Cue the Peat Pots

A few days of warmer temps and naturally the mind turns to thoughts of Spring.

Out come the peat pots:

Truth be told I was playing around with upholstery webbing.  After doing a few book bundles I got the idea to dress up the pots.

They will make great little displays for the five million (give or take) chalk tags I've been stamping.

Some get a touch of the seaside instead of a stamp.  I knew there was a reason I saved those!

A little burlap, a little twine, a little sea, and a little bit of French (on the books) makes for some fun, non?!

Linking to:

Wow Us Wednesday

Open House Party

Thrifty Thursday
Feathered Nest

Saturday Finds and Vintage Marketplace News

Fun morning at the 20th Century Cincinnati show.  I found myself uttering the somewhat foreign phrase, "How much for all of them?" a few times which resulted in this:

A delicious tray full of woodblock letters and almost a dozen pyrex labware pieces.

So much fun digging through and finding the most interesting bits.  My favorite might just be the British Pound symbol.  It pretty much screams KEEPER!

In other, equally delicious news, I am officially a vendor at The Vintage Marketplace Springfield Extravaganza.  Oh my excitement knows no bounds.  It promises to be an amazing time filled with incomparable junque!  And I won't be alone mind you.  The super fabulous, beyond talented and all around super amazing Pam of Frippery will be sharing a space with me.  Get there early because I may attempt to scoop up all her amazing creations before the rest of the world!

If you haven't done your research yet head over to the Vintage Marketplace blog where they kindly posted a vendor blurb about yours truly.  Make sure to follow along and keep updated with more seller profiles and show events. 

Additionally, take a moment to follow their Facebook page and see what's happening - as it happens!

Interested in being a vendor?  Jon says spacing are filling up fast so you've got to hurry and join us for the fun.  Message Jon so he can get you a contract and we can all junque together.

Keep checking in folks.  Much fun awaits and we'll even be putting together a show giveaway as we get closer. 

Anyone up for a Buckeye Bloggers meet in my booth?!!!!!

Linking to:

More the Merrier

Knick of Time

Be Inspired

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday
Show It Off

Ah, The Weekend

Things I am looking forward to this weekend:

Happily devouring these two magazines and making the keyring with the Princess.  A lag in my subscription means that two issues arrived on the same day.  So much goodness - so little time.

Happily cleaning, sorting and pricing my fun thrift store finds from last night.

Oh hello you spotty vintage Mikasa pitcher.  I do love you so.

Greetings to you previously buried French prints which were hoarding hiding in my garage.  It's been so long since I've seen you I must confess I forgot you existed.  Further greetings to you fun spotty bar glasses which ever so fortuitously fit the opening of some bed spring projects I've got lying around!

Tomorrow we will make my yearly visit of joy to the 20th Century Cincinnati show where I will happily drool and dream of lovely mid century pieces making their way home with me.  Of course I only ever pick up my Heywood Wakefield pieces at garage sales...

Yes, fun lies in store although its commencement was somewhat marred by the emergency visit to the dentist after Princess fell on the playground.  Cracked adult teeth mean I will also spend the weekend watching to see if they begin to wither.  Wish I could find some junque teeth at a yard sale to work some magic on!!!

Wishing you a weekend of merriment.



Elevating The Ordinary

I've been deep in thought lately about what I do.  What we in this community of junque do.

I've had a fair bit of time to do this what with sick kids who aren't sleeping, two plus hour dental appointments (where sadly I failed to fall asleep during the laughing gas and thus consciously endured the drilling, drilling, drilling...), numerous planning thoughts running through my mind, etc.

I think I nailed it the other day as I set up a quick photo shoot:

Things were looking flat and I grabbed this postal scale off the mantel for some height.

"Elevate the ordinary".

Isn't that what we are doing?  Highlighting the humble.  Respecting the cast offs.  Call it recycling, upcycling, reuse. 

Whatever you call it aren't we just looking at something and finding the beauty?  Finding a way to showcase it.  Pare it down to its essential "goodness".

I've read that everything looks better under a cloche.  I suppose that is because the glass is almost a magnifier so we can focus in on the beauty. 

The beauty of cheesy glass hurricanes turned upside down and made into cloches.  Or counter laminate samples made into stamped chalk tags.

We junkers are all about seeing past the ugly to the good bones inside.  Then we twist, shape and manipulate as necessary to make those bones shine through.  In the process we put a bit of ourselves in there and that is uniquely beautiful.

Just a little pondering as I continue learning to "fly".

Linking to:

Knick of Time
Wow Us Wednesday
Share the Love
Show It Off

Vintage Marketplace Rides Again

Have you all heard the super news?  Remember when I babbled on incessantly about The Vintage Marketplace earlier this month?

