GOLD!

Yep, Gold.  While I’ve almost always had ‘little touches’ of gold mixed in with my offerings; all of a sudden I had a LOT of gold and decided to make it a focal point display on the back wall of my booth at Stars.

This wall is usually reserved for displaying my signs, but now that I have closed my etsy shop and am letting my sign supply dwindle, I can finally do some varying displays on the back wall.

This large gold metal wall basket is filled with upcycled gold framed cork boards.  Smallest ones start at $8.00 up to the largest priced at $19.00.

I’ve been holding onto this metal basket for YEARS!!  I always wanted to use it as a ‘bed crown’ by turning it upside down.  Alas, I don’t have enough room in my booth for a bed.  I finally decided to just use it as intended.

Here are some pictures from Pinterest of bed crowns, just in case you couldn’t quite picture what they are.

Gold framed shadow box can be used to display items IN the frame and on top of it.

 

This cute little metal frame was painted black when I bought it; but I could see that it had originally been gold.  I just refreshed the gold paint.

I extended the gold theme to below and beside the wall display.

I had actually been setting this gold stuff aside for next February’s Junk Salvation show.  Alas, the Washington County Fairgrounds Exhibit Hall, where the show has always been held, was recently ‘condemned’ and deemed unsafe for use, and will be torn down in the very near future.  Sooooooooooooo . . . .  I will not be doing the show ‘one last time, for old time’s sake’.

I’m quite certain that ‘the show WILL go on’; in a different facility.  The promoter was already feeling like maybe it was time to look for a bigger space.  For me, given that it was going to be my LAST booth show anyhow, (health reasons) it’s just not worth the extra work to ‘get my bearings’ in a new facility.  Having a routine ‘down pat’ for delivering and setting up; and being close to my son’s job for him to help me unload, factored hugely in my capacity to do the show.  PLUS, the old location was super close to home for me; which was a BIG “+” factor for me in deciding to do the show.

So, next year I will have to settle for just being a spectator at the Junk show.  I’ll still keep you informed of the dates and new location.

My ‘make-do’ rolling craft storage cart

I want one.  I NEED one!  There are all kinds of rolling storage carts out there, and I’ve been trying to talk myself into splurging on one for years.  My craft room has a nice big work table in it for me to work one; and plenty of storage space and units.  But a good percent of my craft work (especially as I’m getting older and dealing with more health issues!) is done sitting in my big comfy recliner in the living room, listening TV while I craft.

So, what invariably happens is that I end up with little ‘plies’ of craft supplies and partially finished projects on the floor around my chair and on the end table next to it.  Which is fine by me IF I am going to be working on that same project for a good length of time.  My ‘problem’ is, I never seem to be able to work on just ONE project at a time.  I usually have 3-4 different projects going at a time and in different areas of my home.

Some items that I spray painted outside are drying in the garage.  Some faux concrete projects are curing on the table in my craft room.  A pile of old book pages are on the end table waiting for me to decide what to do with them.  There are two flat ‘tray type’ boxes filled with buttons for me to sort through to find ‘just the right ones’ to attach to some little felt hearts that I am working on.  And the pile of felt hearts is on the lamp tale on the other side of my chair!

I seldom sit in one place for very long.  I can barely stand to sit through a 2 hour movie in a theatre.  Even if I’m really watching a TV show at home (as opposed to just listening as I work) I tend to get up during every commercial to do something.  In fact sitting for too long aggravates my back pain even more than over-doing.  So getting up every 20 minutes or so to work on a different project works best for me.  But this does not make for a very neat and tidy home!  And I do like for my home to be clean and organized.

A craft cart would be ideal to keep close by my chair in the living room.  I’ve had the kind with the plastic drawers.  The two big ones (with the colored drawers) that I bought before I moved, never did ‘work right’.  The drawers came off the track every time I opened them.  I ended up giving them away.  I have an all white one with the plastic drawers, which is fine for storage, but not necessarily for easy access to contents.

THIS is the one that I coveted most.  But it’s not quite ‘tidy enough’ for keeping in the living room; and I really wanted a shelf with removable trays or drawers.  So I headed to the thrift store on a mission to find something that I could turn into a customized craft cart for myself.

It must have been my lucky day, because this cute little rolling cart was right at the front of the store.

It’s on wheels for easy moving for cleaning and pulling over to my chair.  It will FIT right at the end of that dresser you see behind it.  (my chair is just to the right)   I can probably find some plastic trays/baskets at the dollar store to put on the shelves; AND it was only $6.99!  SOLD.

