Another Copy Cat & A Hey Girl Party

I'm not an over achiever, not by a long stretch.  It is purely a coinkidink that I have a second copy cat the same week of Debbie Doos copy cat party.  Earlier in the week I linked up Sy's Barber Shop sign that I copied from an antique.  Today I've copied a blogger.  I have no shame.

And stay with me here, I've got a fun party announcement at the end.  At least I think it's pretty fun, and I really really really want my followers to join in on this one.

I've had a bunch of springs since last spring,  (ha ha ha ha, springs since spring - I'm so easily amused), I picked them up, I don't know how many 10 perhaps? at a garage sale.  A buck for the works, and as I paid the guy he said "aren't those cool, what are you gonna do with 'em, I knew someone would want them to make something".  I looked at him and said 'I have no idea'.  He seemed disappointed and I think he judged me then and there. 

So the springs gathered saw dust in the garage for 6 months.  Till last week when Angie at Knick of Time made this....

Angie's Cool Creation

And I knew.  I was inspired.  Angie always seems to make stuff I can knock off.  Thanks Angie!  As I measured using my hands in the air I said, "Brawn... I need a board about this long, by this wide, old rough wood please, weathered... and those old bed springs, I have to air staple three of those on the wood".  (I swear the way his mind wanders his selective hearing only focused on three of those key words.)

I thought it a simple request and he went out side to gather the goods with out even giving me a funny look.  He's getting into this blogging/crafting stuff I tell 'ya!

Before it was empty

I had a perfectly good bedroom mantel, empty since the Christmas Santas went back to the north pole, and it was just waiting for something simple like this.

Brawn made an executive decision that whatever these bed springs were going to be, he wanted them raised up - so he cut three pieces of tree as legs and brought those in the house with the wood. 

Works for me.

When all was said and done I didn't have the right candles laying around, so for now these will do.  I just might get a burst of energy and get that mantel all dolled up for Valentines Day.

After all, it does have an ode to our love story.....

The wall words are on a separate piece of sheetrock that fits into the arch, so when Brawn and I move to the old folks home the kids can easily remove it as a keep sake, or put it on our nursing home wall.
Because 'ya know.....

                                                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok, so the springs are cute and all but how about something wayyyy better looking?  A party you can link up to and be seen on 5 blogs?  A party you can link up your husband too?
Yeah, ok don't tell him or Brawn that part....

COMING SOON..... It's a VALENTINES HEY GIRL PARTY!  

What the hey is a hey girl party???  You've seen the photos.....
but if you aren't sure, head over to the Hey Girl Pinterest Board for ideas.

BUT for this party, to hey with that young goose Ryan Gosling, we want to see YOUR Hey Girl Man.   Yup, get yourself all learned up on adding text to a photo.  Load any photo of your Mr. Wonderful (hint for Jean) and add your own Hey Girl to it.

I can't wait to see what you all come up with, cuz I've seen some of your spouses and Ryan's got nuth'ing on them!

 Link on one, fun on all five. 

Moi

Kelly at The View Along The Way

Chelsea at Two Twenty One

Michelle at Decor and the Dog

Ashley at Attempts at Domestication

 Brawn will be so not ok with this.   HA!

Get your photos ready..... February 7th to the 13th.

It doesn't have to be your hunk of burning love...
Link the dog, link the cat, link the neighbor,
I don't care, just include the HEY GIRL.

Should I send a text to Lisa to link her husband?

Linked to:
Knick of Time Tuesday @KnickOfTime
Debbie Doos Copy Cat Party
Inspiration Gallery @CraftyScrappyHappy

Barber Shop Sign Copy Cat Challenge

Entering Sy's Barber Shop Sign @

East Coast Creative for

Creating with the Stars 

It's no secret my favorite party happens once a month.  It's a green light to copy something and hopefully flatter the original creator. In this case I am reproducing an actual antique sign that was sold by a place called American Garage.

 

C O P Y  C A T  C H A L L E N G E  T I M E

at DebbieDoos

Inspiration Photo

 I've had the sign pinned for awhile to my signs board on Pinterest.  I want to make every single thing pinned on that board.  Like tomorrow.

I aged some bright shiny silver chain by applying several colors of La Craie Paint

 Here is part of the description of the sign....

"in completely original surface and condition with the original iron hanging hooks intact. The City Drug Store was located at 8 East Main Street, Amsterdam NY, and the building is still standing".  

