Happy Holidays to One & All

I'm amazed to see that my last blog post is dated May of 2012.  So very long ago!  I'll be reviving the blog in January of 2014.   Many new things will be coming, but my focus will remain on taking someting unwanted, unloved, a bit dinged & beat up & making it new & fresh. 

I have my biggest project yet to tackle - a house.   Previously I was limited to sharing projects, a bit at a time, but now I have an entire house to redo & I'll be doing that on a bare, little skinny, shoestring budget.  I'll be taking what I have & making the very best of it in the least expensive way possible.  Please join us on this new journey.

I hope you have a wonderful holiday season!

So many holidays, things to celebrate, such a variety of cultures & beliefs to be found in our world.  

I wish you all the best.

May the New Year bring you much peace, joy, & love!

Still Singing the Blues

I haven't blogged alot lately.

I've been busy painting,

sanding, waxing,

& hunting for new items to paint.

This frame was your typical brown

with a really bad water splotched print inside.

The print was removed and tossed in the dumpster.

The paint on this is Martha Stewart Hosta,

which I'm really, really loving,

topped with a coat of my walnut wax.

Chicken wire was stapled to the back,

so that photos could be attached and displayed.

Old black 'n white postcards from an estate auction

were attached with tiny clothespins.

I had three large frames
that were an old gold,
not a pretty old gold,
but a please paint me old gold.

Now they look like this.

This little table was brown and icky.

The wood on the top was peeking through the brown in spots

and drew my interest.

After a little sanding,

the top was looking very promising.

The top of this was waxed with a walnut wax

and the bottom painted with Martha Stewart Hosta.

The paint on this table was more of my oops paint,

like I used in my last post.

And more of the ooops paint on this dresser,

although it looks different from photo to photo.

These two little end tables

were part of a score from an estate auction last summer.

Finally they've been given some love and color.

Feeling a Little Blue

This ladies writing desk showed up on one of the local FB swap shops.

I fell in love with her,

but didn't message,

as I didn't think it would fit in the car.

After a few days,

the desk was still listed online,

with only a few posts,

but nobody showed any real interest in her.

So I drove to pick her up,

hoping that she'd fit in the car.

Luckily, the legs didn't even have to be removed.

After a coat of paint,

a little distressing (aka destressing me),

and a coat of Minwax,

she was all blue and ready to go.

It was raining, so these photos are taken inside the antique mall. 

Paula, the owner, asked if I'd like to put her in the front window,

so now here she is,

gracing the front window of the Summer Hill Antique Mall.

I also used the same paint on a little three drawer dresser.

The finished product looks very different,

but the only two differences in application were that

the desk received two coats

while the dresser only one

& the dresser was sanded much more than the desk.

The scrapbook paper is from Hobby Lobby.

(I love this paper!)

The knobs are salvaged from the dresser I painted here.

I really love this blue.

It's a "custom mix" aka oopsie special -

1 qt light tan

2 sample pots bright blue

1 sample pot white -

Shaken, not stirred,

in a huge cottage cheese container.

I love the ooops section at Home Depot!

New Spring Lids for Old Glass Jars

A few weeks ago, I bought a few charm packs from Craftsy,

with no specific plans,

I just loved the colors.

With 40 charms in each pack,

and four packs,

I'm going to be finding many projects to use these.

First, I'm making jar lids.

The bright spring colors will jazz up any plain old jars,

even the leftover pickle jars that are great for storage,

but rather bleeeehh

can have a big WOW of color.

Here are the first batch of lids.

All the pretty lids in a row.

Farm Estate Auction

I love going to auctions,

but I really love going to a farm estate auction.

All the old things.

Antiques.

Farm tools.

Old jars.

Saturday was a lovely day for March

at about 50F with the sun shining.

To get to the auction,

we headed down the gravel,

across the blacktop,

down another gravel road lined on one side by a hill

and the other size by grazing black cattle on gently rolling hills,

across the highway,

then down another long gravel road with lots of turns and twists.

We found some wonderful things.

Rusty Metal Crates

Avondale Farms

Midwest D P '59

Galvanized Gas Can

tucked away in the barn

Tractor Seat Chair -

A tractor seat welded to a disc

How's this for handcrafted?

Old Casters

Huge and Heavy

Old Rusty Wheels

17 Rung Ladder

This ladder came from the last farm auction.

There's also a 15 rung ladder.

A little too tall to use as a quilt or magazine rack.

I have so many other things to still photograph,

lots of old rusty metal things, a few kitchens items,

and

the thing I love most to find

old blue jars!

The final tally was 70 jars for the day.

Combined with the 30 I picked last week,

gives us 100 new jars to put in the shop.

So if you love blue jars,

or you're getting married and are looking for jars for your wedding,

or you just want a lovely old blue jar to hold your spring flowers,

please drop by the shop.

If you don't see what you're looking, for,

just let me know,

we have many, many things waiting to be listed,

tucked in corners,

hiding in boxes.

What treasures have you been finding?

Rustic Shabby Cabinet

Last week, I found this cabinet listed in our local swap shop on Facebook.

Not too pretty,

but it had potential.

This cabinet was originally made as a little washstand,

but the upright pieces had been broken.

The little ledge around the top was held on with sheet rock screws

drilled in at an angle

and left sticking out on all sides by about a quarter inch.

So it was a little sad cabinet,

but

it was made with love.

This is the kind of piece that I think

someone would have made for

their wife, mother, daughter, sister.

Someone put their time and heart into it.

One of the doors isn't quite as wide as the other,

and maybe it's not all perfect,

but we're all learning to imbrace the perfectly imperfect, right?

So after the wood around the top was removed,

I grabbed the sandpaper and gave it a thorough going over,

roughing it up,

taking off the poly,

removing the orangeness of it all.

Next it got kissed with a coat of Heirloom White on the outside

and a "custom" mix of a robin's egg blue.

(By custom, I do mean a mix of four colors that were not quite right for anything,

but blended very nicely with a little luck and lots of  s h a k i n g.)

After the paint was dry,

it was time to beat up the cabinet with a little more sanding.

60 grit sandpaper is my friend.

It makes the work quick and easy.

After all the paint and wood dust was swept away,

(wind gusts at 45mph about blew me away that day)

I mixed up a little glaze and burnt umber acrylic.

With an old cotton cloth,

the glaze was wiped on,

allowed to sit for a minute,

then wiped away,

leaving behind a discoloration in the paint and the exposed wood.

After the paint was well dried,

two coats of wax were buffed into the wood,

into all the little nooks and crannies,

giving it a more finished look.

I think this would be really cute

filled with scrapbooking papers and bits,

fluffy towels and linens,

or loaded with homemade jams & jellies.

Homemade jam sounds wonderful.

Maybe with some cute little covered lids,

but that's for another day.

Here's the before and after photo,

definitely an improvement.

 

Aqua Distressed Coat Hooks

I sell quite a variety of vintage items in my shop,

but it's not often that I've added handcrafted items.

However, recently the decision was made to begin adding handcrafted items

either created from vintage pieces or items that are vintage inspired.

Why add handmade?

Because I get this itch in my fingers,

that runs down through my hands,

and sprints up my arm,

then plunges into my brain,

telling me it's time to make something.

The coat hooks that I recently shared sold today.

Can I tell you I was just ecstatic that they sold?

Over the moon!

Doing the happy dance!

It was wonderful to know that someone else liked the pieces that I'd created

enough to add them to their home.

Four more pieces of the molding were left,

they were all brown.

I thought a touch of aqua would brighten them up a bit.

I'm heading out tomorrow in search of more molding.

I badly need one of these to corral my key ring.