Ceiling Tile Trash to Treasure

George and I met up with Jessica one day last summer to check out some antique shops in Frederick, MD. It felt so strange to us to be out antiquing for the day, without looking for stuff for the store. Usually those days would end with us bringing back a truckload.

Instead, I bought one thing...

I fell in love with this old tin ceiling tile. Though I didn't like the dark dirty parts. 

I knew I wanted to hang it in out bathroom, but before I got the chance, I went to a wonderful local store called Whispering Pines. It's absolutely gorgeous! 

While I was there, I found the 2 embossed flower pictures on each end. Love!!! I had actually admired them last Christmas, but didn't have any place in mind to hang them. But now I do! I couldn't believe how perfectly they went with the ceiling tile. And bonus... they were on sale! 

But now I really felt the need to do away with dark, dirty part. I like the chippy bluish green with gold showing through, but I couldn't figure out how to keep that and get rid of the dark parts.

So, I decided to paint the whole thing. We found a chalk paint that complimented the color of the embossed pictures. It was a chalk paint which I honestly don't really care to use, but it was the best match we could find. 

After painting it, I used a sanding block to lightly distress it. Then I sprayed it with a sealer (and wouldn't you know, I got a couple runs in the spray varnish. Sigh)

But despite the runs, I absolutely love how it came out!!

They fill the wall, which is what I was hoping for. I love the colors, and how the embossing of the floral pics goes so well with the embossing of the ceiling tile. 

I wouldn't normally think of decorating a bathroom with canning jars, but I have several old blue jars, and the color is so similar to the wall grouping that I couldn't resist. 

Patience won out. I waited a couple years before I found what I wanted on that wall space, and once I saw the ceiling tile in that shop, it all snowballed. Yay! 

Our Sleigh is No Longer All That Rough

 It's a bit warmer today...it feels like 4 above instead of negative 1. Heat wave! (so to speak) 

We are currently under a winter storm warning for 4-8 inches of snow along with wind gusts to 45 mph.

 And when is the worst of it supposed to hit? Right around midnight. On New Years Eve. Yikes. We will be staying put right here in the house.

I did go out and sweep off the couple of inches of fluffy snow we picked up last night. And while I was out there, I got a couple better pictures of our sleigh:

For the whole story on the sleigh, it's worth it to read again how we got it. I had told that story here in a post called He Finally Got His Sleigh. 

And how did it look when we bought it at an auction? Like this:

Boy, she was rough.

You can see more pictures of it in the link above.

Sometime later, we actually ran across another sleigh that was in somewhat better shape, and we bought it too, also on the cheap. Between the 2 sleighs, George was able to fab them together to make one pretty decent one. He amazes me! This sleigh was truly a trash to treasure story!

It's not a sleigh to ride in, it might not hold up to that. But we love to set it on the porch every Christmas! 

If you are going out tonight, please be careful, no matter the weather where you live. But especially if you are under a snowstorm. 

Happy New Year! I hope 2026 will be a good one! 

Old Doors at Christmas

 When we had the store, we were always hunting for old doors. A few we sold as is, but we upcycled most of them, by giving them a new life. Some became the back part of potting tables, like this one:

The door part is a little hidden right now, because of the red barn wood piece setting on it. 

Isn't that barn wood pretty? When the barn on George's dad's farm got torn down, we saved a few pieces of the red siding. On this one, I added some artificial pine and berries, plus one of the red cardinals we made from old, corrugated roofing tin. This particular one did not come from the tin from his dad's barn, but many of the earlier pieces we cut from tin did come from there. 

One day, his 80 something year old father stopped in our store for a visit. He looked at some of the pieces we had cut from his roofing tin and shook his head. "George said he wanted to save some of the tin from my barn for craft projects." 

Then he shook his head in bewilderment. 

The whole upcycling thing is something you get, or you don't. And he didn't. But he chuckled and went along with it. 

The base of the planter on the shelf used to be a chicken feeder. I cut a few sprigs from a pine tree and laid them inside it, along with a nest that blew down in a windstorm. 

Anyway, back to the doors:

We made lots of door trees from them too. Boy oh boy, those were A LOT of work! 

They were great sellers, so we kept making them, but George was about ready to pull his hair out a few times! 

We kept these 2 for ourselves. This is a terrible photo of them, but I stepped out on the porch with no coat on, with a real feel temp of -1, so this is as good as it's going to get tonight! lol

I've admired the privacy fences made from old doors for a long time but never had a good spot to put one. Nevertheless, we hung onto a few doors just in case we found a spot.

And we did!

I've really enjoyed decorating these ones for the seasons. 

This is the side we see from our kitchen window.

And this is the back side that our wonderful neighbors see. 

Last year, I had that cart on the right side in the back, filled with pine branches, along with some other decorations. And apparently never took a picture of it.

This year, I didn't decorate the back very much because in the fall, we set the old grain cleaner behind the doors. Next year, we will move it more to the side, and plan to fill it with flowers, along with the flowers that will be planted in the ground around it. 

Speaking of the neighbors, they have the prettiest light display every year! 

The photo doesn't begin to do it justice, but we sure do enjoy it!!

Back to our own place, we put our sleigh on our porch. Again, terrible photo, because as stated above, it feels like -1 out there, and I didn't think to get better pictures in the daylight. 

Maybe tomorrow!

Combining Vintage Items into New Treasures

Reminiscing...

One of our favorite things to create when we had our shop was combos.

We would look around our stash of vintage items, and inspiration would hit.

"Hey, look! This will fit on this!"

