Lastest finds and a sneak...

Hi Everyone!  Happy Thursday!  I wanted to show you the finds that my personal picker, Aunt Barb got for me.  She called me last week wanting to know if I would be interested in some headboards that she found and of course I jumped on those.  Then she came across a few other goodies and she wouldn't even let me pay her for them.  What an Aunt!  My mom and nephew went to see her earlier this week and my mom brought my treasures to me!  I am so blessed!

My mom and the van loaded.  Don't let my dad see this!  He thinks I have enough stuff already.  So as soon as we unloaded the van, I took pictures of my loot and then put them all away.

An antique large ironing board.  What great patina!

A rectangular headboard.  It can be a bench, or signs, or....

 Spindle head and foot boards.  It's hard to tell, but it sort of reminds me of bamboo.

 Two antique medicine cabinets.  What to do with these???  Any ideas out there?  And another headboard.

Look at those extra large spindles.  They are from an antique table.  I can't wait to make something with those.  Two table leaves, I see large signs in their future or maybe a bench, or...

This is a small headboard.  It's pretty short, so I can't decide if I'm going to make a bench or something else from it, like a message center.  Any thoughts?  Well, a big thank you to my Aunt Barb for finding and giving me all these great things, for free!  and my mom and nephew for bringing them all back and helping me unload the van.  I so do appreciate it!  My aunt also had old  yardsticks that she had put out in the trash can at the curb when my mom mentioned I was wanting some and she went out and rescued them before the garbage men arrived, whew!  Thank goodness.  But she forgot to send them, so I'll get them next time!  

I'll get back to sharing new things, but I've been busy with my nephew.  Here's a sneak peek at what he had I have been working on.

I'm working on a tutorial on this one.  Thanks for stopping by.

Hay update...

Hi Everyone!  Sorry I've been MIA the last few days, but I've been busy with my nephew.  Monday was my last day to spend time with him as I work the rest of the week and he leaves to go home on Saturday.  He was a big help to me in the workshop and we built a bench.  It's not painted yet, but I'll show you tomorrow what we've been working on.  Tuesday I left work early and went home to move hay bales.  This is my favorite part of putting up hay.  These are the bales that got moved yesterday.  We have 70 big bales.  This picture has 22 of them. 

By the time I got home, Dad had moved 10 of them and moved the other 12.  These bales are from the first group.  We still have to move the rest that were apart of the second group.  Thanks for stopping by.

Chalk paint....

Hi Everyone!  I know I'm probably the last to finally try Chalk paint, but I finally saved up my pennies and purchased some.  I have wanted to try this forever so I just had to share.  I got mine from Shades of Amber. 

I can't wait for this weekend so I can start using it!  More to come.  Thanks for stopping by.

Hay and water...

Hi Everyone!  Happy Sunday!  My nephew and I are still working on our projects in spite of the rain.  We finally got the last of the hay put up.  The following pictures are of the hay after it has been raked, but before it has been baled.  I just love how it looks.  The different shades of color.  And how dark it the grass is at the bottom which you can't see when the grass is standing (sunlight doesn't get down to it because the grass was so high).  This will all turn green very quickly, especially after the rain we've had the last couple of days.

I'd show you the pictures of it all baled, but it's been raining so I keep forgetting to take my camera out.  Now we'll just have to pick up the bales and move them so they are stored close together.  We got 70 large bales off the hay ground this spring.  That's a big load off my dad's shoulders.  It takes a lot to get the hay done and we didn't even do all the areas that we could of, some places are just too tight to get the equipment into or the grass in that area isn't the greatest or the weather wasn't cooperating.  But at least it's done. 

My nephew Quinton on a hay bale.

Here's my dog Bailey up on one of the hay bales. 

I don't know if you've seen the news of the flooding Missouri river which is affecting the area I live in.  They have evacuated everyone in my county that lives west of I-29 and all the traffic is now going through town and by the farm.  Thank goodness the farm isn't too close to the flooding Missouri river and it's up on a hill overlooking town, so a lot of things would have to go wrong before the waters reached me.  Including the fact that the town would be underwater!  But the Nishnabotna River is starting to rise and it feeds into the Missouri so there is a chance it would overflow it's banks which it did two years in a row a couple of years ago and kept me cut off from town for a few days.  So that is always a possibility.  But we've got a ways to go before that happens.    Have a great rest of the weekend!

Personal picker and a sneak peek...

Hi Everyone!  I hope your weekend is off to a great start.  I am working this morning and then I think I'll be spending time with my nephew this afternoon.  I don't have any finished projects to share right now, but I wanted to tell you about a phone call I got yesterday while I was at work.  My dear, dear aunt Barb called because she was out checking out a flea market in her area and came across some great finds for me and wanted to know if they would work before she bought them. 

When I said I had my own personally picker in a post last week, I really meant it!  I can't wait to see the items she picked up for me.  And I can't wait to show them to you.  My mom and nephew are going to go see her next week and will be bringing my items back to me and I can hardly wait!  I actually got giddy on the phone at one point.  So more to come on my latest finds.

Here's a look at the bench my nephew and I have been working on.  I've made lots of headboard benches, but I've never made one with storage in the seat.  I've had a lot of requests for it, but have never done it, so that is what's going on with this one.  Here's just a sneak peek at it.  I'll do a post on it once we (my nephew and I) have it put together.  Well, thanks for stopping by.

Wooden flowers...

Hi Everyone!  Happy Friday!  I wanted to show you an order for a client that I just finished.  It is a flower stake for your yard or flower garden.  I made several of them last year, all in a yellow/orange color and one pink a couple of years ago.  I showed you one here I made earlier this year.  I can't decide if the pink flower or the yellow/orange one is my favorite.  I like them both.  Do you have a favorite?

 Here's the yellow/orange one that I had done earlier this year.  It's color variations are more subtle.  But I guess that's what makes them one of kind.

Thanks for stopping by.

Linking to http://myrepurposedlife.blogspot.com/search/label/catch-as-catch-can

Garden bench....

Hi Everyone!  Happy Thursday!  I'm still working on my kitchen island in between spending time with my nephew Quinton and the projects we've been working on.  I'll share those when we get them done.  Today, I wanted to show you the bench I made for my sister-in-law (Quinton's mom).  It is made entirely out of cedar from the farm that my grandfather saved.  The seat is by far the best piece of cedar I've seen.  It's two full inches thick (not the 2" of today that is actually and 1-1/2") and it is 13" wide.  To find a piece of cedar like that today would cost you an arm and a leg!  So thanks to grandpa for saving it.  I have several other pieces that are just as great!  Sorry, I get so excited about great pieces of wood.

I would have liked to make it larger, it's only about 36" wide, just large enough to be able to sit down and put your shoes on, but it had to fit in the back of my parents SUV along with all their luggage since my brother's family doesn't live around here.  But it's just the right size for the space on their patio by the door. 

I didn't paint it because the cedar was just so cool looking and I knew my brother would prefer it this way,  plus, I don't think they'd want to repaint it and I know my brother doesn't like the whole chippy paint look.  He just doesn't get it.  But this is how it looked after my brother stained it to match the deck.  I also made them a different Welcome sign to go with the darker stain.  It looks nice and this goes with their taste, just not mine.  Which way would you have preferred it?  Thanks for stopping by.

Oh what treasures...

Hi Everyone!  Here are some close up pictures of the things my Aunt Barb brought to me last week.

Wood, wood and more wood!  YEAH!

These are two metal tool boxes and a mini lathe.  Which I'm so excited about trying out!

I've only peeked in these boxes, but there looks to be some good stuff in there.

I like that divider.  I might need to clean that up, paint it and move it into the office.

There's part of a decorative shelf.  I wonder where I can use that????

I'm loving this box.  It's metal and it's made out of a caution sign.

More wood.

Hardware.  Rusty hand saw...I could paint on that.

The antique sewing machine base.

I'm not sure what this is.  Or what it was used for.  I'll have to have a closer look.

These are antique wooden skis with the leather straps. 

This is an antique Jenny Lind headboard that my aunt found that has been sitting outside in the elements for years.  I'm so glad she rescued it and I can use those spindles on countless projects.  I'm just wishing that it's previous owner hadn't let it sit out in the elements.  Oh well.  Thanks Aunt Barb!  She's turning into my own personal picker!  How lucky am I!

I still haven't gone through each box, but I wanted to show you all the goodies.  I'll let you know if there's anything really good in those boxes.  Thanks for stopping by!

Special delivery...

Hi Everyone!  Happy Monday!  I hope you had a great weekend.  I wanted to share with you the exciting thing that happened to me last week.  My aunt Barb brought a van full of treasures while I was at work.

My aunt and nephew unloading all those treasures.  The pictures were courtesy of my mom.

Here they are after all the hard work is done.  I can't wait to go through it all and see what treasures are really there.

I will show you one thing, my aunt Barb's neighbor gave this to me.  It's an antique sewing machine base.  How lucky am I!  Her neighbor is the same one that gave me the antique oak chair a few weeks ago.  I'm so excited! A big thank you to my aunt and her neighbor for my new treasures!  And a big thanks to my aunt, nephew, and mom for unloading it all while I was at work.  I'll show you some more next time!  Thanks for stopping by.

An island update...

Hi Everyone!  That post title makes it sound like I've been off on some island vacation, don't I wish.  I'm actually referring to my kitchen island.  Here's another sneak peek of the progress.

This base cabinet was rescued from the dump (it never actually went to the dump)  for me by one of my co-workers.  It was a custom built piece and the back of it is 1/4" plywood, which of course had holes in it for the plumbing, so I had to put on a new back piece.  I decided to take some recycled 1x4's, sand them down and cut them to look like wide bead board which I glued and nailed onto the back of the cabinet.  Once I got started with that I knew it had to wrap around the sides, so back out to the wood shop to do more sanding and cutting.  And this is how it looked a few days ago.

Here it is with the first coat of paint on it.  I used Valspar's Forest Thrush.  It's a really deep charcoal gray.  But this of course is only the first coat.  And I'm not going to leave it this way.  I have several more coats of another color planned.  But that's all I'm going to tell you now.  More to come.

And of course my dog Bo just had to get in the picture and see what it was I was doing.

I'm liking it and can't wait to get this done!  More to come, soon!  Thanks for stopping by!

A sign giveaway...

Hi Everyone!  I hope you are all having a great weekend.  I just wanted to let you know that I'm having a giveaway over at A Life Sustained.  I didn't want you to miss out on a chance to win one of my hand painted signs.  This is the sign that I'm giving away.

Courtney at A Life Sustained is hosting the giveaway.  So it you are interested, jump on over to her blog and check it out.  Thanks for stopping by.

Puppy update...

Hi Everyone!  I just wanted to let you know that all of my Chocolate Lab Puppies have gone to their forever homes.  There were five, but one left the week before I took this picture.

It was a little sad to see the last one go, but I think they all went to great homes and will be treasured and loved.  My big dogs have been a little sad too, they keep running around the house looking for Red Rover, since she was the last to go and they got to spend a lot of time with her.  My Bo and Red were great pals.  But they do appreciate the one on one time with me now.  Well, thanks for stopping by!

My workshop helper...

Hi Everyone!  Happy Friday!  My nephew is visiting for the next couple of weeks and earlier this week he helped me make some candle holders in the workshop.  Quinton did most of the work on these while I talked him through what he needed to do.  He does a great job!

We also started working on a headboard bench.  Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of him actually looking at the camera.  Next time.  Well, thanks for stopping by.