Redecorating with ASCP

Feeling inspired after the Roses & Rust Vintage show a couple of weekends ago,
I've spend the better part of the past 2 weeks giving a face lift to some pieces in my home. 

I've kept cookbooks in this cabinet forever, so it seems.
It began years ago as a very simple pine cabinet, (which I had painted with a red stain). 

I painted over the stained cabinet with Old White ASCP,  then after some sanding, went over it with clear wax on the cabinet base, and used dark wax on the doors. 

As a final touch I buffed it with very fine steel wool for a glossy and smooth finish. 

I'm not really sure 'the book' says to do it this way, but it worked for me. 

 Using the same Old White ASCP I used on the cookbook cabinet,
I painted over what used to be an aquarium table.  

After the painting, I added a coat of clear, then dark wax, then did some sanding.

 I'm looking for something to cover the open top it has, but haven't decided what it is I want to use. 

For now it is just open, and I'm in the process of  figuring out how/what to decorate it. 

The final project was a pine hutch I've had for, well who knows how long. 

I stained it some dark color many years ago, but decided to brighten it up using 

Emperor's Silk ASCP, then finished it up with some light sanding, and a cover of clear wax. 

You know it's amazing what a little paint can do.  

Watching the transformation is so exciting. 

While I will admit some find the price of the ASCP expensive, about $40.00 per QUART,

it goes a very long way, and is super easy to work with.
Come on really...If I can do it...anyone can!

It's just about time to start getting the vegetable garden planted. Spring certainly has arrived early this year,
and Summer is soon to follow.

Yesterday the winds outside were terrible.
Let's hope for just a gentle breeze today.
I'm cleaning and scrubbing inside this morning, then working out in the gardens this afternoon. 

Have a lovely day. 

The Girasole Lady

Junkin & Thrifting

I've been a Junker and a Thrifter long before Junking and Thrifting became popular.

Even when I was a child I remember collecting junk out of our creek bed at the ranch, usually an old tractor part that had broken off and been left there, or an old bottle of ? who knows what, and trudging my finds up to the house.

I started collecting crates and wooden boxes in my early teens.

When I was around 10 or so, my Dad would take trips to the dump on Saturdays, hauling our household trash to the local dump site.

Yes- we we're not so very environmentally conscious at that time. - ugh- sad, but true. 

I couldn't wait for Saturday mornings to ride along with Dad to the dump and see what treasures I could find. My Dad would get so irritated with me for bringing home more  'junk'. 

I would dig and search the whole time we were there, feeling so excited to find just the right thing. 

When Caveman and I were first married (1976) we had absolutely nothing to make a home with. 

We dug out this really old couch from his parent's barn, cleaned it up as best we could, and covered up the worn and tattered couch with a throw. 

Our first 'entertainment' center was made of bricks and 1x12 pieces of pine wood, which were stained, then  sealed with a clear coat of polyurethane.

We used an old picnic table as a kitchen table, and I covered it with a red checked cloth. 

We had this old Ben Franklin wood stove, which was never hooked up to burn wood, instead I used it for plants, setting them inside and the top of it. 

Caveman worked at a  lumber mill at that time, and I'll never forget when he brought home some scraps of wood and made some plant stands for me. 

This has nothing to do with thrifting,  but I remember having this VERY OLD canister vacuum cleaner that never really worked and the floor attachment part was missing. The only attachment it had left was the small upholstery type brush, which I would attach to the end of the hose, then I would vacuum the floor on my hands and knees pushing that small brush back and forth on the carpet.

For the first few months we had no washer or dryer, instead we went to a laundromat.
Finally, after a few months we were able to afford a second hand washing machine which we hooked up in the bathroom (so it could drain in the LARGE bathroom sink). I made a  makeshift clothes line in the bathroom to hang up our clothes to dry.
Man- did I ever feel like I was really "makin it' in the world.
The luxury of doing laundry at home was positively exhilarating!
 It wasn't a matter of choice, but rather one of necessity.

This crate started my first real  'official' collection of  junk....

I was about 12 years old at the time.
I've carried this with me almost my entire life.

I love it still to this very day.

( these aren't great pictures- sorry)

then came along this...

