Tag Archives: Crafts

Random Silliness

 

I’ve been looking through my pictures…..and thought I’d share some random silliness with you, my blog readers. Life is never so serious that we can’t take some time to laugh at ourselves.

I was going through some of my pictures the other day. What ever possessed me to take these pictures? I remember I was doing something crafty and wanted a picture of it. I was, at the time, sitting on the bedroom floor trying to decide on lighting…..why I took these pictures I don’t know. I nearly blinded myself with the flash. I’ve got real talent. On a bright note, I had just gotten my hair cut and it looked pretty good.

I have a thing for barns. I don’t know why, I just do. I’m the crazy woman that drives around the Ohio countryside snapping pictures of stranger’s barns. I’m very covert…I only stopped the van in the middle of the road on a few occasions.

Why was it that we moved from the southern states, to Ohio? Just kidding. I like the snow. Of course, I am not the one shoveling it, so I can say that.

Too bad that my camera doesn’t take night time pictures very well. This is the moon. Really. And, by the way, your eyes are not bad. The pictures are not in focus. I said I took pictures. I never said I was good at it.

These pictures were me admiring my newly stained window grilles that I did this past summer. I will not discuss the details of The Great Stain Debacle of 2011….Oh, okay.  I um….slipped and stained myself in the process. Does anyone know how difficult it is to get wood stain off skin? Let’s just say, for days I looked like I was covered in liver spots. End of discussion.

A happy heart makes the face cheerful,
   but heartache crushes the spirit.  Proverbs 15:13  NIV

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Take Me Home–Windows Version

 

My family moved into our house (that we built, along with dozens of other men) in Ohio, two years ago this month. My husband and I had decided that our windows would have the grill work that snaps on and makes the windows look like they have small panes of glass. (I’m all about aesthetics, you know.) I stained all the grill work by hand, by myself, thank you very much. I did that and it sat in the attic…..until yesterday. You see the casings of all the windows are natural wood and did not match the dark wood in the house. Staining all the window casings would be a big job and I didn’t feel up to it. Until this week. I am grabbing the bull by the horns, so to speak. Maybe I should say I’m grabbing the brush by the handle. I think HGTV has inspired me. Or not. I just want to get this task completed….and I want the trims to match, so there you go. Yesterday I worked all afternoon staining the casings in the kitchen, then I washed the windows, wiped down the grills, and snapped them in (which is much more difficult than one would think, believe me…. I have a cut thumb to prove it). Instant beautification.

The white parts on the windows are not wood, so therefore cannot be stained. It’s the tracking part thing-a-ma-bobbers, in the windows. So, that is not my fault. Just sayin’. When looking through the kitchen window, one can see the corner posts of the front porch and my still empty flower bed…although, it has been tilled. The bird feeders are also visible.

I like my faux silk curtains. I got them for $7.99 a piece at Wal-mart. One can hardly go wrong with that price. Pretty. Pretty. They add some snazziness to the windows, and are beautiful when the light filters through them.

This is the small kitchen window facing the driveway. The bottles are from Snapple‘s raspberry tea. I washed them and filled them with colored glass pieces. When the sun hits them it almost looks like stained glass. Once again, I got the glass pieces at Wal-mart and already had the glass bottles. Prettiness on the cheap.

 

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Saturday Sales!

My daughter and I set out on an adventure this morning in Mount Victory, Ohio. The village was having their community yard sale day.

I love to yard sale, tag sale, estate sale, junk shop….if it involves finding objects that “tell a story”, I am your girl! I love to repurpose or reuse.  My daughter and I wore our tennis shoes and hit the ground running. There were a lot of people out and about on this sunny, breezy Saturday in June. We also had the pleasure of watching hundreds of cyclists moving through Mount Victory during GOBA (Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure).

Not only was Mount Victory covered in yard sales, there are also many antique and odds and ends shops in Mount Victory. Everyone was in on the fun!

We saw some friends from church, met some store owners, and chatted with residents.

I had $45 to spend, money I had saved from a small job I had done…so, I was off to see what I could find within my budget.

Check out what I found…and by the way, I’m saving up for round two!

 

Please ignore the stack of magazines on the floor (I’m in the process of sorting those). I bought the chippy, shabby chic, green shelf for $12. It is the perfect size.

 

Yes, I love chippy furniture. Not dilapidated, but worn. If this shelf could talk, what would it tell me?

Vintage table runner…lots of embroidery. For 10 cents!

 

Wooden box with handle. No nails used in this box, only wooden dowels. It is very sturdy.

A friend was selling old geography books, circa 1902. I snatched those up for 10 cents a piece. They are nice pieces for my antique book collection.

Inside of book. I found an old test in the book…the student had been studying countries and their capitals.

Yes, these are old bowling pins. They are solid wood and obviously well used. Hunks of wood out of them!  I have good memories of bowling, and I  thought they’d make interesting conversation pieces. Plus if there is ever an intruder I could knock him in the head with one of these and he’d be out cold. They are heavy!!!

Vintage game board. I liked the color. Also just a few cents:)

These dominoes are old. Wooden. The paint is coming off in spots. The Statue of Liberty is on the back of each one. I wonder who played with these?

My daughter found this is one of the shops.  We came home and researched it. It is a medallion given to an Odd Fellow. The Odd Fellows are an international fraternity that has been in North America since the early 1800’s. I’m not sure, but I think they might be similar to the Free Masons. We are using this medallion as a curtain tie back. Also another great conversation piece.

Now, this is not a typical candle holder. The base of the candle holder is made out of concrete. It is very heavy. I liked it because it was pretty, yet industrial…sort of.

Being a former public school teacher, I have a thing for old class pictures. This one is from the turn of the last century.

No, this is not a broken, warped fork. The owner of one of the stores told us the story…. some people had been doing some excavating work in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and came across several of these types of forks. Come to find out,  ladies had these type of forks made so that they could spear pickles and olives without getting messy. A crafter had copied those found forks, and made these. Now I have a very interesting fork to spear my pickles with. I can pretend I’m a Victorian woman when I use this. My husband thinks this looks dangerous…..it does sort of resemble a mini bayonet.

Vintage table cloths and table runners. 10 cents/ea.

Last, but not least…a beautiful floral print apron with a sheer overlay. I could so be a 1950’s house wife if I could wear cute little aprons like this. Oh, okay….maybe not, but it was a thought. A fleeting thought, but a thought nonetheless.  It’s still really cute.

 

 

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