Vintage wine shelf

Oh Yeah!  We had a fabulous day driving to LaCrosse WI last Saturday!  Emily is home for a week and UW-LaCrosse is her alma mater.  I have three neices attending there now, so on family weekend we decided to drive up with my sister, Sandy and her husband, Blaine, (mom and dad to two of my nieces.)  Highway 14 is loaded with antique and resale shops and wouldn't you know it...we hit about ten garage sales too, plus a flea market.  OH MY!  A beautiful Wisconsin indian summer day of sunshine and 60 degrees.  Can't beat it. 

They drove their truck and I drove Dory, my Subaru.  We planned to fill them both.  We came close. 

Emily came home with the great idea to make a wine shelf from an old drawer that holds bottles of wine and wine glasses.  We found this awesome old red drawer at one of our stops for $15 and fell in love immediately! Take a good look at her vintage beauty.

We added  two under-the-cabinet wine glass holders (one I found at a garage sale for $1, one we bought for $10 at Bed Bath and Beyond.)  They don't quite match, but they do the job nicely.  We attached them both underneath the drawer.  Together they hold 12 wine glasses.  Nice.

 

Now for the top side where the wine bottles will be stored.  We had to notch out the front of the drawer so the bottles fit.  We measured the inside of the box (30 inches), did the math (!) to fit six bottles of wine, drew lines and started cutting. 

I sawed about an inch down on two sides and then used a drill to go across the bottom of the notch.  I know there is probably an easier way to do this, but I have limited tools, so I used what I had.  It worked like a charm, too. 

Then we used a rasp to smooth the notches, followed by sandpaper.  This is good teamwork!

This shows the underneath wine glass holder. 

We need to get brackets now, so it can be attached to the wall.  Emily will have to provide the finished picture when she gets home and puts it up.  But so we can enjoy it now, we are holding the drawer with empty wine bottles (that I'm saving for something...?) and four wine glasses in the holder.  Pretty neat.  

This is as far as we can go with it.  I love the idea.  I love the look.  It was easy and fun to make.  It will be fun to use.  Can't wait to see it up...we visit Emily at Thanksgiving.  Some Wisconsin cheese curds and James J. chocolates and we're set for a nice visit.    Yummy.

Typing table

Here's a cute little remake that was really fun to do.  I found this wooden typing table at a resale place on our last all-day-Saturday-bargain-hunt.  She was in really good shape, just not very pretty.  She was cheap too.  So a good deal all around. 

 

This is the table taken apart and put on my work table getting primed.

 

 

Her legs all ready for some new paint.

 

 

Here she is all painted up and put together.  We lived together for a few days and then I decided on something different... 

 

...I changed my mind from white legs to black legs.  This change happened because I wanted to stencil this checkerboard pattern on the table and I wanted to use black paint.  Looks great with the pretty green. 

 

The stenciling took awhile, but it was worth the time and effort.

 

A little distressing with a hand sander and she's all finished and ready for some cute little cozy corner. 

 

 

 

Shadow boxes

I found these cute little wooden boxes at Saver's the other day. I looked at them for about 5 minutes before I decided to buy them. Call me stupid. It will never take me that long again to bring home wooden boxes of any size.   They were a blond wood without design.  Two different sizes.  Two of each size. 

I primed them all, inside and out and left them to dry in the sun.  My sister came over and was looking at them and saw the two square frames I had taken apart and was painting.  She fitted one of the frames over the top of one of the boxes and - VOILA - it all came together.  Sometimes its that easy.

So, I glued the frames to the boxes and it was pretty much over.  I taped printed paper to the inside of each box and loved them instantly.  They are about 1 1/2 inched deep, enough for a little vase, or a letter of the alphabet or some other little knack.   Put in pink paper for your little girls room with her initial on it or a black and white photo of you and your honey with a couple of well-preserved dried roses.    

 I will have some fun finding a place for them in my home.  

A License plate remake

I have recently fallen in love with license plates.  We have a stash of 8 or so.  As I look through them, I kinda remember which car they belonged to.  We've had some nice wheels!   

I have also grown really fond of drawers...the wooden or metal kind.  I've been using the drawers from dressers that are beyond repair or from those obsolete tv cabinets.  The drawers are still useful even though the pieces of furniture they were attached to are not. 

So here's my most recent project, putting two of my faves together.

 

The drawer was brown to start with as many drawers are, so I primed it and then I painted it red and then I distressed it a little bit with a hand sander. 

 

 The license plate belonged on Sarah's car, Marvin.  Do you name your vehicles?  We do.  Marvin was purchased from a relative; he was a black two-door 1998 Chevy something...(Cavalier maybe?)   He was in our family about 5 years.  He spent a winter in Fraser, Colorado with Emily, my oldest daughter.  He was buried under a foot of snow for months as his two-wheel drive just wasn't enough power for the Colorado snowfalls.  So when Emily decided to stay in Fraser for awhile she purchased a new car (a sporty 5-door, 4-wheel drive Subaru named Sally).  And Marvin came home to Wisconsin. 

 

 

He was in an accident this spring - one of those slushy/icy/slippery/snowy/rainy/sleety kind of storms. Sarah was driving back to Edgewood College from Mt. Horeb and hit a patch of black ice and rickashayed off the cement divider, carened off the road and landed in the creek some 20 yards from the road. Marvin was totalled. But he did his job - he protected his precious cargo - Sarah was unharmed. We took a few minutes the next day to give him our regards as we cleaned him out and handed over the keys.

