Back From Canton...

My adventures started just 1/2 mile down the road. There was a stray horse running round on the road. A man had stopped and managed to catch it by it's bridle. I asked if it was his and he said "no". Then I asked if I could call someone and he suggested I call the Sheriff to come get it, that it had been out running on the street. So I called 911, told them the situation and headed on my way. Good deed for the day, Done.

After a quick 40 min drive I arrive at First Monday Trades Days. I park in my usual secret parking lot and head off to the junk section. One of my first stops was to see my new friend Linda Smith. She makes window conservatories that you may have seen on my windows page or Cherry Hill Cottages (Tina) page. Here's a pic of linda with one the prize of her collection this month.

Here is the complete conservatory

You can contact Linda by phone~ @ 214-686-4338, if you are interested in one of her wonderful
Conservatories.

After we visited, exchanged tool stories and hints she took me down to see the guy she gets her old keys from. He was a nice man named "Bob". I spent 47.00 at bob's booth buying bling for my creations, Keys, key holes, door plates etc.
He took this pic of the both of us.

I Shopped for a few more hours and Visited more with Linda. Found spindles and other fun stuff. Mostly supplies for future creations. I did buy one thing for me that I'll post a pic of later.
When I could bear the heat no more, I headed to the car, for the 40 min drive home.
It was a good day.

I'm off to First Monday trades days

In Canton Texas. Cant wait to report back about my adventures.

Wednesday and a visit to the Dentist

Well this week has been pretty quiet, except for my Dental visit today for a filling. I came home with a head/neck ache and took a little nap and felt much better when I woke up.

Anyway, on the T2T front: I've been working on this desk for about a week and a half now, and with all this rain, paint just does not want to dry. I think I'm finally finished and I'm happy with the results.
Before, The wood was not in very good condition, much of it was peeling and there was some marker that I could not remove. The solution---Paint.

After

and a close up of the 1/2 spindles I attached for a little bling


I've also started working on beautifying the entrance to my Barn, I'm determined to do this without spending a lot of money. I might purchase some ferns or something, but the idea behind T2T is to use what you've got or can find free or cheap. So I just moved some items from other parts of the yard to highlight them here.
I'll continue to work on it, but right now my yard is a swamp.



I'll post pics as I add more stuff. DH Wants to paint the barn red, and wants me to hang some windows from the side you see there. I was so surprised as he is not into the shabby chic look, but I think windows would look nice against a deep red. Painting is a job for the fall though. I don't do that kind of stuff in the Summer heat.

I'm so excited... Ki and Sue are coming to Austin in August and First Monday in September. I'm sure I can catch them at one of these events. In Case you don't know who Ki and Sue are. They are the original JunkMasters. they have a monthly column in Country Home magazine, a book and a junk magazine that came out last spring.
Here's their web site

Happy Sunday

Hello to all who read my blog, I hope you are having a great day. I've had a good weekend at the sales and are glad that they are over and for the day of rest. Although I love going to sales, I am glad that it is only a few days a week and the rest of the week can be spent creating.

DH and I went to an antique store in a nearby town and saw this creation. I think it is made from those screens that we used to have in the 70's. I know my parents had a few they used as room dividers.

What a great idea, and it's going up on my windows/doors ideas page.

Went to a few sales on Saturday and was able to pick up these items. I will be painting, sanding, staining, and fixing these up for my
Barn Sale.

.

Now for a makeover before and after, What a difference a week and some paint make.
Before
After
The top doesn't have that discoloration, that had something to do with the flash.I'm pleased with the result, and it's going in the barn sale.

Thursday Finds

There were 3 advertised sales today and one that I found on the way. I was able to pick up a few smaller fun items.


I got the Red Candle stand/Plant Stand, Barn wood angel, Wooden shoe form, glass knob and embroidered linens. I have displayed them on my creation for the week, which is the old window I picked up last week, with 2 shelves and hooks attached. I also picked up an iron dinner bell with a longhorn bull design, and an old galvanized bucket for a quarter. Most of the good stuff was less than a mile from my home.

The fun never stops. More Sales Tomorrow

Getting Ready for my Barn Sale

I've set the date for my Barn Sale so mark your calendars. September 13th - 15th 2007, This date would only be changed if my family decided on a reunion or some other special event would be scheduled for the same weekend. So It's tentative right now, but I don't expect it to change.

I'm such a planner, I've already got a list of items I'll be selling and high and low prices for each item. I've set it all up on XL (it's the bookkeeper in me). I'm real pleased at the inventory I've got at this time, so it should be a good sale.

I'll also be having regular Garage Sale stuff too, so there will plenty for every kind of shopper.

I've made sure not to plan it on First Monday weekend, so as not to compete with First Monday Trades days in Canton. I just hope that the Rose Festival is not that weekend. Although, that might draw some out-of-towners. If you are planning on traveling to my sale, and you want to stay at a B&B in the area, LMK, and I'll give you the number to a couple of good ones.

