~A SWEET VINTAGE WHITE BED~

Good morning all...

I've been a busy lady of late and so glad I've gotten off the merry-go-round of life for a bit.  Returned from a whirlwind trip to Tennessee a week ago where my Mr. AGP Man and I helped my big sister with an estate sale.  She sold off tons and tons of her personal property (downsizing to a small home) and also the remaining merchandise left over from her vintage home decor and apparel business.  I've never seen so much stuff in my life and my guy and I are beyond happy the trip (and the work) are over.

Came home with some wonderful things to sell in my booth, some fabulous old finds, vintage lace pieces, lamps, furniture and also that fabulous antique counter my hubby will be transforming into our new kitchen island.  It's going to take some work to refurbish so I won't be sharing it for a while.  But...hopefully before Christmas...

The bed in the photo above (my local booth) is one I hauled home from the estate sale.  Originally my sis had it painted black.  I actually liked it black, but...I'm still loving vintage whites and all things tattered and worn and those things still sell well for me here.  So...white with a bit of glaze won out!  I snapped the picture late last night, but I'm sure missing the natural light that usually comes through the windows...

Hope this finds you well...  Maybe one day I'll get back to blogging more regularly.  Right now I'm excited about starting Christmas Stockings for 2015.  Tattered vintage and antique laces and lots of linen and trims.  Yum!

Love to you~

~HAND SCRAPED WOOD FLOOR GOES IN...WHOOT! ALMOST DONE!~

 ~Beautiful Hand Scraped Wood Floor~

My Mr. AGPMan and I leave for the Nashville area this week to spend some time with my sister and to help her with her estate sale...we are hoping to sweat off some pounds while we are there and maybe bring back a few treasures!  We we  also be hauling back the antique counter we will be transforming into our kitchen island...so excited!

~Wood Floors Tie Everything Together~

After yapping about our complete kitchen remodel/renovation and I'm excited to say that in just a very short time it will be completely done.  Can't wait to show you pictures of the final reveal with everything put into place.

~Waiting for Glue to Dry~

I haven't taken new pictures, but the stove/oven and fridge are back in place and so is our temporary island we purchased at Sam's Club.  I'm going to paint it and move it to my studio as it's a great piece to craft on.  You can see part of it in one of the photos below (two down)...

~May 2014~

We've come a long way since a year ago May 2014.  This temporary island was made up of two old cabinets.  We used this for over a year...YUCK!  But...hey~it worked!  The big white fridge was banished to the gawh-raj!

~May 2015~

Lots of work in one year.  That was evenings and almost every single weekend!!!!  Seeing the cabinets go up was so exciting.  They still had to be customized and painted...but to see cabinets on the wall made me feel like we had a real kitchen again!

~Easter 2014~

The two pictures above will show you that we actually used the kitchen during our remodel.  This is my Miss K and I at Easter 2014 dying Easter Eggs in a hovel of a kitchen.  I refused to allow the torn up mess to keep us from making memories.  If I had we would have lost four years of fun times!  This is before sheet rock, etc.  My Mr. AGPMan was still working on the electrical, etc.  By the way...I have on his geek shirt (need a hair cut!) and my Miss K is now as tall as I am.  She's grown a lot in 15-16 months!  She'll be 13 in November!  Say it isn't so!

~My Miss K~

OK...more when I return from our trip.  August is half over and my favorite month of September will soon be here...  I love Autumn...makes my heart sing!

Love to you...

~Miss Autumn and her Paper Pattern Skirt~

I love love love the Harvest time of the year and I'm so happy it's around the corner.  It was time to spruce up my booth today and so I spent the evening working on new displays and removing some of the old and bringing in some new...  I always love the changing of the seasons and I start out trying something new if at all possible...

Just a quick post about my little mannequin.  I dressed her in a skirt made of old paper patterns with lots of layers and ruffles.  I used a crocheted doily for a collar and burlap as a modified vest.  Vintage silk ribbon was used for her waistband.  It was tattered and worn and simply fabulous.  The original paper wrapping for the ribbon was used to fashion her Miss Autumn banner.  

She was so much fun to make and I think she'll be a real conversation piece.

This next week I travel to Tennessee to help my sister with her estate sale.  She closed her shop and they are downsizing and selling their home.  Big job ahead...

We are bringing the vintage counter from the late 1800's back with us...  Remember I told you we are modifying it for our kitchen island.  By the way...our wood flooring goes in this weekend.  The last of the projects before the kitchen is completely finished except for the island.  We are beyond excited.  The nightmare is finally almost OVAHHHHH and we are both actually still ALIVE.  

Will share more will you soon.  Can't wait to show you the big reveal!