 

 

Today, Marvin lives on through his license plate. 

 

 

(Think how cute this would be with a personalized plate!!)

 

So, what is he good for now?  A years worth of your favorite magazine will fill him up.  Or put him in the bathroom with a couple of regular-sized rolls of toilet paper, or some rolled up towels - that would be cute.  He could be your mailbox, if it's on your porch under the protection of a roof.   

Lots of different uses.  He's gonna end up in my craft room toting some IKEA catalogs.  

 

A cute little remake for sure.  Thanks, Marvin.   

Beauty sign

I love painted wooden signs.  I'm gonna be making lots of them.  This one I've had in my mind for a couple of weeks.   It finally happened for real. 

 

Primed the wood, chose a font on the Cricut, stencilled the letters with black paint, used sandpaper to rough it up.  Hung it on the wall. 

 

 

 

 

So simple and fun!  Did I say I'm gonna be making lots of these wooden signs? 

Well, just so you know, it's true. 

Yippee!!!

 

Peace sign

My sister was over the other day and asked me to paint her a sign.  We had the wood all prepped and ready to go, just needed the words.  She remembered she had a sign once that read "peace to all who enter here."  That's all I needed.  We did some graphic stuff on the computer and then off we went to pick out a font on the Cricut.  Here's what we came up with:

 

 

 

 

 

We found this metal picture holder (it had 5 wooden hearts hanging by ribbon from the little circles) at a barn sale recently.  Sandy had the idea to hang it over the sign.  (It was supposed to come to my house.)  We loved it instantly!  Gonna be looking for more of these decorative metal accents from here on out. 

This little metal angel was hanging on Sandy's front porch.  The sign works either way, with or without her.  We like her hanging around.     

 

I love it when a few hours of work produces something you can use immediately to warm up a space.  This project was certainly one of those!

 

 

 

 

Little blue (table)

There are times when I am garage saling and come across the perfect little purchase that makes me tingle from head to foot.  I equate it to a runner's high, or when you make the first chair after inches of new powder have fallen, or when you bake to perfection your favorite banana bread all golden brown and lovely.   

I found 'little blue' last month at a local garage sale.  She was buried under other items for sale, so at first I only saw her legs.  Her beautiful, thin, chippy blue legs.  No price tag on her.  I didn't know if she was for sale or not.  I had to ask about her.  My heart was beating fast and furious; I was trying to keep my poker face on.  She was SO cute.   I was adding up the dollars in my head so I would be prepared when the price was announced.  To my very, very great surprise, she was all of $7.  Keeping my cool, I say, "Seven dollars?  Can I take a closer look at her?"  I stack all her load on something nearby, and take a look at her bones - good and solid and so awesome!!  "Yes, I'll take her for $7".  I could barely keep it under control!  I was experiencing a thrifter's high!!

 

Here's little blue all decked out. 

 

Here's another look at her, all prettied up.  Fall colors are creeping into my rooms.  Orange and blue are opposite colors on the color wheel which means this color combination is always a winner.  I love them together. 

Other thrifting finds: these two pictures are painted on wood with wood frames.  Chives and Lavendar.  They're cool.  They look like folk art to me.

 

 

 

This trio?   Metal votive holders.  Cute as can be!

 

 

 

I found this heavy cast iron finial (?) at a vintage/antique sale this past weekend.  Love the red patina all mixed with rust.   So cool!

 

My little blue table will bring many hours of decorating fun for me, especailly as we go through the holidays.  I hope you find a 'little blue' that takes your breath away on your next thrifting venture.  

 

 

 

 

Update on Sarah's bedroom makeover

We've made a few changes in Sarah's bedroom over the past month.   We found out fairly quickly that the shelves over her dresser were too short.  She had more books and little sentimentals that she wanted to display than they allowed for, so we changed them out for longer shelves. 


New shelves

Old shelves

Here are some cute little things she has on her new shelves.  She's an elephant lover, so they take up some serious space.

 

 

 

 

We also changed the location of her painted canvases to a smaller wall across the room. 

We did this so we could add a picture wall all-collaged-together.  We've been thrifting frames with cool details and edges.  Painting them white brings them all together.  Sarah chose her favorite pictures to display here. 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a quote from J.M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan. 

 

 

 

This little elephant picture was drawn by Sarah's cousin, Shiloh Krantz when she was in elementary school.  It was found when Shiloh was going through all her saved school pictures, projects, papers when she was getting ready for her high school graduation party in June.  She decided to give it to Sarah...(yes, the perfect kind of gift). 

 

 

 

This proves it was good, it was chosen to be part of the art show way back when.

 

 

 

The blank frame in the upper right is for a family picture that we're planning to take in October when my oldest daughter, Emily, drives home from Colorado for a week-long visit. 

 

So, as most things go, change is inevitable.  I like to change things up from time to time (way more often than my husband likes) and make them look fresh.  I can appreciate a picture, a flower pot, a bookcase, or a cushy chair all over again.  

 

These changes to Sarah's room look great and put a big smile on her face (mine too!).  And, when another change is needed, I'll be ready and willing.