When I woke up this morning I had good intentions for the day.
I had my to-do list all organized in my head. The day was planned according to that list and things looked productive.
Then I made the mistake of sitting down and eating a bowl of Frosted Mini-Wheats. The mistake wasn’t in the cereal, the mistake was browsing through estatesales.net as I ate. I found a sale in its third and final day.
If you have read this blog for any length of time, you know what that means.
50% off day!!
To completely justify my driving 45 minutes and spending money, I planned on getting something on my to do list done while at the sale. That to-do item was framing Jack’s high school graduation picture. We bought an 11×14 picture and I needed a big frame.
Luckily, this sale had a lot of antique frames for sale. So I looked at it as a “two birds with one stone” moment.
You would’ve done the same thing, right?
Unlike 99% of the estate sales we go to, this one was in a building instead of a home. The building was listed for sale and had previously been a dance studio.
Not real exciting since looking at the home is half of the fun of an estate sale.
We didn’t spend a lot of time looking around once we got there. I knew what I wanted and found “the frame” very quickly.
What I didn’t expect to find was this dresser.
Another thing you will know if you’ve followed this blog for even a short amount of time? I’m impulsive. Where am I going to put the dresser? That’s TBD and will be a post for a different day.
The frame I ended up getting was a 16×20 solid wood frame with ornate corners.
I removed the back of the picture hoping that under the paper would be the original Declaration of Independence or a Van Gogh painting, but no. All I found was a lot of dust.
Can’t blame a girl for tryin’ .
Once everything was cleaned up with some Murphy Oil Soap and Windex, I cut a new mat, placed Jack’s picture inside and resealed the back of the picture with heavy craft paper.
The fact that there are bubbles and nonremovable stains in the glass only added to the rustic vibe of the frame.
I mean, really, Jack is wearing a red plaid shirt and sitting on the tailgate of a truck.
A rustic vibe only makes sense.
If you want to know how to cut a mat to the right size or have any questions about how to use Murphy Oil Soap I’m always here to help!
This will come as a shock to no one that has been reading this blog for any period of time…..we went to an estate sale this weekend.
I know. Shocking, right?
I subscribe to EstateSales.net. It isn’t a Minnesota thing. It is a national listing of estate sales. Of course I narrow the search to only include listings in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro. You can set your search for the area that you live in. There are also national sales listed and oh how I wish I could go to some of those sales.
We started the day with the intentions of only going to this one particular sale. The house looked amazing and they had a couple of things that caught my eye. On top of that, Nikki our neighbor came with us and I wanted to take her to a sale that looked like it had a lot of great items.
The house was beautiful, but the sale itself was disappointing. Everything was way overpriced.
Fortunately there was one more listing in the area that I had not considered going to see. The sale had a lot of dolls and bears and dishes for sale. But, the sale was only nine miles away from our first stop. Since we had already driven 45 miles, what was another nine measly miles.
It was day two of the sale which typically means discounts off the original prices.
And at this sale, I found this.
It was packed with dishes. Tons of dishes and the old glass doors were wide open. Open so everyone could see all of the dishes. I don’t think anyone knew the tall pine cupboard was for sale.
I couldn’t believe my luck. And it was 20% off day!
But that’s where my luck ran out.
We didn’t have a way to get it home.
So we went back home empty handed. Empty handed except for the squeaky cheese we bought at a creamy. But that is a story for another day. 🙂
I couldn’t stop thinking about that cupboard.
I imagined it at the top of my stairs. Big and strong and displaying all of my pretty for sale things.
I imagined moving things around as they sold and creating new ways to showcase them. The ideas were endless.
So that next morning I convinced Wade that we NEEDED to journey south one more time.
My good fortune had returned. The cupboard was still available, but it was no longer 20% off, it was 40% off!
Happy danced all over that estate!
My own little store within a store.
Happy Dance Monday to you!
Wendy
P.S. the jars you see with the scissors from above? They make a great Mothers Day gift. The jar holds twine for your Mom’s garden or ribbon for gift wrapping. Or if you send fresh flowers for Mothers Day, the jar has a grid to help display a bouquet. And for extra bonus points: the cute scissors come with the jar. 🙂
I bought this vase at an estate sale. I loved the shape, I loved the appealing texture and I loved that it was green.
Then I got it home.
Wait. What? I don’t love the green! It was kind of pea green meets sea foam green mishmash. Maybe that is why it was for sale on the last day of a three day estate sale, marked down 50% and still no one had bought it. Maybe I had a weak moment and felt bad for the vase. Maybe I just felt like I wanted to buy something because I needed to justify driving 45 minutes to an estate sale and coming home with nothing. MAYBE…..I made a mistake. A home décor mistake, I should’ve known better.
