Little Red Rocking Chair

Okay so I did it!  I completed my first piece and am already working on my second!  I had to go out of town for a little while for a work thing.  Louisville was quite hot, felt like I was walking into an oven really.  Coming from Portland when I walked out of the Airport in Louisville at 11pm at night I had to start stripping the layers off and was cursing the jeans and tennis shoes I wore on the flight.  A few days later, I went to Chicago to visit a friend for a few days.  It is such a beautiful city and her baby even more so!  I think I would want to live there if there were no winter.  But alas, it happens and winter happens bad in the windy city.  Back to furniture...

The little red rocking chair has been a joy to work on.  A learning lesson for sure.  Here is what I learned:

1. I don't like working with spray paint.
2. I don't like working with anything oil based.
3. I don't like white primer under red spray paint (rookie mistake).
4. There are a lot of little parts on little chairs.
5. I do like glazing, but it did not really stand out enough so I just stained.
6. Sand, sand and sand somemore.
7. That my little boy loves his new red rocking chair.
8. The little red ottoman is coming soon.

$5 at a garage sale.  Look they even left me some stickers.

My cool plastic spray gun handle was a good purchase.  But I should have just painted on a tinted primer.


 Drippy's...bad!

Turned out pretty cute though

Restoration Hypo-procrastination

I think that is what I have. In the sales world they call it "call reluctance", I could call it paint reluctance! In my book it just means I think I am a little scared to start my first piece. I keep buying and orgainizing...buying paint, tools, furniture...I have a buying problem. Anyone that knows me personally, knows that I am a buyer and returner. The only problem here is that you cannot really return furniture you bought at a garage sale, Goodwill or on Craigslist. Hmmmm, that means I need to "just do it" (I live right around the corner from Nike HQ so I should follow their example)! At least I have come to terms with it. This is what my garage looks like right now. I swear my husband will leave me if I buy even one more piece of furniture. I hope it is not like my shoes he says for every new pair I get I have to throw away two pairs. What is that about? Men don't understand. Stay tuned for my first piece...

Life as we know it...now

How do you start a blog...I mean really start.  The very first entry can be quite intimidating.  Are people going to like it?  Are people going to like me?  My writing style, my pictures, my work, my glory.  Well not all my glory, I fully intend to share glory of others as well.  So in effort to not have it be so daunting to write this first post, I just have to pretend that I am the only one reading it.  Which is actually true!

They call me Christie.  Christine without the "n" is how I say to spell it since I get asked ALL the time.  I live in Portland, Oregon.  Originally from California, San Jose to be exact.  I don't really want to write a big ole long story about where I am from and how I came to be, cause that might be a bit boring.   Currently, I live in Beaverton with my husband and 2 year old little boy.  I am a stay at home meeting planner and mom.  Meaning I work for home sometimes a lot, and sometimes not so much, just depends on the clients or contracts I get for conventions or meetings that they need me to plan.  So you probably guessed it I am a planner.  A big planner...meaning I like to know and prepare for what is happening in the future.  Mostly long term things like parties, trips, work, anniversaries, birthdays.  I am not really a day to day planner, mostly a fly by the seat of my pants type, that's me, moment to moment.  Oh sorry I got lost on that Pretty Woman quote.  Back to our life as we know it...  So in my slow season I mainly hang out with my son and do not work.  This is where Portobello Road comes into play.  I need a hobby, not that I don't love being with my 2 year old.  But I just need a larger creative outlet.  I was an Interior Design Major before I switched to Hospitality Management.  And I grew up creating crafts for boutiques, took tons of art classes, drafting, designing...time to use it! 

I have been getting lost in blogland lately and I am just so impressed by Sausha at Show & Tell and Mandi at Vintage Revivals and many, many others!  I have been truly inspired!  So we had a garage sale last week, I made $100. And with that $100 I bought 10 pieces of furniture and this is where the story begins... Portobello Road is born.