Look what I've got!

I have to admit that I am finding it hard to be upbeat with my half empty nest. That happy, jumpy, excited feeling I usually get when playing with my Gorgeous Things has been passing me by! But then, the other day, this little kitchen cabinet popped into my life, and I am feeling a little tiny bit of the old bounce returning.

It needs some care and attention - look the poor old drop down leaf is dangling by a thread! If I take that strap off, then the whole thing half falls off. But the colour is sooooooo 50s and all the knobs are original, and in great condition. Now, here's the thing, I am a painter of furniture, so I would normally get the sandpaper and paint out and set to..... BUT this is in its original colour which, I think, is totally and stunningly fab. A bit scratched and scuffed, but still FAB. So no paint will be sloshed over this old girl! She will be carefully washed with some good old fashioned Vim powder (remember that stuff? I love it); her poor old broken leaf will get some new hinges; and she will get a soothing coat of wax to protect her. And then she'll be off to Bourne Mill where she'll be used to display my ever growing 1950s kitchenware collection. I suppose I ought to offer her for sale as well, but I'm not sure I can bear to part with her just yet!

So what else have I been up to whilst quietly pining for Little Thing 1, you may ask? Well, maybe you won't ask, but I'm going to tell you anyway. The clue is in the word - pining - I have been painting a few pieces of pine furniture I have had skulking around the workshop for longer than they should have been! AND I have been playing with a new paint colour (new to me, that is).

I normally use a very neutral palette, because a) that is what I have always used in my house, so I am used to it and love it, and b) because I assume my customers will find it easier to fit into their homes. But I rather rashly decided to start experimenting with some stronger colours. So this is the first piece off the production line - in Farrow and Ball (of course!) Stone Blue. Of course, I couldn't resist a little bit of decoupage on the interior of those doors - just jollies it along I thought. But, silly me, when I took it up to the shop on Friday I forgot the shelf - duh! So, I shall be sprinting up there as soon as I have finished this post to put the shelf in - let's hope noone has noticed!

It is a pretty strong colour, but I am SOooooo pleased with the result. What do you think? It provides a lovely blast of colour in the shop - I love the way it looks with the Midwinter tureen (pattern Cassandra).

So here is a gratuitous photo of it nestling in the shop.

oops, just slipped another quick picture of the shop in! I had a little reorganise on Friday - I removed some of the "stuff" off a couple of the pieces of furniture, as I think people can't see that the furniture is for sale when it is obliterated by things (even if they are Gorgeous Things!). But I still think there is too much stuff on the furniture - ah well!

Stanley Dog - and Back to my Old Ways

Well - what do you think of this little fellow?

Doesn't he look like Cath Kidston's Stanley dog? I love the grumpy expression! He's definitely coming to the shop.

I made a big effort last week to make a start on clearing my excessive amounts of stock from home - and get it in the shop where it should be (no I can't keep it all - naughty me to even think it!). So I tried to be really organised, and put together a little system - picking a box; going through the whole box; getting rid of the unsuitable items; preparing and pricing the rest; and getting them into the shop. Yes, I even wrote down a little flowchart to help me focus on making some progress (sad, but true!) So, how did it go you may ask.

 Well, I cleared quite a bit, but still not enough to actually use my dining room. But, this week, after putting the new stock in the shop, I decided that the shop was beginning to look a little drab; it needed a bit of pick me up. Ahhhhh! I realised what it was missing  - my old ways - you know when I just pick and choose stock according to how I feel, and what I think would look nice with the rest of the stock in there. SO........ it's back to my old ways this week (but just this week, cos I really must get that dining room cleared!). I'm picking and choosing ........ Ooooh, it's lovely....... the freedom to just go whereever the mood takes you. And that is how the Stanley lookalike came out!

But, I bet you'd like to have a look at some of the other things. I have an amazing Art Deco uranium glass dressing table set. The shapes of the trinket boxes, and the sunburst pattern of the glass is SooooooooO Art Deco - I love it!

And this little measuring tape - so cute - it has a little button on the back which makes it retract. Quite distracting, cos it makes you keep pulling it out and retracting it, rather than getting on with the sewing!

And on the subject of sewing (or indeed knitting, tapestry or crocheting) I thought these lovely crafty books would go down well in my growing crafty section of the shop. 

Of course, anything with Kaffe Fassett's touch is bound to be uber-colourful, and these books do not disappoint on that front. But I was also really interested in the alphabet charts, which could be applied to embroidery, tapestry or even knitting - but particularly nice for embroidering onto some plain linen napkins, I thought.

