A RUSTY GOLD MINING PAN, WITH PERHAPS A LOT OF HISTORY!

Welcome to Sweet Tea N' Salty Air, so very happy you could stop by. I have been constantly busy with Spring preparations, mostly gardening Today I want to share a very special piece that was bought for me from a local antique auction from a very sweet friend . If you visit here you know that I love old things that tell me a visual story, perhaps because I am a writer by day so to speak.
When I got my hands on this treasure my mind wandered quickly with thoughts of just how many rivers the gold prospector worked this pan at. This shallow pan was used in shallow water such a river. It would be dunked under and retrieve grains of gravel and sand and hopefully a gold nugget or two. I don't know if it was used in the California Gold rush or not but she sure has seen her day, she wears a cover of rust and truly looks tired. But to me it's beautiful. It looks as though someone had given her a coat of gold paint and drew a line map on it , it also has someone's initials as Y. O. on it.

I made a small garland to decorate it with and my rooster proudly takes guard.

 Perhaps the retired gold prospector drew his treasure map!

 Here it is turned upside down , sure looks overworked right?  Today they still sell gold mining pans with a similar design. Today as well as yesteryears gold is one of the earths best gift! Even though there are several ways to "dig" for gold the pan is still used by many prospectors in shallow water. So happy I could share this little piece of history with you, Thanks so very much for stopping by!

THERE GOES PETER COTTONTAIL HOPPING DOWN THE BUNNY TRAIL.........

Happy Sunday to you! I have been busy with many Spring duties such as painting, power washing, cleaning rearranging. There is something about Spring that always includes clean. So today I thought I would craft a wooden sign out of some old wood flooring.   "Cottontail Cottage" seems like a lovely place to dwell!

 I started by painting the entire board an olive green then I proceeded to paint the entire piece white. I just dabbed some blue paint on and immediately brought it to the sink and washed it off, so the olive paint shows through and some blue gets left behind. I painted on the bunny's backside and included a puffy lace tail.

 

LIGHTENED UP WALLS AND DARKENED UP FIREPLACE!

Welcome to Sweet tea N' Salty Air, so very happy you could stop by. I am thankful for all my readers that I can share all my décor and crafty craziness with. Well you know how I had the cocoa colored living room walls? I tired of it, the darkness of the walls was blocking the perfect Chi that I was trying to obtain. So I scanned the home centers for the perfect color that would be versatile with all my color themes. I finally choose "Whispering Wheat" by Glidden, I choose the paint that was a little more money but primer and paint in one, It actually covered the dark brown in one coat I give that paint an Aplus! I thought I would have to swipe it at least 2xs. The colors that Glidden recommends is Polished Pewter and Smokey Charcoal that will match well.

The contrast works well with the fireplace I painted a deep charcoal color along with the dark mirror , it makes the fireplace pop with color even though its dark.

 I left some white showing through on some of it to add some visual interest.

I added some wisteria to a grapevine swag to give it some height also I hung a piece of milk glass.  I think I will hang some dishes from my latest thrift adventure. The room is much brighter there is recall not a lot of natural light that shines through seeing that hurricane shutters are like an awning so they can be put down in a snap , we are in hurricane area and all glass gets covered when we are alerted.

 

 This is the brown wall and light color on the fireplace the brown was nice while it lasted but the lighter color really opens up the room. Remember contrast is really a plus for making your furnishings pop. Thank you for taking the time from your busy day!

SOME GREAT THRIFT STORE FINDS!

Hello there, As usual Mr. Sweet Tea and I went on a thrift store endeviur so come on hop in and lets see what we will find....

A very pretty old Johnson Brothers of England numbered platter, we will definatly get this at 2.99 . White table ware is always beautiful .

Look at this , I have been looking for just the right soup tourine and this will fill the bill . It is veined and very old, there is a huge stamp on it but we just cant make it out. Are you familiar with this piece? I would love to know more about it.

This is the stamp I can not make out. But for 6.00 well buy it!

What a lovely piece of material , new in form and only 1.99 for about a yard. It brings the flair of vintage to me . We'll take it!

A lovely black iron lamp base it's priced at 7.00 but seeing it's on a black tag it will be half price at 3.50. Good-Will has a different color each week that when the item has that color on the attached tag it will be half price, yah! a great find.

 I am sort of partial to dishes with blue seeing that's the living room color theme at this time, I would love to hang them on the wall. For .99 each that's a great buy. Havilland china one is a bit chippy but that will just add character.

That concludes our thrifting for today but see you next week for some more thrifting aventures, we have had fun! Thanks for stopping by today!

A SHABBY BUNNY AND CARROTS MADE FROM ONE BROWN GROCERY BAG!

 

 

Hi, so happy you stopped by. Today I want to share my little shabby bunny and carrots made from a single brown grocery bag. Once this bunny came to "life" he just melted my heart. This craft was super easy and lots of fun.

The first step was to cut out doubles of the carrots and bunny, if you need a bunny shape to go by children's books are wonderful also the internet has a slew of cute bunnies to get ideas from. After I got my shapes cut out I merely took a hot glue gun and sealed most of the perimeter but left a space open so I could put a little stuffing in to make it 3D. You can use what ever you have around your home , tissue paper, news paper even toilet paper.

Once all the pieces where stuffed and sealed shut I took my paints an painted them carrots -orange and the bunny I choose white with black markings, With the bunny I added brown cording whiskers and a crunched bag bunny tail.  The carrots I added some green material for the tops and tied it with some cording. Lets take a look......

I placed them all in a dough bowl with some raffia bedding.

 

REUSED HEAVY DUTY FOAM BOARD MAKES GREAT EASTER OUTDOOR DECORATIONS!

Hi there, welcome to Sweet Tea N' Salty Air! Spring is in the air. I have been clearing all my flower beds of the old and adding the new. Lots of work but I just love digging in the dirt and planting seeing new  colorful life.


My MIL works at a grocery here and has given me some large heavy duty foam boards that had pictures on one side such as deli sandwiches etc. So I thought that I would make some fun Easter yard decorations out of it rather than toss them out. So after allot of cutting with my kitchen electric knife and some painting and imagination this is what I have come up with.......

Peter Cottontail is joined by 4 very large painted eggs! I decided that the bunny would be a boy so I fit him up with some cute canvas trousers and a collared shirt with a bow tie.

I did spray them with a sealer to prevent weathering. This foam board is actually very versatile you can even sand the edges but I did find the best way to cut it was an electric meat slicer.
I attached some light weight sticks so that they could be securely stuck in the ground.






Foam board is very versatile and can be bought very cheaply, dollar tree has smaller sheets for just 1$












It was such a fun project bringing this bunny to life, this project is also great for children to help with guaranteed some family fun!









Thank you so much for stopping in , your visits make my day!

TURN YOUR OLD BLUE JEANS INTO RAGS FOR A PRETTY RAG WREATH!

Hi there so happy you could stop by Sweet Tea N' Salty Air. I have been busy painting the living room and gathering new décor , painting some furniture to match. I came across some of my daughters old jeans they had that color blue that I have assesorized the room with. We went from Cocoa brown to a light Whispering Wheat from glidden, what marvelous paint to be able to cover such a dark color in one coat.


So I simply shredded the jeans to strips and tied then one by one to the wire hanger!

I decorated it with some blue and white carnations , some old silver spoons and burlap.
Shabby it is!


The wreath sits front and center in the middle of a old mirror frame , a madeleine pan sits below and a very old ladle lays beside with a tea light in it. Some blue printed material was added on the bottom to bring it all together.


Hope this post inspires you to save your jeans I am always coming up with a plan for them! Thanks for visiting!