Basket Case

Okay, I'm sorry for that title.  I tried not to write it., I really did.  I blame a momentary out of body experience!  My mind said "No, don't do it...it's too cheesy!"  Did my fingers listen?  Nope.

Anywho, let's move on shall we? 

As mentioned before, I'm obsessed with LOTS of things:  French anything, vintage goods, nests and birds and now...BASKETS.  Not just any baskets but rustic, vintage, and shabby French baskets.

Big, little, I love them all and THIS is the time to snag some.  With Easter around the corner they are all over the thrift stores.

I've already re-finished, painted and "shabbyfied" {I think I just made up a new word} some of them to sell.

I adore this vintage picnic basket.  I was in great shape but the wood color was on the orange side and dated it {and not in the good, yummy vintage way}.  I whitewashed it with a mix or water and white craft paint.  I altered a shipping tag with tea stained lace and a broken piece of vintage jewelry.  On top I decoupaged on "Bon Appetit" and glued on a linen rosette.  I want to keep it, but I wont.  I guess I need to keep an eye out for another one at a good price.

I refinished this large vintage picking basket and added in some fake market flowers.

This one got the shabby white-wash treatment.

Here is a large Bushel basket painted white and lined with burlap that I filled with my mini pillows that I gave the tutorial on here.

Here are few I picked up this week that are waiting to be redone:

Ugly pink wooden frame basket crying to be vintage white!

Gotta' love that price!

wicker bicycle basket...wish I had a cute vintage bicycle to put in on!

I'm itching for yard sale season.  I love the "hunt" but until warm weather blows my way, I'll take the thrift store scavenger hunt to vintage baskets.

Happy hunting!



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crafting is a lot of work

I have been a busy girl.  Truthfully, I feel a bit overwhelmed but I do love being busy.  I signed up for my first craft show and it's in just over a month away so I've been trying to craft during the day {normally I only work on stuff during punk's nap time and after she goes to bed at night}.  I'm exhausted.  Punk's not thrilled with it either, she's used to me being able to play with her non-stop all day long.  My Etsy shop is also suffering, I only have a few items left and I need to restock this weekend...if I can take a break from the craft show crafting that is.  Boy is crafting for a business a lot of work, but it's also a lot of fun!

Last weekend I attended an all day scrapbook crop.  I don't scrapbook, but I thought it would be a great way of getting a lot of crafting done all at one time.  Well, I had fun but really didn't get much accomplished.  It was like I didn't know where to start.  I did make my first coffee filter wreath though.  I think I'm the only decor/craft blogger around who hadn't made one yet.  Wowsa, it took a long time but I think it turned out beautifully.  I share photos of it later. 

I also made some altered peat pots.  I got the inspiration from similar ones I found in a magazine {of course now I can't remember which magazine it was}.  Truthfully I wasn't totally thrilled with the way they turned out at first.  But while at the crop a friend was looking at them and said something about them being Easter Baskets.  I had originally intended them as flower pots...for fake flowers.  After all, they are peat pots and will breakdown if wet.  Kinda like a twist on a May Day basket.  But that Easter Basket thing stuck with me.  Then the other day I sat down and brainstormed. 

I had a conversation with myself, it went something like this: 

{"Okay, Aaron.  Easter Baskets, Easter Baskets, Easter Baskets.  Stop saying Easter Baskets over and over again, it's obviously not helping.  Okay, I can do this.  What is an Easter Basket...a basket that has goodies in it.  What kind of goodies?  Chocolate!  Man, I wish I had some chocolate right now.  Okay, focus Aaron, for the love of God, focus!  Chocolate and jelly beans and sometimes money, all  inside of little plastic eggs.  EGGS!  Easter Baskets have eggs in them!  Okay, that's good but I need more than eggs.  Hmm.  What lays eggs...birds!  Birds!   Brillant!"  }

Yep, I had a full blown conversation with myself.  Embarassing, but true.  My two year old punk was in the room with me playing with her blocks.  She heard all of this.  She then went on to ask me for an Easter Basket and chocolate for the rest of the day.  But, that is how this was born:

Some basket have lace, some pearls, some vintage buttons, some vintage Easter images from The Graphics Fairy.  

I went from not digging them at all to loving them!  I will definitely be making more to sell.  Well, my "break" is over, time to get back to work.

Have a great weekend!