Eggcellent idea

A super tiny post for you...

I found these plain wooden eggs on sale at craft warehouse. I gave them a lick of white paint, stamped some  lettering on them and popped them in a cute little vintage basket. I thought they turned out very nicely :)


Chaw for now
xxx

Lots of lovely pictures

“Your still alive!” I hear you say. Yes I’m here! I know it’s been a million years since I blogged last, again! But I have good news, I have lots of pictures and some exciting updates :) So grab yourself a cup of coffee, sit yourself down and enjoy the post. Where should I start…

At the moment I am a little in love with my vintage lady. Whenever I catch a glimpse of her in the corner of my eye, I wonder what she is pondering, where she worked, who were her friends, what was her family like? And That’s exactly why I like vintage and antiques so much. Each piece is alive, it comes with history, untold stories and hidden secrets. My only hang up is that I feel slightly awful about keeping her prisoner under my gloche.

At Aunt Bees the shop where I have ‘my shop’ :) there is this awesome room called ‘the hole’ I am really enjoying how it is decorated at the moment.

I also love the house structure made from vintage windows, a future DIY project I am thinking! 

Yesterday my friend Karen and I went on a mini adventure to the 3 friends sale, we drove around and visited the 3 different locations. We had a lovely time perusing vintage pretties and handmade goodies. I took these photographs at the first location at the fabulous Martha's house 'vintage trifles'! what a wonderfully creative and talented lady. Stop by her blog and take a look http://vintagetrifles.blogspot.com/  

These little egg angels are so so adorable!

I loved this old desk.

Bundles of old letters with whispers from time gone by.

I thought the definition on this step stool was a fabulous idea.

A tremendous 'bird cake'

Some words of wisdom!

A few more pictures for you of my shop at the moment, I’m trying to keep it fresh with spring looming.

And I promised you some exciting news… in approximately two weeks my husband and I will be taking off too Costa Rica for 3 months! I cannot really believe that it is happening! We will be going to the town of Jaco to work with the street children and the local community. God’s plan for us is slowly unfolding and I am so excited for this next chapter to begin! I will keep you updated! Hope that you’re having a great weekend. I have some serious packing to do! xxxxx

Running in the sunshine

A quick inspirational post for you. My gym membership expired last month and in order to stay somewhat sane I have been getting reacquainted with my running shoes. Once I’m out at the park making my way around the perimeter in the sunshine I am happy and content. However motivating myself to get to the park is another matter all together. Whilst scouring Etsy the other day I came across a fabulous blog with a feature on; Fred Rohes, The Zen of Running. I found some pure inspirational gems, which I will share with you. I hope that these writings are inspirational to you also and encourage you to get out there and embrace running in the sunshine.

Have a great day

xxxxx

Put some spring in your step

Spring is in the air and I am ready to embrace it, goodbye short, dark, rainy days hello sunshine and the outdoors. I am really excited to decorate the shop with a spring theme. I have been taking inspiration from images and memories of picnics, beautiful flowers and British tea rooms.

I have been working on some flower arrangements- which I am very pleased with (if I do say so myself) I took some artificial flowers, wire snips, empty wine bottles, glass jars, luggage tags, letter stamps and twine.

Here is what I came up with....

I just bought a stack of old windows, which will make the perfect backdrop for the spring collection.

I found these vintage bird pages and individually packaged them ready for sale.

Last nights sewing agenda produced these friendly creatures

Cute little handmade mice… I like these little fellers (George and Henry)

And Lucy the Easter bunny with her little vintage lace scarf… (sorry about the bad photo)

 Well I am off to make some more bunnies to keep Lucy company.

xxxxx

A real weekend

Ah long time no blog again! sorry!!
Well I will try and make this one good for you :)

I have been busy crafting and doing some travelling too. This weekend I went to beautiful British Columbia and stopped off at down town Seattle also. It was great to be outside in the sunshine, spend time with an amazing friend, see the sights, eat delicious food and enjoy the time off work.