I had to share these tapestry cushions from the books with you - they are totally gorgeous!

And after all that, who wouldn't like to have a sit down in this chair to flick through the lovely crafty books?

Yes that is a tapestry screen - all hand stitched, amazing!

No sitting around for me today, though, I must be off to Bourne Mill to rearrange my room and display these lovely treasures.

A Little Bit Of Elbow Grease

Over the last few days I have been busy, busy, busy getting stock ready for the shop. I am much better at buying than I am at selling my stock - no surprise there! But my house is totally overflowing now, and while Mr. Thing and Little Thing 1 are away (more about that later), I have been working through some of my backlog. But it can't just be work, work, work, can it? So I have picked a favourite project to keep my creative juices flowing.

Yes, I love a chair project. I think it's because I get to do a little bit of everything - and I haven't done anything with fabric for ages. So, how did it start out? Well, this chair came from auction as part of a lot which I was after for the Lloyd Loom Chair (ah yes, that's another project yet to be finished...). This is what it looked like when it came home.

Not the nicest thing is it? But, I could see from the shape that it did have potential. So, first step was to take the seat out and sand down the woodwork. Then I applied some white primer.

... and it's already looking better. Another coat of primer, and then it's time to crack open the tin of Farrow and Ball. I love applying that first coat of F&B - it's so exciting to see how it transforms the furniture. This time I was using eggshell in Bone, which is a fabulous soft grey - it seems to take on the colour of whatever is around it, so you can use it in almost any colour scheme, and it has that sort of "already used" feel.

So after another coat of the F&B it was ready for the most time consuming part of the whole process - choosing the fabric to recover the seat. This takes me for ever - I had to go through

1) my stash cupboard,

2) my huge box of "washed but not ironed yet" fabrics and linens that I've bought for the shop, and

3) a couple of boxes of "not even looked at properly" linens.

I just needed to find that perfect fabric which suited the style of the chair. I came up with a few possibles, but settled on these vintage curtains.

... a romantic toile de jouy - which was hugely disappointing! Why, you ask? Because I really, really wanted to use either some vintage embroidered linens or some of my funky 70s fabric in some sort of patchwork. But they just didn't suit the chair - especially now I'd painted it in the soft grey colour. So, I reluctantly took the curtains apart and pressed the fabric. Then I used the old cover as a template to cut out the toile, trying to centre up a "scene", and cut some new wadding. My excitement over my new creation was growing now, and it all started to come together rather quickly after that, and I forgot to take any photos of this phase - sorry. But basically my stapler was put to good use!

The secret to getting a good finish, is to take care over the tension of the fabric, leave the corners to last, and take care to create nice neat even folds. It all went really smoothly, I was soooooo happy. All that was needed next was to cut out and sew on some backing to make the seat lovely and neat.

and there is was - all lovely and neat and clean and gorgeously shabby chateau.

But is isn't finished yet - it needs to be distressed. This will have to wait for another day, cos the paint needs more time to get nice and hard before I get to work on it! I have to admit that I find the distressing bit quite hard, cos I like to do a nice paint job, so it hurts to shabby it up! But I know it will look much better once it's done, so I'll steel myself to get down to it tomorrow so that I can get it in the shop before the weekend.

Whilst I was looking through my boxes of linens for this project I came across some of the most lovely hankies, which I just have to share.

This one is my favourite! But these ones are cute too.

And then I found this amaaaaaaazing bright, bright shocking pink HuuuuuuuuuuuGE crochet doiley, isn't it amazing?

So, back to the absence of Mr Thing and Little Thing 1 - they are doing a charity bike ride - from Winchester all the way to Gibraltar - that is a LONG way! And it's for a charity that is very important to me - Cancer Research UK - you can read about it here. Apologies for the quality of the photos, but my usual camera has been taken on the bike trip, so I'm having to use Little Thing 2's camera, which I'm struggling with a bit!

Gorgeous Things Vintage Jewellery

Greetings dear followers of the Gorgeous Things blog - I have to report that GT & Family are on holiday again (yes I know!) so little me (the Jewellery Department) has been left to hold the fort and entertain the dog on her city break while her pack frolic on Caribbean beaches - I've been there myself, it's horrid, they'll hate it, I'm not jealous at all, not one bit!! This is my first attempt at blogging, exciting.... I hope it doesn't all go horribly wrong! Gorgeous Things Vintage Jewellery currently trades through an eBay store - you can find the link on the right of this page under favourite places. Here at Jewellery Towers we source all sorts of sparkly, classic, collectable and just gorgeous vintage jewels from the antique and unusual to the relatively modern with prices to suit all pockets - I thought I'd take this opportunity to share some of my personal favourite upcoming pieces....