I'm getting excited, I hope to make this an annual event, we'll see how it goes.
In the mean time, if you are really itching to buy something, you can always check out my Ebay items

Father's Day

All of these items belonged to my Dad. His boyscout handbook, Pilot Log book,
Slide Rules, Camera, Watch (there's a story behind that watch). The framed picture
is of his HAM radio group in College, and the little boy is him as a toddler.



This day is bitter-sweet for me. You see when I was 18 My Father passed away at the age of 39. He had a very short battle with Leukemia. Dad and I did not always have the greatest relationship as I was growing up, but he was always there for me. He never missed an event, cheerleading, choir, Indian Princess (he was the chief), he was even an honorary room father when I was in the 5th grade. He was usually taking pictures and all of these events and I am so blessed that I have all of these pictures. He could be a lot of fun too, I especially remember riding a mini bike in a field on my birthday, and lots of tickle fights.



Dad was many things, a computer pioneer in the 70's, raced motorcycles, and learned to fly both hang-gliders and airplanes, an avid photographer, Woodworker, HAM Radio operator, a genius and a member of MENSA. And he built a business that employed over 200 people at the time of his death.
read about that here

He's been gone for 25 years, I've know life without him more than life with him. However, he was there through all those influential moments of my youth. Dispensing wisdom whether I wanted it or not (I do remember those pearls of wisdom even today). I'm mostly sad that my kids never got to know him, he would have been a wonderful Grandfather. My youngest Son recently said "When I die I want to meet 2 people in heaven. Elija and Your Dad." Wow!! that got me. Here's to you dad, you continue to influence me even though you are not here.

Weekend Finds

Yesterday there were a few sales open and I managed to get this old window as well as a couple of ammo boxes. Not sure what I'll do with the ammo boxes though. The old desk you see back there was a freeby from a friend who no longer wanted it.

Today (Saturday) it's raining cats and dogs, but I had to get up early to take my Son to work so I used it as an opportunity to get an early start at the sales. The first sale had a great cottagey frame that I'll show a pic of later and I also got a whole bunch of scrapbooking supplies from someone who bought but never really got into it.
Then I went to a sale and picked up some baskets, one was a longaberger. Then I picked up a friend and we headed to a church sale (good because it was inside and by this time it was really raining hard). This is where I hit pay-dirt. I got a dressing table and desk as well as some other goodies.

not sure how much work i'll put into this one. It needs some repairs but I like the wood and may just clean it up for the Barn Sale.

I'm going to paint this one white and then give it a distressed sanding. All those details will really stand out after that.

More goodies, A pair of old ladies gloves, the Basket I mentioned, some rusty kitchen tools and a tin heart.

All-in-all, A great haul. For some reason my Dog is in all of these pics. I guess she loves the camera

Inspiration

Where does inspiration come from? For me it comes from objects. I might be drawing a blank, looking around my barn, without any ideas. Then I’ll go garage-saleing and come home with lots and lots of inspiration. I let the objects speak to me. Sometimes I know what to do with the item when I pick it up. Other times I have no clue, I just know it can be used for something.

The other place of inspiration is the creations of others. That is why I started my web page, to inspire and be inspired. I may not have the object needed to create an item, but I’ll keep my eyes open and someday I’ll find just that right piece, and I’ll remember what was done with that in the past and then I’m off. It’s an adrenalin rush that can’t be explained. Sometimes ending in frustration that my project is not working out the way I wanted, and other times ending in elation, that it is just perfect.

Then I can’t wait to share it with you, but I must, as I need future projects of the week. So be sure that as long as I’m hunting, and finding. I’m also creating, and those projects will keep coming. And thanks for the inspiration I get from all of you.

For those of you wondering, My Son will be OK after his car accident. He's a little spooked when driving now though. Thanks for all of your concern and prayers, we have been truly blessed.

Bad day, lucky day

Without going into too many details, let me just say that a certain member of my family is lucky to be alive today, and we are lucky to still have him. The "new driver" angels protected him from an intersection accident with a pick up truck where he was t-boned. We are thankful to God for his blessings in this event and always. Hopefully this will be a learning experience and will prevent something worse happening in the future. Although I'm shaken up, i'm still extremely thankful that it wasn't worse. Praise God!!!!!

Clutter Wars

My DH and I have very different decorating styles. While he loves Frank Lloyd Wright, clean lines, stained wood and absence of Clutter. I love chippy paint, lots of stuff, etc. So we've struck a balance, Our home is not really cottag-y, mostly because we don't have a lot of painted furniture. Most of our furniture is stained oak, most of our colors are deep fall colors (which I like) and I don't have as much "stuff" out as many of my counterparts. My home is definitely not "girly", all of which is somewhat of a compromise on my part. The other day DH said he was learning to live with the clutter, to which I was "chin on the ground" because I keep it pretty clutter free. But I realize that he would have even less "stuff" around, so I guess I'm grateful for his part of the compromise. I still get the blank look when I tell him an idea and he says "your going to do what??? well OK." Then he ends up liking it. A good example is the framed found object collage' I did on the wall (see post below). I just told him to expect a change in the near future. I didn't tell him what I had in mind, and I avoided the "look". When he got back in town he said he actually liked it. Success!!!!

