Practicing Thriftcraft, No. 3 and an Update to Clock!

Hello All!

In my previous post, I shared my Halloween mantel which included a thrift store clock I spray painted green:

I wanted to decorate it more but couldn't decide what to use.  Then it hit me:

I had cut out and framed a silhouette of a witch using the Cricut cartridge "Happy Hauntings."  I just adjusted the size and used black damask-embossed Bazzill card stock!  I also added an orange rhinestone to the bottom of the minute hand.  Now I think it looks finished:

I popped into the Salvation Army the other day and I saw this:

I love the art deco look of this mid-century peacock.  The fact that he's missing a beak and corona...

didn't deter me.  I plunked down my $1 and carried it out.  When I got home, I pulled out some supplies, found a picture online of what the missing parts looked like and created some prosthetics :)

Once I had the pieces they way I liked, I glued them and let it sit for a few hours before I painted it.  I didn't mind the gold color so I just wanted to "wash" it with Rustoleum hammered bronze while of course covering up the clay.  Here it is now:

I'm linking up!

The Thrifty Groove, Thrifty Things Friday
Elizabeth & Co.:  Be Inspired Features and Linky Party #91

Practicing Thriftcraft, No. 2

Hello All,

I saw this idea on the Internet and it stuck in my head -- you take an old picture you find at a thrift store and alter it to your liking.  Like this from David Irvine:

LOL - that's so great!!  You can see more of his work HERE!  (and if you want to purchase any prints of his work, go HERE).  There is also this article, Adding Monsters to Thrift Store Paintings which features the work of Chris McMahon:

Isn't that so cool!?  Now these guys are artists --I am not!  But, I wanted to try it all the same; especially to create something unique for Halloween.  I kept my eye out for something I thought I could add something to--like a pumpkin in a window of a little house print or a ghost popping out of a barn pic or something--anything I could alter simply :)  Well, I found something I could work with!  Now, this is fudging just a tad because in my excitement to alter the paint, I failed (UGH) to take a "Before" pic so I had to use "PaintNet" to "erase" my sharpie marks.  Here is what the original looked like:

I saw it had water damage but it's an actual painting --woo hoo!  The tree is what caught my eye.  I wanted to fill it with crows!  But then I noticed the lone figure staring off into the sunset (I guess it could be a sunrise??? but for "my" creation, it's a sunset - ha! ha!)  And I thought, with a pointy hat and long dress, it could be a witch!  So here's the painting with my Sharpie alterations:

And then I thought, what witch would be without a black cat?  So I added one :)

I am also quite pleased to have "cleaned" up some of the water damage.  I used Bic Mark Its, a sharpie and Copic markers.  I thought about adding those crows but thought it would be over-doing it a little.

So, now that I have my perfect altered painting, I decorated my mantel:

Here's the breakdown, left to right:

super cool iron candle holder with it's own snuffer - I think it is handmade.  I found it at the Goodwill outlet.

Books - "spell book" from Hallmark a few years ago, Anne Rice's The Witching Hour, and the Witch of Blackbird Pond --a shelf sitter toad, also from the Goodwill outlet (I got it last year); and the small feathered owl came from Michael's this year (40% off).

Next is the ceramic boot I painted last year (THIS POST):

The opalescent green lidded glass dish is by Mosser, it's a reproduction of Heisey Glass pattern, Ipswich (I bought it from ebay) the two decorative bottles came from B-Thrifty (99 cents each), the framed witch silhouette is from last year too.

The small cast iron compote is by the same manufacturer of the dish I found last year (HERE) and the witch hat is from 2010 when I decorated my porch with witchy stuff (HERE) I just changed the bow for this year. The "stand" is a thrifted black wooden candlestick I found at the GW outlet.

And finally, the clock:

It was a thrift find!  The pendulum works but the clock arms don't move so I went ahead and painted it up for Halloween.  I think it needs stripes or a great Halloween saying but I haven't been inspired yet as to what to put on it so it's just green for now :)

I'm linking up!

Elizabeth & Co, Be Inspired Features and Link Party #90

Take care,
Lisa

What I've been up to...

Hello All!

So...wow...it's October.  Were you all aware of that or did it sneak up behind you and whack you in the head like it did me?  LOL!   In the spirit of making lemonade out of lemons, due to the Government shutdown, I have some time on my hands to get caught up.  That's the upside of this experience; otherwise, it's scary.  I'm praying for resolution and hopefully before it completely derails our finances and those of the other 800,000 some feddies along with the nation.  Ok, enough of that and onto the things I've been up to this summer and early fall :)

Jenna and I made this cake:

Why is it special?
Because it's all fruit :)

Jenna found the recipe on Pinterest and we were pretty excited to try it.  It was delicious.  (oh, and the cake plate was a thrift find!)

I thrifted this dish:

and had it re-plated:

I wanted to actually serve in this dish but I wouldn't have been able to in its thrifted condition.  Now it's just too gorgeous to use...ha ha, totally kidding.  The plating was pricey and it isn't something I will be doing for awhile.  This piece is just really special.  I can't wait for the holidays to bust it out for shrimp cocktail :)  Look at the feet:

The dish is marked "Crescent Silver."  Things with fish feet or a nod to nautical, I love.  Like this:

Don't know where it's going, or if it'll get painted but I *love* it!!!

Jenna celebrated her 25th birthday on August 15th.  We took her and her best friend Michaela (on left) to lunch:

The day was absolutely lovely!

I've done a little crafting in between; a gal at work got married so we threw her a "Mrs." shower (considering the couple eloped!).  Her favorite flower is a peony so I made a bunch of these out of Bazzill cardstock and the Giant Flowers Cricut cartridge Shelly got me (thanks Sis!!) :

I spent my lunch hour decorating the conference room and these were left over.  I didn't take any pics of the conference room-- mostly because it's an office party and no matter how cute the decorations are, it's still an office party --LOL-- but I didn't want to forget about the flowers!  I thought they were so pretty.

Another co-worker welcomed a new puppy into their home so I made her this:

There are 30 puppy size wee wee pads, a receiving blanket (don't all puppies need a blankie?), 2 Greenie chew bones, a couple of toys and some gourmet treats from Petco in this "pupcake."  And once I had it all arranged, I wrapped it up like an Easter Basket:

Breaking Bad ended :(

More thrifting...

Hissing black cats!  Instant love.  It was chrome-plated but had pitted badly so when we had the silver plate dish done, we asked about this piece and the guy told us he could do an (inexpensive!) acid wash on it.  It came out very smooth and I painted it with Rustoleum hammered black.

Another instant *love* find!  Isn't he cute?

and he's a bank!

I have also filled the antique hexagon cabinet...like a dozen times...and I can't decide what to put in there!  

The only shelf that hasn't changed is the bottom:

A real Tridacna Gigas half clam shell, star fish, and a signed Anderson Design Studio pottery sea gull that I fished out of a bin at the Richmond Goodwill outlet.

Oh!  Jenna and I joined Weight Watchers.  So far, I've lost 17 pounds and Jenna has done even better.  We like the structure of the Points Plus program and going to the meetings.  We've also been enjoying making healthier meals and thinking up delish desserts (our favorite time of the meal - LOL!) that don't cost us lots of points.

So that's all for now.  I'm linking up!

Elizabeth & Co., Be Inspired Features and Link Party #89
Sir Thrift A lot: Thriftasaurus!

Take care,
Lisa