TGIF!
This has been a crazy week, I’m sure most of you can relate. As many of you know, I have a day job working in municipal government. I don’t share much about that here because that’s part of my boring, 9 to 5, accountant persona. It’s not terribly exciting to share, but I do love my work there.
Here in Minnesota, our governor has finally issued an order for non-essential workers to Stay at Home starting tonight at midnight. We were anticipating that he would do so, so I spent most of the week preparing for the possibility that I would have to work from home. I won’t be able to do all of my work from home, but I can do a good portion of it here.
So this week has been spent scrambling to put things in place in preparation for the Stay at Home order over the next two weeks. It has been a strange combination, being really busy at the day job and then going home and feeling like I had absolutely nothing to do. Even though not all of our businesses have been closed yet, I’ve been trying to avoid public contact whenever possible so Mr. Q and I have been staying in and binge watching M.A.S.H.
I’ve also been at a loss for a good blog post for today. All I worked on this week was a simple pair of candlesticks from the thrift store.
I purchased these because I liked the beefy size of them. They weren’t horribly ugly or anything, maybe just a tad boring.
I decided they might look pretty fab with a rusty finish, so I pulled out some Dixie Belle products.
I started by painting them with a base coat of Dixie Belle’s Caviar, a basic black. Once that dried, I added two coats of the Iron paint from their Patina Collection. Before the 2nd coat of the Iron paint had a chance to dry, I sprayed them with the Green spray.
After waiting about 24 hours, they had developed some rusty patina.
It’s definitely an improvement, but I wanted a little bit more rust.
But I have found that when using these products, the rust continues to develop over time. So last night I checked them out to see if they had gotten any rustier since last weekend.
They look a little rustier for sure.
I’m debating putting them outside to encourage even more rusting, like I got with the planters I painted last summer.
Hmmm, watching candlesticks turn rusty … seems like ‘a tad boring’ is a bit of theme today.
How about you? How are you coping with the pandemic? Working from home? Having to close your business entirely? Missing your family? Running out of toilet paper? Got any great ideas for relieving the boredom?
As always, thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the Patina products used for today’s project. You can find their products here.
q is for quandie 
The candlesticks are super cool! My significant other worked on a job on a renovated farmhouse last weekend. I went along as his helper. This sweet lady inherited it from her grandfather and it is now their second home, a getaway from the city. She has done such a wonderful job of mixing the new farmhouse look with the old authentic. I was in awe. It was nice to get out, albeit safely, as there was no one at the home but us. You are truly blessed to have one of these old houses!! We’ll get through all this and be stronger. 🙂 In the meantime, I try even harder to find joy in the little things. One of the things I really look forward to on Monday and Friday are your blogs, even if I don’t comment on every single on of single one. I do read them all and they are one of those things I am thankful for.
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Thank you so much for saying so Abbie! I’m going to do what I can to continue my regular posting schedule even though I don’t have a lot of projects to work on right now. I feel like it’s getting harder and harder to find online content that isn’t about the virus, and sometimes we just want an escape from all of that right? Hopefully I can provide that for people.
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Inquiring minds want to know. Are you keeping those fabulous rusty candlesticks or selling them? I love the heft of them too!
I’m using this gift of time to deep clean and organize. To reward myself for that I’m also sewing up cloth napkins. Thank goodness for podcasts and audible books.
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Most likely selling them eventually … when things return to normal. They would be great on a mantle (which I do not have). I feel like they are too tall for a typical dining table arrangement. Hey, napkins … that sparks an idea for me Victoria. I have some linen napkins that I’ve been meaning to dye for quite some time now. I’ll pull those out, thanks!!
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We are hunkered down here like most others and feel we had a little more warning in Canada.Really enjoying the simpler things right now like working outside in the garden and reaching out to friends and family through technology.Missing family especially the little ones! Finding time to work on a few projects and organizing things long ignored.Look forward to your blog so hope you are able to continue. Stay safe and be kind to each other!
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Here in Minnesota our gardens aren’t quite ready for us yet. Still a soggy, mushy mess. I walked through the yard last night to inspect how things were looking and noticed that once again this year my tulips have all been chewed right down to the ground. Drat!
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I’ll have to really try the rust patina product now! I became a Dixie Belle distributor just in time to shut my shop down. So, I am working on projects in my “workshop” area and spending 4-8 hours down here. I live in the upstairs apartment so the commute is minimal! Today I’m living life on the edge and using a heat gun to remove badly damaged veneer. The soaking method didn’t work so here I am trying to burn down the building. Social distancing can be hazardous! Thanks for always inspiring me!
