Garbage Picker, Yes I am!

While I Love to turn a lost piece of furniture into a charming addition to a home, I also love the challenge of making nothing become something.
So when I saw this old gross cassette holder from the 80's, that was about to go in the garbage, I had to take on the task of making something useful & possible decorative out of it.

The inside of the Brown fake wood Storage unit-there were tons of little cubbies for the cassette tapes, not functional for anything I could think of.

SO I decided to use pliers and pull out every other one, and then some I pulled out 2-3 at a time, allowing for more space between slots.

 Then Painted white- sanded out the edges as much as I could to give it the shabby look.

Once it was all white, with some roughed up edges, and differ. sized slots for misc. items, I added a mixture of knobs, some vintage metal-small wood- larger wood, and vintage wood ones all I painted black and slightly roughed them up .

And here you go, my little box with tons of storage for screws-bolts-washers- buttons-crystals-push pins,glue sticks-red hots (one of my favorite candies), what ever you want and with convenient drawers for easy clean-organized storage of those little minis.

Now days, I see beauty in every single thing, Going to an Estate Sale today instead of going inside or to the garage or garden area I headed to the area that looked like garbage,  much more challenging, making something out of nothing, especially like this one here, I grabbed it right before it was tossed into garbage..

Now a cutie for all my little things-that get lossed in my sewing tackle box.

Rolling Pink Trunk of Paris

My little Rolling trunk of Paris & Pink..

Here is the Trunk, before I played with it, a bright blue, some writing on it, and a foam scraped inside, with lots of left over pieces.

After I  power washed inside- scraped-picked and vacuumed up the inside, then covered with a plush batting,

and  then covered with a linen.

I first painted in a Sweat Pea Pink, then decoupaged in a Paris Map, and plenty of music sheets- then vintage photos, crowns, ladies of the era and any other cute phrases or pictures  I came across.

So this once blue music traveling trunk, is now a cutsie Pink Paris Rolling Trunk, that could be used to store blankets- pillows- or toys and you could roll in and out of a room..

Broken into Beauty!

Recently I bought this from my neighbor at my shoppe, Wayne (The Shack) he comes across the most amazing antique-vintage pieces in his travels.
So he brought me this old piece- it was once a cabinet for a record player of some sort (now empty), with no back, no inside finish, and of an odd set up.

You can see why I love this piece so much, those fluted legs, the detail in the carving, Just so Charming.

You can see, that the bottom portion is useless, unless you access from the

back, which isn't that practical.

I decided to go with a blossom white, I tried to overly distress it giving it a more worn look.

Then I added vintage music sheet paper inside covering the sides and bottom hiding the tattered-worn frayed wood.

I also removed the front carved piece- that way if someone wanted to use that bottom portion for storage or to display plates or something they could.

Lastly I added a back, with some light padded thin wood, and covered with burlap.

So although this was probably a beautiful record cabinet- it is now a cute

little display piece, for vintage books, china dishes, linens..

Here is an example of what i put in it, Vintage books on the top shelf, and old piece of luggage on the very top, and some vintage linen napkins on the bottom shelf, with the peek hole.

I just Love how anything can become something, just because it was a Record Cabinet doesn't mean it has to stay a Record Cabinet.

Is Black & White In??

You ever notice a pattern with the way you do something?

As I'm trying to decide what color,style,shade,texture of fabric to do a Vintage Chair in at the moment- I began to look over some of my re-purposed pieces, color schemes, or designs I noticed a theme.

Do You see where I'm going with this?

Ok, so you see I tend to stick to black & white, then Toile. I guess i figure they are safe, kind of neutral but frenchy, classy, elegant a little shabby.

But I have several chairs I'm getting ready to start, a french vintage plush chair, three side chairs all need upholstery.

Do I go with what is safe, Do I go with what sells, Do I go with something fun-different,  Yikes, so many directions to take..

Here are my before beauties, stay tuned!!

Beauty of a Picture!

While out with my husband over the weekend, He spotted these darling Vintage Photo's, Not so sure what I'll do with them, they are at least 15x20 or so. But He was right on, they are Lovely, I just wonder what the story is behind them, is there one?

Then all of our friends & family know that I have a little shoppe, and love for anything vintage, old, worn, rustic, so many times I'm given old pieces-family items-offered heirlooms or find little this or that's on the porch, (Love it all) So my husband brought  home these treasures for me from work.

One of the fellas he works with out on the job site, gave him these items for me, knowing I like old things.

How Totally Cool is that, again not exactly sure what Im going to or how Ill use them (but i love them).

some old tin containers, and an old tool box, then I stumbled on these

Again, not so sure what I'll do with them, but they looked kind of nifty..

