Category Archives: thrifting

just because

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Why am I sharing this pic?

Cause I like it.

I took it to show a friend the rickety chair I picked up off the side of the road last year, a chair which is beyond repairing to actually seat a human being of ample proportions, but which retains a lot of charm.

When organising the store room (still not organised) I hung it on a humungous nail and left it there.

When I saw the photo I realised there was something I just loved about having a chair hanging on the wall.

Meanwhile, I’ve been busy. Cleaning. Tidying. Organising.

In the casita, not the house. The house remains a total mess. In fact, its messier than it was last week when I put off tidying up.

On a happier note, the chickies are doing well and the hen and chick we moved out to the chicken coop ran off the minute we opened the door to let them out.

We shouldn’t keep chickens. We’re just not qualified.

Meanwhile Wayne bought new rugs for Chipmunk…

He looks like he was eaten by a horse rug.

For sale: two small, but obviously not tiny enough, horse rugs. One regular and one with attached neck rug.

Never a dull moment at Wind Dancer Farm!

z

retro flour sifter planters

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Last week I shared the new shelf outside the kitchen window.

I haven’t yet moved it down the 6 inches I think it needs to be moved, but I have made one change.

I moved some of the plants to make room for my flour sifter containers.

I think that technically, three of something makes it a collection, so here is my sifter collection. One is really rusty but the others still look respectable.

Not that rust isn’t respectable!

They all have (had) working parts when I got my sticky little fingers on them, so I lined them with hanging basket fibre stuff, then filled them with potting mix before adding a selection of succulents.

Yep. I like them outside the kitchen window, along with the 2 tiered caddies I made out of baking tins.

Other than that, I’ve done a whole lot of nothing at home. Did I mention I was sick for most of last week? Yep. Holidays are not the time to be sick.

Turns out it was food poisoning.

The Dr said it sounded like gastro, along with the flu, just bad luck to get them together. But I watched a segment on A Current Affair last night about bacteria found on chicken. And the symptoms the guy on TV listed were all my symptoms to a T.

Guess what I had for dinner a couple of nights before I got sick?

Makes sense. If it was viral Wayne would have got it too!

I think I’ll avoid pizza and take away food for a while…

z

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Beyond the Picket Fence

a day tip shopping

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Yesterday was a great day!

It was the first day of my holiday that I’ve been well enough to go out all day. Not only did we visit a couple of tip shops for a look around (and pick up a thing or two) but I even managed to actually eat more than a couple of bites of something!

Life is good.

First tip shop we visited I saw this and fell in love.

I wanted it so badly.
Yes it was overpriced. Yes it was a wreck.
It needed the entire top ripped off and replaced (easy), the door on the right needed major mending, and it all needed a good scrub and de-moulding, then painting… but it would have looked great in our bathroom!
But Wayne wouldn’t let me buy it. He said “too many projects, not enough time”. Not to mention not enough space. 
And he was right. (Don’t tell him I said that!)
Then I saw this.

Ok… I don’t want it in my bedroom, but how cool does that look!! I mean, they just stacked them up to save space, but take two 1960s dressers, remove the legs on the top one and join them together, or put on much higher legs to make more space between them, and what a great wall unit!

If I had time and space I’d have bought them too, just to do that!

We did pick up a couple of things. This is great. Its missing its top, but Wayne is going to use it to hold his drawing supplies. It looks pretty cool on his desk.

Wayne found me this tiny galvanised scoop.

When I took the photo I didn’t notice the bird poop. Enjoy.

I also got this cheap version of an industrial light. If I can find a fitting to fit it (haha) I’ll use it somewhere. The office maybe… picture it painted my greeny aqua colour on the outside, silver on the inside… yeah!

After lunch we visited another tip shop. While wandering around I noticed the sign on the side of this cart. Hilarious!

Then I began to notice the signs all over the place. Someone got around the place with a can of spray paint and a sense of humour!

(For my American friends, the Tarkine is an old growth forest here in Tasmania.)

