Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Some Thrift store finds...

Now that christmas items are showing up at the thrift stores I am stocking up.  These were not repurposed so much as there were incredibly good deals that I had to get they required almost no repair, just some minor adjustments and/or cleanups

This one was part of a lot of new items they had received from a department store.  It was a display that was originally marked at $39.99, can you believe that a 4 foot cute little fabric snowman...  Well I paid only $5 for this little man.


This my daughter loves so much, it is one of those hallmark displays you can get by buying 5 cards and spending $20 or so dollars on.  Well in the store it was also marked $5 but when you pushed the on button it didn't come on.  I still took a chance because it was very cute even if I had to get my thread puller out to remove the button.  When I got home and put fresh batteries in, it worked perfectly singing... "outside it perfect weather for a sleigh ride together with you"





This tree is a little cutey I picked up for a couple of dollars all it needed was a tree skirt.  It is pre-lit and has little random birds and flowers on it.  for now it sits in my bathroom. with the snowman/penguin trio!
It was a good day for deals.  And is proves my theory that Christmas decorating doesn't have to be expensive and the more we share and re-use the better off our resources are.

I was looking for something to flex my creative muscle with by repurposing something but it was still fun... I guess I will have to go out again. oh darn!

Friday, November 19, 2010

Repurposed find

While out shopping with my hubby, we found this mirrored bathroom shelf, at Lowe's on clearance for $10 it was missing some hardware.  We took it home, and it sat in the garage for a while.  One day while cleaning the garage we thought about it, and tried to hang in the bathroom.  However it just didn't work.  Too big, too bulky, didn't fit up to the studs just right, off center... blah blah, yada yada and all that sorta annoying stuff!


This is the beautiful corners of it, 
I love the colors of this thing too!


Sometime along the way in my life I started to collect salt n pepper shakers.  I am not sure how this happened but somehow it did, I woke up one morning and had more shakers than a restaurant!  My smart hubby suggested the bathroom shelf for it.  The spot in the hall fits it perfectly, and the only thing we had to do was hang it, and un-install the magnets for the mirrored doors.

Super simple re-purposed shelf

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

My Daddy's Fishing Lures... which haven't been used in 30 years!

A recent post gave me the idea about another frame idea... this one required no frame upgrade.  The frames were 50% at the thrift store, so I checked them out.  and found 2 I really like.

This frame had two mini african masks in them, the inside was really easy to get to on both projects, just unscrewed the back and gently pulled the masks off then glued my lures in place.





Same process with this one but I did have to paint the background black, because I wanted it to really contrast this old lure.   These look really great on the wall, and everytime I see them I am reminded of fishing with daddy.

This is an old tray I found at a yard sale I only paid a dollar for it.  I just screwed in a hangar on the back.  The little fuzzy thing is a lure a picked up at a sale.  I am planning on eventually putting the rest of my collector lures in this, but I couldn't wait to display it.

I love fishing and I do have tons of lures I use all the time, but sometimes I find something that I just have to have but don't want to use anymore.  Lures are a beautiful thing, and lure making will be my retiring hobby.

Monday, November 1, 2010

before and after picture woes....

I look around at all the things I have found and repurposed but never took before pictures.  But that is okay, lesson learned time to move on.... 

This being one of them.  The sculpture is something I did a while ago, and it looked terrible just dangling on the wall.  Shockingly canvases that small are very expensive.  While out running errands I found this canvas, it was actually bright lime green with an blue elephant on it, for only $1!   So I grabbed that guy and took him home to my studio and slapped some black paint on it, and mounted my sculpture.


Now imagine a grandma's broach, or grandpa's old wire rimmed glasses, or fishing lure mounted there.  Or some really cool keepsake you have found while treasure hunting.   Canvas doesn't have to be a place for a painted scene or mounted sculpture it can be whatever you want!