"It had dual entrances; one for gentlemen, the other for ladies. The sign hung so that the Gentlemen's entrance advertised Imported & Domestic Cigars and the Lady's entrance advertised Perfume & Toilet Articles".

Sy's Barber Shop.... perfumes for the Ladies & a hot shave for the Gentlemen

Part of the challenge is taking the copy and making it your own.  I just couldn't advertise ice cream so close to my bathroom scale so I went a different route.

It's a pretty good size sign, largest I've done so far

For those of you who don't know it, I own a vintage building that was once a barber shop.  Sy's Barber Shop to be exact.  Some day when the inside of the building is complete this sign will probably hang in the bathroom there.  But for now it's on the wall by my toilet.

I kindly asked the man with the power tools if he could cut the shape similar to the picture for me.  I used a sample pot of La Craie paint in Wrought Iron that I purchased from the world famous Shannon at Fox Hollow Cottage, and like usual my designer paints all get along with each other and the old white is Annie Sloan.  The whole thing was waxed with CeCe Caldwells clear.

Figuring out the size to cut the vinyl with a Cameo Silhouette is math for me and that takes the longest.  I didn't know how to make letters arch and swirl, so I had to paint some by hand.

The sign is replacing a mirror with hooks so it needed to be made with a place to hang my skivvies.  I reused some cabinet knobs, and just brushed old white on the tops to age them.

Bacon $4.49

The original sign didn't have a place to hang anything so I made it my own!

The before.  Pottery Barn Mirror, blah.

After... Barber Shop Vintage

And that silk robe hanging there?  That is not the one I lounge in all day.  Brawn has one in yellow.  They were gifts from one of our Vietnamese exchange students.  Brawn is sooooo not a yellow robe guy, any color robe for that matter.  I don't wear mine either, lets just say the ladies in Vietnam, well they grow 'em a bit smaller there.

Wonder what my UPS man would think of this robe?  It's better than my black Walmart one covered in dog hair.

Thursday I have a fun link party announcement with some other gals and another copy cat.... yup two this time, I copied another blogger.  Will it be you?

This project was linked up by my own little fingers 

to each and every one of the below parties.  

Oh Yeah, linking this up to the Copy Cat Challenge at Debbie Doos
AND the Power of Pinterest Party @Debbie Doos & Fox Hollow Cottage
Saturday Night Special "Hang Ups" @FunkyJunkInteriors 
That DIY Party @DIYShowOff
Make It Party @CraftyScrappyHappy 
Cowgirl Up Party with CedarHillRanch and the girls
Knick of Time Tuesdays @KnickOfTime 
Creatively Tuesday @TheRusticPig 
Mod Mix Monday @ModVintageLife 
Tuesdays Treasures @MyUncommonSliceOfSuburbia 
Budget Decorating Party @CreativeCainCabin 
All Star Block Party @FullCircleCreations 
Show & Share @SouthernLovely 
Open House Party @NoMinimalistHere 
Creative Inspirations Party @EmbracingChange 
Wildly Original Linky @IGottaCreate 
Party Time @36thAvenue 
Transformation Tuesday @TheIronstoneNest 
Be inspired Friday @CommonGround 
Link Party @Redoux 
Fabulously Creative Friday Link Party @JenniferRizzo
Transformation Thursday @TheShabbyCreekCottage 
It's Party Time @Cupcakes&Crinoline 
Make the Scene Monday @AlderberryHill 

Featured at
KnickOfTime
The Ironstone Nest 
Alderberry Hill

Tongue In Cheek Tuesday, on Monday

Seems all around the land it's the month of resolutions.
I've made a few in my day, and I only remember two that I ever kept.
To gain weight because I was looking a little thin.
In a dream. 
Once.
OK, no that never happened, the dream or that resolution.  So sad.

The real resolution took place in January of 2012.  For a few months prior I was cleaning out and decluttering.  Then I discovered blogging and realized all the stuff I was cleaning out were treasures that I just needed to learn to display properly. (See my previous post about the metal ware on my mantel).

There is nothing fashionable about storing treasures in a box.  Instead, I have now filled the garage with junk I can look at every freaking day, and realized for me, what a silly resolution decluttering was to begin with.

The resolve for '12 was to use up all my shampoos and conditioners before I bought anything new to try.  Nothing earth shattering or life altering but I wanted to make a difference in my own bathroom, which is where I contemplate all my earth shattering and life altering concepts.   

