Spring Break Vintage Purchases

I shared on an earlier post that we had spent the week before Easter travelling to Nebraska on a buying trip.  Primarily I purchased from two gentlemen that I had met on my buying trip last year.  I had called them ahead of time, and they assured me they had a lot to sell.

Richard & Ed in central Nebraska.  I love these guys!  They are so kind, patient and helpful.  I purchased this windmill weight from Ed.  It wasn't cheap, but it won't be for resale -- EVER.  Happy Easter, Birthday (and maybe Christmas) to me.  I purchased quite a few windmill related items from Ed, click here to see those.


Richard met me at Ed's house and brought me a truckload of stuff that he thought I may be interested in.  And for the most part he was spot on.  I love the old farm related stuff.

Two complete iron beds, these two iron wheels and

several rusty smaller wheels.

Two implement seats, wooden handled shovels, buckets,

cast iron containers, lovely iron spigot on the left of the tree.

 

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and absolutely packed the van.

I didn't mind paying a bit more for the privilege of a private showing. 

Thank you Richard!

Spring Break Buying Trip To Nebraska

When we left on Wednesday for our buying trip, it was none too soon.  Half of my vintage booth was resting on the floor because I had literally had no furniture in my stash to replace what had sold over the weekend.  Time to make some purchases.

Our first stop was in Lincoln at my friend Cindy's house first.  I found the perfect furniture piece to get all those smalls off of the floor of my booth. We enjoyed a pleasant 62 degree lunch with my dad and his wife in Lincoln (and emptied our van at their house) before we headed further west.  The temperature dropped 20 degrees in 20 minutes as we went westward ho. 

By the time we checked into our hotel room on Wednesday night, the sky looked like this.  I have seen a lot of skies in my time, but never one like this.  Big storm a-comin'.

And the next morning looked like this!  This is not fake snow in the background people!  Some spring break!  Actually the sun came out on Thursday morning, so it was not too bad.  We spent Thursday morning buying from some friends (more on this in the next post -- let's just say we stimulated the economy in Nebraska.)

Then Thursday afternoon we explored downtown Hastings.  There is so much beautiful architecture in the downtown area. 

We visited a downtown  bakery twice in 24 hours.  YUM.

We visited a couple of fun antique shops. 

I went to a great little shop that sold original art from local artists, as well as bags and jewelry from other countries. 

Click here to view the awesome loot I came home with from this buying trip to Hastings, Nebraska.

Plain Dresser Turned Awesome -- Furniture Redo "AUSTIN"

I don't believe this little guy could have been any more plain.  Back around the 1970s he was given a weird two step treatment: to make worn wood look "new" again, they painted a kind of orangish tan base coat, then a varnish coat over that.  This was supposed to simulate wood (like the wood that was hiding underneath).  Anyway, the top varnish layer had mostly peeled off, exposing the orangish base coat -- UGH.

 

So I had no qualms giving the dresser a coat of white chalk paint -- almost dry brushed it on because I wanted just a very thin layer.  When it dried I did very light distressing, it was already a little flaky. 

If I would have had more time I may have given it a coat of light brown wax -- but being blessed with 55 degrees on winter day, I had to try to finish two pieces of furniture in one day. 

 

I had been hanging on to these well-worn license plates for awhile, waiting for a nice flat-front dresser to use them on.  I switched out the ugly painted knobs for some nicely aged oak ones. 

I thought the whole thing looked a little masculine, so I named him "Austin" with a nod to the 1956 Texas license plate.

First Fairy Garden Of The Year

Unbelievable warm weather.  Birds chirping. Sun shining.  Flowers bursting.  Spring everywhere you look....Easter in a few days.  And I was in a mood to whip up a Fairy Garden.  A fairy good mood.   

This little pixie wanted to live in a garden of clear colored glass chunks. 

A goose lives behind the fence with a little pond.  The tiny pine tree is something of a bonsai -- it has been mowed over (probably not proper bonsai technique) for several years, and now is content with just being tiny.

His garden will fill out a little more as the summer progresses,

but will need very little maintenance because of using succulents.

 

As always, I used a roasting pan base.

They are a good size and easy to move around.

SOLD before Easter!

Missouri License Plate Empire Library Table -- Furniture Redo "JEFFERSON"

I bought this table way back in September or October, and did not get inspired to do anything with it because it had damage to the veneer on top. 

I love me some empire furniture, but damaged veneer really takes the wind out of my sails.

During my "license plate phase" when I was slapping license plates on everything, it occurred to me that I could plaster the top of this baby with license plates. 

Very manly looking, so I named this piece "Jefferson" (also after Missouri's capital city).

Once I decided to do that, things really got rolling.  I decided to use all Missouri plates (which I had on hand) in multi-colors.  I really like the finished product, and would probably do this simple fix to another damaged top.

Batch #1 Of Vintage Planters To Sell -- Printed Tin Canisters

Yeah, I know that it is a little crazy preparing succulent planters to sell in the middle of March.  But, that is just the kind of spring it has been. 

Crazy warm weather with no hard frost in sight.  I have to take advantage of everyone getting spring fever and get some planters ready to sell.

