Happy Thursday everyone!  I don’t normally post on a Thursday, but I wanted to make sure all of my local readers know about Reclaiming Beautiful’s open house later today.

If you’re in the Stillwater area, be sure to stop by.

Unfortunately, I won’t actually be there myself.  I have my neighbor’s birthday dinner to attend.  But I did bring in a bunch of fun merchandise last night including some more drop cloth Christmas stockings.

As I mentioned last week, I asked my friend Sue to sew up a few more of these for me.  I stenciled some of the new batch very simply with the JRV Grain Sack Mini stencils.

I also did four of them with the red grain sack stripe that I experimented with last time.

I also brought in this fabulous vintage kid sized snow shovel.

I added the wallcutz Most Wonderful Time of the Year stencil to it after first painting the blade in Dixie Belle’s Midnight Sky.

Is that frickin’ adorable or what?  I was really tempted to keep this one for myself, but I also have another vintage, kid-sized snow shovel that’s green and I’m going to do something with that one.  I’ll be sure to share it when it’s done.

I also painted up a couple of cupboard door signs to bring to the shop.  These were brand new cupboard doors that I purchased at the ReStore.  They usually have a big bin filled with them.  To first give them a little bit of age, I painted on a base coat of Dixie Belle’s Putty mixed with their Sea Spray to add some texture.

Once that was dry, I painted over it with Drop Cloth on the first one.  Then I sanded it with 120 grit sandpaper to smooth out some of the texture and reveal little bits of the Putty beneath.  Finally, I added some Christmas stencils and some painted wooden knobs.

For the second one, I painted over the Putty with Dixie Belle’s Midnight Sky.  Then I added another of my favorite wallcutz stencils called North Pole.

I have one more stenciled item that I brought in.

My friend Sue found this decorative sled for me.  Unfortunately, once again I missed getting a ‘before’ shot.  It had a very ‘country’ sort of look with stylized blue flowers painted on it.  I sanded those down and painted the slats in Dixie Belle’s Honky Tonk Red, and the runners in Drop Cloth.

Then I added the Comfort & Joy stencil, also from wallcutz.

Finally, rather than replacing the rope handle with plain rope, I added this beaded garland from Hobby Lobby.

Last up, remember those adorable toy kitchen items I shared a while back?

Well, I picked up a little wooden tote at the thrift store to put them in.  I painted it in Drop Cloth, and then I gave stamping another shot.

That’s the I.O.D. Crockery stamp.

I’ve mentioned in the past that I struggle to get the results I want with rubber stamps (with the exception of stamping on paper).  I followed some suggestions from a few of you and used VersaFine Clair ink over unsealed chalk paint (the Dixie Belle Drop Cloth).  But once again the stamp got a little squiggly on me.  So far that is the best combination I’ve found, but stamping still doesn’t agree with the perfectionist in me.  I’m not giving up on it though, I’ll keep working at improving my skills.

But in the meantime, wouldn’t this little set be the perfect gift under the tree for some tiny baker?

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my latest Christmas projects, even if you aren’t local and can’t make it to the shop.  And for those of you who are local, if you aren’t busy tonight be sure to stop by and check out all of the wonderful things Reclaiming Beautiful has to offer.