Monday, May 28, 2012

Re-purposed Vintage Door Hardware to Clock Shelf

This is my collection of salvage tongue and groove 4" planks/boards that I bought several years ago.
 Knowing I needed to start getting rid of stuff, I took a look at these boards and the huge collection of door locks and knobs and decided to see I could come up with.

First, we made a very simple weathered white shelf with three vintage hooks ... then a WELCOME sign out of the beautiful blue boards that I uncovered ... can be seen at Welcome Sign Rusty Wire Wreath

Pretty nice ... so we made another one as seen here  using some of the same type architectural salvage. 

Still had more boards to use and I wanted to make this one vertical instead of horizontal. 

I had seen this cute miniature clock shelf on Mamie Jane's and thought I would give it a try ... well, actually be a "copy-cat". 

We took some old door locks and the next board became this .... a narrow shelf some of my small, vintage clocks. You can see the keyhole and the square hole for the knob.


  You need the locks with the metal piece on the front.

This little wooden fragment was just perfect for the top ... how lucky could I be!

I even stuck an old key in the keyhole. 


  

The small one on the side with the knob is the first one I have ever seen ... likely on a closet door. Just added an old metal number for fun.
Likely cost less than $10.00 to make.

Here it is !!!  Ain't she pretty ???? 


As you can see, the lock pieces are staggered to the sides ... not down the middle and spaced for one large clock and two small ones.


My inspiration came from  Mamie Jane's.
 I get a lot of inspiration from her.

Hope you enjoyed seeing what I love to do.

Blessings,
Audrey Z.
Linking to: 
 Funky Junk Interiors Party Junk Rustic Shelves


2805 Potpourri Friday



Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Texas gully-washer rain breaking the drought



We finally got a good-'ole, Texas gully-washer.


This picture says it all ... Welcome to the wonderful rain. We got a real, for sure, Texas gully-washer today ... so thankful.

We have had a total of about six inches or more this week. I hope this breaks the drought.
This is beautiful rain water gushing out of the gutter, flowing down my little tin bucket rain chain gutter... seen here. 
    
Sorry, no plants out yet.

  
Our water collection tanks are full and ready for the hot summer days when there is no rain.
 
Our yard, at times, looked like a lake.
  
My little red wagon collected his share today too.
 
Clean, cool rain water. Mom used to collect it to wash our hair and it made our hair so silky and soft. Nothing like good rain water. 

   
The trumpet vine was so full of blooms yesterday and I should have taken pictures, but was more beautiful today after the rain and the sun peeked out for just a little while. 

Happy Mother's Day everyone. 

Have  a great week-end.

Blessings,
Audrey Z.  

Linking to: 
Mrs. Hines Class Show & Tell
Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style
It's A Party on Thursday at A Creative Princess
Show and Share on Thursday at Southern Lovely



Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Vintage Photo Files.Repurposed Metal File Tools

I'm a Copy-Cat ...

hope you will check out Mamie Jane's" Repurposed Metal File Tool" ... she is one talented lady and I love to copy her. 

Joy at a Vintage Green also use the metal file tools to make a photo gallery display. She made several that I am sure will sell quickly in her shop. Hope you will visit her blog.

(Click the pictures to enlarge)

I had some old metal file tools and always have blocks of wood in my collection.  

I attached one picture to the back of the file and that gave a dimensional feel and shows part of the file and a good place to hang a little key.

 

  
This wooden lamp base was just perfect for this project. I bought the magnetic buttons and plain cork circles from the craft store. 
I wrote numbers on them. 
(not easy to write on cork).

I covered the top of the base with vintage sheet music and painted the base black.  I drove the files into the wood after drilling small pilot holes; slanting the large one just a little.

Pictures are vintage with interesting information on the back too.
 

 One picture was framed with black and that looked good. I did not want to bother with cutting strips of paper, so I put some black construction paper through the paper shredder and it was just perfect with a little bit of ragged edge. Worked out just fine.



 I wanted to place something on the base, so gathered up some keys. It was fun to let some hang on the files too. 


The graphic came from The Graphic Fairy and I added the words.
 Love her blog. 

I really enjoyed making this unusual Photo File and it did not cost very much. 

Thanks for stopping by. Love your comments.
Blessings,
Audrey Z. 

Linking to: Knick of Time





 Linsey with The Farmhouse Porch
Anita with Cedar Hill Ranch
Samantha with Crafty Texas Girls




Monday, May 7, 2012

Re-purposed Texas Antler Horn Shelf


I just had to show you this!!! 

 

  This shelf has been in my stack of salvage lumber up behind the garden for a lot of years ... exposed to all the outdoor elements and not in the best of condition even when I bought it. (sometimes I buy just for the wood)  ... The shelves were attached with two or three screws; no shelf supports and sagging. Not safe to sit anything on.

I took it to the shop to see if I could fix it and sell it in our garage sale. I found enough shelf brackets but was only successful in getting the two on the bottom. The others were impossible, and I won't go into that ... so I just gave up on that project when I saw these scrap antlers laying there and they looked like shelf brackets to me. With a little cutting, grinding, filing and fitting ... they became "fingers" to hold up the shelves. 


Now it is my "horned" shelf.

I used my home-made chalk paint ...
 first painted it white, and then gray ... sanded it to give it the time-worn look. After taking pictures, it looked too washed out, so I stained it ... much better. 

   Beautiful hands of antlers embracing and holding up the shelf. ... Horns are attached where they touch the shelf.


I tried using it to display pottery ... not happy ... it needed some softness, so the little plants were perfect.


 Love to up-cycle and re-purpose.

Enjoy ... 
This will be for sale in our Garage Sale ... wanna come???  SOLD

Blessings,
Audrey Z. 

Funky Junk Interiors Party Junk Rustic ShelvesFunky_Junk's_Party_Junk_link_party_150

FEATURED ...  FEATURED

Linking to:  I Gotta Create


Knick of Time Tuesday




 
 Debbiedoo's Monday Newbie Party.







Sunday, May 6, 2012

Repurposing architectural salvage.Welcome Sign


Floors are not swept and sinks are full of dirty dishes, but I gotta go to the shop and try to be creative. 
 
Have you ever had times when your mind is so full of creative ideas; you just can't work fast enough?
 
Well, I tell you, Blogland is so full of creative ideas ... you can get so inspired that it is overwhelming.
Our Subdivision will be having Garage Sales at the end of the month and each year, I try to recycle some of my junk/treasures in creative ways to make my sale more interesting. This year I got carried away, so I have a few/actually more than a few, to share with you.  

I hung a recycled old Welcome envelope with a barb wire handle to fill with a nice plant and old rusty jail keys hanging on the hooks. To hide the hangers at the top. I leaned a clock face and perched a little bird on the other side.

I love architectural salvage and get a lot of pleasure in re-purposing items.
Several years ago, I bought a big five-gallon bucket full of salvage tongue and groove 4" planks/boards. Knowing I needed to start getting rid of stuff, I took a look at these boards; the huge collection of door hardware and hooks and decided to see I could come up with.

First, we made a very simple weathered white shelf with three vintage hooks ... then a WELCOME sign out of the beautiful blue boards that I uncovered ... can be seen at Welcome Sign Rusty Wire Wreath

Pretty nice ... so we made the one above using some of the same type architectural salvage. 

Old door hinges that are attached so they work  ...  porcelain knob to hang something on and funky hooks on the bottom for hanging keys or something. I hand painted WELCOME and No. 7 (don't ask me why ... just looked right) ... 


The next board became this ....


a narrow shelf for my some of my small clocks as seen Clock Shelf

 


Hope you enjoyed seeing what I love to do.


Blessings,
Audrey Z.


Linking to: Cowgirl-up Tuesday Linky Party



 Linsey with The Farmhouse Porch
Anita with Cedar Hill Ranch
Samantha with Crafty Texas Girls

Homemaker on a Dime Blog Hop and Party


 Funky Junk Interiors


Debbiedoo's Monday Newbie Party