 Stanley park Vancouver BC

 Still at Stanley park trying to be artistic with my photography :)

 Me and the husband in downtown BC 

 The greedy seagulls in Seattle

Pretty tulips at Pike Market (Seattle)

A mini makeover in the store yesterday with heart garlands for the upcoming holiday of Valentines day. I also took stock out and added new inventory to keep things interesting. I decided to also start putting a few things online, I only have 8 items in at the moment but I will add more :) take a look at the online store
www.frenchyandsophie.etsy.com

Here are the heart garlands in store. I know the photograph is kind of small but if you can make out the little dutch houses and the vintage children's shoes, well I picked up theses beauties on my weekend travels.

The shop has just started it's second month. Lets hope this second month goes as well as the first!

I shall love you and leave you for now. I will be back soon I promise. Don't forget to check out the online shop

www.frenchyandsophie.etsy.com

xxxxx

A cute lamp and D.I.Y vintage feed bag pillows

Hello, long time no blog (that was supposed to be a joke as in 'long time no see') (probably not very funny if you have to explain your joke!)

Well I have good news for you, the shop has been a success, so far. I have payed this months rent and after my purchases and commission I am making a profit :) a very small profit but a great start I think. Mainly though it is turning out to be a very enjoyable and satisfying venture.

Here is one of my latest additions to the store...

 I bought the lamp stand from a thrift store, the lamp shade from Fred Myer (supermarket) and then I handcrafted the dusty pink silk flowers. Delightful.

Here is a close up of the silk flowers. I will write a tutorial on how to make these little beauties in the near future.

Next up are my imitation grain sack/ feedbag pillows.

I am really pleased with how these turned out. I used some vintage textured natural cotton fabric and stenciled the design on.

Here is an 'in progess' picture of the pillow covers. I taped off the stripes using painters tape. I used the tutorial from 'Retropolitan' another one of my favorite blogs. I highly recommend that you check this blog out for one it is hilarious and secondly it has so many great ideas and amazing tutorials. Copy and paste the link below for the feed bag pillow tutorial.
http://retropolitanhip.blogspot.com/2010/08/knock-off-vintage-feed-bags-tutorial.html

Well that's it from me tonight. I hope that you are enjoying the last of your weekend as Monday looms :(

xxxxx

Furniture my new love

Have you ever seen an old piece of furniture and thought... that has potential? Next time you have this thought I strongly urge you to act on it! buy that piece of furniture take it home and get to work. Don't worry about lack of experience, I had none prior to this month! all you need is vision, patience, a sander and paint.

I found this old bread bin at the back of value village (my local thrift store) unfortunately my brain was not completely switched on and I totally forgot to take a 'before' picture, sorry! but anyway it was dark wood- not my favourite and I'm not going to lie it was pretty darn dirty too. Well the bread bin was $7, I cleaned it and took the front glass piece out, dismantled it, sanded it (with an electric palm sander- which is far faster than hand sanding!) next came 2 coats of antique white spray paint (approximately $4). Then all the pieces were put back together and a little hand sanding was used to distress .... easy peasy! and now it's sitting pretty in my little shop :)

This piece of furniture was found on the side of the road with a 'free' sign on it which my in laws picked up. It was sanded and spray painted and had a little top made for it (by my lovely husband and father in law) with some scrap wood that was laying around.

Here is the before picture...

And here is the diamond in the rough at the shop. I think it turned out rather wonderfully.

Here is my latest object of desire, purchased yesterday with great excitement, an adorable scroll top desk in perfect working condition, I purchased it from, you guessed it... the thrift store. I think I might be already too much in love with this item to ever sell it. It is going to take a lot of sanding! and a great paint job, I can't wait to get started.

Here is last weeks treasure. I found this chair on craigslist and bought it for next to nothing! It is a solid oak swivel chair from an old greyhound bus station, my initial idea was so sand and paint it but I am now considering leaving it in it's original state. I am sure that this chair will soon find a loving home where it can be truly appreciated. It is going to be hard selling furniture which is so pleasing to the eye but I can't keep it all!

I shall keep you posted on the progress with the scroll top desk. I am off to do some sewing and maybe squeeze in a little shopping too :)
Have a wonderful weekend.
xxxxx