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ReStore ReClaimed & RePurposed

Procurement of Style: Maybe you noticed the mysterious little blue tags on items that read “Procurement” while shopping at Ourtowns Re...

Friday, August 30, 2013

Playing With Sharp & Pointy Rusted Things....


This has to be one of my most favorite concoctions I have ever thrown together! Mostly because it is comprised of some very random items and they were all FREE!!!


My youngest sister and I both received metal detectors last Christmas and decided to for treasure hunting in the woods behind our parent's home in Welcome, NC. I am not sure exactly what sort of treasure we were thinking we were going to discover, but being as the town's history is composed of poor tobacco farmers, the odds of gold and riches were not high. But as the saying goes "Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder," and perception makes all the difference. So when we discovered the old car that had been left in the woods to waste away under trees, dirt, and leaves, Kaitlyn felt that it was a treasure. It was pretty impressive that most of the chrome of this car was in impeccable condition (especially since the chrome on our 2000 Chevy Silverado is rusting and flaking)and wasn't extremely hard to pull off the brittle rusted body parts of the car. The down side is that it was incredibly heavy and I had to do most of the heavy lifting all the way back to the house. I am not going to lie to you when I say that at that time, I did not really see much more than more stuff to go to the recycling center and the only reason I was hauling this back home was to humor a 14 year old and let her believe she really did find something special. My mother wasn't extremely excited with the pile of car parts on her front porch, but smiled and said "wow, you really did find something there." I volunteered to take the parts back home being that we were planning to go to the scrap yard soon.  Long story short, the parts didn't get scrapped and I couldn't be happier because I got to take this:



And turn it into this!


I used the chrome from the car as the body, 2 light fixture mounts, some plumbing handles, and washers for the eyes and a conduit strap for the nose. And I can't wait to figure out what I will do with the rest of it!!

Thursday, August 29, 2013

Guest blogger for My [re]claimed Home

 So I was asked to be asked to contribute to the Mooresville/Davidson Habitat for Humanity's Restore blog, My [re]claimed Home!! I feel extremely honored and super special to do something so cool. It gives me a sense of appreciation for my works and that there are other people out there that like what i do! (Or Amy is desperate for someone to fill some content space on the blog while she's on vacation) Either way, I will continue to feel extremely honored and super excited in my own little delusional world. I, along with some other EXTREMELY TALENTED designers such as Cyrstal (the weekend homemaker.com), will be posting "How To's" and progression of other projects construed from random items found at Restore on the third week of the month. (Or more if I feel a little saucy) Most of these items will be up for sale or auction at either the Mooresville or Davidson locations and all proceeds will go directly back to Habitat for Humanity. Which is an absurdly amazing charity doing great things or our community as well as globally, that I back 110%!! Don't believe me, ask my husband, he will show you our bank statements and exactly how many times a month I "donate" to Restore to replenish my craft/design hoard. Be sure to check out my latest post!! (and please excuse any typos you may find)

Wedding Toss








I had saw something similar to this while flipping through a magazine while standing in line waiting on my daily dose of coffee. The theme was what I recently recreated during my participation in the Habitat for Humanity's Restore Restyle Designer Challenge, of "Wedding on the Farm." Instead of bubbles, sparklers, or birdseed for the ceremonial toss as the bride and groom exit into matrimonial bliss, why not throw some raw oats? They had made cute little cones (much like the one pictured) but had used Vintage Farm Auction Slips. Since the challenge was to create a room space using only items we found at Habitat Restore, I had to get a little creative and found some old worn books with some cool pictures. I will say that the hardest part about this was that I had to tear out pages from something that was in pretty decent condition and I absolutely try to avoid destroying something useable to make something else. I was lucky enough to find a book about song birds and one about year long planting with 2 great black and white illustrations per page. I simply tore the pages out, rolled them into a cone and then cut them in half and used my most favorite thing in the whole world, glue tape, on the back side corner of the cone. Presto... super cute holder's for all kinds of neat stuff. I used it for the oat toss, but I think it would also make great candy/popcorn holders or even super cute bouquet wraps. And since they did turn out so nicely and can be used in several different applications, my guilt about the books was put to ease.