Rose ~ Chic ~ Friends: My blog is all about you; friends and sharing lifes journey...My love for all things Chic; repurposed, crafted, painted in many venues... and My LOVE for all things Roses! which show up in my home and created projects.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

The Art of Swapping


Today was such a neat day. I had been out running my daughter everywhere...to driving instruction, out with my friend *thrifting*, daughter to basketball training session and when I got home from going to the grocery store I had a Box awaiting for me to open.

I could hardly contain myself and tore into it. What I recieved was absolutely gorgeous...my PUMPKIN SWAP arrived. Why am I so excited...well my wonderful group Pretty Romantic Homes, an ebay group came up with a wonderful swap in July to do for our fall decorating. We were told we could do anything, as long as it had to do with pumpkins. Well...we have such a wonderfully talented group of ladies and what they have com up with is just unbelievable. Be sure to check my PRH friends blogs.

My swap Partner was Ele, who lives in North Dakota of pinkprairielady and has the most wondful studio on her property, which is an old church! What a luck gal I was to recieve her OHHHHH Soooo glittery pink collage for fall, and a sweet tag with a white lacy runner. I was so spoiled...and I will also include pictures of what she recieved from me. Would love to hear from y'all about what you think.

Thanks Ele, you have made my fall so much more special this year!
Beautiful Pink and Glittery Collage...







My sweet tag and lacy runner!



Here's What Ele Got:

Thursday, August 23, 2007

The Art of Collecting More.....Part 2




Well...I was looking around my home this morning and thought I needed to show you more of my collections. Okay, should I say...Part 2...I guess I may now have shown everything so I wanted you to see that I REALLY do collect a lot of different things. And...Yes I Know I have a lot of *THINGS*, ...I am such a visual person...my true artist within, so that is how I rationalize it! LOL

Close to where I live, in Ann Arbor, Michigian is a very wonderful well kept secret. There is this wonderful place called Treasure Mart. Treasure Mart is in an older home in the middle of a downtown residential area that are mainly college housing/apartments. It is 3 stories full of home items of every kind. My dear sweet friend Susie introduced me to this wonderful place. We take many day trips there and can spend hours sifting through each floor, looking for buried treasures. Many of my current items (my pottery) that I have started to collect were from here. These treasures are brought in from all over the area and left on consignment. The best part....the longer they stay there...each month they start discounting the item by 10%...so you could find something that has been sitting there 6 months and get 60% off its original price. That's when you know you have found a really find a good deal!






Monday, August 20, 2007

The Art of Giving Back

Can you tell that I have a theme going here? Well I guess this happened my mistake.

I thought I'd share with you a wonderful venture that I have had this summer of 07. Our Ladies Ministries in our church decided they wanted to offer a mission type trip. But instead of going to exotic or far away places, they kept it closer to home. Our mission was called Divine Design and we were going to Pontiac, Michigan to help a wonderful place call Grace Centers of Hope (GCH).

Grace Centers of Hope is a rescue type mission program that offers rehab for those with addictions. Men and women alike must first go through their 1 year program, stay in their dorm like facilities before they can graduate on. GCH not only offers hope, they offer jobs in their thrift stores, offices and salvages business. Through the past years they began to acquire home on a street call Seneca. There are probably 20 homes of which GCH now owns all but 3. Once they graduate from this 1 year program, they have the opportunity to rent rooms in these homes and begin to get back on their feet. What I just love, is that they are not just rehab'd and then left to their own devices. They are helped out through every step of this process.

SOOOOOO.....that's where Divine Design came in. We had 20 women broken into 5 teams. Each team was given room(s) to basically start from ground zero and do a makeover on them. In May/June we began our planning, preparing and praying for our project.

My team of 3, Bobbie, Sara and myself was given 74 Seneca Street, a quite large home upstairs bedroom and paneled hallway. We knew going in that we had a queen bed and a few holes to repair in the walls, but basically nothing else. On July 30, we loaded up the church bus and headed off for the 1 hour drive to and from Canton to Pontiac.

