Respecting The Wayback Machine

Here's the story of a little something I did before Thanksgiving when I was all jacked up on pre-company anxiety.


When you see the result of the project below in context and you want to cock your head to the side like a curious puppy and scrunch up your eyes up trying to figure out why I'd be so happy with it or what the big deal is, be kind and remember, it is the culmination of years of untold embarrassment, procrastination and indecision, wrenching thoughts and questions about how to cover a trouble spot while finding a way to be able to hang towels and make it all look somewhat cohesive.

Flowers, Finds, Projects and Midcentury Delights

Just because it has been such a nice weekend, I'm in the mood to share a few of my weekend finds and show you how I took the color God has provided and brightened up my patio area. I'll even try not to be wordy, but I certainly can't promise anything.



Newly purchased periwinkles were planted inside a new garage sale find toolbox for some pretty pink and lavender contrast.



Whatever these are, they were cute and cheap. They got planted in the tray that goes to the tool box. Not much depth for them to grow in, but I'm giving it a shot.

Bought and PLANTED Dahlias today too!

Check out the uber cool rolling seat I got for $1. I used it while planting and it was wonderful! I love a practical find, especially one made of metal, all weathered and worn...and on wheels with a spot to set my tools even!

More toolbox periwinkles.

The trusty new rolling seat helped save my back as I pulled all these dead grassy strands out of those two planters. Wow! 

Sweet scene

Now to the exciting finds of the day and the nitty gritty of what I drug home:

Yes, two new beasts made it home with me one at a time. Am I a glutton for punishment or what? They each barely fit. Luckily I got them just about 6 blocks from my house so two trips was no biggie.

My car's back seat has extraordinary powers. It has held numerous unbelieveably awkward and bulky items. I got this cabinet out by myself and didn't ruin the leather seat. Casey was asleep of course and was of no help.

Circular saw was $5.00 with blades, little ladder, $1.00 and clamp light 25 cents, and don't forget the cool rolling seat there on the floor for $1.00.

Oh, sure. Now she's awake and has her feet up! She was none too impressed with my thrilling finds. I actually got a stern lecture from her about how we are trying to clear things out for her sister, my mom and my sister who are coming in a couple of weeks. Well, she's got me there. How will I ever have room for everyone in this little place with all this junk? My house is my workshop after all.

Casey just doesn't understand how much I NEED those metal cabinets.

The chippy white ladder can get together with my other little one and work as a sawhorse team now that I have a circular saw. Woo hoo, because I just pulled apart all the wood I salvaged the other day and I desperately need to get it cut so I can cover an old cabinet with it to make another planter.

But wait...there's more!

Round box with numerous wooden spools of thread in it, a sweet sounding wind chime (been wanting one of those for years), stamper ink and the ladder: $3.00

Toolbox: $1.00

Rolling seat: $1.00

Casters, Paintbrushes, 2 pulleys, hook, spool of wire: $2.00

Nails: 25 cents

Glass jar with lid: 50 cents.

Coffee pot: $1

The coffee pot is not pictured. Thanks to magic erasers (Target brand) I cleaned that stained thing up as if I'd waved a magic wand. It's shiny and beautiful now. Get some magic erasers. You'll thank me.

Got a cool working woodhandled flashlight with a stand. 

At this point, the total for the day was $17.50. Not too bad.

But as you saw, on my way home I found this retro metal cabinet:

And this. 

I was unable to quell my glee. The nice man wanted $14 total for both. Another guy came and started looking at them. I sprung in to action and offered $10. I didn't want to have to mourn the loss; they had to be mine. I probably could have offered $5.00 and gotten them both. Oh well, I'm happy. Mid-century metal cabinets. Yes!

  

I should have taken a better inside shot. It was disgusting, but I worked hard on it and it is pretty dang clean now.

It has cool retro Contact Paper inside.

Paint, sticker goo and other stuff will need to be removed.

How about this Formica? It so reminds me of the finishes in our house growing up. 

Sweet curves.

