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

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

More Crafty Ideas For The Home

I'm in love with Pinterest!  There are so many cute and clever ideas on there.  A lot of the ideas also recycle/upcycle objects which I think is great!  I love repurposing objects to give them new life.  So without further adieu, I give you a few of my favorite pins!

 I love the idea of creating a chalk board inside one of your cabinets!  While a meal planning board is a great idea, why not a grocery list?  As members of the family use the last of an item, write it down.  The you can just snap a pic of it on your smart phone and voila!  Grocery list to shop with!  Of course this idea will only work with proper training of said family members.

Another cute idea using chalk board paint!  Take an old platter and give it new life by turning it into a chalk board!  I'm going to have to my eyes peeled for an old platter now!

What a great way to recycle some old mismatched buttons and make a piece of art with it!  This might make a great wedding present, taking the last initial of the newlywed couple and adding their wedding date at the bottom.  This would also make a great baby shower gift with the baby's initial.

This is such a cute idea for recycling an old barrel!  It makes for a unique conversation piece and is gorgeous to boot! I'd love to find a barrel and try this out myself!

What a great way to use antique ice tongues! Turn them into a cute paper towel holder!  I love this idea!  My readers up north may have an easier time getting their hands on antique ice tongues than I will here in Texas.  You never know, Karen (my antiques dealer) comes up with great finds!

There you have it dear reader, a few more upcycle ideas to get you going!  If you have an upcycle project you'd like to share with the class, please let me know! 

Until Tomorrow - Melissa

Repurposing: Your Turn - "The Results Edition"

Welcome to the "Results Edition" of Repurposing: Your Turn.  On Monday I lobbed out a reader challenge into cyberspace for help with a repurposing project (Oh, you don't know what I'm talking about? Catch up at http://melissa-randomthoughtsfrommelissa.blogspot.com/2012/04/repurposing-your-turn.html).  I had some awesome suggestions from readers.  One reader (wink to Genny) suggested I get some vintage shoes.  Genny knows how much I like shoes.  Another reader (and my sister from another mother, Lizzi) suggested wooden spools.

This evening, after taking in your suggestions and letting the plan stew in my brain for a few days (my brain is a DANGEROUS place for ideas to stew), I came up with my plan of attack.  I drove to Hobby Lobby to obtain a couple of supplies and I was ready to go. 

Using my trusty glue gun (I've had her since college, 1999 I believe) I glued some scrap ribbon to the craft spools obtained at Hobby Lobby.  The spools were the only thing I had to purchase for this project.  I'm not sure if that means I'm super resourceful or if that means I spend WAY too much time at Hobby Lobby and bring too much of the store home with me. I personally think it's the latter, but I digress...

After the ribbon was glued on, I measured a dowel rod and cut it to the right length.  The dowel will serve as the stand for the spool and shoe form.

I then got out some letter charms and created a message for each shoe form.  I found these cute charms in the scrap booking section of...you guessed it...Hobby Lobby last week. I had picked these up for another project.  I can get more tomorrow.

Using blue ribbon I had on hand, I tied the charms to the shoe forms.  The ribbon also gives the forms an "artistic" interpretation of a shoe strap (like a Mary Jane).

I then attached the spool to the shoe form by running the dowel up through the hole in the shoe form.  Since the dowel rod acts as a pin, the original antique is unmodified (just the way I like them).

Ta-Da!  This is your first glimpse of the completed project!  It looks like a shoe (once again, winks to Genny)!

Here is the "shoe" back in its spot as a bookend.  Is this cute or what?  But what is the message on these bookends?

The left side says "READ"...

while the right side says "ME"!

Read me!  I think that is a great message for a bookend to have.  Here is a picture of the finished project.  I could not be more pleased with how these antique shoe forms have been upcycled into bookends.  Its the exact touch I was looking for.

Once again, I thank my readers who submitted suggestions.  You guys were a big help.  I hope you have enjoyed this project as much as I have.  If you decide to take on an upcycling project yourself, please send me some pictures so I can feature them in my blog.

Until Tomorrow - Melissa

Let’s Talk About Antiques – Primitives

Let us continue to talk about one of my favorite things…Antiques (you thought I was going to say shoes – had ya fooled).  If you are just joining the conversation, be sure to get caught up by reading previous blogs.  For the last three posts, we talked about repurposing, which I believe goes hand in hand with antiques.  I love being able to reuse an antique and give it a new purpose.

If you follow my blog, you know even though I grew up in upstate NY, I come from Midwestern stock (namely Nebraska).  My ancestors who pioneered and settled the Midwest had to use and reuse items until they could be used no more.  There was no Wal-Mart or Target to run to in pioneer days.  I am proud of my Midwest pioneer heritage.  I am also fascinated by how my ancestors were able to settle the plains with such limited resources.

