Goodwill Goodness! :-)

Okay, I hit it great at Goodwill last week. :)

Here's my stash!

All for $25.00

Want to know what I'm going to do with it all?

Well that black, funny looking stand that I have no idea what it's suppose to be (maybe a wine rack??)  is going to be this......

I turned it upside down and decided to mount it on the side of the house for a water hose hanger. I've been wanting one that looks almost identical to this at Tuesday Morning, but it was something like $26.00!!! This was 3 bucks and I think it looks just as good.....
What do you think? :-)
(sorry about the shadows - it was dark......silly ol' flash!)

The old black lamp in the picture is going in my son's room...he begged me for it because he said it reminded him of this......

I see what he means....

I brought it home and scrubbed it down and repainted it black and had it in his room within the hour! I am impatient to get things done!

Here it is in his room......

(Please ignore the price tag on the pencil sharpener! :-o)

As for the rest of my goodies, I washed SCRUBBED AND BLEACHED the dishes  so I could use them. :) 

I'll show you what I do with all the brass items I bought later.....

lets just say they won't be brass much longer.

I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do with the corbel...I'll keep you posted. LOL

Hope you guys are having a wonderful week!

Melissa

I'm linking up to:

Just something I whipping up Monday @ Girl Creative

Tool are for Women Too

Met Monday @ BNOTP

Show off your cottage @ The House in the Roses

DIY Showoff

Trash to Treasure @ Reinvented

I won, I won, I WON! Did I mention I WON?

I never win anything, but I am a very blessed girl to have won a lovely giveaway from Robyn over at Whimages.

Robyn is a very talented and sweet lady....and an amazing photographer.  She had a very beautiful giveaway a while back and I was very excited when she emailed me and asked if I'd checked her blog post.  I immediately clicked on over and found that I was the winner of a piece of her very own artwork.  I got to choose from some lovely pieces and finally decided on something wonderful, it was hard to choose, they were all wonderful!   I have been waiting to blog about it for a couple of weeks because Robyn had back surgery and I wanted her to be out of the hospital when I told the world about what I won. Okay, the whole world might be pushing it, but my little corner of the world.  :-)

Robyn told me my package was on it's way so I awaited it anxiously! My mail lady knew I was awaiting my box so she got out of her little mail truck and hand delivered it to my door. (she is SO sweet)

I love getting boxes... it feels like Christmas!

I was so excited when I opened my little brown box to find this.............

A handwritten card just for me from Robyn. :)   I was getting more excited by the minute, so I started digging!  It was kind of funny cause I was trying not to get peanuts all over the place, but was trying to dig in for my treasure.....it didn't work, I ended up with peanuts all over, but I didn't care!! lol (pink peanuts...you think she gave me that color on purpose?)

Here is what I found when I dug a little deeper..........

Isn't that the sweetest thing you've ever seen?!  She had my treasure all wrapped up and even made me a lovely pin as an extra sweet surprise.

Isn't it just precious!

Are you ready to see my lovely gift?  I know I was! I wanted to admire the wrapping, but couldn't resist pulling it apart to see my newest treasure!

Drumroll please.................. here it is!

I immediately went inside my house and started setting it in all kinds of different places to see just where I loved it the most.   I decided on my living room....it's cottage-y and elegant all at the same time, just like her photograph.  Here it is in it's new home............

I just love it!  Thank you Robyn for making it feel like Christmas and also for adding beauty to my living room. I think of you everyday!

One last look. :)

You guys should head on over to Robyn's blog and check it out.  She is still re-cooping from surgery, but she still has great posts and loads of backposts to look at.  I even guest blogged for her one day while she was off....she is such a hoot to talk to. 

:-)

Have a blessed day you guys and thanks again Robyn!!

Melissa

Treasures & Trinkets Thursday. I picked these for you.... :-)

I thought of all of you today,

so I'm bringing you flowers from my garden.

:-)

My peonies have really outdone themselves this year....I just LOVE that color of pink...so soft.

God sure knows how to paint flowers doesn't He?!

I'm lovin' this last picture....it just looks like it's all lit up from the inside out!

These were my treasures from my garden, thanks for sharing them with me!

Blessings,

Melissa

Don't forget to link something up!

