junkrestore (click on photo or text for full post)

2012-02-22T18:48:00.000-08:00

The sale is less than two weeks away! I have more than 25 vendors selling everything from furniture to vintage clothing to unique decorating items and collectibles. There will be homemade treats for sale as well. I take cash, checks, and if you want to use a credit or debit card there is a 3% fee for the convenience. We will be open from 10am to 4pm on both days, and no early birds! Some of the vendors will still be setting up on Friday morning so I can't let anyone in to shop before ten.

Hope to see you there!

Fabric Covered Suitcases

2012-01-31T18:53:00.000-08:00

I found a tutorial for fabric-covered suitcases on Elsie Larson's blog A Beautiful Mess and decided to try to duplicate it with my own vintage suitcases and some fabric from Scrapbooks Etc in Mesa, AZ. I think mine turned out very well. It was messy, but an easy project.

These are hers. Now I'm on the hunt for more suitcases just like this to remake for the barn sale.

wooden box, remade

2012-01-30T08:55:00.000-08:00

I found a wood box at Goodwill yesterday for $2. I spray painted it cream.

I took some antique stencils, and using a pencil I traced the letters.

I filled in the letters with a brown paint marker.

I marked off a cross and filled it in with red acrylic paint.

After the paint dried, I took a sanding block and sanded the letters and cross, and all the edges. I then sealed it with a clear matte spray paint. Now I have a cash box for the flea markets.

Christmas is put away...

2012-01-17T12:07:00.000-08:00

I'm not sorry. I've become quite the minimalist in the past year, partially by choice.

Less is more for me, at this point. I'm seriously decluttering my life, in all aspects.

It feels great.

2012-01-15T17:56:00.001-08:00

Junkrestore Vintage Market

2012-01-11T16:19:00.000-08:00

I have decided to go ahead and announce the dates of the next Vintage Market.

It will be held on March 2nd and 3rd in Mesa, the address is 648 E. Lehi Rd. which is just south of the Red Mountain (202) Freeway and just east of Mesa Drive.

The hours will be from 10am-4pm on both days. I will accept cash, checks and credit cards, as usual. We have room for about 25 vendors this time, and hopefully the weather will cooperate.

This is the same weekend as Lehi Days, which is an annual historic festival that is held each year. Email me if you have any questions or would like vendor information at junkrestore@gmail.com.

Mesa Historic District Vintage Home Tour

2012-01-09T18:04:00.000-08:00

I attended the Mesa Historic District Home Tour last year and was blown away by the gorgeous houses that were featured. Especially my friend Dorie's amazingly renovated 1916 home on West Second Street.

Dorie is the author of the blog Tuesdays with Dorie, which I read religiously. She emailed me a few weeks ago to let me know that some of her neighbors were having a flea market type sale in the park area during the home tour. Click {HERE} for more info on the Home Tour. I will be there with items from a few of my vendors, stop by and say hello if you wish! Vendors, email me at junkrestore@gmail.com if you'd like to be included (I sent out an email about it but you know how that is).

Hope to see you there!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-19T22:27:00.000-08:00

This is it for me. The most humble sort of Christmas will be happening at my house this year, and I have come to terms with that. There is no giant tree or lights outside. We won't have much, but we have each other.

I have a tiny collection of vintage Shiny Brite ornaments that I will never part with.

Merry Christmas to all my followers. I hope this holiday season finds you happy and healthy, and remembering what is important.

My New Bed

2011-12-16T22:24:00.000-08:00

One of my vendors brought this bed to the barn sale and as soon as I saw it I knew it had to be mine.

I need to paint the lamps a different color now. the black seems too harsh to me. But this bedding has stood up for over a year and still looks amazing, despite my three kids. It was a present to myself after the success of my first barn sale, and this bed was a present to myself after the amazing success of my fourth sale. I can't wait to see what I get next time.

Salvage Coffee Table

2011-12-13T22:19:00.000-08:00

I found this parts-washing table at a yard sale a few weeks ago. I loved the base so much, things like this are very hard to find here in the Southwest.

I unscrewed the heavy metal top and set it aside, then I took that beadboard door that I bought at another sale and cut it down with my circular saw and popped it right into the opening.

There's a tiny bit of green paint in the table top, which is complemented by the green base.

Small Projects

2011-12-11T22:05:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago I had a job interview with a couple of girls who were starting a recycled jewelry company and looking for "researchers". Whatever that means. Part of the interview was that I was supposed to bring a few of my smaller craft and recycling projects with me so they had an idea of what kinds of things I make.

I made this bag from a $3 rug from Ikea and a vintage leather belt. It wasn't easy to sew through it, I recommend a serger to prevent fraying (I just used a zigzag stitch). I then sewed on a small brass escutcheon for detail.

I bought some antique bronze chain from Joann's and used little jump rings to attach antique skeleton keys.

I saw something very similar to this on Pinterest and wanted to see if I could duplicate it. I used a small scrap of leather and another escutcheon and sewed it to a key ring.

My sister gave me this small brass number plaque that she had made into a bracelet. The chain made it difficult to wear, but when I attached it to a leather bracelet it worked perfectly.

And along the same lines, I found these little enamel number plaques in the scrapbooking section of Joann's and attached it to a leather bracelet.

I didn't get the job, but I had a really good time making these.

New Work Space

2011-11-13T14:00:00.001-08:00

I made room in my bedroom for a smallish workspace. My sister let me use her farmhouse table in my kitchen so I brought my smaller table into my room and the lockers from the bathroom.

It took me all day but I reorganized my entire junk closet and I feel so much better. We'll see how long it takes me before I start piling stuff on top of the desk and bury it completely.

Cleanup on Aisle Ten

2011-11-13T13:45:00.001-08:00

I can't be the only person that this has ever happened to before. A can of white paint, left unattended after I painted my nightstands white. Knocked over by the infamous Not Me. Visions of me losing my security deposit flashing before my eyes.

I scraped as much of it as I could off the carpet and then literally started drowning it in soapy water. I think I dumped a total of five gallons of water on it, a gallon at a time. I vacuumed it up with my shop vac (the filter removed), repeating until it looked like it was gone.

We'll see what it looks like when it's dry. If it ever dries. And I can't imagine what the pad underneath looks like. But I don't care, at least it's off the carpet and my security deposit is safe. Until next time.

Black Mid Century Desk

2011-11-09T15:23:00.000-08:00

One of the shoppers at the vintage market bought a desk from the girls at Mrs. Ms. Misc. and asked around to see if anyone could refinish it for her.

I brought it home and painted it black satin for her. It's curing right now and will be ready to be picked up in a couple of days.

Barn Sale #4

2011-11-06T11:58:00.000-08:00

Well. That was quite the adventure. After literally weeks of gorgeous weather, and even Thursday being an absolutely beautiful day, Friday opened cloudy and a little breezy.

We had lots of shoppers that kept both cashiers busy constantly. That little breeze turned into a full on dust storm at about one PM and so all the dealers had to lower their canopies and tarp things up. We secured things the best we could and just went home for the night.

The next morning we arrived and assessed the damage, which wasn't too bad, considering the size of the storm that came through the valley. Only a couple of broken things but nobody's canopies blew away and nothing got so wet that it was ruined. Saturday was only about 65 degrees, so it was quite a bit cooler but we still had lots of shoppers.

I'm already planning the next sale, which will be held during Lehi Days in historic Mesa the first weekend of March. We already have a location, and have room for about twenty of our favorite vendors. Let me know if you are interested, because I will have to be very selective just because of our space limitations. We will have a ton of traffic and I'm very excited that I can already start planning.

And now for the photos.

I would like to thank Marcy Dodge, Jessica Bagley, Lisa Rieman, Kalli Gleave, Brenda Judd, Louise Summerville, and Saije Wright for participating in the Junkrestore Vintage Market.

I would also like to thank the following, and provide a link to their websites (just click on the business name)

Staci Slade with Shabby Junker

Kat Randall with Indignant Corgi

Lindsey Stamm with Linny Jane Vintage

Julie Shervin with Julie's Home Decor

Nicole with Strawberry Monday

Jessie Marshall with Thirtyone24

Kylee Palmer with Material Girls

Debbie Nelson with Funky Junk Restore

McKelle France with Indestress Mode

Julia Holbein with 551 East Design

And a very special thank you to my sister and best friend, Nikki Grandy of Grand Design Co. I could not do these sales without her next to me, cashiering and helping move furniture and running for lunch.

I can't wait for the next one in only FOUR MONTHS!!

Only Five More Days!!

2011-10-30T13:46:00.000-07:00

I hope you guys are as excited as I am for the barn sale this weekend! I have just over twenty vendors and there will be tons of refinished furniture, shabby chic decorating items, antiques, crafts, gifts, and vintage clothing and accessories.

