Cleaning, Purging and Starting Fresh

Yesterday, March 18th, my sweet sis, Elaine, my boyfriend, Willie and I spent Elaine's birthday, cleaning, purging and reorganizing my shed.  It was dirty, and very hot (100 degrees at one point) and back-aching work, but we were determined to clean out the front of the shed to see what we had that could be sold, fixed for Sisters' Treasures or used at home.
    The largest majority was piled into a huge stack to set out for our semi annual citywide trash pick-up

  It was hard to give up some items that I had hoped to "fix", repurpose or for sentimental reasons keep for memories' sake (like the bentwood rocker I bought in Spain when I was just 17, visiting my sis, Elaine and her husband when they were stationed in Germany) The rocker has a broken leg that would be very difficult to fix, but I have hung onto it for years because of the sweet memories and the fact that it was first piece of furniture I ever purchased.  I guess it's time for it to go.  The upholstered chair's leg also broke and to be honest, I didn't want to reupholster it or attempt the leg repair, so it's going also.  Some items on the stack I had rescued from a salvage pile in the past with great intentions of " repurposing, but obiviously my good intentions and reality aren't jiving! ha!
      We also took 600 lbs of metal to the salvage yard and got some cash for it but forgot to take pictures! :(
      Recently we got a new tin roof on our house, so Elaine came up with the idea of using the old tin as a flooring for the outer shed area to attempt to keep my "keepers" a little cleaner!

      
  This will be my staging area for projects waiting for upcycling and items for sale (plus our storage area for the lawn mowers).
      This side still needs work, but this will be my "project work area".

We're going to put down tin for this ground area also.  I'll post pictures on FACEBOOK, Sisters' Treasures site once I have it done.

There are still plenty of projects and good "junk" to sell even after the purge.

I don't think I need to lament too much for projects I've given up on, do you?? ha!

Now, if I can only get to the inside of the shed and work magic there, I'd be (exhausted) but one happy camper.

I want to give a HUGE shout out to Elaine for spending her birthday doing extreme manual labor and to Willie for enduring the heat to help us with this vast project!

Betsy

  

"Junk" Treasure Hunting Pay Day

We of Sisters' Treasures fame are just two "wild and crazy sisters"!

When one (that would be Elaine) calls the other (that would be me, Betsy) and says, "What are you doing?" to which I reply, "Thinking about going garage saling!"....  what does a junker do, but

 jump in my car when Elaine suggests we go to one or two estate sales we saw on estatesales.net. The really crazy part is that both sales were far away, in fact, the one we decided to attend was around 85 miles from my home in Karnes City!

Forget high gas prices, the high mileage already on my Journey and the fact that I'd be gone most of the day, THIS is what we live for (in fact what most junker/antique/vintage dealers I know, live for........... the Thrill of the Hunt!

 In fact on Facebook I saw a post from Ki Nassauer's team of Flea Market Style magazine and Junk Bonanza fame on her new page, FleaQuest asking "Would you rather Be out in the field on the hunt for junk OR be back in your workshop creating with the pieces you've found?". For me the answer was..... in the fields hunting. And hunting (and finding) we did. Here are a few of our purchases:

      Of course, Elaine and I are both creative souls, so I couldn't resist working a little creative magic on the frames.  One was missing some of the decorative trim molding, so instead of tediously replacing all of it, I got out my new sample jar of Annie Sloan Old White paint and went to work.

I added a clear glaze and then the dark glaze to antique it then dry brushed gold metalic paint to finish it.

                                          And here is a corner to show the detail a little better:

   Oh, I forgot to mention one more thing................. I made a little stop on my way home to get a sneak peak at a terrific estate sale in Castroville, Tx and of course, I couldn't pass up a few purchases.

   Happy hunting (junk that is) this weekend!

    Betsy