While I Slumber

I hope you haven't given up on me, thinking I'm a slacker who has abandoned her blog. Not exactly. It's just that blogging takes time and if I want to get this place in any kind of shape by Thanksgiving, I have to keep at my projects every minute. After all, dirt, mold, yard growth, mail and other papers, broken items, plumbing leaks, trash, junk, weeds, ugly paint colors, poorly placed items, gifts that must be made, car breakdowns, hunger and cabinet and closet contents (to name a few) all multiply 24/7. Then there's me. I stop and take each night off to sleep. So these things have an unfair advantage, and I cannot seem to keep up with them. I certainly never get ahead.

Cheap and Free

I never got around to presenting all the goods I came home with for the past couple of weeks as I went hunting for junk. Take a look at what I snagged a couple of Saturdays ago. Forgive the poor image quality on this first shot. I've been trying to resize photos to fit more into the space I have left on my picasaweb account and the quality got sacrificed on this one, so it's coming to you in mini format.

The guy I got the green iron plant stand from said it was from the 20's or 30's. It can stand on either end and you can hang plants off each prong and place one in the middle.

Plumbing Isn't Pretty...

...so here are some slightly more inviting images that have nothing to do with plumbing for you to look at while I tell you my tale of "plumbing for genius".

These pretty pink periwinkles kept me company, making me happy even when the view under the kitchen sink wasn't quite so lovely.

The Masquerade

I'm no original thinker on this, (okay, okay, I confess, I'm a shameless copycat!) but after seeing Carlene's old photographs wearing masks at Organized Clutter, I knew I had to give it a try in my simple attempt to play along at Halloween.

Batman and Cat Woman?

It's Tough Out There!

The competition is getting fierce out there, and there is no place for "the indecisive" on the streets of my town.

Seeing as I have no place to put anything right now and way too many things to deal with, I really didn't need to be out scouring the streets last Wednesday night and Thursday morning (several times). It would make a lot of sense NOT to take to the hunt right now since I'm trying to finish other things up and clear things out.

But I did. Of course I did. Where for art thou, sense and reason?

Well, I just hate the thought of missing out on something fantastic just because there is junk aplenty lining the walls of my home already. Surely I would miss something amazing if I didn't go. Plus I figured I can always trade out good junk for bad; I could just look for small things and ignore the big...right?

If it's free, it's for me!

Sucker for a Friday Sale

I did a quick check of craigslist this morning at about 6:45 in case anyone was starting their yard sales today. Well, it turns out 2 people were, so I got dressed in a jiffy and took off. The first one was a bust, but the second one proved to be a boon!

Here's what I came home with for a total of $3.50:

Here, take a closer look at the goodies:

I've been needing the clock hands for some clock face projects I want to do! Woo hoo! 10 cents for the clock hands and the clock numerals combined. 

There are three types of cream trim. I got them all for 25 cents. Two of them are one yard pieces and one is just about 12 inches long. 

The bottle was 10 cents. Thought I'd paint it, maybe.

The ribbon and rick rack were 10 cents each.

50 cents for the cute silver bowl. It's much like the smaller one I got recently. Now I just need one more to have a set of three.

This trim was 25 cents. It's one long piece. A bit over 4 yards.

It all would have come to a bit more, but she let me have it for $3.50. She also told me to come back some day if I was interested in going through her stash of fabric. 

Hmmmm...

If I only had the time to sew... (and if I could actually reach my sewing machine - It's buried in a room full of junk.) I'll probably give my friend some of the trim and I like to use rick rack for cards and other projects and I always need ribbon for gift wrapping, etc.

There you go. Now it's time to go drop some big bucks on a washer and dryer. Wish me luck! I have been putting this off for a long time for many reasons, but it really must be done. I sure hope I don't pick a lemon. I don't want to have to deal with appliances for a long, long time again.

Happy Friday and happy hunting!

Treasure Hunt Thursday @ From My Front Porch to Yours
Wow Us Wednesday @ Savvy Southern Style
Mop it Up Monday @ I Should Be Mopping The Floor
Saturday Nite Special @ Funky Junk Interiors

The Little Stinker

At first there was just one. But one little stinker always seems to attract others until the whole place reeks of the startling scent of trouble. At least I'm learning to overcome that aspect of gleaning goods from the trash.

The good news is that I tried almost every remedy under the sun for eliminating furniture odor, and the fixes, along with the painting, seem to have finally done the trick. There is hope, for this Little Stinker and all those to come who will find their way to our doorstop in need of a new life.

When I first brought this guy home, he had been a chain smoker, apparently unaccustomed to using a coaster, and he seemed to have mistaken his top for an ashtray.

 Remember him? He had been badly burned and his wood was marred 

with all sorts of frightening sights.

The Evidence of Fall

Maybe you've heard me proclaim that we have no Fall here in South Florida. The weather doesn't cooperate with the calendar, and we're left with little to get excited about. No leaves changing, no cool air; it's pretty much life as usual. For the most part, Fall just isn't much of a sensory experience where we live.

But what was I thinking?! I forgot that we actually do have a way of telling when Fall has arrived.

But Wait, There's More!

