Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Vacuuming My Driveway and Destroying Vanity...


I just got finished vacuuming my driveway. I am now not only known as the Mama whose little boy uses the rhododendron bush in the front yard as a convenient urinal but the crazy lady who vacuums her driveway.

Although, one of my neighbors is a crazy cleaning lady. She washes her windows weekly. Her outside windows. Her outside GARAGE windows.  I'd be impressed if I wasn't so jealous of her mad scrubbing skillz.

I hope she saw me vacuuming my driveway. I hope she was impressed. That's right neighbor lady, I've stepped it up!

WHY was I vacuuming my driveway? OK, it's kind of a story. Keep reading:

Last week I headed into our local thrift store. After throwing the ugly mangly little kid chair into my shopping cart I wheeled right to my favorite section: Furniture.

Right away I spotted an ADORABLE little girl's vintage white dressing vanity and mirror. The paint was perfectly chippy and the mirror had a lovely curve and charming aged appeal.

HELLO BEAUTIFUL.


It was labeled $40 and I snatched that purchase sticker and clutched it to my chest, already dreaming of the many hours my Lil Chick would spend sitting by her pretty vintage dressing table playing dress up and being all girly and such.

I called my Mom (who lives really close) and said, "IfoundthisawesomebeautifulvanitytableforLilChickandIneedfortydollarscashcanubehereinten???"

Thankfully she understands a good find and said she was coming.

I continued shopping while I waited.....until the store director came to tell me that unfortunately someone had already purchased the vintage vanity the day before and that it was mistagged.

*(heart breaking)*

Fast forward a few days and a bunch of phone calls later from a nice lady in our church asking me if I was the one at the thrift store wanting to purchase the vintage white vanity and that she insisted that I should really have it. SO nice. REALLY nice.

I went to pick up the sweet vintage vanity today and smiled when I saw it sitting there.



HELLO BEAUTIFUL. I'm here to take you home, test you for lead, possibly refinish and repaint you, give you crystal cut knobs and a sweet little girl will spend hours and hours by you playing dress us and being all girly and such.

Finally loaded it and a few other treasures into the back of Lola and headed home. Pulled into the garage, randomly hit the automatic open back hatch button and opened Bubbalu's door to take him out.

THUNK THUNK THUNK......CRASH!


I screamed. Then cried. Then mentally groped for the rewind button on that dang life remote that is always lost.

Got the kids set up with a movie inside and sadly threw the biggest chunks in the garbage and vacuumed up the rest of the shattered pieces of a perfectly aged, bevel cut, vintage, curved mirror from our garage floor and driveway.

(Enter a poignant paragraph on the ironic circumstances of the vanity of decorating a little girls room that has led to destruction of a little girls vanity table.)

Being that I need to replace that shattered mirror, anyone know of a great, inexpensive mirror cutter?

*Sigh*

A

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Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Ugly Mangly Chair Gets a Makeover...


So I ran through our local thrift store last week and gasped when I saw this ugly mangly old chair.
I gasped because HELLO POTENTIAL!!! And for only $8 it was a STEAL. I all but dove for it and threw it in my cart, giving the ole hairy eyeball to anyone having the audacity to look at it sitting contentedly in my shopping cart. I've seen many upholstered little chairs for well over $100 at various stores. Lil Chick was anxious to sit on it but I refused to let her hiney touch that chair in its slubby state.

Fast forward three days. I've already ripped off and thrown away the previous disgusto upholstery fabric and purchased some pretty decor weight fabric, button kits and cording. My weapon of choice is a compression powered staple gun and I've got the craftin itchies. I told my hubby to keep the kidlets out of the living room and went to work:

New fabric covering cording and new padding:

Working on the back of the chair:

Only a SHORT time later (OK OK it took me six hours) I have a cute upholstered chair to adorn Lil Chick's new bedroom:























I FINALLY let her sit her hiney on it:


PERFECT.

A

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Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Plain Gray Tank Gets Sassy...


After finally seam ripping all of that punky, non-cooperative black lace off of my cheapo gray tank top I was left with blah tank top with three seam ripped holes in it.

Lovely.

Not to mention the frustration of a failed project.

After the tank top came out of it's time out (Yes, I punish sewing projects that don't work out as I have planned them. They get a time out. Sometimes they get a forever out. ) I decided to have another go at it.

Blah:



So I dug through my not often enough dug through fabric stash and found some goodies.

Anyone remember the Olive Hope Shirt???

I decided I needed one too. Yup, let's try a patterned fabric this time around:



MUCH better. Covered up the torn holes and added a healthy dose of sass to a plain gray tank top:



I'd call this one a success...

A

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