My Salvaged Treasures: January 2012

Sunday, January 29, 2012

All Aboard! Rail Trip, Part 1

What an adventure it was!! I'm still catching up with things here at home and trying to remember where I left off. Why do vacations go by so fast? The first two days really made us question our sanity for traveling to the Pacific Northwest in January, but overall it was a good choice and so much fun.

Klamath Falls, Oregon

This is the cute little sleeping room complete with a toilet/shower combo, sink, seating for five, table, closet, mirror, and storage. The seats fold down for the bottom bed and the top bunk folds down from the ceiling. We sure had some good laughs at the size of the room after the beds were folded out; it looked so much bigger on the Amtrak website. I won't mention the sound of the flushing toilet.

I had no idea there was a movie car. They weren't thrilled with my suggestion for a bowling alley, lap pool, spa, or gym car.

One of the advantages of traveling during the off-season.

Just when we thought train travel was the only way to go in weather like this, they made an announcement that Portland would be the end of the line. A mud slide on the tracks somewhere between Portland and Seattle put a halt to all rail traffic in both directions. Plan B was a 3 1/2 hour, dark, stormy, icy, white-knuckle bus ride to Seattle. Our bus driver really deserved all the applause when we finally landed safely at the train station in Seattle.

The restaurant at The Edgewater where we were staying.

The deserted streets of Seattle the following morning. They rarely get this much snow.

We weren't going to let a little snow keep us inside all day, so we bundled up and headed out on foot.

Pike Place Market

Most of the snow had melted after the second day....another opportunity to walk around and do a little shopping.

I really had to talk myself out of this awesome watchmaker's cabinet. I would have bought it in a heartbeat if I had an easy way to get it back home.

Watson Kennedy.....such a fun store!

Of course we had to make time for all the typical tourist destinations.

The ride to the top of the Space Needle where we ate lunch.

Dan the Comedian, our tour guide for Underground Seattle

So many interesting pieces of history left underground.

Underground museum

What a stark difference between the old and new. Part of the underground is directly below this gorgeous old building.

Love the sign!

I was a little disappointed that I didn't come home with a suitcase full of treasures; most of the pieces that really spoke to me were either too big or not for sale. Too bad all the goodies in the underground or the museum weren't for sale. I'm sure I'd be able to find a good place for the State Hotel sign.

I'll be posting about our field trip to Victoria in Part 2. I'm missing all the great food already.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Rail Trip

I'm packing up my train case and rolling ~~down~~ up the tracks on Wednesday night for a little getaway. My good friend Pam came up with the idea of a train trip to the Seattle area.....in January. The last time I was in the area they were having a heat wave; don't think that will be the case this time. The weather forecast isn't looking so good for the week, but I'm always up for an adventure. I pulled my rain gear out of hibernation and packed my clothes in extra large suitcases just so I'll have plenty of room for all the treasures I hope to find. I won't be completely "unplugged" for the week, but will certainly go through blogging withdrawals.

Do you think the train will make any junking stops?

A 24 hour trip calls for some extra room to spread out, so we decided to splurge on a sleeper cabin.

We'll take the ferry to Victoria for a few days.

After a week of shopping, eating, relaxing, visiting with family, more shopping and more eating, we'll be travelling back home the same way we rolled in. I sure hope we're still speaking to each other.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Not Your Average Chicken Feeder

Sometimes I have to take an object and turn it upside down, inside out, hang it on a wall, or turn it on its side to figure out what it should become.

I rescued this rusty green chicken feeder from the Alameda Antiques Faire a few weeks ago. The painted table top/drawer is now resting comfortably on my desk and it's doing a great job holding papers. After cleaning out the loose rust and spraying it with a coat of clear matte acrylic sealer....

It finally ended up on its side.

I pulled out my stash of glass tubes, added water and flowers,

then snuggled them inside the chicken feeder. I cut up some old sheet music pages using a paper cutter (much faster than doing it with scissors). A shredder would work also, but you'll end up with much finer pieces. The tubes stay firmly in place with the help of the shredded paper.

Move over chickens!

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Hardware Jewelry Creations

So far my new strategy for 2012 is working. Instead of putting all my new treasures away where they belong, I've been trying to keep them in plain sight for a while. I'm much more likely to get something put together if I can see what I have to work with.

These are a few of the jewelry creations I made with bits and pieces from my New Year's Day Treasure Hunt. Now I need to get busy with the stuff in the garage.

This batch of jewelry was made with two of the doorknob plates, a drawer handle plate, and some of the watch faces (not pictured). I already used a couple of the curtain rings. One of the drawer handle plates was too thick and it snapped in half when I tried to bend it for a bracelet. I guess I'll be using the other piece in a different project.

I didn't glue the M from the vintage typewriter because I want to be able to personalize it.

This door knob hole is a bit heavier than the other one and has a worn paint finish. I sprayed the front and back with three coats of matte acrylic sealer. I added an old watch face to the center hole and topped it off with a rhinestone from an old necklace.

I didn't glue in the typewriter key, so this brooch can also be personalized.

This drawer handle plate was much easier to bend and shape. I cleaned it up with some #0000 steel wool and gave it a good spraying. I covered up the holes by slightly bending two watch faces to conform to the shape and then glued them on each end using E6000. After gluing the larger watch face on top, I added a lace edge setting and a vintage typewriter key.

Back side. You can see how the large holes are covered by the watch faces. I punched smaller holes closer to each end for attaching the chain.

The "B" typewriter key is permanently glued in.....Yep, I'm keeping this one for myself.

I'm not sure how long my strategy will work. When things start to look too cluttered I'll have to go back to my old ways of keeping my supplies out of sight and out of mind.

I'm linking up my jewelry projects with:
My Repurposed Life for Catch as Catch Can,
Funky Junk Interiors for Friday Nite Special,
At the Picket Fence for Inspiration Friday,
The Shabby Creek Cottage for Transformation Thursday