tennis, anyone?

**IMPORTANT NOTE:  I've just been informed that this is actually a badminton racquet.  That does not make this any less cool, it's just a reminder of how, despite growing up on Long Island, the whole tennis thing just didn't take.

Just one score tagging this morning, but it was a goodie!  I've been collecting old tennis racquet presses for a while because I think they'll make great frames.  I picked one up today with tennis racquet still inside.  Old, cool and $2.  Need I say more?  

A friend with a recent birthday is a huge tennis guy, so I started poking around on the intergoogles to see what I could do with it.  Lo and behold, the world has been busy repurposing tennis racquets without me!  I liked the idea of making a bulletin board best, and followed this great tutorial to make it, using a beat up tag sale bulletin board and a map from a 1961 atlas found curbside (!!)  

Since our motto is "we screw up so you don't have to," I offer the following tips:

• crease the paper into the racquet frame for the cleanest trace
• cut the cork with a sharp knife and don't saw (cork crumbles and this just makes it worse)
• cut flaps around the paper before affixing it to the back - the corners wrap more easily
• old racquets are warped (duh), so make sure you know which side is up when you cover the cork so your map doesn't end up upside down like mine (though you can always hang with the handle up)
• pre-fab cork (sold at stores like Michael's) would definitely cut more easily and tuck into the frame more cleanly (you can see mine is not a perfect fit), but I have yet to score any at tag sales, and bulletin boards are in abundance

bonus thumbtacks (recycled buttons 

covered with maps hot-glued onto tacks)

thumbtack holding tiny card 

(less to write!) made with 

decoupage paper and map scraps

cutest boy ever makes every

project look better

new and improved yardstick table

Tooling around on the interwebs last winter, I got inspired to try another yardstick table.  I loved my first one

but I was ready for some advanced cutting and placing.  Both the hardest and most fun part of this was figuring out what pattern to use.  After a lot of messing around, I decided to use the traditional log cabin quilt pattern.  I loved the idea of modernizing such a lovely old pattern.  Reclaiming it, as it were.  

The challenge, which I did not experience with my first table, was the warp of the very old and well-used sticks.  My husband took an electric drill to them and was kind enough to create a pattern with the screws, but I still wasn't thrilled with it, and despite shimming the sticks, it wasn't completely flat.  Hilary suggested epoxy, made famous by the amazingly talented local artist Scout Cuomo.  It worked great, giving the surface a shine that makes the colors of the sticks really pop.  Plus, it was super fun to work with!

rocking chair rescue #2

My very first furniture project was a rocking chair with no seat that I dragged from the curb to my mint green rental house in Somerville, Mass, so I have a bit of a soft spot for rockers.  Sorry there's no "before" shot.  I didn't realize at the time that I was going to blog about projects.  Wait, blog wasn't even a word back then...  Here's the chair in its current state, after its second renovation.  

close-up of the nice shaker tape job 

(joint project with the husband)

Fast forward to a beautiful fall day last year, en route to Quonquont Farm to pick apples.  We passed a tag sale, and as is its wont, my car pulled off the road and shut off its engine.  Despite (or perhaps because of) the decrepit shape of the rocker, I had to have it.  

check out those awesome bright yellow thumbtacks

holding the seat down

olive green is the kindest way to 

describe the seat color

when I got up from my first rock in the chair,

my back was covered in flaking white paint

My first thought (not surprising to those who know me, or even just you blog readers) was to scrape and paint blue.  But then I started scraping and sanding, and some beautiful layers of gray, blue and green paint were revealed.  So instead I gave it a few layers of exterior poly and set to work on the seat.  I had already chosen one of our fabulous vintage fabrics in a riot of colorful flowers.  I upscaled the upholstery job by using actual furniture tacks instead of thumb tacks.  It was slow and painstaking, but not as hard as I expected.  But don't look TOO closely at the upholstery job, please.  

nice legs

seriously, this was the wallpaper 

in my childhood kitchen

nice staging, huh?

note the United Farmers box and the 

beautiful pansies

more staging - white chair from local junk shop

and wooden industrial chair $1 at a tag sale

hitting the tag sale ground running

Tons of tag sales, tons of balls and trucks.  Alas, Gus is finally at the age where he realizes that he, too, can buy stuff at tag sales.  I did manage to score a few items for myself, though, including a vintage suitcase for free, my favorite price.
The most fun was visiting a found objects artist's studio and pawing through all of the treasures that were up for grab.  I scored all three letters in Gus' name (another good reason for choosing a single syllable name) and turned around a project in no time flat, which makes my husband very happy.


Here they are in their original form:

sturdy, wooden, boring

Then I quickly repurposed the 1970's Massachusetts map I scored around the corner from our house (tip:  better to trace on the right side of the map, so you actually get the part of the map you want.  Unless you're more talented than I am, and can see through the paper).  At first I obsessed about a perfect trace, but then it occurred to me:  Gus is three.  And to quote honey badger, he don't care.  Quick layer of mod podge, some cute stamps, a layer of poly, and done.  All in a perfect spring weekend (insert pat on the back here).

or Sug, if you prefer

or those ugly boots minus a "g"

boat detail on the Cape

cycling detail in the Berkshires

car in the happy valley

Gus is THREE

Gus is 3.  I'd be surprised if you hadn't already heard; he's been telling everyone.  Naturally, he needed a shirt with his name, his age and a truck.

scored a bunch of stencil books curbside!

Gus the Builder

Gus the Fireman (alongside adoring Pop Pop)