I decided to rummage around the house to see if I already had anything that would work as baskets for the shelves before I went out and spent money on something new.  Low and behold I had some cardboard boxes that fit the shelves quite nicely.

I covered the boxes with some pretty wrapping papers and voila!  My make-do craft cart is ready for duty.  I can easily remove and replace the boxes; easy access and easy clean up.

I might keep an eye out for a big tray that I can place on the top for more surface space to work on, but for now it suits my needs just perfectly.

Outdated / Updated little end table

Poor little outdated and unloved end table!!  I’m not sure exactly WHEN this was ‘in style’, but I actually LIKE this style; with the drawer and open area.

It was pretty banged up, but I’d need to sand it to prep it for painting anyhow.  What’s a few more minutes of sanding to remove the scratches.

Sorry about all the shadows in the photos!  We’ve had some crazy sunny spring weather.  (Our spring weather typically consists of April showers with lead to May showers which lead to June showers.)   A couple of pretty deep gouges on the side there that required a bit of wood filler to repair.  Nice clean drawer innards.  Since I had to remove the drawer pulls to sand and repaint; I decided to fill the holes and add a single knob.  It just looks strange to me for the single drawer to have two knobs.  (Does that bug you too?!?)

I only had ONE of these fabulous cast iron lion’s head drawer pulls; so I’ve been saving it for the ‘perfect project’.  THIS seemed like the perfect piece to use it on.

With the lion’s head drawer pull creating a bit of a ‘Gothic theme’ to this make-over; I decided to add to enhance that theme with a cast iron sconce added to the top, at the back.

I resisted the urge to add and stenciled designs.

I kind of wish the sconce was longer and reached the sides, but it will look better once there is ‘stuff’ sitting on the top.

I’m really liking how this one turned out.

It’s at the bottom of a stack of three furniture pieces in my booth at Stars, so you can’t see the sconce in the pictures.

Visit my Stars web page to get a 50%0ff coupon valid on EVERYTHING in my booth through 5-31-2016.

Old shelf ~ New paint

Found this grubby black metal shelf in another booth at Stars.

Nice and big with lots of room for ‘stuff’, but it was very lightweight.

You can’t really see it in this photo, but the black paint was chipping off quite a bit here and there; and I didn’t want to completely hide all that naturally occurring distressing with the new paint.  I opted to ‘dry brush’ paint it.

The dry brush technique doesn’t completely cover the original finish; and it’s such a ‘light finish’ that the areas that had begun shedding the black paint, will more easily continue to do so naturally, over the course of time.

Dry brush painting is pretty ‘fast and easy’ too!

Perfect size for the crowns in my booth at Stars.

And lightweight enough to easily place on top of another shelf to get the crowns at ‘eye level’.

‘Fancified’ wood shelf

Recently had Michael build a few wood shelves for me.

I decided I wanted to do ‘something more’ than just paint them this time.

But of course I still had to paint it first!  This is a low and deep shelf, so I decided to ‘raise it up’ a bit.

I grabbed some boards from my sign board stash and constructed and painted this base.  Then glued and nailed the two together.

Decided it still needed a tad more ‘oomph’ so I added this braided trim.  (I have a stash of trims; purchased at craft store.)

Ta~Da!

It has gone to my booth at Stars.

And the BEST part is that it was the prefect size to top with this metal shelf; which made the perfect display for my crowns!

OUTDATED ~ UPDATED :: A ‘different’ kind of Country Heart Shelf!

I’ve lost count of how many country heart shelves I have made over since starting my blog!  I really thought I had ‘seen them all’.  Alas, a wood crafter, somewhere, some time ago, had a different vision of the country heart shelf.

And therein lies a NEW country heart shelf make-over challenge for me!  None of the carved wood appliques I had on hand were big enough to completely cover the heart.  For a split second I considered cutting the heart off and sanding down the the curves along the top a bit to blend in.  But that would leave me with a EVEN number of designs on the top and that thought gave me the shivers!!  Especially since the cubbies are so ‘random’.

So, I decoded to just ‘cover it up’ with an angular cut ‘cornice’ type thing; then look for an applique that would fit that space.

This one does the trick!

I had painted the added piece BEFORE gluing on (tacky glue) the applique because it saved on painting time.  Always easier to paint a flat surface.  I also painted the ENTIRE shelf before adding on the pre-painted backing.  Another HUGE time saver!  Any time you can avoid having to paint a lot of interior corners . . . DO so.

All painted up with my ‘New Blue’ paint, and distressed just a tad along the edges.  The added piece and wood applique ARE also distressed, but since the wood is a lighter color than the shelf, it just doesn’t ‘show’ as much.

