A Few Little Claims to Fame and More Stuff for Lucketts

Sorry I missed last week. It has been a bit crazy around here. But I'm here today. And I have a few exciting tidbits to share.

Let's start with Thistlewood farms. You guys remember. This is the site that inspired this post about my messy house (here) where I shameless threw back the covers and showed my own disorder to the world. It's the site where Karianne's perfect, perfect pantry caused me to wail in despair of ever having even one place in my house be that organized and clean.

Well, exciting things happened. 

She asked for readers to suggest a name for her online shopping posts (my  suggestion is in the comments here)....and she chose MINE!!! Read all about her wonderful sponsors, etc here. She mentions me way at the bottom. So go show her some love and check out the cool stuff she's gathered for you guys. You can tell her Marian sent you, if you want. But you might have to clarify that I'm not Miss Mustard Seed. She's a way more famous Marian. It wouldn't be the first time we've been confused with each other.

My other bit of fame comes from the Old Luckett's Store blog. Branches: the Barn Sale Without a Barn was a featured vendor on their blog yesterday! Yay famous! Woot. Check it out here. We are the third vendor mentioned. That was super exciting to discover.

So I bet you've all been wondering what's been keeping me too busy to post. Well, that would be book lamps, garage sales, and collages. Great stuff, right? The garage sale gods have been super kind to me the last couple of weeks. I found some incredible things. Like this huge, vintage wooden trunk.

and some amazing old forged iron serving pieces

and this cool silver plate tray. Can you see the bunches of tiny grapes all around the edge? 

Who wouldn't want a silver tray with tiny grape clusters?

I almost had heart failure when I saw an entire table covered in vintage and antique copper pieces. I only had enough money with me for a fraction of what they had. Could you die?

And the vintage and antique spoons. You know you have to have at least one of these.

I especially like the happy meal book on the floor behind them.  We keep it pretty real at my place. 

Here's a little peak at what Sharon from Hand Picked Art is bring to our booth at the show:

Isn't it funny how different our taste is, even though we hang out all the time? That's why it's good to have a partner, folks. Then there's something for everyone. 

In the studio, I have been super busy making collages and refinishing frames like this one with vintage stamps and 100 % linen backing

And this

And this. 

 DK shot the picture for me because I love dandelions. I'm having a really hard time putting it in the show. I LOVE how the chalkboard frame turned out. You guys would forgive me if I kept it, right? You 'll just have to come to Lucketts to see what I decided.

Here's a closer shot of the frame.

As far as the book lamps go, they are all drilled and bolted together, but are still a work in progress. I will have them looking amazing for the show. Please pardon the mess. Neither one has any lamp parts attached yet. The picture with the shade and the big pipe sticking out is just to show you where they are going. 

 These detail shots are the two different ways I attached the casters to the book stacks. One goes all the way through the bottom book. I had to reinforce that stack with a board hidden inside the book. The other style caster is screwed into the base book's cover.

I have a couple more pieces I am working for this show, a box and another collage, of sorts. Neither is finished, but here's a peek:

This is that piece from 1888 that I found. Please pray that the conservation glass I ordered from California gets here in time for me to pull this one together for the show. I suppose I could have used regular glass, but if something has made to to me from 1888, I certainly am not going to be the one to let it get ruined. UV glass or bust baby!

This was an experiment with MMS milk paint. I love how it chips and cracks. I'll take better photos and tell you all about this project later. But the lining will be woven strips of book page. (A Tom Clancy novel, if you must know.) You can see how I've done it on the bottom already.

So that's where things stand for now. Thanks for hanging with me. 

I always miss you guys when I don't post.

Don't forget to come to the show. I'll be there all day Saturday.

Here's the link for directions etc.

The Lucketts Spring Market

MAY 18-19, 10-5 both days

$7 at the gate

The fields behind the Old Luckett's Store

42350 Lucketts Road  Leesburg, VA

Branches Fall show 2012 is almost here! Directions and more photos

We have battened down for the storm, but now we are ready to throw open the hatches! The staging has begun with a flurry of furniture moving and merchandise upwrapping. The show will go on, as planned. You should come. you will have a good time and most likely find something you like.

Branches: the Barn Sale Without a Barn

 Friday, Nov 2 from 10 am-8pm and

 Saturday, Nov 3 from 10am-5pm

Getting here: If you live in the area, and you know where West Springfield High School is, the show is in the neighborhood right behind the school. Please turn on the road NORTH of the school, Center Road, rather than turning at the light. This will make it easier for you to park, although you can get here by turning at the light in front of the school

Here are a few more pics of what you'll see in the show:

Ok, this peice is too cool, so I just have to tell you guys about it. This is a painting made of flakes of glass! Then the artist, Emily Pezzulich, sticks the peices in a kiln and fires them into one sheet of glass. It really is amazing when you see them in person. Here are a couple more.

Photos of the glass art by Alan Pezzulich

That is just the tip of the iceberg. Seriously. I have to keep adding furniture peices to hold all the stuff we have for you guys. And we have four different mini cupcakes for you to try form Cakes By Amy. You won't believe the flavors: Gingerbread, Cherry Chocolate, Pistacio, and Key Lime.

You should come, if just to try the cake.

See you all there!

Building a Barn Sale

It's Barn Sale Season!!!!

 Which means my regularly scheduled life has left the building. Sharon and I have been feverishly "Gathering Branches " here in Burke, to bring you our best show yet! We are also being featured in The Burke/Fairfax/Springfield Connector Newspaper! So look on your driveways, before you back over our cute little faces.

