I'll be busy getting ready for BirdSong this week, please forgive me for not answering comments.  I'll be taking the time to read them, tho!

The two attic guest rooms are all aired, fresh linens are on the beds, and I'm ready for my guests.

During Bird Song, my pal Lisa who is teaching will be staying with me, as well as another good friend, Sherry.  I'm not sure yet, but another friend  might be joining the slumber party too.

I wish I could have invited more friends to stay, I love company. But it would be too hard to treat guests well, while trying to take care of the whole workshop, meals, and everything else that I'll be whirring around doing.

I've warned the ladies staying here that they'll be on their own, I'll be zipping about taking care of students all weekend.  But they are the sort of people that I know will be able to make themselves comfy and at home and I won't have to worry about.

Both of the guest rooms are in attic areas that we "reclaimed".  Finding unused space and claiming it as living space is a cost effective way to make your house bigger, especially if you can do some of the work yourself.

All of it was done on a shoestring budget, but we sure got a lot of bang for the buck.  We have lots of company, so extra rooms are good  to have.

Each room has a rose theme, mostly because I can't resist buying anything rosey at garage sales, and I paint roses on too many things, like this desk and the shutters.

And this chest of drawers.

There is an extra twin bed in Sugarwing's room too.

Notice that the chandelier is missing its shades?  It once had decorated shades, trimmed out in fabric roses.

But one night, while tucking my fairy grand baby in, she said, "Grammy, can I tell you something?"

I said of course, and sat on her little pink bed next to her, and she told me that when I left the room, the light became a monster. 

I said, "A monster? Honey, there are no monsters at Grammy's house. I don't allow that."

But she insisted and pointed at the shades. So I took one down and brought it over to show her.  She said it was pretty and that she liked roses.

 I asked if she was okay and understood that they were just lamp shades, and she said, "Yes, these are pretty.  But when you leave the room, they are monsters."

Well there is no arguing with that.  So down they came.

  

Sorry I won't be answering emails or comments, but I will be taking time to read them.  And I'll chose a name from commenters to give a Birdsong memento to later on.

All is going well with my prep for Birdsong. My studio is spiffed and rearranged to fit all the guests.  I've been doing some Zero Dollar Decorating around the room too. 

Today, Agnes Rosebud and I went out to the fence line and cut down some wild grape vines to wrap around Loucinda, and then I added some flowers and birds to the vines.   My goal is to make things nice without blowing the budget by using what is on hand to decorate with.

Soon, I'll be packing up gift bags and baking goodies.  That is, if I don't wrench my neck by trying to give myself a pat on the back for being so ahead of schedule….

These gifties are from my buddy, Lonnie. She packed up 25 jars of mica flakes for all of the attendees. 

And Miss Mitzi has gifted the girls with yellow yoyos.  Actually, they are not all yellow, I was just on an roll with my alliteration pairs and yellow just fit.

The generous bags are stuffed with all sorts of bright colored old fabrics to work with.

Thanks, Lonnie and Mitzi!

There is a full list of sponsors on the side bar of my blog and on the Birdsong blog.

Saturday, I spent the day with Beth and the Other Karla. We hit estate sales, went to lunch, then worked in Beth's craft room.

My big, to die for purchase of the day was this French Net table cloth.  oooohhh, its pretty.  And only 20 bucks!  I'm going to use it in the treat cabinet for the photos I'm taking for Romantic Homes.  I'm a big believer in using the Good Stuff, in my art and around my house.

It doesn't do you much good to own something then pack it away.

But, I'm not sure that I want to leave this glorious bit of lace in the treat cabinet to be dribbled on by coffee and red wine.  I think I'll fake it for the photos, then find a safer place to use this, its just too nice to let it get ruined.  And a table cloth needs to be washable. I use vintage, pretty ones, but they have to be something that I can wash a dropped brownie off of.

 

I also got some padded hangers in satin and velvet.  While I was in the middle of setting up the studio, I took a break to play, and foofed them up a bit.

Most are listed in the Boutique now.

I used the Good Stuff on these. Aren't they pretty flowers?

When Sugarwings and I go to Michaels or Hobby Lobby, we usually pick up a little kit for her to make. She has plenty of art supplies, but there is something about those little packages of goodies that intrigue us and always make us plop one or two in the cart as we go by them.

This one was a set of plaster Easter eggs and paint to decorate them with. But the eggs were just the starting point.  After all the eggs were colorful and bright, my fairy baby started in on a bag of shells that she had.

