A Holiday Chandelier

Many moons ago, I purchased this wooden chandelier at a thrift store. In typical me-fashion, I promptly grabbed the can of spray paint and provided it with a lovely fresh antique white coating.

During the Thanksgiving holiday, I simply propped some lovely fall gourds on it's different petals and placed it in the center of our table. I also sprinkled some hand-cut felted recycled wool leaves. (Note: To my surprise, when left on the center of the table while eating, the wool leaves provided extra hot-pad protection for our casserole dishes!)

Now for Christmas-time, I've decided to move the chandelier to my kitchen table and sprinkle the petals with miniature vintage tree ornaments. I'm enjoying their shinny simplicity. And who doesn't love vintage?

I can't wait until Valentine's Day to see what awaits this fun thirft store find!

In Preparation

I worked on a few hearts this weekend in preparation for Valentine's Day. That day of reds, pinks, chocolates, smooches, loves, hugs, and winks will be here before we know it!

I found some fantastic red and white polka dot fabric at the thrift store and couldn't resist pairing it with my wool to make some hanging hearts. I think they turned out kind of fun - even though photo-op-day was snowy and chilly! By the time I got done taking photos, my hands were red and pink from the cold!

The Red Bowl - Version Bittersweet

Ah yes, the third (and I promise, final) fall version of the the red bowl. Bittersweet. I love bittersweet. I have some growing in my yard and love to see the little pops of orange and red in the fall.

The Red Bowl - Version Leaf

I couldn't help joining the millions of people enjoying and taking photos of the fall colors. My thrift store red bowl came in very handy for holding a beautiful fall leaf.

The Red Bowl

As I was digging through my shed the other day I ran across some wooden bowls that I had probably snatched greedily during one of my thrift stores adventures thinking I couldn't live without them. It's always funny how that works - because I've lived okay without even remembering I had them...until now.

Two of them were painted a beautiful, bright, glossy red. It happened to be a sunny fall day and I laid one on my little garden bistro table. It was cute, cheery, and made me smile. I'm sharing the smile.

Fab Find

Here's a quick peek at a recent cool find I had at my last thrift store stop.

Can't wait to show you what I'm going to do with it!  

I've got a couple of very busy weeks coming up - so I fear you won't see a transformation real soon. But, I promise I'll show you as soon as I get it done.  In the meantime....I'm actually living up to my year-to-clear promise from the first of the year and having a garage sale next weekend!  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to make as much headway as I would have liked to by this time, but, none-the-less, it's progress - and it feels good!

Heck of a Find

I went to a thrift sale this past weekend in a nearby town in the wee hours of Saturday morning. It was being held in a shed/type building that was pretty darn chilly - it obviously isn't a full four-season building. (Wisconsin winter cold!)

While I was looking around, I thought to myself that I really didn't even need to be there. Sure, my initial reasoning for going was to look for wool, but really, what else did I need to get? 2011 is my year of "clearing" and this wasn't the way to get there. But, as usual, I ignored myself and kept looking.

I left about 20 minutes later with cold feet, cold hands, two wool coats, one wool sweater, a new matching set of white porcelain dishes to be used for my Charlotte's water and food dish (which work so great, by the way!), couple skeins of yarn, two sets of knitting needles, a white tablecloth with grand trim, four jars of misc buttons, a set of six wooden coasters that will be turned into pin cushions to sell on Etsy, four baggies stuffed full of vintage lace trim, a unique hand-stitched table center piece cloth/doily, and an incredible wooden bowl - all for only $28!

Here's a photo of the wooden bowl holding my wool and burlap pears. It was only $2.00!! 

I'm glad I stayed and my hands and feet got cold.

Making Recycled Pin Cushions

Well, as promised, here are some Big Honkin' Pin Cushions...

These are a few of the pin cushions I made with thrift store/tag sale wooden salad bowls. Incredibly, t hey were only a dime a piece and look like they were never even used!

I was hoping to post these on my Etsy site, but I've decided that I will bring them to the sale that I will be doing this weekend at The SPACE in New Richmond, Wisconsin.

Whattcha think? Do you have enough pins to fill them? Uhhh....without a doubt, I do.

Sign Remade

Earlier this summer, I found a great frame at a garage sale and did a quick post on my "remake". I made it into a little sign for The Lavendar Tree.

Well, I decided that I needed a sign for my sale last weekend (since I'm not in the "official" business world and have a credit card machine) stating that I could only accept cash or checks.

Here's what I came up with using just rub-on's and scrapbooking stickers. I think it turned out kind of cute and I'll probably use it again. I even had compliments on it at the expo!

More Finds?

Sometimes you can thrift shop for months and just find "good things". Then sometimes you can really hit some major scores.

Don't get me wrong - every time find my wool sweaters, it's goooood shopping - but this week I found two really fun and different things.

One is this mirror. It's very old, very heavy, and very gold. I believe the frame will be heirloom white when I finish with it. I have no idea where I will hang it (somehow my walls seem to be pretty full right now) but you can be sure I will find a spot. It was mine for only $7.00. It only took me about 2.1 seconds to decide to buy it.

My other find is this old, beautifully embroidered (clearly by someone's grandma!), kitchen apron. Only .2 seconds were needed for me to hold on tight to this find. Would you believe that it was marked 29 cents!?! Yup. No lie. Great huh?

Free Frame Cottage Garden Brief Tutorial

One of my favorite thirft shops has a free-shelf. When things have been at the store a long time and not purchased, they will put some small items on the free-shelf. As you are leaving, you are invited to check it out and grab anything that tickles your free-fancy.

A couple weeks ago, two free frames started me on a new journey.

Free frames!

See?  They really were free.

First, I primed and painted them white. I love white....and purple.

Never. I repeat, NEVER forget about purple.

I decopaged parts of the frame with rippings of pages from an old, yellowed reference manual of some sort. I am a firm believer that books should not be destroyed on purpose (or for no purpose at all!), but when I got my hands on this one, it was already in shambles - so I am ok with that.

I added a few other adornments (rub-on's, etc.) and then sprayed with two coats of poly spray. You can use any kind of poly protector, but the spray is so easy to use.

Then I prepared some "gardens" with a recycled wool blanket for the background and different flowers, stems and leaves from recycled wool. The blue flower was created using an old button and crocheting a "slipcover" for it from very thin wool yarns. I used the pre-cut cardboard that came with the frames as the backing and discarded the glass pieces. I know, you'd think I could have found some way to use them, but there's a limit to what I can save...

Waa Laa! Two new simple-chic cottage garden pictures!

The one with the blue flower was already given to a friend for her birthday and the other one is now posted on Etsy. I'm very pleased with how they turned out. Hmmm...think I might run to my thrift shop again today and see what awaits me.