Modern Farmhouse Style

We have been busy adding lots of white farmhouse style pieces.

. 

I absolutely love how this photo came out. A happy accident. I was taking a picture of the mirror itself, and the bench photo bombed it perfectly. 

I am enjoying the trends toward white. I admit I get tired of painting black and mustard and red and all the primitive colors. Sure, the primitive look I've carried all these years is great, and I see gorgeous examples of it in magazines and online and in photos customers show me in their own homes. But personally, I like a bit more color. The dark colors get a bit depressing to me personally. 

And what's great is that the antique treasures we carry lend themselves to both styles! So, whether you are into primitive, or are leaning more toward the modern farmhouse style, we have you covered!

Now if you will excuse me, I'm headed back to the painting table.

Embellished Signs

Sure, you can make a sign with a paint brush and paint.
But why stop there?

Lately, I've been adding some embellishments.
Rusty stars are a good place to start.
And even a rusty chicken.

 I like to tie on a scrap of fabric, then add a rusty star on top.

Burlap flowers are always a good choice.
But why stop there?
Lace and barbwire?
Sure!

I painted Antiques & Old Stuff on a saw blade, then nailed it to a piece of barnwood.
The old friend sign is a piece of baseboard, perhaps from an old farmhouse.
It already had the white chippy paint on it when I bought it.
A couple scraps of fabric gave it the finishing touch.

Or, how about a flower made from a cutter quilt?
There's no end to the ideas of what can be added to signs.

Love Signs

I spent a good bit of last week working on signs. 

I was either painting my own,

or unpacking ones I had bought for our shop.

Since Valentine's Day is around the corner,

my focus for one of our large display windows is...

What else?

LOVE

Not just romantic love, but also family love.

Cause you know, it makes the world go round.

Hey, I should put that on a sign!

Vent signs

These vent/screen thingies have been laying around our basement for awhile now. I don't even remember where I got them. And I couldn't think of anything to do with them. I knew there had to be something, but what?

Finally, one day it hit me.

Signs!

"Home" seemed as good of a word as any, so "Home" it was.

For whatever reason, the photos enhanced the spray varnish more than you can see in real life. That is especially noticeable in the red one. Sometimes I think cameras have a mind of their own.

I like that these are unique, something different.

And that there are 2 less things laying around my basement!

Barnwood signs

I've been digging around in my barn wood stash, and painting signs:

After a long winter, I'm ready for some brighter colors! Primitives are great. but must they always be so dark? I love black for an accent color, but sometimes it seems every prim piece is black. Enough already!

I didn't have a spot handy to hang these and get a picture, so I just laid them on the carpet. Makes for an odd background, but you get the idea. I hope.

 

I added flowers cut out from wood to these signs for an extra pop of color.

 

 

I brought in another stack last evening. It's funny, I never really have a plan for a sign when I sit down. But I reach in the stack, pull out a piece of wood, and it "speaks" to me.

 

Does that make me sound crazy? I hope not, but if it does.......... oh well!

 

 I is what I is!

Slate stories

I've been playing around with slate and houses and lollipop trees. Well, that's what I call them anyway. A stick with a circle on top......... lollipop!

 

These 3 pieces are old roofing slate. I love to see old houses with their original slate roof. It's something I watch for any time we're traveling. There is something so quaint about them.

 

I was talking to a crafter at a festival a couple years ago who was a slate painter. She told me she doesn't like to paint on the old roof slates, because they tend to be flaky, and she doesn't want to take the time to clean them. She said she buys new roof slate from a company somewhere in Ohio. I was so surprised! I didn't realize that roof slate is still being made. I thought roof slates had gone the way of the horse and buggy. Ahh, wrong again.

 

 

These 2 pieces of slate have been hanging around most of my life if I'm not mistaken. When I was a kid, I remember a couple pieces of slate leaning against the wall beside our porch. Then I took them to paint on, but instead, they leaned against a wall in our basement for years. They're heavy. Not roofing slate, but probably chalkboard slate. There's paint splatters on them, probably from the time they spent beside our porch. We did a major cleaning in our basement last week, & I thought "enough!". I'm not moving these again, it's time to paint them! I'm 50, so if they are indeed the ones I remember, they are at least that old. Who knows how long they were around before I came along! They are too heavy to hang....... so they will continue to be leaners. But now they can lean at YOUR house! They've been leaners in my life long enough. lol

 

Well, those 2 pieces are finally out of my basement, but I still have a LARGE stack of old roofing slate to work through. Better get busy!

