Bakers Rack to Desk

I have been thinking I need a small desk for a while now. I have a smallish bedroom and that's actually the only place in the house for it. So I decided to carve out a tiny corner in hopes that I would one day find a desk. I was cruising through D.I. a few weeks ago, and saw this darling little bakers rack. Some re-purposer such as myself had painted it very cutely to match either a really cheery kitchen, or a kids room. If you are out there, kudos to you. It was darling, just not my style or colors. I sat there ogling it for a while, imagining what I would do with it and thinking what a shame it would be to waste the space in the wine rack. I guess there are some people that need a little vino as part of their desk accessories, but...
     The rack was a whopping $15.00 so I figured I had to take it for whatever reason. I could make it work as the desk.

     So I painted the whole thing flat black and went to Home Depot to find something to put as a back panel that I could either put magnets on, for notes, or calendar stuff, etc. There is this panel that they sell that looks like metal, (I used a silver one for a backsplash in my kitchen) and it's about $19.00. It's made of some sort of plastic, but it was gorgeous and perfect. So I got that and about $8.00 worth of cut glass knobs for four little drawers on top. I put some books and a plant and candles up on the top racks, and attached the panel with just hot glue. (My favorite hot glue episode - I hot glued my oldest daughters blessing dress. Not sewed it together. Glued it together.)
    

      I put a bin on the bottom and spent a half a day unwinding yarn and reorganizing my massive yarn collection. Hated it. Loved the end result of yarn in balls for the first time in years. For the roving and wool I have, I have some antique spindles I used to wrap the yarn around and am going to put them in the wine rack so it doesn't completely go to waste!

     So I put the little skinny bakers rack/desk into the corner, popped my computer on it, and now I have a little place for my computer instead of on my lap on the bed! I think the whole thing total cost $50.00, spray paint and all, so on top of all the fun it took to make it happen, it was worth saving a few bucks to get what I really wanted.   

Little Brown Purse

I'm not really a purse person, since I usually just carry all my belongings all skeewompus in my arms like a foraging forest animal. Drop makeup bag. Pick it up. While picking it up, drop tiny little Dell computer. Pick it up with tears in eyes. While crying, drop banana and yogurt for breakfast. Pick up sad, bruised banana, and so on. I always make a yearly resolution to TRY a purse for a while, but it usually ends up getting so filled with junk that I eventually leave it somewhere. Abandon it with reckless abandon is how I do it. I have one filled up rejected purse in the trunk. About 3 in my closet. I have officially given up on taking a purse with me on a daily basis and I happily accept and embrace my bag-lady tendencies.

    But occasionally, I love to re-purpose a vintage purse I see, and if it's small enough, I can usually just shove in the lip gloss and tiny hair spray and some cash and carry it around for a special occasion. This is one such purse. I found it at D.I (of course I did!) and it was in great shape,. It had a long chain, but I removed it because I hated the type of gold look it had, plus I need a clutch. Key word: clutch. If the purse was called a Grasp, or a Grab that would fit my lifestyle also. Anyway, so it was fun to figure out what to do to make it mine. I got the chain and all the little charms to go on it at Michael's. I sort of bolted it in on top and there is a chain on each side. So the chain wouldn't fly around I anchored it at the bottom with a piece of wire sort of stitched in. I am totally jazzed about this purse. I'm guessing if every woman has to have a LBD (Little Black Dress) they also need to have a Little Brown Purse.

I Heart D.I.

I'm not ashamed of my love for perusing second-hand stores. Here in Utah we have Savers, D.I. (Deseret Industries) and a variety of others, including the best vintage store ever... Decades. I have so much love for Decades that I could write and write on it. But there's just something about seeing something old, used, worn out, outdated and rejected by someone else that makes my pulse race.  I can see its potential. What it CAN be. The old ratty cardigan becoming bejeweled and embellished, the outdated bakers rack turning into a mini desk for my office. The list goes on and on. It's a sick sort of gift, but I'm grateful for it. I became obsessed with refurbishing furniture and home decor with spray paint years ago. I did an entire bedroom set in a weekend and got a sinus infection to beat the band for not using a mask. It's kinda obvious what I do now when I am on a roll, which I was this last weekend.  Oh, and lets not forget to talk about the best spray paint ever, which is Krylon. I like to do projects fast and furious, so I usually see a piece of furniture and sand the rough spots, prime it with spray paint primer if needed, and then spray like crazy. I never even waste my time with another spray paint. Too many botched projects to count from dollar store spray paint. Now I am wondering if there could be some brain damage that happened to me from inhaling all of the paint, because I am actually blogging about spray paint brands.
  

