TRANSFORMED, from broken to beautiful
Yippee! It’s time for another break from all my writing and all your reading and get down to something fun. Today I’m sharing a cute table we found a few years back when we happened upon a junky little store in the Pacific Northwest. I loved her from the start. Every wobbly and cracked part of her.
…
“Gold, pure gold.” THOSE were the thoughts in the mind of the creator of this old mirror of mine.
Okay, maybe not pure gold but still, I believe that in the beginning the creator of my thrift store mirror had every intention of making this mirror quite beautiful. A mirror to be displayed and admired.
(Keep reading to hear a little secret about this mirror 😉
Eventually she was purchased and probably did have a stint at living life as the mirror she was created to be. Then time passed and, as often happens, circumstances for this mirror didn’t turn out as expected. Life happened. Lots of life apparently as this mirror eventually became a lady most colorful. And not in the best of ways. 
I was so excited when I saw this mirror sitting on the Goodwill shelf with the $4.99 price tag that I added it to my cart in a heartbeat. The checker though! I could tell by the look on her face when I placed it on the checkstand that she was a bit surprised that anyone would dole out their hard earned money for such a hideous piece.
A painted lady, gaudy in iridescent purple, blue, and green, hiding the gilded beauty of what she was originally created to be. I get that. I believe that we are all created with unique gifts and talents and the potential to be what God designed us to be. Life circumstances can change us though, shut us down, make us fearful to pursue God’s intended path for our lives.
Some of us seem to push through to fulfill our dreams early on in life. Others may need a lot of healing to get back on the right track (that’s me, a late bloomer). Unfortunately some may never get there because they have no one in their lives to see through to the beauty beneath and walk with them toward their full potential.
I decided that I would not take this mirror back to her former glory because she wasn’t the same mirror. She had many layers now and, though they were indeed gaudy, I didn’t want to hide them completely.
I began this project by toning down my colorful mirror with a few coats of homemade cassein paint that I learned to make in the online painting course Farragoz, The Art of Patina. This simple-to-make paint creates great texture!
To add even more depth I decided to give my mirror a crackled look by randomly dabbing wood glue over the cassein paint.
After that was nearly dry I painted the mirror using my Homemade Chalk Paint Recipe with latex paint that Home Depot custom matched to Annie Sloan Chalk Paint’s French Linen (taken from my ASCP color card).
You can see here how nicely the paint is cracking as it dries.
A dry brushing of a lighter color Homemade Chalk Paint (a Home Depot match to Annie Sloan’s Old White) followed next.
Last of all I used a clear soft wax to seal the layers of paint, pressing Amy Howard’s Dust of Ages into the crevices while the wax was still somewhat tacky. Have I told you how much fun this stuff is to work with? It comes in a large 10 oz. jar which should pretty much last me forever. For ordering info you can click on the picture below.
Now for a little outdoor photo shoot . . .
. . . with Sasha stopping by to check on her appearance. She is none too happy with all the new grey in her muzzle.
More close ups to show the depth that the milk paint and crackle medium give a painted piece.
Here you’ll see a little bit of the old color coming through because sometimes a little peek of where we’ve been can remind us of how far we’ve come and make us grateful.
It’s hard to believe now that this was once an atrocious looking mirror, shunned and discarded at the Goodwill.
Maybe it takes one who has experienced the feeling of being shunned and discarded to see the beautiful potential in one like this.
Now for the little secret I told you I would reveal: This mirror, underneath all of it’s Old World charm, is plastic! Yes, PLASTIC. Who would ever guess?
For more furniture painting ideas and techniques please check out my Pinterest board, and follow along if you like. To enroll in an awesome online painting course where you’ll learn to make your own paints and be guided through the process of learning several different finishing techniques please check out the Farragoz link here (or on my sidebar).
“For You did form my inward parts; You did knit me together in my mother’s womb . . . My frame was not hidden from You when I was being formed in secret [and] intricately and curiously wrought [as if embroidered with various colors] in the depths of the earth [a region of darkness and mystery] . . . Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them. How precious and weighty also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I could count them, they would be more in number than the sand. When I awoke, [could I count to the end] I would still be with You.” Psalm 139:13-18 The Message Bible
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11 NIV
And just in case you were wondering . . . it is never too late for God to redeem the wasted years of our lives.
You are loved so much!
TheDIYShowoff, LifeOnLakeshoreDrive, SilverPenniesSundays, SundaysAtHome, RusticAndRefined, Spiritual Sundays, GiveMeGrace
Do you like shopping with girlfriends? I LOVE it, and I am wayyy . . . past due for a girlfriend’s shopping day. In fact, it is one of the things I miss the most since moving from Washington State to South Carolina last year. I had the bestest shopping buddies back home and my hubby never worried about our shopping dates because we had more fun being together and laughing with each other than spending a lot of money and having to pack around a bunch of bags (though that can be fun too)!
Well, I haven’t found new shopping buddies here in SC yet so maybe y’all will come with me. Or maybe ALL y’all will come with me, because that’s the way we say it here when there are more than a few people. Are you in? Great! If you don’t mind, I’d like to make a stop at Starbucks for a Grande Soy Iced Caramel Macchiatto. Maybe you’d like something to drink for the road too? My treat!
