Trash or Treasure?

Tags

bargain, furniture, my boys, recycled

What do you do when one of your kids comes running into the house yelling ‘mum someones just put an awesome table out for junk collection, you better come and have a look”?

via

Do you:

a) quickly look and see if the windows are open to check how many of your neighbours now know that your a complete scab.

b) go to the front room and take a sneak peek out the curtain and see if it’s worth it

c) go pretend to check the mail/lock the car/weed the garden in order to get a closer look

d) just run straight out there and look at the table?

Well, I chose option d.

I was out the door and at the curb before you could blink already planning what colour to paint it!

Which was a mistake!

What happens when the item is complete rubbish bin material but you don’t want to offend the person standing there putting it out? I know that’s the reason why they put it out, but you never know, some peoples rubbish is pretty damn cool.

I don’t know if I’m alone here (I probably am) but I kind of felt bad for the guy, like sorry dude, your junk is really bad! Even for me! I was standing out there hands in pockets while the child was trying to drag the table over to our yard saying “so…ummm..how’s the rain!?! Got anything better inside that I could take a look at”? (kill me now)

I felt so bad I almost took the table…luckily I came to my senses, plus Mr M would have killed me if I crammed one more piece of broken furniture into our shed!!

(I’ve taken to wearing a hat and dark glasses in the hope that my neighbour won’t recognise me ’til the whole thing blows over – or at least until the table is gone!

So after that unfortunate incident I am stuck in the middle of racing out in case I miss something, and bringing home every piece of garbage I walk past because I feel bad for turning my nose up at it when the dumper is watching. I tell you, it’s hard being a curb junkie!

If that makes any sense and you are still reading….all is not lost….I did find something cool this week:)

Check this little ripper out:

Don’t you just love ebay?

I picked it up yesterday, can’t wait to give it a makeover! Any suggestions on colour??

In the mean time, there is so much going on around here, it’s pretty crazy.

Graces Goodies are working on some super exciting plans that I can hopefully reveal later in the week…

Stay tuned:)

B

Cake baking and a bargain

Tags

bargain, before and after, paint

Isn’t it funny how one person can love something and for the next person it isn’t what they want?

I hate eggs, can’t stand them, when I cook with them I can smell them for days (don’t worry, my family doesn’t suffer from my egg adversion….I DO still cook them).

Anyway, to the point of my rambling….I was in the hardware with my sister one day buying something (I can’t remember what we were actually there for, I probably actually left without it as usual). I asked the guy if he had any spare paint or ‘mis-tints’ as they say in the biz.

My sister thought I had finally fallen out of my tree, going around asking for reject paint. She has a lot to learn!

It turned out that they only had 2 cans left, and that they had only been asked that question once before and the man that asked it had only just, a few weeks before bought all of the ‘rejects’ from the last 12 months!! (where are you man, and what are you painting with all of that wrongly tinted goodness…I’m curious).

So they shook up the 2 tins that were still there and I was holding my breath as they opened them up for me.

This is what I snagged:

For ten bucks!!

Who’s falling out of their tree now??? That’s a whopping 4 litres of paint, for a bargain basement price!

Do you know how many pieces of junk I can paint with these 2 babies?? Add some white and you have a whole new colour combination possilbility!

I am in heaven.

I had been scoping out greys the week before at another hardware (yep that was me that walked out with an unruly amount of paint swatches). So I was absolutely over the moon when they busted these colours out.

I have a few pits and pieces up my sleeve that are just waiting for a touch of stuff up grey, and not exactly right green.

I actually used both of them for the first time on a little project that I mentioned this week that I’m busting to show but just teetering on the finishing touches. It’ll probably take me another 6 months, but hey who’s counting?

I quickly had a go at an old spice rack that’s been kicking around my kitchen and then my craft table, then my beading are for as long as I can remember.

Terrible photo, but I was rushing to get out of the rain and it’s the only one I have.

This is what it looks like now, I’m pretty in love with the colour.

Today it’s a home for some place mats and napkin rings. I’ll probably change my mind tomorrow and put it somewhere else, just ’cause my attention span is so short.

So if you’re not fussy about the exact shade of magenta for your next project, stop in to a paint shop and ask if they have any rejects. Someone else’s eggs might just make the best cake you have ever had!

B

Linking up at:

Yep I’m still here:)

Tags

furniture, recycled, reused

Well, I said I wasn’t very good at finishing things didn’t I???  So if you are still reading…hello old friends, it’s good to see you again!

But seriously, I have been doing a little work lately on a great little piece I scored last year.  Very exciting to be painting again after a few months away!

The weather here has been all over the place, I’m not sure Mother Nature knows it’s meant to be summer here, but she sure isn’t coming to the party this year. I finally got to distressing and waxing this one and I’m loving the effect.

