Willow Ridge Primitives

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Trash to Treasure Day

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I hadn't had much opportunity to get

out to any garage sales this summer. In part because I babysit my grand daughter 2 days a week and I didn't have a car seat. Well, since finding a very nice car seat for just $10.00 (at a garage sale of coarse) I have turned into a garage sale & thrift store junkie. Of coarse I always come home with a toy or 2 & baby cloths for Sienna. She loves cows and I couldn't believe I found this Fisher Price cow for $1.00. He was as filthy and smelly as a real cow, but I knew how to remedy that!



But my favorite stuff is always the beat up, out of style home decor.

I have a small pile of baskets now which I have paid anywhere between .25 cents and a dollar each. They are all very nice handmade baskets but were unforetunately made with country blue accents and little stamped designs between the weaves. I was hoping to give them the extreme prim finish job. One gal (Terripal) on my Delphi primitive chat group was kind enough to tell me how to achieve the effect. So I painted up a couple of my baskets, plugged in hubbies heat gun, and nothing, LOL! Now, mind you, I have never used a heat gun. I knew they got hot and I was told to do it outside because it would really stink. So when the smoke started pouring out the back of the gun and stinking I thought I was right on track. But when the paint didn't begin to bubble I turned off the gun. When I mentioned the smoke to DH he informed me the basket was suppose to smoke - NOT THE GUN!!!!!!! LOL!!!!! Anyway, I decided to just settle for sanding the paint and staining over it this time around. When DH gets a new heat gun I'll try again on some more baskets. That is, if he ever dares to let me touch his new gun, LOL.

(You'll find the baskets "before" picture below in an earlier post)

I was really excited when I spotted a windsor bar stool in the driveway of a garage sale. When I got up close I could see how beat up it was. Just the way I like 'em. And the best part - it was only $5.00! It was nice and tight and sturdy. Very structurally sound. The only flaw was that the back had been turned and banged into the sharp edge of a counter top what appeared to be many many times. Lucky me! I just sanded and reshaped the edges of the back, sanded off the rest of the varnish, painted, sanded again, rubbed some stain over it, and brushed on some poly. Better than new!

My next stop was the charity thrift store. They were

over stocked and having a 1/2 price sale on eveything in the "out-back" store. I had been watching Craigs List for weeks for a inexpensive tv armoire with no luck. Not one under $200.00. Then I walk into "Love Inc" and there, before me is a 4 door tv armoire! In need of a little TLC which means a better price of coarse! I was stunned when I looked at the price - $25.00. That meant I was getting it for $12.50. It's only problems were that it was missing the stop for the top doors and the doors were scratched up. So, out comes my sander again, more black paint, more poly and I now have a new prim tv cabinet. Now if only they made tvs look more prim, LOL! Somewhere around here I have some primitive iron star knobs. But I have been living in Kaos since the move and I haven't located them yet. I'm also considering putting the top doors back on which means I'll have to use the smaller tv in the cabinet. We'll see. I've got too many other things to do around here before I get into that.