Will Work for Junk

My friend Lori is one who's faith has been tested and tried for as long as I've known her. We're not supposed to add to or take away from Scripture, but if I were to rewrite Hebrews chapter 11 (often referred to as the Faith Hall of Fame), I might add her name to the end.

Just when we all thought things were finally settling down in her neck of the woods - BAM! Within the past two weeks she and her husband came to learn of the uncertainty of his current job in the near future. That was immediately followed by God leading them to put their house on the market ASAP and to temporarily move to an empty family-owned house less than an hour away while they wait for God to lead and guide them to a permanent resting place. Where will he work? Where will they live? Not sure! God told Abraham the same thing - "Go to the land I will show you." Start moving before you know your destination?? That takes huge faith!!

I joined with friends and family last weekend to help Lori begin packing and moving. I fully expected to be packing up the likes of kitchen cabinets and toys and maybe doing a little painting and cleaning. Little did I know there were some treasures to be found in her early 1900s home!

Lori knows me well enough to invite me to look through her "bound for Salvation Army" pile before we began our work. One item in particular, that she had a feeling I might like, is something I've always admired in her house. This antique clip board:

It's so cool! I'm honored to have it next. I always remember her having something important clipped inside, propped up for display. I'd like to do the same. I'm just not sure yet what it will hold first or where to prop or hang it. Quite possibly, it will become part of a new gallery wall I've started curating for.

So back to moving day #1. It turns out the first order of business was to haul a pile of old mattresses and furniture trash off the neighbor's property to a dumpster because the neighbors wouldn't do anything with the eyesore. (Neighbor's junk pile next to property line = not good selling feature=worth paying for a dumpster to hall neighbors trash away.)

The furniture clearly had its glory days but literally fell apart in our arms from being exposed to the elements for so long. Made me want to cry. But I managed to salvage one drawer front for the two antique drawer pulls that I can reuse on something else. The rest of the hardware was completely rusted but these should polish up nice with a little brass cleaner. And if not they can be painted.

Next on the agenda was cleaning out a pile of wood scraps from their dirt basement. Most of it wasn't anything I'd be interested in, but I did salvage one small piece of slightly weathered bead board. My friend Sarah, who also happens to be my kids' art teacher, has this totally amazing creation in her studio that combines old wood, slate and old frames with her photos. I gotta take a picture of it to share with you all. But I'm obsessed with it and inspired to do something sort of similar. I'm thinking this piece of wood might become part of my creation-to-be.

Then came the surprise of all surprises. As I was heading into the basement, I saw a few people gathering up a couple of old doors. FuNKy old doors. One ended up being a little too beat-up for my liking, but the other one was PER. FECT.  Antique latches still in tact. A lovely original paint coat in a light teal green on one side (pink on the other) with just the right amount of chipping and patina. I'll have to carefully clean off a little dirt and seal it. It's got SOOOO much potential!

cracks add character

I haven't told you yet, but I've got some other A.MA.ZING old doors with my name on them. Well, I don't actually have them yet, but I've seen them and been promised them.  The post about that adventure is mostly written. Months ago.  I may never finish. (I told you so.)  I just gotta get the dang doors! It's a long story...

I have a dream. (By the way, did you watch Dr. King's speech on YouTube with your family on Monday? I sure hope so!!!)

Where was I?

Oh yes.

I have a dream. Of a few old doors lined up side by side serving as a one-of-a-kind headboard in my master bedroom. Hold on while I search online for an image that comes close to my vision.

Okay, here you go:

Focus on the doors, NOT the quilt!

 

(I try to be careful about linking pics to original sources, when available,

 because Pinterest is not usually an original source.

It's like saying you found your favorite quote "at the library.")

So I was already on cloud nine about the door and next thing I knew, Lori was getting ready to haul out a couple of galvanized tin buckets. Um... Hold up! I'll take one of those! It's now the biggest one in my collection.

I'd like to incorporate this into my garden this year. Maybe for herbs, like this?

Or annuals, like this:

Or succulents, like this. Mmmm...yes...I at least need to start "hens and chicks" plants at the house this spring.

Not bad for a days' work.

I was expecting to work for free. That's what friends do. Taking home junk was just the unexpected bonus.

Need help? I will work for junk treasures!

 

Embracing Accusation

A few days I posted my intention to share a little bit more from my storehouse. The "only" (as if its not a big deal) treasure I wanted to share today is a song I just can't stop looping over and over lately. Usually, when I'm in the car, I let my kids decide what we listen to, but sometimes I do get selfish, pick what I want, and tell them too bad if they don't like it. That's been the case with my current favorite song - "Embracing Accusation" by Shane & Shane.

