Welcome to my crazy world!

Hello and welcome!

Friday, June 28, 2013

Cheap and Cheery Curtains

Last week my husband went to London for his brother's 50th birthday party.  It was a big family get together and he wasn't going to let the Atlantic Ocean get in his way!  I never try to talk him out of a trip to the UK because while I'll miss him, I know I get lots of loot!

He knows me sooooo well!  He brought me an assortment of yummy different chocolates, and 9 Kg of bonbons I had ordered from a wholesale company ahead of time and had shipped to my BOL house.  "My name is Loretta and I have a problem..."
I'm SERIOUS about my candy!!


I also sent him to the local Cath Kidston shop.  While I don't need any more Cath K stuff, cause I'm begining to get diabetes from all the sweet prints I have bought over the years...I just couldn't resist!  

I wanted to change my old kitchen curtain.  I had red and white stripe tea towels (my kitchen curtain of choice) hanging from tension rods and clip rings.  I bought these to use at Christmas time, but as they aren't really Christmasy and because I'm lazy, I'd left them up. 


1.  Since my hubs was in England...
2.  Since Cath K just started her summer sale...
3.  Because a set of two tea towels was on sale for 8 pounds...


I sent him shopping!  They didn't have the prints I wanted, so my hubs sent me photos of what they had and I picked 6 sets of these:

Set 1:
Print One

Print Two
Set two
Print One


Print Two

Each set has two different prints, so I needed 6 sets for three windows.

From the photos my husband sent, I loved both sets and felt I could use all of them as curtains over time.  I'm not wasting these babies on drying dishes! 

When they arrived, while I liked both sets, I LOVED the first set! Why would I go for classy when I can pick kitch?  I'm one classy kitch!







These are definitely cheery, and if you figure 8 pounds x 6 sets = 48 pounds which approx = 100 USD (EEEEK not so cheap you may be thinking), but if you figure thats for TWO different sets of curtains...thats only $50 for the 3 windows, so they are kind of cheap and very very cheery!!!!  Yes, this is definitely how my brain works.  Creative math, no punctuation, rationalization without logic, Yes thats me!  

Look at how cute the details of these tea towels are:





So I now love my new curtains and have saved the rest of the tea towels in my Cath K stash. 

I've been reinvesting most of the money I've made from my antique booth into new/more furniture to paint/sell, but I had to buy myself a little English treat!!  I ordered these online from a Canadian supplier:

How cute are these???  I can hardly wait for fall!!!  Only kidding!!!  

Have a great day, and may it be cheap and cheery!

Sharing:

Frugal Fridays - Shabby Nest

















Monday, June 24, 2013


"Hot enough for ya??"  

Here in Canada, we have about 9 months of winter, and then when summer finally arrives, it hits us with a vengeance (most years)!  Then we all walk around asking each other...'Hot enough for ya?'  Of course we stick in a few 'eh's here and there just to be true to our cultural roots...all this while carrying a cup of Tim Hortons coffee. 

My garage studio is either too cold to paint in, or sweltering!  Last week I think the heat got my brain but real good!  I forgot to take a before photo of my tall dresser before I painted it.  She was an okay looking piece from the get go.  Dark brown 'okay' wood.  Not mahogany or anything fancy, so I didn't hesitate to pull out the paint.  She went from 'okay' to spectacular!  She's really got nice feminine curves with a classic style, and the simple grey/white colour combo really brings her to life. 






Bad angles, bad lighting, poor iPhone camera...all I can do is apologize!  

I painted a gorgeous two tiered table in provence with gold wax detail, but didn't get a photo before I took it to the booth, and it was sold before I got there again...so no photo of that beauty.


My booth is filling up (slowly) and really sucking up a lot of time...but its so much fun!  

Hope you are all having a great summer, and oh yeah...'Hot enough for ya, eh?'

Take care
Arda  I mean Loretta!

Sharing:

Savvy Southern Style - Wow us Wednesday

Inspire Me Tuesdays - A Stroll Thru Life


Frugal Fridays at Shabby Nest
Furniture Feature Fridays

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

So last week I rented a trailer thingy and my neighbour hitched it to her husbands SUV, we filled it with all the furniture I had ready, and off to the antique mall we went!


I have half the room.  Most of the window, and to the left is mine.  Its about 6' x 12' long, but big enough for lots of furniture!

Its still pretty sparse.  We unpacked the case goods, rearranged it all, and tried to stage it with whatever smalls I had brought with me that day.

We eventually screwed knobs on and took the paper off the mirror!


I love this blue table and chair set!  I painted it in the Louie Blue ascp and was going to outline the chair details with old white but when I distressed, the details were so pretty as is, that I just left it alone.  Wax was all it needed.


See what I mean, sparse!  I went back the next day with more smalls, but the room just sucked them up! It was as if my trunk load of smalls just disappeared in the room!

Fan is not an antique, and not for sale!


I love the Cath Kidston paper that I lined the cabinet with.  I bought a couple of rolls back from England with me a few years back and still use it (sparingly to make it last).


The best part of this antique mall? The very authentic English pub down the road.  My husband was beside himself with joy when he found out they have THREE different beers from Ireland!!

I'm much more a home made fish and chips girl myself!

I'll have to not make a habit of it though!

I'm so excited about getting this booth! I don't know why I didn't do something like this sooner!  I went back on Monday (as its an hour away from my home) to bring in chenille bed spreads, and my big dresser/mirror had sold!  Yippee!!  Now I'm looking for another couple of dressers to paint ... Oh joy!  I can feed my habit without guilt now!