Are those wooden ducks?

I don't know when duck hunting season starts, but we found these little beauties back in June 2012 (yes, yikes! last year) and just couldn't resist their avian charms. So Creative Roommate bagged 'em carried them home by hand and stowed them away for future use.

Results of the day's hunt

The 'mallard' arrived first with his colorful red beak leading the way.  He found a home amongst the wall art from futon pieces, remember those?  Luckily they make him look almost like a peacock with a fancy set of tail feathers.  The female arrived later, and seems to still be evaluating the situation.

Meanwhile, the fashionable ladies continue to chit chat in the corner, totally oblivious to the giant wooden ducks hanging over their heads.  

Happy freestyling!  Watch out for quacks.

Lampshade to dirtshade - Update!

You might remember an earlier post about some glass lampshades repurposed as planters.  Here is the original photo:

Did you notice the mismatched saucers?  Well, I sure did. It was okay at first, they were at least the same color, but one was octagonal and the other round with some floral impressions, not exactly a matched pair.  I thought I could do better, it is the living room after all.

People seemed to be getting of dishes left and right during November and December, so when I found these nice little tea saucers with gold painted edging at le dump I knew exactly where to put them.

Nice rims. 

Happy freestyling, and keep your eyes out for tea saucers, they always seem to come in handy.

The freestyle not taken - remembering a rattan étagère

Contrary to my first impulse I do NOT pick up everything cool that I find on the street. Now that it is deepest winter, and the heady days around moving season have long past, the street furniture pickings are greatly reduced.  With all that non-existent extra time I would be happy to have a few projects waiting for me in my ground-floor heated workshop...which doesn't exist. Darn, that puts a crimp in my plan.  Finding big stuff at this time of year is harder because it is cold outside, and sometimes rainy, or snowy, or all three at once...not exactly conducive to leisurely strolls with no destination in mind. But I can share with you, dear reader, a few things that I spotted on the sidewalk back in the day and didn't grab - the freestyle not taken.

Our first exhibit, the rattan étagère, a.k.a the rattan shelving unit.

  

How's that for a bad picture?  Old phone, nighttime, no flash, only streetlights for illumination. Thank goodness for the help of Picasa, but it can only do much. Still, you can sort of get the picture, I hope.  The shelf was laying on its side, the top was curved like a roman arch, and the 5 shelves seemed to be intact and attached.  Even the caning looked ok.  If I had been in need of shelving I so would have taken this.  Rattan (or whatever this was made of) may not scream 'New England,' but it does make sense if you have to move a lot.

Perhaps in an earlier life stage the shelf looked like this picture (pulled from the web).

via auction website

I could have sanded and painted the shelves and backing, the options for rattan and wicker extend far beyond white or black.  (Plus, if it is free one doesn't feel quite so worried about small mistakes or imperfections in the paint job...)  Some colorful painted wicker inspiration pulled from the the interwebs:

Orange

via Etsy

Grey and natural

via

Pink

via Etsy

Periwinkle

via Etsy

Happy freestyling, and remember - if you have to let it go, at least take a picture and be ready with ideas for the next time.

NQF: Wild times at the Goodwill

Back in November there was a day where the weather forecast called for rain in the morning, and only the morning. So, of course, it was raining in the morning, and then it kept going lightly in to the afternoon, and then it started back up right when I got out of the T in the evening. Go figure, it is New England, the weather changes.  Even though I had an umbrella, I felt it prudent to wait until the rain subsided so that neither my feet nor my computer would get wet.  I’m cautious like that.  I also have a fondness for the ‘Miscellaneous Metal’ section of the Goodwill, so that’s where I went to wait out the storm.  Nothing panned out there, and the rain kept going, so I wandered into the women’s sweaters ($4.99 each!), and at the very last section I saw it (actually I can see it now too, because I’m wearing it) -- a wool cardigan, from a familiar brand, with a print just odd enough to be interesting. I’m calling it animal-esque. 

Giraffe? Leopard? Paintbrush?  Giro-pard?

There were two holes so small I didn’t notice them until after getting the cardigan home, washing it, laying out to dry, and asking my roommate what I should wear with it.  I fixed them.  Can you see the repaired areas in the picture below?

How about if I circle the repairs in red?

If anyone in real life is looking that closely at the back of my sweater I'll be happy to tell them the whole story, otherwise I'm calling this a win for the DIY needle and thread repair.  I should have taken a 'before' picture, but got carried away in the excitement. They were around the size of a dime each, pretty small, but noticeable if you were wearing a contrasting color underneath this wild cardigan.  And yes, I do get excited about repairing sweaters from time to time.

That's the story of my walk on the wild side in the aisles of Goodwill.

Happy freestyling, rawr.

Lampshade to dirtshade

Over a year ago a previous roommate and I found a pair of white glass lampshades at le dump.  Now, maybe if we were re-doing a bathroom, or had pendant light fixtures to fancy up, they could have just been installed as intended and spent the rest of their days as plain old white glass lampshades, same old same old. Yawn.

What purpose could be better than filtering the light of a "soft pink" compact fluorescent bulb?  Why, supporting dirt of course!  Despite not having the ideal bottom configuration for dirt retention, they were put to use as planters.  I managed to watch at least one orchid wither away into nothingness while cradled inside this sleek environ, sigh. (Orchids continue to elude me.)  But I did not remain discouraged, when time came to split a mystery plant (Philodendron spp.?) that been hanging in the window I knew just what to use.

(Why, yes, those are free books peeping out from the bookshelf there. How kind of you to ask, alas I have not yet read them all.)  The Philodendron spp. (?) seem happy in their new homes away from the direct sun, and we now have a nice little symmetrical arrangement for the bookcase top.  Everybody wins!
Happy freestyle.

A Paisley Pink Mug Shot

Le dump is not a place you go expecting to find matched pairs of Chippendale chairs, or coordinating/ matching/ harmonizing anything. Don't expect it, but keep your eye out for it anyway, like cashmere sweaters at the thrift store without stains or holes, or purple giraffes speaking French, just because you've never seen it doesn't mean they don't exist!  Magic does happen in Cambridge, which is how I felt when I came across a set of matching mugs this fall.

A mug - pretty paisley, but pretty happens...

A pretty pair? well, now, this is something eh?

[[Digs deeper into box, through assorted kitchen supplies, mumbles to self....]]


Three!  Wow, what else is in this box?

Four! Hmm, maybe time to buy lottery tix?

Thank you to the lady who dropped off that big cardboard box of kitchen goods.  Maybe you were moving, or just cleaning out excess gadgetry, but your kitchen discards are my paisley-print treasure. Also, hot chocolate tastes good in them, I can attest to that as of last night.

Happy freestyling!

Busy as a bee with a return policy

Of the things I find in frames, among all the family photos, movie posters, original artwork, and insects with beautiful wings, I would not have expected to find a store return policy.  Yet another surprise from le dump. 

Let me point out that it was not some simple 8x11 inch printout in a flimsy plastic frame. Quite the contrary, this was a poster-sized calligraphy version on vaguely marbled paper of what you should expect as a customer shopping at [store name omitted].  I don't know if I would have been intimidated or glad to see such a poster in a store.

Of special note was the fact that the glazing was intact and scratch free, and that the frame itself was quite sturdy. An odd bronzey color, but a solid frame nonetheless.  After the frame came home Creative Roommate got busy with her paints and paper and created this snapshot of a beehive interior.

Simple and elegant, I see no need to return this one!

Happy freestyling.