Sometimes I paint the backing a different color than the shelf; or stencil a patter on it to make it look like wall paper.  I kept it plain on this shelf because it’s already a bit ‘busy’ with the various shapes and sizes of the cubbies.

For attaching the backing (AFTER it’s been painted; which takes about ONE minute using a paint roller!) I run a bit of tacky glue along the back lines of the shelf and press the backing into place.  Apply a little pressure for a few minutes to let the glue ‘set’ a little.  Then I use little finishing nails along the outer edges.

After the backing is attached, I paint the BACK of the backing.

This is why I paint the backs of items.  It literally takes ONE minute; and looks so much nicer when the back is visible in your displays.  It actually CREATES new display options and makes the most of every inch of display space.

All filled up!  When attaching price tags to larger or hard to reach items, I try to make the tag visible ‘at a glance’.  I, personally HATE having to HUNT for a price tag.  The easier you make it on your shoppers to SEE the price tag, the easier you make it for them to BUY the item.  AND this lessens the likelihood of them completely dismantling your display ‘just to see the price’.

No such thing as too many cubby shelves!

Country heart shelf – AGAIN!!

I’ve lost track of how many of this EXACT type of shelf with the heart cut-outs I’ve made over through the years!

The hearts are TOTALLY dated and have to go!  But the shelf style, by itself, is really a very timeless style.  I just get rid of the hearts and add backing.  Adding the backing is optional, but I really prefer to always add backing.  Items just ‘show’ better against a backing.

I painted it my ‘new blue’ of course.  HELPFUL HINT: Paint the shelf and the backing separately before attaching the back.  It will be much easier and faster that way!

Since it’s not really possible to ‘remove’ the heart cut-outs, the best option is to COVER them up.  I just cut a piece of ‘luan’ the same size as the top piece and glue it on.  Once the glue dries and add a few finishing nails at the corners.

The added piece over the hearts could easily be left plain; I decided to add these decorative elements.

 They are made of resin (originally they were ornaments) I cut off the wire loop and glued them to the luan.   Once the glue was set, I just did a little ‘dry brush’ painting over them.

I hand sanded the edges a bit so some of the original white paint showed through.

As soon as I have for ‘room’ in my booth; I will be taking it to Stars.

More cubby shelves

No such thing as too many cubby shelves! I actually found two of these at the same time.  Because the cubbies are pretty small AND they already had backings, I opted to spray paint them to save time.  I hand distressed the edges just a bit.

Took one to the new ‘Farmhouse Rustic’ in Oregon City, and one is set aside for Stars . . . as soon as there is room for it.  I just took Christmas stuff in today, so  I probably won’t have room for it until after Christmas.

THANK YOU ALL FOR THE GREAT INPUT ON THE KEURIG!  I am now officially on the hunt for a Keurig Mini Plus, in Red or Turquoise.  

Ginormous cubby shelf!

I found this baby at the Habitat ReStore in Bend, while Michael and I were there for my son’s wedding in August.

I’m not sure why there are those two ‘double’ opening in the middle there!?!?!  I think perhaps it was designed for a specific purpose.  All the wood was very well sanded and ‘ready to paint’.  Just had to dust it off a bit.

It’s nearly 3 feet tall!  And that’s a LOT of cubbies to paint.  Thank goodness it came sans any backing; much easier to paint that way.

Even without any backing, it took DAYS to get it painted.  I painted all the cubbies first, then added the painted backing.  A backing makes a HUGE difference.

Lots of room to display thing on it!

It is now in my booth at Stars;  $120.00.

Another little ‘cook book’ shelf

I like this one much better than the first one I did a while back.  That one only had one drawer and a niche.  I painted this one aqua and distressed the edges, and decided to leave it ‘unadorned’.

This is the other one I did a while ago.  Not sure if it’s because of the French wording on it, or the white paint, but it has not sold yet.  Might have to bring it home and repaint it aqua!  We’ll see how quickly the new aqua one sells.

Not too bad ‘as found’, but I don’t like knotty pine.

And it was a bit worn along the edges.

Clean drawer innards? Check.

 It has little holes drilled in the back for mounting it on the wall.  I decided to leave those instead of fill them.  But you could easily fill them with putty, sand and paint over them if you wanted to.

I didn’t have any other knobs that looked better than the original ones, so I cleaned them up (were a bit greasy from being in a kitchen) and put them back on after painting and sanding.

Maybe I should have painted the knobs to match??

Some vintage dictionary paper in the drawers, just because, and it’s ready to go to my booth at Stars.