Why Is This Thing Hanging On Our Wall?!

We found this wonderful thing at a yard sale recently - some sort of small metal trellis with an addition to hold a planter. I had no idea where I would put this when I bought it, but the price was right and I just HAD to have it..... I hung the thing on the wall in the basement, beside another yard sale find, a wonderful old piece off an organ. Why would a person hang such a thing on their basement wall? I'll give you a hint: The ping pong table is nearby.....

Did you guess why I hung this on the wall? Here's a picture of the trellis/planter in use:

I am soooooo smart!!!! Susan

Rogue Gallery - A Wall Covered With Photos

I really liked the display of pictures we put on the wall some years ago....

But when we put a pass-through in that wall, the display had to be taken down. So I magnetized the adjacent wall and tacked two trellises to the wall to create a new photo display:

We enjoyed this display for some years, but I recently decided to try to recreate the original display - the one that was replaced by a pass-through, the display that showed close-ups of people we love. I wanted a display of photos that could be changed out easily. Eventually I hit upon the idea to slip photos between boards. So we we headed to Lowe's to get some 1x2s. My husband used a router to cut channels in the 8' long boards. We also brought home some hard board - the type wood used to make peg boards; the plan was to cut the hard board into 8"x10" pieces to slip between the channels in the 1x2s. After the wood was cut, we removed the old trellis display.

Then we attached the 1x2s to the wall.

Bill's part was now done; it was time for me to glue pictures to the 8x10 boards and to paint the 1x2s.....

I'll include a photo of the channels made by the router. This photo, below, also shows some of the photos in place. The boards are spaced and sized so that the 8x10 boards can be slipped into the channels from the end of the display or from the front; the top channels are deep enough to allow this.

Phew! This was a huge undertaking! I glued over 180 photos to those 8x10 boards. I put pics on both the fronts and the backs so that I can switch the photos willy nilly from front to back. My rotary cutter, used in conjunction with a lazy Susan, helped make the trimming easy. But it was still a long process.

One by one, I filled the wall with photos. I'll end this blog entry with a flurry of photos. Please note that I also added a light fixture to the display. Watch for it... Thanks for reading this. I'll add those photos now. H

Happy Creating!!!! Susan

The newest version of this display of pictures: Black and White shots

We found this old rocker at a yard sale yesterday. I have this theory about antiques: There are two types of antiques - those that are still around because no one ever used them because they were impractical or uncomfortable, and those that are still around because they were made well. This rocker falls into the latter category: It is very sturdy and still beautiful....

So I got to work. I pried off the old upholstery....

Then I stapled on some new fabric....

Finally, I attached a sort of fake welting - made with seams from old blue jeans....

I think this chair was worth the effort. What do you think? Happy Creating!! Happy Day!! Susan

After Bill brought home some wood from an old outbuilding, we found the a perfect base to use for a new work space for storing tools in the workshop. Using the cedar wood from the outbuilding, we soon had wood cut and attached to the wrought iron base. Sanding and a coat of tung oil brought out the beautiful grain of the wood.

The new table/shelf unit holds lots of tools; it's just what we needed....

We decided to extend the original work bench, and we topped the new extension with some more of the cedar. After adding some task lighting, the new extension was ready to use and enjoy.

When I spotted this primitive set of drawers at a yard sale last weekend, I just had to have it! I attached it to the newest extension of the workbench in our new workshop. I think you'll agree that this is a wonderful find. The drawers say 'Yeast Foam Root Beer.' 

I had fun decorating a clock with beads and such....

How To Build a Workshop With Seven Telephone Poles and An Old Boot

After our son Allen used telephone poles to support the lean-to  part of his new shed last year, 2011, my husband put out the word that he would be interested in acquiring some old telephone poles. We soon had  seven telephone poles laying on our driveway......

Now all we had to do was find a way to use them, right? 

We decided to build a stand-alone workshop at the end of the driveway. Excavation for the new building was soon under way. 

Before long we had a sort of telephone forest in our yard!

We set the telephone poles in concrete, plumbed them and supported them in position until the cement dried. 

Then the floor joists went in.

And a building started to take shape.

Note: The walls were constructed with pallet wood; we had to make the side units in two parts so as to use those short pallet boards.

The roof went up next....

Ah! With a roof over our heads we could now turn our attention to finishing the inside of the new workshop.

Note: The pink post-its on the walls mark where the electrical wires traversed the room.

I installed every bit of the insulation in the walls; Will helped me insulate the ceiling.

There's Will, helping his dad cover the ceiling with particle board.

We covered the insulation with plywood - another recycled part of our new building.

For the walls, I mixed several buckets of paint that we had left over from other projects, and then we trimmed the walls with beautiful wood. 

One of the boards we used to cover the walls had a smooth surface, to I marked off an area to use as a chalkboard. A little chalkboard paint and the thing was ready to use.

We were running in front of winter the whole time we worked on this new building. We managed to get the workshop under cover before the worst of winter hit. We had a very mild fall - this was fall of 2011 - and I tell people that the weather was nice through December of that year . . . . because of my prayers, 'Lord, please please help us get this building done before the snow hits' 

We built a 16-foot-long workbench, and hung tools and added shelving, etc, to the new building.

The wood for the top of the workbench came from pallets. We don't know what kind of wood it is; all we know is that it's hard wood, and that it's beautiful. 

In an effort to integrate the new building into the landscape, we added two trellises to the north side of the workshop. 

The window went in last; we chose to add the window after the building was done. Did I mention we were in a rush to erect this building before winter set in?!

Oh, oh! I almost forgot to explain how we used an old boot in this project. Well . . . .

When it came time to run the electrical wiring through the walls, we had to find a way to route the wires around the telephone poles. Right? Son Bob came up with a solution: He grabbed the router and dug holes across the fronts of the poles, creating deep ditches in the wood. It was my job, after all was said and done, to come up with a way to hide those ugly scars. 

So I thunk and thunk on this, and I finally hit upon an idea: Why not cover those ditches with felt . . . . from an old boot. And while I was at it, I decided to encrust the felt with beads. 

The felt that lines boots is very thick - perfect for my needs. I spread hot glue onto the felt and sunk the glue-laden felt in piles of beads. I then hot-glued the felt to the channels in the telephone poles. Phew! It worked. 

The End

Er, should I say, instead, The Beginning - the beginning, that is, of many more project to come.....

Have you done anything creative lately?