Click {HERE} for a link to Google maps. We will be located just Northwest of Lindsay and Guadalupe in Gilbert, AZ. We'll be open from 9 to 4 on both days. Look for signs from the corner, it's just west on Guadalupe from Lindsay. We will accept cash and checks, and all credit cards with a 3% fee.

We have room for about three more vendors, send me an email at junkrestore@gmail.com for more information.

Vendor Update

2011-10-15T16:20:00.000-07:00

A few of the vendors that will be participating in the November Barn Sale.

Jessie from thirtyone24

Lindsey from Linny Jane Vintage blog LJV facebook

Megan from Material Girls blog MG facebook

Marcy Dodge

Staci Slade at Shabby Junker blog SJ Facebook

Kat Randall from Indignant Corgi

Jessica Bagley

Nicole at Strawberry Monday

Julie Shervin with Julie's Home Decor

Louise Summerville

Nikki Grandy at Grand Design Co .

Cassie Stocker at Design Stocker

Lisa Rieman

Kalli Gleave and Saije Wright

McKelle France at In Destress Mode

Julia at 551 East Design

Debbie at Funky Junk Restore

We still have room for vendors, so contact me at junkrestore@gmail.com if you are interested!

If I'm missing your website or business info, let me know as soon as you can. Everyone wants to check you out before the sale!

2011-09-25T08:15:00.000-07:00

November Barn Sale!

2011-09-23T21:28:00.000-07:00

We've got a great location and a date, what more do we need? I have room for about 35 vendors, so click the barn sale tab above for more information if you would like to participate. Space and time is limited, we have less than six weeks until November! Tell all your friends, the last sale was fantastic and this one should be even better!

Inspiration

2011-08-06T16:33:00.001-07:00

I'm BLOGGING!!

2011-08-04T13:24:00.000-07:00

I haven't done a project, answered an email or phone call, or bought anything new to refinish in months. I haven't blogged in months.

I did distress my armoire last night. That's about the extent of my projects.

Dream Book Design

2011-05-20T07:32:00.000-07:00

The lovely Adri from Dream Book Design did a feature this week on Arizona bloggers. I was featured this morning. Run over to check it out! Click {HERE} for the link.

Design Stalker... er, Stocker

2011-05-14T14:05:00.000-07:00

One of my absolute favorite bloggers and best friends just moved into a new house and she posted pictures of her amazing new sofa (found on Craigslist) and her master bedroom. She changed the name of her blog to Design Stocker and you can check it out by clicking {HERE}.

A1 Antique Auction

2011-05-13T12:15:00.001-07:00

A few weeks ago Nikki and I decided to brave the antique auction in Phoenix.

They post photos of everything going up for auction the day before, so you can

scope it out and decide if you want to pay your $100 deposit to bid.

She really only had her eye on two pieces. We both loved the look of this old rack.

And this amazing old farm table.

She ended up being the high bidder on both pieces. It helps if you are looking

your rival bidder in the eyes and giving her a puppy dog face while you raise your number.

The new table looks amazing in her house, and we are currently trying to figure out

a way to protect the amazing old wood from her kids.

Coffee Table

2011-05-13T12:03:00.000-07:00

I needed a smaller coffee table in my new house. So I took this table that I bought

at a thrift store for $20...

Took it outside, and cut the legs down.

I hate doing this to real antiques and this table is pretty

old, but I didn't have any other options and wasn't

using it anywhere else.

I like how the wood looks with the white. And I did put a rug down on

the carpet, and I actually really like it, despite my aversion

to this practice.

The Willows

2011-05-05T08:34:00.000-07:00

Nikki and I went to The Willows for the first time a few weeks ago.

The trip was very inspiring, especially for this "girl in a rut".

Someone used trampoline springs to cover the lamp cord. I have a

huge box of these, if anyone wants to try this.

I loved this plumbing fixture lamp.

And wire baskets all on a big rack.

I took this shot for Nikki because she loved the plumbing pipe and flanges

between the two columns.

I could bust out some of these for the next barn sale.

The lighting in the shop was incredible. Everything was repurposed

from something else, mostly old baskets and buckets.

This curtain was hung from the ceiling on a length of rebar, and it was awesome.

I could have stayed in there for hours, just looking around, but we were on our

way to the antique auction. I'll post about that next.

Spring Cleaning

2011-05-04T14:03:00.000-07:00

I'm cleaning house again... And I'll be adding more throughout the day as I go through my garage. Email me at junkrestore@yahoo.com if you are interested in anything. Thanks, Tara.

Vintage Metal Bistro Set $125

Section of blue and grey architectural salvage $100

Folding stepstool $40

Small primitive stool $15

Postal Telegraph Clock, about 18" diameter. Works, but runs slow. No glass. $65

One last window, one broken pane $40

Shabby gesso mirror $25

Large oval mirror $50

Black armoire, currently fits a 32 inch tv but could go bigger. Glass knobs $300

Antique bed with elaborate carving. Headboard and Footboard, no rails. $400

Matching nightstands $100 for the pair. Glass knobs.

500 Followers!

2011-04-16T20:34:00.000-07:00

I started this blog just over a year ago and I'm so happy that you all read my often sporadic posts. I have decided to do a giveaway to celebrate. I am going to ship one lucky follower a gravity-feed paint sprayer from Home Depot. It has lots of attachments and hooks right up to an air compressor to deliver a perfect paint finish.

You have three ways to enter. You must be a follower, and leave a comment here. You can also have another entry by liking my Facebook page and leaving a comment here that you have done so. And the third way you can enter is by blogging about it on your own blog and leaving a comment that you have done so. That's three chances to win. I have only done one giveaway in the past, but I was really excited to see that I have so many people reading and wanted to show my appreciation. I will do the drawing on April 23rd.

Thank you so much!

Junkrestore Vintage Market #3

2011-04-04T20:33:00.000-07:00

Can you believe the color of the sky? Temps were right around 100 but that didn't stop the shoppers. We had a very busy start, with a line outside the gate before opening.

This was my checkout tent. The banner has been with me at all three sales. It's kind of a tradition now.

My best friend and sister joins me for every sale and I could not do this without her. She inspires me every day with ideas for new projects.

Please check out her blog {here} and become a follower if you haven't already. She's amazingly talented.

Nikki brought a few things for the sale, but she's moving too, so she didn't have time to prepare. The lockers sold right away, and the guy who came topick them up was super happy about it. They weighed a ton.

I also would not have survived without my awesome friend Cassie. She sat in 100 degree traffic for 5 hours to come help me on Friday and Saturday. She wasn't even selling anything this time, but she came to help. Follow her blog, ReuseReinventRedesign. (I think moving is contagious. Cassie is moving this weekend too.)

This was my view of the front spaces.

This is a shot from the roof. It doesn't even show the seven spaces on the right side. We had 32 vendors total, with most there for all three days. Some vendors were new on Saturday, which brought in new shoppers and also people that had come on Thursday or Friday.

Kristina sold these gorgeous rose headbands.

Jessica and Kalli had a great selection of vintage items, they have a great eye. The lampshades were a huge hit. Jess and I went flea marketing together a while ago, and we have exactly the same tastes, and not in a good way. We kept wanting to buy the same things!

Brenda had vintage fans and wooden crates, and an old door that everyone wanted to buy, but it was just for display.

Shannon is so incredibly talented. She reupholsters furniture and makes custom tables and other furniture pieces. Check her out at Modern Revival.

Two Chick and a Vinyl Cutter had lots of plaques and tiles available. You can see their blog {here}

I only had a few things for sale because of my move last weekend, but I'll definitely have more next time.

Michele from Frames with Attitude had gorgeous frames to choose from.

And these really cool picnic tables that converted into benches.

Anita is also an upholsterer, up north in Sedona. She redid this awesome sofa in Amy Butler fabric.

Pam had these incredible bracelets made from buttons and other bits of vintage ephemera. I wish I had bought one. She also makes bird feeders and birdbaths out of vintage dishes and light fixtures. So cool!!

Louise had lots of Shabby Chic furniture and home decor.

Anne Marie and Cara from Twice Lovely came all the way from Prescott.

Debbie had lots of great vintage pieces, including glassware.

Michelle had great stuff. I bought a set of mercury glass cups for only $5!

Love these Mahjong bracelets.

Robin set her display up beautifully, and rearranged every time someone bought something, so it stayed looking great the whole time.

Jake from Dusty Gem Decor brought a giant trailer full of amazing pieces, including a turquoise piano.

Suzanne from Thrift Store Decor Junky had the coolest arty pieces.

Julie had Shabby Chic furniture and lots of home decorating items. Her shabby frames sold as soon as she brought them in.

Nicole from Strawberry Monday had bright and colorful items.

Gloria and Cheryl make gift baskets using lots of fun items.

Marcy is Upcycled. She takes vintage items and reuses them in interesting and unique ways.

Mary and Letha had a lot of glassware and a ton of flower frogs that I wish I had gotten my hot little hands on.

