Reuse Recycle.....be creative with what you have.

This is a hall tree I made 3 years ago.  It was one of the last doors I had salvaged.....Now people have figured out that they are amazing sources of wood and I have to buy them....



















We went to the beach this summer and parked on a residential street around the corner from Mo's restaurant and found this.  First of all - I LOVE METAL! I even have a Pinterest board with fun metal reuse ideas.  I am big into reusing things for a new creation.  If you can't see...this is a fountain! ( I should of taken a video...dang it ) Super cool!  They also had a great fence made of this metal siding/roofing (seen on either side of the fountain.  I love it that people are getting original I'm so tired of houses painted taupe and looking all exactly the same.

This is a great fence.....Totally original.
Be original.....don't be taupe.

doors again

I started thinking about how I've used doors and found this photo.  The photo is a bit slanty, sorry.  It's a hall tree.  The legs were purchased on ebay from back east and originally from an old kitchen table.  The top flips up for hidden storage and I added hooks for keys and a vintage garden tool for decoration.  The door was unusually narrow so it wasn't too heavy.  Weight can be an issue. Once I get all the top quality ingredient together sometime the creation ends up weighing a ton! I hated to see this one go.....but I've learned you can't keep every project.  I often wonder how Ana White finds a place for all the things she builds....I'm betting her friends and family get a rotation.  I should of kept this one.  

Another one of my favorites is this bench.  It has a door frame as part of the back.  I will be making another like this soon as I scored the cedar fence boards this week.  All I need now is to finish my current project, but it's been so stinkin' cold. 

little tiny houses

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rough cut lumber boxes with hand made metal handles

My Bird house windows are my favorite.  I always sell out at the summer shows.  Each one is different and well thought out.  Switching the hardware and arrangement until it's "just so"....I can't calculate an hourly total to figure the cost. They are labor intensive, but the joy i get in creating them is well worth it.  This summer when I return as "laura's salvage design" and as a vendor to the Cracked Pots  Community hopefully I will be remembered.  I suppose it was foolish of me to walk away.  I had customers looking for me in my "regular" spot....oh well, there will be others.  Also pictured here are my rough cut boxes.  The hubby creates the handles in the shop and I pull the square nails out of the gorgeous 1x12's.  We salvaged the boards from the deconstruction of Aunt Alice's house.  They were a vertical as part of the exterior wall.  I saved as many as I could.  Even the cracked and broken ones.  I cut slats for the bottoms (usually out of cedar scraps) and coat them with clear acrylic.  They are gorgeous for plants and garden tools outside or mail, towels or firewood indoors.  The rough cut marks are sanded a bit but still beautiful.  Lot of history and very multipurpose.

3 days left

As a teacher, I cherish every moment of any and all days off from teaching.  I wonder if that means I'm not the best fit for an educator?  Since I've persevered through 10 years in a classroom, I suppose it's fine.  I haven't strangled any teenagers yet!  That takes me to my count down.  3 more school days until Christmas Break!  That's exciting, but that doesn't mean rest.  This is the time to salvage good wood, start a new project and make a very long list.  My current list of to-do's starts the minute I get up on Saturday.  I need to organize my shop.  It's so small (just small enough to not need a permit to build) that if it's a bit out of whack I'm too distracted to work.  My shop work habits as are well organized as my teaching and house cleaning patterns.....similar to a pin ball machine.....back and forth here and there and back again.  bing, bing!  It doesn't mean I am useless.....if anything I'm super powered- as long as when I get somewhere I jump back into what I was doing.  For some with this "condition" it's a curse, but for me it is multi-tasking at it's finest.  So the race begins.....because it's the off season good wood isn't free, but the pickin's are prime.  My favorite place to pick (and unfortunely have to pay) is The Rebuilding Center in NE Portland.  It's such an amazing place.  Everything you could want to fix up an old home or create with.  I go for drawers, old screens, painted trim, shutters and "Art" Doors ($5) .  I've scored many wonderful things to improve my own home at super prices. Hopefully this time I'll score some carpet tiles for my living room too. So Saturday I'm off and running up to the Rebuilding Center....but not until I sit through the last 2 - 4th grade basketball games of the season. woo hoo!  Thank goodness there are 3 days before "take off " because it might just take me that long to get a list written up. Now if I could just find my favorite pad of paper.....hmm.