Revamped Watering Can (again)

About a year ago, I shared a simple make over with this watering can

I managed to get the decal off using an acetone based nail polish remover. The remover was old so I don't even think they make nail polish remover with acetone anymore (in the US anyway) but you can buy straight acetone in a can in any paint dept. and you should wear gloves as it's extremely drying to your hands (and very cold too).

After cutting out a label made from chalkboard vinyl on my Cricut, this is what it looked like then. 

I tried to use a stencil made from contact paper to write the word Fleurs, but I clearly cannot line anything up straight. Thank goodness it's written in chalk so it can be redone (just not any better).

And I was quite happy with that little label improvement, but I want to try to sell this, and the nasty looking faux brass accents that had some wear, just wasn't the look I want to offer a customer. I don't mind if the galvanizing looks worn, but not the really shiny fake brass stuff.
 

If you look closely at the finished version, I even added some extra accents that weren't in brass before. I did the bottom banding seal of the can. I thought it just made it look more complete with it. I also painted the underside of the watering head instead of just the front. And finally, I taped around the little handle brackets that attach it to the can and spruced those up too.

I had smeared the previous chalk word pretty bad, so I tried to freehand over what image was left. I'll try to make it look nicer at sale time.

And in case you're wondering what I used to paint it with. It was Krylon Fusion Hammered Copper spray paint, but I used a brown spray paint primer on the bare metal first and then went over it with the hammered copper paint. You want to be careful with the Hammered paint because it has a bit of a shimmer to it, making runs look even worse, but if you just use short even sprays and don't get too close, it looks amazing when you're done.
 
So here is a Before and After shot of my little watering can.

Click on image to enlarge

What a difference a little spray paint and a label makes, eh? It kind of has a bit of an industrial look to it and I think it would look great in a Fall display. If I had some fresh daffodils blooming right now, I would have filled it with some of those. I can't wait for those to bloom!


This was not a sponsored post, I just used what I had on hand for the spray paint.
 
Parties I'm linking to:

 

Craigslist is NOT for the faint of heart!

I'm sure sometimes when you come to read my posts, they may leave the impression of me standing on a soap box (preferably a vintage one) spouting my displeasure with certain misfortunes in my life. Well, brace yourself - here we go again.

As the title implies, this is going to be a rant about Craigslist. Not Craigslist in itself, but the sellers/buyers that you encounter through this site. I guess it's like the Walmart of the internet, you're gonna get all kinds. 

I've bought and sold a bit on CL over the past few years, and typically have not had any problems - until the past 2 weeks. On 2 separate occasions I was the FIRST to reply to TWO separate ads for furniture. The first time was for a set of tables that very closely resembled this table I had done last year. I have regretted selling this table to this day.

French Postage End Table

So imagine my excitement when I came across an entire set for my own home! Long story short, the man sold them out from under me claiming he got his emails mixed up. Really? How do you mix up emails when each one is different and shows a date & time? Yes. I want to call you a few choice names.

The next one gets even better. 

I found 2 oak end tables posted late Sunday evening. $5 each! woo hoo! I know I was the first to call, by phone. Talked to the man & MADE ARRANGEMENTS TO PICK UP for a day & time that HE set up with me for Tues. night (he told me they couldn't do it on Monday). It's a 30 mile drive for me to get to this place. With the price of gas and our time in a pick up truck with 3 little girls, it's not a cheap trip or a joy ride.

So now we're close to the house, but when I call the guy to ask exactly where his house is, he proceeds to tell me that the tables are sold and that "he got confused with all the calls." WTF! How do you get confused when YOU set up the time with the FIRST caller? (ME) I will tell you what, if I didn't have 3 little girls in the back seat of my truck, I would have unloaded on him with words that would have made a sailor blush!! I was H-O-T hot!

Why are these people doing this?? Is someone else telling them that they'll give them more $$ for these items if they sell them to them instead? That would be my guess, but you know what? That's wrong. If YOU set the price and YOU make a deal with someone already, then that item is sold and that's the right thing to do. I don't feel as though I should have to pay for their stupidity. I hope Karma comes back to bite them in @rss! I do believe in Karma. I even ask myself if I'm getting paid back for something I did wrong to someone else. If I did, then I didn't realize it at the time.

The story doesn't end totally bad though. Apparently Karma felt Murphy's Law had had enough fun with me for the time being and decided to step in on my behalf. Bless her heart (I'm assuming Karma is a female, cuz they don't say "paybacks are a b!tch" for nothin'- wink wink)

As we were sitting somewhere near the vicinity of where the person lived that had these $5 tables, we spotted a bunch of junk sitting out by the trash cans there by the road.  There was some good stuff there and my hubby hopped out & proceeded to dig through all the stuff. He has been curb shopping looong before I ever started. He got some speakers, scrap metal and some yard tool we'll try to sell in a garage sale.