That's a Wrap! How to Build a Gift Wrap & Ribbon Work Station! :-)

I have to admit I have wanted a gift wrapping station for a LONG time, but will also admit I have been using a tote to hide away all my gift wrapping goodies.  I had put my desire for a wrapping station on the back burner when I happened to be back reading some older posts and found this post from Kate @ Centsational Girl.  She is such a crafty lady!  She said she had looked and looked for a organizational center for her wrapping stuff when she realized how talented she was and decided she could build her own... OK, she didn't say the part about her being talented, I added that part because I think she is, but she did come up with a great plan! :-)  I took her idea and added to it a bit.  Hope you like it Kate! :-)

I started out with the same material list: (I got it all at Lowes)
You'll need the following to build the one above.
2' x 4' x 5mm piece of birch plywood $7.94  this is for the back of the organizer
1" x 3" x 8' pine (Kate used poplar, the pine was a bit cheaper so I went with it) You need two. $5.94 (for 2)  This will be used to frame the sides and bottom of the organizer
1/2" x 4" x 2' poplar (1 piece) this is for the middle shelf with the holes $2.94
cup hooks (free for me, I already had them)
9 dowel rods 3/8" x 48"  (Kate used 36"....I'll explain why I got longer ones later) $9.92
2" nails (I had those too)
D rings to hang it up $2.50
primer & paint (I already had these)
Grand Total  $29.24 (much cheaper than the ones I've seen online, plus this one is bigger and built out of real wood)

Ok, I started with this:

First I measured the sides of the plywood and cut my 1" x 3" x 8' pine that length x 2. (one for each side) I pre-drilled the holes for the nails with a drill bit a little smaller than the diameter of the nail. You do this so the wood doesn't split. (nothing worse than starting a project and having the wood split! Yikes!)  After you get the sides nailed on, you measure for the bottom....the space inbetween the two sides. Don't nail that piece in just yet, you'll need to drill some holes partially through it that your dowel rods will rest in.  You should now have a back and two sides all nailed together and your bottom piece loose to drill. Next take a roll of wrapping paper and lay it down inside so you'll know where to install the middle shelf, mark where it will go. (you'll want to make sure it's level before you attach it later) You want it to be a bit higher than the length of the paper. Like this.......

Next I determined where I wanted to place my dowel rods that the paper will slide onto.  The middle shelf is wider than the bottom shelf, so you'll want to make the two pieces of wood flush in the back and hold them together with a couple of clamps so they don't move while you're drilling for your dowel rods. (the wide piece goes on top) You could cut the middle shelf to the same depth as the bottom piece if you want, but I just left it wider so it gave me a little room to put my tape etc on.  You want the holes in the wider piece to go all the way through, but not the holes in the bottom piece.I wanted 7 rolls of paper in my organizer (that's why I got more dowel rods than Kate), so I am drilling seven holes. :-)  Just mark them out on your top (wider) piece, but make sure you're putting them where they'll be centered on the bottom piece too.  See that long line I marked on the wood....it's showing me where the bottom piece of wood is so I'll know where to center the holes on the top piece.

I used a 1/2" drill bit so the 3/8" dowel rod would slide through the holes with ease.  Since I didn't want the drill bit to go all the way through the bottom piece of wood, I held it up against the side and marked where I wanted the drill to stop with masking tape. Once you get to the masking tape, stop drilling and you won't go all the way through the bottom piece of wood.

This is what your wood should look like when you're done.  The wide piece should have the holes all the way through and the narrow, bottom piece, should only be drilled about halfway through. (so your dowels don't fall to the floor!) lol  See the bottom shelf in the background, it only has divets in it, not complete holes. :)

Here's a picture of it after I installed the bottom and middle pieces of wood. (I pre-drilled before installing those too)  The dowels go through the paper and rests in those holes in the bottom piece we didn't drill all the way through.  I put cup hooks on the side pieces of wood and put dowel rods through them to hold all my lovely rolls of colorful ribbon!  The next thing I did differs a little from the original design.  Kate bought shorter dowel rods so hers come a little above the middle shelf, but I bought longer ones (48") because I wanted to be able to stick gift bags behind them.  This works fine as long as you keep your ribbon inbetween the dowel rods.

