Duck teapot turned lamp

OH BOY I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE WHERE THIS POST IS GOING.
Although this looks like a repurposing project, it's really a thrift find and fix-it post. I found this porcelain duck teapot lamp at a nearby Goodwill.At first when I saw it I laughed at how silly it was, but then the more and more I looked at it, the more I liked it. Someone else had previously repurposed this Thailand-made teapot into a lamp. Don't you love the brass handle?

The lampshade was looked almost new and matched the teapot perfectly. Especially the little blue porcelain knob at the top! From what I've seen online of the duck teapots, the knob was not part of the original teapot. So the lampshade either came this way, or they bought the knob separately and attached it to the top.

The only issue with the lamp was the little lamp stand and light bulb holder piece didn't fit properly. They're supposed to screw into one another, but they seemed to be different sizes. I was going to try to find a replacement piece, but I really liked the original brass lamp hardware so instead I super-glued the pieces together. Using the professional grade Loctite super glue, I put a small amount of glue on the light stand piece and held the light bulb holder piece in place for a few minutes. And that's it! It's fixed! No more wobbly lamp.

Tomorrow I'll show you what the lamp looks like with the lampshade, but for now I think I'd better play it safe and wait for the glue to dry. So all you get is pictures of them separately, but all of you have a great imaginations and can picture them together right?

And because I'm writing this post so late, it's now Sunday, April 10th. Happy 1st Birthday to our little Annie! We love you!!!

Thank you Fern Creek Cottage!

YIPPEE!
I found out last night that I won Lisa's giveaway from Fern Creek Cottage! Woo-hoo! It totally made my day! We all love giveaways and there's some pretty cool stuff out there, but I really REALLY wanted the red crown tin and burlap sack that Lisa was generously giving away. Plus, I really love Lisa's blog. Her style is classic. One project I really enjoyed was the potting bench made from wine cart she found at a thrift store. That's one project I'll be copying once we finally own a home.

So THANK YOU SO MUCH Lisa! Also, thank you ahead of time for letting me borrow your pictures of the giveaway. For more pictures and info, here's her original red crown post.

Now I just need to figure out what to make out of the burlap sack...

Upscale Scale

TOOK YOU LONG ENOUGH TO POST THE AFTER PICS!
Are you dying to see it? Well it's done! The Detecto medical baby scale has been modified. The previous tray was all bent up and rusty.

I replaced the metal tray with a vintage Choc-ola wood crate and now it looks pretty amazing if you ask me. For more details on what I did and where I got everything, read here. I consider this a repurposing project with the crate. Technically the scale wasn't repurposed because it's still a scale, but the crate has a new purpose and a new life!

BUT DOES IT WORK?
Yes! It works fantastically! Do you know what a 1944 Shakespeare's Tragedies hardcover book, a Churchill England saucer, a little glass dome, and 3 hardware knobs weigh? I do!

About 2.75 lbs!

So what do you think??? And ignore the fact that I took the pictures on the ground in between a doorway and a set of stairs. We live with my brother and his house is contemporary/modern and doesn't fit with my style or at least the look I'm going for. Also because there are 4 of us living here, there's not much room in the house to stage my projects. He's still the best big brother though for letting us live with him this year!

Eventually I'll be selling this scale, but I can't sell anything until I'm done with my Blue Boy dining set and put it on consignment. And I'm still not sure if I'm going to put my smaller non-furniture items on consignment or start an Etsy shop. I know I won't make as much from consignment because they take a percentage of the profits. So why you ask do I insist on going that route? Because one day I'm going to be the one owning a kickass consigment store and I can't do that until I know what it's like to be a cosignor.

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Aine's 1st Birthday Pillow

YOUR SEWING SKILLS SEEM TO HAVE REVERTED.

I'll be working on the 3rd "Blue Boy" dining chair tonight but because you've already seen the before and after, I'll show you the pillow I made for Aine's 1st birthday instead. 

Our daughter loves monkeys, she's always pointing them out in books and hugging her monkey stuffed animals, so I decided to make a monkey head pillow to put in her crib. I used some vintage floral fabric my parents had leftover from reupholstering their bamboo furniture set back in the early 80s when they were living in Singapore. For the monkey's face, I used felt. Unfortunately, this was probably one of my worst sewing projects to date. The monkey's face and ears ended up angular and boxy instead of round and curvy, and I stupidly chose the corner of the ear to stuff the pillow instead of the bottom of the face so it's obvious where I had to hand sew the pillow together. I gave up on sewing the face altogether and just hot-glued it on. 

I know the pictures don't make the pillow look so bad, but I made sure they were taken from flattering angles. I have to say though that I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I think she'll appreciate my "personal" touches (aka mistakes) on the pillow. If it was perfect, I don't think she'd see her mom in it!

Happy early birthday to my little Annie! She turns 1 on Sunday. By the way, if you're wondering, Aine is the Irish version of Ann, so we call her our Annie.

