Out with the Old and In with the New

I am insane.  We've spent the past 2 weeks cleaning out my stash piles, unfinished projects and re-purposed furniture.  We spread everything out in the driveway and had a huge garage sale on Thursday and Friday.  We were planning on having it on Saturday too, but it ended up raining us out.  So we did clear out a bunch of stuff, and what was left got donated to Goodwill, the church for a rummage sale, and all the books and dvd's went to the library.  Whew.  It's nice to have the house cleaned out and we made a little extra money in the bargain.

So here's why I am insane.  My husband shook me awake at 6:00 am on Sunday and suggested we go to the Flea Market.  And I said yes.  Hello..... didn't I just say I wasn't going to any more sales and buying any more stuff?   That thought just literally flew right outta my head.

We got dressed and went over to Wolff's Flea Market in Rosemont.

It's a huge Flea Market around here. This weekend they had around 600 vendors.  There were probably thousands of people there milling about and who do we run into walking in?  My dad - how random is that?  One of my sisters and her husband were there someplace too but we never saw them.

I couldn't believe how much junk   treasures were piled up in this truck.  People were just picking through it all....

It was a cloudy, overcast morning and I was glad we got there early because it wasn't crowded yet...

Rosemont is right next to O'Hare airport and the landing planes are so close you can practically touch them.  It's very loud and another plane lands every minute....

That's the Allstate Arena in the background and where we go to see most of the concerts around here.

We walked around for about 2 hours and I really reined myself in.  I didn't buy a single thing, altho Louie bought 2 brand new pairs of shoes for a good price.  Then we left and I roped him into buying me breakfast at IHOP.

We were headed home and Louie suggested I look on my phone and see if there were any geocaches in the area, so we ended up grabbing 4 of them and then I got sidetracked by a sign for a garage sale.  Now I knew I was in big trouble because I just cannot drive past them.  I get reeled in like a big bass.  So we stopped at a couple and I was doing really good - I didn't buy anything.  Until I saw the sign for an Estate Sale and then my heart sank.  Because there isn't much that I like to do more than poke around somebody else's house looking for crap.

Once inside, Louie and I split up,  I always head for the basement first, and then the kitchen.  I picked up a vintage Better Homes cookbook to sell and a cute Coke bottle opener.....

I headed  up to the second floor where Louie was standing and waiting for me at the top of the stairs.  He grabbed me by the arm and steered me into the master bedroom.  "There's something in here you're going to want," he said.  And of course he was right because he knows me so well and because he's the most awesome husband in the world even if he does feed my junk buying habits.

I just fell in love with this desk the second I saw it and even tho I said "Oh, I can't buy that.  I'm not refinishing any more furniture," I knew I was lying thru my teeth because sure as shit that baby was coming home with me.

Look at the lines.....  the cool decorative pieces.....  the awesome Lion drawer pulls - which I will keep because I am a Leo after all....

I didn't care how beat up she was, this desk was coming home with me so I could refinish it and use it as my jewelry making desk.  She is so strong and sturdy - a really solid piece of furniture.  The woman holding the sale told me it was her dad's desk from when he used to work at Kent State University, and he had brought it with him when he moved back here.

I love, love, love it!  She had a price of $ 25.00 on it and I talked her down to $ 15.00.  She asked me if I could move it out of there by Monday and I asked her if she was crazy??  I wasn't leaving there without it.  That's one of the advantages of having a truck!  When I walked outside I literally did a little dance and clapped my hands - I was that excited!

It's already in my garage, as you can see, and I've already pulled out the drawers and cleaned her up.  I hope I have a light work load today because I want to start sanding her.  Stay tuned because I'll have an update soon.

It was a pretty darn good day - Flea market, pancakes at IHOP, geocaching, estate and garage sales and a new refinishing project.  And all before noon!   So what if I fell off the wagon.  We all knew that wasn't going to last anyway, didn't we??

Linking up with....

Let's Talk Vintage # 47

Thrift It, Gift It, Face-Lift It Challenge

Back in July I was recruited by Tania from over at The Little Vintage Cottage to participate in the Thrift it, Gift it, Face-lift it Challenge.  You can read about our first posts here.  The idea was to receive a box of thrifted goodness from one of our blogger friends and then re-purpose the items into something else.   Thrifted items and re-purposed junk??  Hell yeah, I'm all in!!

Here's what I received from Vicky from over at Life on Willie Mae Lane.....

So let's take a look at what I came up with.

First I took the yarn tassels and cut them into pieces.  Then I paired them with my business cards and some handmade price labels.  

They are now hanging on the furniture as price tags on my items at the consignment shop...

 Next I took all the wooden bases and painted them in shades of blue, white and gray, finishing up with a little distressing and a quick wax...

I took 2 of the fluted mini tins and nailed them to the top of the bases, added some candles and I have a set of candle holders....

The rest of the mini tins got pounded flat with a rubber mallet.  Then I pulled out my stamping kit and stamped Peace, Hope, Love on them.  I punched a small hole at the top and threaded in a piece of cord.  There you have it - Christmas ornaments!

I painted a couple of them with a little blue for a beachy feel...

Here's a close up of one of them....

Next I grabbed the silver pie server and the wooden knob.  The knob got painted yellow and white to match a board I grabbed out of my stash.  The pie server got bent and screwed to  the board...

My husband was always tossing his hat, keys and sunglasses on the kitchen counter.  Problem solved!  This now hangs in the hallway next to our door.

And now for my favorite piece - the cloche.  I painted it in shades of blue, gray and white, distressed it and then waxed it.  Ahhh, my favorite combination of colors.  Then I filled it with my favorite shells and beachy items that belonged to my Grandma.  I love the way it turned out...

What do you think?  I have it on a shelf in our front room.

The only item I didn't use was the wooden/brass colored disc.  I just wasn't feeling it, so I put it in my stash box and eventually it will get re-purposed into something.

I want to thank Vicky from over at Life on Willie Mae Lane for sending me such fun items to work with.  The cloche was on my wish list, so I was extra thrilled to get that.  And I want to thank Tania from over at The Little Vintage Cottage for throwing such a fun party.  Be sure to check out the other blogs involved to see what everyone else came up with!

Vicky - Life on Willie Mae Lane - Life on Willie Mae Lane

Kimberley - Seaside Ave. - Seaside Ave

Donna - Distressed Donna Down Home - Distressed Donna Down Home

Cecilia - The B Farm - the b farm

Tania - Little Vintage Cottage - Little Vintage Cottage

Go forth and thrift!!

Geocaching in Wisconsin & Lake Delavan

My parents joined us one day in July and we took off for Wisconsin to do some geocaches.  I actually had ulterior motives because I wanted to make a stop at a place where my mom and dad rented a cabin for us each summer when I was a kid.  So I planned some geocaches around the area.  The first one was at the site of this 1838 log cabin, out in the middle of nowhere...

Can you imagine a whole family living in this little thing?

Was everyone super short back then or what?  My parents and Louie all stand taller then the top of the door....

I was dying to get inside but unfortunately it was all locked up.  I did find a small knothole that I could peer through tho....

One of my favorite caches of the day was hidden someplace on this wooden bridge.  I'll admit it took us quite a long time to find it.

But we were determined and kept looking, high and low.....

Finally Louie caught sight of something from just the right angle and I was able to make the grab.  My feet may have gotten wet in the process.   Just saying....

Another fun stop was this old water tower in Clinton....

I would have loved to see something like this being built way back then...

I love history like this and thought it was very interesting...

Isn't this cool?  These are the original railroad tracks still in place....

So I had to take the opportunity to "phoon...."

This was another cache we looked high and low for....

Pretty clever.....

Mom and dad found a few.  No old people were harmed in the finding of this tree cache....

We took a very quick dash down this forest path for another cache.  It was mosquito heaven back there.  I didn't even take the time to snap a picture because it was so bad.

Who wouldn't smile at this?

We found a very nice cache here...

And dropped off a travel bug...

I think we did 10 geocaches that day and then headed over to Lake Delavan to check out our old cottage.  This is the original Snug Harbor.  If you look real close you can actually see the cabin name painted underneath the windows.  We loved that place and it was a hugely anticipated vacation every summer.  Those trips were what cemented my life long love of cabins and lakes.  Our current lake house in Kentucky has been named Snug Harbor in honor of those happy memories.  That's me in the white shirt, blue shorts and super short bangs.  What was that haircut all about??  It's also probably the only time in my life that I was taller than both my sisters.  Don't ruin your eyes trying to decipher the date on the side of the photo.  I'll save you the trouble - it was 1965 and just before my 9th birthday.

Here's what the cabin looks like now - they've fixed it up a little and added a small deck.  Snug Harbor now hangs on a sign from the deck.  I was so happy to see that it still had the same name.

I was tickled to see the old shuffleboard courts were still there.  We spent hours playing that game and I loved it.  You never even see that anymore.

Here's a shot of the swimming beach from back then.  It's funny but I don't remember it ever being that crowded.  I love all the sailboats and the old speedboat in the background...

Assembly Hall still looks much the same, altho it's been re-sided.  On Wednesday nights they would have a dance and everyone would show up and socialize.  It was great fun because it was the only time all summer when we didn't have to be home when the street lights came on.  They would open the huge doors, blast music and people would spill out onto the street, talking and laughing.  I specifically remember dancing the Mexican Hat Dance.  It was also where I practiced doing "The Twist."  I still do a mean Twist and every time I do, it takes me back to those hot summer evenings under the stars of a Wisconsin sky.

Those are great memories and it was fun to go back and drive through the place.  What memories do you have from summer vacation when you were a kid?