Wednesday, October 23, 2013

{Curb Alert!} Large Window Frame

A few weeks ago I FINALLY caught up on the phone with my long-distance BFF. We both swore we couldn't talk too late because we'd had several late nights. Yeah...5 hours later in the wee hours of the morning we finally said good night. I hit the sack. She proceeded to do laundry.

Anyhoo, during our conversation she mentioned that a friend had creatively decorated with old window frame and how she was hoping to find one too. Well don't you know it, the next day, as I'm pulling into our right-of-way, the first house has their trash out and this is just sitting there, waiting to get hauled to the dump:


I had to put a stop to that nonsense. So I put the car in park and threw that FREE treasure in! It's been long enough since I've picked up curbside goodies that the kids actually had to ask what I was doing again. When we pulled into the garage I took the window out, took a pic with my phone, and sent it in a text to my BFF: "You're going to hate me but look what I just found." I promised her that if she ever drives out to MA again, she can take it home with her. In the meantime, I'm "borrowing" it.

It actually doesn't have much character. Not like this pair of small door frames I scooped up for $5 at a yard sale several years back.



These two treasures have not yet been hung back up anywhere in the new house. But I did finally clean up my the newest curbside window the other day. For now its leaning on this beauty in the dining room. (Try to picture the walls in shades of warm gray - coming soon).  I threw up some bittersweet, one of my too many green vases, and a couple of pumpkins. I'm sorta partial to the little pumpkin my daughter painted and glittered (at homeschool co-op cuz I DON'T do glitter). Good for now. Beats the paperwork clutter that sat there previously.


Now that I'm looking at it, maybe I should just rest the two door frames here instead since they are more interesting.

So anyways, the next morning, as I was coming back down the driveway from bringing up my own trash, I decide to take a quick stroll into the woods to check out my father-in-law's junk graveyard.  I hadn't been to this treasure site in months. I knew he recently scrapped a bunch of metal so I was curious what was still left. Most of it is covered in leaves now, which kind of creeps me out because we've been surprise attacked by stinging insects in these woods this fall.  But upon a quick glance, I think there are actually several more windows just like the one I picked off the curb. So maybe plenty to share? Definitely plenty of these though. Oh, the possibilities....


I'm itching to do a focal wall like this in our half bath with the weathered wood.
 
 
And this is a pic I took last fall of a door from the boneyard that I thought had junking possibilities. I'm not sure what kind of shape its in a year later after the rough winter we had.


I wanted to pull it inside to safety then. But that was after we'd just moved in with my in-laws and I would have had the other three adults I was living with give me the evil eye and snide remarks if I brought one more item into any portion of the house, garage or basement - especially junk! So I figured I'd leave it be and hope for the best.

All along I've thought that, if it fit, it would make an adorable rustic door for my laundry room. Along these lines (pic links to source):


All I know is I'm not going back out into those woods again until bee/wasp/hornet/yellow jacket season is totally OVER!!




Thursday, October 17, 2013

Should My Heart Pitter Patter for Old Suitcases?

I have such a weak spot for old suitcases. I love how they look all stacked up. I used to have a ton of them stacked on my front porch for years but they weren't in the best condition and one day I was just sick of them and put them all out by my curb. Except my green one; of course I kept the green one.

Since then, I've scooped up a few more here and there on the cheap at yard sales. A cousin recently let me pick through some of her late grandmother's things and I was able to rescue two more that fit perfectly with the three I already had.

And now there's this corner of my dining room that just makes my heart beat a little faster than normal:


Literally. I'm not kidding. What's wrong with me?

The same day I stacked up these suitcases like a kid in a candy store, I later stumbled across this infographic that The Nester shared:

Living With Less: America's Quest for Simplicity
Source: Living With Less: America's Quest for Simplicity


Ugh. So there's the internal battle of the treasure hunter. I like cool stuff, but I don't want to be a slave to it. Taking care of cool stuff is a grand waste of time (that's why mine is usually dusty!). My quality of life does not come (primarily) from my things.

And then there's the internal battle of the CHRISTIAN treasure hunter. I like things. I admit it. Sometimes they do become more important to me than they should. (Like, they probably shouldn't accelerate my heart rate?!) But in the end, people ARE more important to me than things. It's a mantra in our house.  And glorifying God is more important than glorifying my stuff or myself. I still give you permission to hold me accountable to that. And I thank you in advance.

P.S. Now. Please be honest and tell me if a purdy stack of old suitcases gets you excited too!

Monday, October 14, 2013

Random Stuff

Oops! I started this post weeks ago and then forgot about it. Anyhoo, here you go....
 
I recently stumbled across a few interesting things related to some of my found treasures. 
 
First, the American Girl catalog. I'm not sure why the catalogs come to me, but when they do, I always trash them right away so my girls don't see them and beg me for one! Well don't I find myself perusing through it first this time and I stumbled across this page:

 


ARE YOU KIDDING ME??

1. My girls could have a vintage-style green metal bed for their dolls to match the ones I just painted for their room??!! How completely stink'n adorable is that???  I've never been tempted to buy from American Girl till now. And the fact that this doll bed folds out to a trundle to hold two dolls... Two for price of one = even more tempting.

2. Yeah. About that price. The bed and quilt together go for NINETY FIVE DOLLARS!!!! Come again? My two real twin frames - the ones actual people can actually sleep on for real - cost me a total of $5 and the paint cost maybe another $20 max.

The second thing I stumbled across not too long ago was this picture here at one of my favorite blogs, Flower Patch Farm Girl.



She's writes about all sorts of stuff, with a little treasure hunting and home décor thrown in here and there. I like her because her writing is so poetic, thoughtful, meaningful, fun, funny....you just gotta read her. But back to this picture from her friend's bathroom redo. Of course I loved it because of the use of vintage silhouettes, but that round frame in the top left corner of her photo looks awfully familiar, don't you think?

And finally, the third stumble-upon I wanted to share. Last Christmas I got my girls this quasi-coloring book called Beautiful Doodles. Each page is a started picture with an idea of how you can finish it. My girls often beg me to color with them and so I gave in. As I perused through the pages that were left I stumbled across one of a bunch of blank frames hung on a wall. I could fill each in with whatever I wanted. At the time I had just finished working on a bunch of small projects for their bedroom walls.  Here's my masterpiece:


If you missed why this picture is relevant, you'll have to read here, here, here, here and here. I haven't even finished cleaning wallpaper glue off my girls' walls yet, never mind repaint the walls, hang everything on their walls, and at least have a few wall shots to show you. Coloring this picture gave me a little sense of accomplishment. Some day, their walls might look something along those lines.

In my defense, I have been busy in my garage painting furniture like a crazy woman. This hutch and this table and a bunch of free chairs I haven't even told you about yet are all in some stage of sanding, stripping, staining, priming, or painting. Here's a sneak peak on stage one of hutch painting.

 
 


Sunday, October 13, 2013

Shut the Front Door

So I'll confess right off the bat - this post has nothing to do with treasure. I just need to repaint our exterior doors and am curious on your feedback for a new color.

Here's a picture of our front entrance, so you get a good idea of the colors of the siding, roof, walkway, etc.


So there, I guess there is a little treasure. One of my yard sale wooden tool boxes now filled with kale and cabbage. And a yard sale galvanized tin watering can.

We plan to wait until spring to repaint the porch floor but I'd like to repaint the doors this fall. I'm leaning towards purple or orange doors.

If purple, along these lines:










Isn't there supposed to be something significant about purple doors?

If orange, along these lines:









What color would you choose and why? Thanks in advance for the input!
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