Party size bag of chips and garage sales

I had a really busy week.  Father's Day...

My dad hates this dog by the way.  She ...loves him.  Isn't life funny that way?

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 Having my 12 year old niece for a visit ( burying dead chicks,

                                                                        

Manicures

  jewelery making, farkel, and fireworks.), the start of summer activities, and work. 

 So I feel like I have accomplished alot this week and am glad it is the weekend.   ( Although, it really doesn't matter what day of the week it is to me because I work weekends).   

   I polished off a party size  bag of  chips in 3 days, and went to a garage sale today.   I don't usually make it to garage/yard sales, but I do know that if you snooze you loose.   So I was up and Adam this A.M., on a mission to find a night stand.   I did!  Amongst a few other cool things. 

 including a gong. 

This one is a replica of the gong used by Chao Khao ( Hilltribe) peoples that live in the highlands of Thailand and the Golden Triangle.   It was supposedly purchased in the 1950's by a man in the navy that was stationed in Japan.   It is/was used to call the public to Weddings and things.  HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

 Cool metal plates and a bowl, that will be perfect for picnicking, light weight and unbreakable.  (unless used for target practice.)  We do shoot at things like this here in Idaho.

And this um,  beautiful wood stump with a gold plated bird...I'm calling it a vase.  I really don't know what it is supposed to be technically, but a glass fits inside it perfectly so it makes a really nice vase.

When I saw this night stand,

  I knew I had to have it.  I also instantly saw it's reformation. 

I knew right away that I was going to paint it. And I did, right away.  I painted a thin coat of white.  ' Thin coat' mainly because I don't have a paint brush big enough so i used a sponge.  I used ceramcoat in " Ivory".  Then I put a coat over that with "North Sea".    After that dried I started sanding. 

 The cool thing was that since it started with a dark base I had three colors to work with.  I think it turned out nicely.

I ended up doing a little experiment (marbling...  I didn't have the right paint), on the top that didn't quite work out.  So it is darker than the rest , but I thought it looked okay as it was.  So I didn't fix it.

Reduce,Reuse,Recycle

This is somewhat my theme in life.  I am always looking for ways to re-duce, re-use,  and  re-cycle .
  Here are a couple of projects this week that reflect re-using.

I wanted and needed a coffee table, instead of buying a brand

spankin' new one, I found a used one on craigs list.  It is real wood, and very light, which made it super easy to carry up a flight of stairs into my apt.  My dad sanded it down to the natural wood with his electric sander, saving me hours. 

I live in the mountains and experience winter about 6-7 months out of the year.  So I wanted the coffee table to make me feel like I am visiting a beach cottage when I shut the blinds to the snowy mountain view.   So I went for the turquoise ceramcoat that I had on hand.  Not having a large paintbrush I used an old sponge and wiped it on, with some floating medium to help the wood show through.

I then used the same sponge to wipe on some brown glaze to give it a rustic look, and then touched up some of the lighter areas with a dark stain.

I decided to paint fish on it for a couple reasons, 1. I'm a pisces and 2.  Fish can have a flowy mystical  effect.  Well, I think so anyway.

I found a picture of some koi fish and thought it would go perfect. 

 I drew a stencil of the outline of the fish and traced around it onto the table and then drew in the detail last. You have to look close to see.

Then I began painting.  

Almost finished!

                                               Last step is a polyurethane coating

Next project...Seashell topiary.

  SO I'm making my mountain apt a beach cottage on the inside.  I'm always on the look out for cool beachy things.  I found a topiary online made with seashells on a wood base of what looks to be a candlestick holder.  It cost $179.  Um, cough, choke, gasp.  I  can not justify spending that much money on a "knick-nack" that only stands 8 1/2" to boot!  I mean, I could buy a pair of used skis for that much money.

  Off to to thrift store, where I lucked out.  I found a pair of cobalt blue glass candlesticks for $3. ea.,  they were 50% off.  I stopped at the only two random stores in the vicinity of my home that just may have  styrofoam in a cone shape.  But no luck. 

  This is when RE-USING comes in handy.  I had a piece of cardboard in the recycle bin that I cut and rolled into a cone shape.  I hot glued it together, painted it turquoise, painted glue on it, sprinkled sand( from the last beach trip) onto it, then hot glued shells (collected from the same trip to the beach) onto it.  Then simply placed it onto the candlestick and here is the finished product.  $1.50 for the candlestick, and whatever gas it cost me to drive to the store, I would guess roughly 2 bucks.  Paint and glue had on hand.



Now this is NOTHING like the one I saw on RSH

but it works for me and it has sentimental value as the seashells and sand came from one of my favorite beaches, Seal Beach in So.Ca.