We have a gorgeous venue, a house in Springfield, VA with high ceilings, 3 spaces open to each other and decent parking. I am always amazed that someone would let us come take over their life for a week, so please make sure to say thanks to Lauren (she's the cute lady on the far right) and buy her bears and aprons, if they suit you.

I know you guys are thinking, "Come on Marian, just get to the pictures."

So without further delay, here's the info you need:

Branches: the Barn Sale Without a Barn

When: Friday, Nov 2, 10am-8pm

           Saturday, Nov 3, 10am-5pm

So you wanna see what's gonna be in the show?

We have some much really great stuff this year! I am super excited.

The soap smells like heaven and is hand made by a woman and her mother in Sterling. The wallets and purses are made buy a guy who goes and buys old leather jackets at thrift shops and up cycles them into the delightful bags you see before you. You're gonna buy 4 when you see how reasonable the prices are.

And the wreath above is made of hand twisted paper. Here's a closer pic, so you can see it better:

Don't you love how she singed the edges?

And I almost forgot...We have Kelly of Stylish Patina selling Annie Sloan Chalk Paint at the show!!!!!!

source

OK, that's all I have for you today, but I'll come back soon with more unseen pics of cool, amazing things we have been gathering for you. And I'll tell you some more about our fantastic artists.

So go on. Write it down on your calendar. Branches barn sale. Can't miss. Nov 2-3.

French Twist

This week is a crazy week. My family is literally here, there, and everywhere depending on which day you are talking about. So I think rather than doing one big post, I will break it down into a few smaller posts and continue the "Before" and "After" series. So today's gem is the Solange lamp.
When I found this lamp in a thrift shop, it was dripping with "sweet":

 Here's a close up for you. Don't you love the tiny hand painted roses and yellowed silk shade with gold plastic cording?

Neither did I. But I did love the metal base and the frosted glass body. But how to get those flowers off without scratching the glass?

The shock here was that Mr. Clean Eraser will take off paint without scratching glass. I swear that stuff is magic. I actually gave a box to a friend for Christmas one year because it works so well.

So the pretty frosted pink glass stayed. The roses and outdated shade did not. Add in a fab-U-lous grey barrel shade, some grey chalk paint, silver acrylic and silver pigmented wax, all new guts, and...

Voila! Meet Solange:

Tres chic, non?

She will be in the fall Barn Sale, if you want to see her close up. Right now she's in my basement, if you want to see her wrapped in newspaper.

North and South

I had great ambitions to do one big "Before and After" post. But as I have been compiling things, I think it might lend itself better to several smaller posts. So I thought I'd start with one of the more exciting transformations, like the North/South dresser that I sold in the Spring barn sale.

You all have already seen this somewhat sorry "before" picture:

It was such a beautiful, broken thing.

A friend of mine had kept it for years after buying it at a garage sale, hoping that she would eventually be able to get to it. Sadly for her, the time never presented itself. I just happened to be there one day when she opened her garage; there it was, this beautiful dresser. I almost melted right on the spot when I saw the double bowed front, the pretty cabriolet legs, the lovely glass handles. I could just hear it whispering how magnificent it would be painted a Prussian Blue. She was going to donate it...I took it home.

Once it was here, I noticed a few things. First, the entire bottom drawer base had been water damaged to the point of unusability. I would have to chuck it and build an entirely new bottom for the drawer. The other drawers also had a bit of water damage, but it was minor by comparison. And the whole thing just smelled kind of old and musty. So I got out the bleach, and got to work.

I bleached the drawers twice and set them out in the sun to kill off anything that might even think of remaining in the wood fibers. I even turned the dresser itself upside down, bleached, and sunned the interior just to be safe. Then I reglued the drawer bases to the drawer frames, as they had slipped over time.

By now I was in pretty deep and getting a little nervous. My dad came to the rescue and cut the drawer base for me on a neighbor's scroll saw. He also showed me how to use my Dremel to route the groove so the new board could slide into the drawer base.

As you can see, my dad enjoyed the Dremel. I think he was totally amused by the idea that I had a tool that he didn't own yet.

Anyway, once all the structural stuff was fixed, I could start painting. I opted to prime both the inside and out with a low VOC oil-based primer by Zinnser, just to be on the safe side. It takes a long time to prime and paint the inside of a dresser. I should have taken pictures of it upside-down in my garage. This dresser really did spend an abnormal amount of time upside-down.

It was about here in the process that I figured out what to call this piece. I knew I needed to do something to accentuate all the crusty "used" grit visible around the handles. I knew the piece could come across as deliciously old. (It actually was pretty old.) I already knew I was doing the Prussian Blue and I was leaving the top natural wood. Grey just seemed like a natural base for both. And this being Virginia, the capital of the South, I thought the "North/South Dresser" was historically appropriate. And kinda amusing.

I went on from there to coat the inside and the outside of the dresser and everywhere on the drawers with 2 coats of French Grey chalk paint. It really does take a long time to paint the inside of a dresser. I followed that with a coat of clear wax on all the parts staying grey- the dresser "guts" and the whole drawer, minus the front.

Then came the moment I had been waiting for. I finally got to see that pretty blue that had been singing to me. One coat of Annie Sloan's Aubusson Blue almost made my heart stop.

I think I started hyperventilating when I started sanding:

And it was all over, once I added the dark wax.

And didn't my garden look wonderful this spring?

I cleaned up and restained the top as well.

But all the work was worth it. What a pretty thing!

Here it is all set for the Barn Sale. It lasted 2 hours.

Don't you love it when you can actually recreate the image in your head?