Here is what I picked out.

Look at all this good stuff we got!! I didn't get any tables, but I did get two of my favorite style of chairs!! YES! One chair has a broken support, but it's fixable and I'll make it into a decorative planter chair, but the other one is in great condition. 

I think the birdcase is home made, but it's still kind of neat and needs a little work too. The basket with the silk plant inside was included. Not sure of what kind of condition it's in yet.

 

I seen an idea on Pinterest that I want to try with this galvanized tub that was sitting there too. It may not turn out as nice as the one I seen, but I want to give it a shot anyway.  Not to mention, you just don't pass up a FREE tub!

This metal mailbox. I LOVE the name on the side! (maybe a little clue that someone was watching out for us with this find) I think I'll keep it there. It's another Pinterest idea I hope to try to make.

 This dirty, grungy dartboard that is in otherwise new condition.

It even came with darts that were new in the package. I may clean it up to resell or gut it and redo it more rustic. The selling it is easier. 

If you look on the seat of one of the chairs, there's a couple of wire hangers with the cardboard tubes. I used to throw these away, but now they have a new purpose for me and I'll be showing what I do with them in the near future.

I just love the back style of these chairs! I want to keep one.

 

I guess sellers/buyers on Craigslist don't have to care how badly they handle their dealings, since there is no accountability on that site, like on Ebay or Etsy.

So, has everybody had at least one bad experience on Craigslist or have I just hit a couple of bad ones in just 2 weeks?

 

  

Linking up to these parties:

A Crackle Painted Rolling Pin

I told myself that I was done with this. That I was not going to do this crackle painting thing anymore. And yet, here I am doing even more. What is my problem?

Part of my problem is Pinterest and seeing all the people that are pinning my crackle painted projects with the stars on them. THAT'S what my problem is. Someone had pinned this little number I did last year.

And you know what they put in their comments? They said they would love to see what this design would look like on a rolling pin. Well, that was all I needed to get me going. So, you know I had to make a rolling pin in this design, don't you? 

Oh yes. I did.

I keep saying that I'm not doing crackle painting anymore. It's not really a good seller for me, but for some reason, it draws quite a bit of attention without creating a desire to buy it. It's kind of a nuisance to do, with little financial reward. LOL! Maybe I should try selling this stuff on Ebay. It seems to be a hot ticket on there, at least for now.

 
I still have several rolling pins sitting around waiting to have something done with them. Some are old, some not. I'm getting them done, slowly but surely.
 
I sort of have an interesting story with this one. Ok, maybe it's not all that interesting - to you guys.

This rolling pin was my first choice to do the crackle paint & star design on. But then I noticed that stamped word "Foley" on the end. I didn't remember seeing it when I bought it. I'm sure it came from either a thrift store or a garage sale for no more than a couple of bucks.

I'm not a rolling pin expert (or any other kind of expert for that matter) so I did a little research on the name. It seems as though it was a well made rolling pin that was produced from the 1920's-1960's before going out of business. It must be a somewhat highly collectible piece because they go for pretty good money (for a rolling pin, that is) on Ebay & Etsy, not to mention the $10+ for shipping! It is quite a heavy rolling pin made from maple wood and the roller portion is larger than normal. It even has ball bearings in the pin mechanism. Mine doesn't even look like it's been used much!

So this little number isn't going to get anything done to it. It's just going to be sold as a vintage collectible, but not for the ridiculous price that they're going for online.

It's been a crazy couple of days around here lately. On a spur of the moment, we drove just over the state line into Michigan last night to look at a smaller enclosed trailer we found for sale. I have to say that unlike campers, those suckers hold their value. I don't understand. They're just an empty box with a couple of doors and a wood floor on 2 wheels. We got a better deal than the asking price and we put some cash down to hold it until we can go get it this weekend. It's going to store my 8 ft. tables and be used to haul my stuff around to the craft shows I do.  I was hoping for a smooth sided one, so I could do my Rustique & Chic logo on the side. However, it has lots of rows of rivets all along the sides. Oh well, I just have to work around that, I guess. 

Oh, and that was after I got up at 5 a.m. to help my 20 year old son make a New York Style cheesecake for a coworker that he lost a bet to (pssst...it was a girl he's kind of sweet on). Mind you, neither he nor I have ever made one of those before. I've eaten plenty, never made any. 

The winner wanted chocolate covered strawberries on top. I have to say that Walmart carries some dipping stuff called Chocolate Lava, or something like that, and it is very good on the strawberries!! Oh my!

