Rescue Projects

This is the China Cabinet donated to the Rescue for the garage sale.  Since it did not sell in it's natural state this past weekend, I was sent home with it to spiff it up a bit to sell at the next sale.

The same story is true of this table.  The one I did from last years sale sold, yeah!

I had thought I would do a Mackenzie-Childs type treatment to it, but now that I see it in white I'm not sure.  Any suggestions?

I think I am leaving the top natural wood, as I've done with most of my projects.

And here's the China Cabinet

What d'you think?

Ok here it is at days end today... just waiting for the knobs to dry for the bottom, and the knobs with Roosters that I ordered to arrive [tap, tap, tap].

Another thing to try

I saw this dog bed made from a chair in a magazine my sister sent me in my 'Get Well Soon' package... Googled it today and here is a tutorial!

http://www.myrepurposedlife.net/2010/09/featured-followers-friday-week-20-link.html

That is such a cute idea!  Send me your broken chairs peeps!!

Rescue Garage Sale

Yesterday was the garage sale to raise funds for the Horse rescue I volunteer with.  The good news is we raised most of the funds we needed to pay for Bubbles to go back to Cornell to get her jaw worked on [she was kicked and needed her jaw wired, poor girl].  Yippee!

We sold the table and chair set I redid for the rescue, alas I forgot to get a pic of it!

The dog bed had ALOT of interest, just no bites yet.

And here are some pics of the star of the day.  This is Rainbow, a 13+ hh pony available for adoption.
What a GREAT pony!  And I only whined a little bit about wanting her in my field!  So proud of myself!

Just to get the size, these women walking the pony are both 5'11"/6' tall

Look at the freckles on her legs?  Goo!

I came home with a couple items to redo for the next sale.... a corner china cabinet, and another table.  My husband is no longer surprised when we come home with more than we took to these sales!

Pics of these projects coming soon!

Muuuuch better

Remember this dog bed and my less then enthusiastic response to the finials I could find locally for it?

ICK!!

Well Thank You Amazon!

Perfect, right?

The other day I was cleaning the laundry/dog room, and found a can full of odds and ends that had been saved from pockets pre-wash... incl. in there were some of my grandmothers buttons.

When I was 5 or 6 my grandmother had a stroke [while we kids were visiting] and she died shortly thereafter.  When she died my dad, for some unknown reason, burned all her handmade dresses, hats and other personal items.  I've written before about finding items of hers in my dads barn when we cleaned that out last spring.  These buttons are obviously a bittersweet find...  

So, when I found them again the other day in that can, I went out to the garage and looked for a nice bowl to put them in to display in my laundry room.  Here's what I came up with... 

... additionally I found the iron she used to use, and some other items I remember from her house that I thought would look nice on the shelves next to the washer in the laundry room:

This thing weighs a ton!  I bet her arms were buff!

Here's how it all looks:

Those are also her canisters underneath.  I use them for some Oxy packs and powder.  I really think using them, actually touching them every day, is a great way to remember family.

A Teachers gift

I am certain my sons seasoned 2nd grade teacher has more coffee mugs and shtuff than she can shake a stick at, so I wanted to give her something she could really enjoy or use.

So what do we know about her?  Not a whole heck of alot!
I do know she has and breeds West Highland White Terriers, WHW, and being a dog lover myself, I figured a gift embracing the doglets would be well aimed.

So I searched for charming WHW *anything*... figures, framed prints,... and came up with alot of dog stuff that I was not sure was a WHW but more likely a Scottish Terrier.  I imagine that happens alot- that people confuse the 2, esp in figurines that are not colored, and she gets the wrong dog.  That would annoy me.

Then I found this coloring book in an antique shop, and was looking through it for tips on how to tell the difference between a WHW and Scotty

Here's the Scotty

And the WHW coloring page

And then a lightning bolt!

What I think I am going to do is color copy and blow up the back of the coloring book to make matting.  Then I'll color photocopy this page, reducing it and frame the page w/ the back page matting in a cute little 8x10 frame.

I also found these I'll do the same treatment to for my dog room/Laundry room

Labrador Retriever

If this does not scream my sons name I dunno' what does

Beagle

A baby and a Beagle... awww

This coloring book really is so nice, and NOT COLORED in!  And it cost me a whopping $2!

