Junk, Beautiful Junk

Despite how it may appear, this is not an abandoned blog. As much as I love it,  blogging just hasn't been my top priority these past several months.

My husband and I are empty nesters. But, even with all the kids out of the house--and out of the state--the past several months have been anything but life at the corner of Ho Hum and Easy Street (although we did stand in that sweet spot with my dad in Carefree, Arizona, just long enough to snap this photo last week). We both have aging parents who increasingly need as much of our attention and assistance as we can provide. After all their years of sacrifice and commitment to us, it's now our turn to give back.  Not as easy as driving across town, though. Hubby's parents are two states away, in Illinois, and my dad is more than 1,200 miles away, in Arizona.

Even with frequent long weekends away, I was able to launch my Etsy shop this summer, but haven't been able to fulfill my goal of creating and listing as many handmade items as I'd like.

I don't know how often I'll be able to post here over the coming months, but I'm not giving up. I hope you'll stick with me and check in occasionally. Even though I don't have as much time to post these days, I try to keep up on your blogs as often as possible. I continue to be inspired by all of you out there.

This weekend, I finally found time to photograph the great  items I picked up at the Nebraska Junk Jaunt in September.

These beautiful old jars are the extra big ones. They might make interesting over-sized snow globes for the holidays.

The sewing machine drawers have a wonderful design of what looks like branches in a frame shape around the carved handles. I haven't cleaned these up at all, so you're seeing them with dust and crud and all. They're so lovely, they deserve special treatment to highlight that charming carving. Onto the future painting project list they go.

This raggedy, dirty old cloth tape measure was a mere $1, but is so much more precious than its price would indicate.

Soda crates and pulleys and tongs, oh my!

One of two nice wood stove handles I picked up. This one is from a company called Quick Meal Ranges.

I see a role for this primitive rake in a horror movie. After Halloween, it can be repurposed as a unique jewelry hanger.

These tongs are fascinating, although I'm not sure what they're used for. I thought they were meat hooks for use in a packing plant, but others think they're ice tongs. As you can see they can expand and contract to different sizes. The top is a hook that looks like it might hang over a pulley line. Do you know what it is?

A nice cast-iron biscuit pan is great in the craft room to hold small items such as beads, clips, pins and small bits of paper.

I love my new treasures and am already looking forward to Junk Jaunt 2013.

Make it a great day!

Linking to:

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm
Cowgirl Up!
Knick of Time Tuesday
All Star Block Party
What's It Wednesday
Rednesday
Fridays Unfolded

One Man's Junk . . .

If you're someone who likes to sift through junk as I do, Nebraska's annual Junk Jaunt is as thrilling as Christmas morning.

This past weekend, while our husbands enjoyed a weekend of high school and college football, a dear friend and I took to the road and soaked up the autumn sunshine, Nebraska Sandhills scenery and miles and miles of treasure hunting.

The Jaunt is a 300-mile loop of sales, mostly in the Sandhills in the central part of the state. Because this is a small-town and rural area of Nebraska, vintage farm items and rusty, dusty, crusty thing-a-ma-bobs abound.

Treasures were plentiful, indeed. I could easily have filled a U-Haul with architectural salvage, antique furniture, wooden boxes, metal crates, vintage tools, glassware and other pretties, novelties and oddities. My friend and I didn't have a specific agenda or shopping list for this trip and were pretty restrained in our purchases.

This week will be a busy one at work, so I won't have a chance to photograph my goodies until next weekend. I'll be sure to share some of them with you in a later post.

We made the most of the Jaunt experience, taking our time, patronizing the local establishments, partaking of the local brats, homemade pies and cookies and regional wine tastings. We stopped along the route to appreciate the beautiful fall colors along the North Loup River and take some photographs, which I'll share in a later post. We didn't make it even half way 'round the loop before we had to head home. Maybe next year . . .

Make it a great day!

Linking to:

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm
Cowgirl Up!
Tuesday's Treasures at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
What's It Wednesday at Ivy and Elephants
Thrifty Treasures at Southern Hospitality
Vintage Thingie Thursday at The Coloradolady
Time Travel Thursday at The Brambleberry Cottage
Happy Hour at Craftberry Bush
Knick of Time Tuesday

Is It a Time-worn Treasure or a Twisted Tool of Torture?

Just in time for a ghoulish Halloween display, the rusty metal spikes on the device above conjure all sorts of interesting decorating ideas. Cobwebs and hanging spiders or a nice dried arrangement. It does, after all, look a bit like a giant spiked flower frog. Or, for the truly twisted mind, perhaps an impaled scarecrow or Freddie Krueger doll.

This interesting tool is an antique flax comb. The comb itself is about 8 inches across and the spikes are about two inches long. Wicked-looking device, but it would look great mounted above a doorway along with other primitives.

I spied the flax comb this past weekend at Primitive Pickins, a charming, little show featuring primitives and rustic items and at  the home of one of the show's organizers.  It was a smaller show, but had a nice selection furniture and rustic antiques. Take a look at some of the goodies.

The tea-dyed cheesecloth on the front of this antique dresser is a different and interesting look. The lower drawers of the piece have been removed to create open storage behind the cheesecloth curtain.

I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Julie, who picks most of the primitives on display. Three other friends collect the furniture pieces and one of them paints both furniture and some of the accessories.

Julie and her friends host one of these shows about four times a year, rotating host houses for each show. Now that I've discovered them, I'm looking forward to their next event in November.

I came home with this wonderful pie safe door. The rusty patina is just perfect. I'm planning to use it as a fireplace screen for our very outdated-looking fireplace. The plan is to position it on the andirons at  the fireplace opening--after I paint the andirons, which are now brass.

We don't use the fireplace, but have it filled with white twinkle lights which should look mah-velous twinkling through the pie safe's pinholes.

Next weekend, a friend and I are off to the annual Nebraska Junk Jaunt. Advertised as "everything from thimbles to combines," the Junk Jaunt is more than 300 miles of yard sales in more than 20 towns  in three days. Whoo-hoo!

Stay tuned  . . . should be lots of goodies to share with you all.

Make it a great day!

Linking to:

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm
Cowgirl Up!