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.

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!

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

Woo hoo!!

One of my BFF's has decided to corral me, crutches & all, to a local estate auction for at least a little while today. (Hey, I haven't left the house in weeks, this is 'woo hoo' worthy!)

Now...what shall I be on the lookout for today?

New item up in my Etsy store this evening...

Just put up a really cool, retro-y vintage bun steamer. Ok, ok, you may make a few 'bun' puns, as most folks can't help themselves. More pics in my shop, go check it out.

Edit: Sept 25, 11am.....this item is SOLD!

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 'mystery' thermos...

Ok, maybe it's not technically a mystery because I know who made it, but finding any other examples of the JC Penny metal vacuum thermos that I got from the estate sale at the beginning of the month is a tiny bit challenging. 

(I mainly like this because it's all original, even the cork that it has is the original!)

Yes, it'll be for sale soon, but I wanted to share it before I listed it on my Etsy shop. 

New Etsy listing up this afternoon!

Remember when I posted a couple of cowbells I got at an estate sale at the beginning of the month? This post! I have finally listed it in my Etsy shop... it is up for sale!

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.

Abandoned Property Part 2

A few days ago I posted some photos from a property outside Nashville that had been abandoned for more than a decade, & finding it broke my heart. If you haven't read that or seen the pictures, go see them now.

For those of you that have seen them, here are a few more...

Do you know how hard it was to not rescue this poor door that day?!

The hardware on this old trunk is basically turning to dust from being left outside all these years.

I love this piece. Even falling apart, it still makes me want to go 'save' it from getting worse than it currently is.

Why?!?! The things I could've done with this mantle if I'd gotten to it years ago...

The house is literally falling apart piece by piece. 

*sigh* I hate when things are just left out to rot when they could've been saved & loved by somebody.

Do you have any photos like this? Do you know of places that need to be saved? Tell me about them! I like to learn about this kind of thing.

Finding This Place Made Me Sad

See y'all, when I found this place a couple months ago I actually cried by the time I was done crawling around the property. It's the kind of place that I wish I could have found & 'rescued' before it got to this point. Instead....it's mostly to the point of no return, & 90% of the stuff can't be salvaged after being abandoned for more than 10 years & having people use it as a place to 'party' & stuff.

All these clothes were just left hanging. As years went by people tore them down, took them, etc. How this sad little desk ended up on top of everything is a mystery, but I can tell it used to be gorgeous.

There was so much furniture that must have been gorgeous before it was left to fend for itself. This wardrobe was just falling to pieces....

Can you see the tall white skinny thing in the center of the photo? That's a door. It's still quite pretty. It's just standing there, all lonely looking.

Yeah, the whole property just turned into a place to 'party' & stuff. It was just depressing seeing something that used to be a well constructed home & property just reduced to a shell of a structure.

The roof/ceiling has collapsed in several places, causing all the things inside to be exposed to the elements over the years.

Yeah, there is no roof or ceiling left here. 

This kind of place. It's the kind of place that I want to prevent from existing. I don't want places to be abandoned to just fall apart when there are things that can be saved & loved by somebody else. See y'all, I want to find these before the only good option is to bulldoze them.

When I say I want to crawl around old barns, farms, homes, sheds, & shacks, I really mean it. Even if I can only save a few things, it's worth it to me. 

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'.

These are pretty neat...

I'm mostly amazed that this tiny cardboard box from the A.L. Smith & Co. Drug Store in Murfreesboro, TN managed to survive more than 45 years after it was filled. I had no idea that prescriptions used to be done this way, I guess things have changed quite a bit the last half century or so!

Don't ask why this is so neat to me, because I can't really place my finger on it, but I kinda love it, in an odd way. 

Just added some really cool vintage drinking glasses to my Etsy store....

See, when I said I was going to be adding things pretty steadily over the next couple weeks, I meant it! Blame the broken foot & the boxes from the estate sale outside Nashville for having so much cool stuff.

Anyway! I just put up a set of 4 Indiana Glass iced tea/tumbler glasses in the Whitehall pattern. They're the golden amber color, which I think reminds most folks my age of going to visit our grandmothers. (I think 90% of grandmas had these!)


Here, go check 'em out: New Etsy Listing!

And remember, everything this month has free shipping! 'Cause I love lovin' y'all.

What?! Even MORE cowbell?

Yep, in the box of randomness from the estate sale outside Murfreesboro, TN, I found yet another old cowbell. It's small than the other one I found, but dern if it isn't as loud!

This one is riveted, just like the larger one, but has aged differently, & the patina makes it look totally different than the other bell. I will be listing this on My Etsy Shop! in the next couple days, but I wanted to share it with my internet 'friends' before I put it up for sale there. 

(And for the record, it is going to be for sale for $20, with free shipping anywhere in the United States.)

2 new items in my Etsy shop!

I just listed 2 new items in my Etsy shop, so I wanted to at least share them with y'all. I'm going to be adding more stuff over the next couple weeks (yes, having a broken foot has made me get stuff done!) but sharing what I've got at the moment can be a good thing, right?

My Etsy!

I've got both a large (8 1/2 inches) vintage Libbey amber glass ashtray, from the Pebble Beach line, & another hand painted & distressed 8x10 wooden frame. Everything I've got has free shipping for all of September for the United States.

Show some love, share some love.

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!