What I Have Been Up To

What was supposed to be a couple week hiatus turned into a couple months! It actually went by really fast for me because we have been SO busy.

So let me fill you in.

1st: We moved. We found a cute ranch-style older home that had more space for our family and business and I couldn’t be happier about it! I had planned on getting things settled and unpacked pretty quickly because I had already sorted and purged before I packed things up, but turns out, once I got everything over to the new house, there was A LOT I didn’t want to keep after all! So I’ve been purging again and setting things aside for a big garage sale once all the snow storms stop.

2nd: I’ve learned this is normal, but we had so many things go wrong or break within the first few weeks of moving in! Nearly every major appliance had something go array… either things weren’t delivered when they were supposed to or they broke. This stressed.me.out. In the end all is well, and we ended up getting really good deals on what we had to buy new, or we learned how to repair them, which I’ll be sharing soon.

3rd: My in-laws moved in with us. This has been an adjustment but I’m actually really happy with it so far! They moved here straight from Brazil (my father-in-law and his wife), so we are speaking more Portuguese than English at home now! It has been so fun to see my little ones pick up so quickly on phrases and use them without prompting. The reason they moved in with us, is to help the Shades of Blue business take off. Which leads me to…

4th: We have been buying and painting furniture like crazy to get ready for Vintage Market Days (in only 1 month from now)! Like 4-5 pieces of furniture purchased a week! Because of the cold weather, most of what we find has been on Craigslist, so that means lots of driving around. I have been spending every spare moment teaching painting techniques, how to repair, how to strip and stain, and everything in between, and trying to do it all in Portuguese! I’m fluent in Portuguese, but I struggle sometimes to communicate technical terms, which means sometimes I don’t explain things clearly enough and things have to be re-done. 🙂

5th, and this is a big one: I’ve had a serious case of blog self-doubt. I’m getting tired of doing mostly furniture reveals and my life and interests are broader than just pretty furniture. So amongst all the crazy, I’ve struggled to sit down and think creatively about where I want my blog to go, what kind of content I want to include to keep not only my readers (read: you) interested, but myself as well!

So, that has led to me expanding a bit on what I will be including here and I’ve created a couple more tabs at the top to reflect that! Here is what I’ve come up with:

Furniture Transformations: You all are already familiar with this, as it is what I have done the most of. But from now on, since the volume of furniture transformations has gone up exponentially, I will only be showing the cream of the crop for the week. The best or my most favorite. I’ll still give snapshots of other completed work on facebook or instagram, so if you like to keep up with that, make sure to follow along!

Photography and Staging: This is something I know a little about but am continually learning more about. We had a nice, point-and-shoot camera before and I learned through trial and error, ways to get good pictures. Then, we got a new camera for Christmas and my husband is taking a photography workshop this Saturday from a good friend who is ridiculously talented, Jillian Farnsworth. So our learning curve will be your learning curve. We will share the love. 🙂
Staging furniture for pictures has been a learned skill for me (which I’m still learning!) but it has translated to know how to decorate my home with style. This section will will include my ‘why’s and ‘how’s.

Home Do-It-Yourself: Now that we have our own home, I have TONS of projects that I want to do to fix things up. This will be where I show how to fix, replace, build projects in your home, instead of hiring someone to do it. I’m not against hiring a pro for some projects, but I’m ALL about saving money, so I’m pretty passionate about DIY stuff. Plus I have a really handy family, which I will be passing on their advice and tips as relevant.

Things to look forward to:
Painting Kitchen Cabinets
Building Built-In Bookshelves
Re-Tiling Bathroom Floor
Bathroom Renovation on a Budget
Changing out a Light Fixture
Changing out a Faucet
Painting a Room Like A Pro
Making a Sliding Barn Door
Board & Batten How-To
Making a Kitchen Island

and I’m sure I’ll come up with tons more to add to this list as the year goes on!


Tutorials: All the tutorials I have done in the past will be complied here and in the future, I will continue to do them, but this will mostly be crafty things… getting  a high-end look for less in the home decor realm.

Garden: Ever wanted to boost curb appeal? This will be the place for how-to’s on that! I actually have a yard now! And garden space! And a patio! And big plans for re-landscaping part of our front and back yard! I took a landscape design class in college, so I have a bit of background knowledge about the basics of what makes good design sense, and what kinds of features to include. Additionally, my sister has a major green thumb and worked for a few years at a plant nursery when she was in high school. She was the closest in age to me, so every spring we would buy a bunch of flowers to plant and re-do a section of our front yard. One year we re-landscaped our entire front yard, including roto-tilling the soil and re-seeding the grass. We got so tan that year… AND WE LIVED IN ALASKA!! 🙂  She taught me great tips and is still my go-to when I need plant advice. I also have lots of learn and am INTERESTED in this topic, so as I talk to experts and do research, I will be sharing what works for me!

Shop & Photography Prop Rental: I have an Etsy shop that has been poorly neglected lately, but after Vintage Market Days in St Louis, I will be putting everything I have in my shop. I’m no longer going to be selling much on Craigslist like I did before. I will also be renting out some fun pieces of furniture and props for professional photographers! Things like vintage french tufted chairs, picnic baskets, antique quilts, wooden swings, chippy chairs and dressers,  antique beds, child-size table and chairs, porcelain tea sets…. fun stuff like that! The photography rental portion will be strictly in this section of my blog, not on Etsy.

Now how about some quick shots of the furniture transformations over the past 2 months? I actually have about 7 more finished pieces but I have yet to photograph them!