Trip to Madison

This weekend I took a trip to Madison, WI to visit my daughter, Brett.  On Friday we did some rummaging and thrifting. Brett found a sale with lots of brand name clothes and was thrilled that she scored a pile of wonderful , trendy clothes for a total of $ 45.00.  I found a nice dresser at St. Vinny's that will be perfect for up cycling. Seems that I can't leave Madison without having the back of my Trail Blazer full of neat stuff.  My poor golden retriever had about an 18 inch square of space to occupy all the way home!  On Saturday we went to the farmers market that is held on the State Capitol grounds every Saturday.  Vendors are spread out around the block selling cheeses, fresh bread , organic veggies and fruit, honey, maple syrup, oils, vinegars and so much more!

This is Brett checking out the fresh cherries.

Breads and more breads!! My weakness! We both had a fresh, warm cheese, spinach empanada for breakfast from Stella's Bakery.  Yum, yum!

Our Beautiful Capitol Building, Madison,WI

Beautiful, colorful veggies!

Bretty had her sack full of fresh produce. 

Yum!!

                                     

Notice a lot of people wearing coats and jackets!  It was cold!!!

If I lived in Madison I would have bought a bouquet of flowers. 

I always have a great time visiting my daughter in Madison.  I love the shopping, the culture, the vibrant city and spending time with my daughter.  I had a wonderful time and can't wait to go back!
On the way home I just happened to get off the highway early and took some back roads home.  I  stopped at a rummage sale and found an awesome wardrobe and a little dressing table.  What a great weekend!

Refuse Rescue

This is the story of how I saved this dresser from certain doom at the county dump. I was getting ready for work when my husband mentions that it was spring clean up in the neighboring town.  I decided to take a quick detour on my way to work to see if I could find anything exciting. I spied this dresser tipped over on it's top in a pile of junk .  I didn't have a lot of time to check it out but from the road it looked like it was worth saving.  I called hubs to demand  ask very sweetly if he could go down and check it out.  Well, just so you know, hubs does not share my love of junk and he especially does not care for digging through other peoples junk but he did reluctantly agree to take a look for me. 

So while I was driving down the highway I must have called his cell phone 15 times to find out if he had picked the dresser up. He finally answered and said that " yes" the dresser was still there but it had some broken parts and did I still want it. He didn't admit to me later that when I called  he was already driving away without the dresser hoping that I would have forgotten about it.  I said I wanted him to pick it up and we could always burn it if it was too terrible. I also reminded him that he was saving valuable space in the landfill by picking it off the curb.  He was happy that when he dug through the junk pile to get the dresser he also found himself a diesel gas can with some sort of contraption on it that they don't make anymore.

So , here she it. We scraped loose veneer off the top and repaired a broken drawer. She is now a sturdy place to store my craft supplies in my office. I painted her with ASCP Country Gray with a dark wax.

Knobs from Hobby Lobby.

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 I love  doing my part to save the environment!

Footstool Love

I found this old foot stool at Goodwill a few weeks ago. It was stained wood with a needlepoint cover. It was a bit heart wrenching to pull that cover off because I know how much work someone put into it but it was just not my style. Sorry!!

 I painted the base with ASCP Coco then distressed it. I found this fabric that goes so perfectly with the paint color and it even has a pop of my favorite red!

                                            Did I mention that I love this footstool???

Also stopped at a rummage sale today and found a cool mid century china cabinet. I'll tell you, they don't make furniture like they used to! It weighs a ton!  I may try a mod, funky look on this one! Maybe orange paint ?!!

Speaking of heavy lifting...... last fall  while hubs and I were at a rummage sale we bought a few piles of old lumber.  We bought a smaller pile of barn boards and a old wooden silo.  Well, we finally were able to pick up the silo staves a few days ago. The boards were from 10 feet to 16 feet long and they were heavy!  We also apparently waited to load them on the hottest day of the year! 2 hours later we had a trailer load of 100 year old silo staves. Hubs did not want to unload them again so we made arrangements to have them milled into flooring. They mill specializes in reclaimed wood and they were very excited about our " find".   The plan is to use them in our kitchen dining area floors when we are ready to remodel in a few years. I am really excited to see how they are going to look when they are done!  Just goes to show..... you never know what you are going to find while out junking!

Something Red.....

In my quest to lighten and brighten my kitchen I decided to paint my black bar stools.  I originally painted them blue but I was not happy with how they looked. They just did not pop against the the dark wood like I wanted.   Since I already have a lot of red in my main living area I thought I would try them in red. After a coat of red chalk paint I love how they look.  After a little light sanding you can see both the previous black and blue peeking out underneath. I did put a coat of dark wax on them which resulted in a really rich red.

Wow!  looks a little patriotic here !

                                                         Close up of the paint layering.

I found a really cool bench while thrift store shopping last week. I can't wait to get started on it! It's a french Provencal looking cutie which is totally not my style but I am excited to transform it to something I may be able to use in my house.  Hopefully I can find some time to work on it in the next few weeks.  Unfortunately my full time job really gets in the way of my real love which is creating and crafting!  Stay tuned and Happy 4th of July!