Day Two!

Yesterday I posted a couple of shots of a pair of mid-century side tables from my first 'project' of 2013. Well, they've now been fully painted & are so much more fun looking than what I started with! I'm going to lightly sand them, & then I'm going to distress the heck out of them so the 'shabby chic'/'cottage chic' look is complete!

Once I seal them & let them cure, they're going to be looking for a new home! Once they're ready to go they'll be for sale on my Etsy & my Facebook Business Page .

Happy Thursday, y'all!

First project of 2013!

Now that I am 'officially' out of my cast & I'm learning to walk again, I can *finally* get to work on all the furniture projects that have been calling out to me for the past 5 months. For my first 'project' of 2013, I decided giving a small pair of mid-century side tables a bit of love would be a good way to get started....

After mixing my chalk paint using Webster's Chalk Paint Powder (which is fab, by the way!), I pulled up my hair & got to paintin'...

After doing one coat of Behr's 'Glow', I sanded just a tiny bit over a couple sections that wanted to give me problems. I finished up the second coat a little bit ago, & this is what has been done so far! (Yes, I am going to paint the legs, probably first thing in the morning.)

So yay for starting the first project of 2013! 

This Week's Work In Progress...

Now that I'm able to get up & around a bit, I can finally start working on 'larger' projects. Cue me dragging out this antique mirror to work on.

Yes, the veneer on the front is messed up, but the 'bones' of the piece are too pretty to let the mirror die a slow death in somebody's attic. (If you have removed antique veneer before, you know what a pain in the butt it is. I'm a glutton for punishment, I guess.)

And now I'm off to start the slow process of lifting off the veneer...wood chisel, iron, & relevant accessories in tow!

Looking For A New Home!

This small, chippy, vintage ladder came straight off a 100 year old farm in Lascassas, TN. From today until Dec. 31, it's only $20! I can meet in the Nashville/Murfreesboro area so you can give it a good new home!

These little guys are being used for all kinds of things these days, from being hung on walls as towel holders to being cut in half & used as small bookshelves. Yes, upcycling and repurposing really is that much fun. 

Interested? Please send me a message on my Facebook Business Page or email me at My Business Email

Cake Batter Chex Mix? Oh C'mon, You Know You Want Some!

Also known as 'puppy chow', 'cake batter buddies', 'muddy buddies', etc. Hey, I don't know why it has so many names, but it apparently does. Anyway, I made some of this earlier today, & considering that it was mostly just things that happened to be chillin' in my pantry, it was pretty dern easy.

Wanna make it? You're going to need the following things:

1 box of Corn Chex (I used the 'big' box.)
1 bag of white chocolate (You can use almond bark, but I like chocolate.)
1 tablespoon of butter
1 tablespoon of heavy cream (I'll be honest, I used way, way more than one tablespoon, but I blame that on the fact that I am Southern & cream is never put to use in the 'recommended' quantities.)
1 cup of powered sugar
2 cups of yellow or white cake mix (Not the batter!! The dry mix.)

Ready? Here we go:

Throw your white chocolate chips, butter, & heavy cream in a bowl. 

Pop said bowl into the microwave & do 20-30 seconds at a time. Watch carefully, because nothing is more awful than having to throw out burnt chocolate. Love the chocolate, pay attention to the chocolate. I beg of you...

When it all starts to melt together, it will happen fast. I think I threw this back in the microwave another 25 seconds & it was totally melted & ready to go.

You can also melt this down using a double boiler...but seeing as I have no double boiler in my life, I have no photos or opinions of making in it one. 

In a different bowl , throw in your Chex cereal. 

Slowly pour in your chocolate mix & stir it all like it is going out of style. You need to coat everything. I'd say to coat things evenly, but I am *so* not able to actually do that in my kitchen. Hey, I never said I was perfect...

Put your cake mix & powered sugar together in a bowl. Mixing them together so that they're  not just cake mix with powdered sugar on top is probably a good idea. I spent like...30 seconds mixing them with one another.

Know that bowl of chocolate coated Chex you've got just hanging out waiting on you to give it some love? Go get it. Dump, fold, drop, or any other version of 'add' your cake mix & sugar mixture on all that chocolate-y goodness.

I guess you could technically stir it all together, but I took the easy way out-I put it all in a Tupperware bowl, snapped a top on (tightly!), & shook it like I was at the Chex Shaking Olympics. No, I have no photos of myself shaking the Tupperware, you're just gonna have to trust me on this one.