Gotta love this one!… Get it? “The Doors”…

It was the best day! 
z
Update 12 April 2015
It has been pointed out to me that not everyone knows what a tip shop is. Well, not to worry. Until I moved to Tasmania I had no idea either.
A tip shop is a shop attached to the TIP, which is the local dump. Landfill. Rubbish recycling center. Whatever its called in your part of the world.
Basically, tip shops sell what has been either taken to the tip to throw away and the scavengers who work for the council* have crawled around picking up to put in the shop attached to the tip… the ‘salvage centre’… or ‘recycle center’ etc.
OR, its stuff people who have things to throw away have taken to the tip shop cause they think its too good to throw away, but don’t want it any more.
But mostly its stuff that’s been thrown out and been pre-salvaged for your convenience, priced and put on a shelf or a stack for you to go shopping.
Its a great place for salvaged building materials, odds and ends of anything for anything. 
But the overall thing is that its stuff that was disposed of by someone as having no use to them any longer… and as such it was free.
Then the tip shops take anything that has resale/reuse value and they price it and sell it. 
Sometimes at unbelievably ridiculous prices considering it was one step away from landfill!
Eh.
I love scavenging at the tip shop. I go for the rusty bits, the old bits of broken furniture, etc. I’ve often picked up large pieces of plywood for a project or a bit of timber, or furniture legs or whatever.
Our front door came from a tip shop. So did our kitchen table. Our old kitchen chairs. Heaps of stuff.
My only issue is that sometimes prices are just too high. 
On the other hand I’ve often bought a box full of crap good stuff for $5.
We do have thrift shops (like the Salvation Army or St Vincent de Paul stores) which we call op shops (opportunity shops), we have junk shops, and we have antique shops. I love all of them. Cause you never know what you’ll find in any of them!
*Councils runs tips. Some councils also run tip shops to reduce the amount of landfill by encouraging recycling. In New Norfolk the council contracts out the tip to someone and they have the rights to salvage and resell. Its illegal to pick up something from the tip and take it home.
Go figure.
z

moving forward on the house painting

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We have a week off work for Easter. Naturally my list of projects to do is huge.

Massive.

Long even.

One thing I planned to do, providing it didn’t rain, was finish painting the outside of the house. Its not too much to want a single colour on all the walls…

Around here painting the house is more an ongoing project than a ‘do it once and don’t do it again for 10 years’ kind of thing.

I think I started painting the house about 4 years ago.

I’m a speedy worker.

Its still not finished by the way… the back porch needs the high areas done and, realistically, it needs another coat already due to the exposure on that side.

So, when we built the front porch I had painted all that front area (except the beams up above). Then we put in a new window in the kitchen and needed to patch walls. And we decided to enclose that area of the porch so there was a lot of raw wood to paint.

This past summer I gave all those spots an undercoat and thought that, really, how hard could it be to finish the job with a couple of topcoats?

One thing I’d been planning on from the start, was a window shelf for plants under the kitchen window. I had this little grey one from the living room so put it on the outside of the enclosed porch. The brackets need adjusting so its come off now, but I was dying to see what it looked like.

Kinda cute.
It sits above the gas bottles for our kitchen. Another project for that mythical ‘one day’ is to make a box to hide both the gas bottles and the rubbish bin. Two birds – hide the bottles and keep the bin safe from the dogs.
Not that my dogs rip open rubbish bags. They prefer live chickens… sigh.

I had bigger plans for the kitchen window. This old shelf was in the white timber shed which is being used just for storage. I got Wayne to remove it yesterday and with his help (its a heavy sucker) I screwed it onto the wall under the window.

All I did was give it a good scrub and a light sand to get rid of loose paint. I love the chippy look and the various colours showing through it.

One thing I’m doubting now is its position. I think I need to put it lower. The kitchen window isn’t deep and having the plants overlap the window so much makes the window look narrower, and from inside I feel like I’ve cut out some of the view.

What do you think? I’m thinking of lowering it by about 5-6in.

Another thing I plan to do is cut a frame for that window. All our other windows have aluminium frames which were blue and I’m (still) in the process of painting white. A frame around the window will tie it in with the other windows better.

So, after doing about 2 hours of work on the second coat this morning I had to stop. I felt exhausted, weak, had chills and a bit nauseous. I hope I’m not coming down with something. Not on my holiday!

I think I’ve done enough for today.

z

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the anti-rabbit

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I did take ‘before’ photos of this rabbit. 
I did.
But I can’t find them anywhere!

I got him from the ‘free to good home cause they’re too ugly to sell’ pile at the tip shop last time I visited. The poor bunny had one bead eye (as you can see on his right) and the other eye dangled from a thread halfway down his neck.
Pretty gory looking.
He had the pocket and the red striped ears you see, but no mouth and he was just plain… boring.

I thought I could pretty him up a bit… by making him a monster rabbit. The anti-rabbit of Easter, so to speak.

I gave him a zombie mouth, a mismatched eye, a spotty heart and a few darns and patches. I think he looks much better.

So does my little rat-like creature. He’s smitten. Been offering the rabbit flowers since they met.

Hope everyone has a great Easter.

z

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some good finds i shouldn’t have been looking for

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I was naughty.

I went to an auction.

I couldn’t stay at the auction cause I had to go to work, but I wandered around and peeked into boxes and touched stuff.

Then, despite knowing that I shouldn’t, I put in a couple of absentee bids. Ok. Four. I put in four of them.

I ended up getting 2 items.

One was this gorgeous sign, which I love.

