In case you're feeling crafty...

I don't know about you, but I love to keep a running list of projects I would like to do.  Today I'd like to share with you a few projects that are on my list.  These are projects that look fun and sometimes upcycle/ recycle old items.

The first project idea comes from Country Home. I have so many crafting projects around the house I am always looking for cute ways to organize.  Country Home suggests printing vintage can labels from online, glue onto "modern" cans, fill with craft supplies, hang like this! Too sweet!

The next idea comes from Craftster.Org.  Don't throw those old worn jeans away!  I use the better pieces for craft projects but I never know what to do with the hems.  Here is a great idea, make coasters out of them.  I love that I can now recycle all the useable parts of old jeans!

This next idea recycles old chair backs.  Thanks to Something Salvaged for great ideas! Sometime my antique dealer runs across furniture that is broken. This is a great way to repurpose furniture that is beyond repair! I love the idea of turning old broken chairs into cork boards or magnetic boards.

Here is a great way to reuse old bottles and spice up your homes decor! This idea comes from Shanty 2 Chic.  It is such a simple yet elegant way to repurpose old bottles.  I would love to try this in my home, but I'm afraid I have run out of wall space!

I hope these ideas help get your creative crafty juices flowing! As always, if you have a great craft/repurpose/upcycle idea, I would LOVE to hear about it! I love to see what my readers are doing.

Until Tomorrow - Melissa

Upcycling an Antique Table Part I

Dear reader, as you know, my interests are wide and varied as evidenced several times previously in this blog.  I have a passion for antiques and I love it when I can bring one back to life. My friend Karen, who is an antique dealer, is the same way.  She knows the trash days in the nicer parts of Dallas and has been known to drive by to see if she spies anything good.

The following is an upcycling tale of one of Karen's rescues.  She found this piece of Victorian table and could not allow it to go to the landfill.   Knowing my love of repurposing/upcycling, Karen showed it to me and asked if there was anything I could do with it.  While I didn't have an exact plan the moment she showed it to me, I knew that I could do something more noble with it than throwing it out.

The first step in repurposing/upcycling (at least for me) is to look at the object to be upcycled and let the ideas come.  Sometimes the ideas come to me immediately.  Sometimes the solution and/or new purpose can take a few months.  In this case, the idea only took a few weeks.  Last week I was potting some succulents and a thought occurred to me: Wouldn't it be nice if I had a small table by the kitchen window to put these plants on?

Side of antique table piece

Top of antique table piece

With some legs and a tile top, this would make the PERFECT plant table.  Adding a tile top to this will be no problem.  It was the legs that had me a little perplexed. There are two holes on the bottom of each side.  I have no idea what the original legs looked like, but I knew replacing them would be tricky.  I wanted something that would curve and flow with the original piece.  Time to put the thinking cap on.  The idea of how to move forward came to me about 1:30 the other morning.  I decided copper legs would be awesome.  I can bend and shape copper to match the curves of the existing piece!  Copper tubing is relatively inexpensive (compared to other metals, like silver) and can be found in the plumbing section of your local hardware store.

The first thing I did was add a copper cross bar where I assume a wood one once was. I am rather proud of myself; I measured the distance and only had to cut once. I was feeling like Bob Vila!

The 1/2 inch copper tubing was a little larger than the original holes.  No problem, I can use wood dowel rods and fix the copper tubing to the dowels.

See? It fits like a glove...well, a glove I will eventually epoxy on.  Now it was time to shape the copper.  I wanted to flatten part of the copper tubing, so that required me cutting the tubing and hammering it flat.

I made my measurements of where I want to cut.  Since I only want to flatten part of the tube, I made myself a line denoting where I need to stop cutting. I used a Sharpie for this, as it makes a nice line, but can be rubbed off (It's not permanent on metal. My jewelry is drawn out on silver sheet using a Sharpie as well).

I also drew on a guide line to cut on. This will help me keep my cut as straight as possible.

I used my jewelers saw to start the cut.  I would like to point out I was taking my own action shots here and I don't actually saw like this.  Sawing like this would be an excellent way to lose a finger.  Always think about safety when working with tools. No trips to the ER are needed.

I used an earring mandrel to help me widen the cut. This helped me with the next step.

After I got the cut started and widened, I used my metal shears to continue the cut.

Then, using my bench block (a flat metal piece I use to hammer against) and my rawhide mallet, I flattened the copper tube.  Unless you want to texture the copper (for the hammered look), you will want to use a rawhide mallet for this job.  The rawhide mallet flattens the metal without marring it.

This is where I will leave you for today, Dear Reader.  I just wanted to give you a peek at my project.  Besides, I have three other legs to cut and hammer...

Until Tomorrow - Melissa

More Upcycling Ideas

Dearest Reader, I apologize for my lack of posts as of late.  Life has been crazy busy and I have failed to take the time to blog. I miss talking to you and I hope to do better in the future.

In the meantime, I will share with you some great upcycling ideas (just in time for the weekend to go raid your favorite antique store/flea market).  I must credit pinterest for these grand ideas.

Turn an old birdcage upside down and use as a light fixture. Stunning!

Lights Made From Whisks From A Commercial Sized Mixer

Decorative hooks made from old forks

Hall Tree made from an old door.  I wish I had an entry way in my house that justified a hall tree.

 Use old distressed shutters to make an interesting outdoor table.

There you have it. a few upcycling ideas!  I hope this inspires you to turn discarded items into treasure!

Until Tomorrow - Melissa

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. How many times have you heard that? I've heard it a lot over the past twenty years (I believe I first heard it in 1992 during my freshman year of high school).  I wholeheartedly agree that we should reduce what we use, reuse what we can, and recycle what we can't.

As a loyal reader of this blog, you know I'm very much into antiques.  I love the history of the pieces and I love how well built antiques are. Sometimes I just love the strangeness of an antique piece.  However, I have long felt that buying antiques (particularly furniture) is very eco-friendly.  I have done a blog on repurposing (catch up here) which I think is great as well, but what I'm talking about today is using the antique as it was intended to be used.

Have you ever thought of an antique as being functional? My bedroom furniture is ALL antique. The bed, the night stand, the cheval dresser, the settee, and the chest of drawers.  How much would a bedroom suit be (and you typically don't get a loveseat) at a new furniture store?  Over a grand? EASY!  Want to know what I paid for all the furniture I just listed? $885.  Antiques can be economical as well as functional.

Let's say you need more storage space for your kitchen.  What to do?  Let's see what Target has.

Here's a middle-of-the-road cupboard. It's not hideous (like the $79.00 special).  This cute little piece will only set you back $389.00.  For this deal you get a pantry made of natural-toned hardwood and the frame is a sturdy wood composite. Wood composite, who doesn't love that! Oh, and one other detail - assembly required.  Let's move on to Ikea, the Swedish mega store everyone but me seems to love.

Not bad. A little more stylish than Target and slightly more pocketbook friendly at $279.00.  But this is Ikea, so you first have to find where this is located in the warehouse section (read "go pick it yourself") AND then you have the joy of putting it together.  In this gem you get solid pine, glass, and fiberboard.


While Fiberboard and wood composite sound so appealing, I'd rather just go with good old-fashioned wood.  Wood I don't have to pay to put together.  I could go to a furniture store and spend big bucks, or I could go to an antique store and buy myself a hoosier (actually mom Marcusson purchased mine as a Christmas gift).  She paid a little over $300 for mine.  And look how beautiful it is!

And look how wonderfully it matches my kitchen cabinets.

I could go through the same exercise for bookcases.  However, I think I already made my point, so I will just show you a picture of my lovely Empire cabinet (ringing in at almost 200 years old and a price tag of $295.00).  I dare you to go to Target and/or Ikea and find something this beautiful for that price. Even if you do, you'll get to put it together yourself.

Next time you need a "new" piece of furniture, I encourage you to give antiques a try.  Keep in mind antique store inventory changes all the time and you will want to shop around for dealers who know what they are talking about and put fair prices on their stuff.  If you are in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, I encourage you to go see Karen at McGillicuddy's in downtown Garland.  They are open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 11a-5p.  Karen is far-and-away the BEST that I have found in the area.


Until Tomorrow - Melissa

Upcycle – Retro Style

We’ve all heard the slogan “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle”.  Another term that is popular right now is “upcycling”, which means you are taking something and making it better/nicer than it was.  You see a lot of “upcycled” items on Pinterest and Etsy.  What you may not know is that upcycling isn’t exactly a new concept.

I was born in Nebraska to a family that understood the importance of using items until there was no more use left in them.  I am told that my great grandmother (my mother’s father’s mother) had an interesting trick to get the most out of sheets.  When the material in the middle would wear thin on the bottom sheet, she would cut the sheet up the middle, rotate what were the edges to the middle and stich them together.  I recall the sheets that were on my grandfather’s bed when he passed were quite thin.  My mother ended up cutting them into cleaning rags.  There was still goodie to be had from those sheets!

My maternal grandfather was very handy.  If you needed something fixed, he could do it.  I recall a number of times where he would find an item discarded and would be able to fix it.  As the saying goes, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.  One of my favorite “Grandpa fixed it” stories is when my grandmother’s washing machine kept breaking.  It would break, he’d fix it.  It would break again, he’d fix it again.  The story goes that Grandma finally said, “Riley! If you keep fixing the old one, how am I ever supposed to get a new one?” 

My mother’s side of the family is not the only one that knows how to reuse stuff.  Great Grandma Creamer was the original recycler.  She was the daughter of German immigrants.  In the late 1800’s, Nebraska was still being settled.  If you needed an item, you couldn’t just run to Walmart to obtain said item.  Great Grandma Creamer only knew how to use and reuse.  Waste was unheard of.  In fact, I believe she was one of the original upcyclers.  She would take plastic bread bags and crochet them into items.  I have a purse, a small area rug, and a hat all made out of bread bags.

Bread bag hat as modeled by my childhood friend Suzy

Crocheting bread bags is a little exteme, but they make for great conversation pieces.  I may not crochet bread bags, but I have not forgotten the lessons my ancestors taught me.  In fact, just tonight I have been repurposing items.  My youngest brother is a college student and eats a lot of frozen dinners.  I saw a jewelry article sometime back that talked about how awesome the strainer part of Café Steamers were for your pickle pot (a jewelry maker’s appliance).  I asked Chris to save me one or two when he thought about it.  One thing about Chris, he’s very dependable when you ask him to do stuff.  I’m the proud owner of a large collection of Café Steamer bowls.  It’s okay.  I use them all the time in my craft projects.  Just tonight I needed a container to pour some craft paint into.  Café Steamer bowls are perfect!

Do you have a repurposing and/or recycling tip?  Please share in the comments below.  I’d love to hear them and I’m sure your fellow readers would, too.

Until Tomorrow - Melissa