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Fantastic Light Fixtures From Vintage Finds

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PicMonkey CollageDo you remember my recent trip to Pasadena and The Greatest Flea Market on Earth?  Remember all of the “to drool for” items that I captured on camera?  Well, there was one vendor who is so talented at doing what I myself am all about, making OldThingsNew, that I decided to save her photos for a separate blog post.  Lisa of Raphael Creations creates fun and funky re-purposed light fixtures from vintage items.

I can hardly wait to show you the pictures but before I do, let me tell you a little about Lisa:

Lisa’s career has spanned 20+ years of nearly every type of job in the entertainment industry.  She has always had a creative and imaginative mind (she was one of those kids who was always getting into trouble for taking apart her dad’s electronics).  Her recent creations came out of a desire to do something with an old Underwood typewriter she owned.  “Bright” idea:  She turned it into a lamp for her home.  After that she was on a roll and today she creates and sells her lamps both online and in various Southern California locations.

Have a look at a few of her fabulous re-purposed items!

10-Pasadena Flea Market at the Rose Bowl 022A framed ice skate lamp.

05-Pasadena Flea Market at the Rose Bowl 015A SO cool vintage fan lamp.

14-Pasadena Flea Market at the Rose Bowl 026An old Westinghouse radio lamp . . . in turquoise (love)!

13-Pasadena Flea Market at the Rose Bowl 025Vintage shop tool lamps.

12-Pasadena Flea Market at the Rose Bowl 024A little extra kitchen lighting via an old meat grinder!

11-Pasadena Flea Market at the Rose Bowl 023Does anyone collect vintage cameras?  I would love to have this one.

08-Pasadena Flea Market at the Rose Bowl 018Pipes and fittings light fixtures.

07-Pasadena Flea Market at the Rose Bowl 017Another great camera lamp.

06-Pasadena Flea Market at the Rose Bowl 016And an old Underwood turned table lamp!  I wonder if this is Lisa’s original first creation?

Who knew that Lisa’s curiosity would lead her to one day begin creating and selling such unique, one-of-a-kind light fixtures.  She also takes custom orders for lamps made from vintage items that you own.  What a fun gift idea . . . Father’s Day perhaps?

Pasadena Flea Market 001To see more of Lisa’s work, including microphone, blender and vintage gas pump lamps(!), head over to Lisa’s website at raphael-creations.com

Pasadena Flea Market 002Thank you Lisa for letting me take pictures (after I promised that I wasn’t going to copy your work and admitting that I wouldn’t even know how)!  You are one talented lady!

Don’t you love seeing other people’s junk re-purposed into new treasures?  Did you have a favorite one of Lisa’s creations? If you’d like to view more great re-purposing ideas please check out my Old Junk Transformations board on Pinterest.

Blessings,

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Mossing Around With Baskets

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Do you have any old baskets hanging around your house that you don’t know what to do with?

You know, the kind that came to you all wrapped in pretty cellophane and filled with yummy treats . . . but now sit empty on a closet floor.

Or perhaps you still have some of those baskets that used to hang in decorative groupings on your kitchen walls . . . or marched across the top of your kitchen cabinets!

(I’m thinking back to the country decor of the late 70’s, early 80’s here and I hope I don’t offend anyone if your baskets are still adorning your walls or your cabinets.  As far as I know that may even be back in style)!

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Perhaps you have a stray basket like this one.  It’s cute but not big enough to hold swags of flowers, or to use as a laundry basket, or sit on top of an armoire.

This little basket has been sitting out on my front porch for the past year.  At times it’s been filled with a few seashells that came home with me from the beach, or moss and sticks and other treasures picked up while out walking the neighborhood.  In Winter it held a few pinecones and red berries.

So now it’s Spring and time to add something new to my basket.  When I saw that it was growing a bit of it’s own moss I decided why not help it out?  Thus, the birth of an idea:  Mossing Around With Baskets!

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Now if you live in a place like I do, you can take a walk through the neighborhood to collect your moss.  It is on the trees and the sidewalks.  It is on deck railings and patios.

1-Moss 002I actually found the greatest moss ever on top of this outhouse!  Oh how I wanted to trespass and do some moss collecting.

Haha! I feel a joke coming on here . . . You know you’re a redneck if . . . your neighbor doesn’t have the moss cleaned off the roof of his outhouse!

