Trash to Treasure

S: When I was in college I went out to check the mail and spied an old door set out with the neighbor's trash. I walked across the street to take a look and decided it had potential. So I picked up the entire door and carried it into my garage. The door had a decorative metal grate on the front, which I unscrewed from the rest of the door, then returned the door to the neighbor's trash...I wonder if they ever noticed. I gave it a couple of coats of spray paint to hide it's original shiny brass color.

This piece has had many uses, I hung it over my couch in college to separate the living room from the dining room.

Zach and I hung it on the wall in our first apartment, with a painted blue rectangle behind, to add a little color to the all white walls.

Now it's out on the patio of our home.

I wonder what we'll use if for next. It's like the Barbie of home decor, how many careers has that doll had?

Misty Ridge Designs Giveaway!

Misty Ridge Designs is hosting a giveaway for a set of bags from my etsy shop! The giveaway will run from Monday, September 28th through 9pm (CST) Thursday October 1st. Visit her blog and check it out!

Garage Organization Part 1

S: I promised I would share pictures of all Zach's hard work cleaning up and organizing the garage. I'll start with something little, that makes a big difference, at least to us.

Both of our garage door openers were wired along the ceiling of the garage, instead of in the attic, which is directly above, and easily accessible. This really annoyed two perfectionists such as ourselves. When we replaced the door from the garage in to the house, we had to pull all the wiring to the buttons away from the door frame. Then they just kind of hung there from the ceiling, taunting us with their glowing green buttons...for months, and months, until we had time to rewire them. You had to dodge them on your way in and out of the door not to mention reach up above you and hope you pressed the correct button for whichever door you wanted open.

Zach even took time to make a wooden piece to mount the buttons to, which I painted white before we mounted it to the wall. For the next week or so after it was fixed, I would still reach above me looking for the buttons, until I remembered they were on the wall, where they belong.

Trash to Treasure

S: There are several items in our home that I'm quite fond of, and they didn't cost a penny. I found them all patiently waiting for the garbage man to take them to their final resting place.

This is the first post in a mini series of the trash-to-treasure finds in our home. I hope you're inspired to do a little curbside rescuing yourself. Also, thanks to my mom who snagged some of these items for me!

Have you ever been driving down the street and seen an antique solid wood desk set out for trash day? My mom's neighbor was throwing away said item, that had been sitting unused in their garage. When I found it, it was painted in a dark glossy brown....not attractive at all. But it had all it's original hardware and some great details. Luckily it was on wheels, so I got my mom and we rolled it down the street to her house. I spent hours with paint stripper and scraper in hand, trying to remove what turned out to be three layers of paint. At some point I stepped back, realizing I would never get all the paint off, and also realizing that hey, I kind of liked how it looked. It definitely has a shabby chic look to it...emphasis on the shabby. But I adore this little desk. Zach not so much, since he bumps his knees when sitting at it.

Can you spot the needle felted monkey?

I scream you scream

Carvel and Coldstone are both giving away free ice cream today! The weather is pretty cool here in Austin, but who can pass up free ice cream?

Squeaver

S: I sat down the other day to make a needle felted squirrel, and ended up with a beaver. We'll call him Squeaver. I had sketched out plans for a squirrel but as I started felting the head I began to have doubts.

"What does this look like to you, Zach?"

"A groundhog...or a beaver."

"Or a squirrel?"

"No, not at all, that's a beaver."

Sigh. but no worries...slight change in plans but all he needed was a tail to become a full fledged beaver. He also got a little vest, buttoned on with a button that I made from polymer clay. I decided to start making some of my own buttons for my needle felts since they are so expensive to buy. I think the first batch turned out pretty well.

Z: In the days of yore, Sarah would have taken the Squeaver to market and she would have sat in the hot sun all day eating watermelon and fanning her pretty sweaty face hoping that someone would walk along and fancy her homemade needle felted craft. Yawn. We live in the digital age people! This is what happened: Sarah made a digital post to sell her non-digital Squeaver on Etsy and within 30 seconds someone had digitally purchased it. I believe that's a digital record. Sarah, in her humility, was not going to reveal this to our blog readers, but I'm here to verify that she made the fastest sale of a needle felted Squeaver ever.

S: I also searched the yard for acorn tops to use for these felted ones. They look pretty cute resting in a leaf-shaped dish that I have.

Table Runners

S: My latest project was to make a table runner for for the dining room table...which turned in to three table runners. What can I say, I'm addicted to making things.

For the fall, I made two burlap table runners with ruffled ends. (two different lengths to use when the table leaves are in.) I added brown velvet ribbon to the ruffles on the shorter table runner.

I made both burlap table runners for less than $5 each. If you can sew a straight line you can make one of these!

I also made a Christmas table runner with some red and white fabric I had leftover from another project.