V-Day 2012

Valentine's Day started out at my house with heart pancakes.  Pancakes are pretty basic, but I added a squirt of raspberry agave nectar in for flavoring, and some raspberry puree for color in 1/3 of the batter to pipe the hearts.

The boys were excited to start their day right.

CG and I exchanged cards.  Along with getting me the first season of Downton Abbey(an obsession of mine) on DVD,

CG gifted me with a morning of antiquing.  I love to wander around antique shops.  I love victorian furniture and this grouping cought my eye.

Tea carts are all the rage right now dressed up as dry bars.  This bamboo tea cart was in great shape.

Along with your more typical furniture offerings, you can find some pretty unique items when you go antiquing.  I have no idea why anyone would want a vintage doctor's examining table, but I found one.

I love vintage tools, and this booth was full of them.  I've never seen a block plane as large as the 28" one here.

My nerdy husband(I say that with the utmost affection,) was so excited to find this basket of Atari games.  There were exclamations of, "I remember this one," and "this one was so much fun!"

This is what I ended up coming home with.  A serving platter with a silverplate base for $8.

A set of random dishes for $5.

And a couple of bone dishes, perfect for an intimate table setting for 2 for $1 each.

Heading off to school for SB's Valentine's party.  Thanks for popping in and checking out my Valentine's Day.

Craigslist Refresh

 I love Craigslist.  Yes, you have to deal with flakes and weirdos sometimes, but it's the best place to find terrific pieces for next to nothing.  I brought this dresser home a little while ago for only $20.

Ok, it's not much to look at, but it was all wood, solid construction with dovetailed drawers, and didn't smell icky.  That made it a winner.

I wanted to use this dresser down in the rec room for snacks & chips for the boys & their friends.  Remember when we got that awesome deal on a frig, back in May?  I told you about it here.  Well our BFFs had outgrown their small man-fridge in their man cave, so our old 36" side by side frig went into their garage.  Of course that left them with an extra 24" frig, which made it's way back to our house last month.  I decided to carve out some space in the rec room for a snack bar area.  The frig now holds popsicles, yogurt, cheese sticks, etc.  To make it a full snack bar, I needed storage for chips & pretzels & plates & spoons. 

But you know me, I couldn't just grab a dresser off Craigslist and call it done.  It needed a little bit of rehab.  I started by giving the whole piece a light sanding.

I removed the handles.  I keep a leatherman multi-tool in my purse, because you never know when you might need a pair of pliers or a screwdriver.  Such as when someone takes the phillips head screwdriver out of your perfectly organized kitchen tool drawer, that I showed you here, and forgets to replace it.  Grrr.

I used 2 cans of Valspar spray paint in Yellow Creme on the body of the dresser and the drawers, and 3 coats of Minwax Polyshades in Dakota Mahogany on the top, because I wanted a durable surface for the inevitable dirty ice cream scoop left on the dresser.  I love Minwax Polyshades.  It's a stain and polyurethane coating in one.  You don't need to sand to bare wood, and it still works beautifully, with just a bit of steel wool between coats.  Love, love, love the stuff.

I had every intention of replacing the hardware, but the pulls on the upper drawers were smaller than the typical 3" spread, and paying a premium for a weird size for a rec room snack bar didn't make sense.


The one on top is a typical 3" spread, the other one is a weird 2 3/4" spread.



I then considered spray painting the existing hardware, but after seeing the way the tarnished brass looked against the newly spiffed up dresser, I just put them back on.  Have you priced out aged brass hardware?  My patina'ed ones were the free choice, and I love the way they look against the soft yellow.

So here's my boys new snack bar(not yet in place in the rec room.)

And because we all like a good before and after.  Before.

And After.  Look how much better the hardware looks, and I didn't do a thing to it.  Love!

Thanks for popping in and painting with me. Linking this up to House of Grace's Best of 2011.

Yard Sale Treasure

Last week the entire town of Wolcott was having a yard sale.  Main street was table after table, and you couldn't turn down a side street without stumbling across 3 or 4 more.  I promised to show off what I picked up yard saleing the other day, so here it is.  A basket in a neat urn like shape, an ice cream bowl set, a segmented skillet with wood handle, a cut glass candy dish,

and 10 toucan napkin rings.  I know what you're thinking.  They're absolutely absurd.  I agree, but they had to come home with me anyway.  And now I'm thinking up party theme ideas to use them.

All that stuff came home with me for $2.  We saw some other terrific stuff while out yard saleing, but I have enough on my plate right now without bringing home random pieces of furniture that needed work.  It pained me to leave the $5 harp-backed chairs, but I really need to finish the projects I've already started before filling up the garage with more cast off furniture.

Thanks for popping in and yard-saleing with me.

Curbside Find

This is just a quick post, but I thought I'd share my latest curbside find.  I've been on the lookout for a full sized bed that I could convert into a loveseat or bench for my patio.  On the way home, this wooden beauty caught my eye.  Okay, it needs a bit of patching and cleaning, but look at those turned spindles.

And it's only a twin, so my original plan will need some tweaking, but I can't wait til next week when I'll have time to work on it.  WD and I have had some long days this week volunteering at the Challenger Tennis tournament.  The weather has not been cooperating, so we've been starting early and ending late.

The ballrunners tent during one of the storms this week.



I hope to be back to regular posting next week.  Thanks for popping in and checking out my latest curbside find.



A Tisket, A Tasket

*Don't forget to enter my giveaway here*

I read a lot of blogs, and some of my favorite posts are the curbside find posts.  It always amazes me what terrific stuff is being rescued from the landfills.  I often see things on the curb that I want to grab, but I'm usually running late, and by the time I get back, the piece of furniture or whatever is gone.  Well the other day, I was returning from Target with WD when I passed by a curb laden down with garbage bags and miscellaneous stuff.  I spied a Lego box that needed further inspection, as well as a picnic basket that was begging to come home with me.

WD begged me not to stop, and slunk down in his seat.  The legos turned out to be Duplos(the big toddler version) so I left them for someone else.  The basket came home with me.  It's a great size with a latch and some sturdy handles.

The inside is a padded fabric with straps for silverware and plates.  The plates were missing and one of the straps broke loose, but could easily  be repaired.

The basket itself is insulated.  How cool is that?

WD saw me taking pics, and asked if I was posting this.  I replied yes, and he said, "But people will think we're pickers!"  I had to remind him that my friends think recycling is cool, and his 14yo friends don't read my blog.  So what do you think?  Was it worth stopping and completely mortifying my teenager?  Do you stop for curbside finds?  I'd love to know.  Incidentally, I think he'll be fine once we picnic at the park with cold drinks & snacks.

Thanks for popping in and picking with me.  I'm linking up to Southern Hospitality's Thrifty Treasures, Chic on a Shoestring's Flaunt it Friday and Just a Girl's Show and Share Day.