Little green lady

Such a sweet looking face . . and such an UGLY color!!

Isn’t it amazing what a little paint will do?!?

A few quick coats of flat white spray paint turns this beast into a real beauty.

I almost want to paint the eyes . . . should I???  I can always spray over them if I don’t like it.

She’s a perfect companion to this piece that I’ve had for a while.  (both are shelves too!)

Here you can better tell that they are shelves.  Now I just need to find ONE more, so I will have three to hang in a group.  Will eventually take them to Stars.

 

Recent thrift store finds

Mini pie safe!  So cute.

Missing this piece of wood across the front so it was extra CHEAP!  I can easily fix it!

Little 2 drawer wood chest.  ACK!  Hate the color and the design!

But anything with little drawers always sells well.  Just have to decide HOW I want to make it over.

I have this EXACT same cedar jewelry chest!

EXACTLY the same picture.

Inside it a bit marked up, so I may have to put paper on the bottom.  Debating whether I would make-over this one or not???  Whaddya think????

I really want to start going to more estate sales next year and procuring more vintage items that I can sell ‘as is’; as opposed to always making everything over.

Is this the UGLIEST green color you have ever seen or what?!?!?  WHY would they paint such a pretty faced item such and ugly green?!?!  Poor baby!  I will pretty her up!

Vintage bird prints in AQUA (but cheap PLASTIC!) frames.

Cheapo cardboard backings.  ICK.   The pictures were very close to tearing.  I took them out and glued then to some sturdy cardboard.  Then backed that to another piece of cardboard.  Put a little loop of string under that top-notch for hanging.  Scrubbed the frames.  Gave the pictures a good coat of clear spray paint to help preserve them; then put them back together.

Nice wood chest, about the size of a bread box.  Thinking this might work for the wedding card receptacle at my son’s wedding next August.  (made over, to their preference of course!

The inside is even completely painted!

A few small findings

Wood Mocha box from the thrift store.

Will set it on it’s back so the top opens UP and turn it into a ‘memory box’.

Copper tray.  Not sure what I’ll do with it just yet.

Little ironstone creamer for my personal collection (I only collect this specific SHAPE.)  Glass vase that will be turned into a cloche.

Small duck and chicken tureens.

Small dome cloche (might have to keep this one for myself too!)  And a vintage ‘Owl Drug’ bottle.  Was going to embellish the bottle, then at the last minute I decided to research it online real quick.  Turns out these are HIGHLY collectible, so I’ll be selling it ‘as is’ (a tiny ‘bruise’ on the back) in my booth at
Stars.

Bag of BIG wood bun feet!  You know ow I LOVE furniture feet!!!  Will save these for ‘just the right’ furniture project.

Fancy dowel finials that I will probably use as drawer knobs.

Packets of little wood knobs. The package SAYS 4, but there are only 3.  To add to my stash for when I need extra knobs.

Nice dry weekend and had a VERY productive painting marathon.  (pictures coming soon)  Raining today!

Recent thrifting finds

It’s nearly impossible to photograph velvet without glare!

 

Can’t quite figure out WHAT this is supposed to be?!?!

And I’m actually surprised that I liked it well enough to buy it.  I’m usually pretty anal about the ‘odd number decorating rule’ ; but the fact that this piece has four ‘towers’ doesn’t seem to bother me.

Maybe my eyes are more focused on the ‘neutral space’ (THREE!) between the towers, and that is why the four points seem to ‘work’.  I’m not even sure if it’s supposed to BE ‘something’, or if it’s just an abstract wire sculpture.  I just thought it was kinda cool looking.  Any thoughts as to what I could DO with it are welcome.  Of course I can always just sell it ‘as found’.  Was thinking of maybe painting it a matte industrial grey??

VERY water stained little oak table that was obviously used as a plant stand by someone who habitually over watered their plants!  Nothing a good sanding and some paint can’t cure though.

Wood foot stool with handle hole.  Someone had carved their name into it, so it’s going to take a really GOOD sanding before I can repaint it.

Another very grubby little table.  Little tables like these are always good sellers, so I buy them whenever I find them ‘at the right price’.

Soooooooooooooooooo generic!!  And quite a bit of sanding to be done before I can repaint it since it has a shiney finish; but the price was right.  Little night stands sell even better than little tables.   New paint and replacing the wood knob with something unique will make this a whole new piece.

