Saturday, November 29, 2014

Rusty Bits & Pieces Christmas Tree

I got the huge drawer full of rusty junk (I could not even carry it) at the November Estate Sale. 
 
(This is just a small portion of my original rusty box.)
I used a few bits and pieces on other projects (including the bottle brush trees in my Still More Bottlebrush Trees post) and then decided to go for broke.  I had purchased a Styrofoam Christmas tree to bedazzle with vintage jewelry.  I still am going to do that, but I put it on the back burner for now.

I left the plastic covering on the tree and spraypainted it pewter, then hit areas with black chalkboard spraypaint.  Because of it being Styrofoam, I was able to just press the rusty bits in with nails. (Be warned: it takes a TON of little rusty bits.) The only part I used glue on was the top.  I loved how it turned out.  Selling it at my Rusty Chandelier booth.

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Thanksgiving Tree or Natural Christmas Tree?

I saw this poor thing at an estate sale a few months ago.  It was still there on 1/2 price day.

It was the pheasant feathers on top that sold me.
Except they were laying straight down.

When I purchased it, there was a lot of
artificial greenery and artificial fruit and very little else
(except those splendid pheasant feathers).

I threw out all the brightly colored fruit
and the most bedraggled greenery.

I added lots of my own hydrangeas

and my own pinecones and dried boxwood.

And added a real nest.


Plus I sacrificed my entire large feather collection.


It would either be great natural Christmas Decor
or Thanksgiving Tree
or both!

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

November's Vintage RED Garage Sale Finds

I live in a smaller town where garage sales pretty much shut down for the winter beginning in November.  It was a nice surprise to have a moving sale advertised, and a nicer surprise that it was over 40 degrees the morning of the sale.  Here are some of the (mostly red) things I picked up:

Another sled!  This one brings the hoarding count to 10 for the year. I've actually sold more than half of those, so it is not as bad as it sounds.  This one was already decorated and naturally aged.

Ice skates (not red, but winter).  Don't you love it when you find items in the "right" season?

The red hard plastic teapot holding the salt & pepper shakers had a note attached: 
"Very old.  I won this in a bingo game in 1959."  Love provenance. 

Cool little chippy wood Coke crate --
 
with great patina.

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Rusty Wire Wreath Forms Recycled

I bought two well-aged green wire wreath forms with a project in mind.  Being female, I changed my mind and used grapevine wreaths for the project.  So I was basically ready to give away the two wire wreath forms when I saw a flyer from Lowe's.  They had a wire wreath that looks like two of these put together with a nice 3D look, which had small Christmas bulbs trapped on the inside.  Sure, I could do something like that.

Except I didn't have any small bulbs that would
fit inside. What I did havelots of great rusty wire.

I wove it around the outside edges to hold the two pieces together.
Then I wound it around the inside edges to secure them together.
Then I wrapped the whole shabang.
I really like how it turned out. 
It could use a little rusty bell or something hanging down from the top.

Thursday, November 20, 2014

More Junk-Based Bottlebrush Trees

I thought that I could never get enough of playing with bleached bottlebrush trees, but I think after this bunch I am officially ready to move on.

I didn't have a big string stash,
but I donated all that I had to the cause.

More bottoms made out of the wooden "wheels"
I have in abundance.

Just this weekend I bought a HUGE box of rusty stuff
that these bases came from.

The porcelain insulators also came from my rusty boxful.

The vintage Chinese paper was perfect for this project.

I used up all of my not-so-perfect knobs
and more "wheels".


Pair of vintage ice skates turned still life.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Salvaged Wood Holiday Garlands & A Card Hanger

I threw together four holiday garlands, three mostly with wooden bits. 

The four wood garlands started out with a vintage rag roll "string". 

Perfect size to fit through the wooden beads and wooden "wheels" (which I have two huge baskets of -- and still really don't know their original purpose or what they were salvaged from.) 

 
The metal letters were the remnants of my collection -- thus the misspelling of "brite".  For some of the others I turned the letters around and glued the paper letters that I wanted to the back.  Nice, chunky and neutral.





The last garland I may not sell.  I used a thinner string and tied little doodads and buttons along the length.  For now I clipped "JOY" to the center with vintage candle clips.  I have a ton more of these candle clips so the plan is to use the garland and clips to hang Christmas cards when they start arriving.

FA LA LA LA LA.

Monday, November 17, 2014

November Estate Sale Vintage Finds

How delightful to have an estate sale nearby in the middle of November.  The pole barn was half filled with rusty wonders. A few of the items I picked up:


A tray of rusty stuff (this is actually just a small portion of the stuff!)













Drawer I made for the "keeper" pieces.



Mercury glass light shades (six!) -- for ebay.

















Jadeite skillet bowl.

Pair of killer utility carts with rollers,
originally used by Lee Jean manufacturing.
I dry brushed a little red on them.
They would make great bookends for a couch.


Gallon green depression jar with
original timeworn lid.
Perfect for the holidays.

