Friday, July 9, 2010

A Magazine Drawer Rack

My ONLY supplier (enabler) of junk has been my mom since I started my creative ambitions. 

Well folks,

“the times they are a changin’"

Yes… I have now OFFICIALLY put a good friend of mine on the supplier/enabler list.

This is the same friend who gave me the trailer gates.

Twice more, she has supplied me with potential creative pieces  (one being an awesome find from the side of the road… that will be a later post!)

And this…

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A night stand.

This was in her garage… until she called and asked me if I wanted it.

“Let me look at it.”

Oh yeah…

“I’ll take it!”

The first thing I did with this piece was take the drawer out because it didn’t look to be the original.  Not sure.

But I knew the drawer could be used for something special… the rest of the night stand will have to wait!

I looked at it, I shook it (don’t know why), flipped it around and propped it up for some serious thinkin’. 

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And that is when a magazine rack idea was born.

  And of course this creation would have a twist… you’ll see in a lil’ bit.

So… Let’s get started!

  I took the back off… cause it was nasty.

Found some scrap wood from my clock table.

(Because it’s all about using what you’ve got if you got it… right?)

Measured and cut a new back… but this time I wanted an uneven slat look (like an old crate)…  so I cut my backing into uneven strips.

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Then, I sanded the side edges of each slat to round them off a bit.

Next, I painted the drawer and the slats…

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and pieced it all together.

I even had an extra handle that I used to replace the old one.

(Because it’s all about using what you’ve got if you got it!)

Doesn’t it look cute and “cottagey” this way?

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So… now for the rack.  What should I use?

Hmmm…

A piece of wood?  Spindles?  A License Plate? 

Yep… You heard me… an old TENNESSEE license plate!

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That’s my twist.

You know my first supplier/enabler… mom? 

Well, she had bunches of vintage license plates (what some would consider junk)…

I actually sold some for her on ebay . 

But, I kept this one and it fits perfect! Nice and snug… tight enough to hold my heavy mags!

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(If it hadn’t, I would have glued a piece of wood to the front of the drawer and nailed the tag to that.)

Plus… it adds a splash of color to the piece.

So there you have it… a magazine rack drawer or a magazine drawer rack!

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Or should I just call it a “junk” drawer?

:)

To see more decorative ideas on this drawer…

CLICK HERE.

 

Thanks For Stoppin’ By!

 

  

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Crime Scene Investigation… “Oh deer!”

 

Well…  I woke up this morning and decided to take a stroll around the yard to find this…

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and this

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and this

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My flowers chewed up and spit out!

Remnants laying in the yard!

Tracks in the grass!

((((STOP THE MADNESS!!))))

Such a vicious crime scene…

(SIGH) I feel dizzy!

Well… I now know

how The Pioneer Woman feels about her cow Daisy!

You see… we have lots of deer around here and in fact our neighbor likes to feed them.

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And we enjoy watching and taking pictures of them!

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The crazy thing is… in the three years we have lived here… they have never wreaked havoc like this in my yard…

(Ok… so it was only 3 plants…  SO FAR!)

In fact… I have never known them to come around to the front of the house where my flowers are.

Now, I’m wondering about all my other apparently mouth watering flowers…  sitting there so tempting and delicious looking!

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I was hoping to show some pictures when my flower beds mature…

But the question is now… will they let them?  Hmmmm.

Oh “deer”!

 

Monday, July 5, 2010

Oh My… all I can say is WOW!

 

You may have already seen this… but when I stumbled upon it my jaw hit the ground!

I wanted to share this with you because I found it so inspirational as I am currently working on my white back porch!

This savvy, creative lady… Sandra Foster…

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transformed a small hunting cabin on her farm into this adorable Victorian Cottage!

If you like shabby chic… then this is definitely for you!

Ms. Foster created (I mean completely transformed) her “refuge”  by shopping salvage stores and flea markets.

The New York Times did a feature write up on her cottage… you can find it here.

The article is called

In the Catskills, Comfort in a Gingerbread House

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The article only had a few pics online that I could copy/paste to show you …

but here is the link to more photos by Trevor Tondro.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/06/23/garden/20100624-chic-slideshow.html

I love her story!

And I am still drooling over her cottage.

Sandra Foster also has a blog…

My Shabby Streamside Studio

Here you can see more photos of the cottage and her journey as she decorates her gorgeous refuge!

LOVE IT!!

Thanks For Stoppin’ By!