I have a bit of a passion for reverse carved lucite whether in the form of ornaments, napkin rings and of course brooches - this is quite a large brooch with 3 beautiful roses in washed out shades of red and pink - it dates back to the late 1950s/early 1960s and these are not made anymore so becoming very collectable. There are more than one of these in the store at the moment.

Rhinestone jewellery is ever popular - personally I can't resist the clear crystal floral variety, pure simple glamour - always stunning against black - a friend of mine uses brooches like these to decorate lampshades around the home and they look fabulous! This is a particularly nice example, large & good quality - you must always be careful of dead or discoloured (yellowed or greying) stones - the foil backing deteriorates with time and moisture - this one is near perfect very sparkly and a fantastic find! 

Do have a browse of the Gorgeous Things Vintage Jewellery store - you may find something you like - here at Jewellery Towers we pride ourselves on excellent customer service, gorgeous safe packaging and value for money so have a look around - a repair and necklace re-string service is also available.

The new jewellery cabinet at the flagship store at Bourne Mill is coming soon as is more gorgeous stock for the online Gorgeous Things Shop so keep checking back.....    

I hope you've enjoyed this little look into my world of 'wearable art' - feel free to contact the jewellery department at gorgeousthings@btinternet.com, we're always happy to hear from you - in the meantime me and gorgeous doggy will continue to enjoy the riches of the Hampshire summer countryside and try not to dream of white sand beaches, sunset cocktails and fabulous fishes..... hhmmmm.... sigh - on the positive side, the fresh fresh eggs from Gladys and the girls are a total bonus!

Oodles of Poodles

Not sure why, but I seem to keep finding poodles this week!

This sweet little tin was hidden in a box of sewing things inside a piece of furniture I bought this week. Isn't it the cutest thing? I was so excited when I found it! Perfect for filling with pins in a vintage sewing basket.

 And then, my lovely friend from Gorgeous ThingsVintage Jewellery (see link in my sidebar) asked if I'd like to buy anything from her pile of items in need of repair. Oh yes, I'd like to have a look! And I chose quite a few brooches, one of which was this proud looking woofer.

Isn't he the most gorgeous chap? His pin was a little bit wobbly, but I've given it a quick tweak with the pliers, and I think it'll hold now. He's definitely coming on holiday with me! Oh - did I mention I'm off on my hols? Yes - I'm off to Biarritz this afternoon - and this brooch is going to preserve my modesty on the front of my new maxi dress! Apparently the dress required boobs - and I'm a bit lacking in that department - but no matter, this little fellow will make sure that there will be no gaping!

And my final poodle is this fine, fluffy chap-

He's an old pyjama case, and he's made from sheepskin. Look at his lovely face.

Aaaaw! I feel so sorry for him, because he IS very cute, but he is also very old, and (whispers... a bit mancky) I think he must have been in a house with heavy smokers, cos his woolly coat is a bit yellow. I have tried to sponge wash his coat, which has improved him a bit - well, he doesn't smell anymore, anyway. But, he is still a bit mancky. Mr Thing is sick of moving him around my utility room and keeps asking to take him to the tip. Oh, I wish I knew what to do with him - I'm thinking maybe he is destined to find a new home from the car boot sale. But that is if Mr Thing doesn't dispose of him whilst I'm on my girls holiday with Little Thing 1 and Little Thing 2!
But we mustn't be too cross with Mr Thing, cos he has to work next week while we go away to the land of poodles!
So, until then, toodle-poodle pip!

Late night opening

So, this Thursday was the first late night opening at Bourne Mill - Yay!

We had a little vino fizzo and good old natter in terms of a celebration of this milestone! But only once I'd straightened out my room a bit -

I took a few shots for my slide show on the web site.

 

Maybe I should have taken these shots after I'd filled in the gaps with the new stock!

But sometimes you don't notice these things until you look at the photos.

You can't beat a bit of a sparkly light, can you? So pretty!