It covers so many breeds, and some of them look a little different than what we think of the breed standard today, but this was made in the 1950s, so I'm sure some changes have occurred, not to mention that artist may have taken some artistic license

This is going to be fun!!!

Followers, I need you

I did a mini survey amongst some of my contemporaries, and their take on the dogs beds was eye opening.

They felt that they all needed to have thick memory foam {$$} mattresses, which they do have though not all of them are or can be 4' or thicker, without me going broke.
They also frowned on the used furniture being the basis for them- they prefer new materials.
And they thought $125 TOPS was what I could reasonably charge for these babies.

All that being said, with those material requirements and at that price, the rescue would get a donation of not quite $35.  I can just give the rescue the $30 I would pay for the foam and the $30 I would spend on the furniture, ie a donation of $60, and be done with it.  It achieves the goal [get $ to the rescue] more efficiently and in greater denomination.

The finally straw is the apparent apathy on the part of retailers- only one I contacted actually responded, and that was a phone text that was misspelled and even though I indicated I was quite a distance away they suggested I 'stop in'.  : }  The rest of 'em?  Can not even give me a 'no'.

So I ask you, followers, 'Weigh in'.  Please.

I've put alot into this, maybe not all of it documented on my blog, but alot.  I'm disappointed, frustrated, and wonder what I've wasted the last year doing.
Not to mention my garage is full of items, materials and tools that are not going to get me where I wanted to go.

Did you say a virtual rummage sale to help pets? I'm IN!!!

sell-your-stuff-save-a-life-the-worlds-first-ever-online-rummage-sale-for-pets.

Check it out!  Clean out your closet of an item or several, post them where ever you prefer to sell, and donate the earnings to your own favorite charity!

You KNOW this is what I do everyday... make dog beds and other furniture to generate donations for Equine Rescue Resource, who rehabs and adopts out abused, neglected and slaughter bound horses... so joining this endeavor is a no-brainer!!!

Wanna join in?  You can sign up at the link above.  Want to find some great stuff that helps pets?  Check over there for what's for sale.

As for my Dog beds?  Well, the cat likes it!

Dog Beds

These beds are made from furniture that would have ended up in the landfill, or are otherwise out there cheap.  I make these, my hats, the dog bedding and other items to raise money to support the horse rescue I volunteer for.  Equine Rescue Resource helps abused, neglected and slaughter bound horses.  ERR takes them in, rehab's them, and then finds them a suitable home, while protecting them with their contract.  [I highlighted one of them here: Things-black-and-white... Persy  ]

An end table:

Before

During

Done [... almost, I am not happy with those finials]

This is with a drop cloth mattress cover

Update:  Did I mention I was not happy with those finials?  Here are the new ones... muuuuch better!

This is with the floral mattress cover I originally planned for this bed

Nice detail

Originally I was going to put this flat top on it and place a mattress on top of that, but then I realized I had some 4" foam from a mattress pad that I had cut up to use in my own dogs bed.  I cut that to fit right down inside the edged of the table.

Doll BunkBeds remade for a pooch:

Before

Almost done

They needed 'something'

Again, these finials are not that 'something', so I ordered some... finding nice finials is hard!  Lowes and Home Depot are not carrying much in the way of that type of thing near me anymore *sigh*

*Please note those are only fabric swatches on this bed, that is not the 'mattress'

This one came from the bottom of a dresser, where the drawer was missing a front, thus really not of much use:

This is the dresser minus the bottom.  I am putting some feet on this and repainting it.

During

The sides [see the strip where the paint is different in the middle?] of this are going to be upholstered in drop cloth fabric, with nailhead trim

Almost done

Nailhead trim done- I had no idea how hard that would be!

Detail picture of the nailhead trim

This is the original dog bed, the bed that started it all.  This was also the bottom of a dresser which had a useless bottom drawer.  What is it with me and dresser with useless drawers anyways?!

Next in line for production:

Another End Table that had seen better days

This has already been painted antique white.  Now that we have a working circular saw, the other parts [a bottom and 'rails' to fit along the top edge of that bric a brac detail to fill where the shelf was and to make it sturdier] will get made!

Doll Cribs

Both of these require sanding and spray painting, so I've been waiting for a non-windy day to start in on these.  I prefer not to also paint my car!