Well it's coming to my neck of the woods in May.  That's right.  Come May, the Springfield Extravaganza will feature a Vintage Marketplace as well.

WOO HOO!!!!!!!  Long have I waited for a show like this in my section of Ohio.  A mere hour up the road.  Awesome.

How awesome? Check out some photos from the TN Vintage Marketplace:

Time Worn Interiors

Time Worn Interiors: the file box that had to come home avec moi

Murphy Antiques

Gathered Comforts

Gathered Comforts

Gathered Comforts

Just a few glimpses of what was a super fun experience.

May is shaping up to be a month of super junque.  I'll be at the Rural Antique Society show early in the month and come Extravaganza time I'm hoping to have a space in the Vintage Marketplace tent.

Lots of fun and junque on the horizon.  Check back for more info and please take a moment to visit the Vintage Marketplace .  Want to be a vendor?  Head over to the blog and shoot Jon an e-mail.

You'll find details on the show as it comes together, vendor bios and so much more.

Junque on peeps!

Musical Lamps

Remember that "fun" school game staple of musical chairs.  A game designed to selectively weed out child by child till only one remains?  Well today I played the grown up version - musical lamps (please note that no lamps were injured in this game although one has gotten hurt feelings over its impending fate!).

A thrift trip produced this on Monday:

Lovely vintage Italian alabaster lamp.  Working - check.  Needs harp - have one hanging in the basement stash (doesn't everyone have a stash of lamp parts in their basement?).  Needs shade - well I did buy two shades last Friday at Ballard when trying to outfit the super cool tripod lamp that my husband transformed for me.  Surely I'll get home and the shade will look bad.  Oh hello, I was so wrong on that score.

This is the thought process my brain goes through as I stand in the aisle like a somewhat delusional crazy lady.  Thoughts continue with, "I'll just sell it.  Someone will buy the base.  I have to rescue it."  On and on it goes until I finally put the thing in the cart and continue on my psycho way.

Once home the harp fit and the shade was awesome.  Well we need another lamp like...I need more junque.  Thus begins the dance and our game of musical lamps commences.

We start with my current bedside lamp:

Pretty marble base vintage glass lamp with thrifted shade.  Take this lamp and move it to my daughter's room which has:

A less cool vintage glass lamp with thrifted shade.  We've been meaning to raid our stash of lamp parts and make this one better but, well, you know the drill.  And yes, that is a plastic Hello Kitty teacup alarm clock.  Not vintage so not very cute.  She's almost 7 - we have to give her some say!!!!  Nor did I ever really like the shade but she LOVED the beads and this is real life where we have to acknowledge that not everything is perfectly "sculpted" for the optimum vignette.

So this lamp is now headed for the parts bin or the junque to sell stash and my bedroom lamp looks like this:

Thus concludes our game of musical lamps.  For now.  Possibly only for today in the event that I find another one at the thrift tomorrow.

Am I the only one who plays musical lamps, chairs, furniture?!!!!

Linking to:

Wow Us Wednesday

Share the Love
Open House Party

A Vintage Valentine

From me to you!

Wishing you a very sweet day full of vintage goodness!!!

Still Painting

Possibly the best thing about ASCP is what it has given me the courage to try.  Case in point:

Surely we have all seen these plaques on our thrift store jaunts.  Usually there are multiples and often times they have those dreadful heart cut-outs (sorry heart fans).  I tend to go through these aisles quite quickly.  But last week I was high on ASCP and  decided to take a chance.

So glad I did.

I could not believe how easy it was to transform the wood into something current.  Of course I don't actually have anywhere to hang them (because most of the open wall space in our house is occupied by thrift store/yard sale art).

A base coat of Old White and then Provencal for the numbers (quickly cut a stencil on my Cricut which has been gathering dust serving as a giant paper weight for the past 7 months or so).

A coat of clear wax and then the dreaded buffing (for which I actually refrained from using my in house, likely to complain about having to do anything helpful child labor, only because I have yet to teach them how to buff appropriately)!

The 7 got a coat of dark wax as well and once again, I dislike it enormously on top of the light colors but that is probably just me.

Easy peasy with a big impact for relatively little effort.  EXACTLY my kind of project!

What did you junque up this weekend?

Linkng to:

Show It Off
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday
Knick of Time
Be Inspired

A Little Morning Smile

Enjoy a little smile via my daughter's lunchbox!

She drew her own face this morning.

Smiles all around.

The Great Chalk Paint Experiment

So as I mentioned a few hundred times last week I took the opportunity at The Vintage Marketplace to hop on the Annie Sloan chalk paint wagon.

