Less painting more life!

So, I mentioned a couple of posts back that I was asked to write a weekly diary for PVB online magazine. They were keen to hear about my life as an Army wife. So, we are 2 weeks down already in the diary entries and Maj C is off shortly to sunny climbs. So if you'd like to read a bit our about life when I'm not painting, then please feel free to take a look! Hope you're all enjoying the sun, so happy it's still got its hat on! Whoop whoop.

French Chic with Annie Sloan Antoinette - "Let them (by them I mean you) eat cake"

So we have had a marvellous time on our first family holiday abroad in Normandy. The weather was glorious and the Chateau we were staying in has well and truly inspired me, this week I will mainly be channelling French Chic (arguably the only chic-but that might be a discussion for another day).

So, in order to relieve my French-country-Chateau-chic-ness itch I have bought a new  tin of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (well technically two tins, but don't tell Major C) Granite (a lovely dark grey) and the aptly named Antoinette (the lightest of dusky pinks). I am super excited about getting started on my garage full of treasures. And to continue the French theme I will ensure I am eating lots of cake in order to ensure my French theme is thoroughly embraced (surely it would be rude not to? Non?)

I have a beautiful telephone seat (very french and glamorous) and I'm thinking a Granite base with Antoinette on top and lightly distressed will be perfect! Now all I need to do is match the perfect fabric and I sense this will be the greatest piece in the Rascal & Roses repertoire (are you enjoying my clever use of French appropriate words? Thought so).  I will keep you posted on the fabric decisions and hopefully keep you up to date with progress as the week goes.

As an aside I am working on a Q & A section for the blog and the main hot topic has got to be how to use the Annie Sloan Wax...wow I could write a book I think. However, if you have any other Annie Sloan Chalk Paint or general upcycling, refurbishing, upholstering based questions (or lets be honest, any questions really) please drop me a line and I'll do my very best to answer them - long answers will be posted here and Facebook - short answers on Twitter.

Hopefully you are all having a fabulous bank holiday, I shall leave you with one of my favourite weather appropriate quotes (but the academics among you may realise its not really about the weather)....

We are living in a material world...

...and I am (without a doubt) a material girl. Now, granted Madonna may not have had the same material in mind when she penned her 80s pop classic, but I am pleased to report the song is still as relevant to me today as I’m sure it was to her back in the day!

So, I hear you ask, what has been going on at Rascal & Roses HQ? Why on earth has there been 12 days since your last post? Well dear readers we have been busy busy busy! In fact, things have picked up pace at an astonishing rate. So, in no particular order I am pleased to announce the following exciting news; Rascal & Roses are getting a new website, you are soon going to be able to buy Rascal & Roses from our new distributor (more details to follow) and we have lots and lots of new fabric to start making some gorgeous new pieces.

Now, I understand that until the internet allows you to feel just how lovely my new fabric is you won’t quite appreciate just how fabulous it is, so for the while you will just have to trust me. It is glorious, so smooth and silky and thick and lovely and however good my photography skills are (point of information: they are rubbish) you will never be able to understand quite how bright and beautiful they are. So, in the absence of a tunnel in your computer which will take you directly to my studio (spare bedroom) you will just have to take my word for it. The fabrics are glorious.

My favourite (although admittedly slightly gypsy- carnivalesque) is a multicoloured Manuel Canovas stripe.  Don’t panic though, for those that prefer not to have to wear sunglasses in their breakfast room there are some relaxing more muted tones in the shape of GP & J Baker’s famous Threads range I have put a few pics below to get you in the mood for some things to come.* But quite frankly, whichever way you cut it, its hard to ruin a piece of furniture when your start point is such extraordinary designer fabrics. I must leave you now as I have to tend to my really quite serious addiction to Pinterest. Pop over and visit, but I must warn you it is a time thief.

*Alas due to a technical “hitch” (the rascal threw my phone with all pics into a glass of water) photos will be uploaded shortly (I hope).

Update; hitch rectified-don't ask how...photo now available in glorious technicolour!

#RascalFindHour

This week, as usual has been rather hectic. Thankfully though the end is in sight becuase Major C is on Summer Leave! Brilliant. We are going to have a busy few weeks, but lots of fun catching up with friends and family before he leaves for sunnier climbs in September.

So, we have left Rascal & Roses HQ (and the garage full of furniture and paint) to go visiting! Major C was happy because he (incorrectly) assumed that while we were away from home I would be unable to get my sticky mitts on anymore furniture...how wrong he was. As we have returned to where I grew up I know where absolutely ALL the possible traders of bits and bobs are and we are going to visit ALL of them! Yeah! I will keep you all posted as to what we find...as the lovely @brookslay suggested this week on Twitter we may have to have a #rascalfindhour to show off all my lovely finds. (If you want to follow anyone on Twitter follow her, she is, as the kids say: Amazeballs).

In other Rascal and Roses news I have been invited to write a guest blog for a website that promotes small independent businesses and its all looking very exciting indeed. I will make sure you are all kept up to date with progress the minute I hear more.

This week I finished a commission for the lovely Kitty's bedroom. Some very nice Stag furniture, which through the medium of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint magic has been updated and transformed! You can see the before and after pics below. I love the apple green and luckily Kitty loved it too! One of the most brilliant things about Annie Sloan paint is that you can easily mix it to get the precise colour you want. Now, my eye for colour can sometimes be a little off target and for the life of me I couldn't figure out which pots I needed to get the perfect shade of Granny Smith Apple, but thankfully the guru herself, The Annie Sloan gave me a pretty good steer of Antibes Green + English Yellow and Old White and turns out it was precisely what we were after! (Again well worth a follow on Twitter if you love painting as much as me.) 

 The Blue Peter style Before & After shot

Yet again though, I find myself back on decoupage band wagon. Love it love it love, so stay tuned for some lovely cut and stuck items. I hope you have all had a lovely weekend. Check you laters alligators. Hopefully this week I will have my very useful "How To" Guide for using Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.