as Confucious said........

On Saturday, I had a great time at my first market! in my tiny stall, good job I haven't got a cat cos there was no room to sw...you know where I'm going with that!

writing a tag, not rolling a ciggie

The atmosphere was great with nearly everyone being first timers and lots of different stuff on sale. It is an initiative to try and rejuvenate part of the local area so everyone was really positive and up for  a good day, even the rain stayed away! 

I am pleased to say I sold everything except the dressing table so it was a very good debut for Smithy's, one little old lady even wanted to buy my radio!  (I didn't sell it to her)

There was a lot of interest in my furniture which was encouaging and some very complimentary things were said about it.

Had a good deal of support from my son, who even delivered a table to a nice young lady  (I wonder if that had anything to do with it) who lived close by, and of course my wife, they both enjoyed it as much as me I suspect.  

 A small but significant triumph then and, as Confucious said, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."................I make him right.

 

So all in all very pleased, now I've got two weeks to get more ready to sell, (bought this chest of drawers today)













and started work on this table,










I don't know what the previous owners used it for but it may have had something to do with bashing something on it with a hammer repeatedly!

we can only wonder.................

Summer Market excitement!

I am very excited about the forthcoming local Summer Market, in which I have my first stall. It runs for eight Saturdays through our (so called) summer. It will be very interesting to see peoples reaction to the furniture as I have only previously sold on eBay, which I don't think is the ideal medium to sell these things, however deciding on a price for each item I think will be tricky as of course on eBay it finds it's own level. So I have been busy painting and am looking forward to the first day which is this Saturday. The pitch is only 2m square so there won't be that much room, any tips would be appreciated!









I've been a bit rubbish on the photo front recently, but here are a few things I've been working on,

 This dressing table that has a mirror to go on top, this photo doesn't do it justice, the top is veneer but I managed to sand it back then varnish it, it's very similar to the first chest I painted and I've seen a few like this around so they must have been very popular (common).

This retro chest of drawers, that I sprayed to give a nice finish, I am pleased with the way it turned out..

This is a modern coffee table, so all I did was paint the legs then distress glaze and wax, works well.








There is also this funny little chest which is home made (not by me) and I couldn't decide what to do with it, so in the end I just went 'rustic', not really sure about the end product maybe I should put some sort of stencil on it or something.......it's only small but I'll tell you one thing it is a lot heavier than it looks!








I've done a couple of other things and some small mirrors and painted signs, so we'll have to see how this week goes and take it from there, will I need more pieces for the next one? only time will tell, I'm looking forward to it!

Here are some more photos of the retro chest......

and here is a slightly better picture of the dressing table, with the mirror attached, I think it makes a big difference.

"card" table......

I'd like to share my most recently completed project,

This has been a bit of a marathon due to some  unforseen discoveries, more of which to follow, surfice to say it is now finished and I am pretty pleased, (pleased that it's finished and with the end result). The cards on the top are decoupage, and the inside of the drawer is dark green,

I scanned the playing cards spread out on the scanner in five lots on to thick lining paper then cut them out and stuck them to the table with paste.

The paintwork is matt emulsion with a wax finish and the top has been varnished.

Now, I don't want to go on and on, but this table has been a voyage of discovery (pain in the proverbial). We bought it at auction (heavily painted) but it looked pretty nice and didn't inspect it too carefully but when we picked it up realised most of it was made of the dreaded MDF!  

 

 I've got nothing against MDF in the right place but that place is not in a table that I want to distress to expose the wood.

 Okay, the legs and the trim were pine so that's not so bad I can still distress it. Started to strip it and found a strange pattern coming through..........

very odd, the whole thing was covered in this weird paper which was an absolute pig 

(no dissrepect to pigs) to get off! 

 

 So eventually all stripped I decided to stain the timber bits darker for when it showed through the distressing, all back on track.

After priming and the customary age contemplating what colour to paint it, decided on the green and away we go, looking good. Took some sand paper to it to expose that wood and........oh dear, where I sanded it, it went yellow! Not a nice creamy yellow that you could just about get away with but a nasty acid yellow. What next! this would never do, so decided not to distress it after all. 

When it was all painted and waxed I got on with the paper sticking and all was well, except, this little table had one last suprise for me. The acrylic varnish I used to seal the top made the colours smudge on the paper.......aghhhhhhhhhh! I blotted it where I could and although it's not as perfect as I would of wanted it, it's not too bad really and it will have to do because I am beyond the point of no return with this one..............and breathe.

I do have one more card to stick on it though............................

thanks for reading!