And then.....you get this:

Store these bad boys in an air tight container, and nom whenever you're in the mood for some cake tasting goodness.

What To Do, What To Do...

So I made my last old window into a cute art type thing to hang in my extra bedroom. (Don't know what I'm talking about? Here is that story.) Anyway...I've got another window sitting in my garage, see?

Please ignore the old door behind the window. That is not the door that will be my headboard, it is a totally different door that is going to get some love sometime soon.

Since I'm not going to keep it, I'm trying to decide whether I just want to stencil something on the glass panes, if I want to straight out paint the panes, or if I want to ModPodge something on to it. I mean yeah, doing something custom for somebody is always fun, but at the moment I haven't had anybody that needs a super awesome window that Ginger spiffed up just for them in a while.

Hmmm...I'm currently stumped. 

Crock Pot Sugared Pecans!

So I posted this on my Facebook yesterday, but forgot to put it here.

I made sugared pecans yesterday. Hey, I'm a girl from GA, using pecans for stuff is kinda required. More than one person asked for the recipe, so I'm going to share it with all of you.

It’s easy peasy. For the most basic crock pot version that doesn’t get all spice rack intensive:

• 1 lb pecans (or walnuts, cashews, any nut)
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted (I totally melt it in a cup in the microwave & dump it into the crock pot.)
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar (let’s be real, 1/2 cup of powdered sugar is like…not enough. This is pretty much the ‘minimum’ amount to make this work)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I use more, but I kinda love cinnamon.)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger (because I show up in a lot of recipes. All of you are welcome.)

Preheat your crock pot for about 15 minutes or so (on high).

Once you’re pre-heated throw in your pecans along with your butter. (Yeah, stirring the butter/pecans would probably be a good idea, since the sugar needs something to cling to.)

Add your powdered sugar, & mix the crap out of it so there is sugar on ALL the things. Cover your crock pot & let it cook on high for around 15-20 minutes.

Reduce your heat to low & keep the lid off your crock pot. Let your pecans get all crispy & junk. (Usually between 2-3 hours.) Stir this some along the way, otherwise you’re going to get some funky pecans stuck to the bottom of your crock pot. That would be a tragedy, so stir! (I usually do every 20-30 minutes or so.)

Take the nuts out & put them in a bowl. *nomnomnom*

Oh wait…I normally start nomming then, but technically you’re supposed to add in the other spices & make sure they coat evenly & let them cool before eating. I don’t wait for those bad boys to cool, I’m an adult, so I nom before I’m ‘supposed to’.

Here's what mine looked like once they were all done yesterday:

Autumn Bunting...

Since I have acquired so much twine, & so much burlap type material, making some 'fall' or 'autumn' bunting seemed like a no brainer. 

I even made it without injuring myself! Woohoo, you go Ginger!

Now I just need to hang this up...but I think I'm going to wait & not try to climb anything with a giant cast on. It seems like a recipe for tumbling onto the floor in a very ungraceful way. 

A toolbox in the kitchen

See, this old wooden toolbox has been hiding in my garage since the middle of August. It came from the bottom of a super old, falling apart outbuilding on a farm outside Murfreesboro, TN. It was very, very, very dirty. So dirty that it's just been sitting in my garage taking up space & continuing to look like I should just throw the dern thing away.

While I was 'doing' things this morning, I figured I may as well clean the poor thing up some. I spent 40 minutes just trying to get surface grunge off this thing, but now it is (mostly) funk free....

Yeah...it's very sunny today. There was no spot in my garage that was 'sun free', so enjoy some free sunbeams. 

The toolbox doesn't know it yet, but it's going to become a cool centerpiece type thing for my kitchen table this week. Yes, an old toolbox filled with pine cones (from my baking pine cones post) & other 'autumn' type things totally 'works' in my kitchen. 

Shortly after cleaning this I cut myself on another piece...so all work has ceased for today, because nobody wants blood messing up their dirty old toolbox. 

Ding! My house smells like a Christmas tree...

Alright, all of my pinecones (save for a couple tiny ones that hid from me) have been through their little baking trip.

I lined a cookie sheet with tin foil, because really, you don't want sap all over your cookie sheet, do you? No, you don't.

I left some space in between them because I'm weird like that.

I preheated the over to 300 degrees & popped these little guys in there for 20 minutes.

