Kicking Myself

A couple of weeks ago I was at Habitat Restore and found this really great old white mantle. Well I had my car with me and there was no way I was going to be able to take it home.  I could have called my husband and told him to bring the truck after work, but I know he would have rolled his eyes at me and tell me to do it tomorrow.  (He just doesn't get my fascination for junk.)   Our Habitat Restore has a must take with you policy, so I decided I would come back the next day to see if it was still there. Well you can all pretty much figure out, that it wasn't. I have spent the last couple of weeks kicking myself for not buying it.  

It looked very similar to this one:

(Source)

And I wanted to decorate it like this:

(Source)

And add an old gate to the front of it like this:

(Source)

What amazing junk find have you walked away from, only to kick yourself for not buying it?

CeCe Caldwell's Paint

Today, I bought three little trial size of CeCe Caldwell Paint in Vintage White, Simply White and Santa Fe Turquoise, plus a pot of clear wax. I am going to carve in a little painting time next week and see how this paint compares to Anne Sloane Chalk Paint.  While I love the Santa Fe Turquoise, it is a little too bright for me, as I prefer a softer aqua color. I plan on adding some Simply white to tone it down.  I am thinking some frames would look pretty in a pale aqua - and turning it into a magnetic board.

Maybe I will do a CeCe vs. Anne blog post when I am done!   

Have you tried CeCe Caldwell's Paint yet?  I would love to hear your thoughts and comments about it and how it compares to Anne Sloane Chalk Paint.  

New Business Cards

I have been thinking a lot about "branding" for my business with images, colors, etc. I recently came across some custom work that Cassandra of Artful Adventure's Photography did for me awhile back and realized that it was exactly what I wanted for my "look," so I incorporated it into some new business cards that I ordered from Vistaprints.  

Here is the front:

And here is the back:

I will be slowly making some changes to my blog and Facebook since I am not really "tech smart" so please bear with all the changes that will be coming soon until I find that "right look" that I am going for.  

First Day Of School

Today is the first day of school in our little corner of the world.  

Dillon is starting 7th grade, which also means he is starting middle school - where we live Elementary lasts through 6th grade.  Its been a tough Summer for Dillon because he has been nervous about starting middle school and everything that comes with it.  We have has some long talks about it and basically I told him that middle school sucks because you have all these kids going through a lot of changes and it will be tough, but that things will turn out fine and he will like high school much better.  He starts cross-country today after school and plans on doing wrestling in the Fall.  And next year he will be able to do football!

Colton starts 2nd grade today and this morning was the first time he rode the bus without his big brother.  He was a little nervous, because Dillon has always been there with him, but I told him everything would be fine.  He also made sure to remind me that I had to be outside waiting for him when the bus comes.  "Don't forget about me Mommy!" he told me.  I am sure after a few days he won't be so nervous, but its hard for a 7 year old to go from having big brother around to not having him there at all.  

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Personalized Tag Tutorial

I have been wanting to make some personalized hang tags for my booth and jewelry.  After looking looking into ordering pre-made tags online, I decided it would be too expensive.  I also thought about just printing them out onto cardstock and then cutting them out, but decided it would be too time consuming.  I felt they wouldn't look very professional looking if I attempted to do them.  So I spent some time trying to find a cheap and non-time consuming way to make tags.  Finally it came to me how I could make cheap, easy and professional looking hang tags!  

I have ordered business cards from Vistaprint before, so I knew the quality would be good - nice printing and good quality cardstock.  I went to their site and picked a very basic business card template and then upgraded to the advanced editing.  I then used their editing program to make this card below, which included my basic info twice on the card also leaving a space in between for cutting.  I ordered 250 cards and it took about 5 days before I received my cards in the mail.  

Not bad at all!

I cut the card in half with scissors, punched a hole in it and added some elastic cording to the tag.

The final results being these tags below!  I ended up spending $21.07 for upgrading the editing and for shipping.  However that is for 500 tags!  These will last me a long time!!!

These are also easy enough to have my son Dillon make.  He is 12 and always looking for ways to make a little cash.

I will be using these on my jewelry and changing out tags on items in my booth.  For jewelry I will be using elastic cording to make it easier to remove, but I think on bigger items I will use some white string and just tie it on. It will be nice to have a nice uniformed look with my tags and have my basic info on the tags so customers will be able to find me once they get their new treasures home!  

Bottoms Up - August 2012 Booth

Its been a busy two days getting my new booth set up at Bottoms Up!  I moved from the 3rd floor to the  newly expanded 2nd floor.  I have a bigger space with lots of white wall space!  I just love everything white!

I built this check out table last night at the last minute.  I was painting away in my garage until midnight and had an early morning because the thunder woke me up.  (Thank goodness for rain!)  This table is actually made from the top of a table that had no legs.  I added the legs and painted it.  I want to add a shelf on the bottom to hold bags, tissue, etc., but since I was using what I had, I didn't have any wood that was long/wide enough for the measurements.  

I will be selling these letters and numbers.  What would you want to spell out?  

Some clips, shutter and old plastic letters and you can spell out whatever you want!

I worked on a few more "junk art" pieces.  These are fun and I plan on making lots of more.  I have other shaped besides Milagros/crosses in the works.  I need more chippy cabinet doors to use, so I will be on the  look out for those.  

You can also see the other little "junk art" pieces I did below.  

I built some "walls" out of old doors, but also left the booth somewhat open so shoppers can come in from three sides.  I think its important to allow your booth to flow.  When its all crammed inside a space with little walking room, its hard to get through and see everything.  I will be adding more lighting next month, maybe some lace and burlap, and hang some stuff from the ceiling.  

If you are in the Kansas City area, I hope you come by and visit!  Remember I am now on the 2nd floor!  See y'all soon!