This Weeks Treasures 3

Found at the CURB

Most of the yard sales for this area are over for  the season, but lucky for me there are still some curbly treasures out there.  Hubby and I went for a drive this morning and decided to head to a nearby town for some breakfast.  On the drive back I spied a bunch of  doors  and windows in front of an old motel that was closed down. We had already passed the driveway when I spotted "Free" painted on one of the doors. Well you know me enough by now to know I got really excited and I couldn't get hubby to turn around fast enough. We had been to a   re-store on Saturday and the cheapest solid wood doors I could find were $50 so this definitely warranted some investigation.

 What an incredible find.  Here were four Solid wood doors, very old, very chippy and very beautiful.  Two of them even had the glass intact.
And a bonus, a motel style double headboard. 
Unfortunately the windows were rotten and unsalvageable. 

See the pretty trim board below the window on the pink door. And the mail slot cut out. 
Fabulous.
I wish I had taken a picture of them before we got them out of my Escape.  They wouldn't quite fit so they hung out the back about a foot and we tied the back door down with the cord out of a hoodie. They do say, "Where there's a will......" 

 I have been looking at projects made from old doors recently  and am really excited because now I can actually make some of them :)




Bye for now.... and have a good day everyone.

A dining room buffet makeover

I've recently done a few pieces of furniture that I have for sale in a beautiful antique blue colour that I absolutely love. 
My buffet and shutters in my dining room needed a makeover so I mixed up a batch of my homemade chalk paint and got busy.

 

The shutters had been painted in a green that matches my backsplash but that needs a makeover as well .
My wonderful daughter in law gave me the buffet recently,  but it was dated and in desperate need of a pick me up.








 
I use this area for storage and a coffee bar to save space in my tiny kitchen.

First I got some help from hubby to lift  the buffet onto my work table and  remove all the drawers and doors. I had no intentions of being  belly to floor with a paint brush in hand trying to paint the bottom edges.

After a good wash to remove any grease and cleaning agents I got busy painting.  This is the outside after the first coat. It only needed 2 coats because this paint has awesome coverage.

I wanted to paint the inside as well. I will be using this piece a lot and the lighter colour will make it easier to find things.   And to be honest it will inspire me to keep it tidier as well :)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 Much better.

 

 

 

 

I took the handles off the doors and raised them off the work surface by setting them on a few plastic bowls.  I painted the hinges because I didn't want them to stand out.

 

 

I painted the body  with a lighter shad of the blue, by adding 1 part blue to 3 parts white.  I used the full  blue for the top of the buffet, the door fronts and the shutters and shelf.

 

I got the mirror at a yard sale a few weeks ago and thought it would look good here. 

 




I only reused one set of shutters instead of the solid shutter wall I had before.

 

Here's the buffet all finished. After painting I gave it two coats of paste wax to protect it.

 I really want to get new  handles, but can't find ones I like so for now I will use the originals.

 

 I've decorated with a few of the items I had on the shutters and shelf from before.  

 

I don't quite think I'm done with this yet. 

 

 

 

I love these little glass jars I got at a yard sale.   And of course a chocolate and a vanilla candle will make everything smell awesome as well.

 

 

Just a bit of what's on the top shelf.  The tins were my grandmothers. The dark blue tin always had buttons in it and the light blue one still has a little label on the lid that says ribbons and bows.  Memories of grandma's sewing room at the end of her hallway linger with the tins

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And of course I love the old mason jars, one is a Ball and the smallest is a Crown .











I have a small collection of old wooden rolling pins and a few pieces of old style kitchen tools.  I'm considering the shutters as a display area if I can find a new home for the old family photos. And maybe a nice large piece of subway art between the shutters. What do you think?









WOW!   I'm not even done with this project and I'm already trying to figure out how to change it up. Oh well. It's really a lot better than it was.  I'm really happy with the buffet and that was my main goal here. I love having the extra storage space too.  All in all  I think it was a well spent weekend.



Bye for now ... and have a good day everyone.
 

Back to school lunch choices

This post is a bit out of the norm for me but I really wanted to share this. 
I saw this post for a really great idea for back to school lunch prep that allowed kids to choose their own lunch and snacks each day for school. 
I remember from the days when my own boys were still in school how frustrating  it was when their lunch boxes came home half eaten because they weren't happy that day with the choices I had made for them.  I also remember how hard it was to get them to eat healthy from a packed lunch. 
This post is about a way to let your kids pick their own lunch and snack items and still know they are getting a healthy balance of food items.  It also means they might actually eat their lunch because they picked it themselves. 
I know a few well organized moms who do up a ton of food choices on the weekend to make lunch making easier through the week, but why not take it one step further and actually let the kids pack their own lunches.  This method lets them do that while still maintaining the control over their diet that you need to keep them eating healthy.
An added benefit of this idea..... it helps develop good decision making skills. 
 
I recommend this post to anyone with kids.  Just click on the highlighted words above to read the complete post with the instructions.


Bye for now ... and have a good day everyone.

This Weeks Treasures 2

The long weekend in September means different things for different people. End of summer vacation and beginning of school being the  main one.
For me I love that it's a huge yard sale weekend.  People tend to put out things they have a hard time letting go of. But now  its the last chance before winter and if it doesn't go now it's  a long time until the next big yard sale weekend.  Around here that's usually the long weekend in May.

Here's what I brought home this weekend. Actually I went to a few places and got a head start by picking out a few things during the previous week.

I brought the table in this picture home on Tues evening because I knew it would go early if left for the yard sale scheduled on Saturday.  I think the word is out that I'm looking for stuff to do over, otherwise I wouldn't have heard about this one. It's really nice to get the inside scoop. :)

This coffee table was a pre- yard sale  purchase as well.  It's very old pine and still in good shape. I think this one is a keeper. We have been looking for the right sized  table for it seems like forever.

I found a bunch of little wooden craft projects at one of my first stops on Saturday morning. Of course they need some attention and maybe some re-inventing. 

And this home made rack for holding 2oz. craft paints was almost a steal.  The lady that had it  said her husband made it for her but she wasn't painting anymore. And it came with all the paints you see here. I hope she knows it has a good home now, where it will be appreciated every time I choose a paint colour for a project.  This piece is definitely not for resale.

You can never have enough shutters.  I think that should go without saying.

And this stash of windows and crates I found at a single stop.  The top crate is for bottles of HP sauce and someone has written on the side "for Haliburton". Probably the original delivery instructions. 










So... what do you think of this weeks finds?
Did you find anything wonderful this weekend?


Bye for now ... and have a good day everyone.