Vintage wire newspaper/magazine rack.  A good cleaning and some spray paint is all this will need.

PAIR of night stands made from taking apart a big desk that had drawers on both sides.

Remember these?  Originally the two sides of a big desk, that Michael took the top off of for me.  Added new tops and new pulls to create a pair of night stands.  NOW, what to do with the desk top?!?!

Rusty old legs from an enamel top table. The top is too messed up to fix, but the base is still very sturdy.

And it’s the perfect size for attaching that orphaned desk top to!!  I wanted to KEEP the legs rusty, but not too many people wall rust shedding all over their floors or carpet.  The fix?  Clean spray paint!  Wipe off any loose rust then give it a couple of good coats of a clear matte spray varnish.  The varnish will ‘darken’ the rust color a bit.  And it prevents the rust from shedding and hinders the corrosive process.  Left untreated and the corrosion will continue to progress.

Sweet vintage vanity chair will just need to be spray painted.

Little metal mesh table looks like it was part of a nesting set as it’s ‘open’ on one side of the leg structure.  Another quick spray paint project.

Rusty, shabby  . . . perfect as is!  And my ‘inspiration piece’ to kick-start a new spring collection in WHITE!

BIG old Lazy Susan!  Do people still use these things?  This one is SO big that I figure if it doesn’t sell for it’s intended purpose, that I can always use the top and add legs to make a little round table.

Ornate gold frames.

HUGE roll top bread box!  Might try turning it into a mini roll top DESK!!

Sooooooooooooo, this should keep me busy for a while!

Findings

Here’s a bit of what I’ve found on my thrifting ventures lately:

White Stoneware pitchers.  (sorry about all the blotches on the pictures.  Must be something on my camera lens?!) This is my very favorite shape of white pitchers, and not that readily found too often.  Let alone finding ALL THREE at the same time.  I’ve always wanted to start my own white pitcher collection, but always convince myself to sell everything I find.  This time I decided to keep them!  And I discovered that I had one more, a smaller one, in one of my booths to add to my collection!

Little glass spice bottle (I put a Halloween label on it) A tall funky heart shaped bottle (will be made into a ‘love potion’ bottle for Valentines Day) and a bell shaped cloche.  (always need these!)

The bottle on the left is the one from the previous pic.

Cute dog figurine (NO idea what to do with it!?!)  Little urn (to fill with a little nest or bottle brush tree or use as a dessert plate pedestal) small glass (to use for a cupcake stand base) and a salt shaker (to use as a pedestal for a little bird)

This is the little white bird that I want to put on the previous salt shaker.  The bird is also a salt shaker though, so I have to figure out a way to cover up the holes).  Little ceramic bird (maybe paint it black for Halloween??)

It’s the same bird as the one on the left here; that I painted white and used as a cloche handle.

Stoneware bowls (ALWAYS on my ‘look for’ list; any shade of white/cream)  Little stoneware crock that I added a Halloween label to.

Large hurricane vase that I inverted and added a knob to, to make it into a cloche.

BIG lettuce shaped salad bowl!  

 

Such a cute little set of milk glass jars with wicker carrier.  Any one know what this might have originally been used for??  Debating whether or not to ‘piece it out’ and sell bottles and carries individually; or leave it as a set???  What do you think?  One of the lids was GLUED on to the base, which we (the cashier and I) both noticed at checkout.  I decided to get it anyway.  Soaked it in warm soapy water for a while and it came right apart and the glue peeled right off.

Such cute ‘pot belly’ shaped jars!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!  That bell cloche fits this angle candle pedestal perfectly!  Maybe paint the pedestal white and pair them up??

Itty bitty angels; super fragile; might have to glue them in a glass jar to protect them.

These apothecary jars originally had brushed aluminum lids; which I spray painted black.  Will add some collage labels to these.

Here are some similar jars I did a while back; embellished with keys and papers.

A big vintage cherub vase.

Upcycled / repurposed it into a tall cake pedestal.

 With faux display cake.

For sale in my booth at Curiosities in Beaverton for $29.00.  The taller stand is $39.00.  Perfect pieces for a small wedding cake OR a cupcake buffet!

 

 

 

The last of the summer finds . . .

Alas, the summer ‘stock up on furniture’ season is coming to an end.  As soon as the rains come it will limit my ability to paint furniture because I don’t have an indoor painting room for big things.  Here’s my last few findings of summer:

Small wood trunk.

