More antiqued hatboxes!

I just finished two more hat boxes–one I bought on sale at a craft store and one from a thrift store. I spray primed the largest one because it was covered in glossy flowered paper. Then I painted it medium …

DIY: Those great grey aged French baskets

We’ve all seen them on Pinterest and our favorite decorating blogs. those fabulous greyed-with-age baskets in French flea markets. Good news–it’s really simple to age baskets yourself! I started with a dark brown $1 basket from a thrift store. The …

Old books reconstructed: Antique script covers

I’m still exploring ways of reusing and deconstructing old books. I shudder to think how many old books I’ve forced my husband to send to charity shops–if I had only known what fun it was to remake them! I’ve showed …

Antique French script projects coming up!

I’m really excited to be one of the two winners of Fleaing France’s antique French book giveaway! That blog is such a source of inspiration. It’s really whetting my appetite for another trip to Paris. Here are some of the …

Thrifting for silverplate and pewter

I’ve always been a fool for interesting silverplate at thrift stores, and I’ve collected some nice pieces. Despite my mother’s obsession with regularly polishing silver when I was a kid, I like to leave it somewhat tarnished because I think …

Wine box transformation

Another humble beginning for this one. I got a plain icky brown poorly stained wine box at a thrift store. It had a vintner name on the top, but not embossed–so that was good. It was a really nice size …

Recent treasures

Well, in addition to thrift store forays, summer is loaded with terrific garage sales. I only get to a few (and not every weekend), and an occasional estate sale (on the final day)–but boy I have found some cool things …

The Mad Hatter: Two new transfer projects

I finally found a good, cheap hatbox with handles at a thrift store. I’m going to buy all of these I can because there are so many ways to decorate and use them for storage. For this first one, I …

DIY: Vintage Paper Roses

I’m experimenting with a lot of ideas about reusing old books. I just can’t get enough of them! My latest try was making roses out of book pages and old music sheets…mostly vintage but also one new book (I’ll explain …