Paris Flea Market

I spent my early morning hours at the Powell, Ohio street flea.  They have it three times a year during the warmer months on Sundays.  I pickedup a few things to sell at the store, but today I wantedto feature one of the shops in Powell, an outlying suburb of Columbus.The store is "Paris Flea Market" and they always have lovely things to tempt you.The outside of the store is so charming, it just draws you in.

I don't remember this wall painting of the Eiffel Tower from past visits,but it greets you and captures your attention as soon as you walkin the door.

And then there is this beautiful table set with a beach theme.

Let's take a stroll around the store.

Another beautiful table and tablescape in much softer colors.

I love this lemon vignette with it's pretty yellows.  I would love tohave that set of glasses.

This black, white and red area is very striking.

I love this lovely white sideboard.  It has the prettiest molding along thebottom and such delicate carvings.

A pretty way to display items.

Shop owners Marilyn Kuntz and Donna Carrel did not want to havetheir pictures taken for my blog, but Gillis, was perfectly eagerand willing to pose for me.

With all the weekly party memes in blogland, I'm sure we don't really need one more, but it would be fun to link up and show our area shops.  I really likethe idea, but unfortunately between working full time and trying to refinish furniture for the store I'm involved with, I don't have time to host one.What a fabulous way to visit shops all over the country via everyone's blogs.Anyone interested?~Linking with~ The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sundays~Boogieboard Cottage for Masterpiece Monday~Dittle Dattle for Amaze Me Mondays~Mod Vintage Life for Mod Mix Mondays 

Two More Pieces

Two more pieces ~ off to the store, and most importantly~out of my living room.I found these two end tables at a yard sale up in Cleveland whilevisiting a friend.  It was a very productive trip as far as yardsale finds and I came back from my wonderful visit with a car full offurniture.  That was back in May and I'm just now getting aroundto working on these pieces.  Here is the before picture.

As you can see from that picture, the piece is sitting just outside my garageand behind it are more pieces of furniture that totally fill the garage.My goal is to get all those pieces finished and out of my garage beforethe snow flies, so my car can get back in.  With the excessive heat wavewe've been having lately, snow flying sounds rather nice right now.~Here are the after pictures of the furniture sitting in my living room all readyto be loaded and taken to the store.

I don't usually take pictures of the process since I usually forget or I'm too messyby the time I remember, but after sanding this piece, I stained the wooddarker, followed by a light coat of flat black paint.  Next, I applied a coatof Caromal Colors "Chipping Cream" which allows the next color to chip or distresseasily.  The final coat was just a beige color I had leftover from anotherproject.  I sanded/distressed it and then applied a coat of dark paste wax.

I forgot to mention that I applied a fresh coat of flat black Rustoleum paintto the legs and hardware to freshen it up.

This is a wonderful little container with a bee design that the owner of thestore gave me one day because I admired it so much.  Being a previousbeekeeper, I am always drawn to "bee" items.  It wasn't priced, so I askedher how much it was and she just so kindly gave it to me.  It's somethingI will cherish always for it's uniqueness and for her kindness.  It'scoloring matched these end tables perfectly.

Linking with~Dittle Dattle for Amaze Me Monday~Boogieboard Cottage for Masterpiece Monday~The House in the Roses for Show Off Your Cottage Monday~Between Naps on the Porch for Metamorphosis Monday~
 

Bright Summer Colors

Yesterday I did a post of soft summer colors and today I'm doing the opposite. The difference today from yesterday though is not only the colors, but today's flowers are silk.  I have found that good quality silkflowers are worth every penny and can bring just as muchjoy to a room as fresh flowers.This first arrangement of nasturtiums is one I have hadfor years and years.  I make the little basket from sticks and filled it with the colorful nasturtiums to brighten my kitchen every summer.

You know you love something when it passes the test of time andyou keep it for years on end.I paired it with this dear little summery saucer and pearcandle I found at Goodwill last week.  Don't they go together likethe perfect couple?

But my favorite part of this perky vignette is the bouquet ofcolorful poppies I found at a yard sale this weekend.

I originally picked these up to resell at the store, but just can't bring myselfto  part with them and the way they brighten up a room. Thebrilliant colors demand attention and scream "look at me". 

 I love the way they always bring a smile to my face and sunshine to the room. ~Last but not least, is the soft orange plaid linen I found at a flea market a few weeks ago.  I picked it up to use in the store this fall for Halloween, butfound it the perfect table cover for this vignette.

