Piano Wire Pumpkin
I can’t wait to show you my newest creation – a piano wire pumpkin! I made it with all the usual suspects: piano wire, a saw blade, a damper poker, copper wire, and leather. This project was like those cooking shows where you are given a random assortment of ingredients and you have to come up with an amazing dish to wow the judges’ taste buds. In my case, I found this unrelated group of items in my house and garage and knew they could be combined to make something festive for fall like a piano wire pumpkin! Because why not? We have piano wire because we took apart an…
Happy List: #183
Hello, hello! I’m glad you are here for this week’s edition of the Happy List. How is it October already? On the blog this week I shared our fall coffee table. It won’t be the only fall coffee table around these parts. The season is still young, my friends. Then I shared a mirror makeover. Basically, I got ahead of myself with that one. The mirror is done, but it doesn’t have a permanent home. In fact, it isn’t even hanging where it was in the pictures in Wednesday’s post. That’s how it goes with the constant decor shuffle. I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook and Instagram, but I’d love it…
Restored Arched Mirror
Months and months ago I found an arched mirror at the thrift store for five dollars. It was a 3-foot tall wood mirror with a gorgeous shape, so even if the mirror itself was a little wobbly in the frame, five bucks was a steal! The mirror had been painted an off-white color and painted well, I might add. I find it ironic that the ugliest paint jobs are always the hardest to remove. Why is that? Due to the intricate detail on the frame of this arched mirror, my only choice was to either paint over the bad paint job or strip the paint. I chose to strip the…
Fall Coffee Table with Blue Accents
Today’s “Fall Coffee Table with Blue Accents” post came about because a friend sent me the prettiest blue and white bowl. I know what you’re thinking. YES! I do have pretty awesome friends. I don’t have a lot of friends (I’d have to leave my house more often for that), but the ones I do have are the life-altering ones. The ones that you plan on raising a ruckus with in the retirement home. This particular friend is the one who I exchange 100 text messages with per day on all the minutiae and hilarity that is our lives. Everyone needs a friend who you can confess to that you…
Happy List: #182
Hello, hello! Welcome to another edition of the Happy List! This week on the blog I shared a fall centerpiece idea that made me very happy. Fresh flowers always make me happy, but it’s the first time I’ve used an antique nail caddy as a vase! I also wrote about the new ceiling fan in our bedroom, which sure brought out all the opinions! It also brought out questions about the electrical situation in our house. Updating the wiring is one of the big things we are saving for and hope to be able to tackle in the next year or two. However, I never know which thing around here is…
Tiffany-Style Bedroom Ceiling Fan
We have a new Tiffany-style bedroom ceiling fan and I’m extra excited about it because you all helped me select it! Didn’t know that, did you? Technically, you helped me select a ceiling fan for our music room, but we had old house issues that prevented us from installing the fan in the music room. (Click here to catch up on what we installed in the music room instead.) And I’m being generous with the word “helped” because the ceiling fan votes were evenly split. Since there was no clear ceiling fan winner that just tells me you are an opinionated bunch. I like that. However, it meant I had to put…
Antique Nail Caddy Fall Centerpiece
My husband thinks an antique nail caddy should be used for…wait for it…holding nails and screws. I think an antique nail caddy should be used as a fall centerpiece. It’s not as if there’s a right or wrong choice here, but my choice is more right. Right? Glad we agree. The first step in creating an antique nail caddy fall centerpiece is to find yourself an antique nail caddy. I found ours in our garage full of, you guessed it, nails and screws. The antique nail caddy was left here by the previous owner. In a roundabout way, he left us all the nails and screws that were in the…
Happy List: #181
Hi! How is life treating you? I hope there were some bright spots in your week! You being here today is definitely a bright spot in my week! This week I shared two blog posts: one about rim locks and the other about fixing a picture frame. I hope you were able to check them out. Thank you for following along with me here and on Facebook and/or Instagram. What I share on those platforms is mainly what comes to me on a whim, but that’s what keeps things interesting – the daily randomness of life! Here’s the Happy List. THE HAPPIEST LIGHTHOUSE I would have been sorely disappointed if the artist…
Add New Ribbon on an Old Picture Frame
I recently saved an old picture frame by adding new ribbon to it. It was one of those highly satisfying, but unexpectedly annoying projects. By that I mean my expectation was this craft project would take five minutes. In reality, the train veered off the track on this project, went down an embankment, and an hour later the train was dented and crushed, but I saved the cargo and called the project good. Gee. Dramatic much? I realize sharing my experience in this way might dissuade instead of motivate you to try to add new ribbon on an old picture frame. That’s not my intent. My intent is to encourage…
All About Rim Locks (Vintage Door Hardware)
It’s no secret the best part of our Colonial Farmhouse is the original wood flooring, but the second best thing is that many of our doors have vintage rim locks. What are rim locks? I’m so glad you asked. A rim lock can also be called a box lock. It is a square-shaped locking mechanism that is installed on the surface of one side of a door. How do rim locks work? Excellent question. You’re really getting into this, I can tell. The rim lock has two locking features. First, it can be unlocked from either side of the door using a key. The keys usually look like what we…