I did some googling. Haywood’s was one of the first large bakeries in Tasmania in the 1870s. Apparently by the 1930s they were claiming to be Tasmania’s largest bakery. I’ve always loved old signs, but at prices of $400 plus, I can’t afford them. I saw this same sign listed on Gumtree for $400 a while ago. I got it for much less than that.

I’m happy.

Its just resting up above the small window in the casita right now, but when I get the chance I’ll be fixing it to the wall properly.

The other item I got was a box of ‘sundry collectables’. Well, it was a whole lot of metal odds and ends. And you know I love metal crap.

Here are some awful blurry photos of my crap. Two very grimey bread tins with some odds and ends in them including metal sink plugs, a spigot, a clamp, some wierd tools… and a gauge who’s numbers move when you move it. I’m sure it’ll come in handy one day.

There was a plastic bucket so beaten up it was impossible to tell what it was made of, full of castor wheels. Some small brackets, what is apparently a pea sheller in the perfect colour for my kitchen, a funny clamp thing I have no idea what for…

This image is a bit clearer… You can see the wierd clamp thing near the tiny strainer. Any ideas what it might be? Its brass.

There’s a funny strainer which I’ll add to my strainer collection. And 2 brass wall mounted candle holders. If I and figure out a way to attach jars with tea lights to them that’s what I’ll use them for I think.

Or I guess they could be used to hold necklaces or scarves… And more mismatched coat hooks. You can never have too many of those.
There were a couple of other metal items of indistinct usage, not included in the pics cause I’d taken them to Wayne for his input.
Lastly in the box was a ‘book’ titled How to Improve Your Bowling by Hugh R. High.

And inside is a lovely old glass flask with two shot cups.

So cute. 
Its in the bookcase now for reading emergencies.
z

an unwanted shop rack

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I’m sharing this quick project now, even though I finished it about 2 months ago… cause I wanted to share it when I had it in the office as I planned.
Of course, I had to clean and tidy the office first, and that was a job I put off and put off and put off and… you get the picture… But its finally done. Its clean and tidy (for about the next 2 days providing I stay out of it).
Who was it that said they get more cleaning done in the 30 minutes before visitors arrive than they get done in a week? That’s me. Only this time I cleaned 24 hrs in advance.
So, back to the shop rack. I found this sorry little cutie at a garage sale and was quick to grab it. It had been painted silver at some stage, not well, and the base was really wonky, but it had wheels.

Note the wonky base. Held on with string and tape.

I cleaned it up, scraped the scunge off it, disinfected it, and replaced the tape and string with screws and nuts. I gave it a fresh spray of silver, leaving the occasional old paint showing through (for character, doncha know).

Then left it sitting in the workshop for weeks, gathering dust and horse hair.

But today its in the office. Its new home.

Now stay tuned. The office cleanup miracle is coming.
z

the last chest of drawers

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Among all the ups and (mainly) downs in my life of late, I thought I’d share something creative and good.

You may remember that when I overhauled the ugly pine chest of drawers a few weeks ago I mentioned wanting to fix up the smaller one to match. Here is an old photo of the two chests side by side in the bedroom as they had been since we moved here.

That top doesn’t actually belong there. I found it in an op shop a long time ago, unpainted and missing its ‘bottom’. I thought I’d make a shelf out of it for the mud room, a spot to drop keys and stuff. I even made a shelf to go on top of it but I never got around to putting it up where I had planned.

Here it is when I first got it and after I’d put some paint on it.

My original idea was to somehow make it into a spot for my jewellery, which is why its on top of the smaller dresser. I even made this mock-up to see how it would look.

Luckily, I decided against that. I just wasn’t sure its what I wanted to look at.

This is what it looks like now (its actually quite straight, the photo makes it look wonky… not that there’s anything wrong with that…):

I obviously don’t stage my photos. There’s a cord between the dressers for the fan. It was hot…

So, what I ended up doing in the end was finding a frame that fit between the posts, or whatever you call them. The one I found was perfect as it was, I liked the white washed colour so I didn’t paint it, just added birdwire.

I then used some small metal brackets to attach it to the posts.

Everything was painted the same shade of off white homemade chalk paint that I used on the other chests of drawers, was distressed a little bit then waxed with clear wax.

Till I started reading DIY blogs I’d never heard of using wax over paint. I thought that’s what you did when you inherited granny’s furniture. But, being the gullible follower adventurous type I am, I bought some to give it a try… and I can tell you I love the satiny feel it gives painted pieces!

Lastly I changed the tiny wooden knobs. I didn’t try to match the black cup pulls on the drawers although I had black round knobs which would have done. I wanted something special… like these little crystal knobs.

Instead of displaying jewellery, I opted for photos. That way I can look at them as I lie in bed on lazy weekend mornings. (Ok, a couple of favourite necklaces have made it to the frame, but most other stuff is out of sight.