Alicia and Priscilla from Poppy Lime Design are two of the nicest girls I've ever met. And they are TALENTED. Their headbands, necklaces, and flower pins were a huge hit.

And check out that lampshade! What an awesome design!

Staci had a ton of windows, which always sell fast and furiously. She also made these frames with wire in them, and tiny little clothespins to hang photos. They sold out quickly.

Shirley also had a couple of windows, one of which I snagged for the opening between my kitchen and living room.

Brent from Restoration Plantation came and brought some great Shabby Chic and cottage furniture.

Christa from Stories of a House brought her gorgeous furniture and a few little accent pieces. She had a great dining set but it sold before I could take a photograph of it.

Danielle from A Vintage Heart came with her fantastic frames and ornaments made with old molding and ceiling tin.

Tanya came from Fitrou. They had great industrial pieces and beautiful one-of-a-kind necklaces, a fantastic selectionof vintage bottles, aprons, pillows, and old letters. I loved the ones that said "oh".

The sale was a wild success and we can't wait for another one. I'm tentatively planning on

June, indoors obviously, and if you are interested in being a vendor at the next sale, send me an

email at junkrestore@yahoo.com.

2011-03-28T16:32:00.000-07:00

Barn Sale!!

2011-03-23T18:43:00.000-07:00

The Sale is next week, you guys!

Are you ready? Because I'm not. I have over thirty vendors,

selling all kinds of refinished furniture, clothes, home decorating

items, shabby chic stuff, handmade gifts and antiques.

I have a few pictures of some of the things that will be

for sale, gates open at 10am on Thursday morning.

We have plenty of parking and the weather should be great.

Email me if you have any questions at all!

We accept cash and checks with ID, and

Visa, Mastercard, and Discover with a 3% fee added

to your transaction. No taxes.

Some of the vendors included:

Julie Julie's Home Decor

Nicole Strawberry Monday

Suzanne at Thrift Store Decor Junky

Nikki at Grand Design

Cassie at Reuse Reinvent Redesign

Kylee at Rag Doll Clothing

Danielle at The Vintage Heart

Anne Marie at Twice Lovely

Jake at Restoration Furniture

Brent at Restoration Plantation

Tanya at Fitrou

Shannon at Modern Revival

Christa at Stories of a House

Staci at The Project Shoppe

Shelli at Two Chicks and a Vinyl Cutter

Quick Sale!!

2011-03-20T17:44:00.000-07:00

I have a few things for sale right now because I'm in the middle of moving and

I can't move this stuff. Please email me if you are interested.

Two or three vintage paneled doors. Narrow size. Some have doorknobs.

$50 each.

Little slipcovered stool $30

Black armoire. Very solid wood, huge moldings.

Two drawers inside. $250

Small trailer, not tagged. New tires (you guys know why) $300

6 drawer dresser, solid wood. Painted beachy blue and white,

distressed. Twelve different antique doorknobs as pulls.

$300

White Coffee table project. Solid table, needs to be painted. $75

Antique full-size headboard and footboard. Gorgeous carving.

Completely unique. $400

Kitchenaid Mixer. Needs attachment, vintage but works like

a beast. These things never wear out. $50

I also have an antique all-metal Murphy bed in amazing shape. Includes mattress.

I haven't taken a picture of it because it's in storage but I can once I can

get the storage unit unloaded. $500

Email me if you are interested in anything. I can deliver anything before I sell the trailer. :)

Barn Sale Vendors

2011-03-04T21:33:00.000-08:00

I'll see you tomorrow!

11:30 to 1:00 at

The Simple Farm

9080 E Cactus Rd in

Scottsdale.

Bring your own picnic,

I'll provide the drinks.

barn sale vendor post

2011-02-24T20:22:00.001-08:00

This post is for all the people who emailed me about being a vendor at the barn sale. Some of you are confirmed and paid, and some are still undecided, but I have sent emails to all of you because when you first contacted me about being a vendor, I automatically added you to my vendor email list and have been sending update emails to all of you. But some of you aren't getting all my messages, so I have added a section at the very bottom of the barn sale page (the tabs under the header) that has every email that I have sent to the vendors so far. If you aren't getting them, they may be being routed to your spam box or something but I apologize. Check this section every once in a while to make sure that you are up-to-date. thanks! If you are no longer interested and would like to be removed from my mailing list, please let me know so I can update my contact list.

junkrestore vintage rentals

2011-02-20T11:51:00.001-08:00

Getting married and want to add vintage or country

character to your ceremony or reception ? I've decided to

begin offering my collection of antique and vintage

architectural salvage and unique home accessories

for rent. Vintage accessories have become a huge part

of photo sessions but not everyone can afford to buy them,

and they can be somewhat difficult to find.

Vintage doors of all shapes and sizes hinged together to make

a backdrop for your receiving line.

A pair of chippy white columns can be used to make a

backdrop for your vows.

Windows can be used to display seating arrangements and menus.

Or transformed into a dividing wall.

Looking for a special vintage prop for a photo shoot?

Need an old umbrella? A vintage typewriter?

An old stack of suitcases?

Now you can rent those vintage props that add character and

charm to your photography sessions. All photos are examples of

how you can use vintage props to add character to your

shoot or event. Contact me at junkrestore@yahoo.com for

more information and availability.

Vendor Picnic

2011-02-19T11:45:00.000-08:00

junkrestore vintage market vendor picnic

join us on march 5th, 2011 from 11:30 to 1:00

at the simple farm in scottsdale

9080 e. cactus rd

if you're signed up to be a vendor or would like to check

out the venue before you commit, join us for a short lunch.

bring your own picnic, drinks will be provided.

lylah and i will be there to answer any and all questions

that you might have. hope to see you there!

the evolution of a coffee table

2011-02-06T08:29:00.000-08:00

So. I'm sick of my coffee table. It's white and dingy and boring and I hate it. I want something warm and unique. This is the only photo that I have of it, it's not very photogenic.

My friend Cass has a great one. She built it out of old pallets and

finished it with glass and great big casters.

And I love all of these, found via Google Images.

I want to find one or make one similar to these, that I won't get sick of in two weeks.

I need something in a warm wood tone, maybe. Or maybe I should just paint the one I have.

junking and home touring

2011-01-30T17:33:00.000-08:00

I had the best time on Saturday at the Mesa Historical Home Tour. I literally paid my fifteen dollars just so I could see the inside of Dorie's house from Tuesdays with Dorie. And let me tell you, I was not disappointed. Have any of you ever gotten that feeling in your stomach and chest when you see an AMAZING house and you want to see every square inch and you can't believe it because every single thing you look at is better than the last? Yeah. That.

My favorite post from her blog shows a few more pics of her front rooms. See it {HERE}

Goodwill had 50% off on Saturday and I hit a few of them around the valley.

I found this wall map mounted on foam core for $1.50. I'm going to antique it and figure out

how to cover the torn spot where someone stickered Arizona.

I found this pool sign at a thrift store in downtown Mesa. While I was paying $3.99 for it,

I eavesdropped on an older gentleman who was telling the store owner that he had a job

interview on Monday but didn't have any clothes for it. So I asked the cashier to add ten dollars to my bill and give it to the guy so he could buy something to wear to the interview.

And I found these two leather valises at Goodwill. It was a good junking day!

spring barn sale 2011

2011-01-30T13:48:00.000-08:00

First and foremost, let me apologize. Due to some technical difficulties with the dates (Spring Break) and a change in venue, I have deleted the first post about the barn sale. I met with some lovely people yesterday afternoon and can now officially announce that the March barn sale will be held on March 31st, April 1st and April 2nd at

The Simple Farm in Scottsdale. Check out their blog {HERE}

It's located about two blocks east of the 101 on Cactus Road in Scottsdale, and I went yesterday to take photos of the layout and discuss details. I am happy to say that things are all ironed out and we are a GO! The Simple Farm already holds an amazing Farmer's Market every Tuesday, so they are set up with great parking and the atmosphere is just so appealing, I'm really happy with all of it. I'll post pictures and details about the location on the barn sale page located just under my header.

View Larger Map

The later date will allow the vendors a little more time to prepare and the amazing location will make this more along the lines of what I am picturing. I'd love for this to turn into a regular thing, so after this sale we will have a better idea of how something like this will do in the valley. I understand if this changes things for some of the vendors, just email me at junkrestore@yahoo.com if this causes difficulties for you, or if you have any questions at all.

black armoire and a question

2011-01-25T10:07:00.000-08:00

I found this really heavy armoire at the Mission Thrift Store yesterday. I hate the sight of electronics, and have been looking for a smaller armoire to put in my room. This one is still too big, but the molding and two large doors are my favorite.

