Toolbox Rescue!

When my dad passed away I kept a fair bit of his stuff that was either overly sentimental or useful.  Falling into the latter category was his tool box.

It however did not meet my standards for aesthetics - especially if I was going to move it to my new condo!  I had to give it a bit of a makeover!

To show you where I started, let's take a look at the original, shall we?

Not so pretty.  Very orange, very stickered!

This was my childhood contribution I'm pretty sure!  Hahahaha.

STEP 1: REMOVE THE STICKERS

When I started, I just started peeling them off.  This wasn't the best idea because they left the glue behind and I spent a lot of time goo-gone-ing them.

When I got to the really stubborn ones, I googled some solutions.  What worked for me was to heat them up with a hair dryer.  They came off really easily, glue and all.  I wished I would have done that with all of them from the beginning.

Starting to look better already!!

STEP 2: PREP

All I did was give it a good wash/wipe down with soap and water and tape off the hardware.

STEP 3: PAINT

I gave it about 2-3 coats of spray paint.  I think this is what I used (is it terrible I can't remember?!)

I also gave the inside tray a quick coat to make it all shiny and new too!

And there you have it! All ready to use in my new place!!


   
       

 

ReStore Fun

The other day I went to our local ReStore because I was actually looking for a light fixture for the hallway, but had fun just wandering around.

If you've never been to a Habitat for Humanity ReStore I highly recommend it.  It's a crafter's dream!

This is what I was actually looking for:

A light like this.  Unfortunately these ones were black, and I was hoping for brushed nickel.  I find that at our ReStore, because there's so much construction in our city, often you can find brand new items in boxes that were left over from condo developments, etc.

All of these get me excited for summer...

I want to put those flameless tea lights under them in the garden!

Source: theartofdoingstuff.com via Jill on Pinterest

Look at this little cupboard door

I would want to make him into something like this Flamingo Toes

File cabinets anyone?!

Look at all those fun colours!!

Definitely the place to pick up random tiles for cheap...

I want to do some sort of tiling project for outdoors!

There's also all sorts of paint

I find that my Home Depot doesn't have much for mis-tints, so this place would probably be a better bet for me!

They also have some furniture sometimes.  Check out these pieces screaming for a little love:

Temple Gardens Getaway

As I've mentioned a briefly, my boyfriend and I have had a very stressful last few months with my dad passing away in the end of November and his aunt getting sick recently.  We decided we needed a bit of a getaway.

We went to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan to check out the mineral pool at Temple Gardens Mineral Spa Resort.    They have a huge indoor/outdoor mineral water pool.  We made sure to spend plenty of time soaking!

This photo of Temple Gardens Mineral Spa Resort is courtesy of TripAdvisor

In addition to doing a lot of that (aka nothing!) we spent a fair bit of time trying different places to eat.  We went for lunch at the Copper Cafe in the Yvette Moore Gallery (which is in the old Land Titles building - very cool!)

This was probably my favorite meal.  Adam ordered the Saskatoon berry iced tea and then I was jealous!

The maple apple cider I ordered was good but couldn't compare to the iced tea!

We both ordered soup & sandwiches.  I got the egg salad which was everything egg salad should be - fresh bread, creamy inside, crisp lettuce! YUM!!  The mushroom soup was wonderful as well!

We spent time looking at the art too.  There were a bunch of pieces like this which where really cool!

There was also pottery and jewelry done by other artists, and I happened to find the perfect birthday gift for my sister! :)  Even though her birthday is on February 6th you'll have to wait until March when I go to visit her to see what she got!

We spent a fair bit of Saturday just wandering the streets.  Moose Jaw has some cool old buildings!

I was highly amused by the POLICE globes!

One store on the main street sold a few antiques.  We were going to hit up a couple other stores, but they were closed by the time we got there.  There's also a place called The Antique Yard just on the outskirts of town that sounds intriguing - I guess we'll have to come back for that!

Gorgeous tea cups!

The casino is attached to the hotel and you wouldn't even have to go outside if you didn't want to.  We stopped in for a bit just to waste $15 each! ;)

(if you didn't already know, slot machines with the real pull handles are the best :P)

There was definitely a lot to do and we didn't do it all!  I think we'll have to come back to do some antiquing!  

I had heard that Nit's is really good - both rated well on Urban Spoon and recommended by a friend of mine who lives in Moose Jaw.  It looks interesting because it appears to be in a building that was a theater! Next time I'll for sure have to try this place!

I hope you enjoyed this little look into our Moose Jaw getaway! We had a great time!

New to us furniture

With the bad, there usually comes a small glimmer of good.  In this instance I'm referring to the passing of my boyfriend Adam's great aunt and our acquisition of some of her furniture as the good.

Adam's house was built in 1930, and has a lot of charm and character.  No, I don't mean it's old and run down.  I mean that it has sweet glass door knobs and big old-style furnace grates, etc.  

Anyway, we've been trying to keep with that style for a lot of the furniture, and so receiving this furniture from Adam's aunt was fantastic.

The first piece was a much needed dresser.  It even came with a matching mirror!

And something else cool? This stamped on the back of the mirror (you know you're a crazy blogger when you tell your boyfriend to hold the mirror up when you're in the middle of figuring out how to hang it because you saw a cool marking on the back that you have to take a picture of RIGHT NOW!!)


Here's the before of this corner:

From this post when we painted the room

The second piece I'm even MORE excited about - but I think that's because of Adam's suggested use for it.  Check out this small cabinet for the dining room:

Adam and I have been talking about me moving in soon, and well...he said that we could use this cabinet for my craft stuff! YAY!!!  Although I don't think he realizes that that alone won't be big enough! LOL



Isn't it precious?!


Things I really love about this furniture:
1.  It was free - can't go wrong there
2. It was from Adam's great aunt - his family is small and close knit, so stuff like this really does mean a lot
3. It fits with the style of the house
4. It's real wood (not crappy particle board full of harmful off-gassing components)


Yup.  I really love it.  Can't wait to move in ;) 

Auction Sale Find - Chair Score!

Last weekend I spent most of my Saturday at an auction sale. It was my mom's aunt's sale. After my great uncle passed away they were selling the house and most of the contents – hence an auction. All my mom's brother's and sister were there, and I forced a photo op – it's not that often that they're all together and even more rare that we get a picture of them!

Going to events of my mom's extended family is always funny because, well, look at this:

(left: my mom in her 20s; right: me in my 20s)

(I don't think I can claim that I'm adopted!!)

Now if you've never been to an auction, I'd suggest going at least once just for the experience. It's really funny to listen to the auctioneer trying to sell items that aren't moving. The things that come out of their mouths is hilarious!

I was hoping that this auction would have quite a bit of kitchen and dish stuff like my grandparent's auction a couple years ago, but there was a lot more furniture instead.

My mom and I found the most adorable chairs that are so in. 

(Pier 1 - $169.00 on sale)

(World Market - $179.99)

We picked up two of these!

The springs are still in great condition...

Are you ready to hear what we paid for them?!

$9.00

 (and that was actually for 5 chairs total - 2 like this, and 3 other random chairs!)

I love the burlap!!

Aren't they awesome?! My mom is in the process of re-doing her whole bedroom (nothing has really been done in there since we moved in) and these chairs are a great addition. I'd really love to see her do something like this with them!

(Source)

She already has a piece of furniture that my grandpa built that would look great in between them.

Stay tuned to see her bedroom transformation! There'll likely be several posts on that (including reupholstering the chairs!)