Farmers Market and Antiques

We went to the farmers market today I pick up some interesting items which lead me to ebay
which has lead me to this post. So I see this antique pickle jar made of Vaseline glass and my god it's amazing

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Victorian-Vaseline-Glass-Pickle-Castor-/251432148512?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a8a861e20

People served pickles out of this thing? Seriously? I have an antique butter dish that's an engraved silver bowl on feet. It had it's own knife at some point. I realized what I love about antique things. Our stuff is so boring.
It's efficient and modern and streamlined, also CHEAP. Nothing is high quality and it's all meant to be replaced in a few years. People use to buy things for life, they had one butter dish and they kept it til they died and it went to another family member and so on until we all decided we had no use for a fancy butter dish anymore.
Then you have people like me. I want these items so much it's a sickness. I want to use them all too. I did my best at thanksgiving to use all the fancy stuff I have been collecting. I try to incorperate as much as I can so it's not all clutter but ummm... I have a lot of clutter.
Which I added to today! Hurray!
I found a couple of neat things. I got a Chase a First Act Guitar it came with the box which are good for young kids. I figured his uncles could show him a few things and maybe when he's older I'll do what my parents did for my sister and get him a nice one with lessons.
I also got some ... you guessed it Vaseline glass. YaY!
I don't know why I like it so much, I think it's because it looks so unassuming but it has a secret that makes it different from other similar colored glass because under a black light it glows. For anyone reading this who doesn't know here's a little history:  It became popular in the late 1800's and production dropped around 1940, the Uranium usually in oxide diuranate form the percentage varies but it's usually around 2% it was added as a colorant and the color can vary from almost colorless yellow to vibrant green. The yellow glass is similar in appears to petroleum jelly hence the nickname Vaseline. The green glass is not technically "Vaseline" because it's not the yellow color but it is usually called that because of the Uranium, so technically I bought Uranium depression green glass. Vaseline is easier to say :P  So a true collector of glass won't consider my stuff "Vaseline" but it is Uranium glass and although I like the yellow glass I tend to gravitate toward the green depression glass. And frankly it's all been most commonly lumped under that name.
"Vaseline Glass is not harmful, as the emissions from the glass are just slightly stronger than normal background radiation that we are all exposed to on a daily basis." http://www.vaselineglass.org/

Which is one of the questions my Dad and Marine keep asking.. plus I got my best friend a pitcher and I totally want her to use it for serving and not be afraid of it. I have a cup I keep in the bathroom for water as well. not afraid of it killing me. I'd buy a set of dishes and use them everyday if they weren't so hard to find and cost so much to buy.

I got a black light keychain as a free gift and I love it, I use it all the time to check for Vaseline glass, My dad must think I am nuts because he's seen me use it at garage sales to check. If I think a piece might be I nonchalantly beam my key light on it to make sure I am getting the real deal.
So I bought this jar and was not sure if it was real because I left my keys at home but I really liked the jar so I would have gotten it anyways. It is not Vaseline glass just a pretty green and crackled. I decided to use it for q-tips by my vanity:

These bad boys however are Vaseline glass, they light up like a neon christmas tree. I love the relish tray in it's silver holder. It's sitting on my vanity now to catch jewelry :

And this bird bowl turned out to be an unmarked Fenton so that's a major score a Uranium Fenton! If you don't collect glass you maybe can't understand my excitement, and I apologize for sounding like such a dork. I love Fenton glass but you can't have too much of it sadly because all of it is beautiful.
I had a lovely candy dish that my cats broke but I can't justify spending 40 $ on it when I got my first one for 15. I got all three for $30.00 btw which is a pretty good deal.

I also picked up a necklace because it reminded me of Iris Rainbow glass. I asked the lady selling it what kind of glass it was her response was, "A pretty one?" and she looked at me like I was nuts. I gave her 8 bucks for it and she kept the box. Gotta love the farmers market.

So this is Rainbow Iris glass:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-ART-DECO-Necklace-Silver-Sterling-Iris-Rainbow-Glass-Prong-Set-Stamp-835-/121255769800?pt=Vintage_Costume_Jewelry&hash=item1c3b6836c8 

I'm not sure what era mine falls into it could be 50's, the bail looks older but I can't be sure it goes further back than that. There is not a whole lot of information on it either. Sometimes it's called Rainbow glass, Iris Glass or Watermelon glass, that's about the extent of what I could find. Still I thought it was really nifty how similar they are. It was filthy and I was happy to clean it. A lot of people sell jewelry "as is" because a lot of collectors don't want the patina messed up, But I am not one of those collectors. I love to clean and fix up stuff so it's almost like new all shiny and gleaming. It's a compulsion and I can not control myself. Obviously this is not the case at the Farmers Market, they aren't usually collectors or anything like that.

