Here come the Mama's

If you haven't heard the Mamas of Mama's Happy are opening up in the city!! How stinkin' exciting is that. We are all so excited to bring a bit of our creativity to a new stores. The stores will of course be stocked with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and a bit of treasures we have made. We will still be open at the Creamery in Indepence once a month but now if you are ever in the city you can check out our new stores.

We opened the Linden Hills shop this fall. We share a space with Twigg's and have been so welcomed to that little community. What a great place to be!!

I'll let the pictures do the talking...such a cute little place that our Mama Terrie has made. Mama's Happy In The City is open Tues-Sat from 10-6 and Sunday 12-4.

Our second location is on Grand Ave. in St. Paul- Mama's On Grand. It is a great place with a lot of history to that part of town. There are so many neat little shops in that area and what Irish girl wouldn't love going to St. Paul right!! I am headed down to the grand opening tonight- yep I'm headed to the city. It doesn't happen very often but what an exciting event to be going to. I think the last time I was over there a friend of mine and I took our daughters to a Cheetah Girl concert at the Xcel Center- yeah don't judge me at least I wasn't one of the moms wearing the cheetah print- seriously that was really wrong. I still laugh about it. 

Anyways...if you aren't doing anything tonight stop down between 6-8 to join me and some of the other Mamas for a great night and help us celebrate the new store. The store will be open Mon-Sat from 10-5:30 and Sunday from 11-4. 

Here are some pics of the place- great job to Terrie and Amanda for getting it all set up. It looks great!!

I have to thank Amanda and her husband Scott. They own Mama's Happy and have made this all possible for us. They started out in a little store in Mound and in the last few years they have grown the business into what it is today. A great place for us creative types to sell our treasures (and make a bunch of hubby's happy that it isn't in the garage any more) a group of women who have become great friends and our own little Mama's Happy family!!

Stop in and see us at any of our locations:

Independece, Linden Hills or Grand Ave. 

Where did the last month go...

It has been one busy month- ok almost 2 since school started. My little guy is absolutely loving preschool and I can't believe I have a 10th grader. My middle one- "Red" wants to know who invented school and made the law that kids have to go. She loves the social part of it but not the home work.

I can't believe it is time for Mama's October sale. September flew by with the sale and artisian market, the wedding ( don't fall over but I wore a dress, and even heels), junk bonanza and my first girls weekend with all the Mama's. It was a great month!! So I have something I have to admit. The mama's weekend was the first time I had been gone from the kids and left them home with dad- where did the time go this last 15 years??!! It was great to get away and spend some time with some AMAZING friends but good to come home.

So here are a few things I've been working on. 

 A beautiful armoire that is painted in ASCP Country Grey and Old White with Dark wax over it. Turned out great and is headed to a lake home.

 

 This chair and table had a little bit of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint. I have to say the combination of the two turned out great. The table legs was MMS Milk Paint- I love the chippiness. The top of the table I added a bit of ASCP so it would adhere. Now the chair - that turned out great. The fabric was like a gold corduroy that I painted in ASCP Aubusson. I watered it down and did a few layers on it. It was a bit stiff but took one of my sanding blocks to it and it softened it right up.

I love this last one. I was taking pictures of furniture at Mama's to start our Pinterest boards for the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint examples. I came back outside and there is Levi taking 5 watching the traffic go by. Gotta love it!! It reminds us all to sit back and watch the world and take it all in. 

Well I better get to bed. I work at Mama's tomorrow and then we are having a BBQ to celebrate the opening of our Minneapolis and St. Paul stores. 

Have a great weekend and remember to sit back and take 5. 

P.S.- if you'd like to take a look at more of our ASCP examples check out Mama's Happy or Unexpected Transformation/Ann Hayes on Pinterest. 

A little bit of this and a little bit of that

My first FULL weekend home with no softball for the girls. What to do with all that time??? It was a busy one out in the garage. My dad (aka handy man) came over to help with a list I had for him. I always learn quite a bit when he comes over. I know he laughs at my skills but I'm still learning. He comes over and fixes a dresser in 15 minutes that would have taken me a few hours. He also brought over the entertainment center he built for us. Wait til you see the pictures of that. It turned out great. 

