Miss Mustard...

Mustard Chest (the afternoon light made it look quite peachy, cute too!)

 

 

I love mustard shades! I've written about it before but haven't painted with it for a while. Inspired by one of my students at the Albany Summer School last week (who refinished a rocking chair) I mixed up a mustard tone using English Yellow and a drop of Emperors Silk with a plan to paint a sweet little chest I bought last week.

The gorgeous Annie Sloan Chalk Paint palette...

 

 

I finished the dresser within the day. I decided to leave the drawers raw which I am really pleased with, it just breaks up the colour enough. Such sweet detail, its really pretty with a little colour on now :)

 

 

Happy New Year!

I hadn't forgotten about my blog, life just got busy! 

I literally looked at my stats today after months of hiding and see that there has been a constant, steady stream of visitors coming to see what I do...I do plenty, honestly (!)...just haven't been talking about it in many other places than via my INSTAGRAM account and my FACEBOOK business page! Look me up if you haven't already done so, I'd love to meet you - & thanks for being here :)

I got a new look design for my swing tags and business cards which I have had some great feedback about. I have been continuing with my custom furniture painting (not so much of the sourcing and buying over the last few months) but I can feel the urge rising in me again!

 Pom-pom Garlands

 Wooden Words

Stunning Giant Rulers

Hand-poured Soy Candles

I have also been pretty focused on the home-wares side of my little business. I did a few markets with some of my products; a pop-up shop with a gorgeous art collective, joined the local art trail, had a Christmas-shopping do here at home and they all sold really well. Phew! I will re-jig my blog with a little help in the coming weeks so that the are available to see here. I am also supplying the gorgeous LOFT boutique in Bridgetown, a stunning little store with all homemade stock.

Literally in the last few days I received the Annie Sloan/Real Homes Magazine 2016 calendar and see that my geometric sideboard is gracing the front! SO exciting as every single page has such stunning work on it. Then today, an email from the lovely ladies at House & Garden Australia saying that they have included my fabric wall as part of their 'Show & Tell' section this month! Thank you!

Faaaabric on your walls!

And finally...my lovely, noisy family and husbands' business continue to grow and need me more than ever to be Mum, wifey, farm-hand, cook, cleaner, laundry lady, host to visitors, gardener, rabbit keeper and dog rescuer! Its all fun, highs and lows all rolled in to one busy, creative & fun life. I hope you are well and happy as you read this today - return reader or new to drip designs! You are very welcome.

B x

Raising a little cash :)

For the last couple of years I have been President of our little Playgroup and unless any more little people join our family, these will be my last few months! I wanted to do a little fundraiser on top of our show-bag & crafting efforts at the annual 'Shire on Show' here in Cranbrook, Western Australia.

I took a plain little white mini wardrobe and thought it would be really fun dressed up for a little girl and offered for sale in the form of a silent auction. That way, Mum (or Dad, Grannies etc) could offer me what they would like to pay for it and the highest bid, wins.

 

Some inspiration...

Unknown Source

 

Plus Lifestyles

 

My Painter in Residence wardrobe for Annie Sloan ;)

 

Blue Blood Living

  

So I painted her inside and out with Henrietta and a custom mix pale green, and made simple curtains with a stunning ikat print. I added some knobs as hooks and decoration and offered her up for auction!

 

 

 

 

 

I had six very generous offers, but the highest bidder and the winner was a lovely lady who only lives in the next town to us. She just happens to have a little bit of an obsession with Chalk Paint too, so we always have lots to talk about :)

 

Thanks to everyone who was involved, we made a great little profit to buy crafts and toys for our lovely little Playgroup
Bx 

Farmhouse Platters - Seasonal Creative Worshops, Torbay, Western Australia

 

I was lucky enough to be asked to run a workshop at the very first Seasonal Creative and long table lunch meet on Sunday 15 March - brainchild of Artists Meleah Farrell and Leanne Fry :)

 

30 lovely ladies attended different sessions throughout the day, including my Farmhouse Platter workshop where they were able to shape & decorate beautiful hunks of raw wood in Chalk Paint, decorative paint by Annie Sloan.

 

 

 

   

There were some really beautiful platters produced in a rainbow of colours, ALL so very original and different to anything I would paint - that's the magic of a creative day like this!

 

An amazing long table lunch was provided, as well as delicious morning and afternoon tea all awash with local produce - such a fantastic day had by all! If you are local to Western Australia, please take a look at the Seasonal Creative FB page (link above) & keep and an eye on future dates :)

Photos courtesy of Meleah Farrell Photography

Project catch ups :)

Bit of a lack of blog-content of late, it has been such a busy time since Christmas with kids struggling to settle back into the school routine and Mum struggling to get back to masses of paint-work! 

I have been chipping away at projects nice and steadily but somehow posting more info on them beyond my Facebook page & Instagram has proven too difficult! My final two Painter in Residence projects been launched too, so let's get posting and catch up!

This stunning little desk or hall stand was refinished in Provence by Annie Sloan

This beautiful oak buffet with stripped top and detailed carved doors had a line-up of four local buyers and ended up selling to my neighbour :) She is so elegant and understated in Old White by Annie Sloan.

Farmhouse buffet in Duck Egg Blue & Country Grey by Annie Sloan - featuring 25 bottle wine rack chook wire frontage :)

A speedy IKEA hack for a friend in Old White, Emperors Silk & Dark Wax by Annie Sloan

And so, better late than never, my final two Painter in Residence projects for Annie Sloan. Firstly my Drip Chest in Provence, Florence, Greek Blue, Olive & Antibes Green

And lastly, the before shot of my Striped Cupboard which I painted back to life....

I have used a palette of Coco, Antibes Green, Duck Egg and a custom mustard tone. The detail was created by using an artists brush and Greek Blue.

Here I am sporting my new, elegant eyewear, hmm.

Geometric red sideboard - my latest Painter in Residence piece!

It seems like so long ago that I was transforming this dowdy old brown sideboard into this explosion of colour and pattern! I know I was well wrapped up for winter and this week here in Western Australia has been really HOT. Yuk.

It was the easiest pattern to make. After choosing my colour palette, I literally made spoldges of the Chalk Paint on the piece, then used masses of small square pieces of tape in random places to create this pretty effect once they were peeled off.

So the Chalk Paint colours I used were Burgundy, Provence, Arles, Coco & Emperors Silk. I really find that half the battle of a piece that is going to work, is getting the colour combo right in the early stages. See Annie's blog for her take on my latest piece; - http://anniesloanpaintandcolour.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/beau-fords-geometric-sideboard.html