I painted it the same black as my bed and my nightstands, and I'm debating about two things. First, I'm a professional distresser, albeit sometimes purely by accident. Almost everything I paint gets distressed, it almost doesn't look DONE until I've completed that step. That said, my antique bed isn't distressed, and because of that, I didn't distress my nightstands, either. So I've got this great armoire, BEGGING to be distressed, and I don't know what to do. Because if I distress it, I'm going after the nightstands next. And then the bed will look strange to me. But I hate to distress the bed, since it's got all this ornate carving on it and it's a real antique, not a reproduction.

What should I do?

Second, it's got these teeny tiny little shield-shaped knobs, which I like, but I think that this thing could get away with some major hardware. What do you think about using antique

glass doorknobs as pulls since it's such a large piece?

little bitty footstool

2011-01-18T16:06:00.001-08:00

I found this icky little stool at one of my favorite thrift stores over the weekend, Indian School Thrift in Phoenix. This was the thrift store where I found my gorgeous rug, which is a big chunky seagrass number. I searched high and low for a rug just like this one, but refused to pay full retail. My wait was worth it, because I found this one for only $50. You should have seen me dragging it to my car, because it's store policy that the employees won't help people take stuff to their cars. Dumb. You have to search through tons of stuff, but their prices are great, and they turn over a huge amount of merchandise. Their furniture section changes completely several times in a single day. They also have an astounding number of cassette tapes for sale. Mostly the Dirty Dancing soundtrack.

I recovered it using a staple gun with the same fabric that I used for some of my sofa pillows, which you can sort of see in the background. Then I tore strips of fabric and sewed it into a simple folded pleat ruffle, and hot glued it around the stool, covering my staples. And that sucker isn't coming off anytime soon.

So, it's cute, but I have no idea where to put it. I always figure that sort of thing out later.

Lola, the kitten from next door, who never gets fed unless she comes to my house.

linen ruffled tote

2011-01-17T19:17:00.001-08:00

Right before the blogger lunch on Saturday, Nikki and I hit a little thrift store that is located near her house in Queen Creek. I found this brown linen ruffled pillow sham for $1.00. Nikki paid for it with her wallet change so I wouldn't have to put $1 on my debit card, and I took a mint. So I got a mint and a pillow sham for free.

I brought said pillow sham home and filched a feather pillow from my daughter's bed, but when I put it on my bed, I didn't like it. Then I tried the couch. I didn't like that either. So I'm looking at this thing, and I remembered, on the header of one of my favorite blogs, Faded Plains, is a GORGEOUS old truck with a little ruffled tote hanging from the door.

I started deconstructing the sham with my seam ripper, and then just ripped it apart by hand. Linen is strong enough that you can tear your seams by hand and the thread will always give before the fabric does. I took the front panel of the sham and folded it in half, then sewed the side and bottom, inside out of course. I took the back parts (it had an envelope closure) and sewed them together so I could make two long thin straps. I'm the kind of girl who likes to throw her bag across her body, instead of hanging from a shoulder. Then I sewed the straps to the bag and just sort of eyeballed where I wanted my ruffles. I took the outside ruffle and cut it into 4 equal lengths and sewed them to the outside of the bag. It's super wrinkly but I'm going to steam it when I take a shower and it should relax a little.

Did I mention that I'm addicted to bags and purses? And shoes and boots? And

LOTS of other things? All healthy, mind you. At least I don't smoke.

blogger lunch

2011-01-15T18:40:00.000-08:00

This afternoon in Arizona was so beautiful, you wouldn't have believed the weather. Some people even had to move out of the sun so they wouldn't get burned... Some local bloggers and even a fan or two met this afternoon at Joe's Farm Grill in Gilbert to talk and eat and dish about blogging and networking. The weather was great, the BBQ chicken pizza and Southwest Burger were SO GOOD, and it was awesome to put a few faces to some of my favorite blogs.

Beth and Brandi from

http://www.locallily.com/

Stacy from

http://theprojectshoppe.blogspot.com/

The guys (and their wives) from

http://restorationfurniture.blogspot.com/

Christa from

http://www.storiesofahouse.com/

Nikki from

http://www.granddesignco.blogspot.com/

All in all, I'd consider it a success. There are, of course, a few things I would do differently next time. Joe's Farm Grill, while a super fun place to go with amazing food, was MOBBED today even though I called ahead to make sure they didn't have any special events planned for today, and even though the line moved fairly quickly, because we all got in line at different times, we all ate at different times. Plus, I didn't really plan on any identifying details, like telling people that we'll all be wearing stupid purple hats or something, so if you showed up and couldn't tell which party was ours, I'm so sorry. Next time, I'm thinking maybe we throw some kind of potluck dessert party, or meet at a restaurant where we'll be easy to identify.

attention arizona bloggers

2011-01-05T15:34:00.000-08:00

My sister and I thought it would be fun to get together with some of our favorite local(ish) bloggers and readers and have a low-key lunch. Do not misunderstand, I am way too lazy to organize a big luncheon with special guest bloggers and door prizes and scrapbook paper embellishments. I just thought it would be fun for some of us to get together and have lunch somewhere and have someone else clean up the mess afterwards.

So consider this your invitation! I hope everyone can make it, and if it's fun, we'll do it again!

vintage ruler bracelet

2011-01-04T11:30:00.000-08:00

I saw this bracelet while blog-hopping this morning. It was made from a vintage folding ruler. I love them and have collected them for a long time, I even topped my christmas tree with the star shaped version. They are usually pretty easy to find in any antique mall, for less than ten dollars.

I cut it into one inch pieces with a jig saw and then sanded the ends and slightly rounded the corners.

I drilled tiny holes onto each end. I did this right on my kitchen table, which is an old painted table from Mexico. As you can see, it's not the first time I've drilled right into the table, those old holes are from when I made pendants from scrabble tiles. This table is one of my favorite pieces, it gets beat up and painted on and gouged and it just looks better and better.

I used jump rings to connect the little pieces together and a lobster claw to clasp it.

The reverse side has red stripes, which I really liked.

So I made two of these. And the reason I did that was because back in November I held a drawing for a giveaway, celebrating the fact that I had reached 200 followers. With the craziness from the barn sale and then Christmas, I didn't get around to actually finding something to give away until I was making these bracelets this morning and was inspired to make an extra for the giveaway.

The winner was picked at random from one of those random number generator things and I'm happy to say that the winner is my personal lucky number, 9.

daryl said...

Ya....I love following your blog!!! I learned so much from you!!! I wish so badly I could be there is weekend...so I hope all of you have fun.... :)

November 16, 2010 1:39 PM

Daryl, I need you to email me your mailing address at junkrestore@yahoo.com so I can get this sent to you as soon as I can! Congratulations!

happy new year

2011-01-02T15:46:00.000-08:00

Last week my friend Jason called me and asked if I could find a few furniture pieces for his new rental house. He has two kids that he doesn't get to see enough (why is it, so often, that the mother gets custody even if she's a certifiable lunatic?) and he needed dressers for both of them and a tv console for his new flat screen television.

I found the pieces at the Furniture Graveyard on Tuesday and started cleaning and painting right away. The cobwebs and dirt were completely overwhelming. It was gorgeous, probably almost seventy degrees so I laid it all out on the driveway and started painting. I was wearing a tank top, in December, for crying out loud. And then I made the mistake of bragging about the weather on Facebook and that night a huge storm front moved in. By early Wednesday morning, I had moved it all inside and was painting around my daughter, who is apparently a master multi-tasker. Curling her hair and watching tv at the same time.

His baby son got this smaller dresser. Here's the before shot.

I found the knobs at Hobby Lobby for 50% off. It's hard to get a good shot, they actually are brown glass and they remind me of old electrical insulators.

I left the feet in a wood finish to contrast with the light gray paint.

He bought this gorgeous tv for Christmas and needed a BIG piece to hold it. I'm not sure what he's watching here, but I'm relatively sure that it's a chick flick. That's how he rolls.

This is a close up of the distressing, and you can almost tell that I used clock face knobs from Hobby Lobby.

His eight year old daughter gets this gorgeous dresser. I saw a nightstand on someone's blog a while ago and have been looking for a piece with the right molding around the drawer fronts to be able to duplicate the blue accent paint in the center of each drawer.

It was fun to do a couple of pieces of furniture, I've been so obsessed with finding a job and busy with the holidays that it's been too long since I've worked on something fun.

linen pillows

2010-12-28T09:04:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I quit my job at Cobblestone in true drama queen fashion, complete with the threat of a restraining order on my head. So to make myself feel better, I came home last night and turned some linen that I found at the Furniture Graveyard (did I mention she has an Airstream trailer parked over there that is full of upholstery and decorator fabrics?) and some feather pillow inserts that I found at Savers into some new ruffled pillows for my couches.

I tore two squares of fabric a couple of inches larger than my pillows, then tore two inch strips of linen to use for the ruffles. I held it all together with my fingers and just sewed along the edge, pleating as I went. I didn't sew anything inside out, or even pin the pleats, I just used the machine needle to hold the fabric together as I formed the next pleat and just sewed it up. Then I sewed the pillow insert right into it.