(Just to clarify, we live on a lake that used to be mostly summer cottages and this is a remnant of that time.  We ourselves don’t have an outhouse . . . but hmmm . . .  we do live on a gravel road . . .)

ANYHOO, if you live in a drier climate you can always head down to your local craft store and pick up a bag of moss.

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This is such a simple project and it takes about ten minutes to complete.  You simply begin by pulling your moss apart into strips like this.

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Then start poking it into the sides of your basket.  I actually had my glue gun out and ready to go but I found that this basket had large enough gaps that the moss held firm when poked into the holes with my thumbnail.

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I just kept adding moss wherever there were holes to poke it into.

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And that was it!

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The bonus is that even the inside of the basket has a little moss peeking through.

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10-Mossy Basket 026So what do you think?  Cute yes?

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When you’re finished you can fill your basket with whatever Easter or other Spring décor you have around the house.  Here I’ve added some Spanish moss and eggs that I decoupaged last year.  The tutorial can be found for the large egg HERE and for the smaller eggs HERE.

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My old basket is back out on my front porch, sitting on an old chair.  I tucked in a few sprigs of heather cut from my yard.

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I absolutely love simple projects like this one and I think my old leftover basket looks so happy now that it is all filled up and made new again!

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What ideas do you have for using old baskets?  I’d really love to hear!

If you liked this post please share it with a friend 🙂

Blessings,

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Top Ten Posts for 2013 From Old Things New Blog

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So, these aren’t necessarily my “most visited” posts.  I’ve looked through and chosen the posts that received the most comments and also, in the tradition of Old Things New, the posts where I actually re-purposed or restored something old into something new. 

So here are my Top Ten Posts for 2013:

#10 Braided Cuff Tutorial

#9 Vintage Jewelry Bookmarks

#8 Three Tiered Succulents

5-Slipcover redo for little bench 017#7 A Dropcloth Slipcover for an Old Bench

#6 Guest Cottage Before and After

#5 A Frenchy Bed Makeover

#4 DIY Junky Chicken Wire Cloche

#3 Turquoise Bedside Table

#2 Rosette Wreath Tutorial

And finally, my most popular post of 2013 . . .

#1 Vintage Dresser and Mirror Update

If you’d like to see more pictures or tutorials of any of these posts you can click on the title for the link to the post.  It has been a busy and wonderful year of blogging in 2013 and I’m looking forward to new things ahead for 2014. 

    Blessings to you all in the year to come,

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Christmas Chalkboard Sign Tutorial

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01-OTN Holiday Cottage Open House 001

 I am thrilled that it is the holiday season once again.  A little Christmas decor around the house helps to brighten those short days and long, cold nights.  You may have caught a glimpse of the above picture in my post Old Things New Holiday Cottage Open House.  It was another fun and simple project that cost very little money to create with a $5.00 thrift store frame, some leftover spray paint, chalkboard paint, paint pens and white chalk.  I’m passing on the fun here with a Christmas Chalkboard Sign Tutorial.

1-Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas sign 001I began by painting my thrift store frame with some leftover cranberry red spray paint.  The frame was originally gold so I sanded back a bit after painting to allow the “glow” to come through.  Next I painted over the original picture with 3 coats of purchased chalkboard paint.  Then I chose my fonts (I’ll share those in a moment), printed them onto paper and used the typography transfer method I’ve used so often and find to be easier (and cheaper) than trying to figure out one of the fancy machines you see all over blogland (yes, I tried one and my brain just wasn’t mathematical enough to figure it out). You’ll find my complete tutorial for that process right HERE.

3-Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas sign 004I didn’t want an erasable chalkboard but a sign that could be used every Christmas so I used white paint pens that I purchased from Michael’s to fill in the letters.  There were several brands available.  I chose the cheapest pens and they worked just great!  So here are the fun and free fonts I used to make my sign (all but one of them were already a part of my comuter’s word processing program). 

For the word “HAVE” I used the font Lucida Calligraphy, font size 175.

4-Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas sign 005“YOURSELF” was a free font from Dafont.com called Kingthings Christmas, font size 175.
Complete download instructions can be found on their home page or HERE on my Pottery Barn “Jingle” Pillow Tutorial post.

The little word “a” was a font called Cataneo BT, font size 250.