No, I didn't get any of the cheesecake, but the reviews were off the charts, I guess. He decided he wanted to make a Vanilla Wafer crumb crust instead of the standard graham cracker crust for his. I guess that got him some bonus points with the winner. ;) We used the crustless cheesecake recipe I found on Pinterest (is there anywhere else to look?) The crustless cheesecake recipe can be found on What2Cook.net. I plan on making one for us when I get a 10" spring form pan. My largest one is 9" and it ain't gonna cut it with this recipe. It definitely needs a 10" pan. I also have to wait until after Alan has his bi-annual blood work done. I'll give my take on how it good it is after that.






Parties I'm linking to:

Distressing Shutters

Some of you may know that I am trying to start up a little business from my home. I even went so far as to start a Facebook page to showcase & sell my wares. It's been a little slow going, but I'm seriously working on stuff. 

So far, I have only sold one item from the Rustique & Chic page, but I've only just announced it about 2 weeks ago.  I have so many more pictures to take of stuff, but everything is packed up at the moment and I have a craft show in a few weeks, so being basically lazy (I know, laziness is not a strong point when you're trying to start a business) I don't want to go digging through stuff and unpacking only to put it back and unpack it again for the show set-up. I'm also working on some new stuff to add to what I already have. I will be posting those to my shop and writing posts for this blog in early April. So watch for those!

The item(s) that sold was this set of 3 shutters

The customer who bought these was only getting the shutters, because the wreath was not included, but it sure does look purdy on there, don't it? She has plans to hang a moss covered "R" from them instead. 

The shutters started out as the standard dark honey varnished variety. The customer liked these because they reminded her of some she had seen on Miss Mustard Seed's blog. Hmmm...there's that name again, she has a huge influence on style right now.

Did you notice that darling watering can too? 

Just in case you missed it, here's a close-up.

I can honestly say that I've never seen one like it before. I don't know if you can tell that it has 2 handles. There's the large one at the top that's moveable, but there's another smaller one at the bottom that's stationary, although it's kind of hard to see in this picture.  

Cool! Right? 

I freshly picked those pussywillows from my local Dollar Tree store. hee hee, yes. they're fake. They just remind me of spring & I had to have them. I don't have any that grow naturally in my gardens, so I have to resort to fake ones, which are much more dependable anyway. 

I'm just plugging away at these projects that are overwhelming my home and hopefully creating things that people want to buy. After completing these 3 shutters, I'm down to having only 2 unfinished ones left. Too bad it doesn't make a dent in how full my rooms are.

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This project was Featured at Rustic Restorations for having the most clicks! Woo Hoo!

AND, these were also featured at Rustic Pig Designs!

 
Parties I'm linking to:

 

Brooke's Florida School Project

This past week, my daughter Brooke, had to do a presentation on one of the states in the USA. She chose "The Sunshine State" of Florida. 

I guess if you're gonna have to a project like this to do in March, it might as well be some place sunny & warm!

At first, I was going to use my Cricut to cut out the state of Florida using the "50 States" Cricut cartridge. It's a great cartridge for this kind of thing & the very reason I got it in the first place. But Brooke wanted a really large state cut out. To be honest with ya, I was not all that comfortable trying to cut the state into two pieces with my Cricut. So, I relied on my Silhouette Cameo to do it for me using their Designer Studio. It made very quick work with no guess work needed on my part.

You can clearly see the seam where I had to piece this together, but that was my own sloppiness. This cutting technique is easy when you use the knife tool in the Designer Studio program. That program is extra (like $50?) but it's well worth it if you like being a little more creative with your designs. Luckily, mine was free as part of a Christmas promotion.

The poster is really pretty simple in design, but it's how my daughter wanted to do it, which probably makes it easy for her and the rest of the 3rd grade class to absorb. 

We put everything on a piece of white foam board that we purchased at Dollar Tree for $1. The colored poster board we used for the blue and the yellow is less than a dollar! (I think it was 69 cents - white is 50 cents) And this poster board cuts on the Cameo like a dream!

I thought it was cute that she wanted the sun at the bottom corner to look like the "Cutie Mark" on Celestia from the My Little Pony cartoons. 

The font that was used for the Florida title is called "Upper East Side". If you click on the font name, it will take you to Dafont.com, where you can download it for free!

The font that was used for "The Sunshine State" is called "Walt". I'm not sure where I got that exact font, but Dafont.com has one almost identical called "Waltograph."


Brooke said that everyone was fascinated with her poster and swarmed all around to get a better look at it. And here I thought it was very plain & simple. 

I guess that just goes to show that the best projects are the ones that are "Simple with a 'Wow!' factor."

Now that this is all done, I'm going to cover the backside of the foam board with fabric and use it as a back drop for taking pictures of my projects.

 
Parties I'm linking to: