Category Archives: thrifting

junk finds

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Over the last few months I’ve quietly been adding to my collection of junk. I’ve been so busy, however, that I didn’t have time to actually sort through it, photograph it or decide what to work on or how.
The other day, being on holidays and all that, I finally got the chance to go through my booty and take photos which I thought I’d share.
The one downside is that I bought a milk bottle carrier from the tip shop and I can’t find it anywhere. I know I bought it. I remember it clearly. I was thrilled to find it cause I was picturing it on the table as a centrepiece, jam jars where the milk bottles would be, holding cutlery, napkins and lavender… or holding my blue sea glass bottles with flowers…
But its nowhere to be found. And I’ve searched repeatedly.
I’m holding out hope… barely. Maybe its somewhere under something, behind something in the shed…
Fingers crossed.
So, meanwhile, let me share these finds with you.
A very large wooden bowl, one of the wooden bowls I’ve added to my project list. This would look great painted and holding fruit on my table…
An interesting brass trivet. One of a few…
I got tons of frames of various sizes. I just adore the print in this one.
And I love the vintage photo in this one. I think I’m keeping her. I can pretend she’s my mother as a little girl… She looks like my mother might have looked. Heck… she looks like me so she must be related!
I got tons of old books. Love this little booklet. Oh so many things I could do with this…

And this tin lid. No tin, just the lid, but how gorgeous is this?
A sample of the tons of miscellaneous junk I’ve added to my collection… I love my junk. Things to hang off my dangles… and the tape measure! They are so hard to get at a decent price around here.
I love old tools and old bits and pieces…. that old level is just gorgeous. That makes 2 old levels now. One will go in my vintage tool display, the other I have big plans for.
I see another hand sander dangle in my future… and more egg cup bird cages. I now have a substantial collection of both dangle and birdcage materials. I just need to get working.
Now how could I leave this pretty little doorstop piggy behind?
More rusty bits. I love rusty bits. No idea what they are, but I know what I’ll use them for and that’s what counts.
I have one word for this little silver dish: birdcage!
And I see an extra large wind chime in the future for this:
Wayne got me some of these things (the man may complain about my junk collection, but he knows me well!). He got me this little spice rack too. Now I know I can use this for something other than spices… not sure what, but it will come to me.
Love old tins. This still has the protractor in it.
A french book and an old tray. Just one of the trays I got. And just one of the many vintage books I got.
This was a gift from a friend – an old rake head. Love it.
If you think about it, I must be so easy (and cheap) to buy gifts for. Old, chippy and rusty will do it every time.
Like this tiny little wood plane – it doesn’t work but who cares?
I plan to use a lot of the old tools to make another display to match my old shears display. I have two more shallow crates and it wont take me long to put them together. I think they’d look great in the mud room or on the deck with some hooks to hang often-used working tools. 
I just have to get organised.
Organised.
Easy to say. Not so easy to do!

With the heat lately I’ve been too wiped out to even sit in the living room in front of a fan and create. I do not cope well with the heat. I managed to strain my arm doing the tiny bit of gardening I did so even hand sewing was out of the question on the hot days.

When its not too hot I have plans on jobs to do outside that I have so far successfully managed to avoid.

For instance I’ve been talking about removing the bird nests from around the house so I can start washing/painting the house and porch railing… Yesterday while ‘researching’ and ‘planning’ I noticed a dead bird’s head hanging out of the roof. Great. Better get that out today before it stinks up the office…

 
Better go. Its still coolish outside. Maybe I should go look over what I could be doing. Then figure out a way to avoid it.

z

an old bookcase gets a new look

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I’ve been itching to get stuck into this particular project for a while now. Ever since I made up a space in the living room for Wayne’s office. When I did that I moved this bookcase into the space under the window into the kitchen (a perfect fit!) so Wayne could hide away his bits and pieces…. which he never does… but that’s beside the point.
The point is that it started out like this: an op shop find, a little worse for wear. It obviously had had glass in it at some stage, possibly a kitchen cupboard, maybe a bookcase…
 
First I gave it a fresh coat of paint, no distressing in those days. Then I put flyscreen in it to use as a towel cupboard in my bathroom.
That worked well for a while, then I  moved it to the spare room where Bonnard (one of my standard poodles) destroyed it by digging at the flyscreen. He only destroyed the top part of both doors so I just cut the screen and left it like that for a few years.
I mean, it still worked. And it was easier to access things on the top shelf without a screen there!
So, when the office area was created the bookcase lived there without the top screen for a few months. I’d planned to replace the screens with burlap, just hadn’t got around to it till today.
Here is a photo after removing one of the doors.
When I’d put in the flyscreen I’d used narrow quad to hold it in place. I had to remove that and managed to do it on both doors without breaking it. Great accomplishment!
 
