The Apple Street Cottage

Yes, another dresser has been transformed by decoupage.   I found this one on a garage sale site and it was not in the best of shape: So, out came the sander and what did I find? Poplar, not the best wood. In case you missed it the last time... Poplar is and inexpensive hardwood. The tell-tale green tint gives it away.  It is usually painted because poplar is notorious for being 'blotchy' when stained. If you'd like to see the last poplar dresser I found, you can click HERE . I began this project with new napkins.  That's right, the drawers are done with napkins.  I have a full tutorial HERE . In the interest of full-disclosure, this dresser started out with pink paint but it fought me every inch of the way.  The final result was this chocolatey (that's a word, right?) brown with the pink showing through the distressing.   I made sure to paint the edges of the drawers to give it a 'finished' look. All in all, I'm p...

...is happy to see the snow melting!  We've had some warmer weather (40's) which is giving us a bit of a thaw.  I'm trying not to get too excited though since we still have to get through March! You may (or may not) know that I collect pigs and you will find them throughout my home.  I'm not one of those crazy collectors with thousands of pigs lined up everywhere.  I have some and each one has a story and is special to me.  Someday, I'll write a post devoted to this collection; I did write about Chalk Pig and if you'd like to meet him, you can click HERE . In the meantime, let me introduce you to the newest member of the family, Pallet Pig: With all that pallet wood, there had to be at least one pig, so I drew myself a pattern and started tracing: I fit two on the wood I grabbed.  Here's a close-up since  I used pencil for tracing : Out came the jigsaw and the pigs were cut-out in minutes.  A little sanding, dry-brushed white paint,...

If you visited the Cottage on facebook this week, you saw a 'teaser' for this project.  Go on, go take a peek, I'll wait!   I don't know about where you live, but, around here, grapevines grow wild all over and, since most of my 'stuff' is still packed in a storage unit, I decided to use what was available.  I grabbed my clippers, went out back, and started clipping long lengths of grapevines.  It was really cold, so, let me tell you, I clipped pretty quickly! They still had some leaves... And some great curlicues... I grabbed a few from the pile and made this: You can't tell from the picture, but this heart is pretty big - about 26" across and 29" tall.  I twisted together three vines for each side.  I used a piece of jute twine to tie them together in the middle, slowly bent the vines until  the were joined at the bottom, where another piece of jute twine completed the heart.  It probably took about 5 minutes, you know, one ...

It's been a pretty quiet week around here.  After pulling a muscle in my back, the only thing I was good for was lazing around with ice and heat while taking ibuprofen and muscle relaxers.  Believe me when I tell you, I don't 'laze around' well at all, but I did read two books! Today I want to share my 'Shopping Expedition' from when we visited our kids for the holidays.   A little-known fact is, Las Vegas has LOTS of pine trees.  Who knew, right?  In the desert?  Not only that, they are usually shaped well and are a decent size.   So, on one of our shopping trips, I commented on the pinecones that had fallen off the trees along the street.  My daughter asked me if she had to pull over, and, naturally, I said yes!  I collected about 12 that day, and, after a few more stops on different days, I ended up with a bagful! Because you can never have too many pinecones, we took the dogs for a walk where I acquired a few more....