When all else fails (Decoupage).. Right?

Damask Darlings!

Recently I Re-Upholstered four Vintage Dining Chairs for this Adorable gal who I met through the shoppe, who also has the love for vintage, the old & worn, or forgotten pieces. So I'll share the before and afters of these lovely chairs.

Painted in a muted black and barely rubbed all they needed was some fabric to bring them up. After pulling all of the velvet/fuzzy piping off- and removing the seats.

I cut her beautiful soft Waverly Damask fabric loosely over chairs to get an idea of sizing.

Then made my piping for the edge of each seat, then pinned together -sewed.

 Did the top and back of each chair in same way, added the piping i made and there ya go..

Really Loving this fabric.

 And Just how Paint totally can the look of a piece, The Fabric does the same for these dramatic dining chairs.

My Darling Rosette!

There are the most amazing bloggers out there, recently I purchased this beautiful rosette flower pin from (Count your Blessings Blog) I love it so much, It was even better than the picture.
I wished i could figure out how she made it, it is so lovely full of layers of fabric-tulle, i just couldn't figure it out.

Well a few days later,  there was a tutorial on how to make those beautiful Rosettes from Jill at Gypsy Flea Market Blog or at least very similar . How Wonderful it that?
We can copy-try to emulate but really nothing is ever like the original..
 So I decided to give it a try, using her directions, and if you go to
 French Cupboard's Blog today, they are doing a whole post & sharing of Rosettes..
So Here is my First Attempt.

1..using a pulled apart flower-adding some stamp to it, to give character- then adding fringed pieces of cut fabric to layer, and then added some lace as well.

2.. You use wire to pull them together in the center of each piece of fabric-or the flower petal, starting with smaller-to larger.

And here you go.

Now that i have tried it, and sort of can see how it pulls together, I might just try some other fabrics-textures-layers...

Just Love it..

Thank You for Sharing & Inspiring us to give it a try.

Home Made Lovelies!

Thought I would share some of my most recent  home made items-

It is expensive to even buy wholesale, you have to order a high dollar amount just to place an order-So while I have ordered wholesale for some items in my shoppe- Most- I do make myself.

It is cheaper, I So enjoy it & love doing so, it allows me to be creative.

Now while we all travel from Blog to Blog and see such Great ideas, I do believe we all somewhat take from each other, which they say is the best form of flattery (not so sure), but we all do it.

So when i see a great Idea in Blog land, I try to let the blogger know, I'm going to attempt it, and also change it up with my unique touch showing my style, so that it is not the same.

And many ideas are just out of magazines, and i try to alter as well, making it more of my signature style & design.

This my Flirty Half Apron with Layered Ruffles. Last year I saw a picture in a Country Living magazine, with a whole apron with ruffles , and I had to try it. Sold the first 2 right away- So now at my shoppe I thought I would bring some in.

This was my Patriotic Whole Apron, with a deep blue, cream stars, a top pocket and (god bless America) embroidered on top with a small ruffle on bottom.

Next are my chalkboards & cutie Clothespins.

The chalkboards are also clipboards, great for kids on a long trip they can clip paper on it or a towel and draw & erase or color on paper and it all stays together and can be used over and over again.

The clothespins, My mom hand paints many for the shoppe (takes her days to do them), but they are unique & one of kind, and some I add glitter to making fun little clips for all uses.

While visiting all the (Where Bloggers Create II Creative Space Party) I saw so many cool tags-made with those old vintage photos and I love them.

So I decided to make Journals with the same idea-Layered on top of layer with photos-letters.

I have a journal, and write in it often, and it is plain & boring, so I thought how fun it would be to make each journal/diary different, with a theme, style, color so each one is a true one of kind and fun.

I also just made this lovely, she is my favorite, and will be great to use for display.

Lastly is my little gem, I bought from my neighbor Wayne over at The Shack ( selling all vintage records for $1.00)

He brought me this vintage cabinet all dusty-dirty, and with such curvature, detail, scalloping, and amazing feet- I Couldn't wait to work on it.

That same night I brought this home, I was out in the driveway, cleaning, sanding, filling little holes, and using a paint color i never used before a mint blue flat and I just Love it..

I didn't change the vintage original hardware either. When i put the coat of polyurethane on it, it actually made the color a bit darker and looked a bit more aged (even better)..

Love those pieces you just don't see everyday..

Sadly when I buy these pieces, I always buy with the intent of ( I'm going to use this for display, decoration,or this will be one, I keep for home).

Rarely - do I think of (resale) first.

But I do know I have to sell them, I can't keep them all.

So all items on this post are available at shoppe.