Milky Grey

I'm having one of those years where every expense is popping up so I'm trying to watch my money.  This new found caution had me looking close to home this weekend for inspiration.  

I purchased this little birdhouse years and years ago.  It was brown so I spray painted it white and I have never liked the outcome but I didn't want to spray paint it again. 

I decided to experiment with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and water.  I was told water will take it off a surface but I wanted to try.

Paris Grey, water & a chalk paint brush.

It went on as a pale matte grey.  As well since it was a "wash" of colour it was easier to coat each rung.

It made this little birdhouse shine.

It helped bring cohesiveness to the area in my dining room with my Annie Sloan Mirror  (http://www.whitecottagechic.blogspot.ca/2012/04/annie-sloan-chalk-paint.html)

I'm snoopy & love to see how people decorate so here is two pictures of this end of the room.



Cheers,

Patricia

Small Discoveries

I have been absent for a bit due to..... taxes (I took my time this year & it worked - money coming back - yeah!), fence issues (in progress and I'm so excited) & my sweet girls oral surgery (wisdom teeth).  

In the midst of all this I discovered some great things like this grey bucket.

It's perfect simplicity only needed a little crown magnet.

This grey.......box?  It's essentially useless but I couldn't pass it up so it came home.

And my favourite favourite app. A few weeks ago Siri came into my life around the same time as my House Beautiful magazine which has this on the cover and throughout the magazine.

In order to access the content the Digimarc app is required.  When the blue HB is scanned with the Iphone videos come up with extra detail about the article your looking at. What I love the best about it is that it has a function that identifies any song! I used it last night while watching "House" and had an answer within seconds (Black Moon - Wilco).  This is going to get so much use!

Cheers,

Patricia

Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

Last fall I purchased a large mirror at a local antique store and was content to leave it as is. http://whitecottagechic.blogspot.ca/2011/10/change.html

Then the brown started to really grate on me.  It doesn't fit in with any of my colours and it's just brown plastic with faux gold on it (ahh the 70's).  I started to research and discovered Apple Box Boutique (www.AppleBoxBoutique.com)  in Edmonton sells Annie Sloan Chalk Paint &  I knew right away what I wanted to do.

I met Leanne at Apple Box who uses the paint and she explained how to use it & showed me all the colours.  If you are interested in this paint Leanne is the person to speak to.    What I love about it is that you can mix the colours to get what you want and it won't turn muddy.  I wanted a french blue grey.

So I purchased Paris Grey & Louis Blue.  I mixed starting with the grey and then added the blue until I found what I was looking for.

I just painted one coat and left some of the faux gold exposed.

I wanted to see how it turned out before deciding on a wax & now that I have seen it I will use a matte clear wax.  I had originally thought I would age it more but I think it's perfect.

It hangs above a marble table and the mirror looks very french now.

You know when you are so happy with how something turns out that you can't wait to wake up and see it in the morning light?  Well that was me with this mirror.

It's making me wonder why I didn't do this sooner. Now I'm looking for grey/blue pillows to add to my couch.

Happy Easter

Patricia