Upcycled sheet music wreaths French book page Wreaths

Hi guys! These are my latest 3 wreaths. This one is antique sheet music and vintage French to English dictionary pages. It has crystal glitter on the edges of the smaller cones. The center is aqua floral scrapbook paper, vintage Mozart sheet music, and one of my handmade paper flowers. Sometimes I make things that for one reason or another do not work out for what I wanted them for. Sometimes I go in another direction or sometimes after I figure out how long it took to make it I decide not to do it "whole hog". I never throw those bits away, I save them and use them in different projects. That is where the centers of all these wreaths came from!
I think I originally decided to go bigger with these flowers, but this one works great here! I love aqua and coral pink together.
This one has the same style base with silver glitter and Vintage French sonnet book pages pleated and swirled.
The center is a melted satin and chiffon rosette with a vintage pearly accent. I made these for hair clips and for some reason changed my mind. Perfect fit here!
This one is bigger. I used all sheet music on the base of this.
The center is faded red polka dotted scrapbook paper, some vintage red and white toile wallpaper I found this summer that I LOVE and a middle of a singed chiffon flower and stacked mother of pearl buttons. Again.. something I was going to make into a pin or clip and never finished. I haven't listed this one yet, I have to see if it fits in my box..it will be close! Hope you are having a great week and turning your lemons into lemonade! Thanks for stopping by! 'Til next time! Julia

New projects

Hi guys! These are some things I made this week. The first 3 are upcycled wooden bowls. My husband brought me some shabby mid century wooden salad type bowls at an estate sale last weekend. I painted them with chalk paint (home made) and decoupaged on my graphics.
These feathers are actually peacock feathers..not the usual tail feathers but wing feathers. I like the graphic black and white stripes! These are actually scanned images of the same 2 feathers, I just made them different sizes and mirror imaged some in Print Shop before I printed them. The eggs are from an antique print that I scanned and printed, trimmed and applied.
This is some more of the feathers and a photo of mine of a nest and eggs.
The bowls were those shallow nesting ones.
On the blue one you can see the surrounding paper a bit..which isn't bad, but I may try clear decal paper next time.
This is one of my fav pics. You could really add whatever image or photo image you wanted. I was going to add text pieces that said "Nest"around the rim but decided to leave these as is.
I got this cool drawer at the same sale. It was aqua but only the front was painted. I painted it with aqua chalk paint and added a vintage label holder.
And some pretty scrapbook paper on the inside.
I love these little cup pulls!
This could be used to hold CD's or whatnot as a drawer, or stood on end....
Or if you added hanging hardware it could be mounted on the wall as both something to put things IN and a shelf to put things ON! I love repurposing vintage "junk" I think you end up with cooler things than you could buy in a store! On another note, my 9 yr old son had fall break this week. We went bowling and my 3 yr old grandson Hunter beat both of us rolling the ball granny style. He bowled a 96 and I had an 86 and Jack had a 79..and yes that was WITH gutter guards! I told my daughter the next day that my butt cheek hurt from bowling..she said, "You are supposed to use your hands!" LOL. Tonight we made a bonfire and toasted marshmallows. Quite the process but they had fun. It made me think I really need to take advantage of this time when they are little! I know my "big kids" were just little the other day and now they are 27, 23 and 20! Hope you had a great week and stop back! Til next time! Julia

Weekend finds

Hi guys! I wanted to share a few things that we found this weekend. My Saturday started with a bang..my husband had told me I had a church finance meeting at 9 so I was grumpy that I was going to miss out on all the estate sale-ing. I got there to find a deserted parking lot only to be told by my husband..Oops..maybe that was NEXT Saturday! Grrrrrr... So I chalked it up to the Lord once again testing my patience (and me failing) and headed for the estate sale my husband had already been to..but said I may want to see. We have similar tastes about some things but I do NOT trust him to buy everything that I would! LOL He circled back and met up with me there. He had already got this (above) banquet lamp. It has a milk glass shade also. These pics today are not my best..not staged or anything..I just wanted to snap a few quick pics after I hosed these babies off! I plan to paint this one a shabby white, cover the candle sockets with decorative paper (probably text of some sort) and rewire it. I may swap out the glass shade if I can find one I like better.
These were a find and a steal of my husbands..he does have good taste sometimes! LOL They are metal strap "bounce" chairs from the 50's. They are in fab shape..all they need is a pretty pillow!
I am sort of a split personality when it comes to what I like in vintage. I like pretty and I like primitive junky industrial..this falls into category 2! This is a cute little orange wooden stool with really cool metal casters that are lurking in the grass here. We also got some big metal casters and pulleys. There were cool metal drawers full of old rusty nuts, bolts, washers and whatnot..which I like! I plan to sort the hardware into the really cool bits and do big lots of the rest. I even liked the drawers. There is this cute little galvanized zinc one and several green metal ones with handles. There was also an aqua wooden one that I would have bought even if it had been full of cow patties! (It luckily wasn't!) That one is on my table as we "speak" waiting for some further embellishments from my stash of cool vintage metal bits.
After I cleaned this up I discovered it had a couple tiny pin holes (boo) but is solid copper!!! (YAY!) I just liked the handles on it!
This was just pretty! It would be fab painted, but I am just listing this one as is (for once!)
This was one of Ed's finds and must admit I totally eye rolled him..(and maybe said Ewwww!) After I washed it up though I saw its faboo patina and started seeing its potential as a cool candleholder! (it is actually a porchlight and hangs the other way)
2 old perfumes bottles.I doubt the dove stopper is original to this bottle..it is a bit loose and the bottle actually has a pontil mark on the bottom marking it as an older bottle. She had some L'air Du Temps perfumes and I thought maybe this was an older one, but I think it is a "put together"...L'air Du Temps stopper and older bottle. The other bottle is an older crystal one with a polished bottom and is probably leaded crystal. Both these have ground stoppers..just pretty!
THESE make my heart go pitter patter! They are Victorian Eastlake era doorknobs. They are sometimes brass but these are rusty iron and I like them just as well!
This was a joint buy.."Hey Hon..what about this? Yes..buy it!" LOL..I think it is a part of a wood or metal lathe ..just too cool. I have already listed this!
A few vintage pins. I took pix and then decided I really need to clean these and retake the pix! They are quite dusty. The starburst is Sarah Coventry..the rest are fab unsigned mid century pieces. They are sitting on a Royal Paisley dessert stand. It is a Japan piece and not high end but I think it is pretty! Lots more goodies to share..I have to get more pix taken! It is supposed to rain tomorrow and I think I will be painting tables in my kitchen! I got 2 round ones that I want to paint clock faces on..at least that is the current plan! Until next time! Julia

Upcycled candelabras and more

Hi guys! This is what I was working on this week. These are upcycled vintage candelabras. This one started out brass and wood.
I painted and antiqued and shabbified. Then I added vintage prisms from my stash. This only had holes for 4 so I jump ringed 4 more on.
I used french grey chalk paint and metallic gold accent paint. I antiqued it and sanded it a bit. Grey seems like a hot new color lately (Grey is the new black which was the new white! LOL) I like how the antiquing sticks in the crevices.
This one was brass and marble. I added teardrop shaped prisms and again, jump ringed on some extra of the "long" prisms. Never enough prisms! This would also look great jazzed up further with old pearly or crystally necklaces for swags. I left the marble as is.
Antiqued and shabbified...
This was brass. I think it may have been a lamp base, but it makes an awesome candleholder!
Very ornate! And why is it "candle" and then "candElabra"? Shouldn't it be candleabra ? I guess not!
These were formerly old porch/deck railing finials. They were unfinished so I added grey chalk paint and antique-ing. I like how these turned out too..I think they would look delish with magenta roses ..or magenta glass Christmas balls. Can you tell I love the color magenta? These are in my handmade shop now (hopeandjoystudios). I have 3 tables in the wings to paint this week. I am thinking clock face theme as they are all round. The last French ad table I painted already sold from my booth (Yay!) Hoping you have a fruitful week! Til next time! Julia

Vintage Curtains

Hi guys! These are some of the vintage curtains I found last week. They were filthy..storage stains and I think years of cigarette smoke. I soaked them overnight in a big plastic tote in my tub in regular Tide. Soaking helps rehydrate old fibers. Sometimes if things are dry rotted, there is no return. These seemed sound, just dirty. The soak water was the color of COFFEE when I poured it out! Ewwwwww.. This set is a floral chintz. I love the roses on these.
I then run them through a wash cycle (delicate low spin) and then I dry these on the grass in my backyard..put them out when there is still dew on the grass in the morning and leave them to sun dry. This set still has some spots that may need one more soaking/washing/sun drying. This is that fab old barkcloth.
This set came pretty clean...love those Japanese lanterns! These are barkcloth too.
Looks like a curious cat or peacock may have walked over these..luckily no muddy footprints..that is not always the case!
These still have some spots and staining around the hem/ edges. One more wash should get it. Then to list and try not to hoard for myself! I always think of all the cool things I could make with these..or maybe new curtains for my bedroom..hmmmm. I'll try to share some of the vintage things I found last week..I already have some listed! The estate sale I hit this morning was rather disappointing..more like a yard sale. Boo! Maybe tomorrow! Until next time! Julia