside Country Home Decor & Antiques in Delisle is a place we all wanted to visit together, so we made a date back in August to visit them at their open house.

Anna and Terra, we hadn't even made it in the store yet and they were already hunting!

If you have never been to Creekside, you have to go. So many beautiful pieces, most of them handcrafted and re-newed by the owners.

  The bonus the day we went was that they had opened the back of the store up and it was full of antiques! Cabinets, old chairs, bed frames...to say we were excited was an understatement.

These old pillars would be great on a deck or cut down to use as furniture legs.

The shapes in this window make it special; but Jade especially loved the deep (bullet? hail?) holes that make it imperfect. It has a story!

Vintage goodness, everywhere we turned.

This wall inspired us - you may see a spin on this on the blog in the future...

 We all came home with what we wanted, and had a lot of fun!

Terra's fall finds!

The chair Anna couldn't leave behind.

There just so happened to be another antique store (A Lil' Bit Country) next door to Creekside so in we went. You just never know what you are going to find...or what you will leave with!

We learned about Anna's love for vintage kitchen gadgets . . . but she left this one behind.

Jade tore herself away from this chair, a near replica of the one she remembers her great-grandma having. That colour!

Terra picked up this antique ceiling tile. Maybe she'll show us soon how she plans to use it in her home?

Nothing was more antiquated than the advice contained in this book for teenagers. 

It provided us with a few laughs on the drive back to Warman.

We rolled back into Warman shortly after lunch, and Jade suggested a quick stop by the local thrift store.

Jade thought this would look great as a light shade, spray painted in a fun colour for a little girl's room or a laundry room. She left without it but is still thinking about it . . .

Terra found a great avocado green iron for her laundry room here.

Across from the Warman thrift store is the local posting board for garage sales. There was one sign in particular that caught our eye:

ANTIQUE & COLLECTIBLES SALE

EAST OF OSLER

SATURDAY 9-3

SALE IN BARN

FOLLOW SIGNS

We had a little time before our families would start sending out search parties for us. 

And Osler was only a few minutes away. Why not take a spin out there?

It was clearly marked and easy to find.

What happened next, none of us were quite prepared for ...

We drove into the yard and saw the big red barn. 

It was fully staged, and we all knew it wasn't going to be our 'average antique sale'.

 

 This little shed was just a few feet away from the barn, and we headed toward it first. 

To say it was HEAPED with antique furniture was an understatement!

Treasure hunting isn't for the weak at heart. 

LOTS of dust, mouse droppings, pigeon poop and two garter snakes, but we didn't care!

Just keepin' it real.

 We dove in head first, touched everything, and called dibs as fast as we could.

A few items had prices on them: $2 for a red wooden chair? Could this be true?

Terra was still trying to take it all in.

We were already excited, and we still had the barn to check out.

It looked to be at least 20 times the size of the little shed.

It was panic, good panic!

Plan of attack: Do a quick assessment of the goods, and get our butts into that barn. Pronto!

We sped into that barn. Up the stairs to the hayloft.

There were two windows at the back, with sunshine pouring through. Things piled as high as you could reach. It was all good stuff. Really good stuff!

Jade said it best:

"and they walked in, and the light shone down from the Heavens, and the angels began to sing"

We had done it again!

Jackpot! JACKPOT! We had hit the flippin' JACKPOT!

The owner greeted us as we walked in. "Have a ball," she said, "Browse around. Good Luck!"

"....and don't forget to open all the drawers and doors on the cabinets and dressers, I have run out of storage room, every piece of furniture is full as well." 

She was not lying. EVERY piece. FULL.

We spent a lot of time circling that attic. Around and around. Each lap we found new things. Each drawer held new treasures. How had we not heard about this place before?

She told us she has always collected as a hobby, but only has a one day sale ... ONCE A YEAR! What are the chances that this was the day we would be out together, and see that sign?

We were meant to search through this attic together.

This farm table? Both Jade and Terra called dibs, but in the end, it went home with Anna!

It is amazing how much goodness can be packed into a minivan.

We pulled piles of things out of that attic. Too much to name them all.
We will leave you with a few pics of some of the treasures of one of the greatest picking days ever!

Still in awe. What a good day!

This is why: September 15, 2012 is a day worth documenting!

The Tigress

Surfing kijiji one day--one of our favorite pastimes--Terra came across this dresser.

Yes, another dresser. It was priced reasonably and it clearly needed some TLC.