~ Linking with~Dittle Dattle for Amaze Me Monday~Life Made Lovely for Life Made Lovely Mondays~Boogieboard Cottage for Masterpiece Monday~A Stroll Thru Life for Tabletop Tuesday~House of Grace  for Twice Owned Tuesday
 

Soft Summer Colors

I normally think of spring for soft pastel colors in the garden but as I was weeding this morning, I kept looking at this soft combinationof balloon flowers and pink cone flowers.  They are so pretty thatwords don't do them justice.

~ Linking with~The House in the Roses  for Show Off Your Cottage Monday~Little Red House for Mosaic Monday~Smiling Sally  for Blue Monday

 

Wrought Iron Finale

Well, I finally finished up the rest of the wrought iron furnitureand moved it to the store tonight.  Everything was again painted with Flat BlackRustoleum and the seats covered with the cheerful geranium fabric I purchased at Jo-Ann Fabrics to match the rocker and end table you can see here.But let's start with the before picture.

I forgot to take a picture of the chairs before, but you get the idea.Instead of putting the furniture in my space, the owners had medisplay it in the atrium.  It's a room with lots of natural light that used tobe the greenhouse room when this store was previously a florist.  When it rains, you can hear the pitter patter of falling raindrops and theroom was the perfect setting for outdoor patio furniture.So here it is, with a few accessories I brought to sell with it.

I told you I was falling in love with this cheerful set, but realized it wasa little too large for my screened-in porch, making it a littleeasier to let go of.We pulled these gorgeous vintage screen doors from another vendor's space to help set the mood.  Hopefully she won't mind, but if shedoes, we'll have to put them back in her space.

We moved the wrought iron rocker and end table over to accompany the table and chairs to make a more enticing set.

Doesn't this look like the perfect place to sit down and enjoy a meal?

How I love these doors.

Next we started working on the adjacent wall and display area, tryingto continue the red and black theme along the wall.  The rest ofthese pictures are things from other vendors and local artists thatI can take no credit for.

At this point, both of the owners needed to leave for the day, so they letme stay and play and finish the whole side of this long room.

Furniture sells so quickly from this store, that daily they need to rearrangethe displays.  I'm sure they enjoy it, but today they both seemed relievedto not have to worry about this room and gladly left me to "have at it".

What a fun way to spend an evening, playing with an endless supplyof beautiful things.~Linking with~The Shabby Nest for Frugal Friday~French Country Cottage for Feathered Nest Friday~Common Ground for Vintage Inspiration Friday~At the Picket Fence for Inspiration Friday~The Thrifty Groove for Thrifty Things Friday~My Romantic Home for Show and Tell Fridays
 

A Ray of Hope

I'm so far behind on taking care of my gardens.  Parts of them are soout of control, I may never get them back in shape this year.This part of the garden next to the green house is a prime exampleof the rampant chaos in my gardens. 

 Pulling all these weeds and thistles seems at times to be a hopelessand endless battle.  But in the midst of this jungle of weeds, Ifound some of my hydrangeas blooming and I had to grab mycamera to capture this picture of beauty and hope. 

 I love the way they bloom in different colors all on the same bush. 

 Such delicate sweetness. 

 Beauty in the midst of endless weeds making all the work worthwhile. 

Linking with~A Southern Daydreamer for Outdoor Wednesday  

Wrought Iron Makeover

This is a short post with few pictures.  When I was reviewing whichpictures I wanted to use, I was amazed that I had so few pictures forso much work.  Anyways ~ here is my latest item to hitthe store.  These are the before pictures.  A wrought iron rocker . . .

and a matching end table.

I know you've all seen this style of outdoor furniture before ~ nothing newand nothing out of the ordinary.  I also have a matching dining table withfour chairs that I'm working on this week.After lots of sanding, an application of naval jelly and two coats of flat black Rustoleum,  they were looking almost new again.  I found an outdoor fabric with bright red geraniums and a blackbackground at JoAnn Fabrics, that became the direction Itook the furniture.  I didn't get any pictures taken while thefurniture was still at my house, so here they are at the store. 

 

I love this cheerful fabric and that it looks so great with the black wrought iron.

As I've been working on the table and chairs this weekend, I have foundmyself starting to fall for this set of furniture.  It's all going off to thestore, but since I sold my wicker furniture at the store, and myscreened in porch is still empty, I'm secretly hoping it doesn't selland I can bring it home to live with me again.  Maybe I'll price it a littlehigher than usual so nobody will want it.~Linking with~Dittle Dattle for Amaze Me Monday~Between Naps on the Porch for Metamorphosis Monday~The House in the Roses for Show Off Your Cottage Monday~Boogieboard Cottage for Masterpiece Monday~