  

Repurpose: A scale and a wood crate

WHERE IS SHE GOING WITH THIS?
I have a repurposing project I'm working on, but it's not completely done yet. Lucky for you, I'll share with you what I've done so far! So you remember the vintage wood Choc-ola crate I bought at Round Top?

Well, it's for this...

And have you figured out what kind of scale it is yet? No? It's a medical baby scale! I found it at an estate sale and grabbed it right away, but didn't know what it was used for until I searched online. The brand is Detecto and it has a little rust, but it still looks and works great. Well, everything but the tray looks great. It's a little hard to see in this picture, but the tray isn't lying flat and there's a line running diagonally where it was bent. I tried bending the scale back into place but it wouldn't budge. I thought about leaving it like it was but that made me a little sad. The poor thing needed some help. Then it hit me! Why not replace the tray with a vintage wood crate? Mix metal with wood!

I LIKE THE SOUND OF THAT.

So I went hunting for the perfect crate at Round Top and found the Choc-OIa one at a Coles booth for $5. 

I unscrewed the original tray and my husband helped me drill two holes in the crate to match the holes on the scale.

There are a couple pen marks on the wood from our measuring (we should have used pencil but couldn't find one anywhere in the house), but those can easily be taken off with a little sanding. So I almost have a new and improved scale, but can't attach the crate until I buy new screws. The original screws are too short for the thickness of the wood of the crate. Hopefully I have time to stop at Lowes tomorrow and with luck I'll be posting up new pics of the completed scale.

Also if you're wondering, I've already calibrated the scale with the crate and it's only a couple ounces off of the real weight. I may have to buy a counterweight to hang on the side if I want the scale to be exact. I won't have to put in any extra work to hang the weight though because there's already a hook on the scale just waiting for me to use it!


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Fun at the fair and a new nightstand

WE WANT FAIR PICTURES!

Here are some of the really neat things I saw at Round Top. Of course now I wish I took more pictures!

In Coles I saw this beautiful Edison Phonograph from a Chicago dealer that has been fixing phonographs for the last 30 years. Look at the lettering, it's amazing. This belongs in a steampunk house!

By far the creepiest thing I saw at the Antique Fair. A doll phonograph player. I guess the dealer has had it in his booth for a long time and everyone asks about it, but no one has bought it yet. I told him to try to sell it to a movie studio because it's perfect for a horror movie.

In another booth at Coles I saw these neat collar displays. I loved the little Slidewell ad on the left and the perfectly stacked curved collars.

In the same booth the dealer had a hexagon-shaped wood hardware cabinet. Look at those triangle drawers, borders, and lettering. Not sure what exactly I'd store in here but who cares. It's beautiful!

My husband was interested in a couple of pipes at this booth but the dealer was selling the whole set, all of the pipes and cabinet, for about $2300. Uh, sorry buddy. We really don't need that many pipes. Ignore the poor quality of this picture by the way. I took all of these with my cell phone because I'm an idiot and TOTALLY forgot I had my mom's camera in my purse.

And I was in love with this apothecary cabinet. Drawers in all different sizes with vintage labelled handles.

And of course, I immaturely laughed at the drawer with this label...

Out in the field near Coles, I found the secret meeting place of the Industrial Factory Cart Society. I think the middle one is their leader. :) I've never seen so many of these carts in one place. And this was about 2 hours before the booth was about to close. I wonder how many they started with!

AH, FINALLY YOU SHOW US SOME FURNITURE!

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of La Bahia. I only had an hour to shop there and was too frantic looking around for deals that I forgot about my poor blog. Sorry everyone! To make up for it, I'll reveal the furniture piece I picked up last Friday. There was a estate sale a few blocks down from my brother's house and I decided to pull over and take a look because baby Aine decided she wasn't ready to nap just yet. The lady running the small estate sale had a few nice pieces of furniture, but she also had some pieces that needed some work.

Like this guy...

Yup! I bought a small antique school desk. The original paint and stain wore off a long time ago, but the wood is in great condition. The metal is rusty but my husband is great with cleaning that up (he has a lot of experience cleaning up the rust on bikes). Also, luckily for me the seat does fold up properly!

The only real issue with it is that it's missing a small plank of wood on the tabletop. My husband is going to work on cutting a new strip for it.

We're going to try to make this his nightstand. We wanted unusual nightstands that didn't match and I think we're going to get just that with my tobacco stand and this school desk. I can just see it! Aine and our future children putting down the little bench and sitting by our bedside talking to us in the morning.

And a few more pictures for you to admire! You can see there's a few old student carvings on the tabletop.

 

And do you know how much I spent on it??? Well...just take a look.

Just $5! Didn't get a deal like that at Round Top! Good thing I picked it up when I did. This will be the first furniture redo my husband and I do together. I hope we both survive it!

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