I'm in the process of doing some re-decorating, so they are empty for the moment.

This crate is holding books in my craft room. 

and this one.....my I got from my Grammy...
she added her personal touch with some paint here and there, accenting what was already on the crate.

Funny thing is I still thrift.
For instance, I wanted wood trim around my doors and windows, but honestly I just cannot afford it.
Yesterday I experimented on my front door, which looked like this

Let me tell  you it's really hard to take a picture of a window, my camera wanted to focus on what was outside. Anyways, you get the point.

I wanted to have the white window grids look like wood...

(another terrible picture)

A little CoCo ASCP, along with some Annie Sloan wax
= faux wood trim. 

I'm inspired and am now on a painting mission!

This picture is one that my Grammy painted in 1981. Originally it had a gold frame, which I wasn't wild about.
The picture however, I absolutely adore.

A little ASCP in Old White and some clear wax...

I love the Vintage look it gave the picture.

Today I am painting my old aquarium stand in the same Old White I used for the picture frame, and will be making it into a table.

Last weekend Beth and I went to the Roses and Rust Vintage show in Redding,
and I came home completely inspired to re-do and re-purpose several items I already had.
I brought home a few treasure as well.
I'll share them later.

 For now, I have a paint brush calling my name.

The Girasole Lady

Just A Little Gardening

"She who  loves a garden

knows it's only hers

to borrow.....

that the tender care

she puts into the soil.....

helps the children 

of tomorrow carry on

what she has started.....

giving strength

and lasting value

to her toil."

-Mary Engelbreit

The weather has been incredible for the past week or so. Every morning I can't wait for the sun to rise so I can get outside in the gardens. It's like I am a child again and it's Summer Vacation, I have always been a very early riser. I've been digging in the earth, cultivating, planting and weeding. 

I've been one Busy Bee for the past several days. 

I'll share some pictures of the Little Garden.

I call it the "Little Garden" because it's the only contained, with a little fence, garden I have on the 3 acres. In addition it keeps my dog out, so I can plant more delicate plants inside.

 When we first lived out here we used this area as the vegetable garden. WOW- have we ever outgrown this area for our vegetable garden we currently plant. 

 Above is Irish Shamrock beside a bark pathway. I spreads like crazy, and I love it. It dies back in the late Summer, but comes again in early Spring. I used to have it planted in a bird cage but it wasn't very happy, so I tossed the soil, along with the plant, out of the cage and into the garden soil, I thought it was dead for sure. That was at the end of one Summer, then I noticed a small patch of it came back the following Spring. It appears it came back happy as ever.

 I have one wooden raised bed, I used to use it for Herbs. Now it's home to a assortment of Heuchera (one of my favorites), Sweet Pea Bush, Poppy's, Bleeding Hearts, California Fushia, and some other things I cannot think of at the moment.

This is Chester, he guards the bed and eats all the bad bugs.

OK- not really, but he's cute. 

 A bed of Alyssum and Johnny Jump Ups. Last year I had Nasturtium (another real favorite) planted, and it went crazy out of control. You couldn't even see the bed frame. I like to plant in odd things, like bird cages and real bed frames. I'm always on the look out for unusual things like that.

There is a bench between the Honey Suckle and the Spirea, to rest in the shade. 

Delphinium blooming

Alyssum on the Front Porch

I bought 2 more Lilac plants.

 I planted 3 last Fall, but 2 died. I think I had them planted it too wet of a spot. 

I'll be picking a new spot for these ones. 

I got the Lilacs at the Butte College Plant sale on Saturday. The Horticulture department has a plant sale twice a year, in Spring and Fall. 

I love going there. The prices are great, the students are super helpful, and the funds are used to support the Horticulture department. 

Also on Saturday Beth, Kristina and I went to a Barn Sale. I saw some pictures on the internet showing some of the items they would be offering for sale, but when I got there the items I had really wanted were already gone. I even got there early too. I missed out on some old metal signs, wash boards, watering cans, and several other things. 

 I came across some good things too. 

A Hot Water handle. I need a few more and I can make a rack for hanging, using them for the hooks. 

I had gotten the old door hinges a while ago from Beth's shed. 

 I bought a jar with old wooden spools of thread.