Yesterday's post told only a portion of the tale of the "great stuff-shuffle". I dubbed it "great" because it was intense and so much "stuff" was involved. But wait, there's more, including a bit of this:


More on that in a minute...

The Great Stuff-Shuffle

The weekend began Friday night with a necessary mowing of the lawn and a clean up of all these pieces of wood.

I'm sure my neighbors must wonder about me.

Well, this had to be done. The trunk was fed up with all of these circles, cylinders and blocks inhabiting its space, and the only place for them to go from there was in the house, and they weren't coming in without a good cleaning first. They were caked with grit and grime. 

What?! Where Did THIS Come From?!

 How in the world did a giant pickle end up in my living room?

Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows

Often when I'm having trouble with something, I'm reminded of a movie I saw as a kid when I was probably about 8 or 9. It was called, Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows.

The "angels" were girls from St. Francis Academy and the Mother Superior was always being given fits by one of the young nuns in the bunch. From my recollection, they had a lot of misadventures. The name of that movie comes to mind often, not because I'm angelic, but because trouble follows despite my best intentions sometimes.

This time the "trouble" began with an impromptu run through of the neighborhood on trash day about 2 1/2 weeks ago.

This round-topped table caught my eye despite the fact that it was barely visible underneath some broken rattan furniture and other sundry and unattractive trashy counterparts. Despite cobwebs underneath and around the legs, which were thick enough for a scary Halloween display, AND the fact that it seemed to have been used as a lizard latrine (those darn lizards!), it finally submitted to being wrangled partway through the back door of my car - just barely, but not without giving me a little attitude in the process. Thankfully, I have tweaked my own attitude with time, proving in this instance to be a match for it.

The Fridge Got in the Way

I had hoped to get a post up about the table I finished working on yesterday. However, as some might say, "Life gets in the way". For me, today, it was the fridge that got in the way.

...And How Was YOUR Day?

Today, I've been working on transferring an enlarged ink jet graphic to the round table I found in the trash...

... and how was YOUR day?

I hope to finish picking up the pieces (literally) and see about bringing this project to a close tomorrow. I'll show and tell as results allow.

Somebody Stop Me!

Why? Because yesterday morning after church, I went back to that same sale from Saturday one last time. (Yes, that makes four times. I know!) I had to. The instrument case was haunting me. It was only a dollar after all, so with a good night's sleep and a full day of rational consideration about this weighty matter, I realized that it was too good a deal to pass up if it was still there. The estate sale was still going on, and it was one of the few stragglers still sitting in the garage looking woebegone and leftover, so I lugged it home. I'm the proud owner of another somethingorother to go with all the whatchamacallits that I have already introduced to my life and my family.

Before I show it to you, here's a shot of the shabby chair I drug home from the trash a couple weeks ago and whose seat I ripped off and threw in the trash, which left a gaping hole. Not much good for sitting.

But great for framing up some pretty little yellow lovelies.

Couldn't Leave Well Enough Alone

Leaving well enough alone is apparently not in my make-up. I suppose this fact should not surprise me, yet I continue to find myself retracing my steps and revisiting treasures I have left behind. I can't seem to get it right the first time.

After forcing myself up and out the door despite a torrential downpour this weekend, I spent only $5 at one garage sale and $2 at another, and headed home. Feeling like a gambler who was ahead, I took my winnings and escaped, heading to my own front door by 8:00 a.m. before I had a chance (or so I thought) to get lost in the morning, the moments and the deals. Feeling pretty good about my restraint, the work to clean everything up began right away, because I like to enjoy this stuff without the ick factor to haunt me.

At those sales, a mini treasure was to be found inside the first item I bought. For $2, I purchased a metal file box. It was unusually heavy, but only had some old file folders in it. I looked through each folder when I got home, just in case something might have been left behind, and bingo, there it was, a form, hand written and dated 1954, with another small withholding form stapled to it.

Shopping the Avenue

The streets were thick with junk this evening, and I went out shopping those avenues, drives and boulevards looking for fantastic hardware for the chest of drawers I've been working on. However, all that came my way was an array of wood knobs attached to the drawers of a dresser that was way too big for my backseat, and round wood knobs were not the kind of fantastic I was hoping for.

Family is coming over tomorrow night so dragging anything home that would impede our ability to function in this already small house of ours wasn't going to work, especially since I've been frantically shoving as much as possible out of sight the past two nights. That means a little sewing room and bathroom are crammed to the gills. There's still stuff where stuff doesn't belong in a normal living scenario, and there is more furniture to move out of the way tomorrow. The backyard can hide some things for a few hours if needed though, right?

Even with my spacial concerns, on the way home today, I was thinking I wanted to try and find some metal before the guys with trucks come around and snag everything (thinking the metal I want would be flat things that could hang on a wall or slide behind other things or lie flat for inconspicuous storage). Then my neighbor across the street and over a few houses just happened to put this out to the road:

 So much for flat and inconspicuous!

One of the wheels was rusted off, but someday, somehow, I could certainly find a way to fix that, right? What a great display cart! For now, the wheel has just been set back on so it doesn't look like a train wreck. It's not sturdy, but at least you can see its potential. If it's too much of a pain to fix, the parts could be used separately for other purposes.



