Shabbilicious Friday link party

I love Fridays!! I know most people like Fridays because for many it is the last day of the working week. . . but for me, it’s the day when my shabbilicious friends come over to play. That’s right folks, it’s time for. . .

What a great party we had last week and isn’t it nice to see more friends joining in each week. There was quite a variety of shabby, French and vintage projects to be inspired by this past week. . . lots of furniture transformations and you know I loooooove anything painted white!

There seemed to be a bit of a theme with ‘happy places’. . .

I especially like Mary Alice’s ‘happy place’ over at Chateau Chic. . . because every shabbilicious lady needs a happy place!

Judy from French laundry had an amazing post on how she dyed her laces using a home made dye made from plants in her garden

. . . I have to try this!

And did you see the gorgeous French cushions made by Laura from My Little Sewing Room!

Thanks for linking up ladies. . . please feel free to grab the  ‘I was Featured’ button.

Now let’s get on with today’s Shabbilicious Friday party so we can share all that is

gorgeously shabby, French or vintage. . .

I’d love for you to share your shabby furniture makeovers, thrifting finds, beautiful home vignettes, recipes or anything else that will make all our ‘shabby’ heart sing.

I’ll be choosing my favourite links each week to showcase at the Shabbilicious Friday party, plus some of my inspiring shabby friends will also be featured over on my Facebook page during the week. Be sure to ‘like’ my Shabby Art Boutique FB page so you don’t miss it.

Here are a few guidelines to make the ‘Shabbilicious Friday’ party run smoothly:

· Be sure to link back to your original post and not your main blog address (URL).

· This is a party for shabby inspiration… please don’t link to giveaways or shops.

· Please be courteous and remember to post my button or a link back to this party on your post, so others can join the fun.

If you are new here at Shabby Art Boutique and not yet a follower, then please pop over to the side-bar and click on the ‘Shabbilicious friends who follow’ link so we can stay in touch.

I can’t wait to see what you have all been up to this week. . . so let’s get inspired!!

A Shabby Home ~ Market Night

On Friday night I’ll be holding another of my Facebook Market Nights. . .

the theme this week is Shabby Home

I invite you to indulge in a large (30+) collection of uniquely handmade homewares with a white, French, shabby feel.

Nearly all the items are one-of-a-kind . . . and all are at very affordable prices.

As always. . . there are quite a few storage pieces for the creative space. . .

perhaps that’s because it is my favourite room in the house.

There are many pretty decor pieces for the kitchen and living areas. . .

plus a selection of grey willow homeware items that are discounted during the sale only!

How would you like to win a ‘Pre Sale Pass’ for some early bird shopping!!

 

I bet you would... no one likes shopping in a crowd and this way you’d get first pick of all the gorgeous shabbilicious stock for sale.

My Facebook likers all have the chance to go in the draw for the ‘Pre Sale Pass’, so pop on over to my page here and find out how easy it is to enter.

You might even like to check out some of the sneak peek photos while you are there. The entire Marker Night album will be available tomorrow afternoon when the ‘Pre Sale Pass’ is drawn.

Shabbilicious hugs ~ Kerryanne

French vintage birds nest cushion

Welcome my friends to another week in the Shabby Art Boutique studio.

Thank you to everyone who linked up to Shabbilicious Friday over the weekend. The party link is still open, so please feel free to link up your shabby, French and vintage projects.

I had some time over the past few days to work on a very sweet French/vintage themed project for my own home.

It seems I have a ‘thing’  for vintage birds and botanical gorgeousness at present, so I combined my new fav’s with my love for anything French. . . and came up with a new cushion for my lounge room.

I started with some of my handmade French fabric. . .

constructed a graphic by combining 2 graphics from The Graphics Fairy, which I printed onto fabric.

After attaching the graphic to the French fabric with Vliesofix, I played around with some free motion stitching. . .

. . .threw in a few vintage buttons

. . . popped in a zipper and sewed her up!!

And there you have it. . .

a new French themed cushion full of charm and vintage character.

I’m sharing my French vintage birds nest cushion this week at Brag Monday on The Graphic’s Fairy

and at these gorgeous link parties.

Hugs ~ Kerryanne

Shabbilicious Friday # 3

It’s that time of the week again my friends to PARTY at

Thank you to everyone who linked up last week and to all those who linked back and helped spread the word that we are having a Shabby/French/Vintage party over here at Shabby Art Boutique.

I hope like me, you loved popping around to visit all these fabulously talented people and check out the very inspiring projects, make-overs and home tours.

My French lovin’ heart was swooning for One Girl in Pink’s French table make-over.

