Good Old Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

In my kitchen, I have a pine dresser. I have had it for about 15 years and although it is now a bit scratched and battered and going a bit orange, as pine sometimes does, I really like it and it's extremely useful for storage. I have been meaning to attack it with a tin of chalk paint for absolutely ages but I have not really had the time. Until yesterday. Yesterday I was in a very bad mood. My lovely truck had to go off to be scrapped because the head gasket had gone and I couldn't afford to get it fixed, I discovered that the bag of organic layers pellets had gone mouldy because it had been resting against a damp towel in the laundry room and I had to throw it away and my hideous neighbours were once again being vile and all this was before about 8am! Not a good morning and because of my bad mood, I knew there was no way I would be able to sit down and concentrate on sewing because I knew that I would be unpicking more than I actually sewed so I was slumped on the sofa watching awful bank holiday TV in a very grumpy mood. 

Then, while I was rummaging in the spare room looking for a magazine to read, I spotted the tin of Old White Chalk Paint that I had earmarked for the dresser. I had this mad idea that paining might get rid of some of my frustrations so I grabbed the paint, found a brush and after I had moved all the things off the dresser, I attacked the dresser with the paint. 

Before

Three hours and two coats of paint later and the dresser was transformed. I have to say I love it but I am undecided as to whether I should sand it back and distress it. My mum says I shouldn't so I might just give it a coat of wax to give it a bit more durability. 

After

Unfortunately, as usual, having something newly painted in a room tends to show up all the marks and blemishes in the rest of the room so now I just need to paint the walls, paint the ceiling, paint the doors and paint the beams ........hmmmmm maybe painting that dresser wasn't such a bright idea after all :-)

New Technology and a Beautiful Stained Glass Light Catcher.

Splashing out on frivolous new technology is not something I would normally do. I don't automatically replace things when a newer, shinier version is brought out, my phone is a hand-me-down from my youngest daughter, my digital camera is almost 10 years old and I am firmly of the belief that if it's not broke, no need to replace it! Lately though, I have been finding myself increasingly out and about with not much to do and also, with a lot of time at the market when I could be doing things like writing blog posts but, being woefully lacking in the up-to-date technology department was causing a few problems. So, a few weeks ago, I finally caved in and I bought a tablet. I won't mention the brand because I don't want to be accused of shameless plugging of a product and I also have to confess to being slightly doubtful at first because I thought I might have made a bit of a mistake by spending so much money on something that I might not be able to justify. I have to say though, I am now totally in love with it. I also found, very helpfully, that I could get it interest free from my catalogue and pay for it over 3 months. An ideal solution. It has a wifi and a cellular package so I can connect to the internet wherever I am and it has a great camera on it too so I have been snapping away with it at anything and everything to try and get a feel for it. In fact, it seems to have almost replaced my digital camera because there is no faffing about with cables to download the photos, it just sends them via miraculous technology straight to my laptop or, I can even post them straight to my blog. It's amazing! Here are a few of the snaps I took with it. 

Butterfly on the Buddleia (spot the bumble bee hiding under the butterflies wing!)

Metro Snuggled up on the Sofa

Moth in the Hallway

I also wanted to show you my new stained glass light catcher. It was made by a very talented young lady called Louise Hawkins who has a stall called "Made by Paws" at the market. She does the most beautiful stained glass light catchers and tiffany-style lampshades and pictures and also fabulous house signs and key racks. A couple of weeks ago, when she was at the market, she was working on a beautiful light catcher. I fell in love with the colours she was using and I asked her if I could buy it from her. She dropped it off yesterday morning along with a house sign for my gate. Here is it. I absolutely love it.