Jack Jumped Over the Candlestick(s)

My latest obsession is candlesticks! Or pillar holders...or candle holders...whatever you choose to call them.

I want a whole bunch of big ones, various sizes and shapes, painted black, in the middle of my kitchen table.  I can remember not so long ago, there were always candle holders to be found at the thrift stores (you know...when I never had a desire to buy them).  

Now....not so much!  

Why is there a sudden rush on cheap, ugly, fairly large candlesticks?

I blame Pottery Barn!  ;)

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I mean, why pay $19-$49 from them to get this look, when you can paint old ones for next to nothing!

But....it's hindering MY ability to get candle holders cheaply.....and really, that's all that matters. ;)

And to buy new ones....WOWZERS!  They are a minimum of $10 a pop!  A little steep for me, especially considering how many I dream of owning. :)  

But ever so slowly, I am adding to my collection...$2 to $3 at a time.

The uglier the better.  I just hit them with some Valspar black spray paint and voila...I have various sized and shaped candle holders of my liking.

I have distressed one with some Rub N Buff, but mostly I just kept them solid black.

Sidenote...Speaking of Valspar spray paint.  It is not usually my first choice when it comes to spray paint.  But have you seen their new spray nozzles??  FABULOUS!!!

Other problem?  I get so torn!!!  Do I keep them all just for me??  Or do I take some to the booth?  :(  You know, I WANT to keep them all.  BUT...I also love my booth "followers" and want to share my new obsession.  

Oh, the life of a collector (and seller)! ;)

So, what did I do?

I kept three and took one of course. LOL  I think I'm comfortable with that ratio.  Now, if I can only find more. 

I also have been making some decorative candles.

I didn't take pictures, but that's ok.  It's so easy you don't need pictures.

I got this idea from my dear friend, Carol, at The Polka Dot Cottage.  She gives a wonderful tutorial, with pictures, here.

Basically, you stamp an image onto white tissue paper and then hair dry it onto the candle with wax paper.  Seriously, the hardest part is holding the image and tissue paper tight with an oven mit on (that hair dryer gets hot!).

  

It's hard to see, but this ones says, "See God in ever person, place, thing, and all will be well in your world." - Louise Hay.

The large floral one is a flameless candle.  Unfortunately, it did not get adhered good enough and came off.  But I'm not done trying to get this effect with a flameless candle.  I'll keep you posted on my success.

I DID however share these candles with my booth lovelies. :)  They just need to find their own candlesticks.  LOL  

Oh come on....THAT was funny. :P

And for complete randomness, here a couple other things I've put my touch on and took to the booth yesterday.

Excuse my disgusting carpet.  Note to self...probably not the best spot for photo ops. 

This shelf was a plastic gold scrolly shelf turned that I turned into this lovely with a whole lot of black, white, and gray paint.  

I must confess, I also did not want to give this up.  Having a booth is tough...I'm stingy. ;)

Someday I'm going to get around to showing you my new/old dining room chairs.  But this is the fabric that I used to upholster the seats.  I ADORE this fabric and want to use it everywhere!   But I do realize that might be slight over kill.  

My Gma Pat gave me a bunch of frames at Christmas she no longer wanted, so this was one that I painted and distressed and added my new favorite fabric too.  Wouldn't this be great in a gallery wall!  I may or may not have wanted to keep it to put on MY gallery wall I'm planning for the living room.  

I'm seeing a very ugly theme here...what about you?  ;)

Beautiful Junk

I was motivated to get a blog post up this weekend because my awesome bloggety-friend, Mel, from Junkin' Junky is hosting her first link party called "Beautiful Junk Saturday"!!

I just had to be a part of it. :)

And since I haven't been posting much lately because of school, I figured I'd show several projects I've done recently for my boutique wall at The Emporium in Greenwood, IN.

Let's see....first up is the, um, lovely apple recipe holder I picked up at Goodwill.

After lots of sanding, some black spray paint and some awesome scrapbook papers, I had this.

It went straight to the booth, but I will be honest, I will not be heartbroken if it doesn't sell because I am completely in love with it! :)

Second is the little plate I also found at Goodwill.  I loved the shape.

I decided it would make a really cute chalkboard for the kitchen.

It was the first time I worked with chalkboard paint.  It took at least 4 coats, maybe more, but I was impressed with how well it worked when done.  

Shhhh, don't tell anyone but I have another plate so I can make one for myself. too. ;)

I only make things for the booth that I would love to have myself....which makes selling my own handmade creation super tough!  I want to keep everything I sell! LOL

So, that brings to my third Goodwill upcycle.  An old wood taper candle holder.  

I'm not a fan of tapered candles, they just drip all over the place for me and it bugs me.  So, I took this candle holder and added a finial I purchased at Lowe's.

I used black spray paint over the whole thing to make it one large decorative finial piece.  I also distressed it slightly with a gold Rub n Buff.  

Another creation I had a REALLY hard time getting rid of.

And lastly, I don't have before shots, but basically I used a plain glass candle holder, hot glued burlap, some twine and an vintage jewelry piece for a, now, fancy candle holder.

Whew!!  So, there you have a handful of what I've been working around here.

Some of these items have already sold at the booth and others were still there yesterday when I was there.

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As an update, the booth is actually doing really well.  I just wish I had more time to work on stuff for it.  School has me CRAZY busy.  Seriously, I do homework all. the. time!  But can you believe I'm already halfway through the first semester!  

Surprisingly, Algebra (remember how worried I was?) has come VERY easy to me.  It's actually my easiest class!  Can you believe that?  LOL  

Drawing is extremely hard for me, but I LOVE it!  Go figure.  I'm actually going to take another drawing class next semester even though it won't count toward my Interior Design degree.  