 All in all it was a pretty good day, my Marine thinks I'm nuts and should sell my finds. I'm not very good at that though, I enjoy finding cool things and getting great deals but I'm not hunting them down to resell them, I buy them because I like them and I want to use them. Besides if you have a piece that is fairly common like some of the Uranium glass I have (basic teacups and a juicer) you won't get very much for it since there are a bunch for sale already. The condition matters too, any nicks, fleabites, chips or cracks forget it.

I did find my pyrex set on ebay and those go for a pretty penny as well, my 5 dollar price was a steal. I also found that barkeepers friend cleans them up beautifully without damaging the color. Mine had a bunch of silverware marks on it that soap and a cloth didn't remove. Barkeepers friend and the back of a scotch brite did the trick though just fyi and didn't damage to color at all. I was hesitant to use it on them but I tested a small area near the bottom and once I realized it'd be ok I used it all over. I love that stuff it's amazing. He thinks I should sell them as well but I refuse. I think once he uses them a few times he'll agree, the vintage pyrex bowls my parents had were the best and I preferred to use them over anything else plus these are bake wear so you can use them in the oven which he will appreciate even if he doesn't know it yet. ;)

The Piano!

Ok everyone keeps asking me for the piano photos, I took them tonight which kinda sucked because.. lighting. It would be better to do it during the day but...
 I made promises, I must keep them.
 I know I posted a few before pictures in my other post however I will refresh your memory and post another one:

Or two....

Clearly this poor thing was in the middle of a work zone, a little background:
   The house we were working on for a long time contractor we know, was abandoned by the women who owned it. She had some bad stuff happen and just up and left the house with everything it and moved to another state to live with her sister. Our guy bought the house with everything in it. It had sat for a year or two, closed up and with water damage. It was a really cool little house actually and it's lovely again.
   The piano was there dirty and musty and it sat there while we all worked on the house around it, so on top of the must and dirt, it also accumulated some paint, drywall mud, and drywall dust.
 First things first: a deep clean. I used some awesome orange to wipe it down and remove all the grime, it also helped with the smell.

Alright now we are getting somewhere! The above pictures are of it clean, just spray and wiped down.
Once it dried I used 220 to sand off some paint spots and even out some finish flaws. I thought I had grabbed restor a finish but I was wrong, I actually grabbed danish oil in dark walnut. This is what happens when you don't pay attention. It could have been a disaster. I won't lie once I realized what I had done my heart kind of stopped because I was not 100% sure how it was going to turn out. Luckily it worked really well, it highlighted some of the deeper scratches in the wood which I really liked and it brought back some life back to the dull finish. I put a coat of that on letting it sit for 30 minutes before wiping it down. I then apply a second coat and let that soak in for 15 minutes and wipe it dry. It was gleaming and I was in love.
I had to let that sit for 72 hours before I could use the wax and feed on it which is why I have not posted this sooner. The cool thing about danish oil is that is seeps into the wood and hardens it just a fun fact, the more you know ;)

 And now for the finished project:

This project took a little longer than the vanity due to the time needed between coats and curing but it was totally worth it. I know restor a finish would have worked just as well because despite all the dirt the finish was not too bad, but I'm glad I got to see what the danish oil can do and had a chance to use it. I really love the way it highlighted the scratches, I'm a fan of natural dings and dents from use so long as they are minor and normal wear an tear, nothing so bad it jeopardizes the piece.


Here she sits in her final home, ready to be tuned and played hopefully sooner than later! I am going to have to rehang my pictures since they were centered over the dresser originally so please forgive all my stuff not lining up quite right. *Sigh part of an evolving house, and I can only get so many projects done at one time!

Anyone know if it's ok for stuff to be on top? I just like how it looks...

Flowers

A quick post of the other mini project I did. I bought these at an antique store and I loved them, the flowers were the perfect shade of gray blue like my room and I just thought they were the coolest things ever. Then I brought them home and my Marine took one look at them and announced that I was turning into a grandma.
WHAAA?! Awww... I love them! Ok I was not totally in love with the gold tone stems but...