The wheel makes a nice accent all on its own, don't you think? And who knows what the flat metal part of the cart could become. Certainly time would tell, and broken into parts, this piece would be less obtrusive as well. Hmm... I do like the wheels!

So what do you think, fix it and leave it as a cart or disassemble it for parts?

Oh, and just so you know, I could have also had an older barber's chair on the way home from work today. Seriously... there out by the curb at someone's house. I've actually had my eye out looking for one, but then when I passed it, I couldn't justify bringing it to live with us right now. It was really grungy looking and the arm was broken. I'm sure it was fixable, and I have wanted one for quite some time, but again, there will be people in the house. Sometimes the timing is just not right. Anyway, surely by now the metal hunters have taken it. I should put it out of my head. Then again, I usually cut my kids' hair myself. We could really USE a barber chair! What was I thinking...or not thinking? I never originally thought of getting it to actually use for our own haircuts. I just wanted an old one because they are cool. Dang, I'm all about practical finds, and besides, practicality is a great excuse to bring home junk, especially if it's cool and free!

It's official. I should have brought it home! Now comes the junk REMORSE.

Don't think I haven't contemplated going back to check on it even though it's late. I'm really curious to see if it survived the evening, although it is highly doubtful.

Note to self...remember to pick first and ask questions later. I can always toss it back out if I decide it's no good. Wouldn't be the first time. So why can't I seem to remember that in the moment? I suppose it's the competing thoughts that are always swirling through my head, which include making sure not to run a stop sign or worse, among other things! I'm thinking I need to create a cute little reminder motto that could be posted on my dashboard...

Pick first, toss later!

That's right, just what I need... another project.

Mop it Up Mondays @ I Should Be Mopping The Floor
Home Sweet Home @ The Charm of Home
Feathered Nest Friday @ French Country Cottage
Fridays Unfolded @ Stuff & Nonsense

We Remember for A Reason

Please take some time today to remember the attacks of 9/11 and their significance.

We said we'd never forget. 

The World Trade Center Towers

(Screenshot from video)

The Pentagon

(Public Domain Wikipedia)

Shanksville, PA

(Public domain image - Wikipedia Commons)

The media and the current administration have distracted from the significance of what happened that day 11 years ago. They call our enemy an overseas contingency and refer to 9/11 now as a "day of service".

Keep watch over our America. 

Islamic terrorists are still out to destroy our nation.

See:

O, Beautiful for Heroes Proved

We Remember Because The Enemy is Still on a Mission

Here is a compilation of newscasts from the morning of September 11, 2001. The footage of the attacks is now rarely shown on national television.

Please watch and remember.

Painting's Easy, Decisions Are Hard

With that admission, the vanity that came to live with us from a garage sale two weeks ago has been finished for about a week. Woo hoo! However its reconstruction was not without a labor of love via the usual spat of decision dilemmas.

Formerly dressed in mermaid attire:

The sanding and painting was fairly quick enough, although, never underestimate the amount of time things take when there are lots of pieces and legs...and that slick spray paint was not all that interested in being sanded off!

Glorious Disaster

Their glory may be a bit underwhelming at the moment, and "disaster" may outshine "promise", but that's the nature of this game. I've already cleaned everything up and drug it to the back yard now, so after a short rest of my lower back, the neighbors will be enjoying the sound of my sander at work for a while.

Yes, I have my work cut out for me, as if I didn't already, and I'd be lying if I wasn't a bit concerned about where I was going to put all this stuff. [Yes, girls - my daughters - I know, I know.] But this is what it is. Gotta strike while the garbage pile awaits and the stuff is free. We'll deal with where to put it all later.

The burn and water damage on the top and the scent of stale cigarette smoke came along with this piece. This is the match to the 9 drawer dresser that was standing on its head and which I couldn't get on Monday. Same apartment. They seem to be ditching stuff one piece at a time. I have redone another table top with a similar problem before and I actually like the character it gave the finished result, so we'll see how this comes out and whether or not I can get rid of the cigarette smell.

Best find of the day! 

The guy who put this out with the table and the long piece of wood and a bunch of other stuff I didn't take, also had some little electronic things, like a handheld TV, that were new in the package (from quite a while back), but I just didn't feel like dealing with that. This little lady, however, was another story. 

Well kids, if not for blogging, I might actually get something done on this glorious disaster. So, I hate to show off and run, but if I don't get crackin' and beat the heat and rain, you may never see the final results of any of this stuff.

Plus I may have some "splainin' to do" when Casey wakes up and sees the latest additions to the household. Yes, it's getting a bit crowded in here (although the last two things I redid, she immediately wanted - so maybe she'll cut me some slack). The unfolding of the day will tell that tale.

However, I think I even saw my little hula doll shaking her head at me.

Ah well, I'm shaking my head at  me too.

Mop it Up Mondays @ ISBMTF
Nifty Thrifty Sunday @ Nifty Thrifty Things
Sunday Show Off @ Twigg Studios
Feathered Nest Friday @ French Country Cottage