And the hardest class, without a doubt, is Intro to Interior Design!  There is SO much work in that class!!  Architectural hand lettering...impossible!  The tests and quizzes....ridiculously hard!  Floor plans and elevations TO SCALE....takes forever.  I have serious concerns about my end grade in that class....can you believe that?!?!  It's quite shocking to me.  Who would have dreamed THAT would be the class to give me heartburn. 

Don't get me wrong...I enjoy every single bit of what we are learning.  It's just an overwhelming amount of work.  My ever so slight perfectionism might, just maybe, be a part of that....but....nah....that can't be it. ;)

Recycled Yard Art

The first Saturday of every month, our Goodwill has everything for half off.

Since I couldn't find any yard sales this weekend, I popped over for the big sale and picked up a bunch of random glass pieces.

Let's take a step back...there is a booth at The Emporium, where my booth is, that has a few if these really awesome yard art sculptures made from recycled glass pieces.

I always stop by and stare at them! They charge $15 each, which I think is completely reasonable...I just haven't been able to afford that right now.

So.....when I was at the Goodwill it occurred to me that I could make one or two myself and save some money.  I already had the glass glue on hand.

The best part of all this, Doodle actually was excited to help!!!!!  As any tween girl's mom knows....this is a HUGE deal! ;)

So, we grabbed pieces like this old light shade....

and little juice glasses....

And some colored glass, that ironically was a bonus!  I was just buying the container...had no idea we'd end up using the beads inside! :)

And this is what we ended up with!  This one is mine....

And here is the Doodle's....

How stinkin' cute are these?!?  We are both pretty proud of how these turned out.

They sparkle so pretty in the garden!

You can insert a wooden dowel into the ground and into the vase portion for stability if you need to.

I'm not actually displaying them together like this, I plan to spread them out...but I wanted to get a shot of them outside to show them side by side.

Of course, the price is dependent on your glassware choices. These came in at around $3 each.  Not bad, huh?


I'll be posting this project at these linky parties! :)

 

Wall Art - Knock Off and NEWS

Many months ago I saw this original artwork from the amazingly talented folks at Restoration Furniture and I HAD to have it!!  

Seriously, I could not get this piece out of my head!  


Months of this swirling around in my head!!  Months of a picture of these tiles sitting on my desk.

Originally I had planned to use these in my bathroom.  But not long ago, I made a HUGE decision.  One I have wanted to do for years, but put on hold for many reasons.  But with my unemployment, I decided to start fulfilling the dreams I have for my life, one by one, and to stop just talking or thinking about it.  


-  As those that follow me know, college is just around the corner!  Classes for my Interior Design degree begin August 22nd to be exact!! :)


-  Several months ago I started volunteering at a local Women and Children's Shelter.  I work with the children once a week for 2 hours.  Plus Doodle and I serve dinner once a month.  It is the highlight of my week!! :)


-  And the HUGE decision I recently made (but have always wanted to do).....I am currently in the process of becoming a Licensed Foster Parent!!!  :)


So.....I have been working on turning my guest room, turned office, turned disastrous craft room...into a child's room!!  Specifically, a girls room between the age of 8-13...as this will be the age range I am requesting (because I feel she would blend into our life easier).  


I am becoming licensed as a "Special Needs Foster Parent", not an emergency foster home, as most people think of.  Special needs can mean alot of things, such as, behind in school, slow development, emotional needs, sexual abuse, etc.  Typically, the child will be in my home for 12-18 months while they try to prepare the family for reunification by completing the court ordered milestones...while I work with the child's needs.  If reunification does not remain an option, I could potentially adopt the child or at least provide a home until they can find an adoptive family. 


SOOOOO.....back to my knock-off artwork.  


It was obvious THIS art needed to be my inspiration piece for the new bedroom!! :)


I purchased these tiles at the Dollar Tree, with the little hangers on the back.  

After the fact, I realized you could just hot glue little hangers onto the back like they did, and save a little money by buying cheap tiles from a restore or the hardware store.


And for whatever reason, I didn't take any during photos.  I know you guys are not surprised. LOL


But basically, I just cut a variety of scrapbook papers and aged them and Modge Podged them onto the tiles.  


I used my Cricut to cut out the numbers...using my Sure Cuts Alot 2 Software so that I could choose multiple font types.

And here is how my version ended up!!

When I hung the tiles on the wall, they felt very wimpy.  I wasn't happy.  So, I started thinking of ways to beef up the artwork.  And as luck would have it, I found this picture at the Salvation Army for $2 and it was the perfect size!!!  That never happens! :)

I used spray paint for the frame and the matte.  I used the wall color paint for the center square...which I glazed and antiqued up a bit.  And I used black craft paint to paint the inner molding to help it stand out a bit.

I am completely IN LOVE with how this turned out!!!


It's fun.  It's whimsical.  It's non-committal to any certain "theme". 


Besides painting the walls, the yellow color that used to be in my living room...I've purchased a dark (almost black) denim comforter (from Kmart's Country Living line).  I figured that was neutral enough to make any tweaks once we know the child's personality. And now, added artwork.  

I made the throw pillow out of a $2  double-sided place mat and stuffed it using stuffing from an old pillow...so it literally cost me $2!  Yay! :)

There's still plenty to do, like find a headboard, refinish my $5 garage sale dresser, etc. which I'll be showing as I finish each project....you know, between fence installing, crafting "No Soliciting" signs, laying pavers and gardening, volunteering, attending college orientation (with BABIES!!), looking for a paying JOB, foster parenting classes, parenting my own child, summer vacation sleepovers, blah, blah, blah..... ;)


I have lots of fabulous garage sales finds to show you, like this huge basket I picked up for $7...that still sells at Target for $40!

But for now, I'll enjoy finally having my knock off artwork!  :)

I will be joining the following parties!