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Friday, November 16, 2012

a working girl's makeover




I found this hardworking little girl at the Salvation Army. She was looking a little tired and worn, so I took her home to give her some love.


She was stripped naked then brought out to the shop for a lube job, making sure everything was in good  order, after all she is a working girl ;)






Her entire metal frame was given a new coat of paint, to give her that fresh (old) industrial look. I especially wanted to take the shine off those sparkly wheel covers.  Her new clothing is old grain sack, tailored to fit her unique shape.




I think she's pretty cute and has a lot of years left in her yet! 














Have an abundant day!
Diana






Linking with:


Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special
Furniture Feature Fridays

Saturday, November 10, 2012

{upcycled} first aid box


Easy and quick access to first aid supplies is important. I know this from experience.  They are never good experiences.

My husband seems to think I am some kind of nurse (I'm NOT), so comes to me when he or anyone else has had an unfortunate run in with a sharp object on the farm.  Said objects are usually dirty, being from a farm and all. 

I used to keep my first aid supplies in a plastic box in the downstairs bathroom, fairly close to the front door of the house (aka the emergency triage area). Unfortunately there was no sink by the door for washing wounds, so if there were any bloody injuries there was usually some kind of trail left from the door to the bathroom that any CSI would love! {I know- ewww - sorry about that.}

Which brings me to this beauty:


Well not in this picture.  This is how I found it, at auction, for $2.  It was also FULL of an assortment of vintage coat hooks and cabinet hardware - which is what I really wanted ;)


It looks like it contained "electric" at one time.  This is one heavy box - made of steel in some kind of army color, and it was dirty!

After much cleaning, some sanding, and a couple of coats of this paint (from the surplus store, $3.50)...




...it was looking much better!  To clearly mark what was in the box, I glued on the international symbol for "Help me I'm bleeding to death!", the red cross.  It was not red to begin with, just a wooden cross I picked up at a thrift store for 50 cents, then painted red.

That little black box on top contains a working vintage otoscope, also bought at an auction. {shocker!} 



Here it is with all the supplies inside, they fit nicely in these (washable) boxes from the dollar store.  As you can see there was a divider in the box that made a handy shelf too!  Now that I see this, maybe I should have painted the inside too - I'm optimistic I won't be looking at that a whole lot!

I hung this beauty right by the sink in the mudroom/laundry room, which we renovated last year.  (You can see pictures of the reno at Hometalk for now - I plan on posting them here sometime) 


So there it is, now hopefully I won't need it :0

Have an abundant day,
Diana

Linking to:




Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special

Friday, November 9, 2012

Wire Wreath Card Holder {Upcycled}





This was a super easy project using an old Christmas card holder I had purchased years ago from my nephew as part of his school fundraising project.  I think it was from Regal gifts but the memory fades...


This is what it looked like before.

It wasn't bad and I used it for it's given purpose for a number of years.  It looked real nice full of Christmas cards and photos from family and friends.  However, every year there were less cards to fill it (everyone is going digital with their wishes - including me) and I found myself putting in old cards.  I liked the wreath form though, and thought it would be nice for year round display so this summer I pulled it out of the attic and went about transforming it.  

The first thing I did was remove the angel and then spray painted it with this:



It looked much better at this point, however there was an awkward gap where the angel used to be and being unsatisfied with the results I set it aside until I had a better idea.  Well an idea "lightbulb" went on the other day when I took a picture of these for a fb cover photo.



And this is the result - I like it!




I don't know who the lady in the photo is, I found her under another picture in a vintage frame I bought.  I like her and her little cat too! 
I found the BINGO card under our old kitchen cabinets when we renovated.  It's the number 13 card so maybe someone thought they had better hide it away, just in case. ;)


Have an abundant day!
Diana


This is for sale on my fb page here



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Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Family Portraits


This past summer we finally had family portraits done.

It was about time too - we have been married 26 years and have our first grandchild. That's a lot of time to let slip away with no portraits.  The reason I'm sharing today is our photographer featured our family portrait wall on her blog HERE.  We had the portraits printed on canvas then grouped them on our "family" room wall with a sign I painted on an upcycled cabinet door from the Restore, and a letter "B" from GW.

Besides the portraits I had printed, these are some of my other favourites.



The boys and the girls 


I love this one taken on the swing set my dad made for us kids when we were 
young.  I come from a family of nine, and I have many memories of playing on this swing set, (circus anyone?) mostly good!



This is the garden shed my dad built that we are standing in front of, whose stairs lead to a second story playhouse and slide.
We had the pictures done at my parents house. They have a beautiful property that they love and care for themselves.  My father is 83 and my mother is 80 and there are at least 3 acres of well maintained gardens, a pond and a number of smaller outbuildings. Mom calls it her little piece of heaven right here on earth - and it is!



Mom and Dad with their great grand daughter. 



Our first grand child - I'm wishing for an abundance of these :)



All because two people fell in love...
with each other! ( & one of them with a bike). 

Our kids did this as a Christmas gift last year and it was one of the nicest gifts I have ever received. I cannot accurately describe just how wonderful this day was for me, and to see the results of our best work (so far) displayed on our family room wall is very rewarding.  I highly recommend it! 

Have an abundant day,
Diana