everything old is new again

This weekend, I created a couple of new things for the house made from old things.

New from Old Thing # 1:

This started when I saw the sweet calendar the lovely Chris at Just a Girl posted in her year-end recap. I fell in love! Now I haven't ordered the vinyl yet because I strongly suspect that I can make my own in a similar way using Adheisive Ink Jet Film from Joann, but this started my plotting.

That plotting took the form of starting to look around the house for frames. In that search, I found the *perfect* frame, only problem was that it was holding the cork of our bulletin board in the kitchen-bugger!

Then, I had a brainstorm! I had a silver frame that came with a generic floral print inside that was given to me by my mother in-law. I measured and found to my delight that the two frames are the same size! Victory was mine. I figured I could swap out the cork and the glass because the silver frame would look so much more chic in the kitchen and I'd still get the calendar frame I wanted. Perfect!

But then disaster struck. Apparently, at some point in the past, I'd Gorilla Glued the cork into the frame. When I carefully as possible removed the cork, which had been painted to match the frame, some of the cork broke off.

Feeling rather defeated, because I didn't know what I'd do to fix the ugliness. I started looking at other people's bulletin boards online. And as I did this, a light bulb went on: Why not cover the cork in some chic fabric? Perhaps some linen from my stash? So, I went digging and found a piece of linen that was once a part of costume skirt that is a few shades darker than our kitchen cabinets! Redemption!

Here's how it turned out:

I used my office stapler to attach the fabric on the back of the cork board. The silver frame echos the brushed stainless knobs and other accessories in the kitchen.

New from Old Thing #2:

A new lamp for our bedroom has been on my agenda for a while now. Somehow, a raspberry lamp didn't fit into our newly brown and blue decor. So, yesterday in a Goodwill run I found a lamp:

Totally ugly.

I brought it home for $6.99. I knew I could make it look cool. And with some scissors, hot glue and more linen from my stash, I now have a perfectly acceptable lamp:

A great improvement, if I do say so myself!