From, there, she moved on to the rocks in my flower bed border.  I don't blame her, who could resist turning this one into a Mr. Potato Head?

It didn't take long for her to start imagining that she was Alice and was helping the Queen's playing cards paint the flowers.

"Who dares to taint with vulgar paint, the royal flower beds?"

I think she has what it takes to be an artist, don't you?  She is definately orginal, and while she might start with a kit, the results look far from cookie cutter.  She's made the project her own.

Luckily, this one has quick little legs, or she might have been a rainbow pup.

 

Funny how one little bit of fabric can turn into the catalyst for a whole room makeover, huh?  I fell in love with a clearance shower curtain ($19) at the Victorian Trading Company's outlet store.  I figured that if I had no where to hang it, I could always use the fabric in projects.  ( I wish I'd bought two, so I had the other to cut up!!)

Plus, I've been wanting an ALL WHITE room. I figured the bathroom would be the place to do it, and was ready to give the white on white look a try.

But the curtain seemed a bit too white, almost blue, it was so white. I dipped it in a watered down bowl of tan Rit Dye, gambling on the outcome, I knew it wasn't all natural fiber and the colors could be all over the place from the different fabrics the curtain was made up of.

 And boy, was I right! But I love it!! There are shades of white, cream and tan and the white is a bit warmer than the glaring, pure white that it was before.  The gamble paid off.

The iron pieces hanging above the curtain were dark, and I dry brushed white and cream over those, then hung an antique French netting panel that was a gift from my BFF, Beth.  For no reason! She just saw it and knew I'd love it, and of course I do.

Here is a before shot of the room, I really liked it just fine and it had been photographed for Romantic Country by my pal, Diane Guthrie.  But the room had  looked this way for years and I wanted a change just for change's sake, not because I didn't like it.

Plus these two pieces were some of the only bits of unpainted wood in the house (besides old lawyer's book shelves in the library).  I don't care much for wood finishes.

Here are the old curtains.  I really did like them and still do. I've moved them into the studio for now.

But try as I might, I just couldn't do pure white.  I love it as an accent, but when I got the walls painted, it felt too…blah? cold? apartmenty? wrong? 

Honestly, I drool buckets over photos of all white rooms.  I want one really bad. But it just isn't in me to do it. I start warming up the colors and going cream/ beige/tan.

So, I faux finished over the white walls, starting at the floor with a bluish gray/green that is on the walls of the connecting bedroom.

I graduated the colors up from blue, to metallic gold, then tan and cream to the white at the very top. (I chose these colors because the cans were what happened to be in my closet at the time).

The faux finish is subtle. I blended it all together with the cream color.  Then I painted the cabinet, but I might leave the little table dark. What do you think?  A bit of contrast here and there is nice.

Like the iron candle holder and the chippy green mirror.

My plan was to paint the furniture and walls all white.  But you can see,  the vanity is lighter, but not white.  In the photo it looks similar the jewelry armoire I painted years ago, but when you are in the room, they look very different and unique. 

If you want, I can do a "how to" on the technique for the vanity.

I think I need to re-paper the roses on my Grandma Downey's floor lamp/towel hanger to a lighter color too. The bright roses stand out a bit too much now. 

 I might cover the center panel of the vanity door with a pretty paper too.

The poor dogs were just glad when I was done.  They had to be locked up to keep their little paws out of the paint.   I don't want little painty footprints all over my house. When I used to paint furniture, I'd work outside and would zip through a lot of pieces a day, not being all that careful while doing it, since I was in the garage. But one day, the barn cat walked through some spilled primer and jumped up into the open door of the van that I'd just unloaded.  We had kitty cat foot prints all over the van seats forever, because I use a good primer!

Inside, I'm more careful and I paint without a drop cloth, since I've been painting forever, I know how to be tidy when I want to be. But I paint barefoot just in case. That way if some paint does drop, you know when you step in it, and it doesn't get tracked around the room on the bottom of a shoe.

I'm still not sure if the room is done. While trying to be light as I could, I might have gone too sublte on the faux finish… I might need some warmer tan rubbed over it to tie in the color of the tiles.  But for now, I'm done. 

$19 for the curtain,  20 something for the white paint ( I use Behr, its always the BEST for the price), and about 8 hours of work, and I have a whole new look.  Its a drastic change, even if it wasn't what I'd planned on it being.

A  can of paint can make a big impact.

I think I like it.