A ladder and making hay...

Hi Everyone!  I hope your weekend was great and your week is off to a grand start!  I worked out in the shop this weekend (which is always good) but I didn't get enough done.  So today I'm just going to show you the little ladder I picked up on Saturday.

 I went to Weston Primitive Company's Open House on Saturday and picked up this great little ladder.  It's a great color and size.

I love that it's a two-sided step ladder, meaning that the steps are the same on both sides.  It's the perfect ladder for creating shelves.  By putting boards across the steps it becomes an instant shelf which will be great for taking to my showings and creating vertical show space by placing it on top of  a table.

 And they came Sunday morning and turn the hay and raked it into bigger piles....

 ....really big piles....

 And then they came back Sunday evening and started to bale it.  They baled most of it in these giant square bales...

.....but they ran out of daylight and we think they are going to do the part in the second hay picture in small square bales because it's the better hay for feeding horses. 

 So hopefully they will be back today to finish.  Anything exciting happen at your place this weekend?  Thanks for stopping by.

Basket love continued...

Hi Everyone!  Happy Thursday!  The weather this week has been wonderful, so not like Iowa in January or early February.  It's been in the high 50's or low 60's for three days.  But we are expecting not so great weather this weekend.  Rain, ice, snow and wind.  I'd take some rain, but the rest can just stay away.

I want to share with you what I came up with last Friday, but didn't finish until last night.  Not that it was a difficult project, I just had too many other things that I needed to finish.  I drew up the plans on Saturday and located all of the wood I was going to use, but didn't get it put together until last night.  I got it painted and ready for pictures, but it was late so I didn't get it staged.  And I just couldn't wait to show you.  Do you remember the baskets my friend Keith rescued from becoming a pile of metal?  If not, you can check it out here.  Well, this is what I did with a couple of them.

So what do you think?  And I have the perfect place for it in my bathroom once I paint and move some things around.  I made the ladder out of reclaimed pine and the rungs are from an old wooden closet rod.

 I almost forgot to take any pictures of it before I painted it.

I painted it with a base coat of gray.  And the top coat is Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint in Old White.

 Here's the base coat.  I just sort of slapped it one, not caring how it looked since it's the base coat.

 And here it is after I painted it with ASCP in old white and then sanded it with my mouse sander.  The basket is hanging by four white hooks.

 I decided not to put rungs where the baskets are at.  I think it makes it look more like a re-purposed broken ladder rather than something I made.

 I sanded it pretty heavily to reveal a lot of the gray base coat, especially on the rungs.

I still need to put a coat of sealer on the baskets.

I'm really happy with the way it turned out.  And while I was waiting for the paint to dry so I could sand it, I opened up my latest Pottery Barn catalog and look what I saw.  I swear, I did NOT see this before I made mine.  But how funny is that.

Pottery Barn for $279.00

I like mine better because it was FREE!  I didn't have to buy anything to make it.  Everything was already on hand.  And the baskets were saved from going to the dump!  I like that the basket numbers are facing forward on mine so you can really see what they are.  So what would you have made with those baskets?  Have you ever made something and then found it later in a magazine or catalog?  Thanks for stopping.

Linking to:

http://redoux.blogspot.com/2012/02/friday-link-up-party-41-and-les.html

http://www.megandmums.com/2012/02/saturday-splendour-no-9.html

http://www.positivelysplendid.com/

http://petitehermine.blogspot.com/ 

 http://my1929charmerblog.com/sundays-best-par-tay-17/

http://craftomaniac.blogspot.com/2012/02/craft-o-maniac-monday-link-party-with.html

 http://www.northerncottage.net/2012/02/northern-cottage-party-time-linky-some.html

 http://blackberryvine.blogspot.com/2012/02/tuesday-to-do-48-and-47-list-makers.html

 http://athomewithk.blogspot.com/2012/02/terrific-under-ten-tuesday-49.html

http://blah2beautiful.blogspot.com/2012/02/tell-it-to-me-tuesday-6-linky-party-and.html 

http://farmhouseporch.blogspot.com/2012/02/cowgirl-up-linky-party-starts-now.html 

 http://boogieboardcottage.blogspot.com/2012/02/welcome-to-58th-masterpiece-monday.html

 http://romanceonadime.com/take-it-on-tuesday/take-it-on-tuesday-blog-hop-15-valentines-day-beginnings/

http://www.notjustahousewife.net/2012/02/show-me-what-ya-got-60.html 

http://shadesofamberinc.blogspot.com/2012/02/annie-sloan-chalk-paint-linky-party.html 

 http://adiamondinthestuff.blogspot.com/2012/02/time-to-shine-party-no-55.html

 http://natural-nester.blogspot.com/2012/02/naturally-nifty-party-1.html

http://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com/2012/02/wow-us-wednesdays-52.html 

 http://www.uncommondesignsonline.com/2012/02/uncommonly-yours-link-party-14.html

 http://www.thesasselife.com/

http://delectablehome.blogspot.com/2012/02/show-tell-linkup-party-2.html 

 http://www.itsoverflowing.com/2012/02/overflowing-with-creativity-8.html

 http://theshadyporch.blogspot.com/2012/02/rock-n-share-15.html

 http://aweemeenit.blogspot.com/2012/02/wait-wee-meenit-wednesdays-4.html

 http://acreativeprincess.blogspot.com/2012/02/its-party-40.html

 http://bec4-beyondthepicketfence.blogspot.com/2012/02/under-100-linky-party_08.html