Furniture Upcycle

I recently refinished a dresser for a friend of mine. She had a brown dresser and wanted to "perk" it up a bit so I painted the outside a creamy yellow color and the drawer fronts a burnt orange color. Once the paint was dry I took the sander to it and distressed it a bit. The color was not vintage enough for me so I took some brown paint and rubbed it over it to give it more depth. Once the paint was dry I glued vintage music sheets to the top and outside. I put poly all over the piece to finish it up. I love it and more importantly my friend loves her new dresser too!! Thanks Lynn for giving me a fun new project, keep'm comin!!

Country Living Festival, Stone Mountain, GA

I am looking forward to going to the Country Living Festival Friday with my girlfriends! I am still dreaming and inspired by ideas from the last show that I can't wait to see what new things there will be this year. I am also excited to introduce two of my friends to this show for the first time and I know they are going to love it!!! Got my carry-on bag ready to haul all my "loot" and will keep you posted with my findings!

I am very much looking forward to seeing the "Happy Chair" booth again, their things are amazing, if I had unlimited funds I would definitely buy one of her chairs for every room!! I am also looking forward to watching the glass blower again, his is mesmerizing. Learning to blow glass is definitely one thing on my "Bucket List".

Is anyone else going to the Festival? Have you been before and what are your favorite vendors? What did you buy?

MULE CAMP MARKET FESTIVAL

DOWNTOWN GAINESVILLE, GA

OCTOBER 7TH, 8TH - 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.

& 9th - 12 p.m. - 5 p.m.

The City of Gainesville or Mule Camp Springs as it was once known, hosts this rich Appalachian festival at the foothills of North Georgia Mountains.  This festival showcases various mountain arts and crafts. The family can enjoy mule rides, live music and great food, while the kids enjoy the petting zoo and many other activities.

The City of Gainesville and Hall County welcomed the world in 1996 as a host of the Centennial Olympic Games. Lake Lanier was the site of the Kayak and Towing events, and our area became known as the "Hospitality Capital of the World". Once again, the community and the Gainesville Jaycees wish to show you our hospitality by inviting you to the 2011 Mule Camp Market Festival on the Downtown Square in Gainesville, Georgia.

Busy Working

We have a month until we are doing a big arts and crafts show in Gainesville, Georgia. So we have been very busy making new products for everyone to see and enjoy and buy at the show. We will have everything from furniture, home decor, outdoor decorations and jewelry. So please stay tuned to the dates and times of the show so you can come see us and our newest creations!

Curtain Redo

I took some simple stock curtains from Target and added a ruffle to the edge to give it a little extra touch. I have added just plain fringe to stock curtains before but I wanted to do something different this time.

So, I bought an extra panel and cut it in 5" strips, ran a basting stitch down one edge and pulled the end of the string to create a ruffle.  Once I had all my strips pulled into a ruffle, I sewed them on to the edge of the curtain panels and left the raw edge fringed a bit. I love the texture it adds to the curtains without adding more color. I am sure you could try this with any color curtain at your local "Big Box" store. And if I can do it I know you can too, it is simple!!

This is a picture of my summer look for the mantel, although I have added more shells as the summer has continued and we have collected more from the beach. I love this look and hate for the summer to end, but will keep you posted when I change to my fall look. 

Do you change your home for the seasons? What is your favorite season changing idea?

Cake Pops!

Follow this link to the Cake Pops Web page. You will find the most fun ideas for these treats. I finally bought her book at Williams Sonoma. They are definitely more challenging that I thought, but I think they came out cute for my first try and the kids loved them. They take quite a long time to make but they make about 50 pops, so you will have plenty to share!

The kids loved how they taste too. This one was chocolate cake mix, chocolate icing and chocolate candy coating (you can never go wrong with chocolate!). Since I don't like cake they weren't much of a hit for me but the next time I think I am going to try to make them with Oreo truffle recipe (I have posted it in the past just look it up in the archives) instead of the cake. I have also seen them made with gooey brownies, that is definitely another option I will be trying out!

Newest Obcession

So my newest obcession in jewelry making has been to incorporate vintage fabrics into my pieces. It is so soft and light you forget you are wearing jewelry and the pieces are easily mix and match like you would a piece of clothing and certainly layerable. Check out our blog or facebook page for a full selection of jewelry.

My Artist Market Blog 

My Artist Market on Facebook

Necklaces for $10-$15

Bracelets $28-$32



Rings $10-$12





Hairclips $5-$8

Country Living Favorites

There were so many beautiful artists and shops at the Country Living Festival it is hard to list all of the wonderful things I saw. But I would like to share with you some of my favorites.

One of the largest tents was Earth Angels. It was filled with many different "real" artists and many of the most fabulous displays and wares, from paintings, jewelry, felted softies, handbags and more. This is a great website to find wonderfully beautiful things to crave and awe over.

Earth Angels

This is an Artist at the show that can also be found on the Earth Angels website. Her booth was amazing, full of beautifully whimsical things. Her watercolor paintings of the most adorable faces on children and animals along with her color palate being so dreamy. I was in awe at all her ideas she had lots of cardboard cutouts and recycled papers, fabrics and things it was right up my alley and probably my most favorite at the entire show, she was a true artist!

Krys Kirkpatrick Design



One artist had beautiful collages made with shredded pattern pages and shaped into 40's or 50's style dresses. They were absolutely adorable I love, love, loved them!

One Girl



Mule Camp Market, Gainesville, GA

Come visit us this weekend October 8-10 at the Fall Mule Camp Market on the downtown square in Gainesville, GA.  We will have a great selection of jewelry, home decor items, furniture, paintings and more to choose from. We would love to see all of you! Here is a sampling of some of the items you will see.

Matchbook Notebook Craft Project

I did this simple project with the kids the other day and they turned out sooo cute. I cut pieces of cardstock the size of an open matchbook, folded a lip at the bottom and inserted a few pieces of cut copy paper squares, punched a tiny hole through the lip and pieces of paper (i bought a special small punch at Michaels) and insterted a scrapbook binder clip (I got a package at the dollar store) and folded the top over to slip into the flap. Then cut some pictures out of magazines and glued them on the front, some I stamped witha cute "friend" stamp. The boys loved them and it was pretty quick.