Not only was the transformation gorgeous but Amanda’s tribute to the grandfather she lost earlier this year had me tearing up. It is such a sweet story.

 

Continuing with the French theme, Jenn’s very clever stool make-over at Town and Country Living was a popular link this week.

 

My shabbilicious favourite for the week and also the most clicked on link was Robyn’s gorgeous fabric collage tote over at Robyn Art Designs

Thanks for linking up ladies. . . please feel free to grab a ‘I was Featured’ button.

Now let’s get on with today’s Shabbilicious Friday party so we can share all that is

gorgeously shabby, French or vintage. . .

I’d love for you to share your shabby furniture makeovers, thrifting finds, beautiful home vignettes, recipes or anything else that will make all our ‘shabby’ hearts sing.

I’ll be choosing my favourite links each week to showcase at the Shabbilicious Friday party, plus some of my inspiring shabby friends will also be featured over on my Facebook page during the week. Be sure to ‘like’ my Shabby Art Boutique FB page so you don’t miss it.

Here are a few guidelines to make the ‘Shabbilicious Friday’ party run smoothly:

· Be sure to link back to your original post and not your main blog address (URL).

· This is a party for shabby inspiration… please don’t link to giveaways or shops.

· Please be courteous and remember to post my button or a link back to this party on your post, so others can join the fun.

<ahref="http://shabbyartboutique.blogspot.com"><img alt="giveaways" width="175"src="http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx18/WoodberryDesigns/SABlink-party.jpg"height="175"/></a>

If you are new here at Shabby Art Boutique and not yet a follower, then please pop over to the side-bar and click on the ‘Shabbilicious friends who follow’ link so we can stay in touch.

I can’t wait to see what you have all been up to this week. . . so let’s get inspired!!

A work in progress. . .

While I was eating my lunch I was thinking to myself “what could I post about today”. Although I’ve been incredibly busy, I have nothing that is quite ready to share. Sure there were things to tell you. . . but there was no eye candy. . . and we all like eye candy – right!

So I did a little jaunt around my house and realised that there are lots of pretties in my everyday life that I take for granted. . . like these 4 day old roses in my new basket I picked up on my travels to Coffs Harbour on the weekend. Okay. . . so while you look at the pretty roses let me tell you what’s happening in my world.

For starters, even though we are just a week away from the official start to winter we are having the most gorgeous hot and sunny Autumn days. The perfect wether for painting and up-cycling thrifty finds. . . so I’ve been mixing up chalk paint by the bucket load and spending my days in the sun painting things shabby white. Who knew I had so many thrifty finds tucked away in the garage?? Hmm, well truth be told, my husband has been moaning about the lack of room in his only man cave.

Anyhoosies, I’m putting the final touches on over 30 new items to sell. These are all one-of-a-kind, so I’ll be selling these in a Market Night next week on my Facebook page.

You know that saying “If you want something done ask a busy woman”. . . well for sure I’m that busy woman. . . I decided while I had the painting duds on I may as well get started on a home project that’s been on the ‘To Do’ list for a while. . . a master bedroom make over. I’ve had all the gear ready to go for some time but the backyard renovations [insert big red dirt mound right about here] and a mischievous puppy put me off starting. . . I so didn’t want muddy footprints in the new look room. Now I’m blaming the decision to start it now on the beautiful sunny days, but maybe I’ve inhaled too many paint fumes. Either way, the room is re-painted and the bed, dresser and side tables are in the midst of a chalk paint makeover.

One more coat of paint to go, so I had better get back to it. I’ll be sure to show you photos of the new look room next week.

Hugs ~ Kerryanne

Inspired to CREATE

Hello everyone and welcome to another week at Shabby Art Boutique.

Today I thought I’d address a question I’m asked quite often. . . ‘where do I get my inspiration from?’

I guess the honest answer is . . . from a great many sources. . . pictures, magazines, colour combinations, and of course online.

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I like to make inspiration boards that tell a story. . . usually with a theme, a colour palette and photos.

I find this particularly useful when designing a new pattern collection. . . it keeps me focused and on track.

Creative people and designers often have actual mounted inspiration boards.

[source]

An inspiration board can be as simple as a collection of things kept in a notebook

[source]

. . . or pegged to a notice board.

[source]

. . . but probably the biggest and now most popular inspiration board is Pinterest.

I have a real Love/Hate relationship with Pinterest. . . I have a Pinterest account that I pin photos to and yes, I do love to browse through the boards and pins. . . but as a designer I also experience the flip side with people pinning my original copyright protected designs to their DIY Pinterest boards without making sure they link back to the source. . . but hey, this is a whole different issue to today’s post, so I’ll slay this dragon another day!!