I had planned to use some grain sacks I’d found at an antique shop but they were too short. So I got out my stencils and some sharpies and went to work.
All went well till I realised that I’d put the burlap in the first door upside down. Darn. I DID check you know… but somehow still managed to get it wrong.
I had to remove the quad and of course broke every single piece of it that time. Something to do with using slightly bigger flathead nails instead of tiny bullet head ones… d’oh!
Oh well. Live and learn. I had to put the burlap back in right way up using tacks and glue and folding it over to prevent it from fraying. Didn’t look too bad actually.
Lastly I had to find a handle. The one I had on there had been gnawed on by Bonnard plus it no longer suited. It was fine for the bathroom as it matched the vanity, but not for the new look. I found an old brass handle I liked in my box of knobs and handles and added it.
 
So here it is! A little more battered than before, a little more lived in, and way better for hiding all the junk I’d like to keep out of sight when visitors come over!
Ok. The words aren’t entirely straight. Pulling on burlap to stretch it has that effect. But I’m pleased with it.
Now… onto the next project! 
z

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The Girl Creative

heart tray

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How pretty is this tray with its heart handles? When I found it in an op shop it was all pine and looked heavy and chunky. Not that there’s anything wrong with chunky. I like chunky. I love chunky sport shoes, I love chunky bracelets. But this tray just looked like something you’d hit a burglar over the head with, not serve tea on. And so un-pretty…
But the hearts. And the solid wood. I couldn’t go past that.
So I did what any self-respecting DIY-er would do – I painted it. Sanded it. Painted it using a chalk paint of my own mixing, lightly sanded it again to create a smooth satin feel you can’t get enough of touching.
Heavy no more. Chunky it might be, but its also light and pretty now.
It may still come in handy as a weapon of self protection, but you’d think twice about using this pretty tray to pound someone on the head.
I like it when things work out, don’t you?
z
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Homespun Happenings

DIY cake stands

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I’ve always loved looking at the gorgeous cake stands people make out of recycled items. I had a few wooden ‘plates’. And I had a few lamp bases and large chunky candle holders.
I figured “I can do that!”. So I did.
I made two gorgeous cake stands. Here is the before on one of them:
A chunky candle holder and a wooden plate I’d painted yellow originally and disliked.
After: painted pink in its new life as a cake stand.
Here’s the other one. A white one this time.
Before: a lamp base and a wooden plate.
After a pretty white cake stand.
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a little basket

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Its the little things, isn’t it?
A little basket that no one wanted any more, looking a bit worse for wear, with dusty lace and dustier flowers…
I gave it a makeover and its now looking pretty cute and pleased with itself.
A pink burlap flower with a silver pearl center. Some florist wire for ‘interest’ and texture…
Now the little basket can hold its head up and unapologetically take its place on a bookcase or a dressing table with pride.
 z
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Beyond The Picket Fence

DIY christmas lights

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…Or what to do when the decorative fairy light branches you’ve dragged around from one house to another for more than 5 years break…
You stuff them into a preserve jar and turn them into a jar full of lights!
Not just Christmas decorations… a bit of sparkle you can enjoy all year round!
z
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Beyond The Picket Fence

simple christmas decorations

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I’m not all that into the big traditional Christmas thing. I’ve never had a Christmas tree since I moved out of home. It seemed rather pointless when living on my own. Then, later, something small and slightly offbeat seemed a better way to decorate the house for Christmas.
This year I had some bedsprings I wanted to do something with. I bought some wooden stars and put them together to make these:
Aren’t they gorgeous? So simple yet so interesting!
Well, I took them to the market with me thinking I would sell them. I’d keep one for myself and sell the others….
It seems I’m the only person who finds these little beauties irresistable. One person picked one up and looked at it, not even asking for a price. No one else even seemed to notice them! 
How strange.
Maybe it was meant to be. I mean, I loved them so much I was torn over selling them in the first place. Maybe fate steered everyone away from them so I could keep them.
Then again maybe it was the way I growled when anyone went near them that put people off!
z
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dictionary prints

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A few more small frames with dictionary page art in them. Graphics thanks to the Graphics Fairy.
This one’s for you Angie (Knick of Time) cause I know you love clocks! A tribute!
This is one on my favourites cause I love old fans.

And a black frame – why not? Not everything needs to be white!

Apologies for the last two photos, they were taken in my lightbox and aren’t the best. 
z

the small coat rack

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Another tip shop find. This poor little coat rack was in a bad state when I found it. Broken bits, chipped paint, screw holes and a couple of nails which had been used to fix it to a wall.
Some gluing, some sanding, some filling of holes… nail removal of course, and a lick of paint and its as good as new…
Better than new actually, with its chipped paint and the character of a much loved old piece.
z

framed bunnies

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I love this print of bunnies in a wide shabby style frame. Its a frame I bought a while ago at a garage sale when I found the frames in this post.
The colours are soft and the bunnies look so cute and cuddly. This might be perfect for a little girl’s room. Then again, it would be perfect in my kitchen too…
When I bought these frames they were all dark timber and looked clunky. With some antique white paint and a bit of distressing they’re light and pretty and not a clunk in sight.
z