One Woman's Windows

I have declared myself free from the addiction of junking and have started on the road to recovery.  It is long and arduous, but I feel that the six weeks I went without thrifting or dragging treasures home has cured me.  

I never thought I could go so long.  After the second week I no longer had the urge to shop.  (There were bags of pretzels, dark chocolate, and pistachios consumed. That would be why there is only a reflection of me in the picture.)

I decided that I would get back into the game by hunting for the increasingly rare, wooden windows.  I had my sights set on small six paned ones.  You know the ones that make great cabinet doors and hangings.  I had the desire to create again, not just buy, buy, buy. (I believe that is a symptom of hoarding.)

I had a tip where there might be some hanging out and stealthily I moved in for the take-down.  Other hunters had gotten there before me and claim their trophies with wide swaths of masking tape with ominous warnings to keep away.  Luckily for me they were after big game and left the small ones behind.  I harvested as many as would fit into my truck. loaded them up, and paid the necessary fees for hunting on these grounds.

What will I do with these beauties?  I have a plethora of ideas - old ones and new ones, maybe even some you have not seen.  I promise to post as I transform these into delightful trophies for the wall.

Enough of that extended hunting metaphor, but I am very serious about my architectural salvage finds.  I love doors, windows, moldings, roofing tin tiles, railings, corbels, spindles, and any other piece of building that will fit in my truck.  Here are some photographs of some of the windows I use around the house.

Our very first piece of stained glass was bought decades ago from an antiques fair we just happened to drive past.  We snagged it for just $20!  It has hung on various walls over the years.

The second piece was purchased for only $25.  If you saw it, you would know why. The pots and nest are hiding a pane that had been punched out as the dealer was unloading her car.  

Yes, I do hang windows in my windows.  Except in the bedrooms,  we don't really have curtains and there are no drapes in the entire house.

I love the simplicity of this leaded glass window.  It is wearing a hummingbird feeder given to me by my cousin, but it was hand-painted and too pretty to put outside.  

This beauty I purchased a couple of years ago to use at Christmas with a display of my nativity scenes.  I did not take it down after the season this year, and may just leave it up.  We'll see how it looks with the late summer items!

Sorry for the dark photos and flashes.  As you know I am awful at taking photographs, and plus it was 8:00 PM when I took these.

No natural light!

I have several frosted glass and wavy glass windows throughout the house.  I know these country houses are terribly passe, but a friend made them so for now they stay up there. (If you could only see how much dust resides there , you would drop in a dead faint!)

I possess a whole collection of primitive angels created by a local artist who uses architectural pieces.  Here one hangs on a distressed green window that I found in a DUMPSTER!  How cruel are people!

Here another of Marie's angels hangs on a turquoise window with a bit of tattered lace framing it.

Of course, I have windows all over the yard.  In areas where there are pets i only use ones with the panes removed to avoid broken glass.  This is on the patio - the window frame holds a climbing Sweet Autumn clematis.

Well, that is a partial view of one woman's windows!  I am proud to announce I have started on the transformations of the new old windows, and it involves some double duty from some of them!

Chucks said I should have shown you all of the windows  - in and out, but there is not enough space for that.  And, gosh, I did not even start on the door collection!

Have a wonderful weekend.  

See y'all!





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Bottled Beauty

 VEILED BETTY - A BEAUTY IN A BOTTLE! 

  Above is a photo of Betty, the bathing beauty, captured in a bottle.  As I browsed through the blog hops last week, I saw a few of these photo-in-a-bottle posts.  I thought it was cute, but against the norm and for no real reason, we do not have family pictures out.  The two nieces and the nephew reside on the fridge, but even those aren't usually up-to-date.  So I did not have any cute pics to bottle.  (Though I may attempt to find a beach trip Chucks and I took one summer when we both looked super-cool at the same time!).

So I decided to bottle a store-bought beauty instead.

I purchased these bathing beauties from the clearance shelf at Tuesday Morning.

A whole pack of 24 sheets (all the same) were only a dollar more than a single double-sided sheet of cardstock at Hobby Lobby!

Loved the vintage suits and the sepia tones.  Some have color tints.

Made by Graphic 45 from the Boardwalk Collection and the sheet is called Bathing Beauties (DUH!)

  

I chose to use the large photo for the bottle and a couple of different smaller images for the tags.  (You knew there had to be tags!)

Yes, that is an ancient paper guillotine sitting there.  I have two of them.  Used to have three, but gave away my large one.  I still miss it.

A side story:  When I was teaching if we had a student who was squirmy and needed to escape the classroom, we would give him/her a pass to go find the paper stretcher.

As they traveled from teacher to teacher, the student would be sent to the opposite side of the school sure that he/she would be the one to find that elusive paper stretcher.  It was never found (because it does not exist), but the student would return much more relaxed and ready to learn.  To keep the quest going, from time to time each of the teachers would mention that we wished someone would find that paper stretcher!

NEXT>>>

Go to Hobby Lobby (or for some of you, as you walk the aisles of H.B.) and purchase a bottle large enough to contain your photo.  Make sure it will clear the neck of the bottle.

Don't you think Hobby Lobby needs a neat nickname?  Hob Lob, the HB, or something.

Roll the photo or image and insert it in the bottle.  I used a long screwdriver to gently unfurled the photo and turn it to face one side.  This is a four-sided bottle - a round one might be easier, but I wanted a green one.  Plus this is the one on the super-sale shelves.

TWINS!!! YEAH!!!

I cannot tell a lie, I bought two of the bottles.  I am so clumsy, I thought I might drop one while working with it.

They are suitably veiled for the occasion.  I cut four squares of tulle and rubber-banded it around the bottle neck.

A cork would also look good, but mine were too large and i wasn't going to cut them down.

 

I thought this step would be the easiest - just wanted some small shells.  Went to five stores - no shells.  I wanted cheap ones.  Finally the Dollar General manager sent me to Dollar Tree.  Here is a shout-out to that manager for being so nice!

Glued jute to the backs of three small sizes of shells.

Went to visit Karen at the Graphics Fairy to retrieve this dictionary page of different shells.  Printed it out nine to a page on antiqued cardstock.

Cut them out.  Punched a hole.  Stuck on a hole reinforcement.  Threaded them onto the jute with the shells.

Used three strands for each bottle.

Tucked the strands under the rubber band.

Wrapped two yards of jute around the neck to cover the rubber band.

I used, I think, a sheep's shank knot to slip all the ends through and tightened.

(Make a loop with an end sticking out, wrap twine around several times, stick the end through the loop, pull the end to bring the knot under the wrapping.)

Put some glue over the knot to insure it stays!

One Betty peeking at the other's pretty shell adornment!

The twin beauties in a bottle stand side-by-side looking quite glamorous.

A side view of their tags and shells

Twin Betty's, true bathing beauties, both preserved in a bottle.

I thought about if you were bottling your kids, it would be cute to add some beach sand.  Just don't use tulle for a topper!

Enough for the night.  I have been chopping away at the jungle that was our landscaping.  This is the last week around here to cut back azaleas if you want blooms on the top next spring.  I am almost through - just a few in the back to do.  Then I am spending several days doing nothing!

See y'all!

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