Here I've primed and painted the whole thing out in white.  Are you all as anxious when you're doing something like this as I am? It's not even on the wall yet and I'm already trying it out! LOL 

I installed D rings on the top corners on the back to be able to hang it.  I made sure I screwed into the side pieces of wood so it would be sturdy enough to hold the weight of the organizer.  I used anchors in my drywall too.

I put all my pretty ribbon on the dowel rods and secured the ends of the ribbons with corsage pins...holds the ribbon in place and makes for a much neater looking organizer. :-)

Here are pictures of the finished product.  After I got it all built and put up on the wall, I decided to add a row of cup hooks on the bottom edge too, I have loads of gift bags!!  I hung it behind my utility room door...totally useless space........until NOW! :)

So this is the finished product....hope you like it! (Kate, how'd I do?! LOL) Oh, I have since moved my curly ribbon bows down into one of my gift bags, I just stuck those there and forgot to move them for the picture. :0)

Blessings & Hugs

Melissa
I'm linking to:

Met Monday @ BNOTP
Show off your cottage @ The House in the Roses
DIY Showoff
Tip Me Tuesday @ The Tip Junkie
DIY Day @ ASPTL
A Few of my favorite things Friday

Happy 2nd Birthday to Pink Saturday! If I knew you were coming I'd have baked a cake...OH WAIT, I did! :)

This is Pink Saturday's 2nd birthday over at Beverly's blog "How Sweet the Sound, you should go visit!"  Since it's a birthday, I thought I'd bake a cake..........a pink cake that is...OH and how about cupcakes too!!

Happy Birthday Pink Saturday, hope there are many more!

YUMMY!

 Now go eat some cake!

Blessings

MELISSA

Treasures & Trinkets Thursday! Portrait Plates....more of my passion for plates!

Here are a few of my portrait plates that I thought you might enjoy! I display them on my white hoosier cabinet that sits in my kitchen eat in area. My hoosier cabinet has it's own story, I'll share that on another day.

I LOVE portrait plates, they just speak to me.

Some of these came from my mom, some from yard sales and flea markets, but I like them all in a different way!

Here's some close up pictures of each one.

I think this one is my favorite.

Do you have portrait plates? If not, what do you collect?

Don't forget to link up~~!!

How to make a cottage entry shelf with hooks

Remember when I told you I made a shelf to go under this vintage window makeover? If you missed this post, I did it as a guest blogger here.  Today I am going to show you how to make the shelf that goes under it.

Here's the shelf......

The shelf is VERY easy to make.  First figure out what dimensions you want it to be....I just measured the width of my window and made it a couple of inches wider on each side.  I also found boards that were pretty close to the depth I wanted each shelf to be. (it's easier to go with stock sized wood for the depth than it is to rip it down to a particular depth.   Lowes will even cut the wood to the length you want, mine doesn't even charge for the cuts.)  Here is a side view of the shelf. 

 I just put the top board on top of the back board forming an L, and screwed them together from the top.  I did sink the screw head down into the wood a little so I could fill it with filler so when painted it wouldn't be seen.  I put about 4 or 5 screws along the back edge...I did pre-drill each hole with a bit a little smaller than the screw so the wood wouldn't split.

I found the scrolled cut pieces at Lowes where you buy shelf parts, you could use any brackets as long as they fit the dimensions of your shelf.  (you could even find brackets you love and make your shelf to fit the those dimentions, if it's close to what you want) I screwed them on from the back and just put a bead of glue along the top edge. (also pre-drilling before screwing it together)  You could put a decorative trim along the front and side edges if you'd like, I just left mine plain....I thought it was fine that way.

The last step was to sand it down a bit and paint the whole thing out white....prime it first unless you use a paint that has primer in it. 

 After it was dry, I installed these cute little hooks I got from Tender Heart Treasures.  I can't seem to find them on there now, but you could use any kinds of hooks you'd like.  I attached the finished shelf to wall with screws into the studs.  We use this shelf daily, it's very useful....and super easy to build!

I'm linking up to:
Just something I whipped up Monday @ The Girl Creative
Met Monday @ BNOTP
Show off your cottage Monday @house in the roses
DIY Day @ A Soft Place to Land
Trash to Treasure Tuesday @ Reinvented
Strut Your Stuff @ Somewhat Simple
POPP @ Domestically Speaking
Get Your Craft On @ Today's Creative Blog
Favorite Things Friday @ A Few of My Favorite Things