Jewelry Boxes Part Deux

I have been on a jewelry box revamping kick lately.  It's fun because it is somewhere between furniture revamping and crafting.  I wrote about two blue ones last week, here are a couple more.
As you can see the one on the right was in pretty bad shape, but hey it was only $1.  I painted this one red to match the felt.

Finding the Perfect Shade of White

Last summer I hit on a really great yard sale.  The guy running it had collected antiques for years and said he just needed to clean out some of his things.  A lot of the things were broken or damaged, but he was selling them super cheap.  It was amazing what I fit in my SUV that day.  I spied this vanity in the corner with an Eastlake mirror on it.  Now I'm no expert, but I know Eastlake and waterfall don't go together.

Jewelry Boxes part 1

Last summer I found a lot of jewelry boxes at garage sales.  Some were too much for resale, but others were as low as $1.  I thought it might be fun to revamp them into something a little more interesting.  This is a picture of some of the ones I picked up this summer, and at the estate sale I helped out with last month.  Audrey seems to think they were O.K. just as they were (she's pretty, but not to savvy about jewelry boxes).

Antique Rake Table

About 6 months ago my sister gave me four pieces of metal to give to my husband to make something with.  She said she just knew he come up with something great.  Ends up they were tines off of an antique dump rake, as seen in this picture my husband found on Craigslist.

Aurora Borealis

'Aurora borealis', the lights of the northern hemisphere, means 'dawn of the north'.  In Roman myths, Aurora was the goddess of the dawn.  Many cultural groups have legends about the lights. In medieval times, the occurrences of auroral displays were seen as harbingers of war or famine. The Menominee Indians of Wisconsin believed that the lights indicated the location of manabai'wok (giants) who were the spirits of great hunters and fishermen. The Inuit of Alaska believed that the lights were the spirits of the animals they hunted: the seals, salmon, deer and beluga whales.  Courtesy of Northern Lights Centre http://www.northernlightscentre.ca/northernlights.html
The Aurora borealis are very special to my family.  My grandmother's name was Aurore, and I've been told that the night she died the northern lights were the brightest they had ever seen them in Idaho.  In March of 2001 my husband's grandmother passed away, and all of the family went to Oregon for the funeral.  I had to stay home because I was on jury duty.  I got a call from my brother in the middle of the night (the day she was buried), that I had to get up and go outside to see the northern lights, they were amazing!  November 6, 2004 my first granddaughter Aurora was born in Wisconsin. This is a picture of the Aurora borealis when she came home the next night.  I believe that the grandmothers were welcoming her into the world.  Well today is her birthday and I think she is every bit as beautiful as the lights.

Happy Birthday Aurora !

Christmas Art

I know, I know, I haven't posted anything about furniture for awhile.  I promise my next post will be, but Becky at Beyond the Picket Fence is having a 12 days of Christmas party and I needed a quick idea to share.

 

Christmas Sled

 I don't know if you are like me, I love thinking about Christmas in the summer, but once it is really time to start getting ready for it I start to feel pressured.  I have a lot of little projects either in the works, or in my head to do for my space at Paris Flea Market.  So I figured I better get moving if I am going to get them in to sell.

Silverware Chest to Art Box

    Last spring, when I was just starting to pick pieces to revamp and resale, I found this silverware chest.  You see them all the time at garage sales and estate sales.  The reason is sadly, that the silver prices are up, and people turn in the silver for cash.  Anyhow, I thought this might make a good jewelery box.  Well it's been sitting next to my computer all summer while I tried to get some inspiration.  The problem was that it is too big for a jewelery box.  So finally, one sleepless night I had an epiphany!

Getting Ready for Winter

 Last week I wrote about "The Other Side of Picking".  I was really moved by the estate sale that I helped set up and run this last weekend, and wanted to remind all of us that shop these sales, that our "picks" were once somebody's treasures or memories.

The Other Side of Picking

I think most of my readers are like me.  We go to estate sales, yard sales, and thrift stores scoping out furniture to revamp, or smalls to sell or decorate our homes.  Many of us have probably had a garage or yard sale and groaned over how much work it is.  This week Jeff, the owner of Paris Flea Market where I share a space with my sister, offered me the chance to work on an estate sale.  He runs a few of these a year in addition to running two antique stores and the best coffee bar in town (OK, maybe I'm a little prejudiced).  When his wife Tracy called and asked if I wanted to help out I was thrilled.  I thought it would be fun going through stuff to set up and maybe piecing together a little bit of this person's life.

  When I first walked in I was awed by all the great stuff.  The lady had passed away a few years ago but nothing much had been touched since then.  She had great taste in antiques and collectables, I thought wow this is going to be fun.  Then we started in.  The executor of this estate wants everything gone, and I mean everything, so she can sell the house.  This means going through not only the great stuff in these pictures (and this is only the tip of the iceberg), but also all the personal things this lady left behind.  I feel like I've gotten to know this women a little through her things; vacations taken or planned, what businesses she was in, some family history.  This has really humbled me, and will make me stop and think in the future when I am at other sales or thrift stores - someone sat at this desk and wrote out their bills, or how many dinners were enjoyed at this table, what little girl played with this antique doll.  So the next time you see that gorgeous sideboard, remember it contains memories we can only imagine.

I usually only link up to a couple sites a week, but I want to link this post to as many as possible to remind us all to respect the pieces we buy and the people we buy them from.

Sharing At:

 boogieboardcottage

funkyjunkinteriors 

my1929charmer 
projectqueen
knick of time interiors
coastal charm
a diamond in the stuff 
diy by design
savvy southern style
the shabby creek cottage
beyond the picket fence 
french country cottage
the shabby nest
common ground
miss mustard seed