Love to you...

~FRENCH INFUSED VINTAGE DESK...Oooooh Lahhhhh Lahhhhh~

The year has just marched itself right along, hasn't it?  Can you believe we are in August already?  Where has the year gone?

I'm always saying that and the answer I come up with is always the same.

It flew by waaaayyyyy too fast!

When you are the proprietor of a vendor mall booth like I am you have to think ahead.  Otherwise you (and your sales!) get crushed by the big H. L. (your favorite craft and go-to store).  Fall is around the corner and so this week that is what I'm working on...

AUTUMN, FALL and HARVEST-TIME creations.

Hard to envision crisp, cool weather and falling leaves when it's 100+ degrees outside.  Still...must press onward.

I did take a little time out of my schedule today to finish up a fabulous old desk I had only managed to paint WHITE a few weeks ago.  Wasn't sure what I was going to do with it...just know that things that are plain-ol'-white just don't bring in the money these days...  Not unless the piece is extra fabulous if you know what I mean!  There has to be something SPECIAL attached to the item before people will oooh and ahhhhh about it and then pull out their trusty pocket book and lay down the ca$h.

This great old find was painted with simple white paint and then a vintage French letter was transferred onto the fronts of each of the drawers.  The top was accented with a vintage mailing envelope, also French (both available from Graphics Fairy).

Finished it up with a bit of glaze and wahhh-lahhhh....

DONE!

The desk was originally in incredible condition even though the knobs had been changed out at some point.  I know that only because there were remnants of 'one-hole-knobs' on the back side of each of the drawers.  The brass handles are OK...like them more now that they've been painted and aged!

Looking forward to the summer winding down.  Junkin' is so much MORE FUN when you're not suffering from heat stroke! 

Love to you...

~THE VINTAGE BUTTON LOVER~

~VINTAGE BUTTON COLLECTION~

For as long as I can remember I've been fascinated with old buttons.  I've both collected and used them in my work for almost 30 years and have found it a bit frightening to watch my stash dwindle down to only a few jars.

I love embellishing pretty old things...like the vintage glove box you see above and the tattered lace purselet (petite tote bag) shown below!

With each new creation I pass along a few more of my treasured finds.

I love adding them to newly designed pillows and Christmas Stockings, too!

Earlier this year I once again cleaned up and re-organized my studio.  With every tag sale I attend I bring new vintage-finds into my work place and that means I'm constantly having to straighten things up! I've used up so many of my vintage mother-of-pearl (shell) buttons that for the first time in years I've had to be choosy about the buttons I let go of...

  And so...you can imagine how incredibly fabulous it was to stumble upon a sale yesterday where I found bags and bags and bags of vintage shell buttons.  

There were large, medium, small, tiny, two hole, four hold, shank, carved and smooth buttons...

I couldn't believe it.  I ended up purchasing about 20 pounds of absolutely pristine buttons...never used.  They were acquired by a private individual when an old American button factory was auctioned off a few years ago...

I continue to find it absolutely incredible when I'm led to the very thing I'm in need of.

I still don't believe in coincidences...

No...

My steps will always be directed by

the One who brings me peace, joy and strength.

The Holy One.  The Most High.  My God.

~~*~~

Sorry to be MIA for the past couple of weeks.  Been busy creating all the things I love.

Blessings and love to you this Sunday...

~OUR $35 FRENCH FARMHOUSE BACK SPLASH~

We are pressing on with our kitchen remodel and I'm so happy today to share with you that our back splash is almost done!  It's the last of the two remaining projects we've had left to do and you know THIS GIRL is OVAH-DE-MOON happeeeee to be to this point!!  During the weekend my Mr. AGPMan finished measuring and cutting all the Lap (ship lap) and then stained all the wood pieces. 

Because so many of the pre-packaged Lap was damaged (on the ends) the really NICE MAN at our local home improvement store discounted what they had in stock and we ended up getting all of it for $35...I think there were six packages if I remember right.  Can you believe that?  Because I had a half-full quart of almost ready to toss out wood stain I ended up using that before painting the wood (after drying for 12 hours) with leftover cabinet paint.  

Here's a shot of the wood after it was stained and one with ONE coat of paint!  We also purchased wooden electrical covers to stain and paint. Is it any wonder they cost MORE than the ship-lap?  I wanted a lot of plug-ins in our new kitchen (before the renovation I had only two!) and I'm not a big fan of them sticking out!  We have 9 outlets and three double light switches!

 Here's a shot of some intricate cuts my guy had to make!

Cut-outs for the sockets, too!

Here's a view after the wood was stained and given one coat of paint.  It took two light coats of paint and some moderate distressing along the edges...

