Inspiration...transformation...pt 2

Okay...the next inspiring blog I found my way to was the beautiful Maria's at Dreamywhites - fabulous french inspired white furnishings, furniture...distressed to a gorgeous state...ah be still my shabby-chic heart!! lol...anyway..I practically drooled over her home and all her other pics...and thought...why haven't I actually painted all the furniture I've bought over the years SPECIFICALLY to distress to french white...but when it came down to it, I chickened out and left them as is!!...my queen anne bedroom furniture, a dark (maybe oak) sideboard in the living room, old chairs around my dining table (sadly mixed with the modern nasty others...till I find more chairs...hard to get bargains in NZ like you gals do in the USofA!!)...SO..I DETERMINED...TODAY WAS THE DAY....
So here begins my zillion pics of my coffee table/chest...nearly forgot the 'befores' ...remembered just after I started...so off I ran for Beths' camera...and here we go...sorry, i'm TOTALLY enthused with it...too many pics...but if you scroll thru quickly, you'll hardly notice how many there are!!....
BEFORES...well, almost befores! ;)...

And AFTERS...not quite in the right order!...

The paint I bought turned out to be a very matt finish which I neither wanted nor expected, however I remembered I had a jar of French furniture polish (which I MADE years ago!!) in the cupboard...and although intended for natural wood, I felt sure it would polish a nice sheen onto my finished chest...which as you can see, it did - it looks very glossy in this pic, which it is not...just a lovely subtle 'glow' about it...and the polish with linseed oil in it is a slightly amber colour and this, rubbed in and buffed to a sheen actually softened my 'little-too-bright-white' paint to a lovely tone...

Back in the lounge with Molly Wisenbergs delightful book back on its place...and some of my lovely stone coasters...

You can see the very cool little metal hinges that I managed to NOT get white paint on!! Love these hinges...gives it such an old-worlde feel...which it certainly is not...made of pine and MDF...amazing what a coat or three of paint can TRANSFORM, isn't it? ;)

And with my lovely cast iron crown and distressed wooden seashell....

Well, thanks for looking...love to hear your comments if you have any :)

off to bed now...before I get up and finish the chair!! lol...want to start on my bedroom furniture (can't start on the sideboard as it still has all my Christmas decorations on it...garlands, cone trees etc...too much to take off and put back and not ready to put away)...but tomorrow, I am off to have a 'ladies' lunch" with my mother-in-law in the country and a lovely place called Monterey House - a special treat.

So..more Thursday, perhaps!!

ciao bellas...happy blogging, creating, transorming!!

luv jessie xx

Inspiration...transformation...pt 1

Yesterday I was inspired to bake...Raspberry and Apple Crumble/Crisp...by reading a post on Molly Wisenbergs blog Orangette, (click here)...I'd been reading her book, "A Homemade Life - Stories and Recipes from my Kitchen Table"...wonderful read....realised she had a blog..HELLO!!...and promptly rushed upstairs to my computer, dropping the book somewhere between the Banana Bread with choc chunks and ginger pieces and the Couer a la Creme...and began to scroll thru her recipes...and came upon a recipe that debated the cobbler verses crisp...well in NZ we don't really make 'cobblers' and maybe some people make crisps, but I certainly make Crumbles!!...and my mouth watered at the thought of one...so off I went...intending to make wholly berry crumble, but I threw in a couple of apples that looked terribly unappealing as they languished at the bottom of my fridge awaiting TRANSFORMATION..awaiting an occasion just such as this!...amazing how those soft, almost floury apples that you wouldn't dare let past your lips in their raw state are transformed into delicious, golden lusciousness with the mere application of heat and a sprinkling of sugar...mmm..

My pics are all out of order...grrr...well above was how it appeared in my daughter Beths dish, with vanilla icecream to grace its head...but mine...


I prefer my puddings to swim in cool, loose ('runny', we call it) cream...fresh, cool, cutting the sweetness of the fruit with just enough richness to make it lipsmackingly good!!

This Pic was meant to be at the top! The cooked apple and berries, doused with sugar, ready to be enveloped in the crumble mix and hidden away in the oven :)

And then today there's been a transformation of a different kind...a non-food kind! Thanks to the inspiring blog over at Dreamy Whites, I took great delight in transforming my chest coffee table into a distressed, white french-inspired thing of beauty!!...Forgot to take before photos until I'd already begun, but hurriedly went and grabbed the camera once I remembered...and so began the TRANSFORMATION...cant make the pics go down here so...see my next post :)

ciao bellas

jessie (for some reason, i'm getting double line spacing!! weird! what is happening in blogland?!!)

Oh beauty on a plate...

Oh my...check out my niece Katey's fabulous looking Rainbow Cake that she made for her sister's birthday yesterday...HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARISA! mmm...just beautiful! Multi hued layers all hidden beneath the delicious cool whiteness of Vanilla frosting...mm..mmmm!! Go Katey...remember, my birthday's in February...just sayin'... ;)

And And finally...last of Christmas decorating pics...maybe ;)

And finally...this is my front entranceway... red theme...

Detail on the twig/willow cone...with the words of Oh Holy Night made into paper garland wound around the cone...

And our Christmas Dinner table...

My mums beautiful silverware out for the occasion...

Thanks for looking! If you're anything like me, I LOVE looking at other peoples ideas and things they did...and if not, you're probably not even reading this now! haha...

Happy Holidays one and all - May the Lord bless you and keep you safe, warm, loved.

jessie xx

..but wait...there's more!!

I suddenly realised halfway thru Christmas 'tea' (Christmas 'dinner' was at lunchtime..with half the 'children'...and then the other half came for tea...Emma and Beth were at both of course, because they do not have inlaws to go to!...so this was a 'happy shot' for dad, who is away in the middle east and not home for Christmas! ..sniff..sniff...haha Claire is mid-mouthful so not the best of her...ah well..
And then there's the 'sad' shot cos dad is not here...MISS YOU DADDY!!!!... wish you were here!!..awesome sad faces...don't you think??

Moving on...back to our decorating... hehe...a lovely shot of Beth's FIRST EVER Pavlova...traditional Christmas dessert in NZ and Australia (a much debated topic - whether the Pav (as we all them) was an Australian or New Zealand invention...WE, OF COURSE, SAY THE LATTER!!...

I found a branch blown over the fence from the neighbours! on my deck! (gotta be something good come out of all this dreadful wind!!) so i wired it to the chimney guard and hung my homemade baubles from it, above the willowy cone trees...

Another shot of the same....

Our sideboard with another silver willowy/twig cone tree...and paper star...and I printed the words to a Christmas Carol, Oh Holy Night, and cut it in thin strips and wound around the tree like a garland...can't see in this pic but looks lovely...and adds a Christian note to the display...yay!...

Looking back the other way...

And then there was a little more Christmas food....well...these were meant to be delicious fresh raspberries for our table, but they went off...in the fridge!! I was so disappointed...so had to throw a punnet of them out. Picked up the punnet...and it promptly tipped out of my hand...half of them going all over my feet!! hahaha....yay...a good start to Christmas morning!! ;)

These were the berries previously...delicious local boysenberries on the left and the 'fresh picked' raspberries on the right...

And a last shot of their deliciousness...alongside some fudgebars all wrapped in cello ready to give...mmmmm....LOVE CHRISTMAS FOOD...AND GIVING...how about you??

That's it for now bellas...

have a lovely relaxing day...

Looking forward to a happy new year!!

ciao...jessie xx

Ahh...Christmas beauty...

Some Christmas gifts...ready to be sent away...
One of my little christmas corners...

Our table centrepiece...MAYBE it's mercury glass??? but I actually think it's a fake version of what I see on all my wonderful American blogging sister's sites....but hey! it's pretty close and looks just beautiful!!

The Christmas baubles I made to hang from our light fitting above the dining table..

Another shot of the same looking in the opposite direction, towards the kitchen...

I made gift tags from half baubles...only three patterned sides and a flat white side underneath to write on..they hun nicely from the gifts...

A wee shot of my gorgeous cast iron crown, with a pic of me as a child peeping over the top...

The Christmas star I made from some of my late mothers vintage sheet music...hung above her piano...

...I LOVE CHRISTMAS!! The beauty of candlelight can transform the simplest of things....