Monday, May 24, 2010

thrifting, crafting, and mantle

This is my mantle, I ask that you pardon the smudgy, dirty looking glass. No matter how often I clean it it doesn't seem to come clear. My husband says it is cheap and blames it on the previous owners of this house (no comment). As you can see, I made a bunch more lace doily candle holders. All the doilies are thrifted and nearly all the vases were.

I was going to put the candle holders in my shop but now I am not sure because a.) I like them and b.) the glue doesn't seem to hold well on a couple of them. I will probably post individual pictures of at least several of the holders later this week because I really like how they turned out.

The mantle looks gorgeous at night with all the candles lit.

Here are three holders, along with the clock that I made and you can see a bit of my really nice Kaliedoscope.

I bought this wrought iron stand at GW last Friday. It was 2 dollars. I had hoped the glass insulators would fit better than they do. The clear ones are a bit wide so must sit with a slight tilt. I put electric votives in the insulators. You can see the other side of my kaleidoscope (hubs gave it to me years and years ago). And you can also see the salt and light candle I made.

I bought the little resin sign at a yard sale ( a beer sign yard sale of all places and no I didn't buy a beer sign and I wasn't there for beer signs) for fifty cents!

Below you will see what I find hardest to share.

About eight years ago, we had a leak down the wall in the corner of this room (can you see some of it?) We were blessed by one of the men I called when getting estimates for repairing the roof. He came out on a cold drippy Nov day and told us the beam was rotten and that the roof would need repair and the shingles on the entire roof would need to be replaced (which we knew because the roof was that old) but said he would repair the leak for no charge and come back in the spring. He did.

He gave us a first rate roof and came to check on us that fall after a severe storm that destroyed many roofs in the area. Ours came through wonderfully. He had a theory about quality and the demands of roofing and he was very vocal about sharing it. He was competitively priced but not as cheap as the gang places. He is probably our best contractor experience we've ever had.

Unfortunately, we've not had time or money to fix and repaint the wall (I really hope to paint this summer/fall). You should have seen the shameful condition of my last attempt to disguise it. I won't describe it.

The woven piece is the lid of a trunk I bought for two dollars on a yard sale on Friday. The trunk now stores my girl's cardboard bricks. The two doily pieces on the wall were both thrift buys that I've had for a while. Both had their tags on them yet and both were under two dollars. The cross is one of the silverware crosses I made at Easter. I used a s-hook and pushed it through the weave of the lid and hung the cross on it.

You can also see that we listen to tons of audio books from Little House on the Prairie (if you love the books - Cherry Jones narrates these and her voice is the voice of Laura in my mind) to Lord of the Rings (another good recording). And from Alice in Wonderland and Anne of Green Gables to The Five Little Peppers and Pollyanna.

Hubs won't listen to any of the books narrated by Rebecca Burns as her voice annoys him. ;)

I will be sharing this at:

Made By You Monday at Skip To My Lou

Modern Craftswoman
at Tools are for Women Too

Just Something I Whipped Up at The Girl Creative

Motivate Me Monday
at Keeping it Simple

Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch

Debbiedoos New Linky Party at Debbiedoos

Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays
at Coastal Charm




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12 comments:

  1. Love your mantle Melissa. You cannot go wrong with candles can you? I really like the rattan piece you used on the wall. Very creative girly. Be blessed. Cindy

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  2. Your mantle looks great. I like the clock you made out of the book very clever!

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  3. Your doily candleholders are lovely and your mantel is so creative. The doily and rattan and cross on your wall draw the eye so well, if you hadn't mentioned the leak I wouldn't have known. You are so clever.

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  4. Me again. I would love to join your linky party when you get all the details ironed out. It will be great fun!

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  5. Beautiful! (And your mirror looks just fine to me, LOL!)
    I have tons of lace--some inherited from my grandmother, who passed away about 30 years ago and was a lifelong seamstress, and some bought in a HUGE bag from a garage sale. I was wondering what on earth to do with it. Now I have an idea! I've never seen lace wrapped around a glass holder like that. It's very pretty!

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  6. Those doily candle holders are just darling! Never have seen anything like that, but you gave me a good ideas:) I have doilies around. I love crosses and yours is really unique. Thank you so much for linking up to my party...what fun!~

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  7. Lovin' your mantel and those candles!

    Blessings,
    Linda

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  8. Beautiful. You did a great job!

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  9. Hi Melissa, Your flowers and your sweet family are so adorable! I love your doily wrapped vases, such a sweet idea. I'll have to give that a try, so thank you for the inspiration. They would make a nice gift with a bouquet of flowers. Thank you for visiting and leaving your comment on my "Angel of a "Thrifty" kind. I never realized what I was missing out on...but now that I have found SA and GW I'm hooked!
    Have a wonderful day and I can't wait to join in the party at your place, great idea!
    Hugz,
    Kim

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  10. What a great way to use heirloom doilies that might otherwise just get stuck in a drawer and never admired for their handwork. Thanks for joining and helping make this the most successful Modern Craftswoman Monday so far! Rory

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  11. I love everything about your blog.. and I have to do a lot of cosmetic coverups at my house...so I know the feeling...
    it just looks old world shabby chic...
    blessings,
    glenda

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  12. Only you. Only you could make water damage look adorable.

    Seriously.

    I have water damage on my ceiling. I tell myself that I like it. It's sort of webby looking and blends in nicely with the spider webs.

    But now I want to cover it with something woven.

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