The End is The Beginning

My blog. I'm proud of it and I connect with people in a way that would normally be impossible. The whole world is my chatty next-door neighbor. There is an amazing group of creatives out there and it's incredible that I'm now a part of it.

I started out wanting to be creative. Do something I had been denying myself for too long. The normal story of not having enough time to do something that doesn't involve housework, work, or family kept me from paying attention to my own need to create beauty. Paint something, build something, write something. Maybe show it to the world. Then, the creativity dream morphed into something else entirely. I'll explain in my hugely verbose way - stay with me if you have some time.

All my life I've been a rule-follower. Following rules was safe and having a plan meant if something went wrong, it was because the plan was wrong; not me or my ideas. Always doing what's expected with random flashes of rebellion where I allowed myself to go 'off-script'.  During those periods of rebellion, I took chances. There was always a build up to a rebellion; usually a lot of sadness, anger, and a bit of depression. After some time wallowing, I would finally work up the courage to allow myself to do something. What that something was is irrelevant; it was the act of doing something out of my normal M.O. that was the release; my little F-U to the 'world' (the world that didn't care if I did 'it' in the first place.) I was my own worst enemy.

What would happen next was usually a return to my safe, rule-following ways. Go-along-to-get-along was how I lived existed. Most people can see objectively this is not a good way to live one's best life. Existing in my personal bubble of making sure everyone else is taken care of, happy, and doesn't need anything at all...all the while only occasionally doing something for myself. Doing something for myself  became something bad - oy vey! And don't misunderstand - I can stand up for myself and I could be a complete bitch on wheels, but that only happened if there was some gross injustice, not because of the daily wearing down of my spirit.

Soooooo...after much sadness, anger, and a bit of depression, I started letting myself 'be creative'. Full of ideas and plans for becoming an 'artist'. This is what I wanted and I was going to do it dammit.  I started a painting, started a book, started an Etsy shop, a blog, started a whole new life designed to be fulfilling.

What happened was not part of the plan. Chasing blog success became the focus instead of chasing my dreams. The push for followers, to create more and more projects, to write more posts, to read more blogs, to join as many linked parties and other promotional avenues as possible was taking over. I couldn't find the balance, couldn't do it halfway and I lost my creative spark. If I did something, it was somewhat half-hearted and just 'for the blog'. It became work and therefore I've decided the blog will not be my priority for the moment.

I thank each and all of my readers, and I'm not going away. My goal is to continue to find fun, junky things and respect them as-is or upcycle them if they need it. Projects will be captured in photos and shared in posts, hopefully while being entertaining. I'll continue to read and comment on awesome blogs. I can do all that on my own schedule and have fun figuring out what works and what doesn't.

I have this amazing opportunity to do whatever it is that strikes my fancy at any given moment and I will personally smack myself upside the head if I go off on a tangent again.

Would You Buy This? And Then What??

It's time for another round of Would You Buy It? Junker Newbie Stephanie hosts this party every Wednesday:

and we can ask other creative/informative/helpful bloggers out there about some recent finds. Here's my fun thingamajig for this week:

My apologies for the dark pics - no time to snap a shot during the day. It's labeled Pyrex on the base, and it certainly looks like some type of coffee thingee. There's obviously something missing (the pot and lid) if it's a coffee maker, but would you buy this as is to make it into something?

It would make a really cool display bowl? Or a terrarium? Fish bowl?? This might be a stretch even for the fabulous creative types out there...or not; let me know what you think!

I'm Not Admitting Defeat

Can I just say that this project should have gone better, at least in my mind.

It all starts with this:

Take one old spoon...

...cover to protect...

...take your well-used sledgehammer (I love my sledgehammer)...

...start pounding said spoon (and try not to pound over a divot in the driveway - DOH!)...

...and voila! After fixing the dents from the divot -a flattened spoon! (and a destroyed towel.)

Well, almost flat. Flat enough.

I filed and sanded the edge of the spoon as it was a little sharp and had some burrs.

Here's the unfortunate result of my first attempt at stamping silverware. Boy, oh boy, was it difficult to get an impression! The spoon wasn't completely flat and I think that was the problem.

Sooooooo...it could be a cute project and I'm not admitting defeat just yet, but I definitely need to work on getting a better impression if I keep going this way. I won't be happy until the process is working better.

Anyone try this and have some tips? I have a bunch of silverware and really don't want to waste it all on horrible attempts.What I want is really adorable plant markers! HELP!

Things are Popping Up All Over!

Look what popped up in my perennial garden!

And I'm trying my hand at cherry tomatoes - YAY!

I have no idea what the flowers are...but I posted the first pic to my facebook page and someone let me know they were peonies! YAY! I was seriously thinking of planting a peony and I have one already :) I'm waiting for the yellow lilies to pop up...but LOVE that the previous owner of this house planted all the colorful flowers and that I haven't killed them all.