Friday, November 14, 2014

Roadside Rescue -- Drop Back & Punt PART II

I won't go into all that happened on Part One of the rescue.  Let's just say it was not pretty.  Part Two would probably be considered the punting segment of this project. 

This is the dresser in it's original condition. 
Ironically, the original finish would have looked just fine with the burlap drawers.
 
But now, I am stuck with a hammered pewter finish. 
Face-palm.
 
I painted on two coats of English Gray Chick chalkpaint (which actually looks more tan than gray).
I tried a little distressing, but ditched that idea because it seemed to bring out some yellowish hues.
The burlap was very hard to trim once the mod podge stuff was dry.  But the drawers fit closely to each other, so it had to be pretty precise.  I also had several sessions of supergluing different areas.
 
I spent ANOTHER $7.95 on more spraypaint for the handles -- this time wanting them to be more brown.  So altogether I spent about $30 and a lot of time and frustration on this "free" dresser.
 

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Roadside Rescue -- Drop Back & Punt PART 1

What to do with a 6'x4' mid-century blown up photo of a lonely stretch of highway somewhere in Kansas?  Buy it and wait for inspiration to strike. 

Hmm, if I had a fairly flat fronted dresser I could decoupage a good section of the photo onto the front.  Last Friday I passed on a cheap one at an auction because of lack of storage space.  While holding my quivering bidding hand down I reasoned that spring would be a much better time to tackle such a project.  Then my husband came home a couple days later with a roadside rescue that was the perfect mid-century flat-front dresser.  Hard to argue with free.

Today truly was the last nice day of 2014.  65 degrees.  It goes downhill from here.  Time to conquer the dresser.  Quick overall sanding with new orbital sander.  I had bought hammered pewter spraypaint ($7.95ish) to cover the pulls and knobs.   I painted the dresser a dark gray to coordinate with b&w photo. 
I didn't like it. 

So I sprayed the whole dresser with the hammered pewter spraypaint.  WHAT WAS I THINKING?
Maybe in a few decades I will be able to laugh about this particular step.

I decided to give myself a break and decoupage one of the drawers while I considered my options.  It was at this point that I realized the paper photo was not just taped on the back to a piece of fiberboard, but it was glued on.  If I had access to a fancy electrical saw I may have taken heart.
Now I was stuck with a hammered pewter dresser for no reason? 

I had purchased a jar of decoupage stuff just for this project ($6.95ish) and by golly I was going to decoupage TODAY!  But what was I going to use to decoupage?  Daylight was fading fast on the LAST NICE DAY OF THE YEAR.  I frantically ran inside and grabbed a huge burlap coffee bag with a green stripe.  Nice and neutral at least.  I slapped a layer of faux mod podge down on the first drawer front and applied the burlap.  The burlap slurped up the glue and showed no sign of adhering.  I painted the top of the burlap with the fmp.  A little better adhesion.  Then I saturated the front of the drawer completely with a ton of fmp.  Hard to tell what was going on under the thick white mess. 

I realized I was not going to have enough fmp at this rate.  So I added an equal portion of water.  I am slopping the mixture all over the other three drawer and pieces of burlap.  At some point I realize that I do not have enough burlap to completely cover the bottom drawer.  Are you kidding me?  I will have to make do.  It was pretty dark by the time I finished and got everything picked up. At least I can let the sticky stinky drawers sit out all night.  I was half way done wolfing down my first meal of the day at 6 pm when my husband came back early from his run -- because it was raining.  The wet sticky stinky drawers are now inside dripping on to newspapers.  This is where it ends for now.  Sometimes it is best to call it a day.

Monday, November 10, 2014

Sunday Highway Sale Finds - A WOW Chandelier found on 10.26.14

Daydreaming driving home from church...nap or pick up the house?  Is that someone setting up a sale by the highway?  Yes, you should definitely make a U turn. 

First thing we saw was a very cute little dining table.  Turns out that it FOLDS OUT to double the size.  How much for the table and chairs? $20 for it and the two chairs.  OK, we'll take that.  So much for boycotting buying furniture until I sell some pieces.

Three very cute salt and pepper shaker sets.  I am way too impulsive when it comes to shakers, and make way too little profit from them.  But I have been very good at controlling those impulses this year.  Sir, we'll take these three sets.  Can I leave these here until I'm done looking around?

Hiding on the ground in an ugly trash bag -- a huge chandelier. Old enough to have a cloth covered electrical cord. The nicest one that has ever come my way.   And how much for this chandelier?  He says not much, he just really just wants someone to take it away.  I am your girl.  I failed to take "before" picts.  Gold finish with dirt, loads of vintage dead lady bugs, discoloration and rust.  (Not the cool kind of rust.)  A little cleaning.  Some DIY chalk paint.  A little white spray paint to cover chain and center glass parts. Spray poly to protect painted areas.  Cleaning each crystal prism individually.  Reassemble.  Add plug.  Add lights.  Add WOW.

It was a sparkling finale to the 2014 junking season.

Blue Hearts & The End Of My Blog

Early on during the corona virus, I did this project. When we put scalloped wood trim on the guest cottage door, we had some of the trim ...