Willow Creek

Cutting a Watermelon

2014-06-04T08:20:00.001-07:00

We absolutely love watermelon at our house!!! This past week, we have went through 4 of them and this is no joke! I use to just slice them in half and dig out what I could and throw it in a bowl. We would eat a little bit of it and then it would get pushed to the back of the refrigerator and we would forget about it. Our little boy is always asking for a snack and he loves watermelon so I needed to make it easy for him to grab on his own!

I have had great luck this year with picking them out. Look for a darker green skin and tap it to make sure it sounds hallow. You can always ask your grocery store produce clerk to find you a good one too!

First thing, give the watermelon a good wash and scrubbing. This is a crucial step as you are making several cuts and there are many germs and contaminants that can be on the skin. I always use a fruit/vegetable wash and wash off with hot hot water!

Cut your four sides off so your watermelon has four flat sides, like this.

Next cut strips.

It should look like this when looking at if from the top!

Now turn your watermelon and cut it the other way to make spears like the picture below!

It is now an easy bite size piece!

Bag it up and put it in the fridge! It is now a great EASY snack for your family!

I know cutting it this was has made it a lot easier for our family!

Reupholstered Slipper Chair

2014-04-14T16:23:00.000-07:00

chair had been sitting in storage for way to long. We decided it was time to tackle it! Before it could be gorgeous, we had to remove the nasty fabric which was literally tacked down with over 2000 staples. It was a huge pain! Sorry about the horrible before picture, I took it on my phone and didn't realize it was this bad.

I gave it a few coats of Old Ochre, distressed it and my part was done! My grandma on the other had had her work cut out for her. However, she is an amazing seamstress & upholster, so I was far from worried. You name it she can do it! She took the pattern and cut the new fabric and went to town! It felt like she was done in no time!!! I think it came out absolutely amazing. It was one of those projects that I wished was for me!

Look at those legs!! She also added a very detailed trim to give it more of a finished look!

We are so excited it is starting to warm up, so we can start sharing more projects with you!!!

Heirloom Vanity in Paris Grey & Old White

2014-04-13T13:01:00.001-07:00

We were contacted by a customer's friend about refinishing an antique vanity, that was passed down to her. We tossed a few ideas back and forth about how to refinish. At first she was thinking about re-staining it. She then sent me this picture from Elizabeth & Co and this was our inspiration for her vanity!

Elizabeth & Co

Here is a picture of the before, you can tell it was a very loved piece! We sanded it down completely, which if you have ever sanded down mahogany you know that it is so hard to remove that reddish tint. The top drawer was missing a handle and we searched high and low to find something similar and had no luck. We ended up filling the holes and drilling a new holes on the top two drawers! We also did some filling where the veneer was chipping, after all this we were ready to paint.

We gave it a coat of ASCP in Paris Grey on the outside and a few coats of Old Ochre on the drawers and top and then a few coats of Old White over that. The reason I gave it a coat of Old Ochre before the Old White was to help cover the pink color bleeding through. It seemed to really help.

She asked for a pop of color in the fabric and we we found this great print at Hobby Lobby.

I love the detail on the middle drawer!

This piece really had great character that we were able to bring out in the distressing!

I love that we got to refinish a piece that belonged to her grandmother and make it beautiful for her! It makes me sad when people get rid of pieces that belong in their family because they can't envision what it could be. It is absolutely amazing what a good sanding and a can of paint can really do!

I hope you all are enjoying your weekend. Colorado is getting rain/snow, so we are stuck inside today!

Chateau Grey Hinged Top Desk

2013-12-12T14:58:00.000-08:00

We stumbled across a very cute desk and chased down the man to tell him we wanted it. We honestly couldn't believe no one had snatched this baby up. Yea, it was ugly but it had a good shape, the inside was really cute looked like it was decoupaged with an old vintage advertising paper and it had so much possibility!

We decided on painting it in Annie Sloan Chateau Grey. I am really loving this color right now, it is such a good versatile and neutral color! It had a really weird finish on it but I sanded it a little bit to take the shiny finish off and then gave it a couple coats of paint.

