Antibes Green

Hi all

I picked up an old wooden tray and an embroidered tray cloth at a junk shop in Ross on Wye the other day and thought I'd show you their transformation.

I have a tin of Annie Sloan 'Antibes Green' paint that I'm planning to revamp a display cabinet with but that's going to be a big project so in the meantime I used a little of it on this tray.

This is the tray after the first coat of chalk paint - still a bit of the wood showing through.

You don't need to do any preparation or rubbing down with this chalk paint, so I simply wiped the dirt off first. This is the tray when the second coat was drying.

I left it to dry overnight and then applied a coat of clear wax (also Annie Sloan) with a soft cloth, giving it a gentle buff to a soft shine.

This is the finished result. I'm going to leave it for a couple of days before using it to ensure it's completely dry. 

The tray cloth just needed a good soak to remove a couple of stains and it came up beautifully.

I love the embroidery on this cloth and it goes so well with the green tray.

Now I'm putting together a tea set to go with it - I have the teapot and milk jug so just need to find some cups and saucers!

Pretty Pomanders

Hi there

Last weekend we spent a day at the Hay Festival and the next day explored a little of the Forest of Dean. The Festival was lovely, relaxed, interesting and in beautiful surroundings. We listened to a talk by Alex Bellos (a journalist with an interest in maths) about people's emotional responses to numbers, which was fascinating. But we were mainly there to see Jim Al-Khalili, president of the British Humanist Association, giving a talk about humanism and atheism. He was very eloquent on the subject and it was lovely to feel the response of the audience to his talk. Next year I think we should try and go for longer. There are so many interesting things going on at Hay.

We drove slowly home the next day, via the Forest of Dean. It was one of those lush, warm sunny days when everything looks full-on, green, abundant. We stopped off at a craft centre and I picked up a collection of pretty vintage pomanders from a vintage shop.

Faded blooms and faded scents - I love these ceramic pomanders. I'm tempted to keep a couple for myself but I've started listing some in my Etsy shop. 

Hope you are having a peaceful and happy weekend.

Melanie