Mantle Redux

Good Wednesday Morning my Friends ~

...another soggy day here at the farm...
yesterday was a mixed bag of hot sun early on, then wonderful thunderstorms in the aft ~

The power went out for a short bit so I decided to change out my Keeping Room's mantle

(again)

remember a couple of posts ago ~ i changed the rugs and mentioned that I needed to 'tone-down' the blue paint on the mantle a bit?

(you can see the brightness of the blue in the photo below)

well I did & here is the result:

Here's what I did:

I took a small bottle of

Folk Art Antiquing Gel Medium (Dark Brown) and a sponge brush ~

watered down the medium just a tad, and then splotched (real professional word, huh?) it on all over the blue paint & wood...

then I took a damp paper towel and smeared the medium around into the nooks and crannies of the wood, architecture of the mantle and especially onto the blue paint...

I let it dry a bit, then took a dry paper towel
 (ok...many dry paper towels)
and wiped away the rest of the medium.

I let that dry for a couple of hours with the floor fan and then I took brown shoepolish and polished the entire thing...let that set up for a bit, then brushed the whole mantle with a shoe brush ~
bringing a mellow glow to the finished work.

(whew!)

Lots of elbow grease, but I love how it looks now ~
let me know what you think about it?

(the two larger black dolls are from The Burlap Owl, the white prairie doll I purchased at Millstone Mercantile...the printed rabbit is from the Fishersville Antiques show ~ and I made the rest)

((the hooked HOME SWEET HOME rug is from Sherry Kristoff))

Many thanks for the encouraging emails about my new fabric design!!!!

Blessings from the Farm!

Lori

...Just for Fun ~

sharing some snaps of the farmhouse on this sunny friday morning ~

the large, carved 'HOME' piece that hangs in our dining room (below)
was carved by my brother in law, Tom Parziale
(love it!!)

an old blue lantern holds an early family portrait cabinet card ~

our breakfast nook in the early morning light ~

a shelf hold a collection of small sewing baskets, old snuff tins and other little oddities :)

my spring mantle-scape (which changes on a whim)

old photos, tiny white pitchers, dried flowers and Paul (waiting for a new home)

Today I'll finish weeding the two smaller herb gardens, and plant new herbs:
basil, thyme, fennel...replanting some 'volunteer' sweet annie...perhaps I'll visit our local nursery and pick up a few new flowers as well?

I'm hoping my fabric proofs from Spoonflower will come in today, and if they do, they will be available in my spoonflower shop ~ YAY!!!!!
I have a bunch of new designs already drawn up and I'll be uploading them to spoonflower today too...these are more whimsical, 'everyday' designs, done in watercolor & pen and ink ...
I think you'll like them :)

of course, I'll be finishing up the 6 needle punch-head dolls for GG in october too.

Then who knows what?
I'll keep you posted.....

Blessings from the Farm!

Lori