I took it to a couple shows but furniture doesn't seem to sell in the winter like it does in the summer and so it is now in our house and I am not complaining at all! :) I love that I was able to use it in our living room this holiday season! Who knows it may be here to stay!

I had to show off my enamel tub that I got last weekend at a show! I absolutely love the color green and anything enamel! It makes me so happy! This holiday season, I am also loving me some plaid! Is there anything you are loving this holiday season?

What have you worked on lately?

Burlap & Vintage Lace Tree Skirt

2013-12-11T15:56:00.001-08:00

My grandmother out does herself every time she creates something. She is truly amazing at everything she puts her mind too. Last year I told her to make some tree skirts out of burlap. She did and all of them sold! :) So this year she got a little bit more creative and came up with these beauties. They are available in our ETSY shop.

Aren't these just gorgeous??

I hope you all are having a wonderful Holiday season!

Media Stand

2013-11-07T18:58:00.002-08:00

I got this at the beginning of the summer and it really wasn't pretty but I saw what it could be. Last month, I had a repeat customer ask me to find her something to replace their current media stand. I sent her a picture of the piece but she wasn't completely sold on it because it sat so low to the ground and had some details she wasn't crazy about. I told her that we could add a little bit of height with new legs and get rid of details she didn't like. No clue why the cut the legs off. I guess they cut it off so we could add them back! :) They thought about it for a while and she was ready to customize it.

I added about 3" with new legs and got rid of the X on the doors. We gave it a couple coats of ASCP in chateau grey. Then added some new hardware.

This piece was a lot of work but when you get an email telling you how happy they are with their purchase all the pain goes away! :)

What do you think?

Old Car Door Turned Shelf

2013-10-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

While out hunting a few weeks ago, we saw this and my mouth dropped.......

The man who was selling it said it was from a 20's or 30's vehicle, I knew it needed to go home with us.

My grandma and I talked about it and we decided to buy it! We had no idea what we were going to do with it but we loaded it up in the truck. When we got home, I thought this needed to be in a MAN CAVE! In order to be in a men's den it needed a shelf. I pictured it hanging on a wall with a fine bottle of wiskey and a tumbler glass.

My husband added a 1x 6 and then a 2x2 to stabilize the shelf. We stained the shelf, gave the body a light sanding and then gave the whole thing a coat of polycrylic. It was ready to head to Paris St. Market. We set it out and an older man came by looked at it and about fifteen minutes later he was back, he bought it!

I guess you could say we are ecelectic buyers. We like to mix it up and get items that will appeal to different buyers. We have our main style but adding some one-of-a-kind pieces like this makes our jobs fun!

Would you have bought it? If so, what would you have done with it?

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Beautiful Dark Top Farm Table

2013-10-09T07:39:00.003-07:00

Last week, we needed a large table for our last outdoor show of the year! We headed to our jam packed storage unit to see if we had one. This baby was stuck all the way in the back. We forgot all about it and it has sat in our storage for over two years. Yes, we are embarrassed to say that but it is true. Sorry about the picture, Grandma snapped a quick picture on her iPad before she started sanding. The table was a honey color stain and the chairs were AWFUL. Look closely, you will see the awesome vinyl pad, that someone literally screwed down into the chair. Poor grandma had to use dowels to fill the holes.

For this project we made our own chalk paint! We used flat Behr paint in antique white, plaster of paris and water. It adhered really well and the coverage was wonderful, we were very impressed! While I love Annie Sloan, I hate the cost. Grandma on the other hand had a bad experience with it and isn't a big fan but she loved the paint we made. The top of it was sanded and stained in Minwax Jacobean. We had 6 of the same chairs for the table but decided to add a couple more since it could seat 8. Everyone was a huge fan of this table, it could of sold 10 times. Now we have a couple custom orders for tables, so that is awesome!

Farm tables are all the craze right now. Maybe having something long rather than wide is best for homes these days? This one was 75" long with the two leaves, it was a great size. Look at those beautiful legs!

Do you find a lot of tables like these?

