Cassie Stephens: vintage Tennessee

Showing posts with label vintage Tennessee. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

DIY: Calling Tennessee Home

The Tennessee calendar painting that took me for-evah. Do you think anyone would notice if I just whited out the 2 in 2012 and made it into a 3 come January? Never mind the incorrect dates, no ones pays attention to that sort of thing...right?

Hello Tennessee- and those-that-live-in-other-fabulous-places friends! I'm taking a little break from the thought of cleaning (because the thought alone wears me out, I can never get to the actual doing) and dreaming up my next DIY. I've been itching to create another painting, not having created one since my World War II-inspired love letters and the Soda Jerk painting. This time I'd like to create another Tennessee themed piece.

Vintage postcard found in a local antique shop.

I got the idea to go with a Tennessee theme for the house a year ago. Hubs and I had taken a trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee and the hotel we were staying in had these amazing vintage photos of the Smokey Mountains. I found the source of the photos but they were way beyond my price range. So I

decided to hunt for vintage Tennessee souvenirs and see what I could create with them.

The little triangle flags (I know those have a name...what are they called?!) have been up since a party we had...and I liked the too much to take down.

I started with this chalkboard piece last summer. I thrifted this frame, complete with tagboard backing. I spray painted the frame with a satin black and painted chalkboard paint onto the surface of the tagboard. Once that was dry, I used acrylic paint to create the image of Tennessee. Super simple DIY!

Vintage photos have got to be my absolute favorite. Never mind that I don't know the people! I just love seeing a snapshot into the lives of the past.

I was super bummed about the high cost of the Tennessee photos. So I started scouring ebay and etsy for such. I lucked out when I won an ebay auction that granted me a family photo album full of a 1940's trip to the Smokey Mountains. I took the photos to our local photography shop and had them enlarged. They are now framed and hung around the house.

Not too long ago, we took a trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee which is most famous for it's Incline Railroad to Lookout Mountain. The railroad has actually been left unchanged since the above photo. You can read more about our little trip here.

Other framed vintage Tennessee goodness around the house is an old map and an original large photo of a group of tourists at Lover's Leap. Sorry, they were too difficult to photo what with the reflective glass and all. You get the idea.

In the Smokies, one is bound to see a bear. On one of our trips, we witnessed a crazy woman outside of our hotel trying to get an up close and personal photo of a bear. Thankfully the bear was too distracted by the Taco Bell meal he'd manage to uproot from the trashcan to notice her. Not wanting to witness a crazy-lady-bear-attack, hubs informed the lady, "You know they eat people, right?"

Most of my frames are either thrifted or Target'ed. The above came from Target, complete with the matte. When I find a thrift store frame, I almost always spray paint it black to add some consistency to the look. On two occasions, I've taken my thrifted frames to Joann's for the matting and the glass.

Thrifted frame, tourist map, bits and bobs from the craft room.

This map was modge-podged right over the original image. I then slathered it with some thinned white paint to set it back a little bit. I have a leaf press and went through this crazy faze where I leaf pressed any fall leaf I could find. Everything was hot glued into place and it now hangs in something called The Butler Pantry...aka, the-place-where-hubs-throws-his-stuff.

Just a little close up. The photos were also in the Smokey Mountain photo album.

When hubs goes for his walks in the woods, he always comes home with the most beautiful feathers. I loved this delicate one.

Thrifted candle stick holders, spray painted black, thrifted orange polka dotted bowl, painting by me, TN letters from Joann's spray painted silver.

And here's my latest inspiration! Also picked up at an antique shop. I have a huge 5' X 2' canvas that I plan to paint this image onto. I cannot wait to start on it and I'll be sure to share it with you once complete!

(Flower) Pothead


Oh, hey neighbor. Yeah, I'm taking pictures. Of myself. With a tripod in the front yard. What? These America's Next Top Model photos ain't gonna take themselves.

It's spring and I've officially become a Flower Pothead. I've spent hours on flowers: planting, painting, wearing, embroidering and decorating with them. This spring thing better stick around because I'm in deep. I thought I'd share with you just a bit of the flowery fantasticness I've gotten myself into:

Flowers in my Hair: Saw Casey wearing flowers in her hair on a recent post and just had to do the same. Mine are fake flowers purchased at JoAnn's hot glued to a hairclip.

Flowers in my Patterns: We dropped in my favorite vintage shop in Orlando, Paris Market Vintage, where I swooped up this sweet 1970's era skirt for a mere $4. If you are ever in the area, it's a great shop with the sweetest ladies working there.

Flowers on my Doorstep: I took these $10 plastic flower pots, turquoise spray paint and cheap acrylic paint and did 'em up Bob Ross style last year. They've sat outside all year with very little wear. I decided to try trailing petunias in the pots this year. I'll share with you how I painted these pots in an upcoming post.

Flowers on my Hoop: My embroidery hoop, that is. I managed to make some headway on our recent trip. I'm about half way finished now...you'll have to wait and see the result when it's complete. It might be a while.

Flowers in my Foyer: I don't care that they might be weeds, they are flowery just the same.

Flowers in Miniature Bottles: Hubs came home from a recent adventure with a sack full of these miniature jars. He'd been off-trail hiking and stumbled upon a cache of vintage trash. Such a great find, don't you think?

Flowers in the Sunshine: Nuff said. Hope things are coming up roses where you are!

Backyard Antiques

We have many deer that leave in the woods of our neighborhood. We also have a lone coyote. By the way the bones were scattered, we think that is how our deer friend met his end.

I'm not really the outdoorsy type. At all. I mean, I'll go backpacking, hiking and kayaking with hubs but it usually involves a lot of coercing. Which is so silly because when I'm actually doing said outdoorsy things, I love it. But when it's suggested, and my other option is to dig for treasures at the local thrift shops, well, I'm sure you can guess which I'd rather.

An old metal sign advertising lodging. We're thinking it must have been posted along Franklin Road and thrown into the woods after the business was gone. How I would love to have it for the house.

Until recently. Hubs came home from a walk with tales of treasures found in the woods. Apparently he had stumbled upon some old homesteads. Immediately I had visions of unearthing armoires of vintage clothing, and before he could finish telling me about his adventure, I had my ratty sneakers on and I was ready to go.

Sweet little ferns are starting to pop up everywhere.

Sadly, there were no suitcases full of like-new vintage dresses. But what we did find was just as beautiful. Here are some snaps from our adventure.

Oh, and speaking of adventure, I'm about to go on one! I'm heading to New York City in just a matter of hours for the National Art Educators Association conference. I cannot wait to attend workshops, spend time with some of my favorite art teacher friends...and, maybe, come home with my own suitcase full of vintage clothing. Chat with you in a week.