If you're wondering why the thumbnail is a mug shot of a guy in a suit, this YouTube version of the song has a short mashup toward the end with John Piper.

PLEASE WATCH/LISTEN! I hope you appreciate it the way I do.



That truth just never. gets. old.

Now, I got a little bonus for you. No extra charge. One more from Shane & Shane. If I'm not looping "Embracing Accusation" its because I'm stuck back on "Burn Us Up." I've at least got my oldest daughter on my side when it comes to this one.



 Sorry the videos (if you want to call them that) are lame but I like the songs.

What song / artist has been blessing your socks off lately?

My Storehouse

A couple weeks ago in my study of the Bible book of Matthew, God kind of whacked me over the head with something that he'd been nudging me about for a while.  The setting is Matthew 13 where Jesus finished telling a bunch of parables to crowds of people. He leaves the crowd to go into a house with his disciples to have some private conversations, including more parables and discussing their meanings. Finally, Jesus comes right out in verse 51 and says, "Have you understood all these things?" They reply, "Yes." Then he says to them, "Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasure as well as old."

The old treasure is referring to understanding the real purpose of Old Testament law in pointing the way to Jesus, the Messiah. The new treasure is understanding Jesus' teachings about the kingdom of heaven. People who understand both benefit doubly. I consider myself as one of those double-blessed.

The kicker for me was that the owner of the house brings both of these treasures out of his storehouse. I have a storehouse of these "new treasures as well as old" but I haven't brought them out of my storehouse to share here in quite some time. I love sharing about my earthly treasures but I also love sharing about heavenly treasures and you wouldn't know by reading this blog as of late!

My goal is to balance it back out a little more again. I want my blog to be a more accurate reflection of my priorities and life. It's not that I haven't been treasure hunting in God's word lately, because I have. And its not that I haven't been bringing those treasures out of my storehouse, because I have. I just haven't been sharing them here. And I want to.

Yes, I'm too busy to write about everything I want to because I have too many higher priorities than this blog. And, yes, I go through periods of yard sale madness and project central and those posts pick up a little more. But I'm praying that God causes my spiritual storeroom to burst in such a way that I can't not share. Even at the cost of the coolest Sally's scores and treasure hunting expeditions never making it live (already happens all the time). Or at the cost of a treasure-project being shared 6 months late (if I'm lucky).

That's all I have to say about that. But...I can't publish a post without an image. And I've got nothing on storehouses (unless I were to take pictures the stashes in my garage, basement and attic). So I'll leave you with a few e-cards. Created by yours truly. :) Enjoy.

Travel Scrabble "Art"

In my last post I shared a few goodies I'd recently scooped up from my favorite antique shop. One of these goodies was a 1960s travel Scrabble game.

As soon as I got home with it, I opened it up on the counter and you would have thought I poured out a gallon of chocolates the way my family flocks to Scrabble. I already knew I wanted to create a cross word of sorts and hang it on the wall. That was my vision as I was driving away from Bernat's without it the first time. So I started playing around with some family words and got distracted with something else - probably kids. I came back later to discover my hubby's joke work while I was gone.

As I'm typing this I can hear my husband in the background reprimanding my oldest daughter, "Is your goal in life to smite all of your sister's joy?" We had laughed the other night that some times these words ring a little too true!

After removing his handiwork, I got pretty far with the words I wanted and then had random tiles left and got stuck. He pulled up some Scrabble app that feeds you word ideas with the tiles you have left. Nut'n good. But then he came in for the win all on his own. I already had God and Jesus in place and he turned my Treasures into Treasuring so he could use the "E" to make Pneuma. It's the Greek word for breath, also used for the Spirit of God. So then we had the complete Trinity included. Boo yeah.

The magnets on the back of the tiles aren't strong enough to hold them in place when upright, so with a little bit of reserve, I decided to glue them on. And slide a plate hanger on the back.

I glued the tiles on my rare vintage travel Scrabble game.

     {{tightness of chest}}

I made the right choice.

     {{deep breath}}

Right?????

So it may be worth negative $ to anyone else. The price tag was $20 but its now worth a lot more than that to me.

And, along with the rusty "V", its part of my new gallery wall plan too. I love it when plan starts to comes together. And now that school starts back up again, who knows WHEN I'll finish it.

Why I LOVE Bernat Antiques

So its no news that I like to scoop up Scrabble games at yard sales for $1 and use the trays and tiles to spell out words around my house. On New Year's Eve day I found myself shopping at my most favoritest local antique mill, Bernat Antiques. I had a couple of gift cards burning a hole in my pocket and now that I'm starting to settle into my new home a little more I had a better idea of what I might use.