But back to my original thought of taking every spare minute when I am not at work or with my kids, to hang out at second-hand or vintage stores and buy stuff. My goal is to take Black Crow and turn it into a real brick & mortar store. I think teaching classes in re-purposing would be a riot as well as selling the stuff. So after celebrating my birthday with a great lunch, I went out with my buddy Michelle and my oldest daughter Emma (22), and I saw this little wall mount votive holder. Before I get into what did with the little votive holder, I need to say that I think that since it is the new year, (or maybe I am just antsy) I have this strong desire to de-clutter the entire house. But I am particularly annoyed and bugged by the chaos that is my teenagers bedroom and bathroom. Lucy (17) and Hannah (14) seem to be oblivious to the fact that live in a place where FEMA could be called in at any moment. HAZMAT suits should be worn at all times while going into their bedroom and bathroom. I have only begun to slightly deal with their bedroom, but to alleviate much stress I decided to start the big-gun organizing with their bathroom. No words for it. It's just...awful. I am not obsessed with a perfectly clean house, but I close the door when I see the bathroom. Walk away, I tell myself. Just. Walk. Away.

     The main part of the counter clutter seems to be headbands. All sizes, shapes, colors, and textures. Huge clusters of flowers, gems, beads, etc. embellish these hefty monsters, unlike the headbands of the 70's that I got to wear. Some cheap plastic arch that clung to my head with little death spikes. So I was at D.I. and found this little wall mount votive holder that I had an Ah-ha moment about. I liked the color, which meant no spray painting needed. So I touched up the beads with some fingernail polish (c'mon, they needed to match the bathroom!) and hung it up with one of their huge flower ponytail holders on top. I threw the headbands and there and am loving life. They can hang necklaces on there, ponytail holders, barrettes, etc. It's a dang handy catch-all, I have to admit, and there are officially 15 less things on their little counter of terror now.

New Years Resolve...

So new year...new thoughts. I have decided to take Black CrowShay to a new level and add a few more things to the tiny little "company" I have. I want to expand it and grow it a bit, first in changing its name to encompass a bit more. The Black Crow. So here are my ideas...
1. Continue my commitment to wear ONLY things bought secondhand. From places like D.I.. Savers, (other states have Goodwill, etc) Plato's closet, etc. However, I have to exclude a few things, I just do. Shoes are not included in this (of course not!) I get most of them free from my bro who works in a shoe department. Also jewelry not included. I'm not sure why, but I never really find secondhand jewelry that I am in love with. Except that one awesome bracelet from D.I. that was Lucky Brand. Oh my. But this odd quest isn't necessarily due to my tightwad tendencies, it's just to say I did it. I am crazily drawn to second hand stores, yard sales, anything where I can see the fruits of my searching. What a great game it all is. The search. The find. The wearing! So much love. I hope to take pics and post them of my finds, along with the ideas of  ways to wear them. This pic is of some gloves I bought at the dollar store during Christmas and after seeing a picture in Elle of embelished gloves similar, I glued these little fun gems on and had a blast wearing them during the holidays.
2. To hunt down, find, and re-furbish and re-construct clothes, hats, sunglasses, purses, furniture. You name it, I am game to do it. For years this strange skill of mine hasn't really paid off for me, but I'm determined to have it pay off somehow this year. The Black Crow will not just have scarves and jewelry, but so much more! All of it committed to re-purposing found items, whatever they may be.
3. To follow other blogs, learn from others and other business women, how to make it work. How to take a talent or an aptitude and make it fun to read about. Make it worth putting out there.
That's it for my wishes. Wish me luck.