So the vase sat here and there and I tried to fall in love with it. It never found a home, in my home. When that happens it needs to go to someone else’s home.
However, the philosophy behind items I create or purchase for resale is that I need to love them also. That isn’t to say that everything I love is what everyone else should love. But, I have found that sticking with this concept keeps a cohesive vibe in the shop.
Summarizing those last words of wisdom means that this vase needed to change.
As soon as I received the sample of Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint named Typewriter, I knew it was meant for this home decor mistake vase makeover. This entire 30g sample package covers approximately 10 square feet, it is environmentally friendly and contains no VOC’s. (Volatile organic compounds are organic chemicals that have a high vapor pressure at ordinary room temperature)
Miss Mustard Seed milk paint comes in powder form and is easy to mix. Measure equal parts powder and water and stir. For darker paints such as Typewriter (black) let the mixture sit for about 10-15 minutes giving the pigments time to develop. I then used the Miss Mustard Seed paint brush – which I love – and applied 3 even coats letting them dry for about 30 minutes between each coat.
I took a chance and didn’t add a bonding agent to the powder/water mixture, nor did I lightly sand the vase before starting to paint. I wouldn’t suggest doing this but I like to bend the rules sometimes to see what would happen. 🙂
Now what started as a home décor mistake has become an elegant nod to home décor take me home delight. Don’t you love how the gold texture peeks through and the rumpled texture remained?
I left the inside of the vase as the original color. For whatever reason, the inside color didn’t translate to a not so wonderful color. It is a pleasant light spring green.
On Friday I will be sharing with you the newest items listed in the Old Lake George Shop. This typewriter black vase will be one of the new listings!
I hope to see you on Friday!
Wendy
Happy Birthday to my best friend in the entire world. I love you Lizzy. Have a great day!
Last we chatted, I explained that this was the year I was going to organize my Christmas decorations and then share that experience with all of you.
I’m not the worlds best “How to” blogger. Here is how my blog would’ve been written:
Untangle Christmas lights and plug them in to see which are still working. If it doesn’t light up, toss it.
Gently roll up lights, hold them together with a twist tie, put them in a Ziploc baggie, label the baggie and seal.
Pull everything else out of the 1000 half filled tubs of Christmas decorations you have drug around for over 50 years. Throw away what’s broken, donate items that hold no sentimental value for you and place remaining items that are similar in a Ziploc baggie. Label the baggie and seal.
Put all baggies back into your tubs, label the tubs and have your husband put the tubs into the garage until next year.
As you can tell, I like the cut and dry version about how to do things. I am a “read between the lines” kind of person so I assume others should be also. You know what they say about assuming.
Now since I didn’t have to write that great “How To”, I had more time to go to my first Estate Sale of the year.
I thought you might want to come along. 🙂
We headed out on Saturday morning and went to this sale first.
This 9000+ square foot home was on a 2 acre wooded lot. It had been built in 2008 and had been meticulously cared for.
Most sales are open for 2-3 days. The second and third days shows markdowns of 30%-50%. Saturday was the second day of this sale. There was nothing left but a few glass flower vases, some empty fancy boxes and a white 3/4 zip sweatshirt. I bought the sweatshirt…for $1. 🙂
The other sale was in Bloomington and Saturday was the first day of the sale.
In contrast here is a picture of that house.
This home was built….a long time ago, and was about 1000 square feet. For that reason we waited in line outside, in 28 degree weather for about 20 minutes before getting in.
Once we made it inside the front door there was an overwhelming amount of stuff.
A living room packed with Antiques…
And then tools, and tools and more tools.
Wade guessed that there were at least 500 screwdrivers in one box. You could hear people muttering to themselves, “Oh my gosh, Oh. My. Gosh!!” as they stopped to realize the massive quantity of tools in such a small space. Multiples of the same tool, over and over again.
But it didn’t end there. The garage and sheds out back were full of…you guessed it, tools and other random things.
I bought this vintage four-foot metal level. I found this level in the kitchen by the other kitchen utensils. 🙂 Currently it is just sitting on the back of this dresser in the family room. I am considering making it a coat hanger in my entry way.
I put this picture on instagram yesterday and a follower of Old Lake George commented about the picture saying…
She used these planers as bookends! What a great idea! Maybe I will go back on half-off price day and get some planers for the bookshelf I need to build 😉
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