I’m a visual person, so when I find inspiration I like to put it all together in one place, so I can build on it and expand my ideas. Most often I use a large notebook for story boards. . . this is partly because my studio is also a classroom so can look a bit cluttered with too many things hanging around. . . also, as a designer I like to keep new ideas under wraps until I have fully thought them out.

At the moment I’m working on my 2012 Christmas Collection. I’ve started with a colour palette and theme. . . the next step will involve playing around with some sketches, doing some research and sourcing materials. If that all goes well I move onto actually designing prototypes, but sometimes I can’t get the right supplies or I find someone else has a similar idea. . . and then it is back to the inspiration board to play around with ideas again.

Where do you find your inspiration and how do you store your ideas?

I’m looking forward to hearing about your inspiration, so please don’t be shy. . .

if you haven’t left a comment for awhile I’d love to hear from you.

Hugs ~ Kerryanne

Shabbilicious Friday Link Party #2

Hello everyone and welcome back for another party. I think Friday’s are going to be my favourite day of the week!

I don’t mind telling you that I was a wee bit nervous last week at the launch of my new link party. There are so many great parties out there already and I was thinking “… oh no, what if no one links up”. . . . but you did and I have to say a very big ‘thank you’ to the 28 lovely ladies who took a risk with me and linked up for the first Shabbilicious Friday party. Not only do I appreciate all of you, but I LOVED all your shabby, French and vintage inspired projects. . . and that is exactly what this link party is all about.

I’m sure link numbers will remain small until we get the word out there, but I was thrilled by the viewing stats that were in the thousands and that is the main aim. . . to share wonderful projects with other like minded shabbilicious friends.

So. . . let me showcase two projects that really caught my eye last week. The first one, which also happened to be the most viewed link, was from

Jennifer at Town and Country Living.

Jennifer shared her rusty spring turned vintage letter holder. If you haven’t already popped over to Jenn’s gorgeous blog, then please do and you can check out her vintage letters as well.

This next one had me ooooing and ahhhing and yes, it made my shabby heart sing. . . it’s the beautiful romantic white cottage

being renovated by Rebecca at A Gathering Place.

Isn’t it absolutely stunning!!

To see more photos of Rebecca’s gorgeous home, click here to visit her cottage.

Please feel free to take the feature button if you wish ladies.

 

Now let’s get on with today’s Shabbilicious Friday party so we can share all that is

gorgeously shabby, French or vintage. . .

I’d love for you to share your shabby furniture makeovers, thrifting finds, beautiful home vignettes, recipes or anything else that will make all our ‘shabby’ hearts sing.

I’ll be choosing my favourite links each week to showcase at the Shabbilicious Friday party, plus some of my inspiring shabby friends will also be featured over on my Facebook page during the week. Make sure you ‘like’ my Shabby Art Boutique FB page so you don’t miss it.

Here are a few guidelines to make the ‘Shabbilicious Friday’ party run smoothly:

· Be sure to link back to your original post and not your main blog address (URL).

· This is a party for shabby inspiration… please don’t link to giveaways, shops or link parties.

· Please be courteous and remember to post my button or a link back to this party on your post, so others can join the fun.

<ahref="http://shabbyartboutique.blogspot.com"><img alt="giveaways" width="175"src="http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx18/WoodberryDesigns/SABlink-party.jpg"height="175"/></a>

If you are new here at Shabby Art Boutique and not yet a follower, then please pop over to the side-bar and click on the ‘Shabbilicious friends who follow’ link so we can stay in touch.

Let’s get inspired!!

Scrumdillitelyumpschous. . .

Willy Wonka said his chocolate was ‘scrumdillitelyumpschous’ and I think my choc chop cookies are right up there with his chocolate!!

In our house this is comfort food at its best.

Miss Aimee had braces fitted on Monday, which not surprisingly has put her a little off her food. . . . so I’ve made a batch of her favourite cookies to try and tempt her this afternoon.

My kids have been sitting at the kitchen bench making these cookies with me since they could walk. They are simple, quick and of course contain every girls favourite ingredient. . .  chocolate!

Chocolate Chip Cookies

• 125gm (4oz) butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 3/4 cup self raising flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 125gm (4oz) chocolate chips

 

Cream together butter, sugars and vanilla.Add lightly beaten egg gradually, beating well after each addition. Mix in sifted flour and salt. Add chocolate chips.

Shape teaspoons of mixture into small balls, place on lightly greased over trays, allowing room for spreading. Bake in moderate over for 10 – 12 minutes.

 

Hope you’ll try our family favourite.

Enjoy!!