Day 1. We needed to prep the bedroom and hallway walls. Cleaning and spackling were the majority of what we did that day. The windows also needed the framework cleaned off as well. Close to 100 staples were pulled and old hardware removed. It became evident that we would have to paint these too. Unfortunately we realized that the ceiling had been wallpapered, so we did not have time to do anything to it.

Day 2. The hallway was primed and then Bobbie used 2 small rollers and did a technique which gave a soft sponged like affect. We sanded and ended up doing 2 coats of primer in the morning and then gave it a coat of deep green as a base coat. Also, Bobbie ended up doing a spackling technique out in the hallway to cover the ceiling. It all turned out so well!

Day 3. While Bobbie and Sara put the Bellagio technique on the walls, I was busy prepping and painting the 2 window trims. This day we did any necessary fix ups from paint splatters and wood fixes, to vacuuming and starting to get everything ready for decorating.

Day 4. Now we were just down to the finishing touches. Our Ikea Ar moire was assembled, rods for curtains were put in place, curtains we ironed and hung, the bed was made, our chandelier was hung, furniture moved into place, mirror and headboard were splashed with paint and hung, a large rug was placed under a very marred up piece of rug(w/an iron impression em blazed in the middle) and the finishing touches; things for the walls, inside drawers and desk items were all set in place.

We were also privileged to have very generous donators so that we had extra money in which we used to place a rug in a very worn out bathroom floor with towels to match. We gave storage supplies and toiletries to the Mother, Donna and her 2 children Luke 11 and Judy 9. They were already living in this home as we worked. Donna loved what we had done so much, she kept telling us she just might move in that room. Our last day was finished up by having a Divine Design group walk through of each of the 5 rooms we had worked on. We did this before the Pastor and head of Grace Center’s of Hope and staff had their walk through.

This was truly a life changing event for me. Something I am so glad that I had the privilege to be a part of. I went in know that I have limited strength and came out know that GOD gives us just enough strength for each day. Each day I was exhausted, but a GOOD exhausted. Knowing that I had a little part of placing HOPE in the lives of others is what living is all about. Hope means changed Lives, Changed lives means they will be healthy and reach out to others too.








Saturday, August 18, 2007

The Art of Collecting

Do we Women EVER have enough, when it comes to eye candy?

I don't think so. I guess you might just call me an avid collector. I collected all kinds of things and have them all over my house. Now, I am getting to the point that I might need another house, to house them all in...well not really..but maybe more display cabinets. With my birthday on the horizon, I have put my plug in for another place to display my treasures. And of course, I just love to take these wonders and make beautiful vinette all around my home. Can you tell that I love to create? or even better decorate? Yep that's me! I hope you don't mind if I show you some of my treasures!
Minature Shoes
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Bone china plates, tea cups and tea pots
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A *shelf* above our patio door with creamers
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Stamps and misc collectibles
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Purse even one my grandma gave me as a teenage (the black beaded one)
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Mirror, Mirror on the wall
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Milk Glass
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Friday, August 17, 2007

The Artist Within

How many of us go through life and then all of a sudden, something happens and the direction you are going in changes? Well that happened to me.

In 1999, it became evident that my health was suffering and I need to have a radical hystorectomy. I then had a 7 year old and would have loved more children, but it was not what God wanted for me. He had other plans for me. I had no idea what I would do...and then I saw on TV a Donna Dewberry advertisement for her 1 stroke painting technique. For some reason that piqued my interest. That was the beginning of what has now become a passion to me...my painting...painting of roses. As time has gone on I have create a rose that I really believe to be my OWN rose. I love to try other flowers and other roses...but always come back to my rose. Now that doesn't mean I still don't tweak it here and there...but I have grown fond of my rose. I will leave some pictures for you to see.

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