A leftover coat hanger wire heart I made a long time ago for some of my windchimes now frames photos of my mom and dad courting and on their wedding day. I love those photos.

Below that I have two old photos of my dad as a toddler with his mother and sister, and one of me as a 3 year old holding my brother while my favourite cousin PG sits beside me.

I have photos of mom as a child as well but want to frame them along with other old photos I brought home on my last trip to Greece.
I also added my favourite card, given to me by my dearest cousin Zefi (aka Little Zefi), her daughter Marouso, and my Aunt Marissa. The card says ‘Having a place to go is home, having someone to love is family’ and its not just that sentiment that means so much to me but the messages inside. Its the best card ever.
Anyway, I realised I’ve said nothing about the chest I finished. Not much to say really. I painted it with the same paint as the other, larger, one. I distressed it a bit, then put the same cup pulls on it to match. Looking back now I wonder whether I should have put handles on the small top drawers to match the top drawers on the large one… but eh, its done now.

There they sit, together, opposite my side of the bed. I like the way they look now. So much neater and calmer that what I had to look at before, the yellowey pine and too neat white mismatched look.
Just a reminder. This is how it looked before:
And this is how it looks now:
I can live with that!
z

a cute little airplane

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Do you like my little wooden toy plane? I have no idea where it came from, but when cleaning out and organising the casita I found it among my toy collection.

(Doesn’t everyone have a toy collection?)

I have lots of collections. I basically collect anything I like the shape of, the colour of, plus anything I think I can use when doing junk art or repurposing. Behind the little airplane you can see a collection of tea pots and creamers and a collection of clothes hangers among other things.

This is one corner of the workshop which holds timber bits and pieces on the shelf, painting bits in the cupboard and tools on the pegboard.

I like this little corner. I like lots of little corners around our place. The theory is, if I like enough corners they add up liking the whole house and yard.
I pretend not to notice the bits I dislike till I can actually do something about them. Till then I focus on the pretty/cute/interesting bits that I like.
z

old flan tin clock

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Among the multitudes of things I’ve had to relocate and find homes for in the last couple of weeks as I cleaned out and organised the casita, were a few flan tins. I’d collected them with the aim of making them into clocks one day.

Well, I’m pleased to say that one day finally came.

On Friday afternoon, while working on a chest of drawers makeover in the workshop, I found myself shoving a few items over to make space on the workbench. Among which was this old flan tin.

I remembered a bit of Donna’s (Funky Junk) advice to only handle something once, so I thought it was time to take heed.

Up till now I’ve not followed that particular piece of advice even though I wanted to. I’d pick up an item, go put it down a little further over, then remember the ‘no double handling’ rule and wander around with it in my hand for 15 minutes or so looking for its forever home.

It just didn’t work.

It would be ok if I had taken everything out of the room first (which was another bit of Donna’s advice) and got all my storage spaces sorted and allocated before picking up items to rehome, but I didn’t work that way.

No, I decided to empty the storage room, the grooming room and the workshop all at the same time.

Nothing like making a challenge really challenging!

So, there I was, chest deep in boxes, buckets, tools and dust, holding a jar of screws, unable to move cause there were things in the way, ready to burst into tears.

That’s about when I gave up and took a week off, till I realised that the way to finish was to do one room at a time.

Once I decided to do that I cleaned out the laundry, the grooming room and the workshop. The store room is messier than it was before, but hey, you can’t have it all at once.

But back to that clock.

When I found myself shoving over the old clocks and the flan tin I realised there was no better time than the present to make that clock. Or try to make that clock.

Firstly I had to bend the squished tin back into shape. Then I found that it had a broken bit on the side so I made that the top, drilling two holes on either side of the broken bit to put wire through. The thought behind that being that the broken bit wouldn’t be visible if it was on top.

What I didn’t notice till I took the photos was that the Willow logo in the middle is crooked.

Moving right along…

I then pulled apart a cheapie clock with broken glass I’d had in the grooming room a while back. I took out the clock parts and drilled a hole in the middle of the flan tin to fit the mechanism dooby.

Of course, I stuffed that up. I made the hole too small and the hour hand wouldn’t move and I broke the mechanism pulling it out.

Lucky I had another cheap clock. I think I bought 3 at the time cause they were like $1 each.

I used superglue to fix the clock mechanism to the back of the tin, put the hands on and put in a new battery. Then waited to see if it would work. 
It works! Its still telling the correct time 2 days later in its new home on the grooming room wall. I call that a win despite the crooked logo in the middle.
Oh well, if you wanted perfection you’d be reading another blog. On this one you’ll only see slap dash seat of my pants quality work. ‘Cause that’s how I roll!
z
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 Knick of Time Vintage Inspiration Party #175