I guess that is what marriage is, a series of compromises, and surprises.

Friday Finds

Well today was a good day in the Tag Sale World. I went to the sale at our local volunteer fire department. I was able to pick up an old man's hat in hat box, a couple of baby shoes, and a nice prim wall shelf. Later at a different sale I found these great Iron Cherub wreath things. I got 4 of them, just to make you cottage decorators a little jealous. Imagine them painted a nice white or pink or robin egg blue.



Later in the day I went back to the Fire Station sale and found some things i'd missed before.
I got 2 wooden, chippy window screens, one chippy green, and one chippy white, and then I saw them. These great chippy doors, well one was great the other was just so-so. But they both had glass knobs attached. I also got a very large jesso frame. Here is a pic of one of the doors. See the glass knob, the great Aqua chippy paint, and then there are the hinges. I think I may just have to keep this one for myself.



This was the good part of a not so good day.

It's done

OK, I've done the wall project I mentioned in my last Blog.

Here's how I did it.

First I laid out my design on the floor.
Then I began to put it up on the wall, I had to adjust it several times. I advise you to have hole caulk and matching paint to repair any holes when you are finished.



When I was happy with the placement and balance of the frames, I began to mount the objects. I also had to make several adjustments in the process. I used sticky tack to stabilize each object as well as the frames so they do not shift.



There you have it. I think I may make changes in the displays themselves over time as I get other objects.

I'm pretty happy with the result.

2 posts in 1 day, but I need advise.

I have a very large long wall in my LR. I'm ready for a change.
This is how it looks now.


This is really only 1/2 of the wall, it goes along beyond the pic, so I kinda have the room divided up into 2 areas. This is the TV watching area and this is the area in question. I'd like to change what is above the sofa.
I was thinking about something like this.

Keep in mind this is on my barn floor. I would have all the frames a goldish brownish color, keeping the largest jesso frame as it is. Then my idea is to fill the spaces with found objects. This is just a mock up for now. I have lots of objects I can scrounge around for to fill these spaces. I kinda like this. The shutter would be painted cream, i'll leave the tin as it is. The lock plates will be painted and distressed.Then for the architectural one at the bottom, i'll add a small shelf for the finial and paint it all cream. I also have some clock faces I could put in here, as well as shoe forms, etc. Well what do you think? Will it work in the space?

I told DH last week, to expect a change there so he's been prepared.

Oh and the bench is done, here it is with a quilt folded up for now as a cushion.

We've been robbed

Well almost. Some vandals tried to remove our AC (outside) unit from our office this past weekend. They also hit a couple of other businesses on the street. But as usual
criminals are stupid. All of us have cameras. The guy across the street got a good shot of their license plate. We got a good shot of the guys, one of which relieved himself on our parking lot. Ha! Ha!. So the cop is anxious to get the pictures so he can go arrest these guys. So this am we have no air conditioning up front but we are blowing the one from the back up to the front, so it's bearable.

On another funnier note: My Son (age 16) thought he'd be "smart" this weekend. He comes downstairs and says "we have an intruder in our house and he keep hanging mirrors in my bathroom". "Ha Ha" I said, "very funny". He said "it started as 4 and more and more show up every time I go in there". Now if you are confused just scroll down about 2 postings and you'll see my "hand mirror collection".

Bed bench is almost finished, yeah!!

Got a few other projects in the works so keep checking.

So much stuff

I was out in the barn, playing with my stuff, just to see how much I had. I set it up kinda like I would if I had a booth. I realized that I have a lot more to sell than I realized. This is a pic of the corner I did up, and this isn't even all that I have.


so I'm feeling better about the barn sale , now that I know I have enough stuff to make a decent display. There will be more, this is just a start.

I've also made some progress on my Crib/Bench. I've started painting it.


It's mostly primed but still need more coats of white. Note to self: don't ever use a jenny-lind crib as a bench again. Too many spindles.

Fabulous Friday At the Flea Market

After driving 2 hrs to my TMJ doctor, and getting my night guard adjusted. I Headed back to Tyler, but not before stopping at the First Monday Flea Market for some shopping. I met with fellow blogger Garden Antiques aka Theresa and we had a short visit. It was very nice to meet you Theresa. After that I wondered around the junk area for several hours picking up spindles, ceiling tin, etc. I was also on the hunt for more hand mirrors (cheap) and I
was not to be dissapointed. Here is what I got.

I'm showing each mirror's best side, which is not always the mirror side. I will hang them with their best side out. So 5 more to add to my collection, and I'll post a pic of them all hanging out together tomorrow. I will be painting the small wooden one since it is not in great shape.

On the way out I saw the lady that makes the little greenhouses from old windows. We had a chat and It was nice to meet her. She said that she had sold all but one of the ones she brought.
Be sure to check it out her houses on my windows page :
here
All in all it was a great day.

Here they are (added 6/1/07)