My succulent beds have overwintered great.  They are not very mature yet, but I can't let that slow me down. 

I purchased a flat of dianthus to give the pots some color.  The succulents I am planting and the dianthus can all take a soft frost without damage. 

For this first round of planters I chose vintage tin canister planters.  I had several that I had saved for this spring.

Selling vintage planters before Easter?  I've done crazier things.

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!

Making A Potting Area While The Sun Shines

I shared in an earlier post (click here) that I had collected (hoarded) vintage rusty items for early spring sales.  When I was able to get that area cleared, it was time to begin prep for spring planting. 

I enjoy collecting vintage containers to use as planters for the succulents that I grow.  After July every potential planter that I collect gets carefully stored (more like piled and crammed) in the garden shed or anywhere else I can find space.

So in the early spring I need to confine all these containers to one easy outdoor spot to access.  Last year I used the area in back of my garden shed for that purpose, and it worked out so well that I will be doing that again.

Since there is no permanent shelving back there, it is pretty much composed of whatever shelves were in my winter stash pile.  Then I spent the afternoon gathering up all of the containers I had stashed. 

And as always...still room for the "spectators" by the basketball court.

It Pays To Squirrel Away Metal Junk For Spring

I have an "outdoor" booth where I sell items that can make it through sun, ice, rain and WIND.  It is also exposed to "customers" 24 hours a day.  So, in the winter months I don't leave much of value out there -- but still have surprising good sales.

Well, the winds they are achangin' -- spring is peeping at here and there.  Time to clean and restock my outdoor booth.  With what?  This time of year there are still no garage sales, and very few auctions.

Like the wise squirrel, I have learned to bury a few nuts for the lean times.  I found some great metal stuff in October and November of last year and most of it went behind the garden shed. 

Look at this great teal metal lawn chair(rocker) that I found back there!

The great thing about metal -- it doesn't matter if it get a little rustier and more chippy over the winter.

Just think what other treasures might be waiting for me back there....
Time to start sorting the stack of rusty gold and getting it priced.  Spring will be here full force soon and I will need that area for potting up some succulents!

Revamping A Vintage Bathroom With Paintable Wallpaper

When we moved into our two-story house we didn't have an upstairs bathroom.  Tough to sleep upstairs and have to jog down a long staircase and two rooms before arriving at the ground floor toilet.  So around 1992 we transformed one of the three upstairs bedrooms into a nice size bathroom -- but we wanted it to look like a powder room that fit with our 1895 era home.

So we carefully selected a reclaimed victorian pedestal sink and clawfoot tub...and what we thought was timeless wallpaper.  (Ahem).  Apparently there is no such a thing as timeless wallpaper...

Looking at the bathroom with "fresh eyes" in 2016 means admitting we needed to stage an intervention against the dreaded bathroom "border".  I still think the subtle stripes look OK, but unfortunately we didn't take that striped paper all the way to the ceiling 25 years ago.  So we couldn't just tear down the border.

Something else we wanted to consider was time and money.  The entire house is facing third decade (with our family) scrutiny, and we only have so much time (energy) and money to go around.  So we settled on the "simpler" option (which ended up taking five days!) of leaving the striped wallpaper and not repainting the beadboard.

After juggling various options we definitely decided on an embossed, paintable border from Lowe's to go directly over the offending border.  I thought maybe I could just paint over the garish wallpaper of the north "accent" wall, but was outvoted 2 to 1.  So we decided to purchase the coordinating embossed, paintable wallpaper as well.  It also has the "tin ceiling" vibe which is appropriate for our Victorian house.

I do not have a photo of the "before" accent wall, but trust that it was every bit as offensive as the coordinating border.  Never having wallpapered before (my husband had done all the previous papering but was wisely out of the country on this occasion) I was a little anxious.  But the accent wall went fine.  Hang the wallpaper, paint two coats of paint on it.  Done.

The border was another animal entirely.  You were supposed to paint it ahead of time.  I did two coats of a color (this was previous to the accent wall -- I had finally settled on a good color by the time I painted the accent wall) and hated it.  Well, maybe if I take a bunch of time to tediously drybrush a slightly darker color on the raised areas.  No go.  That is when I yanked off a piece of the circa 1992 painted trim and took it to Lowe's to get a perfect match.  What I got was a close match (apparently whites are the hardest color to match).  Paint the border one more time and decide in the poor light that it is close enough to the first color that if some of the first color peeps through it is OK. 

Realize that one person (or even a team of people) should not try to hang 15 feet of border at one shot.  cut each of my three rolls of borders into three segments.  Realize I have to be sure that each one is numbered and not upside down.  Realize that the stupid company didn't even make their end patterns to line up against the beginning of the next border roll.  ARGH.  Realize after I do one whole wall that I really need to take to offending old layer of border off.  It was too late for the first wall, so I ended up having to glue some of the more obnoxious spots. Realize I need to go back to Lowe's and buy another border roll.  Paint one coat on the fourth border before hanging that one as well. Realize that after my back is KILLING me, that I need to do yet another coat of paint on all four walls of the border that is already 9 foot in the air.

I really like the final look , but I am not sure I would do it again.  I know for a fact that I will never hang another border ALAIL (as long as I live).