Antiquing on the road- Pasadena Community College Flea Market

     Today is was rainy and kind of cool, but that didn't stop us from hitting the road in search of a little adventure. We caught the tail end of the Pasadena Community College Flea Market. This is a great event held the first Sunday of every month. Unlike nearby Rose Bowl Flea Market, the prices at this venue are more affordable. However, many of the sellers are the same. Much of the flea market is now held inside the parking garage (genius) which means it's nice and cool on summer days and sheltered from rain on days like today.

          Many of the vendors had already started to pack up by the time we reached the event. However, I was still able to pick up a great suitcase (bottom of the stack) to complete my night stand in the boy's room. It has an immaculate interior, leather trim and is navy. Perfect! At just $20 it was a great deal.

     I also snagged a really sweet bird print. This was part of a set of five but I am really out of wall space in the house. The seller was willing to let me purchase a single, and I think I got the best one! At $20 it was a good buy. The professional framing alone probably cost that.

     We found a little Chinese restaurant after the flea market where I got a fantastic fortune. Maybe we'll be hearing about a new adoption match this week? We'll see!

     We capped off the day with a trip to The Container Store for some always needed storage and were back home in time for a nice fire, a delicious dinner and some peace and quiet.

Repurposed bike rack.....

     Whilst (just wanted to use the word) out shopping at one of my new favorites, Farm Girls Vintage Finds, I happened upon a rusty old bike basket. At just $10 I knew I could put it to use in some way. It's metal, it's old, it can be spray painted, so of course it had to come home with me. It sat on the porch for a week, then in my family room for another week. Let's just be honest. Sometimes all the time I bring home something I have no actual use for at the moment.

     The new bedding came for the boy's room and I saw the forlorn bike basket sitting on the floor in the boy's room. I realized it was time to put this puppy to use. I went outside, applied a couple coats of Valspar spray paint and mounted it in the boy's room on their artwork/chore wall. It's great to corral sticker books and lose papers. Little Rural was quick to add a few things.

     Sometimes these are my favorite finds! Simple, practical and salvaged.

Pantry Makeover.....

     We are lucky to have a pantry in our home. However, with the extra deep shelves it's been ten years of frustration trying to find things. Food would fall in the back, become expired or we'd purchase duplicates because we never really knew what we had. We have garage storage, a whole wall, devoted to back stock for cans, pastas, etc. So, we really needed the kitchen pantry to function better as a day to day living tool. This meant starting with a little demo!

     Mr. Rural knocked out the existing shelves in the pantry. Thankfully they came out neatly and could be reused in the makeover. He simply cut the shelves down to 10". Now 10" might not be your ideal so I suggest testing a few of your commonly used items and see what works best for you. 10" was a perfect match for us.

     You can see from our kitchen the sheer mass of food that was stored in that one, small pantry. No wonder it was hard to find anything.

     Next Mr. Rural reinstalled the shelves and sealed them. I'll have to repaint inside the cabinet another weekend.

     Now that we had some spiffy shallow shelves we have a step in pantry which is great! There was now room on the side for an apron hook. Then it was off to Ikea for lots of new clear containers and a few other odds and ends!

     Ikea has great tall, clear containers for just $3.99 and the smaller clear containers for $2.99. I also picked up a simple wood wine rack for the bottom of the pantry as well as a metal container for dog food. The bulk of the dog food can stay in the larger garage container. I also picked up a couple baskets from Target for snacks, chips and pastas. 

     The final outcome is an organized masterpiece. We have a few things left to do. We have side storage to add on the inside, labeling to do on the canisters on the top shelf (though we can clearly see what's inside), lighting and painting. However, I'm so happy that I did cut the shelves back. It's a huge difference and I know food won't be wasted.

Antiquing- staying local.....

     Sometimes the best place to find some great deals is right around where you live. As spring is starting to show it's face garage sale signs are popping up. Here in CA we haven't had much of a winter so everyone is out a little early. Also, even my tiny town has a few great spots for some local foraging. We have three great thrift shops, three good size antique malls and there is always a roadside treasure just waiting to be picked up.

     This week I've been staying local, but I've still been on the hunt for a few things. One of the main things on my list, now that the boy's antique beds are finished, are suitcases for some under bed storage that is still worth seeing. I found two adorable blue suitcases this week. One was $20 (the smaller one shown) and I found a larger suitcase for $5. Of course, I have to thrown in a story there. Next to one of the antique malls is a man's workshop in a tiny, little sliver of an office. He keeps the door open and occasionally he'll put a few treasures outside. I've known him about ten years so when I was at the antique store I happened go talk to him. Did he have any suitcases? There at the very back, on top of a huge stack of who knows what was a blue suitcase! At $5... a total score! Another shop yielded clearance vintage books. I chose a few with funny titles and great graphic covers for our mantle.

     We also have a really great "name your own price" thrift shop where you can literally name your own price within reason. I happened upon a fantastic old crib base which I'll repurpose into a memo board. This is a great spot for old light fixtures, salvaged wood for projects, miscellaneous junk otherwise known as treasure! I try to check this place out when I'm looking for a project, something to keep myself busy. Overall it's been a good week for finds and as soon as this sore throat goes away I'll be back to it!

Antique bed project.....

     Wow, these antique beds have been a lot of work. After finding two antique beds on CL (see previous post) I sanded them down. The finish on them was not in such bad shape but I was worried I wouldn't be able to get the two beds to match. Also, I had really been dreaming of two blue beds. I went to my local Ace Hardware and found a great shade of blue called Dark Diversion.

