More American Picker Wannabe Stuff

I love metal. Rusted metal. Metal with patina. Just metal.

I want to take a welding class but everytime I tell my husband he gets a look of sheer terror on his face so I don't pursue it.

I know he is thinking "so the backyard will be filled with all kinds of rusted metal garbage AND she will kill herself OR she will burn her arm off or something," but he doesn't actually express these thoughts. He just looks at me with big, scared eyes and says, "ummmm.... sure...that s-s-s-sounds like ....ummm.... a g-g-good i-d-d-ea!"

I figure that if one of my ideas reduces my husband to stuttering he is probably not a fan!

So...

Whenever I am off on my American Picker Wannabe stuff I am always looking for metal stuff that I don't have to weld.

My parents live in a retirement area and there are usually really good garage and estate sales there.

One afternoon I was going my parents and I saw someone with a u-haul packing up a bunch of stuff in the driveway.

I stopped to see if there was anything cool left.

There wasn't. Or at first glance I thought there wasn't.

But then I saw some cool metal spikey things leaning against the garage wall. I think they are probably cultivator discs.

I asked about them and the guy said "no-one wants those...you can have them all for five bucks!"

So I brought all six of them home!

I wanted to hang them on the stone wall in our family room above the mantel...like sculpture.
But they are ridiculously heavy and my husband started to s-s-s-tutter so I abandoned that idea.

So they languished in the garage in all their innocent metal sweetness for a while...causing swearing whenever anyone ran into them accidentally...causing more swearing when my husband had to move them around to clean the garage.

And one day when I was taking a bath I had a Eureka! moment.

And I finally thought of hanging them in our bathroom courtyard and they look super cool there. And that is my American Picker Wannabe find...and I sure hope you don't stutter when you leave me a comment.

Oh! And if you don't know what American Picking is all about just click here to read a post on it!

PS I don't live in a castle. My house is about 40 years old with some cool, quirky stuff in the design. The master bathroom is huge with a garden tub and a big picture window right beside it. There is a little "courtyard" area right beyond the window so there is privacy...maybe 6' x 11'.

I am an American Picker Wannabe!!!

There I was.

Driving home from the grocery store with my youngest granddaughter on a Friday morning.

OK, so technically I wasn't driving around the rural wilds of Iowa but still...

We came to a little crunch in traffic so we took a side street home.

When we turned to head toward our house I saw a little garage sale sign taped to a box.

I don't know about you but I have this weird rule about garage sale signs. If they are cute... ...I always make it a point to go check them out. The sign we saw wasn't quite this adorable but I decided we would just head home and not check it out.

I drove a few more blocks and got up to a stoplight which had turned red and then I had second thoughts. I told sweet little Miss Mo that we had to go check something out and whipped my car around into a u-turn.

We followed the colorful signs and when we pulled up to the curb I saw this!!! It was love at first sight!

There were four or five other people milling around looking at stuff so I hopped quickly out of the car, leaving my Granddaughter yelling "Gamma! Gamma!" but I was not to be diverted.

I almost ran to the little cupboard. Actually, I probably did run... (blush)

But, oh, this little cupboard was so sweet! I could see the patina on the wood and the old boards on the back...oh...I was besotted.

My Granddaughters wails caused me to say hurriedly to the lady sitting at the table, "I'll take this!" and then I quickly got little Miss Morgan out of the car.

There was no price tag on the cupboard and I think I had only a twenty dollar bill in my wallet!

But the cupboard was only $10! And the lady was apologetic about it. She said it was an old piece of junk that she had almost thrown away. She thought it might have been her Grandfathers but she wasn't sure.

I loved the little original mirror in the back of it......and the little porcelain knobs in the small raised-panel doors... ... and the rough wood boards the back was made of...
I gave the lady the $20 and told her just to keep the whole thing and then I wrangled it into my car.

Mo looked pretty surprised at sharing the backseat with a child's cupboard.

And I felt pretty surprised finding something so cool.

I totally adore this little cupboard.

Sometimes I put it in my bathroom between the double sinks and put towels on it! Sometimes the Grandkids drag it into the living room and fill it with Pretty Ponies...and sometimes it sits in the corner of my breakfast room looking totally sweet.

I've toyed with the idea of hanging it on a wall but I don't want to drill through the thick, rough boards on the back.

When I was taking a picture to share, Miss Mo wanted me to take her picture, too, so I could show you that she looks just like her favorite little vintage Fisher Price figure. Right down to the yellow hair and the pony tail. Plus you can see what a sweet size this perfect little cupboard is.


And this is one of my favorite American Picker finds!

Care to share one of yours?

Just link up below and we can all come and oooh and ahhhh with you! This McLinkey will be live until Sunday night but you can view the links anytime you visit!

Oh! And if you don't know what American Picking is all about just click here to read a post on it!

