This project didn’t actually make it to my undone list, because it was so close to being finished that I didn’t think it counted. Plus, I am going to blame the delay on the craft store stencil thieves. Can you believe there are actually people who want to stencils so badly that they are willing to risk jail time? There’s an ugly craft world underbelly out there. These are their stories (insert Law & Order sound effect).

Bonus shot of Pixel scrounging for food in the background.

I was checking out the Martha Stewart paint aisle at Michael’s recently, and saw her line of stencils. They are much nicer than your typical craft store stencils, and I particularly liked this lace set. I’ve had this chippy chair sitting on the porch forever, and it wasn’t the nice kind of charming vintage chippy, it just looked bad. I had also recently pinned some painted and stenciled chairs, and so all this inspiration came together, and I bought my little stencil set and went happily on my way, blissfully unaware of the stencil drama to come (okay, I may be overstating this a bit, it wasn’t actually very dramatic, just inconvenient, really).

I sanded and sanded my chair, and got a reasonable amount of the paint off. Then I just taped it off and painted a little over half of it with a couple coats of semi-gloss white paint. I eagerly applied the big lace stencil in bright pink and got ready to do the smaller lace stencil when I discovered that my package was missing one of the sheets. Armed with my receipt and incomplete (and now used) stencil package, I went back to Michael’s to exchange it for a complete set. When I went back to the aisle for a replacement I found only one other package of the same stencil pattern, only this time, not one but all three sheets were missing! I want to know how one smuggles a stencil out of the craft store. I wouldn’t think you’d want to fold them up, and these things are pretty big. Plus, they are just not that expensive and you can always get a 40% off coupon. Anyway, the manager was quite nice and called a nearby store for me. They had it in stock and had it sent over for me to pick up the next day. Just don’t be surprised if the stencil aisle now has video cameras monitoring you as you shop, and for goodness sake, check the package before you buy it to make sure they are all there!

Back to my chair…I finished with the smaller lace pattern in blue and then sealed the whole thing with a wax finish, so it’s still a little chippy on the unpainted side, but it’s nice an smooth. I totally love it and now I want to stencil everything in sight. I will try to restrain myself.

Cushion is from Pier 1, but I don’t think it’s available any more.

One project down, seven (or more) to go.

The overwhelming majority said turquoise, and because I am basically lazy, I decided to go along with the majority.


I liked the suggestions to paint it the same color as the wall, and if I start hating this, maybe that’s what I’ll do, although I think if I start hating this, that will be motivation to take the time to look and find something I really love. I’ve got lots of little pops of turquoise, yellow and green around the room, so for now this fits in just fine.


Five people actually called me weird and my sconces hideous. It’s okay though, I can take it.

Five days off in a row! It was so nice, and I was so busy. I got a lot done, but I’m not quite finished. Friday I moved all the furniture out, spackled and cleaned the yucky flat blue walls:

Then I painted. The color? Laura Ashley Heath. The result. Wow, I didn’t know green could be so ugly. It was like anemic pea soup. We hated it immediately, but I kept painting as the sun went down, in the hopes that when I saw it in the daylight it would magically become just the sage-y green I thought it was. Nope.

Saturday was the day to be out and about, so I left early in the morning, stopped at the paint store for a quart of a new color (Dunn-Edwards Spooky), Expo for the little brackets for my curtain rods, the madhouse that was Ikea for a duvet cover, $3 picture frames and linen curtains which will be cut up and sewn with the floral fabric for window treatments. There was also a stop for lunch, a stroll around a quilt shop where I didn’t find what I wanted for a quilt for this room, but found some munki-munki gnome fabric and a coordinating polka dot that I had to have, and lastly, a very relaxing pedicure. That evening I painted again, and the new color was approved by everyone.

Sunday I rested.

Monday, another trip to the paint store for a gallon of the approved paint, and a stop at Home Depot for sash rods for the door and don’t forget Petco for food for the dogs. Home again and got all the paint on the walls. Picture frames stained, stain not dark enough.

Tuesday I broke out some brown and black acrylic paint and painted the frames. Picked out which botanicals to use for the nine frames, ran to the local hardware store for hangers for the backs of the frames. The eye hooks and wire that came with them would make the frames stick out too far from the walls. Slapped a coat of paint on the little desk, washed all the new bedding and fabric (yay! curtain fabric arrived in the mail!). Hung pictures, measuring and hammering so the pictures will be a perfect grid with no space between frames. Some cursing and re-hammering, creating extra holes in newly painted walls. Curtain rods installed, only one screw stripped. Bed re-assembled in room, little plates hung, bedside table moved back in.

Aaah. I love it. I’m thinking of hanging that architectural dealie thing above the bed. I found black and white salt and pepper shakers at a thrift store minus one of the stoppers, so am using them for finials on the bed. I still need to get a couple more pillows for the bed, and I’d like to make a quilt using mostly solid fabrics, something like the What a Bunch of Squares quilt in the Denyse Schmidt quilt book. I got some cream fleece and hemmed the edges, I’ll probably keep it spread over the bed for the cats, as they seem to think this is their bed. Of course they also think our bed belongs to them, the little piggies.

Tonight the plan is to sew up some curtains, so maybe there will be some more pictures tomorrow.

I’m nearly finished with the pink sweater, but since pictures of random knitted pieces are boring, I’ll spare you until it’s completely done and sewn together. Instead, I’m just breezing in and out today, and leaving you with a picture of my kitchen wall:

A philosophy to live by.