  I seriously thought they were cool, the roses are porcelain.  For 12 bucks for the set of three I couldn't pass them up.
Forgive my messy table, this is another project I have to do, When I started and realized it was particle board and not real wood I decided to go another route, and for now it's been my crafting 'I don't care what gets on it' table. I decided to changed the stem up since I wasn't crazy about the gold and hubby called me a grandma I thought it might help take some of that vibe away. I had some silver rub and buff so I figured I'd use that. I started out with my finger but it wasn't the best way to do it for this project. I wasn't thrilled with the solid silver, the one thing I really liked about the original gold was the distressed quality it had. I let some of the gold shine through I actually liked the look it gave it. I grabbed a paint brush and some acrylic paynes gray and got to work.

I really liked the lighting in this picture lol

 I mixed the two and it gave it a steely blue quality that I really liked. I brushed some gray into the areas I wanted to shadow/distress. Again my pictures suck I need to work on that.

You can see it a little better in this picture, on the ball at the end and in the leaves, I went really lightly with the shadowing detail once I got the silver the color I liked. I kind of stippled the gray onto the ball and the stem and then dry brushed back and fourth to blend. It was a small project but still I enjoyed it and wanted to share. My Marine said they looked better this way. I only hung the big one up so far, near my bed for my bathrobe, I am not sure where I want the other two to go yet. I think they may end up near the vanity but I'll have a better idea once my room gets a little more settled. What do you think, are they grammy? Was silver the way to go or what?

Vanity

Oh I am so excited! I have gotten so much done, I'm going to split the projects up into different posts. This is me on a binge of projects.
I was going to post the piano but I used danish oil and I have to wait another day to put the wax on so I'm going to hold out for some finished pics, Plus I am just dying to show off my vanity.

Both refinishing projects have been easy quick ones. I know at some point they may need an all out sand and complete new finish but both were in pretty good shape and I liked the natural dings and dents from years of love and use, also I am avoiding sanding at all costs because I have no where to do it and I don't want the mess in my house.

The vanity was a gift from my Marine and my sister. It is from the 1920's and it was owned by one family. They sold it to my sister because they were moving out of state and didn't think she'd survive the move. I'm so glad they did because I am soooo in love.

First up the stool, I wish I had gotten a view of the top and back because they were rough, the finish actually looks ok in this picture ( I have no patience for picture taking)
I was actually surprised the Restor a Finish blended really well. I honestly thought it was too far gone for it to work there was so much color loss. I thought I might have to use a polyshade but I was glad I didn't. This will need a total refinish but not for a while. I kind of hack recovered it, I couldn't find the staples I know I have for my gun and I gave up looking. Eventually I want to put some actual cushion in this but again I just wanted it better for now.

Ta da!!

Look at her!! So much better. I love the flower detailing on the chair, oh my!

So the vanity itself is holding up really well, and no way do I want to mess with the original finish on this piece. The top has some spots but it's in beautiful shape, all I really did was shine it up with some restor a finish.  But I really want to post pictures of it.

This is before, the drawer was in the wrong place, see if you can spot it!
As you can see the finish is good, you can barely tell in the pictures how much the Restor a Finish really did, you'll just have to trust me. If you have a piece that is overall pretty good just scratched or fading this is totally the way to go, no sanding and you can use it almost immediately. Restor a Finish is a wipe on wipe off product, I suggest using a lint free cloth (like an old white tee) I followed it up with Howard,s feed and wax which again you wipe on, let it set for about 30 minutes and buff it out.

Top view before:

This is after, you can still see the spots but again I wasn't going for perfect here and it's in excellent vintage condition, nothing like the buffet table.

But she is soooo beautiful!! I can't wait to actually use her! YaY!!!!

   My next project is here! The piano came today thanks to my awesome friends and family who helped me move a piano in the cold snow.
 I am insane.
 I know this.
The sooner you accept it the better off you will be.
    I do feel bad that my one friend smashed his finger and we also hit the corner-bead really hard and I have to fix it now. I also took pics of the glider rocker, I am getting the fabric this week and am going to start putting that together. I hope I can do it. It'll be the first time I tackle anything like this. I figure if it's not perfect it's ok, she can use and and I can always recover it in a few years after the kid has drawn on it a time or two. Chase totally took a black ball point pen to all of it.
It's been sitting in an attic for about 4 years now and it's disgusting. Pretty much anything I do to it will be an improvement, the actual chair is still good. it needs some love.

