Rusty Junk Yard Art Sculptures

 

This week I went on a spring junk buying trip to Lincoln.  My dad's neighborhood has sales and this guy was one of the garage sales.  He had some normal "junk" besides the sculptures, but I loved the rusty junk art sculptures.

I could have brought him some raw

materials if I had known ahead of time.

loved this fish yard sculpture

dragonfly made from butter knives

this is my favorite

paintbrush faces

  

Batch #3 Of Vintage Planters To Sell -- Terra Cotta

Anyone who has used terra-cotta planters knows their terrible secret:  they are water thieves.  They suck the valuable moisture away from the plants and soil and throw it to the wind.  It is hard to acknowledge this, because they looks so natural and beautiful.

So I counteracted the problem.  Each of these has a waterproof interior pot.  Most of them are ones I purchased with plants in them from the garden center.  Some I had to cut the top portion off so hide them properly inside of the terra cotta pot.  All of the natural beauty, none of the dark side.

Some of these terra cotta pots have wonderful, natural patina and some I enhanced with painted moss last year (click here to see that post.) 

All of these have a matching undertray, I love how that rounds out the look.

I'm going to keep my eyes open for more horseshoes.  Love the look inside the planters.  It would be a great arbor for a fairy garden as well.

Saturday's Farm Auction With "Mr. 89"

My husband and I attended a two-day farm auction near us last weekend.  It started Friday evening and ran all day on Saturday.  HUGE.  Very interesting.  Lots of great junk, nice eye candy.

 They ran two lines most of the time, so we split up to divide and conquer.  My number was 89 and the auctioneer called my husband "Mr. 89"  He certainly got to do his share of bidding / trading / hauling / packing.

The weather was fabulous, and it was delightful to be out in the fresh air.  We came home with two van-loads full of treasures.  I will have some photos of my vintage finds in my next post.

Rusty Junk Cupcake Tins Repurposed Into Succulent Samplers

I loved these little 6 opening cupcake tins from the moment I saw them.  I loved the rust and the pressed tin sunburst pattern. But I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them.  However, most rusty metal items I come across this time of year gets turned into planters.

I love how the cupcake planters turned out.  Like six different flavors of cupcakes.  Six different textures and colors.  All low maintenance succulents. 

Upcycled Hodge Podge Desk Furniture Redo -- "ERIKA"

Meet Erika, an uncycled hodge podge of a desk that I purchased at the Fur & Feathers Flea Market (click here to view that post). 

The upcycled part of this desk happened long before I met her.  I think there are bits and pieces of at least three pieces of furniture incorporated in to her.  (We have to remember, this generation didn't invent upcycling -- we just slapped a name on it.)

Erika had some different types and shades of wood, so the two light coats of white chalk paint helped alleviate some of the disjointed feel.  It also really highlighted the incised areas of decoration.  I also did a light distressing, and liked how well that turned out.

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.

My Journey With A Vintage Kansas School Map

I went to a Kansas auction in the middle of March.  It was something of a dud, but it is a slow time of year.  I did manage to snag a bedraggled pull-down school map of the state of Kansas.  LOVE.

It's pull-down days were long over.  It needed to rest in a stationary position.  And it needed some good back support. (It is sounding a lot like me!) Since I only paid $2 for the map, I decided I could afford to go to Hobby Lobby to buy a giant Quick-Stick Foam board (peel-off sticky on one side) which sells for a painful $15.


Here are my Easter figurines holding down bits and pieces of the glued map.
Even rolling the brittle map out carefully, there were plenty of tears and holes.  The top had a lot of damage, and needed the most repair.  I used parts of the bottom to repair / fill in the missing areas, kind of like a Kansas patchwork quilt.  I had to do this in other smaller areas of the map as well.  Lots of glue, in addition to the foamboard adhesive. 

I stenciled the "KANSAS" on the top.  The whole look is a little primitive, but it is salvaged now for a future project. Found out the end of the journey with the map by clicking here.