And then....ding! All done! They've all opened all the way up, even the tiny ones.

Let them cool a while, ok? Having an 'I got burnt by a pinecone after I baked it story' probably won't impress most of your friends. You just saved a few bucks by not having to go to the store and buy these. Easy peasy. 

Your house smelling like a giant Christmas tree is a nice bonus, at least it was for me.

Awww, these are cute!

While surfing the black hole known as Pinterest the past few weeks, these cute tree cones have kept popping up. I am *so* making these for the holiday/winter season this year. I have a literal ton of fabric to play with from my magical Craigslist fabric bonanza at the beginning of the summer.

And yes, I will be selling these in various sizes/colors/etc.





Fabric Covered Poster Board Christmas Tree Cones…
Example photos from the Creativity Exchange





You know you want one. Yes you do.

DIY Halloween Art!

Ok y'all, tomorrow is October 1. That means I can officially (without feeling like I'm a weirdo) do Halloween-type things! I'm still on bed rest, but I wanted to start on some Halloween-ish type art to get me in a more bewitching mood, so making something on PicMonkey to print out & put in little frames seemed like a good way to go. 

(I kinda fell in love with this font. By kinda I mean a bunch. You're gonna have to deal with my love of this font for a while, but at least I'm warning you in advance.)

Here's what I've ended up with at the moment. I don't know if I want to make a third one or not. Probably not...

The 127 sale door revamp-part 3!

Have you seen the door I fell in love with at the World's Longest Yard Sale back in August? If not, you can go check out part one and part two to get caught up.

Ok, now that you're caught up, let's continue on the door into a headboard saga. (These will be the last installment of said saga until my foot is done being broken, because as of right now the door is sitting in my garage calling out to me to hurry up & finish.)

After I'd scrubbed the heck out of it the first time around, I dragged it inside to dry some. If I didn't fear people thinking I'd finally lost all my marbles I'd have probably just left it outside, but I digress.

Here we go! After everything had dried out from the first round of scrubbing, it was time to go one more round. There were still a couple areas that hadn't become mold/funk free, so I had to remedy that!

Well, my plan was to remedy that, but nature had other ideas. It started pouring rain a couple minutes later, so I had to accept defeat for the day & pack my things back inside. 

So that's where I'm at. The door really, really, really wants me to finish up & let it live in my master bedroom as a headboard. (I'm sure of it!) Now if my foot would hurry up & stop being broken I could let it do so.

You're probably wondering why you're staring at a bunch of boots....

There is an actual reason, I swear. I will be honest, I have tons of boots. (Sorry y'all, I wasn't taking pictures of all of them, somebody from the Hoarders show on tv could possibly show up if I did that. Ok not really, but you get the idea.) I love them. So much love for boots that I can't really put it into words.

Notice how all of them are standing up, even the tall ones? That doesn't happen automatically, & boots that are all bent over & taking up double the amount of space in my closet make me sad. I've been to places like Bed, Bath, & Beyond looking for boot holder uppers, & those dern things are expensive. Like, around $10 per pair expensive. I'm sorry, but that's just not happening.

I went to the place where all random problems are solved-Pinterest & started my quest for finding something that would make my boots stand up without having to pay $10 per pair to make it happen. And then.....the magic of a manila folder was introduced into my life. 

Holy crap, rolling up a manila file folder & then zipping it into my boots not only worked, but it didn't cost me a penny. (I'm one of those people with hundreds of file folders at all times.) Free beats $10 a pair any day of the week. I probably spent a good hour rolling up folders & stuffing them inside my boots, & I was so proud of this Pinterest experiment gone right that I had to post it.

For those of you without boots...just pretend that you think this is cool, ok?

Facebook: www.facebook.com/gingermadethat 
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/missgingerlee 
Blog: www.gingermadethat.blogspot.com
Etsy: www.etsy.com/shop/missgingerlee 

When Ginger makes homemade Febreze...

I have a confession to make. I am one of those people that has an odd love of Febreze & Febreze type things. (Hey, washing 106 inch curtains on a regular basis gets kinda tedious, ok?) Anyway, I've seen all the 'make your own Febreze OMG!' type posts on Pinterest, so I decided that I may as well try it out and see if it works. 

Ready to get started? Awesome. Grab your empty ( or almost empty in my case) Febreze bottle & fill it about halfway with warm water.

