Lucketts Spring Market 2012

 This past weekend I recently attended my first furniture/antiques fair provided by The Old Lucketts Store in Leesburg, VA. This is one of my favorite stores! I am able to get great pieces for little money. The Lucketts Spring Market is only once a year during the mid to end of May. What I love is it provides many vendors a chance to sell their antique and vintage items. Last year I went as a buyer and I was able to put up for sale the furniture I bought last year. It came full circle. One piece I worked especially hard on was a vanity/mirror set I had gotten at Lucketts one day for a steal!! $49!! I know can you believe it. It needed a face lift by removing the old paint, replacing the bottom of one of the drawers, needing new mirrors and a more stable way to support the mirrors. I learned so much during this project. I originally bought the vanity for me because 1) it’s beautiful and 2) it’s practical. I moved into my first house earlier this year and was disappointed that there wasn’t enough room for it, so I decided to sell it and hope someone would appreciate it as much as I do. Luckily I found that person, a super sweet girl who thought about it overnight and came back the next day to purchase it. I was thrilled that my biggest and most beautiful item found a home. It was funny to see what did sell. I had some horse shoes for $2 each, a few baskets for $2-$3 and a funny butterfly wind chime. I wish more furniture had sold but looking at other people’s booths and what people were buying it was mainly small stuff. Plus I had my mom with my both days which is always fantastic because I wasn’t alone and we entertain each other really well. She even brought a junky wooden chair and wrapped it in twine. It attracted people to my booth because they were curious as to what she was making. It’s always great for local vendors to have a place where we can all get together and create and event for people to come and enjoy. Awesome local food and a wonderful cover band who’s lead singer did a fantastic job on a couple Janis Joplin songs. I am glad I was a part of it. I don’t know if I will be again next year but we’ll see. First I need to unload what I didn’t sell. (Here’s my Segway) look to my Etsy site in the coming days for pictures and prices of the furniture. Local pick up only please. That’s the best part of working with so many different crafts and projects are the endless amount of learning that can be brought into other ideas. I am excited to get started with the next one! Stay Tuned……..

 

Spray Paint Test! RustOleum vs. Valspar Review

To Spray or Not to Spray...Either way I am not buying Valspar

I LOVE Spray Paint! It's easy to use and can take any item from drab to FAB in no time.  I recently had 3 wood dinning room chairs I was making over and needed them quickly done on time for the Lucketts Spring Market this past weekend.  Out of convenience I went to my closest hardware store to pick up some fun colors.  The brand they sold was Valspar.  I have never used this brand before but I though "Hey paint is paint, right"  I was SO wrong! First it had a rounded top that prevented me from using my spray paint attachment that turns it into a handy dandy spray gun.  I found the spray nozzle producing less over time and required me to use 2 thumbs inorder to get the paint out.  The twist and lock feature of the top created problems by paint hitting the sides of the outer cap creating splatters of paint that globbed up on my smooth surface I was trying to achieve.  The paint coverage was weak and required many layers upon layers and when a few minutes of drying time is needed in between applications your project goes from quick and easy to long and frustrating.  Luckily I had a can of RustOleum in my arsenal and felt a sense of joy and relief come over me.  RustOleum has a normal spray paint nozzle that allowed me to use my handy dandy attachment.  There is a more steady stream of paint produced and had a wonderful solid coverage that hid gaps and cracks like magic.  One thing that amazed me was the difference in what is considered a Glossy finish.  Once again RustOleum wins! Valspar left a rough texture and I had to double check I actually bought Glossy.  I was painting each chair white with different colored rungs.  I sprayed the rungs their chosen color and when it dried I wrapped them in paper and painters tape and sprayed the rest of the chair white.  I allowed the white to dry over night before peeling off the paper.  Oh no! The Paper stuck to the chairs where I used Valspar.  Needless to say this was a major disappointment and made a note to no longer buy Valspar spray paint. In the future I will go out of my way to visit the orange apron hardware store (you know who you are ;)) and buy RustOleum. Plus they have better colors anyway.  I hope my Spray Paint experience will help you in deciding the right paint.