Coat Check

Just over a week ago, I wore a winter coat and gloves when we took our daily walk
and this past weekend it was warm enough for shorts and sandals!
Typical Minnesota weather.

I planned to stain window sashes and sew curtains during my vacation,

but I had a bit of a setback while staining the windows,

so I put the whole business aside until the noxious odor subsides.

Imagine you're standing on a ladder, carefully staining window muntins,
(they're part of the window and not removable), humming along to the radio,
 and enjoying the pleasant breeze coming through the window,
when the pint of dark walnut stain you're using somehow

  drops to the floor!!!

Yup.  That's it in a dark walnut nutshell.

*FYI, Minwax oil based stain can be removed from:

freshly painted walls
recently painted doors
crisp white trim
brand new windows
repainted furniture
refinished hardwood floors
human legs, feet, and hands

All it takes is plenty of patience and a gallon of mineral spirits......
  and a window left open for the next month or two.

Well, after that fiasco,  I set my sights on transforming
 a different kind of window.  I almost chucked the project out of sheer frustration,
 but being stubborn by nature, I was determined to finish it no matter how long it took.

I picked up this door/window? a few years ago because I liked the

beautiful wood finish and thick beveled glass, although in the end
I chose to display the honey colored finish on the back side.

Here's the inspiration photo for what I wanted to create:

Reverse painting on glass by the Griffin Sign Company.

After several unsuccessful attempts with paint markers, stencils, and spray paint,
I resorted to hand painting the letters with a flat artist brush.  I painted a reverse image

of the letters on the back side of the glass with 3 coats of metallic gold craft paint

followed by 2 more coats of harvest gold paint to make the letters opaque.

The last step takes a leap of faith.  After the letters have cured a day or two,

paint right over them with black craft paint.  Don't work the paint too much on the 

first coat or you'll pull up the letters you've painstakingly painted!

If I get tired of it, the paint can easily be removed with a razor.

How do I know this?   Because I've already done it
3 times!!!

No display is complete here at 911 without adding an item
with questionable wiring, so I propped my deer lamp on the shelf.
I glued leftover fabric from the kitchen onto an inexpensive shade from Lowe's
to dress it up a bit and covered the raw edges with rick rack.

The black baby shoes belonged to an old neighbor.

I think this was the very first alarm clock I ever bought,

way back in the early days of our marriage.  Speaking of.....

we celebrated our 35th anniversary yesterday!  We spent the day in Duluth

on Saturday and I came home with 2 new pets.

I don't think the cage is old, but it's cute.  The birds?

My guess is vintage Christmas tree ornaments.

Look how happy they are basking in the sunshine!

Well, I tested out the lamp last night, and...............

It works!

I won't go into detail about what happened to the first light bulb when I plugged it in,
but from now on the cord will be safely tucked behind the sign.



Thanks for stopping by!
Vickie

*I'm joining the parties at:
Mod Vintage Life Mod Mix Monday
Cozy Little House Tweak it Tuesday
Savvy Southern Style Wow us Wednesday
Revisionary Life Thrifty Life Thursday
Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson Share Your Cup Thursday
Funky Junk Interiors Party Junk

Tick tock, a little pink clock.

Just when I thought my 35 years of collecting vintage alarm clocks
was enough already, I came across the sweetest clock
that literally stopped me in my tracks.......

Gasp!
Okay, one more won't hurt.

 Bluebird is missing most of her paint, but that's okay.

The star rotates to count off the seconds.

I think it has an Art Deco look, but after researching the clock via Google,
 I discovered the clock and I are the same age!

The clock was manufactured in West Germany
by the Sheffield Company around 1959.
A very good year indeed!


Until just recently I would have passed up a pink clock,
but since I've got some pink accents in the master bedroom,
it practically begged to come home with me.

The clock is sitting on a shelf next to my father's wool baby booties.

  Did you know that up until the 1940's
 pink was the signature color for boys and blue was for girls?
So for those of you that were thinking this display is somewhat
girlie and childish.......au contraire my friends!
Now you know it's actually quite masculine.  And how could it
possibly be childish when the clock is as old as moi?   : )

I know you're thinking this shelf must be a
rare hand carved European antique   hehe
but it's actually a syroco (fancy name for molded plastic)
 Home Interior shelf from the thrift that I painted with homemade chalk paint.

Do you remember Home Interior parties?   I still remember the advice one of the
sales reps gave us party goers.  "Never, never, never hang photos of your
family on your walls." (aka there's all the more room to hang her product)

  I finally started turning down invitations to H.I. parties
because I could sit there for hours and not find a single thing I wanted to
hang on my walls!  Well, I guess everything comes back in vogue eventually,
because here I am hanging a molded plastic shelf on my newly painted wall!

The openings in the shelf make a handy spot to hang
this sweet yellow and white baby dress....

Well, that's enough playing around for now.  I've got just one week of vacation to
paint or stain the bedroom windows (ehem.....installed over 3 years ago) and
sew up 4 sets of curtains out of fabric I've yet to choose,
 along with a boatload of miscellaneous items on my to-do list.   Whew!
 Will I get it all done in a week?

My adopted ancestor looks doubtful.


Thanks for visiting!
Vickie

*I'm joining the parties at:
Mod Vintage Life Mod Mix Monday
Cozy Little House Tweak it Tuesday
Savvy Southern Style Wow us Wednesday
Revisionary Life Thrifty Life Thursday