Here’s a little sneak peek at what hours and hours of sanding and painting looks like:

Can’t wait to finish this little treasure and I’m not sure that I’ll be able to bring myself to part with it. As soon as I find my before pics I’ll put the whole project up.

On a funny note, recently my machine/electronic mad youngest (6) was playing with my camera. While I’m here downloading my pics, I spot his collection…..he has managed to photograph every power point, light switch, hinge, fish filter, toilet, tap, tv, lock, switch and working part within his reach! ‘so I can see how to take them apart’.

This scares me for 2 reasons. 1 because he has the tools to do it and knows how to operate them, and 2 because after watching Macgiver the other day came asking me for some duck tape a plastic container and a torch!!

Mental note…..keep an eye on that kid at all times!!

I’ll be back again very soon, for hopefully what will be a very productive and eventful 2012…….stay tuned:)

B

Antique printers tray

Tags

before and after, recycled, retro wombat

In my first post, I mentioned the 847, 965.2 projects that I currently have in my head (and taking up a fair bit of room in the garage).

One of these is my antique printers tray. Oh Yeah I have one of those!!!

I dropped in to The Retro Wombat (seriously I need a 12 step program to get me out of that shop – I am missing it so much since I can’t drive at the moment – Imagine all of the cool stuff that somebody else is buying while I’m away…tragedy)!!!

Anyway, I went for a little look-see,not intending to buy anything Yeh right! and I came across these two printers trays stacked in the corner.

I did the old walk around and see if there’s anything else telling myself I did not need a tray…..well…within about 3 minutes one had a sticker with my name on it and I would be back later to pay and pick it up…doh!

Here she is in all her glory…I am absolutely in love:)

I’m tossing up which way to go with this one, I have 3 options floating around my head:

a. go au naturale- leave as it, crusty bits and all and fill up with rustic bits and pieces in neutral tones, shells and rocks and stuff.

b. give her a sand – leave the broken bits and just smooth around the edges, again with the shells and rocks. Here’s an Etzy version from MyGreenGazebo

c. go the white – clean her up, sand paint distress and fill up with colour, like this super cool version from SayChez!

Or this simple but so stylish idea from art.com:

I am totally stuck and undecided….What should I do…I will ponder a bit….or a lot…help me decide!

For now she’s hanging out slowly collecting trinkets…no particular theme so far.

How funny are lego man’s eyebrows? He looks mad, maybe a problem on the construction site??

Tiny cone shells from our beach..

Little Uran (Astro Boy’s sister) in the middle.

In other news, the day after the kids got healthy and went back to school, guess who wakes up with the flu?? Oh yep, It’s me (good guessing). It’s awesome. NOT. Hope it doesn’t last too long..

B

Popping in here today with thanks to these hosts:

Recycled jewellery stand

Tags

jewellery, recycled, reused, storage

After a bit of a hectic week with sick kids, multiple night time wake ups and dashes to the doctor, the kids are all thankfully back at school today. The sun is shining and I’m a little bored so I decided to go shopping in my garage again (with a little help rummaging through the junk in there)!

I found these frames that I had stored:

We used to use them at market stalls to hang pendants from, and while they did the job at the time, I fell out of love with them and have had them sitting in a box for a year or so. They don’t really fit with our style vision anymore.

I also pulled out this little tray that I picked up somewhere and had given a spray with the trusty paint can (it was a stinky brown bleh colour before).

I thought I might reuse the hooks and save the frames for another project later down the track. So I grabbed a pencil and measure out my spaces for the hooks to go into the tray. I probably should have pre-drilled, but that would have meant another trip into the scary garage to find the drill so I Just went for it and screwed the hooks in where I had marked the dots. Because I’m impatient, I ended up mostly measuring by eye. It worked out ok, I didn’t want it to be ultra perfect!

Hung some of our gorgeous handmade jewellery and ta-da brand new stand!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am thinking of painting the hooks as well…what do you think? I am pretty happy with how it turned out. Pretty good for $0!

I borrowed Cathie’s super awesome camera….can you tell I’m having fun snapping away?

Enjoy the weekend. I hope the sun is shining where you are:)

B

Today I am lucky enough to show off here:

Many thanks:)

Rocking chair before

Tags

chalk paint, recycled, retro wombat, rocking chair

Well it’s raining and cold here south of Sydney today.  It’s pretty miserable, but we really are on the count down to spring so the weather will start getting better very soon!

In a way I am lucky. If I had broken my leg in summer I would have been way way more unhappy. At least now I don’t feel like I am missing out on too much. I couldn’t stand not being able to swim or fish or bbq if the weather was good.