Here are the wooden covers...  Another LIGHT dusting of paint on  everything was needed before the entire thing was given a good coating of polyurethane.  It was easily attached to the sheet rock in the kitchen with adhesive.

My Mr. AGPMan and I thought for a long, long time about how I wanted our kitchen to look.  We mulled over going with wood counter tops, concrete, granite, quartz and so much more.  We tossed around the idea of distressed cabinets, glazed cabinets and just plain ol' painted cabinets until we were sick of everything.  Ultimately we went we simple painted cabinets (Sherwin Williams Self Leveling Paint in Snowbound), granite counter tops and then the distressed ship-lap back splash.  Since our flooring is hand scraped wood we decided that wood counter tops with a vintage wood island (fabulous antique counter my guy is modifying) would be just too much wood for us.

In the end the entire back splash, ship lap, paint, stain and socket covers cost us about $100.  It's just crazy how some things work out and we feel blessed to get to this point without breaking the bank.

Our backs, YES!  But, not the bank!!!!

 

 I purchased this antique reproduction mail box from Market.  Couldn't wait to get it painted...it's going somewhere in our home!  Not sure yet just where!

The photo above seems like a distant memory....this was at the beginning!  After the bathroom, laundry room and half the cabinets (right side) were removed!

OK...more soon!  Thanks for peeking in to see where we are.  We are closing in on the finish line and will surely be done by our anniversary in September.  We are traveling to the Nashville area next month to pick up the antique counter.  Beyond excited about that!

Love to you...

~A VINTAGE LACE TOTE BAG~

I still LOVE LOVE LOVE working with vintage laces and trims.  Never enough time to actually create all that's inside my head, but I did manage to finally make another Tote Bag a couple of days ago.

This is the kind of work that really makes my heart SING!  There is just something about the hand placement of vintage laces that make me feel happy inside.  The only downside is that they take several hours (7-8) to complete.  

This one SOLD in just a couple of hours so it's already on it's way to a new home...

  Accented with vintage buttons, the body and lining of the Tote was made of linen.  Love linen!  Yum!!!!

You can't see much of the linen floral used for the inside, but it is a really sweet fabric!

Love the Tattered Lace Pin attached to the outside, too.  Found the vintage earring(s) used for the center on a recent trip to Chicago...

Here's a side view with an up-close shot of some of the vintage laces and trims used to create the Tote!

The pattern for this Boho style bag was from ROSS.  Yep!  ROSS!!!!  A few years ago I found this neat (but cheap) bag at one of their stores in Cali and I bought it knowing when I returned home I'd be cutting it up and using it for a pattern.

Have you ever done that?  Things made in China (without design ownership) are free-game for me!

I'm taking the day off today to spend with my Miss K.  She is almost 13...can't you believe that?  She's pretty shy these days...but maybe I can convince her to let me take a couple pics of her so you can see how big she is...you won't believe it.  The little girl you all once knew has grown into a lovely young lady.

More soon.

Love to you...

~LOOKING AHEAD IN A NEW DIRECTION...~

I've always believed when one road ends, it's time to look ahead in a new direction.  As my hubby and I work on the last leg of our kitchen remodel, so comes the welcomed opportunity to return to creating, designing and decorating around the things I love.

Those things, too, have changed over the years.  Nothing truly stays the same for long, does it?

When I first started blogging it was all about my passion for painting cottage pink roses, my faith, selling my wares, the re-telling of precious tales about my Miss K (back in 2009 she was a wee girl of only seven), my Mr. AGPMan and the simple, sometimes complicated story of living our lives inside our La Chaumière de Briarwood...  Next month we will have called her home for 23 years~

As the years have pressed onward, so have we! Our lives are constantly evolving...new job in January 2014 for my hubby and with it came fresh opportunities to enjoy the things we've been blessed with.  I'm so grateful for a peaceful home, good friends and for over-the-top projects that are coming to an end.

Still...there are always things to do!  This morning as I surveyed my studio I realized she is in dire need of a facelift...  She needs to be de-floofed, cleaned up and returned to a more manageable space.  I continue to love all things vintage, I'm just working at achieving a bit more scaled back and refined look all across my home.  Our kitchen renovation has taken all of our focus for so long now and today I'm actually excited about paying some attention to the other rooms in our home...

This past weekend my Mr. AGPMan drove down to Dallas for the summer Wholesale Market.  Came back with wonderful ideas and tons of inspiration.  The talent behind the showrooms is simply incredible...  All the pictures I've shared with you (except the candles) are from one of my favorites...

Anyway...just wanted to say HELLO, catch you up on a few things and also say that LIFE IS STILL GOOD! 

Blessings and love to you...