I cleaned the big one well. Scrubbing was supposed to continue today as well as garage cleaning and table sanding. Only got as far as table sanding and painting and attaching seats to two chairs that have been unattached for a year. That was a big, big deal for me. Thanks to E.B. (my drill) it is now done. I'm really starting to fall for old E.B.

 Yes, I got the legs back on the table, and sanding has begun on the top.

 There was lots of paint and whatnot on it.

Almost done sanding...but then what? Heck if I know. Any ideas? 

If you are squeamish, you may want to avert your eyes both because of the shame I'm going to divulge regarding the table wash gone awry and the disgustingly huge lizard I'm going to show you. First my shame:

I didn't even bother trying anything on the legs yet. This falls into the "Don't" category.

I worked on the table all day and just let one thing lead to another with some green paint I had on hand. Not pretty. I was limited in my sanding power because I ran out of sand paper right away and didn't want to leave to go to the store, so I kept using worn pieces. I should have just painted it full out. I see a redo in my future. This will HAVE to be painted over, because even Casey made some very expressive facial gestures at it (not positive) when she came home, and she's the one who said she could care less what I did with it or what color it was (even if it was red, purple, green, blue or orange, because she wouldn't ever pay it a bit of mind to it). Now she has an opinion...great.

The good news is...

 Yes! Wheels. The casters I got off the chair by the side of the road the other day fit into the holes on the bottom of these legs perfectly. I was so excited! I think everything should be on wheels! So who cares if I sanded and painted and sanded again all day and now will have to redo... This baby rolls now!

And I leave you with this...this is what I'm up against out on my patio...and he's not the only one. There are "the others", and they procreate at an alarming rate. Help! Someone with a good lizard remedy please leave me a solution. They have overrun my house in both the back and front yard. These guys are eyeing my Rascal as their new habitat. 

Uh uh! Nobody better mess with Rascal! I'll have none of that!

Come and visit over at:

Get Schooled Saturday @ Too Much Time

Home Sweet Home @ The Charm of Home

Wow us Wednesday @ Savvy Southern Style

Be Inspired @ Elizabeth & Co.

Tuesday's Treasures @ My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

Knick of Time Tuesday @ Knick of Time

No Need to Mourn

There’s not an inch of space left in this house in which to force another stray chair or sundry shelf or stepstool. 

My little sewing/creative room (as if!) 

It has become, instead, a closet.

A supposed main thoroughfare in our home.

Although, in the back of my mind I always remember my friend Lynette saying "It's always worth it to pick up a chest of drawers." So how am I supposed to pass one up if her sage words are ringing in my ears? I drive with blinders on, afraid my eyes will fall in love with something reaching out with open cabinet doors and a needy finish from within a heap of someone’s leftover life...if you can call a head swinging wildly back and forth looking down every street "driving with blinders on". Sigh.

Don’t look, don’t see, don't know what's out there, that's what I try to say over the other voices in my head that egg me on. Nothing to see here, I tell myself. But it hurts as I pass by, hedge my bet, wait too long and know that a more decisive "Junkie" laid claim to what should have been MY find, or to know that the clawlike arm of the garbage truck has taken home to the great beyond that which I hesitated to snag on first discovery.

Surely there was something good in here! 

Yet, I moved on. (I'm so proud of myself!)

Oh, how the ones that got away pain me. They are "The Haunting". All that possibility was lying there free for the taking, "days gone by" ready to be conjured up once more. But, of course, I wasn't sure fast enough. I needed to think about it, then I came back and it was gone. Maybe it's the fact that treasures are found out of place in a heap of plastic paint buckets, old frames, broken children's toys and smashed TVs from the 90's that confuses my eye and makes me reconsider. 


Whatever it is, it casts doubt upon whether or not I should open the remaining walkways to another stray, and I move on, only to eventually circle back and find it gone. Yes, I HAVE been known to choose wrongly. That stings. But oh, the life I could have had together with some of the lost ones through the tender strokes of a sander, a handful of steel wool offering a little friction to shine up the past so it could travel through time to live another day in my presence, or fingers raw from ammonia on vinyl, removing the scent of another's life... 


Yes,sometimes I mourn.