In this case, it was a 4-loaf bread pan that fit nicely on metal legs.

The large metal dishpan was a good topper for the barrel, giving it a whole new look.

We had the bowl from a vintage pitcher and bowl set for quite a while. No one wanted it without the pitcher, until we set it on the metal stand, which looked like it had been made for it. 

We laid a feed dolly down on its back, and added a box, making it into a fun planter. 

Somewhere along the way, we had picked up a box full of rusty concrete tools. They took up space in our garage for years until we turned them into hooks by attaching them to boards. The pointy one on the left is an old fur board that had been used originally to stretch pelts.

We attached 3 other fur boards to a bench for a unique look.

The barrel attached to a dolly made a fun planter.

As did the metal thingy attached to a wheel thingy.

How's that for an official description. Ha!

Once you start looking outside the box on vintage items, the possibilities are endless! 

Oh, in case you are wondering, all these items sold when the shop was open. 

We closed in 2023.

 

First Occasional Shop Weekend of the Year

I was a little nervous about today. Would our customers come back? Or would they have moved on since we haven't been open since last December?

They came back!! Thank you! We appreciate you all so very much!

Here's a few pics from around the shop. A sampling if you will.

The wringer washer stand is still available. 

It's a 3-piece set; the stand and the two tubs. 

We pieced this together - we had sewing treadle legs with no top. 

We had a top with no legs.

Sweet union!

2 old bikes. A hand push cultivator plow. 

Can you say yard ornaments?

Speaking of yard ornaments! 

This old box fit perfectly on the rusty metal stand. It sold quickly after we opened. 

All through the day, more folks came in asking for it.

It's humble look was quite popular!

This sweet little dresser also sold quickly, as did the barrel and the box.

The wash tub on a stand is still available.

Perfect for flowers, or for ice and some cold drinks.

The black hutch also sold quickly, but a smaller one is still available...

Love it's 2 tone look! 

I'm blaming the cut off pic of this cupboard on my computer problems.

I apparently downloaded the wrong pic.

Since my laptop crashed, I'm working on our desktop computer which is

SLOWWWWWWWWWWWWW as molasses.

So, it is what it is at this point.

But trust me, the cupboard does indeed have a top.

Take me home, country roads!!!

What do you do with an old lawn roller? 

Take the roller part off, and turn the handle into a quilt rack! 

We added the mirror to the desk to make a vanity. 

And the woods matched perfectly! 

Yay!

The hen and her baby were a weather vane with a broken bottom. 

No problem!

We cut the broken part off, and mounted them on a couple pieces of wood.

They walked out the door right after we opened. 

So to speak.

Nice quilts for those chilly spring nights!

As I am posting these, every photo looks blurry.
Maybe because I took them from my Facebook page, instead of from the phone.
This whole laptop being down thing is really messing with my posting skills.

Wish me luck in trying to save it.

And if you can, stop in and see us tomorrow!
We would love to see you!

He Finally Got His Sleigh

First off, you have to understand.... George has always wanted a sleigh.

It comes up every Christmas. And throughout the year.
In antique shops and estate sales.
Around the dinner table, and riding in the car.

He has admired many, but sleighs, REAL sleighs are expensive.

So, he has just dreamed.

A couple days ago, I saw this picture on a local auctioneer's page.

I texted the picture to George, with the comment, "Boy, she's rough."

He agreed, but said he was interested.
Hmmm...

I went to the auction, and he stopped in for a few minutes on his way to an appointment to get the tires rotated on our car. He looked the sled over, then came over to me with a very excited look on his face.

"Don't let it go for less than $150."

My response? "BOY, SHE'S ROUGH.'

"She's fine, I can work with her".
Hmmm....

So, he left for the car appointment, and I stayed at the auction, rather hoping that the sleigh would go for $160. Don't get me wrong, I want George to have a sleigh. And a fixer upper is fine. But, BOY, SHE'S ROUGH.

The sleigh finally came up on the auction block. The auctioneer tried to start the bidding at $100.
Silence.

$75.
$50
$40
$30
$20
$10

I held up my bidders card.
And no one else did.

SOLD!!!

When George got back to the auction, he sat down beside me. I looked at him and said, "don't ever think I don't love you", and he broke out in a grin.

"You got the sleigh?"

"Yep"

"How much?"

"10 bucks."

"WHAT? Only 10 bucks?"

Apparently he is the only one that didn't notice that BOY, SHE'S ROUGH.

"Yes, she's rough, but she's perfect. That makes her easier to take apart and fix." he said with a huge smile on his face.

He looked like a kid on Christmas morning.

Wish him luck!

September Open Date

We are in the middle of our September open weekend. Whew! Another busy month getting ready! 

The pumpkin sign is painted on a large crate side that we took apart. Love the wire running across it.

These doors! So perfectly chippy!

The first thing that sold? This dresser. I could have sold it several more times, if only I could have twitched my nose and made more appear.

Quilts. Need I say more?

The white mantle went quickly too. We still have the brown one behind it.

Almost heaven!!!

This table is a marriage of an enamel top table, placed on a table that had issues with it's top. That's a post for another day...

Iron wheels. Awesome.

Another marriage. A child's roll top desk, placed on a cast iron sewing machine base. Truly one of a kind!

The black dresser/buffet sold as I was uploading this picture. Love the rockers!

I do believe the coolest thing in this display is the 3D horse picture.

We will be open again tomorrow from 10-5. Actually, we will probably open at 9, because the street in front of us will be holding our towns annual Fall Festival. Always a great day to visit Moundsville, WV!