Berry trug.  (thinking this will work great for displaying some of my smaller signs in!)

When I first saw this I thought it was a doll cradle, because one end is higher than the other.  But the wood dowels inside make it look like a magazine rack.  ???  Maybe someone else UPcycled an old doll cradle into a magazine rack???

Really CUTE little desk.

Another sign storage bin.

And the BEST score!!  An UNFINISHED round pedestal table..Gotta LOVE not having to do any prep work like sand or prime!!

I had already sanded this one when I remembered to take the picture.

These ought to keep me in painting projects for a while!

MORE from the project pile.

Added some wood spools and mini wood bowls for ‘feet’.  I’m lovin’ adding feet lately!

Carved wood applique.

I actually just took the spool fee OFF that square one in the front.   Decided on something  BETTER to use it for upside down.

This little video rack will make a nice little shelf.

Some black spray paint and a bit of sanding is all it took.

Not the best picture of it.  This was at the fall Every Husband’s Nightmare bazaar.    It’s just to the right of the pale yellow shelf.

Rescued pair of doves

Sweet little pair of doves I found on a recent thrifting jaunt. WHY in the world would someone paint them black??

A~HA!!! Turning them over and looking at the back, I discover that the black paint is covering up a layer of country blue AND a layer of olive green. Again . . . WHY??!?!?

I gave them a good dose of KILZ primer, then some nice white paint. Once dry I sanded them a bit to bring out the details.

Wont’ they be cute with a Valentine’s display?

Don’t forget to please CLICK HERE to vote for me in the Handmade Holidays contest. Just clicking on the link will give me a vote. No need to do anything else

Latest thrifting finds

What I’ve been working on lately

Since we’re done with shows for the season and don’t have the  store to stock anymore, I’m not doing much in the way of holiday themed stuff.  I’m actually ‘thinking spring’ already!  And working on some ‘general stuff for our space at Stars.

I actually ended up filling this cloche with gold and platinum glitter ornaments, but forgot to take a picture after I added  them!

I started with a thrift store wood candle holder, and glued (epoxy) a craft store 4×4″ wood routered edge plaque to the top and bottom.

I find I can use these things for ALL KINDS of crafting projects, so I always keep a good-sized stash of them on hand by stocking up when they are on sale.

Then I added the feet, again using epoxy.  I’m really ‘into’ FEET lately.  Especially BUN feet.  You absolutely will not believe what I came up with to use as inexpensive bun feet for small furniture pieces!  So fun!  Real bun feet are ridiculously expensive.  Too expensive for me to use on anything that I want to sell.   For this little project I used some small candle cups I had on hand.  I’ve used wood spools and round wood knobs in such situations as well.

It just so happened to be a DRY fall day here in Oregon; so I took it outside and spray painted it with flat black paint.

For the cloche to top it with, I had these bell-shaped chandelier globes.  I needed to ‘plug up the hole’ at the top (which is really the bottom in its original use) to make it look more like a cloche.  I used a tiny clear glass remekin, which I epoxied on.

I’ve also used these aemekins as knobs on glass vases the I inverted to make into cloches, like the ones below.

Here are more recent projects, kind along the same theme, pedestals with cloches.

Vintage milk glass cup and bowl (or it might actually be an ashtray!) epoxied together and topped with a cut glass candle cup, used as a cloche.

These are itty bitty and OH so cute!  Made using a silver coaster and napkin ring, epoxied together, and topped with a candle cup.   These are the perfect size for holding a single chocolate truffle or maybe for presenting a special piece of jewelry to a special someone.

Thrift store mini glass ginger jar with vintage shrimp cocktail glass epoxied on for the base.

Filled with handmade paper shred made from an old book, and a black silk ribbon tied to the lid.  I have an awesome full size ginger jar that I did similarly.  It’s buried somewhere amongst the 40 boxes and bins of craft show left overs at the moment though.  I took a pic of it at the show, but it kinda washed out because of light coming in from behind.  But you can kinda see it:

Next project: A thrift store resin finial and ceramic pillar candle holder.

Epoxied together and then both spray painted black.

Sanded the finial a bit to bring out the design.

More finials:

I actually made these a while back, and I don’t think I took any ‘before’ pictures.  I used a craft store 4×4 plaque for the base, a piece of a 2×2 for the core.

Glued on some carved wood appliques to the front side, and topped them with a craft store week finial.