 I learned that apparently I like to try new shampoos that come out, you know so I can achieve those long silky locks like the hair models.  You would think after attempting that - for what appears to be a 10 year stockpile of bottles - I'd get the hint... "BLISS HONEY... IT AIN'T WORKING FOR 'YA".   Not one of those bottles turned me into a young blonde with shiny long straight tresses.  WTH?  Never mind that I'm brunette.

Only thing that happened was I got 10 years older and my hair started to go gray.  For all I know one of those shampoos is what caused those two things to happen in the first place.  

I realize you would not have thought me a shampoo hoarder.  Proves you can't judge a woman by her hair book by its cover.  How could I know I needed to reform when I didn't even know I was sick till I accepted it was taking more than a couple months to use them all up.

But I kept to the resolution, in fact I'm still working on it.  There are a few almost gone ones yet to finish off, and I spotted some full ones in this antique bathroom cabinet lying in wait.

Bath & Body Works good Smelling Vanilla Sugar & VO5.
Highlighted with Bliss Ranch's color choice of the year "Greige"

Reflecting on the past year of de-shampooing I have made some

 discoveries and observations.....

1.  The cheap crap worked as good as the expensive stuff.  (Hear that Molton Brown!  Or is that Alton Brown?  One is from the food network.)
2.  The expensive stuff looks more fancy schmancy in my bathroom shower.
3.  No one sees my bathroom shower.
4.  I am thankful no one sees my bathroom shower.

Top half of a shampoo hoarders shower

 5.  I don't like shampoos that come in a flip top tube.  You can't get the goo out after the tube takes on air, and if you stand it on end to better enable goo exit you better be darn sure the cap is on tight or your goo ends up seeping out all over making a gooey shampoo shower puddle.  That is IF you can even make the flip top lid shut right and stand up!

More hated flip tops.  *Bliss Ranch highlighted in color of the year Emerald Green

6.  Some shampoo smells better than others.
7.  No one notices that unless their nose is in my hair.
8.  I go no where that it's necessary for someone's nose to be in my hair.
9.  The only one that it matters too how my shampoo smells is me.
10.  I can only smell my shampoo while I am in the shower.
11.  The smell only matters till I get out and put in mousse, add hair spray or put on perfume.

12.  And what about sample sizes lifted from hotels to send with my kids to camp?
13.  I have no kids going to camp anymore.

14. The only cure for the frizzies caused by summer humidity, is sub zero Winter temps.  There is no shampoo-conditioner combo that can fix it or mimic Winter and there is no frizz in Minnesota in January and no sub zero temps in July.
15.  I had a disproportionate amount of shampoos to conditioners left.  Is that normal?

And last of utmost importance:
16.  If you wash and condition your hair but decide you don't have to leave the house so why bother to dry and style it, without a doubt that is the day the FedEX or UPS man will ring the bell.  
Every. Single. Time.
And he knows you're in there.


So my resolution for 2013 is to blow dry and style my hair after each shower.  Maybe the UPS man will be so captivated by my fabulous hair that he won't notice I'm still in my jammies at 2:00 in the afternoon.

If he arrives after 3:00 I make someone else answer the door.

Want to poke fun at yourself?  Let one of us know you want to join in for Tongue in Cheek Tuesday, which happens every month, (maybe), on Tuesday, (but sometimes not).  My last/first Tongue in Cheek Tuesday was on a Thursday.  Who cares right?

Kirb Appeal

Bliss Ranch

Silo Hill Farm

Melleywoods Mansion

Simply Vintageous

White Spray Paint

What We Keep
Corn In My Coffeepot
The Backyard Bungalow  
Buffalo Roam
Crows Feet Chic

A Mantel of Aluminum

Don't fall over but yes I accomplished a post two days in a row.  Don't get used to it either. 
Since I hauled out the box of tin just yesterday this is a follow-up for what I did with the stuff.

Half the box of stuff is now on my mantel.  The mantel that for the past three weeks had nothing but dust on it.  Don't worry, the dust is still there, I didn't do anything drastic like clean it it off.

The letter holder is now displaying my mom's Primer, from 1927.  For you youngsters, a primer is a book to learn reading.  It's really worn and faded and I love it.

BBQ tongs.  Really looooong ones.  Used for short people to reach farther.  Like to hang a galvanized letter "R" on the mantel.

