Thrifting and Fleaing....

In between working three days a week and trying to paint furniture for my booth and doing some special orders for some special clients (very cool and coming soon), I get to thrift or flea market. I got to do some serious flea market shopping two Fridays ago with my BFF's, Cristi and Lynnie, and we got the goods!

 We took the day and stopped at the Fiesta outlet in Newell WV for about an hour to get us some great seconds. We got various plates, bowls, and cups for a few dollars.  Then we continued up to Rogers Ohio for Rogers Flea Market where the real fun began. If you have never heard of this fun place, you need to get there! It is open every Friday, rain or shine, snow or heat. 

Vendors get there about 6 am and usually start packing up around 3:30 or 4 pm. We almost got a mustard yellow drop leaf farmhouse table and 4 ladder back cane chairs for $75!

 I know! 

If we had the room, it would either be in Cristi's kitchen or my dining room. But alas, we only brought a minivan and not a 20' truck. Next time we will be better prepared.

I snapped up a cool pigeon coop, horse harnesses and 2 minnow traps.

To which my husband said "are we now gonna raise pigeons?" No, dear man. Can't you tell it is our new coffee table?

Since I have a light fetish, the harnesses and traps are turning into a light fixture for the Dining room. Go with me on this one.

Cristi wrangled some blue Ball canning jars with lids and Lynn got herself two cool step end tables that she is going to transform for her bedroom. And we all got to spend time in sister fellowship, ate some really good flea market food and walked about 10 miles. 

A good day.

 Now for some thrifting goodness. When I saw these leaning in the corner of the Goodwill, the top is what caught my eye. I thought it was a cool arrow. Then I turned them around to check for a price.

Holy Cow! 

These are stilts! 

Maybe for a midget but they are still stilts and they now reside over my TV because that is, after all, where you would put stilts right?

This wall desperately needed something to take up the overhead space above the TV and I didn't think pictures were the ticket. Too much competition with pictures on the screen.

I painted them red to pick up the red in my orangey pillows and the picture on the mantel. They make me smile as did watching my children try to use them. 

And just so you don't forget what a dork I can be, here are a few pics of me giving them a go for your viewing pleasure! My son was making fun of me as he took the pictures. Notice HE wasn't trying to walk on stilts.

psyching myself up

y

I'm UP.....

Annnnnd I'm down

I  almost gave myself a head injury so I wisely stopped. 

Now all all I need is a pigeon who can use the stilts and I have a show stopper

Always being renewed,

Please see the link party page to see where I link arms with those blissfully beautiful bloggers that host every week. So gracious they are along with these other sweet ladies!

Read more at http://diyshowoff.com/2013/04/01/that-diy-party-10/#xgMAcRCgRocl5vmh.99       

 

 

I hear the ocean.....and it's BIG!

Every once in a while at the thrift store you need to purchase something that is just crazy good. I found this gigantic conch shell for $4.99! Things like these add interest and texture to your home so don't hesitate if you see one.  

AND they would cost you about $50 at the beach stores which is another reason why you should buy them when you see them. 

Plus if you can't find your hand weights because a certain 4 year old has decided to move them, this shell is about 5 pounds so it will help your bicep workout in a pinch!

Plus it always gives you another good story to tell...... 

Always being renewed,

$5.00 table made over in 5 minutes!

Sometimes a 5 minute shopping trip to the Goodwill can garner you a $5.00 stool that can be re-done in 5 minutes. I had to purchase some black shorts and a lack top for my middle sweetie for her talent show costume and low and behold as I cruised through the children's section this stool jumped out at me. Well, really I actually tripped over it's leg as I was backing up to let another customer  through. As I turned to see what offending thing had caused me to look like flailing mass of arms and legs, it actually saved me as well. I was able to place my hand on the top and steady myself. I looked down and this is what I saw. 

Light bulb idea!!!!!

Perfect plant stand but a little rough. But for $4.99, I can do rough. It is solidly made and just needed a little TLG (tender loving grooviness) applied to it.