Except the lilac bush. I think that might be dead. Anyone know if they can be resurrected? No green on it at all this year. So sad :(

Ok, back to happy - my flowers are blooming with no help from me, thank goodness.

I found this little guy happily munching my weeds...and he can stay as long as he doesn't munch any flowers or my tomatoes...grrrr...

Bunny photo taken with my Droid - he let me get really, really close!

Happy Spring (finally)!

It's a Tweet-Up!

I recently met two new Twitter friends who are in the area for an meet-up/tweet-up at an estate sale: @GarageSaleDiary and @KristinaCombs. We had a great time chatting about thrifting and blogging, and looking at the stuff for sale. Sometimes, it so nice to meet people in person when you've been chatting with them online for awhile!

It was slim pickins for me personally, but I did find these things:

Ugly wooden candle sconces for $2, a little framed print, and old broken granny glasses.

This little frame had an unfortunate meeting with a paintbrush...

...but it is a pretty little painting...

...this is just wrong, but I think I can fix it. Stay tuned...

Now, there was a moment a few weeks ago that I needed this specific type of glasses. If I could just remember what the project was. Hmmm.

You might have noticed this was a RePurpose sale. Yep, we were filmed for an upcoming Cash N Cari episode! If we don't end up on the cutting room floor that is ;) Stay tuned - it might air in September according to a producer on site.

That's all folks. Not a big haul, but it was fun meeting other junkers :)

Perfection is Overrated, Part 2

I tried another painting and ended up really not liking it. As the paint was being swirled around on the canvas, a little voice (the voice of reason) was yelling, 'Stop! That's ENOUGH!' Of course, I didn't listen.

It started out similarly to my green cloud painting

 but this is the muddy-looking end result:

The hubs said he likes it (quell surprise!)

The colors were too blended for my liking. After looking at it for about 2 weeks, my new favorite saying popped into my head...I swear in that moment, you might have been able to see an actual thought bubble near my head saying "It's only paint". I put some more paint on it:

Um. No. It sat for another few days and...all together now..."It's Only Paint." This is the same painting, with an approximation of some kind of abstract flower. I'm going to go ahead and call it abstract, instead of badly painted. In my defense, there was a lot of paint on the canvas already.

I let that dry and then worked a little more on it and now have this as the end result:

It has sat for awhile and in looking at it now, I might dabble some more with it. It's growing on me :)

In another note, my brother in law said I should put a key somewhere in the painting and make it my 'trademark'. Maybe I will when the painting are something I want to claim ;) Until then...it's only paint!

Giving It Away

My sister asked me to help her decorate a wall in her kitchen...um...LOVE TO! Nothing gets my creative juices flowing better than helping with a project for someone else. Doing projects for myself doesn't thrill me as much as putting something together for someone else.

She has this as an inspiration piece:

and we went to my favorite store - Michael's - to pull together a gallery wall, or at least start the process. We ended up with some scrapbook paper and some large charms.

Since she lives in another state, we didn't get any further than that first shopping experience. I figured I had enough stuff to work something up, so I gathered some items:

An Ikea Ribba frame, scrapbook paper, ribbon, sheet music, metal charms, fortunes, and other bits and pieces.

I started layering stuff together and came up with this:

T and J are their initials, by the way. And isn't it pretty how the sheet music has the word 'Romanze' in it? That's german for romance, and since we're german on our father's side and she's basically a newlywed, I love it!

I'm going to send her this as another inspiration for her 'gallery' wall. There are a ton of gallery walls out in bloggy-land, so when the time comes to pull it all together, we'll have lots of inspiration.

Anyone want to share a gallery wall of their own? Did you use just picture frames or did you sprinkle in other types of wall art? I'd love to get some more ideas - just post a link in your comment so we can all see.

Thanks!

I'm at these link parties:

Skip to  my Lou's Made by You Monday

Polly Want a Crafter

BoogieBoard Cottages Masterpiece Monday
Party Time with Mindie

Is This What I Think It Is?

This is just a quick post to link up to Junker Newbie's Would You Buy It Wednesday link party. This is one of my first thrift finds and it caught my eye right away.

My first thought is it is some kind of server, and I was thinking of spray painting the metal parts. The glass cups are 1.5 cups each and the whole thing turns on its stand. The whole thing is in really good condition, with a few scratches in the bottom of the metal lids.

Do you think this originally had spoons to poke out of the lids? Was it for a bar to hold olives, lemons, etc? Or something for dips?

I'm really just curious to see if anyone remembers this on their parents' shelves/bar/kitchen counter. I'd like to be able to put a name on it and googling it has been unproductive.

Help please! Thanks so much :)

TTT (Tool Tote Tutorial) Junky Vagabond Style

Donna at Funky Junk Interiors had a tool tote tutorial on her site (it was a guest post) and I thought, 'Hey, I like to work with wood, I have a table saw, that doesn't look too hard!' I tend to believe what others tell me, so it looks like a tool tote was being made.