Work is getting less which is good, I need to take this time to get stuff in order. I also think I am going to sell my first refinished piece. I need to tweak the stain, I went a little heavy handed with it and I need to repaint the mirror frame with the base white I used.
As my house changes and becomes what it will be, things are moving around and I am figuring out what I want and what I don't.
I'm not sure I really want to do refinishing as a job but I wouldn't mind earning some money if I can fix things and sell them for a little bit of a profit. Post all my mistakes so anyone reading this will know what NOT to do. Either way the dresser I bought for the bathroom in the house we were originally going to buy doesn't work well in the house we actually bought. I have an armoire I need to sell as well though I haven't touched it and maybe I should. No need to keep them so maybe someone will buy them!!

I figured I'd post my before pictures of my scary projects, I'll clean the piano tomorrow. I think I'm just going to use a restore a finish since the finish is in pretty good shape and I don't really mind the shade, it'll look a lot better with minimum work and a little love.. the chair needs ALOT of work and a TON of love. I think most people would just get a new one.

 Oh the horror! I have a lot of work to do! Wish me luck!

50% off at the thrift store? Yes please!

    So not too much happening, I still need to pick up the fabric for my next project, I've been working and hanging out with the fam. I stopped in the thrift store today and it was mobbed, no neat furniture to pick up sadly but everything was 50% off and I did pick up a sweet vintage Pyrex set with sunflowers on the tops for 5 bucks! Score of the day: A sweet vintage black umbrella with a metal tip and curved wooden handle. I have a tan one but I've been looking for a black one for years now so I was really happy when I found that! I spent less than ten dollars and I got a bunch of cool stuff. Including the Milk glass bowl, I'm thinking fruit bowl.

Hello Beauties!!

   So at home and bored, I wandered over to Craigslist and I noticed a girl who refinishes furniture, I looked at her stuff and while it is done well I can't help but feel like ... I don't know, she's redundant. It's all very shabby chic borderline rustic I guess. I like the shabby chic look but usually only when a piece is so far gone there is not much I can do for the wood or if it's not a very high quality wood to begin with, then by all means paint away. However if you have a vintage piece of nice wood that can be refinished for the love of god and all that is holy please restore the woods original beauty! I'm not a wood purist by any means but it takes more skill and time to refinish a piece properly then it does to slap some paint on and sand off said paint in choice areas to create a vintage look. Just my rant for now. I guess mostly because I want to die when I see what she has done to some of those beautiful pieces. I was once a paint over stuff to fix it because I didn't know any better, of course as I learned more techniques I kicked myself in the ass because, have you any idea how hard it is to strip paint off?? If the piece has detailing, my god forget it, you're in hell for weeks removing it! Chasetin's dresser is a prime example. I painted it back when I was just starting to learn how to do any of this stuff and now I know I'll be removing that paint because he's going to out grow it. I do not look forward to that day. I actually might tackle it this summer, every time I look at it I want to strip that paint off. Lessons learned the hard way. don't get me wrong I did a nice job and I loved it when I did it... still.
   My sisters dresser however, paint was the way to go, it was one of those dime a dozen late 70's early 80's pieces super dark wood and just over took her room. I painted it bright high gloss white and the room became a thousand times lighter. We also spray painted her knobs bright pink. It came out really good and I don't see her keeping this dresser forever it's not an heirloom by any means so no harm no foul. I can touch it up anytime it needs it but it was by far the best thing to do,  her desk and bed frame was refinished but I used a polyshade, I think I would have gone a different route if I did it now but it was quick easy and done in one step and both look a ton better. Whenever I get bored I refinish a room in my parents house. That was the last one I did before we bought our house and I'm going crazy being on hold because I am anxious to finish the rooms. Really soon now! I have a piano to pick up tomorrow which is going to need some love though it's in really great shape, just needs a good cleaning really maybe some buffing to let her shine. I might post some pics of her if I get a chance.
   I also need to bring home my vanity my sister bought me, I went and looked at it yesterday and I am so much in love, it's a beautiful piece from the 20's one family owned it and it's in beautiful shape, a little veneer loss and I'm going to look into how to deal with that without ruining the original finish as I want to keep as much of that intact as I can. It is a very ornate piece, a lot of carving detail and I do not want to mess that up! I'll probably just clean her up and keep her as is until I have a little more experience with how to take care of such a problem without destroying the integrity of the piece. I'll keep my eyes open for some practice pieces!
   That's it for now, quick boring update of nonsense chatter just getting myself into the hang of this really. Hopefully I'll have something to actually post next time, you know that's worthwhile. ;)

First post.. here goes nothing!

