As you can see I've .done a few things since last Thanksgiving.  Stenciled a table runner to match curtains and rug.  Planted a few succulents, which I love, and refreshed the bedroom and bathroom.  Coffee table, mirrors, wrought iron, all Goodwill finds.  Little table was a neighborhood garage sale find.  Giraffe is a stencil for Trinity, my granddaughter.  I still need to put up the leave and branches.  The painting is my very amateurish effort at of something I couldn't afford to buy.  Believe it or not the teal painted bookshelf is a Pottery Barn score form a friend, needed a lot of work.  The armoire I lined the back with fabric I stapled and replaced the panels on the doors with chicken wire.  It is now a bar.  I've also taken up sewing again and the pillow is just one of many, pics to follow of others.  The bedspread is from Tracy Porter at Bed and Bath, I welcome comments, because I'm still on the fence.  Please leave comments, and ask questions.
Melody

Can a Southern California Girl Move to Denver???

Wow, born and bred in So Cal, but I'm actually thinking of leaving for Denver.  Our weather this week has been in the high 60's low 70's.  Hard to explain, but it gets boring.  Hardly ever any rain, never snow, no seasons at all.  My son is in Denver, and my daughter who is with me needs a change of scenery.  There is a trial for CBD that we want to get my granddaughter in.  May be the key to changing her life.  Anyway, I've done a few things to show you, and believe it or not, one was a curbside find.  Something that rarely happens in So Cal.

Christmas craziness is over!  Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas, just not the stress that comes with it.  The lights and ornaments are my favorite part I think.  I love to give presents, I love having my kids home, and I love the true spirit of Christmas, just not the commercial aspects of Christmas.  Seriously, how can you be jolly when you're spending more than you know you should.  My daughter had the right idea this year by making all her gifts. 

Now it's time to get back to my garage, and start organizing all the things I still have to work on.  After pulling out all the extra chairs, I realized they seriously need to have the seats reupholstered, faded pepto- bismol pink and country blue just don't work for me anymore.  I also need to refinish the old coffee table, I actually finished the replacement just before Christmas, see pics.

The old one is a huge heavy antique oak beast.  It was bought for a much bigger house, and I finally decided it was time to change when my granddaughter almost hit her eye on the corner.  It's a beautiful oak draw-leaf table with gorgeous heavy turned legs that was remade into a coffee table.  It has the the trestle-like center piece between the legs, and is very Restoration Hardware masculine. With the leaves pulled out it is probably 6 ft, which was awesome when I had the room.  I will post a pic when I've finished refinishing it.

I hope everyone had a fabulous holiday.

Our dysfunctional family Thanksgiving

 OUR DYSFUNCTIONAL FAMILY THANKSGIVING

I don't know if anyone else is as emotionally unprepared for this Thanksgiving as I am.  Don't get me wrong, it's not that I'm dreading it or anything, it just totally snuck up on me.  It will be the 1st Thanksgiving I haven't worked in 4 years.  My son is in Colorado, my daughter's extended family celebrated last week, and my family and I haven't celebrated together since my mom passed on, 7 years ago!  My sister and brother, and I have mended fences, which has been a huge relief, but I still haven't really spent time with her children.  My daughter kind of invited herself, which includes me, so today we will all get together.  Our family is kind of infamous for our holiday "brawls".   When I say brawls, I am really not exaggerating.  Were talking putting some of those holiday movies to shame,  but with my mom and little brother gone now, maybe that will be a thing of the past. I really hope so, I really don't like all the drama anymore, comes with age I think (I'd also add maturity, but who am I kidding), so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I hope you all have a fabulously delicious and decadent Thanksgiving feast, and I will be posting pics of the before and after of my 100 year old buffet at the end of the week.

Happy Thanksgiving

Finally: Some pics of projects I have been working on.  Trinity's room is almost complete.  I have a few more things to put up, and then I will get some more pics up.  It was a huge undertaking, which is a post of it's own.  

Chair for Trinity's room that ended up with my small desk, because I found something much better!  More on that later.

 

 A little handmade chest I found at the Goodwill, for Trinity's room. Wish I had the before, it was a horrible dull red and green, hideous, which is probably why I got it for less than $10.00.

 Another Goodwill find, that again, being so new to this, forgot the before pics, it was unpainted and so dirty.

Trinity's room finally finished. She loves her new bed. I have to take more pics, and better ones.  The bed was a Craigs list find and has a matching armoire, they were just dirty and needed re-painting.

Not your father's oak anymore......

I have been trying to get a blog going for some time now.  Tonight I finally chose a name, and in the next few days I will work on getting the rest done, so I can actually start showing some of the projects I have been doing.  As the title suggests, this will be a new direction for me.  My dad was an antique dealer, who mainly dealt in European and American oak.  Every piece of furniture was done in golden oak stain.  When I lost my mom, I inherited some of these fabulous antique pieces, and while there are a few I would never touch, except to refinish in dark walnut, a few will take a much more daring path.  One that my dad would never imagine....yes I am going to paint them!  There I said it, sorry dad, but I want to live my life in fabulous color.

My name is Melody, and   I became a grandma 4 years ago to the most beautiful little creature that has captured my heart and soul.  Her name is Trinity and she has Cerebral Palsy, and seizures as a result of that.  It has been a journey to diagnosis, and different treatments.  Sometimes I think she is the reason I exist.  She has taught me patience and determination, and I would like to believe she improved me as a human being.  I will never see handicapped children or their families the same way again.  To deal with the stress that my job and advocating for my grandbaby caused I started junking, and goodwill hunting, and garage sale frequenting.  While I can not say that all my finds turned out to be treasure, I will tell you it has been the most relaxing thing in my life.  I love to paint, and I love the challenge of trying  to turn something that was ugly, into something beautiful.  I love Pottery Barn, and Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters etc, but they are beyond my reach, so I attempt to find and redo my own version of their beautiful furniture and decor.  I don't always succeed the 1st time, but I keep working at it until it's exactly how I wanted it.  It brings me peace and serenity.
When it comes to my particular style,  I can't just stay with one style, I love it all!  So I hope you will come back and visit me soon, as I will start posting a little bit of everything, from chandeliers to complete bedrooms, and a lot of transformed furniture along the way.