How do you like me now?

As I was working on this project I found myself humming "How Do You Like Me Now" by Toby Keith.  Does it look familiar to you?  Well, this is how it looked when I first spotted it at the antique store....

As you can see, it had some issues.  The dealer was asking $40 , but I talked her down to $30.  Even at $30, I was still on the fence about buying it, so I submitted a photo to Junker Newbie's "Would You Buy it Wednesday" linky party to get some input from fellow junkers.  I received comments from one end of the spectrum to the other, but in the end, I just couldn't pass it up and paid the $30!!!

When I got it home, I was pleasantly surprised how sturdy ( and heavy ) it is.  I cleaned it up, ripped off the rotted canvas that was thumbtacked to the top, and carefully removed pieces of trim to replace the broken or missing glass panes.  I  brought a piece of the trim I removed to Lowe's and had the paint color-matched.  The paint color matches the faded finish perfectly and is called pillow mint.  I didn't want it to look new, so I gave it one coat of paint just to even things out and lightly sanded it to bring back the patina.   Since it's going to our youngest daughter's house, I added three wood strips over the glass panels on each side to keep little hands and paws from harm's way.

I also added beadboard to the back and a new wood top to give it a more furniture-like appearance.

I looked high and low for book plates and finally found them in the scrapbooking department at JoAnn Fabrics, but they were a little too shiny for my taste.



So, I aged them with a solution I use to blacken bright silver solder lines on leaded glass windows. 

A local carpenter made me a new wood divider.  Thanks, Dad.

The bottom corner wasn't broken as I originally thought.  All of the corners are pieced in this fashion, so I borrowed a corner from the back and attached it with "L" brackets.

I left this ....decorative painting intact.

And here's the finished piece!

Now, some Pottery Barn inspired accessorizing.

Here it is accessorized with bits and pieces from around our house.

Today we are delivering this piece to its new home.  I know Megan will have fun adding her own vintage treasures to the cubbies.  And someday when shabby, chippy style goes out of vogue, it will still be a utilitarian piece.  It could be used for storing canned goods, boots and shoes, paint cans, any number of things.  Who knows, it may even come full circle if my dream of having my own little space in an antique shop when I retire comes true.

Linked to:

{Primp} Your Stuff Wednesday

French Country Cottage Feathered Nest Friday

Miss Mustard Seeds Furniture Feature Friday

The 36th AVENUE

Funky Junk Interiors Saturday Nite Special

The Brambleberry Cottage Time Travel Thursday

Laurieanna's Farmhouse Fridays

Thank you, thank you very much.

Last week Rebecca from Walnut & Vine left me a comment that she passed this award on to me:

To be honest, my first thought was.....

Oh, no!!!!!  I don't want to do this!

Then I read Rebecca's entertaining post and decided to be a good sport and have fun with it!  She was actually a contestant on "The Dating Game" when she was 18 years old!!  Thank you, Rebecca, for nominating my blog as one you enjoy visiting.  I featured Rebecca's vintage cupboard in my Pat-a-Cake post, since it was the inspiration for painting my little cupboard.  Take a peek at her blog to find many more treasures at Walnut & Vine.  The rules of this award are:

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award.
2. Share 7 things about yourself that others might not know.
3. Send it to 15 other bloggers and let them know you have awarded it to them.

Seven things you may or may not know about me.

1. As much as I love junking and antiquing, I hate shopping for clothes!!!  If you are a fan of "What Not to Wear", I'm like the woman (near tears) in the dressing room ready to give it up and go home.  I'm much more comfortable in a pair of well-worn jeans, hiking boots, and a hoodie than I am in dress-up clothes and heels.  Clothes shopping is not for me!  Although, there is one exception.  I'm in hog heaven when I find an army green colored jacket!  Every winter jacket I have owned since 1980 ( and there haven't been many) has been army green, my favorite color.  I once wore a jacket for so many years that the women I worked with threatened to burn it in the parking lot.  I was shamed into throwing it out.  I still miss that jacket.
2. The summer I turned 16, I worked as a car hop at an A&W root beer stand.  I made a whopping 85 cents per hour plus tips! The place was so poorly managed that we would routinely run out of hamburger AND root beer!!!  Believe me, when that happened it was rock, paper, scissors as to who was waiting on the next unfortunate customer.  Still, I was able to save enough money to buy my first pair of hard contact lenses.
3. I owned a small decorative painting business for ten plus years that was named Vickie's Folk Art.  I painted mostly vintage Santas and Christmas items and held a sale once a year on opening weekend of deer hunting season ( the first weekend of November which is the weekend for boutiques in the Northland).  Eventually I got so burned out I had to call it quits and literally couldn't touch a paintbrush for several years.  I now enjoy painting just for fun.
4. Speaking of folk art,  I have a collection of about 25 vintage (and somewhat scary) sock monkeys that occasionally pop up on my blog posts.  Rockford Red Heel socks are still manufactured today and I make new sock monkeys to give as baby gifts, etc.  I donated one to The DIY Club for their Breast Cancer Awareness Auction that is running until Oct. 31, so feel free to visit here.
5. I am prone to uncontrollable bouts of laughing at the most inappropriate times!  It started waaaay back when I was a child and my sister and I would giggle in bed at night, much to the irritation of our parents.  Once when going through our local McDonald's drive-through, Bill and I started laughing so hard that he couldn't give them our food order!  What could we do?!  There were cars behind us, so we couldn't back our car out!  We now go inside to order our food.
6. I  have been married AND worked at the same job for 32 years!!!!!  
7. My biggest accomplishment ( with a little help from my husband :@ ) is raising two daughters who have turned out to be wonderful mothers.