I keep trying to get back into some kind of blog, it's been years and a lot has changed since the livejournal days. I decided to do this despite my hesitations, as it seems a far better to place all my projects in more detail for anyone who cares about that lol. I've read a lot of fantastic blogs over the years and it makes it all very intimidating. How do I start? Every time I try to start it sounds so forced, so here it is, a more natural evolution of something, or maybe nothing. I'm hoping this is an easier platform for my grandparents to use as well since not all of them are on facebook. Plus it sucks trying to in-depth detail a project on facebook,

   We have been working on the house and it was pretty much balls to the wall before the holidays, it's slowed down since then and I have some smaller scaled projects coming up so I'll be posting them and perhaps posting some of the older ones even though I didn't document them as much as I wanted to since I was in the middle of every room and packing and moving. It's a little easier now. I have a glider rocker that I am about to transform for my nephew who just graced us with his presence!

 I don't anticipate that this will be 100 percent projects since I have been wanting somewhere I could express myself on some level that isn't face book. I'm trying to decide where my next path is as I look to change job tracks. I've spent 10 years doing drywall and acquiring all the amazing skills I have because of that but I have to branch off into another route. I have been told I should write, but it's been years since I have written anything I almost feel as though I have completely forgotten how. Or about what. I need something to do with my hands and creating. I don't know how to not create no matter what the price to my body. I expect to go back to school this summer/fall and I am hoping to have the rest of the major projects closer to being complete by then so I can just focus on that and smaller projects I can tackle mostly by myself. Sadly I need help hanging drywall and pipe installation so these are on hold until further notice. I decided that for my first post I would put up pictures of my last big project, I made some mistakes but I learned a lot so I'll do my best to document it so long after the fact.

The Project:
   

     Vintage buffet/side table

    $40.00 @ Thrifty Shopper

Now please forgive me, my pictures are rubbish and I know it, I was crunched on time as I wanted this done for thanksgiving and I had a week to pull it off. I forgot to take pictures until after I had already sanded the top. It was water damaged as you can see from the top and middle pictures, though it did look worse.

 

   My first thought was just to sand the top down and match the existing color because it's lovely (not so much in these pics) and I didn't want to lose that beautiful pattern. I only sanded the top because of the water damage. I used restore a finish for the first attempt and I was pleased with the outcome, however the middle picture is what it looked like and the top was still less than stellar. As you can see.

 I went online and started looking at what else I could try because I wanted to wood to glow, and be glossy. I knew I'd have to poly it eventually but I was hoping to fake it for the holiday. I decided to try linseed oil and wax because I thought it would be natural and surely this is a good time to try new things why not? Not like I'm on a time crunch or anything.
 I was in a rush. Mistake number one. I like to just jump in but for something like this really research and take your time, it'll be better for your sanity trust me.

 Bad news, I didn't take photos of the linseed oil debacle, but let me tell you I messed it up something awful. When I sanded originally I sanded down the left half more than the right, this led to the oil soaking deep into the wood while the right half was a thick sticky mess. Horrified I looked for a fix. Turns out if you put too thick a coat of linseed oil on you wind up with a sticky mess that never cures. I scraped off the oil and used mineral spirits to remove it then sanded it (after it dried) but the wood where it had soaked into now had black marks like the original water damage. 

*Sigh
What's a girl to do?

Bleach. 
Bleach totally removes black mold from wood and can restore the wood almost to new, you have to be careful it doesn't lighten the wood too much unless that's a look your going for. I wasn't. The bleach did help a lot though the wood had some deeper color it blended well, and I removed almost all of the original water damage.

After it dried I re sanded it down (for the 5th time) and I used a maple stain I had in my stash. I did two coats of poly over the whole thing and I love how it came out. 

Right side is damage free and a little lighter than...

The left side which was dark from the oil since it seeped in so deep, luckily the bleach worked enough that it appears natural. And it is just a little darker than it was.

You can't even see the spot anymore, you have to really look for it. sadly the wood split a little and I had to fill it, that's not perfect but it's hardly noticeable so perhaps a future redo will be in order but it's more than fine for now.

So I bit my lip and went on a limb as I polished the hardware with brasso. I was hesitant on this because you just never know whats under the patina, and patina can be so beautiful you hate to remove something that took decades to accumulate, some people would kill me for doing that. I was afraid I made the wrong choice when I first uncovered them, however I ended up pretty pleased with the results. I am not a big gold/brass tone person but I really loved the contrast I ended up getting. I also polished these with a jewelry cloth to get the soft shine they have.

So here it is in my dining room being loved and used finally since I have bought it over a year ago and it's been sitting in storage waiting for us to buy a house. It's finally home!

I will hopefully be starting the rocker in the next week so I'll post that as I do it.