Lucky Finds

Since we've been here we've been hitting yard sales and estate sales, thrift stores and junk stores….looking for the special something that will fit our needs. Here are some of our finds.

We found license plates! This one is from the year our home was built and we found two more, from our birth years….not going to post those…gal has'ta have some secrets. Anyway, I plan to build something with these, so stay tuned!

At a yard sale I found an antique violin case, all wood. Needs a bit of TLC and to be relined. Anyone one have an idea where I can get self adhesive red velvet/felt by the yard? Also have some plans with this. Its all about repurposing! 

I love this pot, enjoyed many a cups of ice tea…but something is wrong with it. From the dark spots in the glaze it sweats sticky stuff….ick…I'm afraid of lead poisoning….something I learned about in ceramics class…. If the glaze is cracked or the surface is not totally covered, lead can leach out of the ceramic into your food or liqiuds….Maybe I'll use it as a vase for dried flowers??

A lucky find for 2 dollars at a garage sale. It is now in my craft room, used to store odds and ends.

This was something brand new - The cup in the middle is from my set of "good" dishes. Almost all of which made the move without a scratch…almost. I lost 3 soup/cereal bowls. I have been looking for replacements, but so far I haven't been lucky…till I saw these on sale at Ross. They are BIG soup bowls with lids that i can also put in the ovens for individual casseroles, deserts, baked over what nots….unlimited possibilities and the red matches the red in my dishes perfectly! Now I just need to finish refinishing the dining table….

Love the patina on this brass vase we found at our favorite thrift store….I just have to resist the inner urge to polish it!

I love the giant Cognac glass. It is mouth blown and very thin walled. So many things I could use it for…plan to have it out on our new porch.

I

 know, I said I have enough green glass, but it would have been perfect for lilacs….my bush out front was starting to bloom and I could just see them in there….

I didn't know that it would freeze again and we'd lose all our beautiful lilacs….there's always next year...

Now this was a great find, a 4 GALLON mason jar with lid - it is amazing. We are guessing that in some point in time it was used for pickles, right now it is our change collection jar - will just take us 3409193845904832759023 years to fill it - but boy when it's full, we can get something really special!!

There is more to share, but it will have to wait for another post. So for now Good night and

Aloha A Hui Hou!!

A Little Repurposing

As you can tell by my absence - we are really busy and working hard around the ranch.

In July our contractors come back to start a big project on the exterior of the house - we are getting a new roof for the porch, extending it and enclosing it - can't wait.

I'll fill you in on the details of that later Now I want to tell you about this project, that has something to do with the porch.

When we bought the house my mother in law gave us several boxes with stuff "that we might be able to use" but just never got around to looking at….On this trip I did and deemed that a lot of it was yard sale material and I almost put these in the yard sale pile when an idea hit me…

I could make something out of these….just had to see if I could get the other part I needed.

Went to several stores and finally found what I was looking for at the world market store.

Click photo for source

I picked the 30 light set and I'm thinking right about now you are getting an idea of what's going to happen here…

Right!

I'm going to use the jello molds as lampshades!

But I didn't have enough. I got really lucky at the thrift store and got a bunch for less than two dollars, but it still wasn't enough.

I checked eBay and there were a lot to be had there, just the prices were all over the place and I would still have to pay shipping.

Wound up getting the seven I needed at an antique store for 8.-, so so far we are at $40.- for the lights.

Once I got them home and looked at my drill bits I noticed that even my largest wasn't big enough for the task so I wound up getting this puppy (which cost another 40 bucks….any suggestion what I can make to get some use out of it???)

Oh my dad is so proud that his girl likes fancy tools.

I was able to use my new to me drill press that I bought at an estate sale when we first got here.

The only way that I could drill them was by cutting a piece of wood for the inside so it doesn't get all bent out of shape when I secured them with the vice.

After they were drilled I took the bulb out and put the "shade" between the bulb and the socket…some holes were a tad big, others I had to work a bit to make it fit, but over all everything worked out fine.

Now these are my "I'm so excited that they're done and look cool" pics, I'll share better ones when we have them hanging out on the porch

So that's my project - hope you like it! But stay tuned, another idea hit me,  to be continued!!

Aloha A Hui Hou!!