Thrifting/Garage Sales - March edition

I've decided to start a new series. I love to see what other bloggers find when thrifting and going to garage sales. So I am going to start posting what my 'finds' of the week are. 

This first picture is the result of an estate sale and a couple of garage sales. I spent about $25 total for all of this. There are 3 vintage cameras that I bought for my daughter who is a junior in college and a media arts major. She already has about 3 cameras in her vintage collection, so she'll be thrilled with these! 

I got these for $15 for both. I'm sorry for the fuzzy picture. I took this pic with my iphone. I can't find my regular camera. Believe me, they have beautiful frilly detail. I think I will turn the big one into a cork board for my office. 

I also found this beautiful sofa table on Craigslist. 

It turns out the woman I bought this from is a fellow blogger!!! Here name is Laura, and her blog is My Dear Trash at http://mydeartrash.blogspot.com/

It was so great to meet her and now follow her blog. Go on over and check her out!!!

New look for my Blog!!!

Today I discovered "Cute 'n' Cool Blog Stuff by Itkupilli. Here is the link to the website  http://cutencool-itkupilli.blogspot.com/ 

 I downloaded the background and banner. Thank you so much!!!

The background I chose was the Shabby Turquoise Damask, it can be found here: http://itkupilli-cutencool.blogspot.com/2009/06/3-column-minima-shabby-turquoise-damask.html. 

The banner I chose was the Venice Header, it can be found here: http://cutencool-itkupilli.blogspot.com/2009/09/venice-header-for-3-column-minima.html .

I'm very happy with how it looks! What do you think? I appreciate any comments/suggestions you may have!!!

Goodwill frame to Jewelry Holder

I knew I wanted to make myself a jewelry holder for my closet. I had this very narrow area of wall available, and I wanted to have my jewelry displayed instead of in drawers, so I would wear it more often. So I had my eye open for a long narrow frame whenever I was thrifting. I came across this frame at Goodwill and picked it up for $4.99. The back had a stamp that said some brand of calendar. 


I started off by removing the back board, wiping down the frame with a wet paper towel, sanding it a little, then I sprayed it with gray primer, then used Gloss Black spray paint. I'm in a glossy black phase right now! 

Next I used a spray adhesive on back board and laid down a layer of batting. Then I used a remnant of material that I had left over from another project that I will post soon. I secured the material to the back of the board with khaki-colored Duct tape that I had in my tape drawer. It's not pretty, but who is going to see it? I used Hardware Cloth from Home Deport for the inside...it's like chicken wire, but the openings are 1/4 inch squares. Here is a link to what I bought: http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202024052/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053 . Please use leather gloves when cutting the hardware cloth. I measured the inside of the frame and added about 3 inches to each measurement, because I wanted the wire to 'pouf' out a little from the frame. 

You can kind of see what I mean from the above picture. I didn't pull the cloth/wire tight. This is what I did, with the gloves on, I bent the end of the wire/cloth on the shorter sides up about 1.5 inches, then I did the same to the longer sides. Then using a staple gun, I stapled the long side into the side of the frame. Then I moved to one of the shorter sides, and so on. It was not hard at all. 


 I also bought little cup hooks that you see screwed in to the bottom of the frame and S hooks. I wear a lot of hoop earrings, and I wanted something to hang them from. I spray painted the cup hooks, S hooks and the hardware cloth with Krylon Brushed Metallic spray paint in Sesame Shimmer. It's a beautiful champagne color. The cup hooks were an ugly yellow-brass color, and the hardware cloth and S hooks were silver. It's a subtle change, but totally worth it.


Then I carefully placed the back board back in place, and while holding it upright on the table with one hand, I staple-gunned the back on with the other hand. I didn't want to lay it flat because I didn't want to push in the wire/cloth. Then I just used a ruler to figure out the spacing for the cup hooks along the bottom. I started the holes with a small nail, and then just screwed in the hooks. The back board already had a hole in it for hanging, so I didn't need to add any hardware to the back.

Thank you so much for stopping by...doing tutorials is new to me, so please be patient!!! I will improve, I promise!!!