Today’s shopping trip won’t be for clothes. My buddies and I used to love going to Bellevue Square and spent a lot of time in Nordstrom’s shoe department (Roses’s favorite). Today, since I’m doing the driving, I’ll be taking you to a very special place that I visited for the first time while on vacation this month. The Old Luckett’s Store! Now this would NOT be Roses’s favorite place because she isn’t fond of used things, but she was always a sport and went along for the ride. I don’t really think it was Debbie’s thing either but it grew on her, and since she and her hubby bought our old house she’s been seen frequenting places like this more and more.
Anyhoo, let’s get started. When we enter the doors of Luckett’s you are in for a real treat. Enough talk already. Explore away. And be sure to let me know if you come across any old corbels!
Oh look! Here’s Mr. OTN holding a shutter to match my eyes. He is the sweetest and I never know where he might turn up!
He also found the very corbels I’ve been searching for! Muah!
Did you find anything inside the store that you couldn’t live without? Let’s head outside for some more shopping.
Amazing yes?
Can you say PERFECT PATINA?
The Old Luckett’s Store 42350 Luckett’s Rd Leesburg, VA 20176 703-779-0268
The sweet ladies working at Luckett’s showed me this before and after picture of the store and I would be remiss not to share it with y’all. I’m as much in love with the house as it’s contents.
Thank you SO much dear friends for indulging me by going along with me on this virtual shopping trip. I wish I could have you here in person so we could “Oooh” and “Ahhh” together. After a morning of shopping we’d find a fun place to have a light lunch followed by a heavy dessert (shared of course). Then we might indeed find a Nordy’s (a native Seattleite’s nickname for Nordstrom’s) where we would look at all of the pretty clothes, and maybe find a great pair of new shoes. Once we were done there we would need another coffee or tea before hitting the road back home.
It’s been a great day with friends whom I adore. See ya’ soon!
Blessings,
Were you one of those lucky girls that was chosen first for games in P.E.? Or even second or third? Or twenty-second in a class of thirty? Insert Patti frowny face here because I was NOT. On the bright side, I wasn’t usually the last either, only second or third to the last. “Bashtiful Patti,” the neighbor man’s name for me, wasn’t very assertive so I was never a top pick for competitive sports. Now, if we’d had to choose teams for art class . . . well . . . I wouldn’t have been top pick for that team either but I would’ve been closer to the top for sure! Awww . . . the traumas of childhood.
Repurposed “Jonque”
That is probably what’s behind my wanting everyone to be a winner of the Farragoz Giveaway I’ve been running on my blog. I’ve learned so many things in this painting course that I can now apply to my furniture painting and repurposing of “jonque” (junk looks so much better in French) that I want everyone else who is a painter of stuff to have the chance to learn what I’ve learned. But there can only be one winner . . . THIS time!
So . . . drum roll please . . . Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr . . .
The winner of the Farragoz Painting Course is JUDY!
Congratulations Judy. Farragoz will be contacting you via email today to get you started.
Repurposed “jonque”
Now . . . since I want everyone to feel special do I have a consolation prize for the rest of you? Stay tuned for my next post.
Blessings,
I gave you a peek at my clock face in my last post and promised to come back and share the full reveal. I also promised a giveaway and I can hardly wait to tell you all about it!
Before I give away what the giveaway is though, take a look at what I created with Farragoz, the online painting course I’ve been taking this past year.
I’ve always wanted a large clock face for my home and what fun it was to create my own.
This amazing course teaches old world painting techniques with paints that you make yourself.
There are six modules to the course and in each one you learn to create a different project.
You may remember my first project which was this icon. Now listen . . . I am a painter of walls . . . and furniture . . . and various other knick knacks around the house. I am not a painter of “real” artwork. So I must say that I amazed even myself, especially myself, with how well this turned out. I was also surprised at how easy it was to do with the step-by-step support of the Farragoz team.
Each piece of art is done at your own pace, one step at a time, reporting your progress in pictures along the way. If you have any questions a personal instructor is right there to help you and to cheer you on!
When I started this course I thought I might be getting myself in over my head and worried that my work wouldn’t look as good as the examples given to follow,
but I was assured that this is a course easy enough for a beginner, and it really is! I also soon realized that the idea is to create something of your own making, unique to you, and not a copy of someone else’s work.
The paints are made of inexpensive and safe natural products and they are applied in multiple layers, then sealed, also with natural products. Once the painting was complete I was instructed in new ways of distressing my piece to give it the aged look that I love.
In this picture you can see the depth and texture the clock face has after distressing.
This picture shows texture and also the brightness of the homemade gold paint. I love a little glitz you know!
And here is one more picture taken before I added the winter touches to my clock, so you can see the distressing around the edges of the piece.
I think the greatest thing about the new techniques I’ve learned is that I will be able to use them on my future furniture projects. I’ve already used some of the leftover paint from my clock face on a once hideous mirror from Goodwill. Now I’m just trying to figure out which room I’ll hang it in so I can decide what the final color will be. The before and after photos are going to be incredible!
So what about the giveaway?
I am absolutely . . . over-the-top . . . DELIGHTED to announce that Farragoz has generously offered to give away an online course to ONE of my lucky readers! You can sign up below. The more boxes you check the more chances you have of winning! By entering this giveaway you are confirming that you are 18 years or over. Void where prohibited. The contest will run through February 20th (I don’t know how I’m going to stand waiting that long to see who wins) and the winner will be announced when all of the numbers are tallied!
Good Luck and Blessings to you,
