Junkin' Good Fun

I've been lax on sharing my latest hunting episodes, but then, I've also been busy getting furniture and things ready to take over to my daughter... my daughter who just got engaged Saturday! Yep, that's right! I'm going to be mother of the bride, you all. Woo hoo! Looks like I'll have my hands even more full for many months to come.

I've been playing blog hooky because I've been trying to finish up what feels like a zillion projects. In the process, I've managed to go out and drag home some cool new stuff, passed up some amazing curbside finds because I couldn't get them in the car (okay, I'm moving on... I'll try not to whine about it.) and I've been working on other projects I've gotten myself into.

Here are a few of the latest goodies I've procured.

It folds and then the feet fold up too! The top wood can be twirled open and closed to use as a vice or put pegs in the holes to hold your wood at an angle for cutting.  Five dollars! So excited! I need a workbench!

There were estate sales on both Friday and Saturday and I was in junk heaven. The one on Saturday had a sort of workshop/garage that looked like a barn and it was full of amazing treasure. It was also full of treasure hunters snapping things up left and right in a mad frenzy. Sadly the one thing I wanted most got snagged before I could open my mouth. I don't know where I would have put it, but I needed it and desperately wanted it.

It was one of those metal carousels they have at Anthropologie, the ones on which they display all their knobs and handles. It has trays and each is compartmentalized. I've been trying to find something to use for just such a purpose for some time. The carousel would have been perfect. I saw it in the ad for the sale and started obsessing about it two days before. I had to go and try to get it. It was about 5 or 6 trays high, and I wanted it so badly. The man ahead of me in the frenzied crowd went right in, grabbed the lone seller's attention somehow and quickly blurted out "how much for that?" pointing to the twirly thing I wanted. He got it for $10. Crushing blow! You gotta be quick people!

Okay, I'm moving on, moving on, [sniffle, sniffle]

These wood handled saws came from the same estate sale workshop. I didn't need them, of course, I just wanted one or two to try and make signs out of, but the guy wanted to sell me all of them together, so there you go. I have 8, so I'll either be cutting a lot of wood or trying out my hand at saw signs sometime in the near future.

I found this in one of the many toolbox drawers. I love it because not only is it a great little magnifying glass, it's a souvenir of Florida.

Look - tin snips! Been on the hunt for those for quite a while. The file has a cool handle, which I accidentally cut off in the picture, and the blade holder gun-looking thing is just cool (Made in NYC), and so is the heavy metal compass.

I have a confession to make. I went to this sale two times (hey, at least I didn't go three - and believe me I wanted to, but they were only open limited hours.) On the first go round I got these green glass jars full of stuff. I didn't care about the stuff, but I wanted the green glass. I got home and found them to be prescription bottles from 1967. How often do you run across green glass prescription jars. Well, I never do, until Saturday.



Two of them had no lids which prompted me to return to see if I could find them lying around. There were way too many people in a frenzy the first time to bother looking and I had a load of stuff I was trying to protect. People were really grabby.


Maybe I can find a good use for cotter pins. I got these because the tins were so cool.

When I went back I wanted to buy more things I discovered that people had missed, but I restrained myself because I had already gone over my spending limit.

I got some great chain for making a swing and another heavy duty chain that has clips on both ends, like a towing chain. The galvanized oil can with the flex spout was just cool.

And I loved the minnow bucket. Wish it had had a top. When I went back, I was also looking for that. I never found either the lids to the green glass jars or to the minnow bucket. Ah well... people were in love with the bucket. As soon as I picked it up people were remarking how cool it was. I got it for a $1.00.

This heavy duty box caught my eye and that of another guy, the guy who got a bunch of the good stuff I wanted before anyone could blink. He told me he was making his way over to this because he really wanted it too. Tough noogies buddy! I told him he got the carousel and ammo box I wanted. I had to score something before him!

In the house part of that sale I found this stool in the regular garage and the book for $1 each.

The day before, on Friday someone was moving and had loads of junk for sale. I scored a pile of goods that I did not need, of course, but it all caught my eye and I figured I could do something with it.


A nice assortment of randomness. Silverplate items, paint brushes, a funnel for my many refillings of the JUNKSTALKER's radiator, twine, some furniture tacks I'll definitely have a use for sometime, a cool basket and another pail I can paint and make into a planter perhaps. The frame was 50¢ and plastic. I didn't like it black, but I had plans for it immediately.


There were six of these jars and about 4 extra lids. They were filthy, but I knew they would be adorable painted.


I left two unpainted because they make great containers for cotton balls and q-tips.


However, I painted four of them in my colors. I love painting the insides of bottles. It provides just the color you want for your decor, which is nice if you are having trouble finding accent pieces in a certain shade, and since the glass is shiny, it makes the paint look super glossy for a slick effect.


Did I need 12 Little Golden Books? Hardly. But for 25¢ each, I couldn't pass them up. I also got three Madeline books and a hard back GI Joe book. A while back I was considering Little Golden Books for a project I wanted to do. I would have needed 16. While my friend, Lynette, was on vacation recently, she too bought a bunch of Little Golden Books. We now have enough to do something with them. What, I'm not sure.


The frame was a little too goth for my taste in black.


I had some homemade chalk paint that I put to work on it and what a difference color and texture makes, huh?


Now it looks like it's made of plaster rather than plastic.

I've been wanting to try my hand at making a framed initial and this piece would be perfect for that experiment. We didn't have a big enough piece of foam core board in the house, but we had a box big enough to cut out a back for it.

I've drug home lots of batting lately which has come in real handy. I used it to pad the backing and covered it with burlap. The tricky part was going to be how to affix all this to the back. I couldn't staple it like I would when covering a seat cushion because the cardboard wasn't thick enough. So I did a running stitch around the burlap to draw it around and hold it in place so it was easier to work with. It worked real well. Then I was able to easily hot glue it all down.

Came out fine.

Then I covered the back with another piece of cardboard to cover the messy ends. Sorry for the blur. It was dark in our house with all the storms, and sometimes I can't tell that it is blurry when I take it. 

This is as far as I got. I still have to go get the letter for it. I was rushing to get this done to take to my daughter for her fiance's place, but we have decided to wait until they are married since the scrolly look turns out to look a little too girly for a guy's place. So this will sit while I find the right letter G in the right font. I love it. I want to keep it for myself. I want to keep everything for myself. That's the trouble.

I've been desperately in need of a new purse and I love Fossil purses. I always fawn over them at the store but would never pay that kind of money. I found this one at another yard sale for $2.00. I'm loving it!

Meanwhile, I've been painting salvaged cabinet doors as chalkboards for both my daughter's place and her fiance's place. 

The little drawer front on the table came off of one of these I found curbside one day. It was going to be a sign after I peeled off all the paint on the front.

This small drawer front got painted and then I found this key at the moving sale on Friday. I thought it might be cute to pair the two because Casey suggested that I have enough word things. Perish the thought! I haven't decided yet if I'll affix the key or if I'll leave the key as is and use the drawer front for a sign. 

These will either be red on the outside part or tan, depending on the wall they go on. I have to leave that part to them to get the right color for his wall.

Cally wanted this for her big kitchen wall. It was formerly a cabinet door I got in a batch of samples someone had thrown out.

I have another almost identical that I also painted in the same way.

She's not sure about the white, but we are going to try it on her wall and go from there with distressing or a color change.

There you go. I'm going back to playing blog hooky for a bit longer. Lots to do! I'll check back and share some junkin' good fun as soon as I can.

Hope to have time to make it to some of these fun parties this week: