Yard Sales and Golden Animals

It is slowly turning into a warm hot Saturday, so I'm glad that yard sales happen first thing in the morning. Scores were few and far between today, but they were still to be had. In addition to what is pictured, I got two new books for $0.50 each and Book-opoly (where the classics are the properties, I'm quite excited to play).

So, everything on the table cost a grand $5.50. The cast iron pot was $1.00 and everything else was $4.50 a this really spectacular yard sale. Seriously, those saucers were five cents each. Brilliant!

See these funny animals? Well, there were colored on with sharpie and, well, I don't have any use for little plastic features.

These, however, are brilliant and I can totally use them!

Don't mind him, he is only looking for 24K bananas. 

Joann's came to town and I got to work ...

Montrose has come up in the world - we got a Joann's Fabric! Seems like a little thing, but it was just the thing to inspire my creativity. So I broke out the dye and the paint for a couple of projects.

First, it was my first dyeing experience. Half decent and half a disaster.

Here are my original pieces - a HUGE crochet table cloth that was in slight tatters and a terrible greenish color. I also had two vintage pillow shams that were stained ... this caused problems.

Here is the beginning.

Okay, here is the problem. The stains pulled more color than the rest of the pillowcase. No where I read could explain this to me, so I'm assuming that these must have been oily stains? I can't find answers on the internet. However, I do know that, in the future, I need to check those stains a little more closely!!

Here I had some more success. A lovely, bright fuchsia in a solid, all-over color. Even the patches pulled the same shade. I was VERY pleased. Now, if only to decide what to do with the thing so it doesn't totally fall apart! 

Tablecloth $1.00

Dye $2.88

Project Total $3.88

Then I started to work on these chairs that I bought at a yard sale last week for $5 each.

Using tape I started in with the somewhat random stripes.

Chair all finished! I'm quite pleased with the results.

Chairs $10.00

Paint ... FREE

Project Total $10.00

This is why I'm up early on a Saturday

Well it is pretty humid today for dry ole Colorado - but that didn't stop me from getting up early and attacking some yard sales. The silver I bought last week, but forgot to take pictures (I got some great vintage linens for a steal as well).

The booty!

I got a box of silver plate silverware for a grand $2.00

Did you say Christmas Crap? I LOVE it!! $0.50 for all

Cute mug set from the 50's (looks like I got it at Target today) $1.00

Two Silver Candlesticks $0.50

I think this is going to become a robot - hehehe - Tin $0.50

Cigar Tin $0.25

Bundt Pan $0.50

Both are for robots

My grandma always gave us juice in these jelly jars - box of 30 $2.00

Vintage, metal fram $0.25

Children's Chalk Board from the 60's $3.00

Matching Wooden Chairs $5.00 each

Look how intricate the pattern is! These are nice and solid ... not shaky at all. I can't wait to see what color these end up being!!

Grand Total (including last week's silver)

$20.50

Bye Drab Bar Cart

Last year as I was getting ready to move into 606 I spotted the cutest little bar cart for a song at a yard sale. Seeing as I'm not cool enough to actually need a bar cart (or I'm too cool to need one as a friend pointed out) - this has been housing a miscellaneous mess in my dining room for the last year. I recently cleared off the top to make room for my record player - so now, in addition to my mess, there are always records pilled around it.

It was time for an intervention. My records were all in the living room, the player was in the dining room, the whole stand was in need of some TLC. So I took the Miss-nice-girl gloves off and brought out the spray paint to turn drab in fab (fabulized, that is).

Taking some inspiration from pinterest I decided to brighten up the gold and go with a bright orange.

Step 1. Remove junk (which is currently piled on my dining table) and clean. I used windex to cut through the icky and then soap and water. It looked much better than this before I started painting.

Step 2. Sand. Hahaha, gotcha didn't I! I knew this one was going to need quite a few coats of paint, but I was feeling too lazy to sand. I decided I'd know before the second coat if it "really" needed sanding ... it didn't. However, I originally intended to paint all of the wood orange and the metal frame gold - but the wooden slats didn't come (easily) out of the frame, so they were added to the gold paint.

Step 3. Let dry. Forever. Usually Montrose rocks about 8% humidity, so 50% is a lot for us right now. This meant that I waited 12 hours before putting the shelves into the bar cart.

Step 4. Fill with fabulized goodies. After waiting the full 24 hours for the cart to fully dry I was able to create the record station I needed. Moving it into the living room also puts the music in a location that moves it through the house (I might be imagining that ... or making it up).

Project Cost

Bar Cart           $8.00

Spray Paint      $9.00

 Total              $17.00

Another Art Project

Maybe you saw my previous post where I worked on an art project.

The full post and tutorial can be found here

Then last summer I bought this hot mess at a second hand store for $0.50

I've been ignoring it for ages, but then last weekend I had a moment of brilliance and it went from blah to fabulous in under an hour.

First, you'll need some electrical tape and tape your pattern on. I would have used the letters again on this ... but the oil paint was too thick and lumpy.

Then you have to spray paint it gold. I didn't go too heavy, but I like the pattern showing through. 

Lovely.

Now hanging in my dining room. Art work for $0.50

Oscars Quest

First, here are some of my favorite moments from the Academy Awards 2013:

10. Adele winning an Oscar after a magical performance!

9. When Kirsten Stewart left the stage.

My favorite tweet after the fact was "has anyone told Kirsten Stewart she doesn't have to be a movie star?"

Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) was awesome though.

8. William Shatner/Captain Kirk giving advice.

7. Favorite dress number one: Amy Adams

6. Favorite dress number two: Jennifer Lawrence

5. The cast of the Avengers presenting.

4. The cast of Les Mis singing live gave me the chills.

3. Jennifer Lawrence winning the Oscar for Best Actress

2. Seth MacFarlane's hilarious job as Host. Who knew he had such a great voice!

1. Watching Joseph Gordon-Levitt (and those other two men) sing and dance. Those dimples ... anyway, moving on.

Now on to the point ... my challenge for myself (please participate if you'd like). I love the challenge of watching the movies that win Best Picture, so this year I'm going to watch them all. I've currently seen 26 of 85, but I'll be watching those over again.

That means two to three movies a week for the rest of this year. I'm not sure I have that much time ... but we shall see!

What Did You Do Today?

I really try and keep Saturdays open for things I want to do. I clean the house Fridays when I get home from work. I go grocery shopping and do laundry on Sunday afternoons. Saturdays are my days.

Since  my living room is back to normal, I decided I'd set up my new television (Merry Christmas from my cool parents) and sound bar (Merry Christmas to me, lol, I spoil myself) on my new television stand (thank-you Target). 

Hahaha, you know how people make fun of assembling things from Ikea? At least Ikea things come with instructions. I open the box, no instructions. I go online, no instructions. I call, at least two weeks to mail instructions. I told her to forget it - surely I could figure this out. It probably took me twice as long as it should have, but here is my lovely television stand. 

I was insistent on a stand with wheels because, when people come over, I don't want a television in front of my giant fireplace. Instead, I want to see the fireplace and not look like my living room is really a television room.

Now all I need is a blue ray player for this room. But things come in time.

The bigger project I worked on today were the chalkboards. Since they were still hanging out in their Christmas glory I thought I'd refresh them with some love quotes (hey, not all single girls are anti-Valentine's day. I love "love quotes"). 

Since it is in my hallway, it is SO hard to get a picture of the whole thing. This is the best I could do. I need a wide angle lens ... for my iPhone. 

This sonnet (#27) by Pablo Nurda is one of my favorites.

(lol, see my finger here - I didn't until I posted it)

Here is the other end ... and some chalkboard art tips

1. You know all those stencils and everything you can get? Forget about it - anything in your own hand is better! Don't like your handwriting? I don't think anyone does - I'm always getting compliments on mine and I think it looks so ... normal. 

2. Start with a really clean board - like wet the whole thing down and let it dry. If you make a mistake, use a damp paper towel to fix it. 

3. Want to emphasize a word? Use two colors (my favorite trick). It doesn't even look like two colors - it just looks awesome when to write one on top of another.

4. Mix up your fonts. I have three that I can use (regular printing, handwriting, and block letters) then mix them with caps and lower case. Once you add in your different colors and ways to fill them in you have a whole variety.