My $10 Cherry Dresser all Fixed Up

So over my 4 day Thanksgiving weekend in between fighting off a cold and my sewing machine breaking (yes I'm devastated), I managed to finish both the projects of my dresser and the door headboard.  I am still deciding if I like the door headboard, it is on the wall. I don't like the pictures I took of it so I won't be sharing it today.  But I will be sharing the finished dresser.  After stripping it and sanding it down I stained it using a cherry finish.  I still have yet to find fixtures that I like for it, so I took some heavy navy seersucker scrap fabric and knotted it to make drawer pulls, which I actually really like, so I may work on creating a more permanent version of those to use.  It also is missing all the keyholes which I may make out of punched tin.

Now in regards to my sewing machine.  A wire is broken in the foot pedal, my wonderful BF spent a long time last night trying to fix it.  He had it working and then it quit :(.  I checked with Sears to see if you can order a new one and you can't, and they offer no other suggestions.  It just seems a shame to throw out the whole machine b/c of the foot pedal.  So I will be searching the internet to find a replacement and hopefully won't have to wait too long, I have so many Christmas projects waiting to be sewn!  So if anyone has an older Kenmore machine working or not and would like to get rid of the foot pedal, I would be happy to buy it from you!

♥ Art Deco Jewelry ♥

From the above title you can tell that I love Art Deco jewelry.  I think the pieces are classic and timeless, but also love that there is history that comes with them.  An antique Art Deco ring could have been someone's cherished wedding ring, how many hands wore this ring in the past?  I think I would rather have a beautiful piece of vintage jewelry versus a new one.  Who needs Kays!

Check out my Etsy Art Deco Love Treasury List for more great pieces. 

Now for my own Art Deco jewelry, I purchased this ring setting: 

It was a risk and fortunately I didn't spend a lot b/c it is going to cost $160 to have it rebuilt by a local jewelry to hold a stone and fix the band.  Then I will have to find an old stone or purchase a new one for it.  Probably another expense for after Christmas, but I am excited to finally be able to wear it!  

Flea Market Find: Upcycled Door Headboard

Remember the old wood door I got for $5 at the antique shop?  Well I finally have it almost finished.  After having to use Formsby's Paint and Poly Remover on it twice and having the BF pressure wash it, most of the 3 layers of paint finally came off.  And then it just had to be sanded to get the green hue out of the wood.  The pictures below are with one coat of cherry stain.  There is still some work to be done in corners and what not, but I am very happy with how it turned out. 

As you can see it still needs some sanding on the ends as well as in the panels, but I think the panels will have to wait until I get my Dremel Rotary tool for Christmas, until then I will hang it up as is, which I am still figuring that part out!  Now all I need to find is an old door knob and some skeleton keys to complete the look!

♥ Upcycled Vintage Jewelry ♥

Remember the rhinestone jewelry I got at the flea market awhile back?  I finally created something out of it.  I have a wedding to attend this weekend and needed a little bling.  Big chunky rhinestone jewelry seems to be making a comeback, so what better than to find some old vintage jewelry and re-use it. 

So I created the rosette headband, using an old headband I had hanging around as well as some satin and some black netting.  I used the vintage earrings, just took the backs off them and hot glued them to the headband.  I didn't have the heart to tear them apart and they look very nice whole.  So total cost of the headband was $3.

I also created an elastic ruffled bracelet out of the brooch, again out of scraps, I am not sure how crazy I am about this but we'll see if I actually wear it.  The cost of the bracelet was $3.  

Lastly since it is only going to be in the 30s this weekend.  I made this ruffled scarf out of velvet and satin.  It is so soft and very luxurious looking and will definitely help keep me warm!  Have a good weekend everyone, I know I will!

Happy Halloween, the "Happy Apple" and the Mad Hatter

Have a happy and safe Halloween!  I will be spending my weekend refinishing my latest antique shop finds.  The items in the picture below I purchased at an antique shop for a amazing total of $17.  It was like American Pickers north country edition.  Of course I had to make a trip to Lowes and I managed not to scare anyone.  I think they are getting use to me! All three pieces need work but are totally salvageable.    The dresser is cherry, the headboard is oak and I'm not sure what the cupboard door is but it was heavy.  I am hoping to turn the cupboard door into a headboard for our bed!  Look for finished photos hopefully next week!

Also in the above picture is the Mad Hatter hat I made to go with my costume.  I will share more pictures of the finished costume next week.   At first we weren't going to go out and then I found out yesterday we would be going, so it was a "mad" dash to put it all together with items I already had in the house, but I think it turned out amazing.

I just wanted to share the "Happy Apple" I added to my t-shirt yarn iPod cozy!

♥ Vintage Soda Box Love ♥

I love vintage soda boxes, coke, pepsi whatever brand.   The hardest part in purchasing one is what to do with it.  I know they are great for organization, but I don't really need anything like that.  So I decided to try them out as wall decorations. 


So once I got them up on the wall, yes I actually hung them up myself and didn't get hurt :) (I'm a little accident prone)  It was time to figure out what to fill them with.  The sections are rather small, so small trinkets would be needed and since I am not a big knick knack person I didn't really have anything.  Vintage letterpress blocks would have been awesome but they are so expensive.   So I had a chunk of balsa wood hanging around and had just recently bought a thing of chalkboard paint.  I cut the balsa wood into small blocks, then sanded them down and painted them.  Chalkboard paint is one of those crazy awesome things, that once you get you aren't sure how you crafted without it before, the uses are endless.  So now I have small chalkboard blocks to put messages in my vintage soda box wall decoration.