Shed Building Plans: finds

Showing posts with label finds. Show all posts

Life with Max Pt 5 Max Finds His Zen

Chapter Five – Max Finds His Zen

On New Year’s Eve Max became gender neutral. It happened without fanfare. It happened without drama. It happened without slowing him down for one.single.solitary.moment. He was fighting the anesthesia from the moment I picked him up from the vet and I had to pick him up at noon because the clinic was closing early that day. He utterly and completely refused to sleep it off and that stance went on for the rest of the afternoon and evening until he finally, mercifully collapsed out of sheer exhaustion.

Life with Max Pt 5 Max Finds His Zen

Random Shopping finds J Crew and Thrift Shoppes!

I saw this in the J Crew Outlet in Michigan City, Indiana and instantly fell in love! I love the citron cardi (to me it will always be tennis ball yellow) and the navy shorts and crisp white shirt. But what I am loving most of all is the polka-dot bow tie! It is absolutely adorable! I have been picking up bow ties at second hand stores lately because I so want to copy this trend. I love this look so much. Casual and yet so polished!

I also gushed over this lobster cotton sweater. It just screams summer and reminds me of my time in Kennebunkport, Maine. One of my most favorite places in the whole world. This is on my J. Crew bucket list for sure! Adorbs.

Since getting my iPhone, I love that fact that I have a camera with me at all times and I must admit the photo quality is pretty sweet. I find myself taking pictures and videos of totally random stuff. This post is simply a collection of some of these pictures! :-)

I stopped in a Thrift Shoppe (I like to spell it that way to class it up a bit :-) and found this vintage table! I love this - the metal detailing, the decorative trim all make it adorable. I dont know what I am going to do with it but I could not pass it up for $10! White with silver metal accents? Deep cherry with silver? Mahogany with gold? Seriously confused. :-)

Then I walk five more feet and come across with this low side table. It is SO cute and again it was only $10! I think I am going to paint this and use it for flip-flop storage in my new navy and pink closet. But the more I look at it, I think it would be a wonderful bedside night stand. Storage for books and such. And it also has a larger drawer for storage at the bottom. I will have to think about this one.

I also found this vintage magazine holder. This is definitely going to get painted and stenciled but there are so many possibilities that my head is spinning. I am going to take my time until I come up with the perfect idea.

Then I found this adorable metal sign at Hobby Lobby! I love the saying and think I may have to use this quote somewhere in my house! SO cute.

So those are just some random shopping finds I wanted to share. I have lots of work to do with my thrifty finds. Hopefully, I will be posting "AFTERs" very soon. Have a great week - enjoy the promise of Springtime!

Random Shopping finds J Crew and Thrift Shoppes!

HomeGoods clearance finds became This!

I am addicted to HomeGoods! I always have been. I have even resorted to giving it up for Lent, along with TJ Maxx and Marshalls... The real holy trinity! Lol.

I recently found this in the clearance section for $10! Granted it was really beat up and missing a pocket, but I could totally see the potential that it had. Plus, it was only $10!! So, I bought it and it was sitting in my garage and I showed it to my sister. So she moved the pocket and painted it. It looked awesome except for the big blank spot at the top.

Then I remembered two plaques I bought a while ago because I loved them! They went into my "I dont know what Im going to do with this but I dont want someone else to get it and I know Ill use it someday" bin! Do you do this too?

So I glued the adorable Seaside crab plaque to the top and I couldnt love it more! All for $24! A sweet summer HomeGoods find!

HomeGoods clearance finds became This!

Insulator Post 2013 Springfield Finds

This year I almost skipped the big insulator show that happens every year in November at Springfield Ohio. In the end I did decide to go after all. The show is a bit of a tradition now with this being my fourth year of attendance in row. As one of the biggest shows in the country I just cant pass up the opportunity of possibly adding some new pieces to my collection.

When I first got into collecting glass insulators I quickly took the sage advice of an experienced collector and specialized my interest in the hobby around the California Glass Insulator Company. I love the soft pastel colors of the California glass and the interesting history of the company that operated for only four years. (1912-1916) Now on the eve of 2014 I am certain that the pieces in my California collection are between 98 and 102 years old. 2014 is the 100th anniversary of the reorganization of the small upstart company which occured in 1914.

During a rare sunny day in December I set up in the back yard to photograph my new pieces. In the above picture are four sage green CD 161 "Signal" Insulators. These are a relatively common shape and color from CGIC and can be found for around $5 a piece or a bit more for a pristine example. Note the difference in "Dome Glass" at the top of each insulator. Dome glass is a term used by collectors to describe the solid glass at the very top of the insulator. Because CGIC did not adhere to strict quality control measures back in the day the depth of the threaded hole and resultant dome glass can vary widely.

Even though I already have a few of these I couldnt pass up this nice pale purple CD 152. A common insulator that once probably sat atop a pole along a railroad out west.

Two CD 102 Ponies and a CD 112 "Keg". These little guys are a bit more rare. They were used on telephone circuits.

For the past couple years Ive been looking for a scarce power insulator called a CD 208 "Cross Top" Although commonly produced in larger numbers by eastern glass houses the California cross tops were made in limited quantities and used on only a few power distribution lines in the west. These unique insulators got their nickname from the double grooves situated in a cross pattern at the top of the dome. Im not sure of the purpose of the double grooves but I suspect the arrangement offered more options to the lineman who secured the heavy power conductors to the insulator with tie wires. Perhaps two tie wires would be fixed at 90 degrees to one another providing a very secure attachment of the power line to the tower.

After carousing most of the show floor I settled on a beat up CD 208 that had some cracks, a broken inner skirt and severe wear on the top of the dome. Normally I dont choose to buy an insulator unless it is very near if not mint condition. This trade off in my collecting method means I have to be patient and wait for the right piece to come along or else settle for a less than perfect example of the CD Im looking for. In this case the desire to have a cross top in my collection won out over my normal modus operandi and besides the price was right on the damaged 208 at ten bucks.

After passing just a few more tables and nearly at the end of the show floor I spotted another cross top and to my amazement this one was in perfect shape. Of course I had to pay full collector market price for this one but I finally found a winner cross top for my main window display.

Damaged insulator on the left.

Technical note: For the opening group shot of insulators I used a setting on my Cannon camera called "Vivid". This setting enhances the color which looks great but is not really a true representation of the colors as they appear. The remaining pictures on the post were all taken with a normal automatic setting to account for the bright background. I prefer to photograph glass insulators in direct full sunlight and while this does tend to wash out the look a bit I feel it provides the most accurate color representation of the glass.

Insulator Post 2013 Springfield Finds