They are getting harder to find but we love the hunt!

Gorgeous Provence Painted Bed

2013-10-08T15:53:00.002-07:00

A few months ago a sweet mom came to us looking for a big girl bed for her little girl. She was growing out of her toddler bed and not getting the sleep she needed. She wanted something that would last and also be a fun pop of color. They loved the look of the Land of Nod Jenny Lind bed but we found this beauty and loved that it had a lower footboard which was more suitable design for her room.

We sanded it down which was very messy and then gave it a good cleaning. We painted it in Annie Sloan Provence. We lightly distressed the piece and gave it a good wax. This bed came out adorable. It was one of the most fun pieces to paint for this family! The bed is now a great pop of color for a toddlers room but will also will be wonderful as she grows up! Meet Zoey..........

Isn't she fabulous?

The customer was so sweet to send us a picture of the bed all made up. Our job is so amazing!

What do you think? We think this bed is fit for a princess!

I love when we find beds that are complete, which isn't very often.

Oval Scalloped Dining Set

2013-09-12T18:02:00.000-07:00

I really think my grandma has a problem with tables and chairs. I should probably start looking into classes for her. :) She can spot a table and or chair from a mile away! I love her for this! We were at the thrift store and we walked by it didn't even notice it and then on the way out she was like oh my gosh, a table with 2 leaves. We have to get it. I shrugged, I really hate painting tables and despise chairs but she loves them. So we loaded the table up and headed home.

Sorry for the garage shot! We were getting ready to load this up in the trailer to take it to its new home! Look at those legs!

We always have at least one table but most the time two at all our summer markets. People area always looking for a nice dining set! They are a lot of work but they sell. So I guess she can keep buying them. ;)

What have you been working on?

I haven't been able to work on much in our garage. We have had rain for the last 4 days. This is a picture from the news today. I took a picture on my phone of a kid floating in water behind our little boys school. We haven't seen this much rain in a very long time!

Recent Market Booth Furniture

2013-08-23T19:35:00.002-07:00

All summer long we have had at least two markets a month. However, I rarely share pictures of our booth displays if I even get pictures of the displays or of the pieces I don't have time (or make time) to take pictures of. :/ Maybe one of these days I will get organized and have pictures of pieces before we take them to shows. I always get so sad when they sell and we don't have any pictures of them.

So here are a few pictures of our last booth at Paris St. Market in Littleton, CO. If any of our readers live in the Denver Metro area and haven't been to Paris St., you are missing out. It is such an amazing market. This table sold quick. We always sell our tables with chairs, it is easier for the customer! It was a really fun table with a couple duck egg chairs and bench.

This shelf has been sitting in our garage for a good year. We finally painted and stenciled a piece of board for the back and sold it! :) What is a piece you have had forever?

Corner shelf was snatched up very quickly. I wish I had corners in my bathroom, so I could have a cute little shelf like this!

Small washstand cabinet went to a new home and the shelf we had in our garage forever went to the ladies daughter!

What are you up to this weekend?

Us, we have a show so we will be doing what we love to do, PAINTING!!!

Antique 3-Toned Distressed Sideboard Buffet

2013-08-21T18:50:00.000-07:00

Whew, this last month has been a whirlwind. Now that our little guy is in 1st grade and is going all day, I have more time to work on furniture and also blog about it. I still miss him but I miss doing the thing I love too! I found this buffet/sideboard for a smoking deal. When the guy I bought from said the price, I said SOLD!!! It had great bones and I knew it was going to be gorgeous when I got finished. I also loved the fact that it had all the hardware.

I started out with a coat of ASCP French Linen. I brushed it on pretty sloppy and so I could get texture. I let that dry and gave it a coat of ASCP Old Ochre and followed that with a coat of Old White. I also gave the hardware a coat of Old White.

I took the sander to it and gave it a good distressing to let the 2 undertones really show through! I loved working on this piece. It was one of those pieces that I couldn't wait to get finished.

I watched the Annie Sloan YouTube channel on how to get the texture that I had been seeing all over Pinterest. If you haven't watched any of these videos, they are really helpful.