Scrooge

Do you find the Christmas season to be a bit overwhelming?

Too much pressure?

Too commercial?

 

Or maybe you're just not feelin' it?

 

Then these signs are just for you,

complete with barbwire hangers....

 

 

Ha!

 

Silverware Signs

Instead of playing with my food, I started playing with silverware.....

Old barnwood + Old silverware = New sign.

Fun stuff!

Door arch - take 3

Before.....

After......

This is the last door arch I have. Third and final. I had painted the inside linen white, and the outside black, but had no idea what to put in the middle.

I was skipping around on Pinterest, and ran across a "be" list. Aha, that's what I would put in the middle. The original list I painted on it was: be grateful, true, smart, humble, clean and prayerful. Just those words.

I varnished it, and added the rusty stars. All done. I brought it upstairs to take a picture, and realized I had painted them very off-center. I rarely measure things, I do much better if I just "eye up" a project. But my eye must have been leaning to the left on this one.

So... back downstairs I went. I started adding more words, more varnish, and more rusty stars.

Much better now!



It Is What It Is Hit Home this Morning

I had been planning to use this sign in a blog post. A friend makes these stitcheries for the store, and this saying is very popular right now. We have laughed about it, wondering who really says that, then came to realize everyone seems to be saying it, ourselves included. I catch myself saying it rather often, and I wonder - did I always say it, or have I just started saying it since our conversation about it.

But before I could write my blog post this morning, our electricity went off. My head was swimming with craft ideas I was anxious to get started on as soon as I wrote the blog post. But when the power went off at 8:00, that was the end of that. It is what it is.

I heard a thump just a second after the power went out. A couple minutes later, as I was calling the electric company to report the outage, I heard a siren. And it was snowing. Hmmm. Perhaps someone hit an electric pole.

Kevin left for work half an hour later. He called a few minutes later to make sure I wasn't going to town today. "It's slicker than snot", he said. He has a way with words.

So, I decided to tackle the one room I could see well in without electricity. Jessica's former bedroom.

I started sorting. And sorting. And sorting. Some of this is my stuff. Some is from my parents. After they both passed on, I just boxed their photos, mementos, etc. up in boxes. Today seemed a good time to start sorting.

When you sort out your parent's old photos, you know what you find? All those embarrassing old school photos of yourself. I won't be posting any of those.

I might post some of my sister's embarrassing old school photos though. BAHAHAHA.

Don't worry Jo....I wouldn't really do that.

Anyway.............

I actually bought the pretty stack of boxes a couple weeks ago for this very purpose. They are much prettier than the cardboard boxes on the left that was holding much of what's now on the floor.

You know how one project like this leads to another?

That mess is 25+ years of photos. See that box on the floor? It fell out when I opened the door. I better add this to the project list.

WV barnwood signs

I just painted a new batch of West Virginia barnwood signs.

This is the real deal, barnwood taken from a couple different  barns.

You can see red paint on a few of them...

that is the original red paint from the barn.

How cool is that?

The only problem is.......

I can't seem to find a good way to display them for pics.

So I just propped some against the counter.

And laid the shorter ones on top of it.

I promise...

they are displayed better out on the floor for sale 

than they are in these pics!

Signs and Other Stuff

Yesterday, I showed you some "new" old things. Today I'll show you just a sampling of some other new things.........

I have a weakness for sheep! We used to have some real ones on our small farm. These little ones are much easier to take care of! 

The popularity of saltbox houses just keeps on keeping on. Perfectly country.

I have lots of new signs in stock. I like these ones with the moon and stars.

This is a mix of imported signs, and some I made. If you aren't from WV, you might not know what the barnwood sign that says Montani Semper Liberi means. It's Latin for Mountaineer's Are Always Free, our state motto.

These signs about faith in God are always good sellers. I had sold out, and just got in a new order of them.

Barn stars are re-stocked. Such a great country accent for any room in your house! Or your office!