Letting Go Of My Antique Frames

 I've shared about several collections that I have had

to say goodbye to.  I just don't have the space in the cottage

that I had in my big victorian house.

 But this might be the most painful goodbye.

I put all of these great frames on the front porch

the day we moved down here (two months ago).

I kept thinking that I would be able to squeeze them in somewhere....

 But, as you can see, they are still on the front porch.

Sigh.

I have resigned myself to letting them go.

I will be selling them at my new antique booth --

in Camp Flea Antique Mall

Dining Room Tour

 Eventually you will get to see the whole house.

But I am taking it one room each week or so.

And this week it is the dining room.

 I painted the china cabinet before we moved (click here for more details about that).

I knew the gold would go well with the 

"Magnolia Home" rug we bought for the room.

 I finally lead-tested my brown transferware,

so now I know I can use it to feed people.

Many of my white vases had to "move on"

because I don't have room for them --

these are the ones that made the cut.

 Original old oil painting on top of the cabinet.

Love it.

 

 Old wooden ladder my husband found --

 with great graphics on the side.

Almost sold our HEAVY oak buffet before moving.
I bought it about 30 years ago for $10, it was my first major furniture redo.
So glad I didn't sell it.  It fit into this little nook perfectly.
And has an awesome storage capacity.

Folk art oil painting above it.
My all-time favorite frame.
(And I do love frames.)

Master Bedroom At "Old House"

I love our bedroom, but as you know, our house is on the market.

Our bedroom in our "new" house will be very different,

so I want to remember this one. 

 Standing in the middle of the room, this is the east wall

I have enjoyed the cheerful color,

and I always hung my favorite antique gold frames on this wall.

 Northeast corner.

I did the specialized paint on the walls.

 Original OLD Longpre print.

I will have to find a place for it at our new house.

 Our queen size bed will be heading to the guestroom

at the new house.  I had to buy decorative pillows for the

bed to help "stage" because I am not a decorative pillow person.

I love this dresser.

It is like a piece of folk art.

I would love to know the history behind it.

Well, we had some people look at the house yesterday,

that seemed pretty interested.  

So I am crossing my fingers.

Freaky Friday Framed Creepy Halloween Dollar Tree Portraits

For the next four Fridays I will be featuring

some of my Halloween projects on what I like to call "Freaky Fridays".

Today's Freaky Friday feature is Dollar Tree Halloween Portraits.

 I do not receive any compensation from Dollar Tree,

but I love DT and don't mind tooting their horn.

All scary portraits in this post came from DT (and of course were only $1.)

The outside pics I just trimmed to fit metal frames that I already had.

 This was my fave, I had this ugly 1990s oval frame

with a floral print.  I spraypainted white directly over the glass to cover the flowers.

That provided a nice base to apply the clear adhesive portrait to.

 I cut the zombie pic out of it's plastic "frame" and glued it inside this

actual frame.  The sturdy frame makes it look so much more authentic.

This bride and groom pic was leftover from my DT stash last year.

I loved the old fashioned look to it, I am not sure

if DT will carry these this year.

Sold the larger pics for $12.

Feather & Fur Flea Market Finds -- 4.15.2016

I went into this weekend knowing it was my second biggest buying weekend of the year.  That I needed to be well prepared, gassed up, plenty of cash...none of which happened.  Despite some amateurish slip-ups I still got quite a few good finds.


(I actually know all of the people that I got to pose for my photos this year.)
The newspaper I looked at advertised the small town "Swap Meet" for Saturday and Sunday.  I just happened to be travelling to an out-of-town garage sale Friday morning (not even super early) when I saw that most of the flea market was set up already!  ARGH!
They said that the vendors and Craig's List got the "correct" Friday morning start date.

This young man agreed to deliver my newly purchased "general store"

display case (resting under the blanket) to my vintage

decorator store location. 

Yes, I bought the wire basket too.

This little cutie (the short one!)

was in my "fur, feathers & flea finds"

post from this flea market last fall (click here to see that post.)

(Click here to read the "fur, feathers & flea finds" post from last spring.)

As always, there was a plethora of farm

animals and birds to distract.

My husband chided me for the picture being

upside down, but I just purchased it for the frame.

Love the crusty animal feeders I find there.

I haven't found any quilts in quite awhile,

and this weekend I picked up three.

This X-stitch one is the only one I have a photo of.

Two great sets of antlers, homemade duck decoy

and aluminum cooler.  My aluminum coolers are

starting to accumulate.

We are crazy for croquet,

so loved the piece from an old box.

Most of what you are looking at will

become planters or garden décor.

I am going to (hopefully) take off these little metal

conveyer belt scoops and use as planters.

The basket upcycled from paper was purchased

by my mailman about an hour after this photo

was taken.  He does get first dibs, and great prices.

I don't know why these guys are lollygagging

around when there is so much pricing to be done.

Floor grates, so beautiful.

Stack of wonderful metal items.

What I REALLY needed were bigger pieces to

display on.  I picked up three dreamy ones.

Stay tuned for that post.

Estate Sale Pictures & Frames

Day two (half price) of an estate sale...you know the drill.  Wait in line, run to that item that you are hoping is still there...

Fortunately my quarry on this particular day was not just a singular item.   Several prints and many frames had caught my eye the day before. 

So I told my husband to make a dash and see how many of those he could gather up. 

(This print is titled "Devotion" and dated 1888)

I have a few painted frames in my booth at the Rusty Chandelier, but NONE in my stockpile at home -- so these could not have come at a better time.

Look at the patina and detailing on this frame!

Junk Mosaic Frame Class & Tutorial

I was asked to teach a class on making mosaic art frames.  I had given a few as gifts years ago, and these friends of mine must have a long memory.  I had glued and grouted different "junk" items on to a frame:  letters of a name, keys, broken bits of mirror, rusty hardware (these were gifts for guys).

Fast forward ten years: I don't like to work that hard anymore.  No grouting for me.  I wanted a substance I could just smear on a bare wood frame and stick objects in it.  I went to every major craft store and told them what I needed.  No, no and no.

So I experimented with wood filler.  The first brand I tried was "four times tougher than wood" so it stuck great (I had already known that it sticks great to fingers from previous projects.)  But it had a horrible odor, and I need to keep as many brain cells as I can.  Not to mention that it was chunky, and did not apply smoothly.

 

The second brand (Elmer's Wood Filler) did not knock you into next Tuesday when you smelled it.  It was a little smoother, but I decided I didn't like the color.  So I mixed a bit of flat black enamel into it.   The  I applied it about as thick as you would apply cream cheese to a bagel.   WAA LA. 

It colored great, and made it a great consistency.  It also stuck like granite to the bare wood when dried (24-48 hours).

Next I gathered up jars of "junk" to take to the class. 

Smooth rocks.  Typewriter keys.  Rusty keys...

 

 Game pieces....

Bits of broken mirror.  Beads.  Hardware.  Dice...

 

Shells.  Jewelry with smooth backs.

 

A few people did mosaics on canvas and those turned out cool.

 

I think everyone had fun,

and as a special bonus my daughter-in-law attended!