weekend finds

Happy Halloween!

 I hope if you have little ones at home who are trick or treating tonight, that you have a fun, safe and memorable night.

Especially those of you in the Northeast!  wow! We've had a lot of windy and rainy nights on Halloween, but snow??!

That's crazy!

Over the weekend I had my sale, and then Sunday I was anxious to get going on some more stuff for the next one.  

I'm on the hunt for some more Styrofoam cones- one thing I did sell out of on Saturday were some vintage paper trees.  They turned out pretty well, but I forgot to take photos!!!  :(  As soon as I have some more made up, I will show you.  (maybe even a tutorial.....)

Here's some of the goodies I came home with for restocking.

These gorgeous silver pieces.  I'm not sure if they are sugar bowls, but they are gorgeous. I especially love the one on the left with the monogram!

I am really not into figurines of any kind, but this one really caught my eye.  This vintage Madonna is stamped on the bottom, Reis Japan.  Reis makes a lot of animal figurines, but I can't seem to find much on one like this.  The colors are so bright, not the muted pastels that you typically see on Madonnas.  I also loved the gold filigree print on it.

This is in pristine condition.  I can't believe her fingers aren't broken off!  Recently I've really had a 'thing' for Catholic art. I think all of Rachel Ashwell's lovely pieces that she features in her books has given me an appreciation for the beauty of it.
I grew up Protestant, and my only time in a Catholic service was when I was in in high school.  We had a French exchange student staying with us for part of a summer, and thought she might enjoy seeing an American service.  Off we went, totally clueless.  We didn't know that we weren't supposed to participate in communion.  At all of our services, if you've made a profession of faith, you are able to take communion.
When I got up to the front and the priest presented the elements, I was totally unprepared for wine in the communion cup!!! Not to mention, when I was taking my sip, and looking into the bottom of the cup, there was part of the bread from some one else floating in the bottom.  EW.
Needless to say there were several other faux pas we did during the service, the funniest story coming from our exchange student.  She said that the person in front of her didn't quite get the bread on their tongue, and it instead dropped down their shirt- to which they replied "Oh S***!!"  right in front of the priest!
Funny stuff.  Off of that tangent.

A gorgeous pink and gold platter.  You would not believe how much.  $3.99!!! 

It's got wonderful patina, and again, a beautiful monogram.

 

Lots of red vintage books right now.  I am collecting them for the sale.  I found this gorgeous unused red scrapbook yesterday.

Ok, so you have to get past the very dated painting inside, but another item I always am on the hunt for are wooden oval frames.  They are very hard to find!  This one was gorgeous.  Not sure if I will be keeping it gold.  I also plan on recycling the canvas!  :)

Another collectible of the moment for me are white soup tureens or white ceramic / porcelain urns.  I found this lovely one.  It must have had some pretty yummy soups in it because Bella was very interested in this piece!!

These will turn into tree bases.  I am using a faux tree for the photo here, but my plan is to purchase either rosemary or live mini trees for the "planters".   I also picked up this cute little red lantern.  So cheery, it had me at first glance.

This vintage Samsonite suitcase is in mint condition.  Seriously, it looks like it was used maybe once!  A couple black scuffs on the exterior, but the interior is brand spankin new!

My final show and tell was actually my first and most exciting find yesterday.  (Yes, I'm weird like that)

I have been searching for an old metal snow shovel.  My inspiration for my little metal welcome sign for our fall front porch stemmed from an idea I saw in Country Home magazine (RIP).  

The Junk gals had painted a welcome sign on an old snow shovel like this one!  So now I have a winter version!  :)  So excited.  I'm actually not keeping this one- unless it doesn't sell at the the fair.  And then it's mine.  All mine.  

he he!  ;)

I hope you have a wonderful time tonight.  Say a prayer for my little Bella this week.  She's going in for surgery for her patella (knee).  She's had it done before, but last time when I dropped her off, I cried.  So maybe say a prayer for me too.

Have a great day.

Sharing with:

 Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays

Hunter Gatherer party at Type A

Etsy Pinkalicious Treasury!

Having an Etsy shop, and being featured in someone's treasury list is always so fun!  I get a kick out of what other people put together.  I recently got an email from a fellow Etsian letting me know they had featured one of my items in their treasury.  :)  This one was so fun and pink and full of fun items, I just had to share 

(with permission!)

This list was curated by Peabodies Glass House, and is titled "Living in a Barbie World".

Enjoy~

Fabulous Mess

Ratty and Catty

Ani and Rose Vintage Boutique

Elegance Farm Home

Paper Flora

Pink Postcard

Mi Casa Bella

Joana

Lilly and Lulu

Mrs. Bow the Mommy

Vintage Retrievers

White Moth

Gazaboo

The Vintage Cup

Wool Trousers

Isn't it a great Treasury? So many fun items!  Thanks to Peabodies Glass House for letting me repost it!!  You can click here to see the treasury, and view all of the individual sellers and shops ( I also have their shop name and link in the captions under each photo)

On a related note, if you have an Etsy shop, be sure to visit  A Sort of Fairytale, every Thursday for her linky party!  Link up your Etsy shop and find some new vendors and be found as well.  

I hope you have a wonderful Friday- I'm off to do some yoga, and then prepare for the first of two holiday shows!
If you'd like to get a jump on some holiday shopping, you can find me on Saturday at the Salem First Church of the Nazarene Craft Fair, located at 1550 Market St. NE, in Salem.  I won't have my full booth- but I will have lots of smaller items, vintage finds, and the first of my holiday stuff.  There will be over 25 vendors, selling a variety of goodies.  You can also purchase some yummy soup while you're there shopping. 
The show is from 10 am - 3pm, Saturday October 29!
Have a great weekend!!

DIY wall art- tutorial

Yesterday I showed you the new look to the living room- at least the first part of it.  Finding large pieces of wall art can be very expensive, and since this makeover was kind of done on a whim, I had to to do something pretty budget friendly.  

These were relatively simple to make, so you can crank these out pretty quickly.

Here's the supplies that I used:

1/2" foam core board (Michael's)

burlap

calendar

nail head trim

spray adhesive

staple gun

old sheet music

3M adhesive foam squares

exacto knife

I measured out on the wall what I thought would be the 'right' size for the pictures.  The foam core boards came in a 20x30 size, and I didn't need them quite that big, so I cut off 6" from the length.  I scored it with my exacto knife, and then cut all the way through.

I layed out the board on top of the burlap, and then cut about a 2' border of the fabric all the way around so it would wrap around to the back side.  

I also cut the corners at a 45 angle so the bottom corners weren't all bunchy from a squared edge. It gave the art a nice, clean, square edge.

You can trim off any excess from the corners as you start to wrap and staple.

Make sure as you staple around the edges that you are pulling the burlap so it is nice and tight against the board.

Next is applying the calendar or art to the board.  I trimmed off the raggedy edge from tearing it out of the calendar spiral, and then trimmed off the calendar print that was at the bottom.  Using a spray adhesive I quickly sprayed the back of the paper and then layed it, centered, on the burlap board.  Make sure you hold the can far enough away from the paper so that you don't have a giant wet spot seeping through to the right side.  You want to work quickly while still getting the adhesive all over the backside.

Smooth it out with your hands once it is down.

I added some nail head trim to the corners of the paper once it was in place.  It was very easy just to push them through since it was foam core.  I used "antique oxford" and one box was all I needed for the 5 prints.  It was $1.39 at True Value.

Next, I added the hangers to the back of the prints.  While I was buying the nail head trim, I spotted these fabric eyelet hangers and knew they would be perfect for this- lightweight, peel and stick, and a nice little loop to hang it.  

It makes me think that these were the precursor to DiscHangers!  :)  (don't use these cloth ones on plates or heavy objects though- they are definitely only for light weight use!)

The final element to the art was adding a botanical tag on the bottom.  At least that's what I'm calling it.  Each of the flowers that I used from the calendar had a number in teeny tiny script on the paper.  I thought it would look great to add that in larger form to the bottom of the prints.  I had some vintage sheet music that had a couple blank pages in the back, so I used those to print off the numbers.

I just ran the paper through my printer, cut them out, and then applied them to the board with the double sided 3M foam tape- for a raised look.

That was it!  In all, it took me about an hour to put these all together.  I love how they look.  It fills up a large wall space, and I didn't have to spend a ton of money.

Cost breakdown:

• Foam core boards = $5.99 each x 5
• burlap = $2.99 yd (I purchased 2 yds and still have some left over for more projects)
• calendar = $21.99
• spray adhesive = "free".  ha. Not really, but I already had it for other projects.  If you were to purchase it, I think it's around $5 for the can.
• Nail head trim and cloth hangers = $1.39 each.
• vintage sheet music & 3M double sided foam tape = again, free for this project.  I have stacks of music for other things, so I just used from that.  You can pick up vintage sheet music pages for typically under $2.
• The tape is something I also had in my craft stash.  Usually around $3 in any hardware store.

In all my total cost for this project was = $60.72

If you add in the mirror that is also on the wall, it would be $64.

I hope this project inspires you to do big things on a little budget!  

Have a great Tuesday.

Sharing with:
Show and Share
Wow Us Wednesdays
Whatever Wednesday
Show and Tell Friday
Feathered Nest Friday
Frugal Friday
Week of Burlap @ Whisperwood Cottage