Rita Marie ........Proprietor of A Rita Marie Shabby Cottage

Above is one of the pretty vintage items I have taken from shabby to very fab and chic. I do hand paint on items if requested, and I do distress them. Often they are distressed when offered, but often not. I try to vary my items as much as I can. Oh, yes, i will change the color if you love the item but have to have another color. The color you see these items in are linen white. I use Behr paint, which has been proven to me to be an excellent paint.

Admittedly, I have not actually been posting on Twitter although I have asked you to follow me. I think I may have taken on a bit too much, but we will see.

I have started following one of the most talented ladies I know in her Whimsical Victorial Cottage. She has the pretties little shop set up, and you will soon be able to see her photos as well. I saw them today, and it is gorgeous. She sells from her shop, but I bet before too long you are going to be asking her about buying things you see on her blog.

I have been working on painting vintage items sure to be lovely additions to your chic homes or shabby sweet cottages. I keep meaning to take pictures of the before and after, but so far have forgotten every time. I will post some photos on here of items I have on http://www.aritamarieshabbycottage.com/,

My tip of the day: Let me say first that my tips are often known by many, but we forget how many of us do not have the "built in decorator" in our genes nor have heard of some ot the tiny tidbits we have.

Decorating Tip of the day:   Some decorators swear by this. Some people don't. That is that every room should have one black item in it. The intention is to ground the room.

Fab old ammo box. This is the before. I will have the after on here in the next day or so. This one I did remember to take the photo first.

Check back and see how it looks with what I did to it. It will then be offered in my Rita Marie Cottage shop or on ebay. I haven't decided that yet.

Coming up I will be offering an vintage window painted for Christmas (I think..have not decided that either). If you have an opinion one way or the other, do let me know.