Until recently, I have mostly followed a few big (thousands of followers) blogs, so I don't have 15 bloggers to pass this award on to (sorry), but I have chosen 7 that I routinely visit and enjoy.  Here they are:

1. Always a good read is Cheryl @ http://mysisterscottage.blogspot.com/ .
2. Lindsey @ http://farmhouseporch.blogspot.com/  is new to the blogworld and is quickly making her mark.
3. I may be biased, but Julie @ http://thepaciorekadventure.blogspot.com/  is quite entertaining.
4. Stehpanie @ http://junkernewbie.blogspot.com/  has a fun "Would You Buy it Wednesday" linky party.
5. Rose @ http://confessionsofacurbshopaholic.blogspot.com/ is always hauling home something interesting.
6. Kim @ http://starshinechic.blogspot.com/ has the best seasonal displays in her home.
7. Danielle @ http://daniellesserendipity.blogspot.com/ has the best blog header and great vintage finds.

In case you're wondering what I wore to this prestigious event, it's 9:30 am (day off) and I'm still in my leopard print flannel jammies.

Happy reading!

Vickie

Old Mother Hubbard Found 2 New Cupboards

On my weekly Saturday morning visit to my favorite one of my favorite local antique shops, the vendor working that day was telling me about 2 bookcases she found at a garage sale for $25.  She was moving into a new house that Monday and hoped there would be room somewhere in the house for them.  They were once built into an archway of the house where she purchased them.

Imagine my surprise when I spied these in her space the following week...

One side of each bookcase is unfinished where it was built into the wall.  And the tops need to be patched where the pillars were attached.  AND she only marked them up to $25 EACH !!!

So, I have absolutely no place for them in my house.  But for that price I just hate to pass them up!  What would you do?  Would you buy them anyway?  What if your oldest daughter and her husband live in a bungalow with this fireplace wall.....

Picture from realtor.

I think you know what Old Mother Hubbard did.

Don't forget to check out the DIY Auction for Breast Cancer Awareness that starts Oct. 22!!!

This little monkey needs a home.

 

Linked to:

Eye've Been Framed!

Now that the cold indoor weather is upon us, eye've I've been trying to complete some of my half-finished projects so I can start on some new Christmas projects.  I just counted and there are only 70 days left!

I painted this simple eye chart......oh, a few months ago, and it has been impatiently waiting to be framed.  So......



This was my first attempt at cutting a mitered frame using only a handsaw and miter box.  Not bad, if I do say so myself.  The eye chart looked pretty lonely hanging all by itself, so I thought a vintage looking optometrist sign would make a good companion piece.  Rather than spend an hour or more drawing up my own design, I found an image I liked at The Graphics Fairy.

 I basecoated a piece of plywood in various shades of blue and traced my enlarged pattern onto the board using white transfer paper.  Excuse the next few pictures taken at night in the basement.

Next I painted the design with acrylic craft paints and sealed it with clear matte sealer.  Now, for the frame, I measured and cut pieces of inexpensive pine molding with 45 degree angles and painted them a with a metallic gold acrylic craft paint. 

I attached the frame with Gorilla Glue....

then used my new Rockler clamps to hold it in place until the glue dried.

To tie the whole works together, I used screw eyes and short lengths of chain from the hardware store.

I haven't taken out a single Halloween decoration, but I think this looks rather ghoulish, don't you?

Don't forget to visit The DIY Club Auction for Breast Cancer Awareness that starts Oct.22!!!

This little monkey needs a home.


Linked to:

Over the River and Through the Woods

We have had over two weeks of beautiful, unusually warm autumn days and nights, but the weatherman tells us it will soon come to an end.

Here are a few photos I took of the fall foliage in our neighborhood last week.  This weekend, we'll probably be raking up the leaves that are quickly falling from the trees.

Last weekend, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and hauled our kayaks and bicycles to the Giant's Ridge area near Biwabik, MN.

Bill checking to make sure everything is safely strapped down.

This is where we launch our boats at Wynne Lake.

Wide open spaces.

Still life along the shore.

Leaving Wynne Lake and entering the Embarrass River.

Plenty of turtles and beavers to keep us company.

Winding river.

I love this old bridge.

Nearing the end of the river.

Here comes my favorite part.

I can't carry a tune.........

but do you think you could paddle through this echo chamber without a little.......

Yodel-ay-hee-hoo!

From here we enter the Embarrass lake where we trade our kayaks for our bicycles.

Winding trail through the woods leads us to the Giant's Ridge ski area where we'll retrieve our car.

A beautiful ending to this year's kayaking season.

October 11, 2008

Happy Anniversary Megan and Dave!