Brass is Bad Ass(phalt)

Have you noticed it? The brass that has been creeping it's way back into decor? It's not the shiny brass of years past- but a honed, aged more sophisticated brass. It's popping up on hardware, furniture, and accessories.

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It goes with anything like most metallic do. Unlike silver or chrome it's not cold feeling. And it's not overdone like gold.

I personally am jumping on this band wagon. No I'm not replacing every or spray painting every metallic accessory in my house. But I am making it an accent in our bedroom. As you can see on my $10 thrift store pendant light:

This antique solid brass fire hose nozzle. It was my grandfathers, he used to collect them from the refinery where he worked. When the fire trucks at the refinery were finished with the nozzles they used to throw them away; he would save them and had a bunch! Some were brass like this one others were solid nickel. I love having this piece of family history in our home.

And the brass accents on my TV Console:

 I am adding brass accents on our new unholstered headboard, but it's the kind of shiny fake brass I'm not a fan of:

I'm going to fix that shiny-ness and will be sharing with you soon!

Are you on the brass bandwagon? Or are you going to let it pass by?

Latest Thrifty Find

I am super excited to share this latest furniture find with you today. I found these beauties buried under a bunch of other stuff at one of my favorite junk stores here in town.

The owner of the shop told are old safe deposit boxes from a bank that shut down a few years ago. He used to have the keys for the boxes but lost them :/

I don't know how well you can read the name on the top label but it says "Altus Ice Cream Company". I wish Altus still had an ice cream company!

My grand plans for these guys are to transform them into an entertainment center for our bedroom. The two boxes side by side are 65" long- perfect for a TV Console. I just need to paint it up, find some legs, and cut a wood top for it. (Sounds so easy but it will probably take me a while!)

Anyone else have some great furniture finds lately?

A La Cart

Not sure why but I have been Jones'n (did I just say Jones'n?) for a little metal kitchen cart for a while now. I think they are cute and vintag-y. There's something that gets me all nostalgic over furniture pieces that we in our modern society don't use much anymore. 

I've had my eye out at thrift stores and junk shops for a little cart and my persistence finally paid off a few weeks ago. 

Check out this beauty!

A Blue Redo For You

I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend! My LSU Tigers had a heartbreaking loss but thats ok; I'll get over it.

And don't forget that the Ana White giveaway ends today!

I wanted to share a makeover with you today. I found this metal vintage card catalog drawer at the Goodwill several months ago for just a few dollars. 

DIY Salvaged Mirror

Oh Monday- you come to quickly. I can't complain to much thought because we had a very full weekend. A rare miracle happened here in Altus, Ok over the weekend; almost a rare as seeing a unicorn. Wait; those don't exist and having a date night with a The Hubs hardly ever exists either so I guess it's partly true. 


We actually had 2 date nights! Con-Man's M.D.O. group had parents night Friday so we caught a movie. We watched Safe Room (I wanted to see The Vow but the Hubs wasn't interested, but watching Ryan Reynolds was fine too...)

Hello!!!!

And then on Saturday we went to the first Annual Altus Chocolate Festival! This is a big deal for our small town- they've never done anything like this before.

We managed to score free tickets and I devoured way to much chocolate. Definitely hit the gym Sunday and going again today! It was a nice Pre- Valentines treat though.

Anyway- lets get to what you really came here for. Check out this cool circle mirror that I made!

Would you believe me if I told you the frame started out as this:

A rusty steel ring from one of our planters. It had come loose and I thought it looked neat- a nice patina of rusty and worn smooth. I yanked it off and got to work. 

First I had to make it usable. I needed some kind flat hanger that I could attach plywood to my steel ring. I found these, they seemed sturdy enough but had a lip on them, so I used the cutting wheel of Dremel to cut the lip off.

Voila Flat hangers! Sometimes they just don't make what you need at the hardware store so you have to invent your own stuff...

Then the fun part- welding! I welded the hangers onto my steel ring.

The next step was to cut a piece of plywood that would fit inside my ring. I had half a sheet of 3/4" ply lying around so I traced a circle and cut it out with my jig saw.

Like my "workbench"?

I had a little trouble with this part, the ring itself had a slight slant inward and turns out it's not a perfect circle. So I had to finagle my plywood a bit to get it to slide in. But in the end it fit and I screwed it in place.

Thankfully one mirror and glass place here in town said they could cut a circle to fit. I called the one other place and they said they didn't cut mirror or circles- what gives? They adhered it to the plywood for me and my mirror was complete!

I love it because it's unique. It had a modern flare but the rustiness makes it kind of natural and relaxed feeling. And the overall cost wasn't to bad- $40 for the mirror to be cut and glued. The clip/hangers were $4 for all. The ring was free!

Have you ever used a material for something other than it's original purpose? 

Linking Here

String Chair Style

While we were on our vacation in Acapulco we had time to tour different parts of the city and see some local culture. The food was great! The drinks were awesome! And they had the coolest chairs!


Seriously- everywhere we drove we saw people taking siesta in these cool string chairs. I happened to snap a picture of one with the strings on and one with the frame only.

I'm the first to admit that I have a chair obsession. I don't know what it is about the chairs that I love so much- maybe the simplicity of them, or that everyone had a different color, or the fact that they string the chairs themselves. I was asking the taxi driver about them and he said that everyone in Acapulco has a chair like that. He sa

I was trying to figure out how to stuff one in my suitcase and bring it home but wasn't able to. I could just picture a few of these on our patio, me lounging the afternoon away- but alas it shall remain a dream.

What made me bring this up is that ever since I saw those chairs in Mexico it seems like they've been popping up here and there. 

I saw this article on 2modern about a The Dock Kitchen, a resturaunt in the UK. Look at the chairs they have on the patio!

The string chairs!! They look all fancy and cool out on the patio. And look at everyone just lounging and relaxing in them. I'm so jealous! 

Where can I get some of these chairs!

I briefly considered trying to make some, but scrapped that idea since I don't know how to bend metal, and you know, a whole list of other issues. But I did see this alternative on the Readymade website.

Hmmm, Stringy? Check! Loung-y? Check! Easy to follow instructions? Check!!

Filing this one away in my future projects folder!

In other news we are still unpacking boxes and getting the house set up. I'm hoping to have some mostly done rooms to share this weekend.

Hope everyone is staying cool in the summer heat!

Welding Month Part 2

So as part of welding month I was going to fix up this chair. I found it on the side of the road and thought it was so cool.

                                                                              

I'm not sure how it got into the state it's in now but I was planning on using my "girl power" to straighten it out. 

I thought I could weld some patches to fix these rusted out parts then repaint the whole chair. No luck. I can't get the metal to bend back the way it was. I'm not ready to give up though; might have to enlist the help of the husband and his "man power"... Stay tuned, I may have a new patio chair eventually!

Anyone else have projects they start but don't go according to plan?

Muses about Welding

I didn't have time this weekend to work on anything because of Easter. So I thought some more about welding. I really enjoyed it. I have these Fleur De Lis bars from an old fence that I would like to do something with.

I'm having trouble deciding:

A curtain rod maybe?

Wall Art?

Any other ideas or suggestions?

Whatever I end up doing with them it won't be any time soon. I don't know when I'll have access to the welding machine again. Unless I find one of my own- not sure how much those cost though. :/

Maybe I can find one on Craigslist?!