I think it is this fascination that makes “Primitives” so appealing to me.  You may be scratching your head and asking “what is a primitive”?  Well dear reader, I am about to tell you.  As a blogger, I feel it is my responsibility to bring you the most accurate information I can (this may be due to my broadcast journalism minor I had in college).  I know what I believe a primitive is, but I also research the topic before I blog.  In the case of primitives there isn’t a clear definition.  Some people define it as early American farm house items (I agree).  Others include more recent farm crafts in this definition (they lost me there).  For the purpose of my blog (and it is mine so I get to make the rules,  hehe) I am going to define primitives as early American farm house items.  I see them as items my great grandparents would recognize if they were to walk into the house.

A couple of years ago my husband and I gave out kitchen a face lift.  The kitchen received new paint, a new counter (tile) and a beautiful tile backsplash.  After this was done, it was time to decorate.  I took my kitchen in a primitive direction.  My kitchen has a ceiling, so I had lots of space to decorate on top of the cabinets and in an inset.  Here are some pictures for a visual aid

Here I used a mix of new items (the cow pattern cappuccino maker) with primitives. I have the cappuccino maker in an old crate with a tobacco tin on top.  To the right I have a kitchen scale with a reproduction soap box on top (orange is a great contrasting color with blue).

Here we have an a child's cast iron toy stove with a kraut cutter.  What is a kraut cutter?  I am SO glad you asked (this is where I can get my German pride on).  These boards have blades in the middle to slice up cabbage.  The cabbage would sit in a frame that was run back and forth over these blades.  The cut cabbage would then be turned into sauerkraut. This one here is a more "industrial" size one.  I also have a smaller hand held one.

Here is my inset that sits high above the kitchen.  I have decorated it with an old tool box (clearly made by hand), an old step ladder (give great visual interest and "shelves" to display more primitives) with old flour sifters and a lard tin sitting on the steps, an old mop bucket and a rug beater.  I've also included some greenery for color.

Also in my inset I have an old screen window and an old milk crate with some milk jugs.  The milk jugs that are "white" are filled with old bean bag styrofoam beads to give them the appearance of being full.  I'd like to take credit for this neat trick, but I in fact learned it from my friend Karen.

So there you have it.  Today you learned what primitives are.  I hope I have given you some ideas on how to decorate with them.  I think they are a great way to get a touch of history into your house. Happy decorating!

Until Tomorrow - Melissa

Repurposing - More Grand Ideas!

Y'all seem to be enjoying my ideas on repurposing.  I am enjoying blogging about it, so why stop the fun?  I am totally addicted to Pinterest (feel free to follow me at http://pinterest.com/melissacreamer/ )  What does Pinterest have to do with repurposing?  There are tons of very creative people in this world and some of them are kind enough to share their repurposing ideas there.  I'd like to share a few of my favorites.  Here we go!

Here is a great idea for repurposing wooden pallets.  I think these shelves add a great primitive look to the wall (I love primitives, which is going to be a future blog).  What a great way to give a pallet new life.  The tree has already been cut down, why not reuse the wood?

Another pallet idea, turn them into shelves! I wish I had the space to do this.  This would be great for a craft room!  Think of all the supplies that could be stored in these.

Want to give your bathroom an update but have a tight budget?  What a cute medicine cabinet this vintage bag makes!  I can see this in a guest bath or half bath!

These vintage suitcases make an adorable nightstand.  This also doubles as great storage.  What a great way to get items out of sight.  I can even see a vintage trunk as the base.

LOVE this idea!  Turn an old door into a full length mirror.  What a great way to transform what would normally be a plain mirror into a conversation piece.

Another door repurposing idea.  Turn a vintage or antique door into a coffee table.  Spice this idea up with a couple of vintage suitecases under the table for additional storage!

Who doesn't need a cork board?  Why settle for an ordinary one when you can make on out of wine corks.  If you don't drink but still think this idea is cute, I suggest you ask your wine drinking friends to save corks for you.  You may even approach your favorite mom and pop restaurant to save corks for you as well (remember - help your neighbors out by shopping and eating at small businesses!)

Wine cork wreath.  Yet another way to reuse wine corks.

Repurpose an old or broke rake into a glass holder! I've also see old racks used as a hat rack.  

Last but not least, an idea to repurpose vintage door locks.  Turn them into a design element or hooks.  I love the bold colors on these.  Designer hint: if you do this, be sure to do this in odds (as demonstrated with three). I don't know why, but groups of odds typically look better.

Happy repurposing!  I hope today's blog gives you some ideas on how to add a few repurpose touches to your humble abode.  When you do, I'd love to see some pictures of your masterpieces.

Until Tomorrow - melissa