If it wasn't sunny 306 days a year here...

...I would be so much more emotionally stable.

Don't laugh.

It's true.

Not only would I be calm and zen-like at all times, I would be able to do amazing things because I would finally have enough time to get caught up reading the towering pile of magazines stacked up for a "rainy day".

We've had two gray days here in a row...and it's been awesome.

I layed around on the couch with the fireplace crackling merrily in the background and the pile of magazines offering scintillating companionship.

I took naps.

I'm feeling all relaxed and mellow AND...

I found cool things I need to look for when I get started on my American Pickers career.

Like this antique game wheel I found in Mary Janes Farm Christmas magazine (yes, I am that far behind reading my magazines...sigh)

I learned about whole grain varieties in the January Cooking Light Magazine. So now I am not only more relaxed I am armed with potential information I need to get healthier.

I read how to paint my stairs really neat in This Old House Magazine. A look that I doubt my husband will embrace. And a look that I doubt I will argue with him over doing because I actually live in a one-story house.

Which really wouldn't be that big of a deal if I didn't live somewhere that it is sunny 306 days a year.

I'm certain that If I just had a few more rainy days I could read about how to add a second story to our house. By myself. For under $37.00. Over one weekend.

So if I do the math...I still have about 54 rainy days left for 2010.

And since I am all zen-like and not in a big rush and I don't want to stress myself out, I am planning to devote 50 of those rain days to catch up reading my magazines WHICH MEANS I will still have four whole days left over add a second story and to cook up a few of those whole grain recipes as well.

Keep your fingers crossed it is a rainy year for us here in the Valley of the Sunstroke.

Sigh.

PS Tomorrow I'll share one of my sunny day "Pickers" finds from a garage sale right by my house. Hope to see you then.

Garage Sale or E-bay...I need some advice here

Sadly, I am living through the death of a dream.

It has been a hard few days.

But I think I am finally ready to let go of something I've always wished for.

I think it is safe to say ...

...

I no longer want to be a rock star.

...

Let me give you a moment to compose yourself.

...

Are you OK now?

This has been a life-long dream of mine. Did I let my inability to sing stop me? Did I let my tendency to look like a middle-aged frump stand in the way? Did I ever think for one moment that my choreographed moves resembling a three-legged male dog trying to pee would slow me down?

Well, OK, yea.

I waited for the moment when I would somehow, someway magically become musical, gorgeous and graceful.

And I waited.

And up until last week I was still waiting.

But now...now I have a new dream.

My new dream is this!!!!!!!
Yes, it's true. The History Channel has inspired me to abandon long-held precious dreams of leather and spiky hair.

I am going to become the next American Picker. (hey, I know what some of you are thinking...like Justine and PJ! but it's not anything like that!) Let me tell you what an American Picker is.

OK. Just a moment.

I need to put my intellectual hat on for a moment... ahemmmm....

OK.

This isn't your grandmother's antiquing. Pickers like Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz are on a mission to recycle America, even if it means diving into countless piles of grimy junk or getting chased off a gun-wielding homeowner's land. Hitting back roads from coast to coast, the two men earn a living by restoring forgotten treasures to their former glory, transforming one person's trash into another's treasure. American Pickers follows them as they scour the country for hidden gems in junkyards, basements, garages and barns, meeting quirky characters and hearing their amazing stories. If you think the antique business is all about upscale boutiques and buttoned-up dealers, this show may change your mind--and teach you a thing or two about American history along the way.

Didn't I write that well?

What do you mean? Of course I wrote that. I would never just go to the History Channel website and copy it.

...

...

OK, I copied it.

But isn't that the most amazing thing?

You have to watch this show! It is so cool. And I can just see me tooling around rural America digging through peoples old stuff to find fabulous treasures!

Wow.

Speechless.

So, OK, yea...seriously...this is my new dream.

But to help fund it I need to get rid of a few things first...

I have three cases of this...just waiting to make my hair all cool and spiky. Never been opened.
These are a pair of brand new rock star boots...size 7. I have never worn them...primarily because I wear a size 9 1/2 but I bought them small thinking that someday they might fit. I don't think rock stars have big feet.

And lastly, I have this pair of leather jeans...size 2. I would say they have never been worn but I did actually pull them over my calfs - once - just to see how they would look if I could ever get them up past my knees. It hardly stretched out the leather at all.

So I am back to my original question.

Garage Sale or E-bay?

Let me know soon, OK, because I have some American Picking to get started on.

Country roads...here I come!

(but don't tell my husband I'm doing this, please, he never even approved of my rock-star dreams...sometimes I wonder how our marriage even holds together)

...sigh....

PS I'm just being a dork here...I don't actually have leather pants, cowboy boots OR hair stuff. It was all just an unfulfilled dream!