common ground

Friday, May 18, 2012

Vintage Inspiration # 88 Mammabellarte

Today, I want to spotlight a sweet friend and
Renaissance Woman Extraordinaire,

Rita lives in Southern California with her husband and family, but originally comes from Sicily. She is talented in so many areas; below is a chair swing she made to salvage a piece that might have been destined for the trash.

Rita is a woodworker, crafting the most beautiful and detailed birdhouses

that she sells at The Vintage Marketplace at the Oaks,

a venue she co founded and sponsors.

She's also an amazing jewelry creator, designer and teacher.

Her pieces are so detailed, unique, and amazing!

But this is how I met her...

Meet Rita, the chicken wrangler!

Believe it or not, almost three years ago I saw this photo on Google Images and tracked her down. Since then, I've been a huge fan of all her creativity and her wonderful blog. Are these kids not the cutest? She's been featured many times in magazines; this photo was featured in the March issue of Country Living several years ago.

So take a minute when you can and run by and say Hello to Rita. Go with her to the shows, and then enjoy all the beauty and charm from one of the sweetest gals on Earth!

And here is some other great talent from last week's party!

Nancy from Nancy's Daily Dish has a great post on one of the hottest decor collectibles out there; artillery baskets. Nancy always has the interesting facts, so be sure and check out her post.

Rita from May Days used this great old Pepsi crate

as a centerpiece for her gorgeous tablescape.

love those dishes!

Nicole from Doodles and Stitches found this wonderful

bench made from an old bed...love that patina!

and Irma from Cosas Bellas shared such an inspirational post

about her faith, entitled "White as Snow"

Thankyou Irma.

Thank you each and every one of you

who takes the time to come by and link up here at

Vintage Inspiration

You are truly a blessing to know!

After you link here,

be sure you join in on these other great Friday parties!

Redoux At the Picket Fence French Country Cottage

Stuff and Nonsense The Charm of Home

Time to link up "anything vintage or vintage inspired".

Please have a link to this party within your blog post.

xoxo,

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Trompe L'Oeil Canvas

I cleaned out the downstairs guestroom closet, since I have houseguests coming. I thought they might actually appreciate a place to hang their clothes. This particular closet has been one of my stealth pillow stashes. Having a pillow addiction can pose problems for storage. (I know none of you have this same problem) Nothing like thinking of company coming to make me get off my backside and do a little sprucing up around here.

So during the clean out I found this print that I'd had for awhile. Don't remember when we bought it or where it came from, but I'm sure it was from a flea market somewhere...

And you probably know I love me some sheep and lambs. I thought I might try to get the look of an oil painting by mod podging this to a painters' canvas. We have several that my mil used a while back, so I found this one that was the same width but a little larger top to bottom. I glued it on in the middle, then found some acrylic craft paints to try to add to the canvas, to even it out.

Above, you can see on the bottom of the canvas I used a brown base and then just added in some greens and tans to mimic the ground. I wasn't looking for "perfect", I wouldn't be able to do that, I just wanted to get the feel that the print was larger at the bottom. We don't have to worry about any counterfeit art heists or anything like that...

Then, you can see at the top I just continued the "sky" with a coat of grays mixing in lighter and darker colors to look like darkening clouds. I brought the paint down over the top of the print to help blur the lines a little. Then took the color to the sides of the canvas too.

The fluorescent lighting down here causes lot's of glare, but actually it's pretty passable...

if you're not too close.

The trick to making this look more realistic and to "fool the eye" is to have it at a distance for viewing. Up close you can certainly see where the print stops and my attempts start. I coated the whole thing with 2 coats of glossy Mod Podge, to look like oil paint. (kinda-sorta) The second one I did in a cross-hatch manner that gave it more texture like brush marks.

You know how in the 40's to the 60's many prints were done on a cardboard base, I have quite a few of them that I've grabbed for almost nothing that have had scratches on them. Basically it can ruin the look of one of those prints, but with a little mixing of paint and a close eye you can repair them, using this same technique.

It's a little lame, but I didn't want to frame it, I love the look of a plain canvas, and everything I used I already had on hand.

You might notice that I also changed out the dark burgundy area rug for this lighter one that had been upstairs. One of my Mother's Day presents was a wonderful new rug from Overstock, for the Living Room. The new rug upstairs ended up being nicer than I even imagined, I'll share it with you a little later.

You'll be hearing more about what Anne and I have planned for next month. We've waited three years to meet, so we're going to have some fun adventures. more later...

OK, now don't snicker behind my back at my tromp l'oeil canvas...please be kind.

I'll be linking to

Share the Love at Very Merry Vintage Style

House Party at No Minimalist Here

A Daily Cup from Mrs. Olson

What's It Wednesday at Ivy and Elephants

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

Thriftin' On a Thursday at Savvy City Farmer

Simple and Sweet at Rooted in Thyme

Transformation Thursday at the Shabby Creek Cottage

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Inspiration Friday at the Picket Fence

Home Sweet Home at the Charm of Home

Fridays Unfolded at Stuff and Nonsense

Redoux

Sat Nite Special at Funky Junk

xoxo,

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Monday Marketplace #12

Happy Monday Everyone,

Did you all survive Mother's Day?

(I think I did)

Something a little different that I want to share with you today.

Wonderful photos from someone you all know...

My good friend Anne from Fiona and Twig and

Shannon from Rusty and Redone

are collaborating on a space at a great new place called

Opening soon in Fredricksburg, Texas,

Hometown to so many wonderful shopping adventures.

These are just a few shots of all the great things waiting in their room.

Be sure and check out Anne's blog for the details

on the Opening for Smitten.

(Anne has a great post this morning about this)

On to Monday Marketplace...

here are a few wonderful items from last week!

Handpainted French Chalkboard Sign from

Cottonridge Emporium

French Stable Lantern from French Bleu Vintage

Vintage Florentine Tray from Italy

White Lace Farmhouse

Vintage Green Metal Empeco Breadbox

from Chateau Chic

Welcome to Monday Marketplace where you can link up to 3 fun items from your Etsy Shop or Online Store. You don't have to have a blog, but if you do, I'd love for you to grab a button on the sidebar and display it somewhere on your blog. This let's everyone know where you are selling and helps spread the word. Thanks for coming by and linking up. Remember Monday Marketplace is up all week, so drop back by and check out all the great links!

Sunday, May 13, 2012

My Bloomin' Weekend

I think I finally have my back deck in shape. I re-stained the stairs this week after dropping a full gallon of it in the garage and having a huge mess to clean up. Thank the good Lord I had a full container of paint thinner on hand. So two hours later I finally got started on the project at hand.

Just wanted to share these little flower vignettes that I have out here. This is right off the sunroom and looking out my kitchen window, so I need some "pretty" to look at.

This old iron railing in chippy white was a recent flea market find,

(a 10 dollar deal)

I have several pieces of old fencing out here,

and then the white gate behind the table.

I left these photos as is because the pinks were so vibrant I didn't want to change the photos. The two potted ones in the old cement containers are million-bells.