Official-(ish?) Announcement

When I broke my foot way back in August of 2012 (yes, August), I got stir crazy within a few days. For whatever reason, I decided that I'd focus on the Etsy shop/crafty things that I've always done & loved, but never had the time to give it 100%. It was something I could do from home for the most part, & at my own pace, so why the heck not, right?

Well...it's now Feb. of 2013. My foot hasn't healed, & has actually gotten worse as time has gone by. The one thing I've been doing well at the past 6 months is 'junking', 'auctioning', 'treasure hunting' & painting the heck out of old unloved furniture. Trying to make a 'lemons into lemonade' situation with my situation, I'm dedicating myself to this land of junk, treasure, paint, decorating, & far too many other ideas for one girl to have in her head.

In addition to my Etsy, I've got a 'booth' started at a 'new' place down near Murfreesboro, in College Grove, TN, the Henry Horton Highway Antique Mall. I'm doing 'custom' work/treasure hunting for people, & I'll (hopefully) be setting up a 2nd booth somewhere closer to Nashville at some point in the future. Everything from furniture to old rusty pie plates to turning old mirrors into chalkboards...if it's 'shabby chic', 'country chic', 'primitive', or a form of upcycling/repurposing, I'm on it!

I guess what I'm saying is-Hi, I'm Ginger. Middle Tennessee & the internet in general...come along with me on this new 'official' endeavor. If nothing else, I'll probably end up making you laugh one way or the other.

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

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. 

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. 

Argh! Such a gorgeous piece!

While doing my regular Monday morning search for cool things to save/find/fix on Craigslist, I came across this 1920's Mantel . Gorgeous, right? Could be turned into something other than a mantel to continue to be a kick butt piece, right?

That's where the 'argh!' comes in...because I can't physically go grab it & bring it home to work on.

Craigslist, why must you have such cool stuff when Ginger cannot go fetch said stuff?! This is torture!

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.

Shhhh!

Don't tell anybody I'm keeping the hardware that I pulled off my magical door from the World's Longest Yard Sale . I'm sorry, the detail work is too fun for me to part with. I don't know exactly what I'm going to do with it, but I'll come up with something. I always do. I mean come on, look at it:

Ok, ok, fine, maybe you don't quite understand why the heck I love this thing so much. Just know finding/getting stuff like this that makes my day. I'm simple like that.

Now....off to see what else I can get into trouble with while still 'on the mend'.

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 

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.

Remember the door I was so psyched about getting at the 127 sale last month?

These are photos of said door before I started working on it. I'm about halfway through scrubbing the heck out of it & then sealing it so that it can go ahead & become a headboard. I'm being super careful to not scrub off all the bits of paint that have clung to it over the past hundred years (that's part of why I fell in love with it in the first place!), but have to get all the mold/funk that has built up on it before I do a quick sanding over a couple of areas & then seal it. 

Obviously this project is on 'hold' at the moment...but dern it I'm gonna finish this one before the end of the month, one way or another!

Leave my shadow alone, it was sunny out that day! 

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!

Sorry For Not Updating The Past Couple Weeks!

This summer is killin' me! Add in the heat waves that have been following me everywhere I go, & the travel that I do for my non-crafty/DIY jobs.....and we've got a slightly non-getting things done Ginger. After I do my trip to the Chicago area next week, it'll hopefully mean I can actually do things with the kick butt stuff that is simply screaming at me to get to work on it!

While I'm posting, though, I'd like to do my usual 'does anybody know of cool places to treasure hunt' question. I'm going to be in the general Chicago area, & anything from junk stores to Goodwill to places with architectural salvage are fair game in my little world. Hey, a girl can't help but ask.

Stay cool out there, y'all!

I am now in possession of tons of things to work on.

I will take pics & post them soon, I'm just exhausted today.

So excited to have all kinds of cool things to play with! (And thank you very, very much to the person that decided to let me have all of them.)