Media Stand made from Old Nightstand

For some time, I’ve been halfheartedly looking for a new piece of furniture to serve as a small ‘media stand’ for the den.  I couldn’t find anything I liked in thrift stores, so after a few months, I sort of stopped looking.

Then, one day last month, I was in the last mile of a 14-mile run in an historic neighborhood downtown, when up ahead of me I saw what appeared to be a piece of furniture on the side of the road.  As I got closer, I saw that it wasn’t just my glucose-depleted state causing my imagination to run wild or a trick of the light; it was, in fact, an upside-down, three-legged nightstand that had seen better days.  It was the perfect size and had the exact design I envisioned for my little media stand – a large opening for the cable box and DVD player and a drawer for small items (matches for the fireplace, extra extension cords, etc.) to be stored.

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Dog Toy Box from Old Milk Crate

 After we got our second dog about a year ago, the number of dog toys lying around the house multiplied and I finally got tired enough of tripping over them to do something about it.  They needed a home, even if they would still wind up spread all over the house over time.  I decided I wanted to find a cute wooden crate, attach some kind of feet to it, and toss all the toys inside – but not one of those unfinished ones from the craft store.  I’ve got a few of those storing other things around the house, but I wanted this one to be different.  

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New Vanity from Thrifted Desk

 One of the projects I referred to in yesterday’s post is the new vanity I made…in August.  I had the idea that I wanted to start back to blogging with this project after my unannounced break, and though I completed it in August, I kept waiting.  The main reason was that I wanted to wait to unveil it after I found just the right chair to go with it…but I had difficulty finding what I wanted at the price I wanted to pay, so I kept delaying.  Sure, I could have posted the vanity as it was and posted the new chair when I found it as a separate post, but I was convinced that I would find one quickly.  Days ticked by…then weeks…then months…and here I am in March returning to the blog…and I’m posting them separately anyway to keep the posts a bit shorter!  Oh well.  Now that you have (entirely too much) boring background information, I’ll get to the exciting stuff.

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Coke Bottle Lamp and Bottle Cap Lampshade

This project began over the summer with a Coke bottle that has been displayed on a shelf above my desk for about 8 years.  I decided it was time to do something to make it useful, so after I discovered a cool lamp making kit online, I made a lamp out of it…which then created a need for a one-of-a-kind lampshade to go with it!  

There’s a fresh produce store about 20 minutes from our house, and they sell soft drinks in glass bottles.  Right next to the fridge where the bottles are stored is a wall-mounted bottle opener with a jar under it to catch the lids.  The store just tosses the lids when the jar gets full, so I started collecting them every time I went to that store this summer to buy fresh strawberries.  Over a period of about 5 months, I collected what seemed like enough to complete this project…and it turned out that I collected the exact right number – plus one extra!  Couldn’t have planned it better if I’d tried.  Continue reading

Wireless Router Book Cover

 
I’ve always thought our router was ugly.  It’s in a prominent spot in our kitchen, due to the fact that at any given time, we have one or more computer using the wireless connection, and that computer could be upstairs above the garage, upstairs where the bedrooms are, downstairs in the kitchen or den, or outside on the patio or hammock.  And the kitchen was the central location.  So there it sits on our antique side table, looking ugly.

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Souvenir Penny Charm Bracelet

While I was unpacking a few boxes of childhood treasures that came from my bedroom at my parents’ house, I came across my souvenir penny collection, along with my American coin collection and some foreign money left over from trips to Europe.  I laid them all out where I could see them so I’d remember to think about what to do with them (out of sight, out of mind!).  With the foreign coins, I made magnets, but the souvenir coins seemed wrong for magnets.  So they sat there for a few months while I considered my options.

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