One mantel down, two to go.  If I get really ambitious I might do the master bedroom mantel for Valentines Day.  But probably not.

Hammered Aluminum Collection

About an hour ago I read a post over at EclecticallyVintage about Kelly's glass collection, or addiction depending on how you view your junk habit.  She called it "collectingitis".  At the end she asked what we collect. 

Well I have more than enough junk put away, correction.... collections, because I view my junk as part collection and part addiction.  No matter how you combine those two words it comes out as a 'tion' at the end.

Kelly's question got me thinking, what do I have I might want to reincorporate in my decorating, since a lot of my 'tions' have been banished to darkness for many years when they just seemed like clutter.   Which of course was well before blogging affirmed that my junk is in fact treasures.  Right?

I went to the depths of helll, AKA the storage under the stairs, and I pulled out this box of vintage hammered aluminum.

I spread it out and counted..... 27 pieces of silvery metal ware. 

With awesome detailed handles.

My favorite handles are like the one below.

I recall having this little letter holder on my desk for a while, then on the table holding napkins. 

So now what should I do with all this stuff?  How would you display it?  I actually think there might be another small box of it under the stairs.  I do have a very naked mantel.  Hmmmm?

If that pile of junk is still on the table when Brawn comes home, I'm blaming Kelly.

Yardstick Table

This yardstick table was originally posted over at the terrific ReFreshReStyle with Debbie, so you might remember seeing it before.  But when 'ya do a guest post it feels wrong to link up your own project to a party when your project is at someone elses house.  So I'm bringing my table home.

Months worth of collecting

When ever I see a yardstick my ears hear the slap of it hitting my rear end.

My mom was a gentle lady.  I was a brat.  One of my first posts was about her and the Christmas cactus she left me.

She kept her yardstick by the refrigerator.  Was it just a convenient spot to store it or did she keep it there so when I came by she could quickly grab it and smack me on my butt?

I will never know.  A mark was never left on my azzz and I don't remember ever crying, but I knew I was being a serious brat if the yardstick came out.
 

I picked up this little table at an estate sale in July for $10 bucks.

I didn't need it.  Didn't have a place for it, and didn't like it's blonde finish.

It sat in the garage till October when I put it in my entry decorated with a dangling eye ball in a birds beak for Halloween.

Nearby in an umbrella stand was the stock pile of yardsticks I have been collecting for a project.  When the two were in close proximity to each other I made the connection - the lightbulb came on - and I knew they would become one.

There is no tutorial for this.  The yardsticks were attached with nails, the edge was cut off and a router was used to finish it.  I used CeCe Caldwell Traverse City Cherry with a wash of Virginia Chestnut Brown, which I also painted the top edge with.

Perhaps the key to obtaining this finish was painting, sanding, waxing, and distressing while in my jammies.

The distressing was followed with dark wax and I left the hardware as is.

I only wish I still had that old yardstick of my mom's.  It would be on this table top.

I also hit part of the mirror with some of the red.  I ran the brush over lightly and wiped it back.  I can't say how long this table will stay in this spot, but the warm tones are nice for this time of year.

*Update:  As of January the table is still there, however the glass candle globe didn't make it.  It was pretty easy to hit as you fumble in the dark for that light-switch.  Just saying.....

Since the reason I reposted was so I could link, here it goes:

Funky Junk Interiors Saturday Nite Special - Yardsticks
Made You Look Linky @MadeInADay
Creative Inspirations Link Party @EmbracingChange
Open House Party @NoMinimalistHere
Under $100 Linky @BeyondThePicketFence
Party time @ThreeMangoSeeds
What's in the gunny sack @TheGunnySack
Make The Scene Monday @AlderberryHill
Newbie Party & Graduates @DebbieDoos
Crafty Texas Girls Cowgirl Up Party
All Star Block Party @FullCircleCreations
Party Time @Cupcakes&Crinoline 
Project Parade @DIY Show Off 
Silver Pennies Sunday @FindingSilverPennies 

The yardstick table proudly featured here:
All Star Block Party @FullCircleCreations 
Silver Pennies Sunday Party @SilverPennies
It's Party Time @ThreeMangoSeeds & Friends
Make the Scene Monday @AlderberryHill
The DIY Party @DIYShowOff 
What's in the Gunny Sack with Tonia @TheGunnySack 
Creative Inspirations Link Party @EmbracingChange 
Made U Look @MadeInADay