Moose and Miracles

Do you believe in manifesting?  I'm not sure whether I do, but sometimes I do find just the exact thing I'm looking for when I'm "junqueing."  You may recall that I was torn about repainting an old bread box that had been in the cabin probably since it was built.  It's painted metal and has two shelves and two doors and we've always used it to store our spices. It's in bad condition, but I was afraid some members of the family might feel sentimental about it and not want me to paint it.  I was tempted to sand it and paint it aluminum. 

The first manifestation took place a couple of weeks after I blogged about it.  Low and behold, there at Goodwill was a vintage bread box, almost identical to this one except it was yellow with flowers.  They wanted $12 for it.  I didn't put it in my cart right away, but was thinking about it as I shopped.  Since someone had already donated it, I could paint it without concern.  Had every intention of going back and getting it, then forgot.  When I went back two days later it was gone of course.  I was getting closer and closer to sanding and painting this one, but when I went to Boulder today and stopped by Goodwill, what did I find but an aluminum bread box with two shelves.  It has such a mirror finish I had trouble photographing it without getting everything in the vicinity in the photo, but I think you can get the idea.

Only one door, but it's almost identical to what I had in my mind and only $4.99.  This is the final step in the pantry makeover.  Needs cleaning up a bit, but that should be a good task for tomorrow since NOAA is predicting some significant snow.

I also was looking for a basket that I could hang over the edge of the wood box for kindling and another really skinny basket I could use for a trash can between the new bakers rack and the wood box and found both of those.  I'm tired and it's late, so I'll have to post photos of those later. 

This has been a big day.  I was just going to go into Nederland to pick up a book the library had borrowed for me on an inter-library loan and on the way spotted some moose really close to the road.  This looks like a moose with a hat on, but that is the hump on the back of the smaller one standing behind!

Moose are rare enough around here that everyone stops to either take photos or just gape. I was the only one on the road this time and these moose were totally unconcerned.  I got all the way up to the fence and they were munching away, then this stupid woman and her dog (Hah!  Could have been me and Lola) came along and they scattered, so I only got one photo.  It was so bright I couldn't see what I had in my view finder.  Does anyone else have that problem?  I feel I need one of those old black hoods photographers used to use. 

After I stopped at the library,  I went on over to the spring and got water.  That's getting really interesting.  I'm going to need crampons if it gets any icier.

Then I decided to run down to Boulder.  On the way back I stopped in Nederland and got groceries and sort of hoped I might see the moose again and, miracle of miracles, more moose. 

Getting on toward dusk so only got one more good shot.  Once I got the car unloaded, some wood brought in and the fox fed, despite the fact that it had started to snow, decided to drive back to Nederland to attend a lecture on Colorado weather at the Wild Bear Mountain Ecology Center to get some answers about the winds here.  More on those in another blog.  I'm to bed.  How about you?  Teddee

Refinishing Vintage Items

When is a vintage item so damaged you can alter it without guilt?  There's nothing like inviting the President to visit to get you off dead center on a decorating project!  As mentioned in an earlier posting, I decided a couple of months ago to re-do what passes for a pantry here in this one-room cabin I'm calling home.  These four open shelves (I'll show you after the re-do is complete),  created and installed by my Dad back in 1939, have always held our provisions.  When you're only here for a week or so in the summer, the mish-mash of containers and commercial packing isn't an issue.  But when you're living here and that's the first thing you see in the morning when you wake up and the last thing you see at night before you go to sleep, it starts to niggle.  I also had seen a lovely panty re-do on someone's blog and now, bad blogger etiquette, I can't find it in order to give her credit.  At any rate, it inspired me to see what I could do with these four shelves and their contents.  I like to "junque" and had some canisters and containers into which I could decant many of the items and also wanted to incorporate some antique porcelain I had found at thrift shops over the past eighteen months.  This prompted me to start painting the interior of the cabin at the worst time of year, since it's far too cold to be able to move things out onto the deck and some of the time the uninsulated walls and ceiling are too cold to paint.  So it has been a laborious process about which I'll share more in subsequent posts.  For now, I'm trying to decide whether I can paint a vintage bread box that I think has probably been here since the cabin was built.  Although it's perfectly in tune with the table and chairs (another topic!), it certainly does not go with my current decorating scheme, based on the motto I have in mind for my dream brick-and-mortar shop:  Peek-to-Peek:  Not Your Mama's Mountain Decor which is more "glitz and grit."  Here is a picture of the bread box.



You can see how damaged the front of it is.  Since my computer and Kodak printer and Kodak camera have ceased communicating and I'm waiting for Praneeth Krovi to help me solve the problem, I can't provide other views.  The top is even more badly damaged.  It didn't help that I left for a couple of months last winter, during which time the temperature dropped to minus 30F, and left one lone potato in that basket you see on top!  I've tried to find new two-shelf bread boxes on-line and at retail stores, but they don't seem to exist.  We don't use this for bread, but as spice storage, and it's really handy.  I'm thinking of painting it aluminum.  No?  

Let me know if you have ever bit the bullet and refinished a vintage item even though you knew you were ruining its "vintageness."  How did you decide?

Thanks for your input.  Teddee