I'm not completely happy with the way I have my room laid out, so I'm going to have a really good look over all the photos I took on Thursday so that I can get it better. It can be tricky, as all my pieces of furniture are for sale, so when they get sold, all the contents get dumped on the nearest available surface, and I have to try to rearrange and make it all look nice again as best I can when I go in to restock. Any ideas or tips, would be very welcome!

Meanwhile, the plate rack and the what-not I showed you as WIPs in my last post are now finished.

I stripped the old wax off this piece, then I knotting solutioned it, primed it, 1st coated it in F&B Pointing, 2nd coated it in a mix of acrylics (from the paint box) in greens and blues applied in a sponged on wash (at this point it looked like it had gone mouldy!), 3rd coat in F&B "Bone", 4th coat in F&B "Pointing" - phew! that was the painting finished. Then I distressed it (quite ruthlessly) so that you can see back to the wood in parts, but through all the various layers of paint. It was a bit experimental, but I'm happy with the result. Mr Thing said if he was going to buy it that he'd want a bit more paint on it (cheek! - I think he missed the point). I'll have to let the public decide - it will be going in the shop on Monday!

Meanwhile the Cath Kidston decoupage on the little what not has been very satisfying. I love papering furniture! For anyone who fancies trying it, my first tip would be to make sure you use paper which is proper paper - if you know what I mean! Don't use wrapping paper for example which tends to not have much actual paper content and has a "shiny" finish, as it doesn't absorb the glue - so you can get a horrible mess when you apply it. You need paper which is a bit absorbent (like wallpaper) so that you can work it whilst it is wet. That gives you time to get all the air out, so you get a nice finish. Maybe I should give a quick tutorial on my blog sometime?

Have a nice weekend!

Painted furniture update

As promised, it's time for an update on the painting and general furniture makeover progress at the Gorgeous Things Studio (aka the dining room at the old village hall).

Here is a lovely bun footed bureau. I love these pieces of furniture - I think they are really practical. Little Thing 2 has one in her bedroom painted white, but with a pink girlie interior! They are great bedroom pieces, cos you can store stuff in them, but then you can fold the desk part down for using your laptop, and then fold it up again out of the way when you've finished. How practical is that? Brilliant, I think! As a furniture revamper (is that what I am?) I love the fun of the foldaway part - it is just asking to be decorated with a bit more pizzaz than the outside, cos it isn't always on view.

See? A lovely bit of Cath Kidston floral there on the inside. Now it's looking pretty good, huh?

Cute little cubby holes for all those bits and bobs.

And a pretty desky bit to cheer anyone up while they are working or doing their homework.

Another feature about furniture that I love painting is "the twiddly bits", so when a cheval mirror with lots of twiddly bits came my way I was very excited. Not only did it have some nice twiddly bits, but it also had a nice flat surface (back of the mirror) which was just asking to be prettified with a bit of floral.

Front (above) Back (below)

Shall we have a closer look at the twiddly bits?

I love these bits so much. Little Things 1 and 2 are both pretty keen on this mirror, so I'm not sure it will make it as far as the shop! Luckily I have a few more pieces which are WIP , like this little what-not..

...which needs another coat of paint before I set to with some decoupage on those shelves. Then I have this plate stand thingy which has been through the mill a bit here in terms of me trying out some paint effects.

I have just painted over the paint effects at the moment, but after another coat of Farrow and Ball "Pointing", then I will start to distress it, and then the paint effects underneath will emerge - I'm looking forward to seeing how this turns out! Meanwhile, these Midwinter plates look right at home on it!

And, just in case I don't have enough in the revamping studio - I have just picked up some more pieces !

This rather dirty lloyd loom chair is just crying out for some gorgeous vintage cushion - well, after it has had a good clean! But I'm thrilled to have found an original green one - the colour is really, really gorgeous!! Needless to say this one will not be painted over!

Then I'll have a bit of painting and upholstery to get this lovely shaped chair ready. I'm thinking of some sort of patchworked vintage fabric seat for this one - luckily it is a drop in seat, which means it is pretty straighforward to recover.

And I managed to find this nice shaped dresser back - which is always popular in the shop.

I'll get the knotting solution over this one whilst watching the tennis this afternoon! Then it'll have its undercoat on before the school run. I really don't like orange pine - so I'm in a rush to get it covered up!

By the way, if you are interested in buying any of my pieces, please drop me an email. I am in the process of getting a blogshop up and running, cos I don't want to fill this blog with a list of items for sale. I'll be linking to it from here just as soon as I get it sorted.