Hugs ~ Kerryanne

Such a delight. . . painted white

Yesterday, being Mother’s Day was a lovely day of pampering and being spoilt by my girls and hubby. We had a lovely time together. . . but then in the afternoon my girls had to work and study, so I found myself with a couple of free hours on my hands. The-man-of-the-house asked what I’d like to do, but I was happy to just ‘potter around’. . . because let me tell you, I do love some private pottering around time!!

 

First I took myself off to our local craft department store. . . obviously I go there quiet frequently, but it is always in a rush and there’s never enough time to just look. It’s amazing what one finds and what projects they can plan when they have time to just peruse up and down isles. Hmm. . . I did seem to came home with quite a few bags!!

Next on my free time agenda was finishing this thrifted hall table project. This one is for my own home, so has been on the ‘waiting to be painted’ list for awhile. After a good clean it got the antique white chalk paint treatment, followed by some sanding and finished with wax. I’m loving it in white and know I will be able to use it in many different locations throughout my home.

While that project dried I added some finishing touches to another project for myself. . . I was a tad self indulgent yesterday, but it was Mother’s Day after all!!

 

 

I’ve been looking for a ladder for my lounge room for awhile and was thrilled when my friend picked one up for me on a recent thrifting trip. It was sooooo perfect with well worn timber, chippy distressed paint and was just the right height for my planned project. I would have left it as it was except the paint was Mission Brown. . . yeah, not a colour I thought I could live with for long, so I sanded it well removing most of the dark brown paint. For a moment I actually considered leaving the timber bare, it was such a lovely shade of faded grey, but with a fresh batch of chalk paint mixed up I dived in for another round of white painting. I gave her just the one coat of paint and then sanded with the electric sander. The white lightened her up and by using only one coat of paint she has a lovely time worn appearance.

The ladder turned out just the way I had visualised it and will now be used in my lounge room during winter to hang up our throw rugs.

What a perfect way to finish a lovely Mother’s Day. . . 2 new home projects completed and then we were all together again last night for a family meal.

I hope all the other mothers out there got to enjoy their special day too.

Hugs ~ Kerryanne

Shabbilicious Friday

Welcome friends to the first

Before we start, let me tell you how the idea for Shabbilicious Friday came about. . . I have a lovely friend of the non-blogging variety who said to me “I really don’t get blogging… why do you do it?”

I didn’t really have to think very long about my reply which went something like this. . .

You know when you find a friend who totally gets you. . . one who not only LOVES all the same things as you do, but gets why you want to paint everything white and then distress and shabby it up afterwards. She’s the same girl who understands why you pick up junk off the side of the road or rummage through filthy thrift stores in the hope of finding some dirty, rusty pre-loved piece of junk. She not only gets it. . . she stands beside you and does the ‘happy dance’ with you and then when you wonder if you really do need it she sweeps in and says “if you don’t I do”. She applauds your creativeness, but also encourages and motivates you when you lose your mojo. She really gets that you love all things shabby, French and vintage!

She’s the most gorgeous ‘shabbilicious’ friend ever. . . now times that by a thousand ‘shabbilicious’ friends and you may understand why I LOVE blogging and all my blogging friends.

I’m inspired everyday by the beautiful shabby gorgeousness I see online. I figure as followers of Shabby Art Boutique you must love all these things too. . . so I decided to hold a weekly link party to bring together my shabbilicious friends and their beautiful projects.

This is our chance each week to share all that is

gorgeously shabby, French or vintage. . .

I’d love for you to share your shabby furniture makeovers, thrifting finds, beautiful home vignettes, recipes

or anything else that will make all our ‘shabby’ hearts sing.

I’ll be choosing my favourite links each week to showcase at the Shabbilicious Friday party, plus some of my inspiring shabby friends will also be featured over on my Facebook page during the week. Make sure you ‘like’ my Shabby Art Boutique FB page so you don’t miss it.

Here are a few guidelines to make the ‘Shabbilicious Friday’ party run smoothly:

· Be sure to link back to your original post and not your main blog address (URL).

· This is a party for shabby inspiration… please don’t link to giveaways, shops or link parties.

· Please be courteous and remember to post my button or a link back to this party on your post, so others can join the fun.

<ahref="http://shabbyartboutique.blogspot.com"><img alt="giveaways" width="175"src="http://i737.photobucket.com/albums/xx18/WoodberryDesigns/SABlink-party.jpg"height="175"/></a>

If you are new here at Shabby Art Boutique and not yet a follower, then please pop over to the side-bar and click on the ‘Shabbilicious friends who follow’ link so we can stay in touch.

Let’s get inspired!!