Before: nothing special. Almost offensive, really.

There was no place to put another dresser, but we have been looking for a group

project for a while now, and this was a perfect starter piece. We really had nothing to lose, and it was going to be fun to work on something together!

We also had a few refinishing tricks that we wanted to show Anna!

We could see through the wear on the top of the dresser, that it had some tiger oak underneath, so the original plan was: 

1. Sand down the top and stain it, enhancing the tiger oak. 
2. Paint the remainder of the dresser antique white. 
3. Distress and add some pulls. 

 Can you picture it? 

Boy, did things change. 

When we got our 3 creative minds together over some coffee

and many sheets of sandpaper ... it took on its own life! Wow!

It couldn't be further from the original plan. 

And it couldn't have turned out better.

We present to you ...

The Tigress

The Tigress will be our first sale piece. We hope she will fit into one of your homes!

Backyard Tour

Just going to take you on a little tour of my backyard.  Keep in mind I spend my summers at the lake, so my yard is less than manicured, but this tours' main purpose is to show you that you don't need to spend a lot of money to have some really unique backyard pieces.  Let me rephrase...I didn't technically spend any money on these pieces.  Keep in mind this is a totally legit side line!

My favorite "pick-up" this year was this old swing bench.  The paint was brown and chipped, and you know I love me some chipped paint!  It fit perfectly under the jut-out on our back deck.  

This is "new" to my yard this summer.  I am not even sure what it would have been used for back in the day.  It has a tin basin on the top...any ideas?    I can see it settling into my backyard quite well and am currently using it as a potting bench.

 I love this little corner of my yard.  The white fence board was taken from my family farm  before it was torn down.  It's hard to see, but leaning against the fence is a beautiful piece of rod iron I picked up from a stone-pile near the farm.   For all you farm girls,  stone-piles are excellent grounds for finding treasures.

         

                            As you have probably figured out, I have a thing for old windows.

On my deck I use a coffee crate that my Mom had given me as a table.  The little drawer holding the plants was a local find...hopefully nobody recognizes it! LOL  (again, this is totally legit!!)

So there you have it!  This is not everybody's style, but it's mine...and I finally have a hobby that won't break the bank.

~A~

Dresser turned bar.

We have a space in our basement that was meant to be a home for a bar; unfortunately, we never made it a priority to spend time or money on building it. 

We've just thrown in whatever table or cabinet we had to make it functional. It worked, but it looked terrible.

Eventually, we abandoned the idea of getting a bar built in; which meant I was on the hunt for a piece that would finally have a home in this area, to serve as a bar/buffet.

Of course, it would be too easy to find an actual bar or buffet. I found a dresser on Kijiji. It was cheap, it was the right size, it was The One.

He barely fit in the back of my truck, with the two 'bonus' nightstands. Recognize them?*

I got started on this guy as soon as I got home. Good thing, because he took every minute I had for a few weeks. He was complex, this guy. Lots of pieces, lots of hardware. I took him apart piece-by-piece and then gave him a good overall sanding. 

 

He was in good shape, so instead of sanding all the finish off, I roughed up the surface and then used a really good stain-blocking primer (Gripper) all over. 

Gripper = less sanding. Semi-gloss paint = scrubbability. 
(yes, it's a word)

The final finish was going to be dark, so I had the primer tinted dark to match.

Primed and ready. 

Once he was all painted and finished with a clear polycrylic for durability, it was time to put the hardware back on. 

Hardware is like the accessories for your outfit. Anyone who knows me knows I love the accessories. Bolder, bigger, better. 

 Originally I thought this guy would look great with some antique gold/brass hardware. But that wouldn't jive with the decor in our basement. So maybe a silver/pewter finish? I tried painting one set of pulls to try it out: 

Top: original hardware. Bottom: hardware painted silver.

Right away I knew the silver wasn't doing it for me. But just to be sure, I texted the picture above to Anna and Terra. Unanimous decision: stick with the black. 

I love the subtle black-on-black, it feels very masculine to me. Not 100% my style, but I think I really like it because it fits into our basement, the "man cave". 

Now the hunt is on for a narrow china cabinet for this space. I'd love to find one in oak, because this bar is oak and the texture of the grain through the paint is so rich-looking. But the grain was so deep, it took a couple of extra coats of brushing the paint to make sure I got good even coverage. The thought of doing that again makes me cringe. But probably isn't enough to keep me from doing it, so stay tuned! 

~J~