I loved this piece so much, I kept it! It now has a home in our kitchen.

Grain Sack Picnic Table

2013-07-18T19:07:00.001-07:00

I am really embarrassed to say this ugly picnic table has been sitting in our backyard for a few years. It didn't look quite this bad until this year. Ok, it was brown and U-G-L-Y! The only good thing about this baby, is I picked it up for free. Last week I had enough of the ugliness. I wanted us, ok me, to be happy with our patio furniture! Ah, look at that cute lil Beagle with a cone. :)

The table and chairs were pealing and chipping and so I took the sander to it. I had huge flakes all over our patio. I washed the table down several times until it was nice and smooth and clean!

I wanted to paint it something neutral and decided on french linen, just in case I wanted to change dishes, umbrella or whatever! However, I wanted to give it a fun summer look. Something easy to change that wouldn't require me redoing the whole thing next year. :) I knew adding the Provence and Old White stripe would give it the look I wanted. Final step was giving it a coat of Helsman Spar Urethane by Minwax to protect it from sunlight and water.

I must say it has been used more these last couple weeks then it has all summer!

What projects are you working on, to make yourself happier?

We were featured @ Three Mango Seeds

2013-07-14T09:15:00.000-07:00

A Big Thank You to Three Mango Seeds for featuring our French Grain Sack Desk.

Small Ol' Dresser

2013-07-12T19:01:00.001-07:00

I saw this great piece. I am not sure what to call it so a small ol' dresser will have to work. I knew we needed it! It was a great little dresser that would be great for mail, jewelry, or crafts. I got a smokin deal on it and all it needed was a little paint! :)

We gave it a coat of ASCP Duck Egg and a good distressing. We put on some glass knobs and it was ready to be sold. We took it to market and it was gone in a flash.

What are you guys working on this weekend?

I am working on my patio and can't wait to share it with you all!

Have a great weekend. :)

French Linen Chair

2013-07-09T20:39:00.001-07:00

I am sure everyone who saw us pick this chair up at the thrift store, cringed with disgust. Honestly, we did to, but we knew it had potential. Look at how gross this chair is! BLAH.

Oh the fabric and the stains, would have sent a normal person running but not us. Good thing we are far from normal. :) Would you have picked this chair up?

I gave it a coat of french linen and then waxed in dark. Grandma upholstered the chair in a French script canvas and also used a muslin on the sides and the ruffle. She did an amazing job. Thank goodness for my wonderful business partner aka grandma, she is a wonderful seamstress and she use to do upholstery. If it wasn't for her this chair wouldn't have turned out as amazing as it did! It ended up going to a really good customer of ours and a really good friend of my grandmas. I am hoping to make it over to her house in a few weeks for some better photos!

Provence Industrial Shelf

2013-07-08T19:44:00.000-07:00

We were at a garage sale when I saw this. The picture is not the best because it is from my IPhone when I was texting my mom and grandma to see if I had absolutely lost my mind for wanting to buy this. They both said go for it. My hubs was a little skeptical but he trusted me and loaded it up in the truck. This piece was desperate for a new paint job!

I sanded off all the lose paint and then gave it a coat of primer and then painted it in ASCP Provence. We had our local home depot cut some board and then I gave it a coat of Jacobean. Once again time and lighting was not on my side, so I apologize for the quality of the photos. That is what happens when I get pieces the day before it needs to be loaded into the trailer. :(

We took this piece to the show on Saturday and it was scooped up quickly. I thought it would be so neat in our sewing room with bolts of fabrics on two of the shelves and the other two lined with vintage locker baskets. Nice thought, but it sold and I am ok with that! I love the white primer peaking thru! I must say I am becoming a big fan of finding industrial pieces!

What do you think?

French Grain Sack Desk

2013-07-07T17:15:00.000-07:00

Oh my, I cannot believe that it has been over a month since I last blogged. I have definitely missed it. We have had shows and a wedding for the last month. I have been running around with my head cut off. We now have a two week break and I am going to enjoy every minute of it! In the midst of the extreme chaos, I picked up this desk. It was actually in good shape other than it was missing the molding.