5-Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas sign 006“MERRY”‘s font is EcuyerDAX, font size 300.

6-Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas sign 007“Little” is Cataneo BT again in font size 300.

7-Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas sign 008And finally, “Christmas” is the font  Old English Text MT, font size 350.

2-Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas sign 002After lettering my sign I found some snowflakes in the clip art section of my word processing program, blew them up and used the same transfer method I  used above to trace them onto my picture.  Finally, the paint pens can look like what they are, paint pens.  Imagine that!  I really wanted this to look like it was lettered with chalk so I took a piece of white chalk and quickly filled in a bit over the painted letters.

After our Open House this picture went home with one of my favorite ladies in the world.  It makes me happy to think that something I had such fun creating is now gracing her lovely home.

Blessings to all of you this Christmas season,

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A Dropcloth Slipcover for an Old Bench

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      Here is the AFTER picture of the Dropcloth Slipcover that I recently made for a very outdated old bench.  I began this post with an after pic to draw you in . . . mostly because I was afraid that if I showed you the BEFORE pic first you might be scared away!

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Here is the BEFORE.  I’m ashamed to admit that this shabby (not in the good sense) little bench has been living in my master bedroom.  The trim has been a wreck since Sasha was a puppy (ummm . . . 5-1/2 years ago?), the color is no longer to my liking, nor the floral satin fabric.  So why have I kept it?  It is the little bench that catches stray articles of clothing and mail that needs recycling.  It is the bench that hides the electronics charging underneath.  It is the bench where my husband sits to slip on his shoes (when there is room to sit).  This bench is also a perfect match to my outdated bedroom which I have great plans for making over.  Maybe this transformation will be the first step.
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So here is how I made a new dropcloth slipcover for my old bench. After disposing of the trim (no, it wasn’t EVEN fit for a future project) I measured the length and width of the old fabric cover and cut my dropcloth fabric to the same size.

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 I laid my fabric over the bench, lined it up straight, and pinned the corners, pulling the fabric taut.

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I sewed along the line of the pins and trimmed close to the seam.

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After turning the slipcover right side out and placing it back onto the bench I measured the bottom edge of the fabric along each side.  For the ruffles I tore (for a frayed edge) four  – 4″ strips of fabric, each one double the length of the side it would be attached to.  I sewed a long basting stitch  along the long edge of each strip, and  pulled the thread to gather to fit each of the four sides, matching the seams in the ruffle to the seams at the four corners of the slipcover.  Next, I sewed the four strips together along their short edges and then sewed the whole ruffle to the bottom edge of the slipcover .  Why four strips instead of one long strip?  First of all, there were going to be a couple of seams somewhere since the doubled circumference of the bottom edge of the slipcover was much longer than my fabric.  Secondly, it is tricky to pull gathers in a very long strip and even trickier if the fabric is thick.  I didn’t want to risk breaking my thread and losing my gather.

(Sorry, no pictures were taken for this step because everyone knows how to make a ruffle, right?)

After attaching one ruffle I decided I wanted a second one so I repeated the process except with 7″ strips so the bottom ruffle would peek out from beneath the top ruffle. 

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Just for fun I added a French graphic from The Graphics Fairy website, which I ironed on with transfer paper.

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For a final touch I added some handmade dropcloth rosettes around the top of the ruffles. (Rosette tutorial HERE)1-Slipcover redo for little bench 003

3-Slipcover redo for little bench 013I’ve enjoyed using drop cloth fabric for projects around my home.  My first experience with this fabric was my Drop Cloth Draperies which have been one of my top viewed projects.  I’ve also made pillows, and hand bags (which you can see on my Pinterest “Stuff I Sell” Board.  I have a whole list of other great ideas for dropcloths that I want to try in the future.  This fabric is great because it is inexpensive, washable (I always pre-wash my fabric), it has the look of linen but it irons up much easier and crisper looking, and it tears nicely leaving a great frayed edge that doesn’t continue to fray.

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Once my bench was finished I decided it was just too cute to be used as a catchall in my bedroom any longer and I took her along with me to the French Flea . . . 
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 . . . where she went off to a very good and very stylish new home.

So, have you tried using dropcloth fabric for any projects around your house?  What have you made?  I’d love to hear about it.

Blessings,

My Signature

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