For this little pillow, I tore my fabric into a rectangle and then I cut a little cross out of scrap linen and dyed it light red (yes, I know it's pink) with a packet of generic kool-aid that I found in the pantry. I used my blow dryer to dry the cross and then just stitched it on to the front of one of the rectangles, then turned it into a simple pillow.

Now I need to go back to Savers and buy some more feather inserts. I am officially predicting that this is my new obsession.

chandelier, remade

2010-12-27T17:50:00.000-08:00

I recently had to replace the chandelier in my kitchen. I've had this pink chandelier for the last five years or so, it had sort of become a symbol of my independence. I could paint anything I want pink without being hassled by any guy.

I found this brushed nickel chandelier at my barn sale for only $5 and spray painted it black.

I didn't want to ruin my zinc lids by drilling holes in them, so I filched six canning rings from my mom's junk drawer and sprayed them the same black. I then epoxied them inside the candle cups of the chandelier, and screwed the ball jars right in when the glue was secure.

I tried to take a picture last night but it didn't turn out so I had to wait until today so I could use natural light. The jars made the chandelier a lot heavier, so if you plan on doing this, make sure yours is extra secure. Mine is not, and I fully expect to be awakened by it crashing to the floor at any moment.

nest ring

2010-12-20T14:01:00.000-08:00

I saw this ring on someone's blog and tried to duplicate it,

but it ended up too small.

So I gifted it to Corinne.

She's hamming it up.

Here's a closeup. I did one egg for her and one

each for her brother and sister.

little bits of christmas

2010-12-18T21:51:00.000-08:00

I didn't decorate a lot for Christmas... Last year I did more than I normally would do because of the Home Tour that my house was on, I had seven (!) trees set up and decorations in every room. I looked back through the archives for the posts about it and realized that I never posted it here, only on 4 Sweet Peas. So I'll recap last year's decorations for you...

This is the front of my little rental house. Winter killed my grass and you can't really see the Christmas stuff I did from this pic that the newspaper photographer took. My mother twisted lights all over the bicycle that sits in my flower bed and there's a Charlie Brown tree right between the front door and the porch swing.

It was held during daylight, so I decided that any lights on the exterior of the house were a complete waste of time. Other than the lights that my mom put on the bike (which were a nightmare to remove, they were wrapped even through the spokes), I don't have any outside lights.

There's a stack of vintage suitcases by the front door with a tiny vintage bottle brush tree on it, and the blue thing is a bunch of shoe covers so people wouldn't wreck my bamboo floors. I took a cd of family photos to CVS and turned them all sepia, and pinned them to my wood blinds with vintage clothespins.

Here's another angle of the living room... That dresser now resides in my bedroom, and the armoire has been painted white, the red screen door, rug, milk can and coffee table were sold during one of the great Purge to Pay the Rent Events that have been held here over the past few months. :(

I sold the chandelier to my sister for an interior design job that she posted about on her blog, Grand Design. She painted it white but it's still pretty recognizable. I brought a plain brushed nickel chandelier home from the Barn Sale in November and I'm in the process of transforming it right now.

So clean. I should have done more in there.

The girls' room. They no longer have those beds, I gave them to Nikki, along with a third so she can someday put all three of her boys in a row of vintage iron beds.

I do still have the windows, the pink screen door, and the gate, they survived the aforementioned Purge. Some things I can't bear to separate from. I hung vintage baby dresses from a curtain rod, right through the sleeves, for a window valance on each window.

This is the fireplace in my bedroom, which I use to heat our house. It keeps the rest of the house at a comfortable 70 degrees, however, I'm lying on top of the covers in a tank top and shorts because my room is probably 105 degrees. But hey, it's cheaper than propane.

The small tree in Bennett's room was decorated with blue and gold balls and I had found a box of model airplanes at my mom's antique shop, I wired them to the branches. Some retiree probably spent hours painting those little model airplanes.

My kids sitting in Santa's lap. At about age 18 months they start freaking out, you can see it in each kid. But then the next year, they are fine. I'm kind of sad now that they are too big for Santa pictures.

My mother gave me this primitive hutch for Christmas a couple of years ago and has been regretting it ever since. Right now, it's living in my room, housing my awesome shoe collection.

See?

This is a bunch of antique photos that I printed off of Graphics Fairy and glued to some cardboard. Nikki helped me glitter the edges and I used my old flower frog collection to display them in the kitchen window.

I didn't have a fireplace in my old apartment, so I built this one out of pine boards so I could hang our stockings, which I made from a quilt that I hacked up. I also made the tree skirt, one queen-sized quilt made five stockings and a big skirt.

I had a long Mexican bench right behind my couch, and my globe collection normally sat on top of it, but I moved them underneath for the Home Tour. Sadly, I don't have any of this anymore.

I had this tiny tree on the kitchen table with a small box of Shiny Brites that I found at Sweet Pea... I also found the silver ornaments there, and just tied a jute bow on top.

So that was last year. I didn't even remotely come close to decorating that much this year. I have been in kind of a decorating slump, which I mostly attribute to the fact that I have had to sell most of my home decor just to make it through the jobless months, but it's just stuff, and all completely replaceable. In fact, it'll be really fun when I finally get to replace it all, for me half the fun is the hunt for a great bargain.

I put the old gate that was previously hanging on my wall above the fireplace and topped it with a plain wreath. I thought about decorating it, but I like it better completely naked. My collection of vintage alarm clocks is displayed on the mantel. Most of them are Baby Bens and Big Bens, because my son's name is Bennett. He says he's too old to be called Ben, let alone Benny Bumblebee, but sometimes I slip.

My dad is a real live cowboy, and I asked him to keep his eye out for me on one of his rides so I could have another great Charlie Brown tree. He found me more of a Charlie Brown bush. I can't decide if it has NO top, or TWO tops? And it's bald on one side from being dragged for a ways behind his horse, but everyone knows you put that side up against the wall anyway.

I punched holes in the tops of my antique photo collection and hung them on the branches, along with silver balls and my collection of white vintage baby shoes.

I put a little bit of garland on the top of the TV armoire and it's hiding the ugly-as-sin satellite box. I topped it with a vintage suitcase and a star made from a folding yardstick.

And finally, I moved this small table to the spot where the rustic cabinet was last year and topped it with a big chalkboard framed in a crumbling gesso frame. I added another box of Shiny Brites and a small feather tree that I bought when I was visiting Missouri.

I wish I could have done more, in fact today I read that Home Depot has a box in their garden center of free Christmas tree clippings, I am going to go see if mine has one too and maybe pick up some free greenery to spread around. Tomorrow I'm making pillows for my white couches and a tree skirt if I have any white linen left over after the pillows. Maybe. Unless I get distracted by Veronica Mars, which is highly likely.

Post-script: The sign lady finally paid me, after I called and bugged her every day for a solid week. Thank you, everyone who cared enough about it to comment. Next time, I get paid in ADVANCE.

Did you miss me?

2010-12-13T21:13:00.000-08:00

I've been pretty busy since Thanksgiving, trying to get ready for Christmas and starting a new part-time merchandising job. Some of you older readers (not age-older, just readers that have been around a few months) might remember that I was hired a couple of months ago by a local resort in Sedona to hand paint all of their directional signs. I was super interested when the lady approached me. She had seen some of the handpainted signs that I did for Cobblestone and wanted to duplicate the handpainted, distressed feeling.

This was one of the first signs I painted, and put up in my antique booth space.

I painted a large sign for the entry at the store, and I don't have a picture of the other signs, I'll try to add that later, but the manager hired me to paint Cobblestone Antiques on several antique wooden ironing boards, which she placed in the windows as advertising signage.

She also asked me to paint these two signs for the front display window, which is a super narrow space that you can't even put furniture in, but the signs fit really well. I also just finished a fall one, and a Christmas one, I'll try to take a pic of that one and add it as well.

Anyway, the woman at L'Auberge wanted the signs to be similar to the Life is a Vignette sign, pointing the way to the various locations at the resort. I think she was going for something like this, because L'Auberge is French for The Inn and I think she was going for a European feel.

So I started with these. I painted them cream with a black border, just like my Vignette sign. Then I distressed them and stained them with a poly stain.

I did about 20 of them. I lightly penciled in the letters and then used an acrylic paint marker to actually paint the letters. I got really, really good at this particular font.

She didn't like them. The background was too cream. The letters were slightly too large. The point wasn't rounded enough. The boards were too distressed. The black needed to be brown.

PPPPFFFFTTTTTT.

So I started over. I used my jigsaw to round the points. I repainted the fronts bright white and the backs and sides chocolate brown. I hand lettered all the letters again, in brown this time.

And I just finished them, right after Thanksgiving.

Did I mention that there were 72 of them?

