I love to repurpose and upcyle all the things using paints, decoupage papers, transfers, crackles, cracking paints, raised stenciling, and so much more! I have been giving my own furniture a "facelift" for as long as i can remember. My Grandma started me out young going to garage sales and making the pieces my own. Always redoing something in my house, redoing things from garage sales, etc. But on
ce Pinterest came on the scene, that's when i kicked it into gear. I was so smitten looking at all the ideas and repurposing and furniture painting makeovers! I started going to auctions and stocking up. At that time, the 3 truckloads was only $100. Im sure i couldn't get by with that anymore! I just kept stockpiling for a few months. Never having painted a single piece yet. It was as if some unknown force was telling me "if you paint it they will buy it". Not really, lol, but i was like a woman possessed buying all the outdated furniture i could. I finally started painting and never looked back. My first set was for a benefit auction. I can't remember what they went for, but i know i had only paid $5 for the set and they looked brand new when i was done with them! Even the auctioneer thought they were new! From there i was hooked. And here we are 11ish years later and i still love what i do. I almost lost my love for it all a few years a go. I had the brilliant idea that i wanted my own store. That snowballed out of control and turned me into a machine just to keep furniture in the store and stole any and all enjoyment from it. There was also the parts about being approached to donate to everything under the sun and advertise in everything under the sun that made me feel like everyone just wanted a piece of me. I will stop there tho. I had to do it to know that it wasn't for me. I NEED to create. Owning the store stole that from me. I get twitchy if it has been too long since i have created! and maybe something else that rhymes with itchy ;)
By the time i closed down the store, i was burnt out, worn out, and exhausted. Ready to slow down and start blogging. I couldn't hardly stand to paint furniture anymore. I really thought that i was done painting furniture. Any piece i did was forced and made me resent having to do it. After shutting down the store, cleaning out the building, cleaning out the storage space in town and moving everything back home, i started blogging (i think it was January 21, 2020). Along in April i started getting the itch to teach what i do online. So i got some things figured out and and opened a private monthly group in July of 2020. This was so foreign to me. I had never ever wanted to teach anything, like at all. And i will never be the one to say you have to do abc and d in that order. I am more a trial and error kind of gal and have a lot of experience with fixing the errors :)
So as we are approaching the one year anniversary of this private monthly group, i am so thankful. Thankful that my husband told that i was too tired and worn out to see how tired and worn out i was. Thankful that the building was sold quickly. Thankful that i pivoted online in the nick of time (thank you Lord). Thankful that my desire to paint furniture came back to me last November and that since then that is the focus of the private group. And mostly, i think i am thankful for these beautiful ladies who let me guide them through their furniture painting journey's. The beautiful stories that they have shared with me. How they never thought they could do this and now they are. How crafting and furniture painting filled the void for them after losing a loved one. Or how that are now using this group to help them flip furniture in their retirement years. Or how they just do if for themselves and friends and family. So many stories. So many different reasons. It is about so much more than painting furniture. And i am just the catalyst ❤️❤️❤️