I had my oldest daughter in tow and after a late night sleepover she was a major grump, complaining and whining about leaving the entire time. That's when she wasn't begging me to buy her vintage Barbie dolls, LED-lit peacock lamps or other random things that caught her fancy. I had my eye on several goodies but ended up going home with just a few.

Here are some of the LOT of buttons I got. They are for making the bracelets that I want to make more of and still have yet to share here.

I may or may not have gotten the urge to sort them out and put them away in their storage compartments after midnight. It was quite therapeutic.

Besides the buttons I also got a couple of framed cross-stitch pieces...

 

 

It's an art.

 

...that will go with these I've found in previous hunting:

$2.49 at Salvation Army

from Bernat's last year

I want to hang a collection of these in my front entry hall but I need to do something like switch out the frames or paint them all to match to unify them a little more. I've got enough to start hanging but will arrange them in such a way that I can add more if when I come across them. Or when get back to cross stitching myself. (One of my unofficial New Year's resolutions is to get back to stitching/embroidery some time this year.)

As I was driving home from Bernat's with my buttons and cross stitches I was hit with remorse over a couple of other items I didn't buy. Oooh, I was kicking myself good. I resolved to get back there as soon as I could to nab them before someone else did.

Two days later, with remaining gift card balance in tow, I braved the snow-dusted roads to claim my treasures shortly after Bernat's opened. (Of course I'd already contacted the owner online to reserve one of the items for me...just in case.) 

I couldn't pass up I did pass up but came back for this 3-D rusty metal "V".

One of the booths had a bunch of different letters like this for sale (though not quite as rusty as this one), but only one "V." It's going to be part of a funky gallery wall in my kitchen, sort of like the one in my previous dining room but with major revamping.

And then, to think I almost let a rare, 1960's, mini, magnetic, travel Scrabble game get away!! Rare because it doesn't fold up and the board isn't plastic. It's just a mini game board with plastic magnetic tiles and metal trays. How did I ever walk away??

This is a comparison of the regular tiles with the travel size ones.

I've since turned this rare little treasure into a something fun. Stay tuned. Its coming up next.

Winter Porch

I love any excuse to go on a nature hunt. Decorating my front entry for winter is one of them.

During a mild afternoon in November, the girls and I wandered around our property gathering a variety of winter greens. This year they were actually excited to help me in this annual tradition - probably because I gave them liberty to use my clippers (that I nabbed at a yard sale a couple years ago).

 

 

I'd already scored winterberries off the side of the road on a few different occasions earlier in November.

I also had a collection of birch logs from a tree my father-in-law had to cut down when he was preparing to build their new house this past spring. At the time, I had asked him to save it for me. He even went as far as to ask what size logs I wanted him to cut it into. He's so good to me. The logs have been patiently waiting in the garage ever since.

Once I had all my natural treasures collected, I arranged them in some of my yard-saled galvanized buckets and a yard sale wooden toolbox on the front porch. I strung up the porch lights in and around them too. Then I gathered a few vintage sleds - one was my Nana's, one is technically my M-I-L's and a big one came from a recent family member's cleanout. The smaller sleds got a spray of wintergreens and berries, tied with a red and white gingham ribbon (yard saled eons ago). These lean between our garage doors.

The big one joins the rest of the stash on the front porch.



If only the chipping porch paint didn't distract. That's on the to-do list this spring. I just painted our previous home's porch floor last fall and I'm so not looking forward to doing another bigger one so soon. On a side note I did end up going Benjamin Moore Tropical Orange on my front door. Thanks for everyone's input, but mostly thanks to my friend Naomi who showed up at my house one day with a handful of paint chips and urged me to go bold. If not for that, the door would probably be on the "spring" list still too!

A little night-time Insta-sparkle:

My wreath is the same fake one that I added the craft shop sale birds to last year:

Last but not least, I also found this bird nest on the ground on our church property last month so I took it home without a plan. Now its perfect for the porch.

I filled it with a few small red and silver ornaments in lieu of eggs. Then they got a dusting of snow.

 

Speaking of snow, are you ready again? Got any projects lined up for another long weekend? I'm all stocked up on painter's tape, prepping for some inside paint jobs. And at dusk yesterday it suddenly hit me that I needed to go traipsing into the woods to my father-in-law's scrap yard to rescue a few things before they are covered in snow and frozen in for the winter. God forbid I get the urge to craft with them and they are unavailable till spring thaw!

 

There's a path into the junk grave yard that's big enough for vehicles so I drove in, unburied and lugged out a bunch of old pallets and windows, filled my van (thank God for rear view cameras so I could back my way out of the woods in the near-dark) and then unloaded it all into my garage. Just in time. And OH MY WORD IS IT COLD OUT!

 

So just think - "only" a little less than 3 months till spring! Happy New Year! Bring on the winter!