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LOL, thanks for that mental picture Laura. I needed a good laugh this morning 🙂 Hang in there!
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My company is considered an essential business so still working. The problem with that is having to stay away from the rest of my family since they’re all working from home or retired. Oh well, poor me.😁 I love when you use the rusty patina! I WILL get some planters done with this. I forget until you post about it again . I also have some old huge chunky brass candle holders that are really ugly but I bet would look great like this! Sorry for rambling! Hope everyone stays well! ❤
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I know what you mean, we have decided that the Stay at Home order means no more game nights with my sister and niece. At least for the next two weeks anyway. Yep, I say you definitely need to give those candle holders a rusty patina!
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Love the rusty look! Those urns outside look really good. Love Lauras comment about living on the edge with her glue gun. Lol. I’m sewing fabric masks for a nursing home, at least until my elastic stash runs out. The hubby and I are watching Marshall Dillon get the bad guys every day…life is good.
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I’m glad you’re finding a way to put your skills to use in making those masks Terri!
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I work in civic government also, and as my department is non-essential (Assessment) I have been home for a week now. I do worry that if this stretches too long I will be laid off, as I do see that has happened in other departments already.
To keep myself busy I am painting a up a storm at home. I put a finish paint coat on a dresser, and a table that could only be named Patsy (because I bought it for $5 dollars, and then it promptly fell to pieces).
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Oh, I love the Patsy dresser! “fell to pieces”! 🙂
The quarantine conversation in my family yesterday…My brother & wife were sitting on their porch (PA)& I was on my patio (OH) & we were discussing….COWS we used to know!!! And where their stanchion was in the old barn on our grandparents’ farm. (Although, to be honest, COWS might have been a conversation “in real life” anyway!)
Hope y’all stay well.
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LOL … have to admit, I have never discussed the cows we used to know … wait … that sounds wrong somehow … 😉
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Wowza, a whole department just for assessments huh? Well, hopefully things will pick right back up after this is all over. In the meantime, I’m with Jeannie … love the Patsy dresser comment 😉
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Love the “rusty” candlesticks and how you did that. Pretty amazing! Wish I had the energy to do more right now. This pandemic thing has thrown me for a loop and instead of using the down time wisely, I am doing yard work and chicken watching instead. I have a workshop full of furniture I SHOULD be working on. I had an antique market pop up scheduled for last weekend with 19 vendors that I had to postpone and it’s rather depressing. I know we will come back strong though and well rested LOL. Love your blog and all your amazing makeovers! It’s always, always a highlight for me! Take care!
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You are not alone Sue. Much like you, even though I have plenty of down time right now, I am finding it hard to feel either creative or energetic. So don’t beat yourself up, I think a lot of us feel the same. Just do what you can to get through and don’t worry, at some point you will get your mojo back. Until then, rest up and enjoy that chicken watching 😉
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Kansas is now under the stay at home order. It started out county by county but now the governor included the entire state as of yesterday. We were the first state in the nation to close schools, and start teaching from home mostly using Zoom. I am the HS librarian so I still go in for an hour or so a day to finish things up. Anyway, I have a question…. do you ever use a top coat/poly with a transfer? If so when do you put the topcoat on, under or over the transfer? Stay safe.
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Zoom is going to make a mint off this. We are using it for all kinds of stuff at my workplace as well, and who had even heard of Zoom before this? Let’s see, topcoats over transfers. My most popular choice is wax. Be sure you are using a wax that doesn’t have harsh solvents in it such as Miss Mustard Seed, Fusion, Dixie Belle, The Chippy Barn, Real Milk Paint Co (definitely skip the BriWax). With wax, always wait until after the transfer is applied. Trying to apply a transfer over fresh wax creates a stick gooey mess as the friction from rubbing the transfer on heats up the wax. I’ve also used some of the water based topcoats over transfers; Miss Mustard Seed Tough Coat, Real Milk Paint Co’s Dead Flat Finishing Cream or Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat. Again these went on after the transfer. There are some instances when you’ll want to apply a water based sealer before the transfer such as when you’ve got chippy milk paint. Instead of the transfer sticking to your piece, the chippy paint will stick to your transfer and come right off. So with chippy milk paint, seal first. I have seen some manufacturers recommend always sealing your piece before applying the transfer, but I don’t do that. Wax is pretty much out in that case, and I still prefer wax as a top coat most of the time.
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Thank you for the advise!!
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