Fun Weekend

I had such a fun weekend.  When I was growing up, my parents collected and for a while dealt in antiques.  Over the years, I began to love antiques shows and stores, flea markets and old stuff.  I particularly love old primitive wood pieces.  I haven’t gone to many sales, stores or flea markets in a while.  You know how it is.  After a while your house is decorated and you have to move something out if you want to move something else in.

One exception is bead storage.  I’m always looking for bead and supply storage. The holy grail of bead storage for me is a large Hamilton printer’s chest.  But any cabinet with numerous shallow drawers really catches my eye.  If it is old wood, even more so.  I went with my parents to an antiques mall this weekend, and found a small 18 drawer cabinet.  It is beautiful!  Sixteen of the drawers are very shallow, a few are divided, and the two bottom drawers are double the depth.  Most have plain brass knobs, but one of the bigger drawers has a fancy pull.

When we got it home, we put it in a water/bleach bath to clean it up.  My dad – my chief negotiator who got me a great deal on it – asked if I wanted to clean off any of the paint spots that were on some of the drawers.  No, I love stuff to be a little grungy looking.

I wondered why a number of the drawers had a nail or screw attached to the front.  That question was answered when I found it was a machinist’s cabinet, and those were there to identify the contents of the drawer.  I will leave them because I think it adds to the charm.

Here is a picture of it drying, sans drawers, just after its bath.

I am going to have so much fun filling up those drawers!  Then we went to an estate sale.  I got three more things for my craft room.  First, an old egg crate. I don’t know what I’m going to do with it yet, but it’s just so cool.  I know I will find the perfect use.  Here’s a picture (with my foot holding it up to get the sides and top at the same time!)

I also found a colorful tin to add to my collection.

I’m always looking for storage cabinets and tins, so those purchases were not unusual.  But I get a kick out of this last one.

It is a small, old wooden and metal rake.  Two people asked me on the way out what it is.  I said a necklace display!  It will be fun to have some of my jewelry displayed this way in my creative space.  Or maybe some supplies like ribbons.

Right now my craft room has a little bit of ’50s/’60s flair with the fabric I chose to cover a chair seat and have a window shade made, two other ’50s chairs, a formica table, and a steel case desk and filing cabinet.  Now with some old wood, I think it will be a wonderful mix.

It was so fun looking at old stuff and finding treasures again after a while away from it.  Do you have certain things you’d love to find and use in your creative space?