It took me four months to finish. Technically, it wasn't that long. It took her 3 and a half months to decide what she actually wanted and then she wanted them done in two weeks. I busted my ass, but I finished them! They've been delivered and are being put up all over the beautiful Sedona resort as we speak. Oh yes, and she hasn't paid me yet. I'm an idiot.

Happy Thanksgiving...

2010-12-01T17:18:00.000-08:00

I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving, as I did. I drove down early Thursday to Queen Creek and went with Nikki to her husband's aunt's house. I didn't have to cook a thing, all I did was sit on the couch and hold this little punkinhead.

The barn sale is over, (whew!) and I was left with a few pieces that didn't sell. I don't have the room at my house to store them, so I'm selling them at rock-bottom prices today, just to get them off my front porch, so it looks a little less like the Beverly Hillbillies live here.

Come on, someone needs this primitive cabinet in their house! I've tried to sell it over and over, but for some reason every time I have an interested buyer, they flake out on me. $50.

SOLD

Pedestal-style coffee table... Someone put a pot on top of the table and it discolored the fake leather, but I think it should be painted anyway. $25.

China cabinet. Silver finish with lavender interior. Someone else should paint this, I hate painting china cabinets. $75.

Huge heavy dresser, painted cream and antiqued. $50. SOLD

Email me at junkrestore@yahoo.com if you are interested. I can deliver within a 100 mile radius of Camp Verde, Arizona, for an additional $25.

our second barn sale

2010-11-21T12:15:00.000-08:00

Our second barn sale was a big success! We met a lot of great people and overall it was another terrific experience. We had a few more vendors this time and everyone had a great time talking and laughing and helping move furniture. I stressed about the weather again, and next time I will definitely hold it indoors or in the valley, even if the ambiance suffers. But what ambiance! Here is my favorite of all Cassie's photos, a shot of the barn house that was located directly behind the pasture where we set everything up.

The house belongs to Faye, who was our best customer, and is the sweetest thing.

Here we are setting up, bright and early on Friday morning, braving the 18 degree temps and trying to keep our toes warm.

We had some baked goods to sell along with hot cider and lemonade.

We had a lot of shoppers who made a day out of driving from the city and it was so fun to meet so many girls who read the blog!

I cleaned out my antique space and brought it all over here, where most of it sold. I do have a few pieces remaining, which I will post soon and they will be priced to MOVE, mark my words.

This is a shot of Cass and me on the second day. It was a lot warmer the second day, but the wind drove me absolutely nuts. I forgot to borrow a camera for the whole thing, as most of you know I only have a lousy camera phone but thank goodness Cassie remembered hers and took these pictures for me. I totally stole them off her blog. She was an amazing help and made the whole thing so much more entertaining, I can tell you now that we are a package deal and I hope that we're partners on every sale in the future as well. This girl is very cool, and has amazing taste.

This is a shot of Julie, Cassie and Anita at the beginning of day one. It was 18 degrees when we got there, and there was a thin layer of frost that covered pretty much everything, but it didn't take long for the sun to come up and warm everything up.

Cassie brought some really cool pieces, and she was the biggest seller of us all.

She made this amazing table out of plumber's fittings and pipes and topped it with some gorgeous wood planks. She will have more pics and posts about it on her blog, which you can see HERE.

My mother showed up with some stuff left over from when she closed her antique booth and became a third grade teacher. My sister is helping her unload it here, and let me tell you how much I LOVE this picture. This is Nikki in a nutshell, and she's awesome. My best friend and confidante, and one tough cookie.

Julie is a former antique dealer from Sedona and she brought some of the coolest stuff. She had a vintage pull-down school map, some very cool corner chairs, and I bought a new pair of cowboy boots. A girl can't have too many awesome pairs of cowboy boots.

Cassie's friend Anita is an amazing upholsterer, if you go to Cassie's blog HERE and look at her chaise lounge project you will see some of Anita's handiwork. She brought some neat things, and sold almost all of it!

The kids got caught with the sidewalk chalk writing on this wall, and the next-door neighbor wasn't happy. We made them scrub it all off, here they are working very hard.

Connie and her twin sister came from Sedona with an eclectic array of things including some amazing tables. My daughter wanted that bear but I absolutely refused on the grounds that it would have only made it a few days at my house before it was a victim of bear-icide. Is that a thing?

Sharon and her daughter came again this time with a couple of their great beds-turned-benches and some adorable teacup birdfeeders.

Anne Marie from Twice Lovely drove over from Prescott with a load of amazing refinished pieces. I have been tracking her progress on Facebook and couldn't wait to see the completed pieces. I was not disappointed, the girl is TALENTED.

My friends Heather and Darcy have spent the last couple of months making these terrific magnetic memo boards and the cutest magnets I've ever seen. I couldn't resist buying a few.

Not sure what's going on here, I guess I was saying something very important. My sister Nikki came from Queen Creek and brought a few very cool items. She was cleaning out her house and some very lucky shoppers benefited from that purge.

Christa from Stories of a House drove all the way from Phoenix to meet everyone on Saturday. We really enjoyed meeting her and getting to see her BEAUTIFUL pieces in person. Her girls were a huge help, running around picking up things that were blowing over in the beastly wind.

nikki's sale stuff

2010-11-17T16:59:00.000-08:00

These are a few of the items that my sister is bringing to the sale... She'll be bringing some really great pieces.

Side table made from old molding.

Antique cabinet with a ceiling tin front. Perfect for media storage.

Antique white buffet with basket

Gothic style armoire

Antique wooden trunk on casters

Antique light blue dresser

200 Followers

2010-11-15T19:35:00.000-08:00

In the midst of all my preparations for the Barn Sale this weekend, I realized that I reached 200 followers on my blog! I would like you all to know that I appreciate you being here, reading and commenting, encouraging and stroking my ego. I'm picky about which blogs I follow, so I know you must be as well, so I'm honored to be on your blogrolls. I'm doing a drawing next week, after the barn sale, to celebrate this little milestone, and I have a special prize for the winner. So leave me a comment if you want to be entered, making sure that you leave your email address so I can contact you. Thanks again for reading!

barn sale items

2010-11-05T14:09:00.000-07:00

Chicken laying box-style storage unit, creamy white, antiqued and distressed.

Breaks down into two pieces.

Pedestal coffee table, distressed faux leather top.

China Cabinet, silver antiqued finish with lavender interior.

Antique white dresser.

Shabby chic dresser. Three drawers inside, one on bottom.

Set of two french curvy nightstands.

I'm getting there.

2010-11-04T09:08:00.000-07:00

I took down my Halloween decorations on Monday morning and put them on the coffee table while I went to search for a storage tub to put them all away. Fast forward FOUR days, and it's all still sitting there. I get distracted by something else at least nine times a day. Someone come over and put this crap away!

On the bright side, I finally finished Molli's last dining chair. I was more than a little intimidated by this project, and pretty mad that I had to do it in the first place. But I had seen a post by Kelly at Much To Do With Nothing and her tutorial made it look fairly simple. I ordered new caning online because I couldn't find any within 100 miles of my house and it arrived with directions. Armed with that and her tutorial (which you can see HERE) I braved this project. Removing the old caning was not easy, but I used vinegar to soften the old glue and a screwdriver that fit exactly in the groove to clean it all out.

After soaking the caning and spline in water for an hour or two, I put down a bead of glue in the groove and then laid the caning on top. Starting on the sides, I used my homemade caning wedges (I used cut paint stirrers, just like Kelly) and hammered them into the groove, pushing the caning in a little at a time. The sides and bottom went in just fine and stayed but the top of the chair was pretty curved and so I needed about ten wedges to keep the top in. I was frustrated and didn't see how it was going to stay, but then all of the sudden it started working. After the glue dried a little, long enough that I felt comfortable removing my wedges, I put another bead of glue on top of the caning and then inserted my spline. I did a 45 degree cut on the bottom two corners but it probably wasn't necessary, since I was planning on painting the chair anyway. After the spline was in place, I let it dry for about 15 minutes and then used a sharp razor to cut the excess caning away. After the chair dried for 48 hours, it was ready to paint and distress. I paid my twelve year old ten bucks to do it, that's how over this chair I was.

I'd recane a chair again, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I can't believe how much furniture restoration places charge for this sort of thing. I paid $30 for my supplies, of which a healthy chunk was shipping, and the cheapest quote I got to fix it was $120.

halloween table

2010-10-28T11:00:00.000-07:00

I didn't do a whole lot of Halloween decorating at my house this year, mostly because I decorated the heck out of my booth at Cobblestone. (On a side note, I'm officially closing my booth on November 15th, and everything that remains unsold will be at the barn sale the following weekend.) But I drove past some church last week that was selling pumpkins in the parking lot and I spied these green ones mixed in with all the generic orange ones.