We also picked up our tomatoes for this years garden. I bought them earlier than usual, so I could put them up in the Green House. My hope is to give them a head start, being bigger when we transfer them to the garden, to have tomatoes a little earlier than last year. This is a first attempt at trying this method, so we'll see what happens. I got Eisley Pepper plants too. For years and years my father in law grew them in his garden, so we always had them available. But after he passed away there was a very, very long time that I couldn't find that type of pepper plant. Finally a couple of years ago I found them at the Plant Barn in Chico. 

Speaking of which, the Plant barn is my favorite nursery. They have a great variety, very healthy plants, and wonderful people who work there. They also have a great vintage shop with unique items for sale. 

This is what the inside of the Green House looks like now.

 It smells so much like dirt in there, it's amazing.

I've got errands to run in town, so off I go.

The Girasole Lady

Vintage Egg Basket

Roses & Rust Vintage Market was lots of fun. Beth and I had a wonderful time, browsing and dreaming, through all the beautiful booths.

I managed to picked up a few items to bring home. 

I love old milk jars, it must have began in my early childhood I suppose, living on a Dairy Farm in Valley Ford, CA. Most of my milk bottles are used as vases for garden flowers.
I also spotted a ceramic bowl, and a small blue enamel ware pitcher.
Oddly enough, I really do use all my old things, like bowls and pitchers.
From time to time, I use my milk jars for serving milk at the table. 
They're not just for looks. Of what use is an item, if not to be used and enjoyed?
I would rather use it, and take the small risk of damaging it, rather than leave it upon the shelves collecting dust.

I haven't decided where to set them in my home, yet. Usually, I  look at them for a while, and try them out here or there before they find a good resting spot.

 

The dish towel on my table is one my Dad embroidered when he was a young boy, living in Point Reyes Station, CA.  The fabric is from an old feed sack. My Dad's family owned a dairy farm, and farmed for many years out on the Pacific Coast. I'm guessing he stitched this in the 1940's sometime. My Dad was born at the Ranch in Point Reyes Station in 1935. Later, when I was a child, he farmed in Valley Ford, CA.  Unfortunately, he passed away in 1992, at the age of 56. He suffered a heart attack, which claimed his life.  

Inspiration was ten fold at the Vintage Market. 

I saw several vendors with vintage egg baskets, which then reminded me that I had three of them at home myself!  I retrieved them years ago out at the ranch where my husband grew up, just right down the road from where we live now. 

I dug the egg baskets out of the barn this morning and decided to plant some Alyssum and Johnnie Jump 

Ups in one of them.

(Do you see that planter to the left... it's the inside tub of washing machine.)

I lined the bottom with some newspaper, and laid some Alyssum around through the holes of the egg basket.

Filled in with some dirt. 

Layered some more, repeating the same process, mixing up the varieties of Alyssum and Johnnie Jump Ups. 

(Which I have been informed are called Pansies) All my life I've called them Johnnie Jump Ups.

I put a strip of brown paper bag around the top edge to hold in the soil, and also help to retain moisture. 

I use old newspaper and brown bags a lot in my gardening projects, it makes a great weed barrier and moisture holder. 

When I took this picture I thought to myself, "why is it these projects always look just sorta yucky to me when they are first finished?". I know, in time, it will fill in, and spring up, and cover up the yukiness, and then I'll be sure to take a picture again when it looks much better. 

Really, it's quite ugly.

So until next time, I hope everyone is enjoying their piece of garden.

Where ever that may be. 

The Girasole Lady

Roses and Rust Vintage Market

This morning Beth and I are headed to Redding to Roses and Rust Vintage Market.

"Awarded the honor of being one of the Top 10 Romantic Flea Markets in the Nation by
Romantic Homes Magazine in August 2011, we are even more inspired to create an event that showcases businesses and provides beauty and inspiration to all who attend.
What you will find is fabulous treasures for your home and garden from French Chic to Rustic Farm Chic, Up-cycled, Salvaged and Re-Purposed goods, plus hand-crafted jewelry, food, music, and more!"

We both have been looking forward to this event for weeks, and are so excited to be going. I'm hoping to bring home lots of inspiration, along with a good find or two for my home.

The Girasole Lady