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 leftover.  I had my husband cut it into hearts.

I painted it, distressed it. Wrote "HOPE" on the pop caps --

and promptly forgot about them.

I just came across these pics.

I don't even know what I did with the hearts!

Chalk it up to "corona brain".

I started this blog to document all the antique furniture that I fixed up and sold.

And other vintage items I worked on.  

(I should have started it way before 2014.)

Then I documented getting my NW Missouri home ready to sell.

Next fixing up the new Ozark home.

Getting through the corona virus.

And lastly building and decorating the guest cottage.

(By the way, we have had every weekend booked since

we launched on AirBNB the first weekend of November!)

I have decided if I need to "document" something else I will start another blog.

It's a bit bittersweet, but this one has ran it's course.

Little Houses Made From Our Little House Scraps

I have been giving some thought to how I could encourage others during this time.  

I saw something similar to these little houses on someone's blog...

and a lightbulb went off.  

With the guest house construction going on, we have a wood scrap pile!  

I won't go into ugly details, but when I went out to scrounge

the scrap pile -- it was in flames.  Drop back and punt.

These were scrap piece I had already dumped in the bottom of some large planters,

getting them prepared for spring potting soil.  

So, I managed to salvage enough pre-cut scrap pieces for seven little houses.

I gave them each some nice little details.

 Each has a nice twisty wire to hold a card or photo.

In this case, a simple thank you to my local grocery checkers,

who show up and work so hard each day.

And the back will remind them of

Spring 2020 -- the highs and the lows.

Crammed Craft Cabinet

 This little alcove sits right across from the laundry area.

This cabinet was one of the first pieces of furniture that we moved in. 

And maybe the only piece of furniture that we bought just for this house.

 But it sat empty and gathered dust for a few months

until we moved the majority of our stuff about two months ago.

 Then I decided all of my art supplies needed to fit

into this area.  Not easy (remember we are downsizing).

I ended up having to buy pop crates for the overflow

to fit underneath.  I put casters on the bottom of the crates, 

so they roll out easily.

And in back of them I stored all of my gift wrapping supplies.

 The open center section has old sewing drawers

crammed with art stuff.

And the top cabinet is "stuffed with stuff".

I still ran out of room and had to add the baskets

for storage on the top.

But I got it all in!

Crazy Quilt Stockings

This post is actually a follow-up to one started a year ago,

click here to view that post.

Having a surprisingly small memory,

I had forgotten all about these 9 cut-out stockings from last year.

So when I uncovered them this year, my thought was

"Cute, but what sort of trim will I use for the top?"

 

And under the stockings, there was the frilly

trim that I had pre-planned last year.

Kudos to my slightly younger self.

I decided it would look great to hand stitch

the bottom and top together with red thread.

A little farther down in the box,

there it was!  All ready for 2017.

I have to really admire my 2016 self.

So all are stitched, trimmed and ready to sell, priced at $12 each.

One year in the making.

Spool Christmas Ornament Craft

When I get together with my niece, we always do a "craft".  Prior to spending time with her, I did not associate good things with the word "craft".  Tacky plastic cross-stitching kind of things. 

I admit, with an art degree, I might be a bit of an art vs craft snob.  But then my niece decided she was into "crafts" and the word took on a whole different feeling.  Fun.  Messy.  Glittery.

She and I went to a "Holiday Craft Show" (I barely even grimaced as I typed this) last weekend.  We spied some cute little spool ornaments on a tree, and I whispered to her that that would be our next "craft". 

I had the spools, vintage beads, Christmas music and glitter that we needed.

Spice Cabinet Turned MISS MUSTARD SEED Pie Safe Lookalike

My dad would call this project piddling.  Spending way too much time on a project that is not going to have much financial reward.  Saturday I attended an auction, and brought home an ugly spice cabinet which came with something else that I actually did want.

Yesterday I looked up images of upcycled spice cabinets, there were some cute ones -- but none that really rang my bell.  (This was already considered "piddling", because there was a whole van load of good stuff to sort and price.)  THEN, last night I caught Miss Mustard Seed's blog post on redoing an old pie safe -- click here to view that post.

LIGHTBULB MOMENT.  I think I laughed out loud.  I went to sleep thinking how I could stage my "pie safe" to look like hers.

First I tore off the top curvy piece and used a saw to even out the side pieces so it would sit flat (which it still didn't -- so I had to McGyver something, but not important to this post).  So, at this point the bottom became the top.

I then spraypainted the exterior with flat white, including the screens and drawers.  Two coats, and a light sanding to distress just like MMS did. 

Thank you, Miss Mustard Seed for not painting the inside of your cabinet. All I had to do to the interior was cut the top curvy piece to fit inside the cabinet to make a top shelf (after all, my spice cabinet had only two shelves and her pie safe had three).

Then the fun.  (MAJOR Piddling).  I drug out any little thing that vaguely resembled what MMS had in hers.  The difference of course, was that my "pie safe" was only 12" tall.  I even tried to get the same type of background and rug.  Yeah, her photography is way better, but you get the idea.

Here it is the way it would look if I were going to keep it.

 

This is a photo of my mother when she was little.

Love the lid on the "sugar" bowl,

that was very similar to Miss Mustard Seed's ironstone lid.

Time to actually get to work...

Spring Basket Bonanza

I had the itch to use the hot glue gun, make a mess, paint, stamp, drag out all my misc stash... and walah!  Spring Baskets!

I had about 40 peat pots, picked up with a peck of garden junk at an auction

 last year.  So I painted the exterior of all of them an ivory or turquoise.

  The rest is history.

Since I am trying to stick with vintage or vintage themed items for my booth;

that is basically what I tried to go with.  Vintage photos, buttons,

 "scraps", millinery flowers, jewelry, postcards, lace. 

Even the letter stamps I used were vintage.

Mostly stuck with neutral or pastel colors for spring.

 Decided to stay away from an Easter theme because I want to be able to

 sell them around Mother's Day too. I have a huge spool of wire

so the handles were no problem.

So I made 40 of them.  Each one very different.  One of a kind.

Filled with easter grass or shredded paper. 

The ones I am taking to the Topeka Antique Show will have eggs too.

   $4.00 each, which I know is cheap - but I want them to sell.