My seven year old helped me arrange them on the table. The leaves on top of the middle one and the pinecone are her additions. My friend Cassie sold me the striped napkins, they're embroidered with a GB on the corner of each one. I copied the cloche-covered stands from someone's blog project that was posted last summer. I see those cheese platters at every single thrift store that I go into, the wooden candlesticks are a little harder to come by but it's super easy to put it together and spray paint the whole thing.

molli's dining table

2010-10-21T21:36:00.000-07:00

I found this set of six chairs and a table with 2 leaves for my friend Molli at the furniture graveyard. It had been sitting in the elements for a while and I had to get rid of a lot of spiders.

I hate painting dining chairs. Will somebody please show me how to use my sprayer? It rained nearly the entire time I was painting this, so I did it all inside my kitchen.

The fabric I found was a great stripe but it was way too bright for the pastel shabby chic look Molli was going for.

But when I flipped the fabric over, the lighter side was washed out and perfect.

The chairs are all really sturdy and the caning was in great shape on all but one chair back. I ordered some caning and reed spline to repair it, and I'll try to post a tutorial about recaning the chair if I don't screw it up too badly. I'm not super optimistic about that, but I saw a tutorial on Much to do with Nothing and she made it look pretty simple, so I'm giving it a shot.

Okay, confession time. The caning was in great shape on all of the chairs when I got them. But then I threw the hose pipe extension thing for my shop vac toward the back door when I was cleaning out the workshop and it went RIGHT THROUGH the back of a chair that was sitting on the back porch waiting to be painted. Like a hot knife through butter. Yes, I am an idiot. I may or may not have cursed. Okay, I did.

gray twin beds

2010-10-15T13:55:00.000-07:00

I just finished delivering this set of twin beds that I found at the furniture graveyard.

These are some pics I took of the FG, just to illustrate what this place is like. I've had a couple of people ask me if it's a real place or if I just use it as a general term for junking. But this place really exists. The furniture graveyard is a term we coined when my sister and I met this woman named Sharon here in Camp Verde. She has a couple of abandoned houses crammed with furniture and the roof is caving in and there's no light and it's dark as hell and super creepy, with dirt and spiders and leaves covering everything.

I had a client who was browsing my blog and saw those antique twin hospital beds that I gave to my sister and asked if I would find two matching beds for her daughters and paint them light gray. I drove over to the FG and dug these out of the pile, covered with cottonwood fluff and spiderwebs, not to mention a healthy layer of dirt. But all cleaned up, they looked great! She didn't want them distressed, though, so I had to bring the touch-up paint with me. Furniture gets distressed in transit, even when you don't want it to.

Check out my shoe collection. This is how I decorate MY mantel.

November Barn Sale

2010-10-14T11:02:00.001-07:00

After the huge success of our barn sale in August, (which you can see HERE)I'm organizing another one for November. I'm aiming for the weekend right before Thanksgiving, which makes it the 19th and 20th, from 8am to 5pm. We'll have lots of furniture and antiques for sale along with handmade craft and Christmas gift items and homemade goodies. We had about 8 vendors last time and everyone made a profit! I've had several people express interest in joining our next sale, and we'd love to have as many participants as we can get. Email me at junkrestore@yahoo.com if you want to join us this time around! I'll send you an informational email about how things went down last time, everything went pretty smoothly and so we're just going to do the same things this time, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!

If you are an out of town vendor, we'd still be happy to include you. All you have to do is pay the registration fee and be willing to pay your shipping costs to me, I'll set you all up, and when the sale is over, ship your remaining inventory back to you, along with a check!

Life is Good

2010-10-11T09:59:00.000-07:00

I met a new friend last week, and the more I get to know her, via emailing or reading her blog, the more I realize that we are very very similar. I, too, have barely muffled road rage and have a filthy mouth, although I can't even blame that on being in the Navy. I've dated my share of military guys, though. They are the biggest weenies of the bunch, if you ask me.

Her name is Erin, and, like me, she's a single mom with a creative streak a mile wide. Her blog is called Where Beauty Meets Function, and you can check it out here. She gave me an award on her blog, called the Life is Good award.

Now I get to pass the award on to six bloggers that inspire me!

Ok, so here's the criteria:

To accept the award you must link back and thank the person who gave you the Life is Good award. Answer the 10 questions below and then pass it along to 6 other blogs of your choice.

Here Are The 10 Questions:

1. If you blog anonymously are you happy doing it that way; if you are not anonymous do you wish you had started out anonymously so you could be anonymous now?

I'm not blogging anonymously, because I'm kind of an open book. I figure if anyone gets creepily interested in my blogging life, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. My blog is mostly a project blog anyway, I have another semi-private blog that I use for family stuff. I also really suck at updating that one.

2.Describe one incident that shows your inner stubborn side.

My entire life is an exercise in being stubborn, really. I'm very stubborn when it comes to finding a new husband. I could have been married four or five times over since I got divorced, but I STUBBORNLY refuse to marry someone who isn't right for me or who would try to control me.

3.What do you see when you really look at yourself in the mirror?

I see a normal chick. Curvy, brunette, happy most of the time.

4. What is your favorite summer cold drink?

My favorite summer drink would have to be a Cafe Vanilla Frappucino from Starbucks. I'm a walking cliche.

5. When you take time for yourself, what do you do?

I love to hit all the local thrift stores when I have time (and money) for myself. When my kids are at their dad's on the weekend and I'm feeling particularly lonely (yes, this happens quite often, even though I love Fridays more than any other day because I get a 72 hour break from being a mom) I take twenty bucks and go yard saling. I love digging through folding tables on people's carports.

6. Is there something you still want to accomplish in your life? What is it?

I want my children to grow up happy, well-adjusted, and kind. There's three of them, so odds are I'm going to mess up at least one of them, but I'm trying really hard not to.

7. When you attended school, were you the class clown, the class overachiever , the shy person, or always ditching?

My dad is a real-life cowboy, and I spent my entire childhood jumping around from rural school to rural school, so I became the kid who made friends easily. I was super gawky when I was younger, glasses and braces, so I pretty much had an under construction sign on me until I grew out of that. I got my braces off and got contacts right around the same time, about age 15, and boy howdy, my whole life changed. I totally blossomed, but I have to say that I remained a little bit clown, a little bit good student, a little bit shy, and a little bit of a rebel.

8. If you close your eyes and want to visualize a very poignant moment of your life what would you see?

Each day my children was born was a life-changing day for me. And the day that I finally left my marriage, with three kids under six and no idea of what I was going to do, was both terrifying and poignant.

I have a million memories and wish so much sometimes that I were a better journal-keeper. I have tried, in recent months, to be better about this, and blogging really helps me do that.

9. Is it easy for you to share your true self in your blog or are you more comfortable writing posts about other people or events?

I'm totally fine talking about myself, it's even nice that people are interested!

10. If you had the choice to sit down and read or talk on the phone, which would you do and why?

I love to read, I'm a regular at the library. I have been in multiple long-distance relationships, (yes, I'm an idiot) where nearly the entire relationship was conducted over the telephone and I love and hate it equally. I think my penchant for long-distance love stems partly from my equal desires to have someone in my life but also remain completely independent. It's a sickness.

So, I can't decide. It depends on who's calling.

Ok, so now comes the part where I pass this award on to 6 others!

So, I am passing on this "Life is Good" award to the following people:

Angie at All My Treasures

Lindsey at Better After

Christa at Stories of a House

Cassie at ReuseReinventRedesign

Chelsea at The Blossom on the Vine

Nikki at 4 Sweet Peas in a Pod

Nikki at Kreative Knack

Aw, damn. I did seven. But one of them is my sister, and this isn't her cup of tea, so it's like it's six.

curvy french nightstand

2010-10-09T14:06:00.001-07:00

I found this nightstand at the furniture graveyard and painted it black.

A little distressing, and it's now for sale in my space at Cobblestone Antiques, just outside Sedona in the Village of Oak Creek. We're located in the outlet mall on the south side of town.

desk turned nightstands

2010-10-07T10:55:00.001-07:00

Our local Mission Thrift Store has good deals sometimes, recently I found a desk in their bargain tent that needed a little love. I can't find my before pictures but it looked a lot like this desk. My desk didn't have a drawer in the middle, though, just a small front apron.

I have been looking for two matching nightstands that were pretty small, my bedroom is very tiny and I don't have a lot of room for side tables. It's hard to find two that match, but when I saw this desk, marked at only $5, I thought that I could turn it into two matchers. I took my circular saw and cut a straight line through the top in two spots and then knocked the middle piece out. I sanded the raw edge that was left.

I was left with two matching towers, which I painted black to match my gorgeous new bed and replaced the wooden knobs with small glass knobs. Did I mention that this thing was painted silver with purple drawers and silver wooden knobs? Yikes.

And here they are in my room, with my new lamps and the doors I got from Nikki.

halloween projects

2010-10-04T19:21:00.001-07:00

I sold a big black china cabinet out of my booth and didn't have anything to replace it immediately, so I copied Martha's tissue paper flowers, using black tissue paper.

