Challenge: Week #2

It’s week two and we’re still going strong! I love this project Mom chose. She found this beat up old high chair at a yard sale. You can see that the arms are missing and it’s just covered with spattered paint. Obviously someone else took an old piece of furniture that was no longer useful in its original form and made a modification. I wonder how long it was used as a painting stool. It’s fun to see all the different colors of paint and imagine the rooms that were given a fresh coat of paint.


Always one to look beyond the obvious, Mom decided to freshen up this interesting piece with a new coat of paint (all one color this time!) and give it a new use. She has a green thumb and has many plants around the house. This unique plant stand provides a variety of height in her collection as well as fun visual interest. It’s the kind of thing that makes you say, “Hmm, why didn’t I think of that?”




I wandered in and out of second hand stores this week with no idea of what to do. I couldn’t find anything that was even in the least little bit inspiring. That is until I wandered into the linen section and found these bottles of fabric stiffener. When I saw them I pictured the scene in “Christmas Vacation” when Clark finds his perfect Christmas tree. A light shines down from heaven and Clark looks like he has just seen the gates to heaven. I don’t mean to imply that finding fabric stiffener in a second hand shop is anywhere near as life altering as the perfect Christmas tree, but I was almost that excited to find my next project.


Now that I had the fabric stiffener, I needed some fabric to stiffen. I found this pretty little hankie in another shop for 50 cents. I thought it would be fun to create a square bowl just to keep things interesting. Once it was dried and unmolded, I didn’t like it. I felt it just didn’t fit the feminine spirit of the hankie. The nice thing about this product is that it is very forgiving. I put a little water in a bowl and moistened the hankie until it came back to its original form. I then found a round mold and started over. I think this shape is much nicer and I like the soft look. I can see it in a bedroom holding hair pieces.


This project was so easy that you could make many little bowls or containers. I can see this technique being used on some pretty holiday napkins. The resulting bowls could be used to hold holiday candy and snacks or make a nice party favor filled with little goodies.

I’ll have to check in with Mom to find out how she did with her week-end shopping. As for me, I hope to have another Clark W. Griswold moment.