Vintage Picnic Tins

 On a recent antiquing journey

 I found a really tattered and dirty old picnic basket

 Although the basket was really unusable, when I opened it up it was full of these wonderful old picnic tins.

 They are porcelain with interesting locking lids....

there we two inside!

 And next to the tins were two wonderful old wicker covered flasks in really great shape...I think I was pretty excited by then...you know the feeling!

 And a few other assorted wicker covered jars and glasses

oh my gosh....a gold mine of wonderful wicker

and all for 30 bucks!

 What is it about vintage wicker that is so warm and interesting 

That is an old asian gardeners hat....just in case you were  wondering!

 Paired on a table next to the last of this seasons roses

the wicker makes a nice little vignette

 I never tire of the David Austin roses...

but they will be gone until probably April

For some reason this photos seems to say that summer is over...

I'm looking forward to fall...how about you?

The 4 Doors: Barn Door Project Finished

I wrote about these wonderful doors a while back here

They are numbered and have a great white washed finish....I think these may have been for changing rooms at a resort or something

The back of the doors are really great too

definately "barnish"

So how did I use them....

 I used them as closet doors!

 1 and 2 now reside in the master bedroom and 4 and 24 live in the guest room

 When I asked my carpenter to help me with this project...I asked him if he had ever used barn door hardware before. 

 He gave me a really funny look and said

 "yea, but on a barn"

 I added some wonderful really old hand hammered door pulls

 We trimmed out the little openings with new pine 

and used chicken wire safety glass for the windows.  

I used briwax for the finish

 I purchased my hardware from a company called The Real Carriage Door Company

 A couple of facts to remember about using these:

you will need space for your doors to open...more than the average door obviously

 Second...the hardware is heavy and so you will need to add wood backing to support the hardware, which means opening up the wall above your opening.  We also had to cut down the horizontal support bar to have the spacing equal on both sides

And finally...the doors hang away from the wall by about 2 inches.  Take into consideration your moldings and other trim, 

which may not allow the doors to open freely

all Mr Barney is missing is a little smile...

but when I see these

 I do that for him

thanks for stopping by

&

don't forget to close your barn door...

Polished Pebble Fold... Curtains...now available

 I posted a few weeks ago here,
about these really simple and pretty linen curtains 

 I guess Tricia, from Rough Linen,
got quite a few requests for swatches

 So guess what....?

 She is now offering these on her web site here

It saves you the hassle of cutting them down and doing the sewing!
and she calls them The Polished Pebble fold!
How great is that?!

I know you will love these

and thank you Tricia!

Little Miss Hooiser gets a make over

 I have this really nice "hoosier"

 style cabinet that I was using in my office for storage

 The  brown paint was probably added not too long ago 

and I figured that underneath  

would be some really pretty older paint...

Miss Hoosier just never looked good in brown...not really her color

 So I loaded her up in my pick up and headed up to Ojai for a makeover

There is nothing better than a project that involves power tools!

First we give her a power wash...this is sometimes easier than using stripper and you can control how much paint gets removed

The brown paint just peeled off 

Next step...a good sanding

 or micro-dermabrasion 

It was a really pretty day so that made the job much more enjoyable

Miss Hoosier and I had a good talk about her life 

and how she much prefers being single right now...

especially at this age

The more paint that came off 

the more the old broad... 

excuse me ...I meant  bead board 

came to life

My arsenal of make over items!

and doesn't

Miss Hoosiers wood look refreshed?

I pretty much took this cabinet completely apart 

and threw away all the hardware

because it was really bent and "newish" 

and

soooo last season

Next step is waxing...I used  clear BriWax for this project but

you can also get Briwax with stain added 

if you want color in the finished product 

 So here she is after her make over

She looks sooo different....

is that really you Miss H?!

 I am now using Miss H for storing napkins,

 placemats and that type of thing

I think she likes it better in Ojai!

 The hardware is new reproduction from a source called House of Antique Hardware

I have used their things quite a bit 

and have yet to be disappointed

 The little numbers are old French door numbers or apartment numbers which I purchased a while back from my wonderful blogger friend Andrea!

Please visit her at Faded Plains 

she has a great little shop too!

 And of course we need some good lighting...what better than a toaster lamp!

Such a great accessory...for Miss H

 I found this weird little storage thingy on Ebay 

and it looks right at home...maybe to store a cook book or some magazines

so there you go

new duds on the old gal make her really shine

hope you like Miss Hoosier now

...she had low self esteem

 but is feeling so much better

; 0 )

Blogging and Photography part II

 Even the simplest cameras come with some pretty nice software.

It's fun when you have some extra time to play around and use the "effects" settings 

On the prior post I showed some shots of Mary's gigantic agave in color 

and here are the same shots in black and white

I think they look completely different 

and even more abstract black and white

 The photo above was still much more interesting in color

 We spent our weekend probably doing what everyone else was doing...eating and trying to enjoy the last long weekend of summer...

 On Sunday morning the light on Newport  Harbor was really beautiful so I took out the trusty macro lens and just walked around the dock

 Some of the shots shown here I changed to black and white and others are in color

 I like the shot above because it is hard to tell 

what is a surface and what is a shadow

 Here is one shot shown in both color and black and white...which do you prefer?

 This shot of the cleat is in color but almost looks like b and w

 Old rope is really fun to photograph 

So there you have some thoughts on photography...and blogging

Thank you so much for commenting and sharing the types of cameras that you use

 and also the tips on software and editing

Photos are great in any room and when you shoot and print them yourself...you have instant, original artwork....how awesome is that?!

I hope you had a great weekend!

~kelley~