Anyway, since not much is happening around here at the moment, I thought I’d bust out some pictures of the rocking chair that I picked up from my favourite little junk shop The Retro Wombat in Thirroul. They have just made a Facebook page which you can check out here. I’m sure there will be more pics to drool over soon. I can’t wait to get back down there and have a look at what new things have been added to the shop.

If you ever have the chance, get down to Thirroul and check this place out!

Here is my chair, ignore the dust…

I haven’t decided whether to just give the springs a clean or replace them. I think I’ll have to wait until I start stripping her down and seeing what’s working.

I love the detail on the wood:

This baby is going to take a heck of a lot of prep work sanding and stripping and cleaning and getting ready to paint. I’m leaning towards a Shabby white French style. The more I look at her, the more I think this chair would be perfect for chalk paint.

If you paint furniture and you have never heard of Annie Sloan chalk paint you have to check it out. You can have a peek on her website. This paint needs NO prep work! That means no sanding and no priming!! How cool is that? And it distresses really easily and looks just fab.

Unfortunately for me, I can’t find any in Australia at the moment (if anybody reads this and knows where I can get some – please please let me know!!). It’s only available in the USA and UK I think. We never get the good stuff here!!

Hopefully some day soon it may become available Down Under. Until then, us poor Aussies are going to have to slave away with our sandpaper!

Here are a couple of my favourite pieces from a few blogs I stalk that have done amazing things with chalk paint:

Perfectly Imperfect has a great post here with pictures, clips and faq’s about chalk paint. I love how the distressing brings out the details.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Miss Mustard Seed does a great post here painting a buffet and a couple of other pieces with chalk paint. LOVE!

I would love to do a chair with the grain sack thing going on like this one from French Larkspur:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But I’m not convinced it would suit the style of my chair. I’ll have to keep thinking about that.

I can’t wait to see what she looks like when I’m finished. I had planned to sell her, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to let her go!

B

Today I’m linking up here:

 

 

 

 

 

tax and a headache

Tags

organisation, paper clutter, tax

This is what I have been doing:

Tax…pfft, It’s given me a headache, and it’s not fun, and I wish I had a better system….

Which led me to PROCTRASTINATION…as usual:)

But while I was busy not doing the rotten taxes, I found a nicel blog Simplify 101.

I’m pretty sure everybody knows the theory behind organising their lives and wishing they could be more organised but just not knowing exactly how to go about it.

There are a billion websites out there about getting your act together, but it’s nice to come across a real-life person with some easy to follow tips.

It probably isn’t good that all the information I or my family use or need on a semi regular basis is either on my phone, my laptop, buried in a filing cabinet or worse, in my head.

I have come to realise (especially lately) that this information needs to be easily accessible, in one place should the need arise -  i.e. I break my leg and go to hospital, but my kids need a lift to sport and the phone numbers for people that could help are on my phone which has a flat battery because it’s spent the night in emergency with me (you get the drift).

I have already started a folder to keep all the paper junk that comes into the house in one place instead of running around like a mad person trying to find phone numbers, bank details, permission slips for the kids etc. I’m hoping it works for me, I am so sick of all the paper clutter in the house, it really drives me nuts!

I’ll show you how my folder is coming along later but you can get a free mini guide from Simplify 101 on the homepage.

In other non-tax news, I’m hoping to get out and do some more painting tomorrow. I went ‘shopping’ in my garage the other day and found some little baskets that I had in the bin pile. With a coat of paint I’m pretty sure I can bring them back to un-ugly and find a use for them:)

For now, I’m back to the stinky taxes…the only things saving me are the funky star clips holding all the receipts!

B

she sells sea shells

Tags

beach, coast, coral, living in Australia, shells

We are lucky enough to live right near the beach. I would probably have to be dragged kicking and screaming further inland, I love the coast and I love that we can take the kids rock pooling, fishing, crabbing and swimming so easily.

Living in Australia, the beach has been such a huge part of my life since I was a little kid, and I think our kids are lucky that mum wont leave the coast!!

My Mum took these with her super dooper awesome camera, that I sometimes get to play with (if I’m really really nice to her).

So mum took my boys for a walk on the beach one day this week after school while the weather was nice, to look for shells. They came back with the most amazing collection of driftwood, sponges and coral!

When they showed me their haul, I was so sad that I couldn’t go, but the kids had decided to donate me some. Yay!! Straight away I knew I was going to paint it white and pop it on display in the lounge room (cause stuff just looks good white you know).

So this morning while all the kidlets are off being sporting heroes at their various venues, I snuck out to the laundry to check out the stash. I knew it would need a bit of a clean but the stuff STINKS!! I could smell it walking out there, it’s fairly gross…

I thought Id let it soak in the sink in fresh water for a bit, considered adding vinegar or bleach, not quite sure the best solution??

