The Re-Purposed Driven Life

I love that word--re-purposed! It is way better than recycled.  To me, recycled brings up images of sweaters made from plastic bottles, paper that's no pleasure to write on, and extremely thin aluminum cans--trash made not so much into treasure.  Re-purposed, however, says creativity! It says useful, cool stuff with a new life.  It says beauty from ashes!

I've blogged about my love for second hand stores and garage sales.  Love for good junk is in my blood! Sometimes I buy with a plan and sometimes I just buy and hope a plan comes along! 

Have you ever passed something up and then later thought, "I could have used that!"  I hate it when that happens.  That's why I bought this:

I'm not sure what it originally was.  You can see a metal piece at the top that you could use to hang this on the wall.  It has a little wooden house (country blue from the 90s) attached to it.  I've had it for two years and paid less than a dollar for it.  It looked interesting and I was sure that it would come in handy.....one day!  And guess what!  Molly asked just this week if she can have it to make paper! 

These spools, the branches and the lantern came from garage sales.  The lantern was an outdoor light fixture frame in it's former life and was rusty.  But the price was right at 25 cents and I liked the shape.  The black paint dressed it up a bit and now it has a home wherever I decide to move it!

Former feed bucket with traces of original red paint.  It now holds pinecones, raffia and ratty looking croquet balls by the fireplace.  I love the checkerboard paint!

Sarah needed an art desk in High School.  We had 2x4s and a chunk of plywood.  She 'decorated' it  Now it is a work bench/junk holder in the garage!  She doesn't need it anymore because.....

We made her a new one for her apartment out of more scrap stuff.  The top and apron are formerly shelves that we haven't used in our closets.  Les bought the spindles at the hardware store. 

Now I've got this chunk of a dresser with beautiful ornate carving that Sarah and I dug out of an old rat and snake infested cellar in my parent's pasture.  I think I want to stain it and just hang it on the wall to be purty.  I have sandpaper, I have stain, I have varnish.  All that loveliness could be mine for free!  I just need to do it!

But I haven't even had this in my garage for a year yet!  It's still young!