     After giving both of the beds a solid coat of paint I was able to distress them. Then came the fun part.... wax! Paste wax can be finicky but overall I'm happy the finish I achieved. The beds are almost ready to go into the boy's room. However, the rails are still de rusting and they need a good coat of Krylon. So, until then you only get a small preview....

Craigslist find!

     Yesterday I was scouring Craigslist for an antique iron bed for our imaginary girl's room (see previous adoption post) and I happened upon two mahogany antique beds with rails. The pair was $100 and they were in good structural condition but needed some refinishing. SCORE! I had been looking around at wood beds for a painting project. I wanted to add blue beds to the boy's room, but hadn't fallen in love with anything yet.

     I immediately emailed the seller and arranged pick up. It was only after I was on the road I realized the town was an hour and a half away. Oh well, what is L.A. traffic when you are in love? A long, traffic ridden quick trip later I was the proud owner of two beds, one of which was in much worse condition that the other. Thankfully, it was only the finish that was a problem. That and the second set of bed rails was a little rusty.

     Now I have the rusty ends of the bed rails soaking in vinegar (yes, it works) and the beds are all sanded down and ready for their next life. Though I love these beds, and the wood is in decent shape, I really want to paint them. I know many of you are groaning but my dream was for blue distressed beds with a paste wax finish. Wish me luck. Though I've painted furniture for years I've never used paste wax. I'll have an update soon!

Foster adoption stinks.... and why we aren't finished...

     BW has now been in our home over five months. Parental rights are terminated and the appeal period is over. We are now waiting on an adoption date which can only occur after he's been in our home for six months. Soon, hopefully soon. That being said, we still miss our girls every day. Some days are harder than others. We went from a house of six to a house of four and that is pretty darn quiet.

     I have sworn to myself for months that we were finished. We were going to accept that we were meant to have two boys and we were going to move forward. We got a new puppy! We turned the girl's room into a playroom the weekend they moved out. By we I mean I did those things. Mr. Rural is an only slightly willing participant in decorating and puppy acquisition. Then, this past week, it hit me. I want a girl and that feeling isn't going to go away.

     Many families have all boys or all girls and that is that. However, in the world of adoption you have a little more choice, a little more leeway. I want a girl. Mr. Rural wants a girl. So, after hemming and hawing and back and forth and all the worry we have over getting back on this foster parenting roller coaster we have made it official. We are officially on the list for a female ages 3-5. Little Rural needs to stay the oldest. Baby Rural really needs to stay the baby. I want a preschool age or kindergarten aged little girl who will fit right into the middle. We'll see what life and God brings us. We are once again praying, hoping, wishing and praying some more. Here goes nothing!

Small town and making "mom" friends....

     If you've ever been lonely and wanted some mom friends I think you'll relate to this post. I live in a small town. A lot of the moms I do know work. Then there are the moms that are a little scary, the ones who show up at school pick up wearing fishnets and high heels with a college sweatshirt and dreadlocks. You just can't approach that! It's hard to meet other like minded mommies.

     Lately I've been going for walks in our local park. I find that trying to meet moms at the park is a lot like meeting men in bars. There are awkward pick up lines in the form of questions about the other mom's children. "Gosh, your little boy is so cute!" Awkward silence, "She's a girl." Well, scratch that mom right off my list. The sad part is, just like a bar dude trying to close the deal, how do you leave with a phone number?

     If you have an answer by all means post it in the comments section. Since our small town has minimal clubs there aren't many opportunities to meet other mommies. For now I'm stalking the library, doing circles around the park and hanging out at my son's school pick up way longer than necessary in hopes of finding a few new friends. Maybe I'll consider an ad in the paper "Married mother of two seeks companion for long walks in the park....."  Well, it's one idea anyway.

It got a little chilly....

I had dreams of spring and started getting my seeds together for an inventory. I put together my new gardening journal complete with photos of the garden as it is now so I can plan new beds. What I didn't plan on, however, was the return of winter. Souther California hasn't had much winter this year and I had already broken out my flip flops. However, it seems unlikely we are due to have an early spring.

     While the weather decides what it's going to do I'm busy training the new puppy (more on that later) and working on speech skills with Baby Rural. I've ordered some seeds for our new "root" section and pumpkin patch and written down a long list of must haves for the front yard makeover. For now though it's magazines, blogs and Pinterest because these freezing temps aren's going to allow for any planting.

   

In the garden- gearing up for spring....

     You know you have amazing friends when you get offered a huge surplus of unwanted clay pots. Why yes, yes I'd love them! My friend, and social worker, offered me this huge basket of clay pots this week and I was giddy with excitement to pick them up. These will be soaked and cleaned and used in the greenhouse for lot so of seed starts for years to come. I love clay pots for getting plants started as they breathe.

     This week I'm also getting seeds organized and I've started a new garden journal. Though there are many ready made gardening journals out there none seemed to be just right for my purpose. Instead I found this cute half size binder and picked up paper for seed starting notes, tabs to divide the garden into sections, clear sleeves for articles that I may find useful and pouches for slipping my seed packages in my binder. I'm trying to make sure that my notes are in better order than last year so I can check actual harvest times. I'll let you know how that goes.

     Seed swapping anyone? I've been on the hunt for some local seed swaps. I did find a nice woman in a town near me who exchanges cuttings and extra starts so that is a nice resource. I already have multiple azaleas in the ground from her stock. I think I might try to share my seed starts this year as well.