Here they are soaking in the tub:

This next one is my favourite, It’s a little bigger than my outstretched hand and it sits perfectly in a fan shape when you stand it up:

I figured I could let them dry out in the fresh air and sun for a few days, hopefully that will be enough to get rid of the dead octopus smell…I’ll let you know how I go.

Any ideas would be most welcome, I’m desperate to add these to my collection!

B

 

Linking up at:

My boys – mini salesmen

Tags

my boys

So, my boys (5 & 6) are obsessed with money. They seem to have a little collection of coins, that multiply every time they ask me to count it (which is way to often). When I ask them where the money comes from the standard response is ‘I found it on the floor’.

I’m pretty sure if there was any money on the floor I would have found it. So my guess is they are pinching it a) from their sister or b) from me.

So anyway they have decided they are going to have a garage sale this weekend.

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                                               …OH DEAR…

I tried to convince them that they should wait until I’m unbroken, and I could give them a hand but they are determined to see their plan through. So they have left me with a texta and some paper to ‘make signs’ for them while they are at school today. They are going to put the signs up in front of their school friends houses ‘because we are selling things to kids mum, we don’t really have any big people stuff’…ok fair enough..

Here is a list of what they are selling so far:

1 pair of Ben 10 undies – ‘because they are too big now and I’m not really into Ben 10 anymore

1 singlet – because when I put it on, it looks like a dress

1 dump truck – because it looks nice and I think someone will give me a note for it

some homemade cards

and a bag of random stuff that I’m too scared to look at…

So far its sounding like a doozy…

What do they plan to do with this cash injection? 

I’m pretty sure the 6 year old has plans to buy the school canteen. He seems to spend a lot of lunch time hovering around the window, and I think he’s on a first name basis with all the ladies that work there.

The 5 year old has some very elaborate plans for a water feature in the backyard. He sleeps with his Bunner and Home Hardware catalogues under his pillow, and has more tools than his dad, so he’s saving up for a water pump for this fountain of his.

Between them they seem to think that they will make $189. I’m not quite sure how the calculations work for that one, and it will be interesting to see them divvie that up. I’m predicting somewhere closer to the $3 mark, but we will have to wait and see.

If they don’t get side tracked (which is highly possible given their attention spans), I think i might have to resort to begging/bribing somebody to come and buy their junk at the garage sale. They have put so much effort into planning and advertising, I would hate to see them fail. Anybody need some Ben 10 undies? Size 5, slightly loose in the elastic?!?

B

Recycled cupboard goodness

Tags

before and after, handles, paint, recycled, retro wombat, victoria street

I wish I had taken some before pics of this cute little cupboard that I picked up earlier this year from Retro Wombat. Its made of a mish-mash of fence posts and pine, and I fell in love with it when I saw it sitting out in the weather so I had to bring it home with me.

It was covered in layers and layers of thick white paint, and under that some awful gooey yellow sticky stuff. I think I used a whole tin of paint stripper and a million sheets of sandpaper on this baby…only to paint it white again! But I’m glad I took the time, it looks so much better now than it did.

I used a mix of some paint that I had – Dulux Fair Bianca – and probably about 50% water, so it was a runny consistency, then I rubbed it on with a piece of old towel to get a washed out look.

Of course, OH came home and asked me when I was going to finish painting it….he just doesn’t get the whole undone shabby look, but I’m working on him slowly:)

I got this gorgeous little bird handle and latch to replace the old wooden knob and latch that were falling apart for around $14 from a great little shop in Bulli, Victoria Street Restorations. I just love that place. It’s packed to the brim with furniture and nik-naks, books and boxes, soft furnishings, mirrors and all kinds of cool stuff! You can be in there for 2 hours and not get to see everything!

So I whacked on the hardware and now she sits in our loungeroom near the front door. We keep the kids games and puzzles hidden inside. It’s pretty overcast here today so I’m not getting the best light, but you get the idea:

I’m totally trying with the styling thing, but I can’t move stuff around so it’s staying for now:)

I have a bunch of other recycled bits and pieces in this room that I haven’t posted about yet. Nothing matches and nothing goes with our vomit vomit lovely pink walls, but I am slowly building my collection for when I win lotto and move into my dream farmhouse on the beach (I have it all planned out in my head).

The plant my sister got me last week for my birthday. Its called a Zanzibar Gem.  I adore the glossy green foliage and check out the label:

Perfect for me!!

I’m off to the physio today. Hopefully some good news, I might be able to get rid of this nasty plaster and get into a groovy little space boot type thingy. I’m dreaming of having a shower without a garbage bag taped around my leg…we will see…

B

I’m showing this off at: