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Friday, February 28, 2014

Marquee Arrows Light Up!



Yesterday I got to attend a Reclaimologist sponsored art class in Salt Lake at Abode Antiques where we finished these awesome marquee arrows!
 When we arrived, each place was set with an unfinished arrow, and paint supplies.  We used Chalkdust Paint, and antique wax, both are available for sale at Abode, just above 9th east on 33rd south.
The color combinations were unlimited ...

 Here we see Mandy, far left, demonstrating painting skills, while Shannon in the middle mixes more paint... Note their matching Reclaimologist shirts!


 This green arrow is painted and waxed, and is having its light bulbs installed.
Here are a group of finished arrows.

         and another group of arrows, including me and mine!!  

Shannon is going to be giving a short demonstration at the Vintage Whites Show next Saturday, on how to construct these arrows.


Wednesday, February 26, 2014

My $2 Spring Time Centerpiece


 My holiday accents are slowly changing from Valentines to spring, and maybe to a bit of Easter.  The weather here in Utah has been ridiculously warm for February ... not that I am complaining

But it meant I was able to take these three glass vases, shown to the left, outside, and spray paint them in spring pastels.

I was very surprised that they ended up just looking like pottery vases .... I have had the three for sale at the shop for what seems like forever ... and thought I would make use of them at home.
I added some Easter grass I found in three colors in one bag at the dollar store ...

Then  I later added some eggs also from the dollar store, and liked the whimsy ...

Since I used the ends of spray paint cans I had on hand, and the vases I already owned, the center peice set me back a whole 2 dollars, and I still have most of the eggs and Easter grass left over for other projects!!
Not sure how my holiday mantel will turn out, but for now the left over pinks from Valentines, with the green bunnies, seems to  tie in nicely with the pastel vases.

Monday, February 24, 2014

Acorn Antique Show Time

 With Valentines behind us, and spring time several weeks away, I thought I would take the time to show some pics I took a few weeks back at the Acorn Antique Show in Ogden.

Long time readers will recall that I sold at the Acorn Show for years ....  but now I just get to shop .... and I actually love that.

These clock faces were for sell at Cathie Cox's booth.  She's another dealer at Treasures where I work, and I thought they were awesome.  She will have them for sale at Treasures again after she does the spring circuit of vintage sales, including Salt Lake's Vintage Whites sale that is happening at the State Fair Grounds in just two weeks!! I can hardly wait.

A favorite seller from Cat's Cradle Antiques in Provo brought this awesome antique mannequin head, covered in German stamps.


My partner in treasure hunting, Wendy, found this awesome red, white and blue factory spool!

 John, also a dealer at Treasures brought in this original deep sea diver's helmet ... the super cool thing about it is that its has the same price you will find on reproductions, neither is cheap, but still thought that was awesome.

 This guy just made me laugh, when I saw him ... long time antique dealer Jeff, had him fitted out to 'beat the band'.

I also ran into good friends Laurie and Patti.
 Loved the painted chippy furniture in this dealers booth.  Wendy managed to find a treasure to take home here.
 ... this dealer was new to the show and had an amazing collection of children's antiques ... along with all this fun vintage Easter goodness.

As always, the show was super fun ... Wendy and I later stopped at a second hand store and then the newish Vintage Flea Market in Salt Lake on 13th south, west of the freeway, which was interesting, and which added to my treasures for the day.  Thanks Wendy for coming along to make the day the best it could possibly be!!

And before I saw goodbye, I thought I would show you a cool picture I found on Instagram this week ... what an awesome idea for all those cool watch faces of Cathie's, right?

Well, I do have an awesome type tray and I was just thinking .... well stay tuned, and thanks for dropping by.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Alarm Clock Easter Shadow Box


`I have wanted to do one of these shadow box clocks since I first saw one on Pinterest.  Then  last week I found a modern, battery operated alarm clock at the second had store.  I just gutted it, which was easy since it was just a little battery deal, used E6000 to attach the glass and got started on the fun part.


I used tiny chicks I got from Julie, the Adventures of Blue Girl blogger, at the Vintage Whites Sale last year, a graphic from Graphics Fairy some green Easter garland from the dollar store, and a few of my tiny vintage millinery flowers.  Its hard to photograph, sorry about that, but its so fun and whimsical, I love it.   

I think I see more of these in my future.  I have a larger clock case that i want to do a a doll house room.  Should be fun.

Thanks for stopping in to see what I've been doing.

Historic Houses on Harvard!

 As an antique dealer, one of the best parts of my job is going to estate sales.  They are often held in old houses, for which I have a penchant, and sometimes those old houses are even in lovely old neighborhoods, as was the case last week.

This sale happened to be on Harvard Ave, a neighborhood on the east hillside above Salt Lake City.  Its very sought after real estate, and after seeing these pictures I am sure you will see why.  These homes were built in the 20's and 30's.

 The first three homes are Tudor style, with half timbering... I love them all, so charming.



 This one is my favorite, so eclectic  ... so much charm ....
 This stuccoed cottage, has the most amazing roof I have ever seen.

Because the neighborhood is so sought after, many of the smaller homes have been replaced by houses built to fit into the fine vintage scene. They are mostly obvious, because they tend to be huge, going from one side of the property to the other, and they have built in garages.  The next two photos represent two houses that I think did a good job of fitting in.    I also think its interesting to see how many of the new houses have the turreted towers, but then again 3 of the 5 old houses I like, and shared pictures of, also have turreted towers. All in all both of the newer houses are nice, but I think they lack the personality that the older home exhibit. I think they look sort of homogenized.  What do you think? 

The garage on this one is not as obvious, its tucked behind and to the side.





Monday, February 17, 2014

Red and White and Love Week


 Just thought I would share my Valentines this past week.

My hubby and husbands of friends we trip with, all got together and surprised us with an attendance at our local movie theater's, 'Evening of Love' event.

We had a lovely prime rib dinner, games, chocolate, roses and a movie with the necessary accoutrements.

Such adorable men.

 Then ...
... on Sunday we served a Valentines dinner to our family .... sans sick and traveling kids and grands. With just nine at table, it meant I got to use my beloved pearl handled silverware, so I guess every cloud has a silver(ware) lining, right?

The menu was pink and red foods: pinkish creamed corn, roasted red potatoes, pink rolls, Grandma Connie's famous pink cloud with fruit salad and a lovely' falling apart' pot roast ... and my son Davin, the funniest of my children, said the meal was perfect, as he just happened to be on a special diet, eating only foods in shades of pink ...
It was a lovely meal, despite the lack of grandchildren there. And ....

...handling and washing my collection of pearl handles is nothing short of a delight, I saved it until the rest of the dishes were washed so I could savor ... OK, I have been told I was a weirdo before, so this proves it!
 This is my Instagram Valentines greeting (join me, I'm Pollyareinvents on there too! Please mention in a comment that you are a blog follower and I will follow you back!)



And last of all, I am embarrassed to admit that it wasn't until this past week that I put away my beloved Christmas Angel collection that had been inhabiting the kitchen window shelf and made it valentinesy ...

Love showing off my heart shaped cookie cutter collection by hot gluing them onto the mullioned window I keep on the shelf ... now to think of other good things to display that way.

Thanks for coming along for the red and white tour, I hope your Valentines was lovely as well!!

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Craft Room Reveal

 ... and its finally done!  I finished up two projects this week, along with generally cleaning up my piles and piles of craft supplies that had somehow gotten out of control and mutinied against me. (Ungrateful Lot!)

The first project is shown to the left, the eight colorful drawers with crystal knobs, are actually just card board boxes that I covered with coordinated scrapbook papers.  This set of boxes holds, (2) Craft Paints and brushes, (2) Stamps and pads, (1) sorted junk jewelry flowers (1) unsorted junk jewelry, (1) assorted glitter and  (1) vintage card games for altered art.

The other project was filling a three shelf open cupboard with matching coffee style jars from the dollar store.  (I found out you can order dollar store stuff on line and have it delivered to your closest store without charge. These bottles were always out of stock in store I checked and rechecked)


Below we start moving through the room from the door way clockwise around the room.
 The white lidded jars are the ones I mentioned having finished collecting and filling this past week. They hold things like marbles, Styrofoam eggs, jewelry bits, clothes pins, letters, etc.  I collected wire baskets for a year and have shelves on all four walls holding an assortment of fabrics, boxes, laces, trims, vintage bottles, etc.

 This picture shoes the lower fixtures.  The four drawer chest to the left holds 10 by 10 scrapbooks papers, the cabinet with the birds has cubbies that hold photo boxes filled with things like old photos, old Valentines, cellophane bags, more junk jewelry, post cards, feathers, sewing trims, 3-d embellishments, etc. (as do the ones above the white table)  The many drawered cream colored chest holds mostly sorted jewelry bits.  The sewing drawers hold sewing supplies, the 15 drawer (shoe organizer) unit holds tiny books, tiny boxes, hair clips, tiny picture frames, sculpy, metallic craft paints, etc.
This is the comfy corner.  I originally moved the chair out and had open wire scrapbook paper storage in this corner ... it was easier to find the paper I wanted, but the whole room suffered without a hint of comfort so back it came.  

The green louvered stand has shelves for standard sized paper and card stock, while the top opens to file folders full of categorized stickers.  There is a caddy full of fancy edging scissors on top of it, and a window filled with a much of my rolled  ribbon.

I love the little bird cage style CD stand, that now holds plastic containers full of miniatures by category, like 'New York City', 'Utah', 'baby', and 'animals'.

 I collected plaid tins and boxes for a full year, then covered most of my magazine boxes with various plaid wrapping papers.  The hold antique magazines, antique clip art, iron on transfers, sheet music, old catalogues and the like.
 This shows the window above, unseen above the window is another long shelf with wire baskets of stuff.





This is a small closet, it is chock full, of more paper, stamps, old wallpaper, stickers, paper lace, etc.

The jewelry bags hanging on the closet await sorting some of that unsorted jewelry that I love for making funky jewelry or adding to embellished antique bottles, etc.
This small pop crate is on the right side wall of the closet and hangs over the side of my desk ... as you can see it holds a lot of my washi tape, and some small jars of tiny stuff too.

 This is my desk that was transformed from an antique parlor organ ... My husband added a shelf to it so that I could add the file drawers I bought at Farm Chicks a couple of years ago... for a desk with out drawers, they were perfect.  This is how the wall looks with the door to the room opened... when you close the door you can see hidden shelving behind it.
 Voila!!  The shelf that holds the tiny plastic containers of ribbon scraps, is hinged on the top and lifts to access various ugly but necessary stuff, like spray paint, and goo gone.

This great drop leaf table in the middle of the room is an amazing addition.  It is only a foot across when it has the leaves down, but when they are up the table is big enough to serve dinner to 6 people, or allow for major spreading out in case of cutting out patterns, or having a lot of supplies close at hand for a project.

The white table in the first picture is my sewing spot.  My sewing machine, with its carry case, is under the table, along with a typewriter, so I can use either of them on the table.

Thanks for coming along on my tour of my little 12 by 14 foot craft space.  I have been working on this room for more than two years and frankly it feels great to be done.

My next craft room project is to write down everything in the room in alphabetical order telling where it can be found.  Its amazing that I can put something away in the morning, and be unable to remember where I put it by two in the afternoon.  I know that my book listing everything and where to find it will be the key to crafting without tears.

If you have a post about your craft room, please leave a link in the comments below.  I would love to come and see what you have done.  Thanks again.