We gave it a coat of Old White and then a coat of Cashmere by Van Gogh Chalk Paint. However, it was just same ol, same ol. I asked my grandma about adding a couple of french grain sack lines and she loved the idea. We taped it off and painted the lines coco. I really, really like how it turned out.

The customer who bought the piece told me. When I saw this desk with the stripe on it, I was sold. She then preceded to say I saw a lot of cute white desks but great job for being a little bit more creative.

Sorry, for the lighting of these pictures. It was starting to get dark and these were last minute pictures as furniture was being loaded into the trailer. Bummer! Now that we have time, I am going to work on really getting amazing photos of our pieces we are working on.

Did you all have a wonderful 4th of July weekend?

School Table turned Farm Table

2013-05-31T19:07:00.000-07:00

If you guys follow us at all, you know I am horrible at before pictures. Usually, when it is time to get to working on a piece of furniture i need to get it done as quickly as possible. I am really going to try to be better at that starting in June! This table we picked up a long time ago and it has been in our storage. It came with a horrid laminate top.

We decided to make it a farm table. I went to home depot and had three boards cut to give it the plank look. I gave it a coat of Minwax Classic Gray. I took a hammer, chain and nails to make worm holes. I then gave it a coat of Jacobean. I loved the combo of those two colors, it gave it more of an aged look . I painted the frame and legs in Old White and gave it a good distressing.

I found these iron pulls and painted those too.

I am a huge fan of how this table turned out. We took it to Sweet William Market and it was scooped up rather quickly. We always try to sell all our tables with chairs so our customers don't have to go searching for them. This table came with 4 chairs and a cute bench. There are always those items that you could sell three or four times and this just happened to be one of them!

I cannot wait to make another one of these tables. It was one of my favorites!

Have a fabulous weekend!!!

Industrial Cart

2013-05-30T19:05:00.002-07:00

So, a few weeks ago I was on my morning walk when I walked past an ugly hunk of metal! However, being a hoarder I knew we could do something with it. I went home and forgot about it and then about an hour later remembered it was sitting outside and oh no someone else could get it. So grandma and I quickly went to pick it up. Being the crazy hoarders that we are, we just threw it in the garage. This is what it looked like when we picked it minus the primer. It isn't the greatest picture but ya get the idea.

We kept throwing ideas around on what to do with it. We thought how awesome would it be to be in a craft room, or on the patio for a beverage/food cart or in a kitchen for an island! So then we searched thru our stack of wood and found some 2x8 that fit perfectly! I gave it a coat of primer and then painted in ASCP Florence. I stained the boards in Minwax Jacobean and I loved the way it looked against our paint choice.

We added the casters to give it some height and I am really glad we did! I just love this cart. I could so see it on my patio or my office. So I guess if it doesn't sell at our next couple shows it will be welcomed back into our home! :) I had different plans for displays for pictures but the wind was blowing 100 mph (ok maybe not that bad but I couldn't take it to my back patio because it is way to open, everything would have blown over).

So what do you think? How would you use this piece?

Hiding our Ugly TV Cutout

2013-03-29T17:46:00.000-07:00

I really have no idea why in the world builders started putting these TV cutouts in homes. When we bought our house 8 years ago we figured it would be alright. However, the day we moved in and put our big honking tube TV in there we were less then impressed. The TV was basically on the floor. A few years ago my husband built the box to put our cable boxes and game systems in and that allowed our TV to sit up a little higher. This year I was completely over this ugly box!

We decided to add shutters to hide the ugly box. We are going to build shelves to store all our DVD's. I wanted to hide the cable boxes but it would have been a royal pain to have to always open the doors to allow us to change the channel.

The shutters I had on had were a perfect height and just a little off on the width but nothing that a little frame work wouldn't fix. I painted the shutters in ASCP Old White and sanded them to give them a distressed look. Painting shutters is a lot of work but I absolutely love the way they turned out!

