Trash to Treasure Creature

In Monday's photo of the week, I showed a T2T creature that I spotted at my father-in-law's house. Here are a few more shots of it. I love junk art, but I'm just not handy with stuff like welders, so I don't know how to make them. I do know how to run many power tools, but this falls outside of my ability.

It's made from a sprinkler (as one reader already guessed) plus a few other parts. The back is the head of a shovel and then I think the legs may have come from a bicycle or something like that.

 I can't really figure out if the feet came from an old fork or not. I'm just guessing, but they sort of resemble silverware.

One thing I didn't notice...I should have dusted it before I shot the pictures. Oops. Didn't notice it had a layer of "fur".

Transformation Tuesday

I found some winter decorating inspiration on the net today that I wanted to share with you. I was browsing around at The Inspired Room and noticed that Melissa had some great trash to treasure ideas in her photos. Melissa is a design consultant and she's featured her transition from summer to winter in her decor.

For example,  you'll see in her photo below, the great idea for a ladder on the wall. 

Photo linked from The Inspired Room

Want to see more? You'll just have to hope over to The Inspired Room to see the rest of Melissa's great ideas and her before and after transformation.

Muted Monday - Photo of the Week

I spotted this at my father-in-law's house. Do you know what it is? Hint: It's something T2T.

I'll show a few more pics of it later.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all of my readers! I'll be back on Monday.

Swagbucks- Have you tried it yet?

Just a quick note to remind you that if you haven't tried Swagbucks, and you do a lot of searching or shopping on the internet, you can earn money for doing what you already do. In just two months, I've earned $30 in Amazon gift cards by searching and shopping via the Swagbucks site instead of my usual Google.

It's kind of like frequent flyer miles for internet users. By installing and using the toolbar (no spam or spyware included) I get daily points. And by clicking my favorite places to shop from the Swagbucks page, I'm getting paid a little to do what I would do anyway.

Sometimes you find a code on the Swagbucks blog and enter it on the home page. Other times, you just get points automatically when you're using the search engine. There are many ways to get points.

This week, you'll earn 20 bonus points on sign-up if you include the code SignUp2010 at registration (remember it has to be added during sign-up, not after). That means you'll start with 50 sign-up points instead of 30. Then, watch the Swagbucks facebook page, the blog and the messages on your toolbar for ways to earn points in addition to shopping and the search engine. You'll also see the widget on my sidebar where you can find codes. You can cash in points for all kinds of stuff, but my favorite is the $5 Amazon gift card for 450 points.

The bonus expires on Sunday, so if you've thought about trying Swagbucks, now is the time. I know how I'll be paying for next year's Christmas shopping!

Click here to get started

Okay. Now I promise to stop gushing about Swagbucks.

T2T Mini Transformation Tuesday

Life in my Trash to Treasure world is pretty much consumed with Christmas preparation, so my T2T transformations are small. This week, I had my rubber stamps out working on some Christmas gifts, and I had the inspiration to fix a little problem we've had in our household. 

With two teen sons, they tend to leave a lot of cups sitting around. They like to leave them on the window sill by the kitchen sink, but I complain that they get in my way when I open the window in the summer.

Then, they tried putting them on top of the refrigerator. With all the other junk.

In fact, they seem to leave them everywhere. They leave the cups. I complain. But in their defense, my boys say they are trying to save on dishes for me so they don't grab a new cup every time they want a drink of water. 

So that gave me an idea. Why not give them a better place to keep their cups. 

I had two enamelware cups that we seldom use and I decided to label them with their initials. I used white StazOn ink.

After I stamped their initials on the cups, in put cup hooks in the bottom of the cabinet nearest the kitchen sink.

A quick solution, but so far, it's worked.

It's also more convenient for me to grab them when I'm doing dishes, wash them out, and hang them right back up for them.

A simple mini-transformation for a maxi-busy season.

Muted Monday - Photo of the Week

Not much Trash to Treasuring getting done right now. I'm swamped in Christmas prep! But I did take time for a cookie baking day with friends.

Thrifty Thursday- Christmas Gift Idea

For thrifty Thursday, I'd like to show you an idea for a cute gift that is perfect for when  you need a little something to give. I'm giving them to my friends in my women's group and I'll be making a few more for little Christmas gifts.

 

This isn't necessarily a decorating idea, but these post-it note holders would look so cute by the telephone that they are almost a decoration. Or imagine if you added a magnet on the back. It's perfect for carrying in your purse as well. Now, you're probably wondering where the trash part comes in.

Well....these cute little post-it holders can be made from the 4x4 inch cardboard coasters they give you to set your drinks on at restaurants. Now, I needed to make more than just a few, so I used up some scraps of matboard. You can use pieces of chipboard too. Or you can purchase blank coasters from American Coaster (large quantities) which I also di.

I followed the measurements on this fabulous tutorial from Stampin' Up! Demonstrator Andrea Walford on her blog.

Here are a few more pics of my work in progress and a picture of the inside.

Covering the coasters with paper.

Inside view.

The blank coasters.

Isn't that cute?

WWYD Wednesday- Antique Desk

I saw this antique desk for sale on a local e-cafe site similar to Craigslist and I wondered, "What would I do with it?" That's when I knew it would be a perfect question to post to my readers for What Would You Do (WWYD) Wednesday.

If you bought this, what would you do with it? Would you leave it as is? Or would you do something about the blue paint? Then, once it was finished the way you like, how would you use it?

Leave your ideas in the comments below and I'll choose my favorite idea by next WWYD Wednesday.

Muted Monday - Photo of the Week

Winter arrived with a bang this weekend in Northern Wisconsin.

Thanks for the WWYD Ideas!

You've all been great about giving WWYD ideas on Wednesdays. My favorite idea for the chicken feeder from last week's WWYD came from DogsMom.

Since it isn't yard sale season, and I'm starting to run out of material for WWYD posts, I'm going to be hunting around on the Craigslist and FreeCycle websites for photos of things I can post with the question, "What would you do with this?"

If you have an item and you're not sure whether it is trash or treasure, feel free to e-mail a photo to me and I'll post it to my readers for WWYD inspiration. Also, I'm considering a Trash Versus Treasure feature where I post a photo of something and you vote whether it's trash or treasure. 

I seldom post on Saturdays, but we're getting a ton of snow here in Northern Wisconsin, so I thought I'd blog a little and muse out loud today. Happy Winter!

 

Transformation Tuesday - Reader Mail

A little while ago, I received an e-mail from one of my readers named Sandy who sent picture of one of her own trash to treasure transformations. I thought you'd enjoy her ideas as much as I did. She says she found these windows in the trash and she fixed them up. Sandy, you'll have to let us know how you get the mirrors in there. Or do you spray on a mirror paint?

Thanks for sharing Sandy!

WWYD Wednesday

Well, we didn't have any ideas posted for our last WWYD Wednesday on recycling, bin projects so lets try something else. I have this Trash to Treasure item on my beside stand. Can you guess what it is? Hint: scroll down a little and I'll give away the answer.

If you guessed chicken feeder, you are correct. I picked it up a long time ago at a yard sale and decorated it with my rubber stamps and paint. It's a little rusty on the inside, but I put down a doily in the bottom.

I used to use it on the back of the commode in the bathroom with the extra rolls of tissue, but when we installed a new modern design with a "flush" button on the top, I had to relocate my chicken feeder. Now, it's right at home holding my books and other nightstand odds and ends.

So, what would you do with it? Can you think of a way to use a chicken feeder if you picked one up at a sale? For today's WWYD, leave your replies in the comments below.