My favorite project this weekend was a dresser that I repurposed into an armoire. It was a dresser I received from a friend. I thought the top part would be great for doors instead of drawers and what do ya know it worked!! Here is a before- I know not a very good pic but I get so excited to get started and forget to take the before pictures. 

 Here I took some old fence boards I had and made them into door frames. It worked out perfect and fit like a T. A little elbow grease with steel wool and some poly to finish them off.

  Annie Sloan Chalk Paint of course was my color choice. I used Provence and then Duck Egg for the 2nd layer. Topped it off with dark wax. You can see in this picture I took out the shelves in the top section and added a pole to hang cloths from.

 Here it is all finished up. I decided to use fabric for the inserts in the doors. Those were a yellow buttery cream color curtains I got on clearance at Target. Just cut the fabric twice as wide as you need it so you get some nice pleats in there. The hinges...let's just say when I went to the store and asked for butt hinges the guy at the hardware store thought I was a little odd but hey that is what my dad told me to get and they work great. I love the combination of the rustic, painted and fabric.

Now it is time to figure out what to do with another dresser I got. 

Hope you all had a good weekend!!

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My Repurposed Life

A Little Bit of Craziness

Yes all of you know what I am talking about. The craziness of this thing we call life.  Juggling what life hands all of us. For some it could be managing the kids schedules, working a full time job and a part time job, taking care of an ill parent or deciding on a big move that could change your life.

We each deal with these things in different ways. Some people exercise, some read, some garden- yeah I have tried all those and while I do feel good after exercising I can't explain what a finished project does for my soul. Kind of a giddy feeling almost. For me it is working in the garage on some project for my little space at Mama's Happy. It could be painting, sawing, hammering or fixing up a table I found on one of my dumpster adventures.

People ask all the time how I have time to do this but to be honest I need to do it. Then as I tell them it is my therapy they kind of chuckle. But ya know I really think it is. I can have one of those days where it is that old saying "Calgon take me away". I'll head out the in the garage after everyone has gone to bed and work for a bit and feel my shoulders relax, start dancing with the paint brush to the music I have on and eventually sleep like a baby. Okay you probably didn't need to know about the dancing part but hey thought you'd get a laugh for the day.

Next month will be my 1 year anniversary at Mama's and it has been one wild ride but I love it. Yeah I'll admit it at times it is a little nuts, stressful (mostly just when I bring another piece of furniture home to put in the garage) but as my grandpa use to say these times will pass.When I see someone so excited to take that table home to set up in their house it makes it all worth it.

So as a I head into another sale at Mama's thanks to all of you for helping me out with my therapy!! Check out what has come from our little therapy sessions.....

See you next month or actually probably tonight in the garage. If you hear the radio and the lights are on stop in and say hi.

Ann

It Was What????

I love taking discarded items and seeing what I can make out of them. I mean you can marry a top from a desk and a table frame to make a cute table or an old table leaf and a metal frame to make a cool coffee table. Spindles from a bed make great legs!! The list is endless.  Well this project was no different.

Here is the before...maybe I should call this project from beast to beauty???

This was an antique fainting couch. The fabric well---let's just say those little cherub things had seen better days but I loved the wood frame and thought it would make a great coffee table. It had great bones. So I  started the tearing apart of this beast. 

It was covered with padding, this white stuff and I think even some horse hair stuffing but look at what was underneath all that.  SPRINGS- I love these things and over 40 of them. Each spring was held in by 2 nails on each side with tacks here and there. Lots of finger work on this one.

So here it is down it's bare bones. Now on to clean it up and take off the head portion of the couch and find some scrap wood I can use for the top. So after this point I didn't do so hot taking pictures until I was finished- yeah I know rookie mistake....

Here is the finished product. I used old pallet boards, fence boards and an old well ruler to make the top.  Dry brushed on various colors of ASCP and stained or kept some natural. I love it. I hope someone will too. I think it would look great at the lake place!! Can you tell summer is finally here and we are ready to spend some time out at the lake? 

A little closer look. You can see the antique well ruler. This was the neatest thing. It was 12 feet long with hand painted measurements on it. I thought it looked great with the other rustic wood. 

So one more look..... before and after.

This beast is now a beauty!!

What have you revamped lately? Isn't it fun and almost therapeutic? 

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