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Saturday, August 6, 2011

Stalling....

As soon as I finish here, I am going to go work on a tutorial for some white needlepoint canvas furniture for the pavilion. I got sidetracked this morning...

On the way home from town, I stopped at a garage sale a block from our house. I purchased two, one dollar items. The first was an ugly copy of a printer's drawer. Pink cork and raw wood? Really? Who would do that to a nice fake printer's drawer?

The other piece was a rather nice, but well used spice cabinet to hang on the wall. I have been looking for one for ages. They don't seem to make the wall hanging ones anymore. They all seem to be turntables or some such that set on the counter. I don't have room for that.

I went to work and pried the back off of the drawer. It was just stapled on. I found that all of the shelves were lose and could be rearranged if wanted. No glue in site. That's one advantage over the real printer's drawers. What you see is what you get with them.

Anyway, I couldn't wait. I sprayed the back wall of the drawer with satin finish black and then stained all of the shelf part with Minwax Red Mahogany.

I used Liquid Gold on the spice rack. An hour later, I had two usable pieces. Not bad for two dollars.

Tessie's only comment was..."Another printer's drawer? How about a new house instead?"

In case you didn't know, I am a small shelf addict. I like any kind of wall hanging shelf that I can set things on. More to dust, but fun.

With the addition of this one, I have five printer's drawers and copies of same.

I have one in the family room that is devoted to some of my antique sewing and needlework tools and packages.

The only trouble with taking photos is, I notice what is missing. See the empty holes? That's where the silk sewing thread is supposed to be...I "borrowed" it to use in some embroidery. Now that I see what the compartments look like with the spools away, I will have to go find it and put it back where it is supposed to live.

Right around the corner from that one is one that contains pieces that will be going into Tessie's Townhouse and Zar's Clockwork Cottage....It looks like I have been borrowing from that one too....Oops!

On top of that one are several older needle cases, button and snap packages. They are so much more colorful and interesting than the ones we get now.

The one that hangs just inside the door of my workroom is my all time favorite. It is constantly changing, because I tend to plop little things that I don't want to get lost in the workroom mess, in the slots. I call it a "Cabinet of Curiosities".

The one thing that never changes are the eyeballs.....Walter and I met when we both worked at a wholesale electronics store here in Tucson. One of the other men that worked there had a relative that worked with a place that made false eyes. He showed us some "rejects". I talked him into getting me some. This is what is left of the stash.

I have made macrame jewelry with them(70s), a life sized doll that could wear my clothes(80s) and gave a few to others that had a good use for them.

Anyway, now that I have stalled long enough, it is either back to designing needlepoint wicker or cleaning out and restocking five printer's drawers....Guess which is winning?

See you tomorrow.

4 comments:

Kathi said...

I hope it's the wicker furniture?!
I want to make some mini mini ones for my little modern house. :D

Merri said...

Everything in your wall displays are cool...except for those artificial eyeballs, LOL! I admit I'd have to get rid of those..or I would feel like I'm being watched all the time. They are beautiful tho, in their own way.

Looking forward to reading about the wicker furniture.

ISABELLE said...

Que de belles choses à voir à mon retour de vacances!!!!
Par quoi êtes vous animée?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Isabelle

A. Wright said...

Ok, it's all your fault! I finally picked up a printers drawer at the antique mall today. The thing is filthy. I'm wondering if you had to clean yours up at all? If so, I'd love to know what you used. The oil soap is working, but it's slow work.