No holidays for kitchen maids

Those old style wooden pegs are well suited for fastening all sorts of half full food sacks. I thought it to be more fun if they looked like real kitchen staff.




After a short training period, I'm sure, I will not be needed in the kitchen at all. The three girls can work out a schedule among themselves, and each gets to be in charge of one meal a day.




And they always work with a smile.




These other type of clothespins come handy, too, to snap smaller bags and packages.

Rosy times ahead

There can never be too many small vessels at home for this and that, especially in the craft room. After taking a look at the expanding tin and napkin pile, it was quite clear, what sort of experiment should be carried out. (And there was a big sale at haberdashery). So these rosy lacy cans were born.



The tins were painted first, then roses cut from napkins positioned and moistened with water using a brush, and then three layers of mod podge applied. Finally, the cans were trimmed with lace and twine to protect against sharp tin edges.

Shades of grey

When there are many small things to keep organised, there is a need for many small drawers! Those antique cabinets with lots of drawers are just perfect, but really hard to find. Now I discovered a line of these small drawer cabinets in a local hardware store, adopted one at once and dressed it in shades of grey.




Only a few days ago this was just an unfinished birch wood cabinet manufactured by Zeller Present.




After dusting and wiping, a coat of dark grey paint was applied. That was a mix of beige and blue interior paint leftovers with some black acrylic art paint added to make it darker.




The next treatment was painting the exterior surfaces intentionally unevenly with lighter shades of grey and beige using both brush and sponge for a distressed look.




Last but not least - some stampings with rubber stamp and that darker grey paint again.




Further decorations and varnishing I had had in mind, seemed redundant now. The surface was really nicely and chalkpaintly matte, so this piece was declared finished. Poor thing looks so much older now.

Wool spooling

Another great find from the attic department: antique wooden wool spools. These look so cozy on the shelves and are perfect for storaging cords and ribbons or a single yarn ball. Not yet tested, but it must be very convenient to wind yarn from the spool during knitting. Only a spool holder missing now.




The spools went through a thorough cleaning, nevertheless kept the terrible 'attic' smell and had to be coated with furniture varnish. This is why they are a bit shiny, but the antiqueness is still quite visible.

Wire mailbox

This is a shabby style mailbox to hang by the door, where anything that arrived by post or anything that needs to be taken to the post office can be temporarily stored. Sort of a 2-in-1 incoming-outgoing box.
Made this out of wire in three different gauges using the design-as-you-go working style without a plan. The uneven paint cover makes it look really old and that is the key.

Meet Mannie

Mannie came to me feeling somewhat tired and neglected. She was really happy to hear that I was looking for an assistant and eager to start working right away.



Mannie is my only helper at the moment, doing fitting and modelling, and hopefully will help out with some bookkeeping and supplies shopping as well in the future. (Haven't told her that yet, letting her enjoy the summer first.)

Mannie before and after the makeover:




First thing, of course, was to make Mannie a new proper outfit.
I needed to find a fabric that was stretchy, textured and of beautiful cream or beige colour. Not an easy task at all, but... accomplished - after going through ALL the fabric stores in the city in two days.
This fabric is probably a mixture of cotton and synthetics and not so stretchy as Mannie's old dress, so I had to make a cut in the back and add a zipper.




To give a matching finishing to Mannie's wooden leg, I painted it with water diluted wall paint in three coats. The outcome was really surprising, looking as if the wood had been sandpapered and lime painted and all...