My friend Michelle has a vinyl cutter and I paid her to make me some Halloween words and a few images. Then I sat my seven year old down at the dining table and taught her the fine art of rubbing things with a popsicle stick. The white plates were picked up at Savers for about .69 each, and Michelle is way too good to me, so each vinyl decal cost about a dollar. She's the same girl who cut out harlequin diamonds for my kitchen backsplash (you can see that here) and because it was in June, didn't charge me for the order because my birthday is in June.

black cupcake display

2010-10-03T17:26:00.000-07:00

My son's tenth birthday party was a few days ago. I made a cupcake stand a couple of months ago for my favorite niece's birthday party, but it was VERY pink. So while the cupcakes were baking, I made one in black. You can see the how-to for the pink one here.

Wouldn't it be cute with a whole bunch of these on it? It'd be good for my diet.

postmark chairs

2010-10-03T14:04:00.001-07:00

I found these chairs sitting outside in the rain, getting ruined at the furniture graveyard.

The finish was ruined and the upholstery was kind of musty.

I spray painted the frames black and recovered the seats with tan muslin.

I covered the staples with black double-fold bias tape, hot glued shut.

I traced a salad plate on the fabric with a pencil and then freehanded the letters

and went over the whole thing with a paint marker. I was sort of inspired to do this by the postmark bulletin board from Pottery Barn.

out of town

2010-09-29T19:09:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I flew to Springfield, Missouri for an old friend's birthday. I've known Judy for almost twenty years now, but I can't believe I'm old enough to have known someone that long. I love Springfield, and the little towns that surround it. The green rolling hills are so beautiful and as someone who is inspired beyond words by the simple white farmhouses that are everywhere out there, every time I go out there I think, "Man, I live in the wrong part of the country for what I like to do." All we have here in AZ is stucco and cactus. Blech.

I was blog-hopping last week before I left, not even specifically looking for places to visit in Springfield and I ran across a blog featuring a shop called Leola's. I went hunting last Tuesday and when I pulled up to the tiny strip mall that matched the address, I didn't have high hopes.

But I was wrong. This place was hiding in an ugly strip mall, but inside was tons of inspiration and eye candy. I only had my camera phone on me, and the battery died while I was out earlier, so I couldn't even take pictures. But when I got home I googled the name of the shop and found all these gorgeous images, and almost everything that had caught my eye was photographed.

I loved the tan pumpkin/gourd that had been polka-dot stickered and then sprayed white. Then they peeled off the stickers and the tan color showed through.

I love the awning over this bed.

The walls and dividers were made from old doors, shutters, and windows. I'm a total sucker for any and all of these.

The walls were papered in book pages and the shelf had a cool piece of paper trim.

I'm always on the hunt for wooden crates that are the same size, when I finally find them I'm going to do an entire wall shelf unit.

This bin cabinet was sold, but I could imagine making it into a giant kitchen island.

Love this old army cot.

There's not a good shot of it, but all along the ceiling they had open vintage umbrellas hanging from the rafters. Now I'm looking for some for my space.

I'm spray painting my wagon black, right away.

After that, I found this place in Springfield called Inspirational Home. A cute old house, right along the railroad tracks, turned into a gift shop. My friend Jenny wanted to move right into the bathroom. (She's so cute)

I'm also painting one of my window frames black.

I bought a tan feather tree here, to use as my seasonal tree at home. The security agents at the airport could not figure out what it was on the X-ray. And my friend Jeremy thought I was an idiot for buying a tree that not only looked dead, but barely fit into my carry-on.

I only had a couple of days, but I was inspired and excited by the little bit that I saw. Someday, I'll have a creative outlet like this, all my own.

dress form lamp

2010-09-22T19:50:00.000-07:00

Let me preface this by saying that I hope my friend Cassie isn't mad that

I did this. I bought this mannequin lamp (reminiscent of the leg lamp from

A Christmas Story) from her when she had her blog sale last week. And by

bought I mean, um, I'll totally give you the money next time I see you.

It's cute as it is. The base and top metal parts were painted

a creamy white and distressed, and the bust part was covered in a sort of

shiny antiqued satin. Which was good, but I pictured it a little different.

I spray painted the base and all the remaining metal parts

black, and ripped off the satin material, exposing a styrofoam base.

I decoupaged torn bits of kraft paper all over her

gorgeous bod and glued over the whole thing with matte

finish Mod Podge.

I took a naked lampshade and clothespinned antique

postcard photos to the frame.

And finally, I used a paint pen to stencil letters on the

form, imitating the way the Wolf Dress Form Company

stenciled their dress forms. Which is what I would love to have

eventually, but who has that kind of dough for something

that when you look at it out of the corner of your eye

as you are passing through the room, it scares the crap out of you

because you think there's a busty intruder in your house?

I'm not totally in love with the letters, but I'm giving it some time

because I can always deco some new kraft paper right over the top.

I'm sorry if you hate it, Cass.

chicken coop hutch

2010-09-22T11:23:00.000-07:00

I'm linking up to Jennifer Rizzo's china cabinet link party.

I posted this about a million years ago on 4 Sweet Peas

but I couldn't find it anywhere here.

I found this chicken coop while antiquing with my sister.

I use it to store all my white cafe china and ironstone.

Some people who see it look at me like I'm out of my mind.

That's how I know that our tastes are not compatible.

yard sale loot

2010-09-11T21:44:00.000-07:00

My mom and I went yard saling this weekend and I came out of it with a

couple of pretty cool things despite my limited budget.

I found this Kitchenaid mixer in a box full of kitchen junk for only $2.

I found this set of absolutely pristine vintage Samsonite luggage. The bag is my favorite!

I found this pine table to use in my sewing/craft closet.

And every girl needs fake eyelashes for Halloween.

I'm thinking about being Snooki.

New Craft Room

2010-09-07T18:58:00.000-07:00

So my son has this bedroom with the strangest layout. He has a door into his room from the hallway, and also a door that leads to the hallway by my bathroom. There's really only one place you can put the bed, because the room is so narrow and long. A tiny closet on one end, large enough for his dresser and not much more. He has all this wasted space and it is literally always covered with legos.

This past week I had an epiphany. I struggle constantly with not having enough storage inside the house for my craft and sewing stuff. I basically wish every day that I had a large closet for this stuff. I have plenty of room in the detached garage/shop that I have about ten feet from my back door, but, I'll admit it, I'm often too lazy to even walk ten feet to fetch a sewing needle or the glue gun. So when I moved a couple of shelving units out of my antique booth this past week, I decided to take a few of them home and make myself a giant closet in 1/2 of Bennett's room.

I took four vintage doors that I had used in the booth and screwed each one individually to the back of a sort of modular storage unit. Each unit has either drawers or shelves and holds a ton of stuff. I used about 8 feet on one side and left Bennett with about 8 feet for his twin bed and his locker storage unit, which is way too large for his room and will be moved soon.

Halloween Table

2010-09-03T12:47:00.000-07:00

I set up a Halloween themed table in the center of my booth this morning. The chargers I bought at Goodwill for $1.99 each but they were gold, so I spray painted them black. I brought my white ruffle dishes from Potluck Studios and separated them with an orange linen napkin, and placed a handpainted number napkin on top. I used my vintage silverware and Cassie volunteered the acid green goblets. I love them. I spray painted a terracotta pot and a branch from the mulberry tree that recently fell onto my shed for the centerpiece. I just pulled the leaves off the branch and sprayed it with semigloss paint and stuck it into some gravel. I'm making more of these but I bought some Kwik-Set concrete to use in the pots instead of gravel to make it a little more stable. I put some nasty spanish moss and a plastic crow from the dollar store on the branch, and I'm going to make some ornaments this afternoon.

*junkrestore* (click on photo or text for full post)

Fabric Covered Suitcases

wooden box, remade

Christmas is put away...

Junkrestore Vintage Market

Mesa Historic District Vintage Home Tour

Merry Christmas

My New Bed

Salvage Coffee Table

Small Projects

New Work Space

Cleanup on Aisle Ten

Black Mid Century Desk

Barn Sale #4

Only Five More Days!!

Vendor Update

November Barn Sale!

Inspiration

I'm BLOGGING!!

Dream Book Design

Design Stalker... er, Stocker

A1 Antique Auction

Coffee Table

The Willows

Spring Cleaning

500 Followers!

Junkrestore Vintage Market #3

Barn Sale!!

Quick Sale!!

Barn Sale Vendors

*barn sale vendor post*

*junkrestore vintage rentals*

Vendor Picnic

*the evolution of a coffee table*

*junking and home touring*

*spring barn sale 2011*

*black armoire and a question*

*little bitty footstool*

*linen ruffled tote*

*blogger lunch*

*attention arizona bloggers*

*vintage ruler bracelet*

*happy new year*

*linen pillows*

*chandelier, remade*

*nest ring*

*little bits of christmas*