teeny tiny pedestal, perfect for your bonbons

I truly loved creating this little project.  I'm a little obsessed with cake stands after seeing this great cupcake stand using wooden bobbins and vintage pie tins.  I started to think about a mini version that could be used for candy, truffles, jewelry, or, if you have a small child, teeny tiny legos.  Or your bonbons.  Because I know you spend a lot of time lounging around, eating bonbons, and you need a place to display them.

I started with the idea of using some of my beautiful wooden spools to divide the levels.  I just scored a bunch at the Goodwill in Pittsfield.  Who knew?

Then I thought of old CDs, which are everywhere, and can be decoupaged to add some nice color and paper.  It was also a nice excuse to use my fabulous Martha Stewart circle cutter.  She's no joke; I almost cut a circle in my butcher block counter.  But then, we knew that.

Next, a trip to Salvation Armani where I sashayed the home goods aisle, letting them speak to me.  I turned up this sweet little tea cup saucer:

And finally, the perfect topper:  a vintage tartlet tin that my friend Laurie gifted to me some time ago:

What I love about this project is the variety of materials:  paper, plastic, tin, wood and thread.  We've got it all.  It was also super fun to piece it all together, and I will now be on the lookout for smallish round stuff to make more!

full disclosure:  the paper is new

as a jewelry holder

with sweet treats

this is not your bat mitzvah menorah

Remember those beautiful vintage wooden spools I scored on the best tag sale-ing weekend ever?

I knew I had to have them, but I didn't know why (story of reclaimed crafts' life, really).  Luckily, the very same weekend my friend Hilary Price (yes, that Hilary Price - my friendship with her may be the closest I get to my 15 minutes of fame.  Oh, wait.  Rachel Maddow was at my wedding.  That must count for something).  But I digress.

Hilary was in a creative mood and is Jewish.  Excellent combination, because look what happened next:

vintage wooden spools + reclaimed yardstick + 

touch of industrial (lug nuts) = one creative menorah!

This one will be for sale at Twist this Friday night and all day Saturday.  So come on down and snap it up, or email me for a special order.  Hanukah's late this year, so you have plenty of time!

cake stands and cupcakes

Gus turned two on May 5th!

a quickly sewn vintage fabric "2" onto an old tee shirt
(we're in a tent in the living room, naturally)

So it seemed like the perfect time to finally create the cake platters I have been fantasizing about since last year when I bought these awesome huge wooden bobbins, salvaged from factories in Atlanta and North Carolina, at Brimfield:

Cake stands are all the rage on blogs these days, but I  have yet to see any done with vintage wooden bobbins, which are the perfect height and hefty weight.  I bought some nice, basic glass plates (I know, I should have trolled around antique shops and flea markets until I found the perfect ones, but there's that day job and all...), mixed up a little epoxy, made some cupcakes, and voila!

this one still has the thread on it...

gorgeous yellow paint (and look at those sweet cupcakes!)

gorgeous red paint



Happy second, Gus, and now we get to enjoy these platters all the time!

a day at brimfield!

it's frankly hard to say what was more exciting: realizing that we "had" to spend a sunny spring day at brimfield for reclaimed crafts' sake or actually strolling around the vendors' goods, mouths agape, creativity juices in overflow production.

it was a great day, filled with lots of "ooohs," "ahhs," and "oh mys."

on top of all that, photographing the goods was equally as fun.  here are some of my favorite shots:

we also picked up some very fun items.  jen had an eye for these gorgeous wooden thread spools, in different shapes and sizes:

 and laurie thought this test tube holder in a beautifully patinaed oak holder would make the coolest bud vase:

keep your eye on the spools though.  we suspect they will be showing up at one of the fall reclaimed crafts classes.....stay tuned!