But more often than not, my lament is more about the overgrown pile of needy wood and drawers and chairs and sundry little carts and louvres I have to maneuver to get to various places within my home. You name it. It's in the pile somewhere. The growing stash may house future gems or works of art, but in the meantime when you have to walk sideways and twist, lean and tip toe, you may be on the verge of getting an invitation to a reality show involving folks with psychological disorders. 

More from my "creative" place

I have to remember we live here, yes, but what to do when your living space is your only workspace? What to do when the other inhabitants of the house don't share your vision because they just want to get to a blocked closet or to the ironing board. Then the grumbling begins. And what to do when company is coming? Yes! Company is coming. Let's just say, I'm on the verge of an anxiety attack.


So today was to be my clearinghouse day. My little bungalow is to be the gathering place and self-styled bed and breakfast to 5 of us a month from now and that's a hugely tall order even on the most junk-free day. The truth of junk reality is that it's now a leviathan of an order to think of more than two of us in this house for 5 days. However, something has to get me on track and get some of this nonsense out of the way. As a result, projects were set to be fast tracked, attacked, finished, out the door or worked into my decor today.


Then, as I sat last evening plotting my plan of action, I became acutely aware that something was waiting for me out there. An unexplainable urge to scout the streets and see what was free for the taking overtook me, despite the fact I was already in evening attire. But you see, today is trash day, and one never knows what glories might lie in wait the night before. Despite the fact I was planning to do battle with the pile I already have, I uncharacteristically donned presentable attire near sunset, got in the car and drove. Surely there was something I would miss out on if I waited 'til morning.


I drove straight to the North side of town where the streets are sometimes lined with castoffs for the trash man or the Samford and Son types who comb the piles with their own ends in mind, such as making a few bucks at the metal recycling place South of here. 

Piles, piles, everywhere on trash day!

I began my eagle eye search and two blocks down, there at the curb was something big and made of wood. My heart started that little "Skip to my Lou" it does. Once I got close enough, I drew in a breath, and knew it had to be mine. I'm a sucker for midcentury treasures, and I knew the mourning that would follow if I left this lovely to the fate of The Claw. But I knew it wouldn't fit in my car and I forgot my phone.

Score!

After passing it up to decide what to do, I continued down the streets nearby. Upon my return, it was gone! [freak out] The mourning and lamenting began as it always does. Why did I hesitate? I drove around and thought and cringed and wanted to kick myself. As I drove on with my heart in a knot, there it was ahead of me, still waiting, longing to be mine. What?! I had been in the wrong place. Duh! After a few more drive-bys because there were people around, and knowing that it was not gonna fit into my backseat, I got home and called a friend who made tracks to my house. As darkness descended, we lifted and heaved this bad boy into the back of her SUV and hauled away the newest addition to my "collection" where it came home to make a new life among the good company of all the other things I have no room for. (Oh boy, just wait 'til Casey finds out.)

But, you know, you gotta do what you gotta do, and I had to rescue this. I have plans. I may actually make it work into my living room, the one that a rational being one without creative vision would say has no opening for new treasures. Something will just have to go or move or... I don't even know. For someone who doesn't like decisions or for my decor to change, I sure do put myself in situations where I have to do both rather often.

The plot thickens and things are getting tricky. Ah well...so goes the life of one who travels the streets not only without her blinders in place, but with a decided intent to discover treasure and to prevent a reason to mourn. 

A beauty...

Okay,it's not without a few issues on the back.

and the top...

...but it has potential. 

I can see it living here with purpose and style.

Well, I have to go. I have a lot more to do now, and decisions to make. I'm thinking it's gonna end up a light aqua (like the wall pictured below), distressed, with white undertones in order to fit in with this room against a sand colored wall adjacent to this one. Or should I redo it and get it outta here?

Any thoughts? Suggestions? Help! Help me help myself. Please. I beg of you...make me see reason, or is reason even possible at this point? Is reason even necessary? Is reason overrated? That's what I thought.

Feel free to add your two cents worth! 

What would you do?

I'll be at:

It's a Hodgepodge Friday

Miss Mustard Seed's Furniture Feature Friday

Savvy City Farmer's Thriftin' on a Thursday

Common Ground's Vintage Inspiration Friday