Four Panel Vintage Window Wall Hanging

It wasn't too long ago that I created two wallhangings from vintage windows and adhesive stickers made for walls, click here to view that post.  I purchased this great window from my Nebraska buying trip, and knew that the four panels were just begging for some "window dressing".

I paid more than I had wanted to for the window, so I needed to be cheap when I did the embellishing.  I bought two wall/window décor adhesives from Dollar Tree.  I cut one into three words:  LOVE, LAUGH, LIVE.  And I cut off the "extras" from the DREAM adhesive.  Word of caution:  the LIVE, LAUGH, LOVE all had separate letters, so be sure to apply them in a straight line.

The words were all too light, so I needed to lighten the back side of the window to make them pop.  Last time I used paintable embossed wallpaper.  This time I simply painted two coats of chalk paint on to the backside of the glass.

I really like the ease of painting the back of the glass.

I would definitely do this treatment to another

vintage window wallhanging.

Batch #2 Of Vintage Planters To Sell -- Metal Pails

Batch #2 of vintage planters this year:

If I decide to add color to planters this year,

I am going with red, shades of green and gold.

This batch has a couple of common themes.  Small pails and succulents. After sticking a horse shoe randomly in one of them, I am in love with the idea.

The black stripe was just begging for an embellishment, so I purchased some waterproof stamping ink.  It has kind of a chalk look to it.

And made my second fairy garden of the year.

This fairy is Dutch and has a little dog.

Vintage Metal Headboard Garden Decor

I wrote an earlier post on how I decorated a four panel window with Dollar Tree Wall Adhesives, click here to view that post.  It occurred to me at the time, since the "LIVE, LOVE, LAUGH" adhesive was all separate letters how easy it would be to spraypaint over the letters and then remove them. 

One of  the other purchases from Nebraska lent itself well to this project.  I turned this little metal headboard (or footboard, who knows?) upside down.  That way the large metal panel was closer to the top.  I  taped off the edges.  I made black lines to keep the letters straight and then applied the adhesive letters.  The letters are a little forgiving, if you tip one a bit too much you can remove and straighten it.  I should have pressed the letters down gently before applying spray paint.  I ended up doing two coats of flat black spraypaint (you can get generic cans for $1 at Walmart, Lowe's).  Wait until the paint is very dry before removing letters with tweezers.

You may have noticed my old concrete garden gnome.

I talked a lady into selling it to me a few years ago,

it has become my favorite garden decoration.

Tall Cabinet -- Furniture Redo "ROSALINE"

I spied this little piece at an auction last Saturday.  It is the ideal size piece that I am looking for in furniture.  It had been mostly "stripped", years ago.  It sat around parched and naked for decades.  I thought it was hidden well behind the sad abuse, and maybe no one else at the auction would see it's potential.  I should have known better.

I obviously did bring it home, but not for a song.  But it proved such an easy "redo" that I am so glad I got it. 


The drawers still had some paint on them.  The wood did not look especially beautiful that was showing, so I opted to paint the whole thing.  Two coats of white chalk paint and a little distressing.   It was such a blessing to have no hidden problems.

Even finding new (old) hardware proved easy.  I had it in my stash already. 

This is the kind of easy project I love to do.

I'm naming her "Rosaline".

Saturday's Vintage Finds 4.2.2016

A double header day -- a good garage sale (in 35 degrees) followed by an auction.  The day ended with a van load of assorted vintage items.  The merchandise is headed several directions -- ebay, my vintage booth, and a couple of things got dropped off immediately at the Outdoor Booth:

This "Triple Effect" gas parlor stove had

green enameling on it that was gorgeous.

My husband was a good sport about hauling it.

I got this cool old wicker chair for a song,

and passed on the savings to a lucky customer just two days

after the auction.

These are metal art deco table legs.

Paid $12, sold for $144  on ebay.

They are going to be on ebay Saturday afternoon.

  

I purchased this set of three original vintage floral watercolors.

 

 I loved the colors and the amateur flair.