And because I tend to get WAY wordy, here is my post in pictures (with captions, of course).

My $2.98 board from the culled wood pile (on top of other projects...)

My detailed design plan for the tote...don't judge

This is a seriously long tote...

Long tote, divided into sections

Hmmm....this might be a little heavy

2nd thoughts - cutting down the length

It's a 2-fer! (cutting 2 boards at once)

A little more manageable size

Still divided - see the saw burn marks? Kinda liking them

My fancy workbench and tools needed for the project

A little sanding...

Hmmm...how am I going to actually 'tote' this tote?

Simple: I'll make a hole for my hand!

My drill was too wimpy; enter big drill bit and jigsaw

Now that's a hole (?)

I did so well with the hand hole that I decided to curve the edges of the handle cuz I'm silly like that

Huh. I'm better at cutting curves than straight lines with a jigsaw. Who woulda thunk?

The curves aren't exactly even; sue me

Surprise! I stained it and love the look of the dark wood. The stain took really well. That's my special staining brush - it's actually quite awesome!

Now what to do with all this extra wood?

I know! Make more totes! I had a door jamb piece already - grooves in or out? 

This was in the directions - taper the ends. See? I'm following directions...sorta

Nothing exciting - just glued and nailed the bottom

Love this new Forstner bit - it makes easy round holes!

This was the trickiest part - holding the glued end piece before nailing

Once the first nail went in, it was easier to put the rest in

My super precise method of measuring for the handle

Measure both ends!

(Ok - I have to break in here in case you were thinking 'wow, she's so good at this!' I glued and nailed the end pieces on, and thought you put in the handle after that. Well, it was a tight fit and I might have pulled the ends apart a little while forcing nudging the dowel into the hole. Lesson learned - insert dowel into one side before nailing the other end in. Please continue...)

Putting the stained box together - see the glue? Just in case nails weren't enough. 

While pounding the nails in, the wood pieces tended to slide around (go figure). Clamps would have helped me, but since I don't have the right ones, I just tapped the nails in while constantly readjusting the wood. After the first nail, it stayed together better.

A screw on either end of the handle/center piece insured this piece would hold. I also bought a countersink set - this is something I needed 20 years ago! How have I lived this long without one??

Might have sunk this one a little too much - why don't they have measuring marks? I would put one on the bit if I was the inventor of this thing.

My totes - cute and easy, and very cheap!

My super fancy painting station

First coat is a pretty color called Melon by Benjamin Moore - it reminds me of summer!

While waiting for the paint to dry, I sorted my nails and screws. What? Doesn't everybody do this?

It's a thing of beauty :) No more hen-pecking for a screw.

On to the second coat of Creamy by SW

Lightly distressed

Juxtaposed next to the the non-distressed tote; not loving either look yet.

Enter Jacobean stain...hmmm...not liking it, better wipe it off.

Well, I went and got the camera to snap a picture. The stain wasn't coming off at all. Uh oh.

It looks messy.

Too dark. Maybe I should paint it again?

How about more sanding? This makes it look aged and weathered - I like!

It's almost like you can't tell which came first - the paint or the stain. Happy accidents are fun :)

Now to decorate: I printed a fairy off of the internet...

Super duper fancy image transfer method - pencil on the back of the image. Just trace around the lines of your picture and the pencil on the back of the image will mark the lines on the wood.

Sorry I didn't take a pic of the pencil transfer, but trust me it works well. I used craft paint and paint pens to color in the image and cover the pencil marks. My fairy looks a little insane...

I ended up just free handing the wording with a paint pen...after figuring out spacing with a piece of paper as a guide.

 Now how about those other totes? I wanted to label them somehow, but not with a paint pen...

Now what am I going to do with these??

Starting to see what's happening?

Um...'S' hooks didn't go through the wood or the little wood label. Duh. So I went into my organized screws and found these two old slotted screws. What do you know? They fit perfectly!

It looked too new, so I banged on it for awhile with various hammers and tools, even scraped it along the concrete to give it a 'broken-in' look. Love it rustic!

Cute, right? This is the first time I used blackboard paint and won't be the last! 

I actually took the time to tape and cover...

LUV THIS!!

Super chunky and sturdy.

Le Jonque = Junk :)

And there you have it. Tool Totes 101 and a bit of painting misadventures. It really is a pretty easy project, and probably would've been even easier if I had measured first...

Linking this up to

Funky Junk Interiors SNS

Flamingo Toes Think Pink Sundays

My Simple Home Life's Features and Simply Creations

Tater Tots and Jello Weekend Wrap Up

Be Different Act Normal Show and Tell Saturday

The Girl Creative's Just Something I Whipped Up
Under the Table And Dreaming
Bacon Time with the Hungry Hippo