I thought I'd stay with the rustic look but just add a little design. I just washed it off, added one coat of Minwax Jacobean stain to darken it up a bit and then added the design with full strength stain using a rounded tip small paint brush. All I did here was dip in the stain and then lay the brush down sideways on the stool in the 3-stroke pattern and then ad a dot in-between.  Didn't measure or anything 'cuz I am easy going like that.

I added the little detail to the corners only of the bottom shelf and let air dry. (In the interest of full disclosure:  start to finish was 10 minutes but 5 minutes fits in better with all the other 5's from this post!)

The stain flowers kinda bled a little on their own so I didn't have to distress it at all to make it look old. 

I think it has a touch of American to it. What do you think?

What kind of luck have you had lately while thrifting or yard sailing or trash stealing? (The first step is to admit that you do it......)

Always being renewed,

Ski Pole Floor Lamp tutorial

Hi gals! I hope your weekend has been restful and full of creativity. Yes, did you try a new recipe? Guess what.....you're being creative. Did you pt together a new outfit? Yes. Creative. Rearrange a room? Creative.

Step out of your comfort zone? Creative and hard so you get bonus points for that! Sorry, I can't give cash back for all these points but you'd only buy more things and go into debt and I can't be apart of that.

So just enjoy the fact that you did something different!!!

And because we are different here at Reposhture, I promised I'd show you how I used ski poles a little differently to make a floor lamp.

You can go here to find out why on earth I needed ski poles in the first place!

SO I snagged these bamboo ski poles for $9.95! at the local thrift shop and I already had a shade that I got for $0.95.

I also needed to purchase a lamp kit from the Home Depot and I also figured I would need a longer nipple ( is it weird that I feel slightly uncomfortable writing that in my blog?) for the lamp kit to work.



This cost $7.50 and the extra nipples cost $2.50. So my grand total to make the floor lamp was about $18.00!

Okay quick review of what you need:

Legs of some sort
shade
lamp kit
might need longer nipple ( please don't judge me. Figures a man named this piece of hardware!!!)
piece of wood about 2" x 2"
screws and screw driver bit
Drill and drill bit (you had to know this would involve power tools)
fishing line or clear heavy duty thread

Okay now you are ready to get started.

Measure your nipple and pick a drill bit that is the same size around. Clamp your wood and drill all the way through.

It should look like this when you are done. You'll see why in a minute.

Assemble you light kit according to the instructions. I am not giving instructions because they really do a nice job on the back So just follow carefully and you'll be fine.  Also the piece of wood is so you can attach the poles to the lamp kit with screws. You can make this as long or as short as you want. My shade was pretty big and I don't like a lot of the underthings to show so I used a piece of wood about 3.5" long.

Notice the wire is going through the bottom of the wood, through the nipple and then into the socket. 

CHECK THAT IT WORKS! Now you can move on to attaching the legs.

 You can tell I am not a skier because I just assumed the poles would be all the same length! Not so Joe!

One set was about 2" shorter than the other.  I removed the wrist holders (?) which left a convenient opening in which to thread the screws. So I screwed the two longer poles opposite each other on the wood. And then added the shorter poles to the other sides. This was the hard part as I had to make sure they were actually sitting on the ground and not just hanging there looking ridiculous.

You will also need to screw them left or right of center as you do not want to hit the metal nipple running through the wood. I had to use 2" screws. Just hold up your screw next to the pole (leg) and wood and make sure that once the screw is through the handle, you still have about 1/2" that will go into the wood. Then you'll be fine.

Here is a closeup of the final product. The screws also allowed me to adjust the legs a bit to make the lamp stand straight.  When I was all done and had the legs how I wanted, I took some fishing line and secured each opposite set of legs so the legs had some further stability other than just being attached at the top.

I may try and add something else to make it a little more stable but for now it is just fine.

 So here she is, my ski pole, fishing line, quad-pod (instead of tripod) floor lamp for under $20!

Maybe I should call it the outdoors man lamp since I have so many things for outdoor sports involved here.

2 Corinthians 4:6 For God, who said, "Let there be light in the darkness," has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ.

Always being renewed,