The box looks a lot better and has been Willow Creeked! :) This room is becoming more us and I am finally starting to love this room.

More to come on this room in the next few days! My hubs bought me a new Mac Book Pro and it is taking time to get use to this new system! Uploading my pictures and figuring out where the heck they were took me about an hour. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Duck Egg Family Room Dresser

2013-03-28T19:11:00.002-07:00

So the last few weeks I have been working my tail off on our home, finally! We had our little boys birthday party and had family coming into town and I really wanted my house to be us. For the last few years we focused on selling our pieces to everyone else and not focusing on our home! I got tired of that. I wanted our home to reflect us and our style that we loved! So I have started in our family room. More pictures tomorrow. We are working on another project and I want to do a reveal when we are finished tomorrow! :) So this dresser was in our family room like this. It was ok but not really us.

I decided to give it a couple coats in ASCP Duck Egg. My curtains have that color in them and I just needed a little bit of color for that room. I love how it turned out! When I distressed it showed the white underneath and a bit of the yellow, which I really really liked. Before it had wooden knobs painted in pink. I didn't get a picture of those beauties! :)

See ya tomorrow for a reveal of our new family room!

Saloon Door to Message Picture Board

2013-03-08T09:04:00.002-08:00

Every time I see these doors it makes me think back to the western movies my grandma loves to watch. When you could hear their boots hitting the creaky wood floor and the cowboys deep voice. :) Anyways, I picked these up a while back at the thrift store and was just waiting for that ah ha moment!

I decided they were light enough to hang on a wall for a chalkboard. I just thought it needed something else besides just being a chalk board. So I added the small clothes so pictures or art work could be hung from it! Also, added a drawer pull to the message board to hold the chalk! I painted one side in Coco, wanted to go more neutral for the show this weekend. I distressed and then applied a coat of dark wax. I just can't get enough of the color coco! I even painted the drawer pull.

Isn't that lamp shade awesome?? More on that next week. I love the saying on the chalk board, it is shortened from this amazing quote by Jim Valvano "To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. And number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it, if you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special."

I decided to paint the other one in Old White and distress it in the dark stain too. That dark stain is really starting to grow on me. I have used it so much my fingernails are coated in it too! :)

Well I better go finish getting ready for our show this weekend.
Hope you guys have a fun creative weekend!

Spring Bench

2013-03-07T17:34:00.000-08:00

This week grandma and I decided to hit the thrift store. We haven't been in awhile because of her not feeling well. :( We saw this bench and we knew we could make it cute. So into our cart it went! It was just so drab and screaming for a springtime makeover!

I sent the hubs to get us some ASCP in Arles, Florence and Duck Egg. He goes for us because I get it down by it is down by his work which is really out of the way for me. He is a keeper for sure. Anyways enough about my wonderful husband. On to the paint. Oh my my, let me tell you I love all three of them. I couldn't put my paint brush down today. I kept wanting to give makeovers! These three colors make me so excited for spring and summer.

I painted the bench in Arles, Duck Egg and Old White and gave it a coat of dark wax. It is now ready for the Sugar Plum Bazaar that is this weekend! Crossing fingers that our weather cooperates and snows just a lil bit rather than the 6-12" they are predicting .

What do you all think? Does it make you excited for spring?

Tomorrow I will be showing you more on the chalk board shutter shown in the picture above!

Chic Hanging Chandelier

2013-02-08T18:40:00.000-08:00

When I saw this chandelier I was in love. The poor chandelier was sponge painted in a sage green and hunter green. It also had really ugly light covers. The light covers were so ugly I donated them right then and there! This thing needed some TLC!

I love the glass stem and just knew with a little bit of paint it could really beautiful. I gave it a coat of old white and used dark wax to give it a distressed look. I had the hubby re-wire the chandy so whomever bought it could just plug it in. I know in new homes they don't put lights in the bedrooms just give us a outlet that the light switch turns on. So silly if you ask me!

What do you think? I think it turned out pretty darn cute. I love it hanging on the bird cage stand! I am now on the hunt for our house that is just a little smaller!