Three colors, two waxes, a brush and a huge receipt later (which came with a slightly less than impressive shopping experience - think Pretty Woman with me wanting to make a purchase and getting ignored/less than helpful information).  Honestly I was so disgruntled I kind of wanted to walk away and not bother. 

Anyhoo - I've been up to me elbows in paint ever since (yes, actually up to my elbows - how do I manage to get it up there?).

I started small to try and get the feel of what I was doing.  These were two of my experimental firsts. 

French linen with clear wax.

Love the color.  Happy with the coverage.  Totally love the finish when buffed.  Completely loathe buffing.  Knew I would hate it.  Hate it even more than I thought!  The results are worth it.

Do NOT like the round brush.  Don't like it at all.  Wish I had not purchased it.  Much prefer the control of applying with a cloth.

French Linen over a white spray paint base I already had on this piece.  This piece has been floating around forever and I could not seem to get it right.  Simply love it now.

Clear wax.  Then lightly distressed and waxed again.  Buffed.  See above - do you think I can teach the kids to do that part?!!!!!!

I did another piece where I put the dark wax on top.  Wow.

This morning I put dark wax on top of Old White.  Yuck.  Hate it.  Total craft fail (you can see a picture of it on my FB page).  I think I will only ever do the dark on top of dark colors and will more likely than not skip it.

So far I've done these, a chair, three signs and a magazine rack.  Overall a great product.  I do wish the purchasing had been more satisfying.  A LOT more satisfying (we're going to need a lot more sucking up here...Go ahead and watch the movie again if you aren't remembering this part!)

Yours in paint spattered clothing...

Linking to:

Open House Party

More the Merrier

Stylish Storage

If I tell you I had a great time at The Vintage Marketplace show I would be seriously underselling the whole thing.

Simply stunning!  Creative use and re-use abounds.  A vibrant atmosphere chock full of inspiration.  I posted a few photos over on FB (so head over and follow me there) and will get a post going in the next few days.

A quick showing of a couple of finds that simply had to come home with me:

Another teapot for my burgeoning restaurant ware collection and two metal "boxes".

Check out how I've already put them to stylish use:

Glitter storage in one drawer and stamps/stamp pads in the other (did it all fit - of course NOT).  Sponge brushes and glue guns in the cash box.  So much cuter than the plastic bins!  I do wish it all fit in one.  I have a major problem with never using everything because it is stashed in various places around the house.

And while there were no helpful comments on what to paint first (see the post about that here) I went ahead and picked something to start.  Final project shots will follow.

All right.  Time to go and strap on the feed bag - it IS Superbowl Sunday after all!!!!

Enjoy!

Linking to:

Show It Off

More the Merrier

Vintage Style

Be Inspired

Thrifty Thursday

Selecting the Candidates

The title of this post might have led you to believe I was taking you down a political path.  Not so fearless junkers.  Not so.

I'm like a kid on Christmas Eve today.  Ready to get on the road for The Vintage Marketplace.  Itching to load up and head out. 

In an effort to kill time (and avoid the packing/cleaning I should be doing) I spent the morning searching the house for projects.  I am so excited to jump on the chalk paint bandwagon and can only hope the vendors are not sold out when I get there.

To that end, check out my candidates for first chalk paint project upon my return:

Great wood chest box.  It's missing a drawer bottom but I can fix that.  Currently residing on the porch because it was the only way to get it out of the garage so my car could fit it looks cute!

Magazine rack in need of make-over no?!

My most recent furniture find.  $3 at the thrift store.  Has a drawer which was hidden under the paint.  And yes, that is a vintage butterfly chair frame it is sitting in.  You are surprised by that?  Again, how else do you think I got the car back in the garage?

Little smoking stand arts and crafts style piece which I thought was awesome.  Multiple show visits prove I am the only one who thinks so.  Possibly paint will make it a winner?

This is a family piece which I have always been strangely attracted to.  Not at all my style but it keeps moving from unwanted corner to unwanted hallway.  Possibly a gray coat would change my view.

Another thrift store chair which I am too ashamed to tell you how long I have had.  I do so know where the seat is (the screws are another issue) - piled in a box in the garage with 500 hundred frames I was going to make into something.  Someday.  In the "near" future.

So those are my potential candidates.  Which would you paint first?  Come on peeps, pick me a winner.

If you haven't joined me on FB please take a moment to do so.  I'll be posting photos of fun finds at the show all weekend.

Oh, and in other super exciting news I just got myself a real vendor's license from the fine state of Ohio.  Meeting with an accountant on Monday.  Oh my, I think I'm actually a business now.

I will be much less excited Monday afternoon when I'm drowning in all the tax details but for now I'm flying high.

Junque Magnet 2012  - WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!