Then grab some vinegar. Pop a tablespoon of this bad boy in the Febreze bottle. (Yes, there are versions that use baking soda, but I'm more of a vinegar type of girl.) Now shake the Febreze bottle **with the cap on** like it is going out of style.

Now go get some fabric softener. Any kind of fabric softener, but one that you are rather fond of fragrance-wise is probably a good idea. Put in 2 tablespoons (or 3, if you're using a rather thin version) of your fabric softener.

Got all of that put together? Alright, go fill the rest of your Febreze bottle with warm water, put the top back on your Febreze bottle, & shake like your life depends on it. Ok not really, but shake it until everything is evenly distributed. I shook for about a minute & a half, because I wanted to make sure I'd done all I could for this little experiment to work.

I waited about an hour or so & used my homemade Febreze concoction on the couch. Yep, this formula worked perfectly (and no, no vinegar smell for those that may have been wondering). It smelled just like the fabric softener, but once that dissipated all that was left being has neutral, clean smelling couch-ness. 

I will never pay for 'real' Febreze again. Yay for experiments that actually work!!

You can never have too much cowbell!

I think that is just a rule-there is no such thing as too much cowbell. 

Yes, this bell came out of the giant box of stuff from the estate auction outside Nashville. That box is the gift that keeps on giving, because every time I think I've made it near the bottom, I realize there is a whole bunch that I haven't even unearthed from it.

Cute right? (Yes, the answer to this question is yes.)

The 127 sale door revamp-part 2!

Scrub time! 

After cleaning off any obvious dirt, it was time to lug this thing outside & get to scrubbin. Wet down the wood, use wood cleaner/brightener, & a little bit of bleach, I went to town. Here's what I started with, right after I'd wet it down for the first round of scrubbing:

Obviously I was not in the mood for worrying about fashion, so you can laugh at my wonderfully clashing outfit if you'd like.

My BFF found it humorous that I was standing in my driveway scrubbing like my life depended on it, yet trying to make sure I wasn't going to break a nail while doing so & decided to snap some pics:

Scrubbing round 2? We'll get to that in a bit.

Discoveries, discoveries, discoveries!

So, I was given a few boxes of 'stuff' from an estate auction here in TN, but had no idea what the heck was in them. There were a few piece of obvious 'junk' (not the good kind of junk!), but there were also some kinda interesting things as well. The thing I'm loving right now is this bag (?) from the Markle Lead Works that used to be in St. Louis. 

It's been beat up a bit over the years, & has reddish stains on the side that has what looks like a drawing of the factory, but overall it's kinda interesting. I found a quote about the history of the company & such, but other than that most info about what I've found & how old it probably is just isn't jumping out & hitting me. 

I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this, but it's just too cool to throw away.

"The Markle Lead Works, National Lead Company, and the Hoyt Metal Company were consolidated into the United Lead Company in 1905. This plant covered 30 acres of land and employed 500 men who made lead bullets and pellets for shotgun shells. A wooden "shot" tower 90 feet high was used for making the pellets. At the top of the tower, molten lead was poured through a sieve device which allowed lead particles to splash into a water-filled tank at the bottom of the tower."--Quote from the book Granite City : a pictorial history.

Random Find In DC

While on my way to a salvage store in DC yesterday, I passed a home that was being taken apart. I saw they were just throwing everything away, & I couldn't leave without at least asking if I could save anything from the dump. 

This window was original to the house, which was apparently built in 1921. I'm loving it!

I couldn't help myself and went back this morning, just in case. I looked inside the rowhouse & it'd be taken apart all the way to just the foundation & support beams. I nearly cried when they told me they sent everything to the dump around 6am this morning. 

Yes, I have a weird love of trying to 'save' old things. It breaks my heart for some reason to see things that are still useful just being thrown away!

So much fun at the World's Longest Yard Sale yesterday!

Had so much fun at the World's Longest Yard Sale yesterday. If it weren't raining, I'd have probably ended up with a few truck loads of new treasures. 90% of the vendors had either packed up or had to cover up all their goods to keep them from the pouring rain, but the vendors that did stay were so friendly & willing to make deals that it was worth the drive.

I went from Albany, KY to around Crossville, TN, & I can't even try to imagine how busy it must have been before the bad weather moved in. Hundreds upon hundreds of places to treasure hunt, & I think I've fallen in love with this little stretch of 127.

Now I have so much to look forward to next year...

Did you go to the 127 sale? What section did you go through? Find anything totally amazing? Let's share our found treasures!