Before/After Home Office Cabinets

It strikes me as odd how things work out sometimes.

I have never been one of those

 save-that-vintage piece-dumpster-diver
I-break-for-garage-sales kind of gals.

Nope, not me, not ever.

 I have been called a "shopping snob"often enough

 that I must admit there may be some truth in it.

I know, right?

  Me - the Secondhand Queen,

the bargain-loving gal who nearly never pays full price

 for anything to decorate and upgrade her home?

Me - who LOVES to create the look-for-less

and can usually spot potential in every possibility?

A shopping snob?

 Really?!?

WELL, truth be know, I have always drawn the line at curbside.

That doesn't make me a shopping snob, though, SIS! lol

I always simply think the next person should grab that curb item-

he or she will be better and certainly QUICKER than I, for instance.

I talk myself out of it every single time I see it -

and I see it often.

(My neighbors throw out some pretty awesome stuff, just sayin'.)

I see its bright future, sometimes I want it, yet I always ignore it.

I hear my mother's sweet voice saying in her soft lady-like way

 "that's just not what we do, sweetie."

Yet I feel my heart pound when driving past these potential saves; 

I know deep down inside a part of me is shouting  

'PLEASE, JUST STOP IN THE NAME OF ALL THINGS SALVAGE!!!!

So today, I bid thee welcome

 to a reveal of something salvaged by us

from the curb of our neighbor.

GASP

Last summer my daughter left our house to return to her home

and called from her car, to insist that I walk down to the house whose owners had already bought another and had recently moved.

(I DID go to their garage sale and bought some vintage linens.)

I am friends with the mother of the gal who moved.

I know her from my local civic women's club.

SHE even told me (before they moved) to come down

and make an offer on anything they left so far in the house-

they'd probably just give it to me.

And I really meant to do so, I really did - but I didn't.

It's just too awkward for me, so I just put it off till it was too late.

But knowing me SO well, my youngest daughter said:

"Mom. Don't delay this.

  Just walk down there, it's dark, it's at their curb

 and it won't be there long. No one will even care or notice."

So I walked down.

 Took me only two minutes to see those

two dingy old dirty and dated wooden base cabinets.

But, like so many of you, I did see potential in them!

I walked back home and told my husband.

 I asked him if he'd help me retrieve them,

as I can no longer lift heavy items 

 since hurting my arms a few years ago.

Were we embarassed? Yes, perhaps a little. 

Did we ACT noticable? Probably.

 Hubs brought his wheeled cart thing.

We aren't ninja trash pickers. We were loud, I know it.

Was it worth it in spite of it all to save those cabinets
from the landfill and give them a new life?

You be the judge:

Voila!

Two nicely cleaned up black floor cabinets flanking

 a gifted antique dresser my son-in-law no longer wanted. 

(It's still kinda nasty with primer, another task for another time.)

Sometimes one must see past the greasy grimy gopher guts.

I think these may have been living in their garage,
doing duty as storage units or something

 as their home was absolutely stunning inside.

They probably started their lives from a bathroom

 that had been upgraded along the way.

The only thing we had to buy for this project 
was four new snazzy pull nobs,

 as one of them was missing.

We already had the primer, the paint, the sealer
 and silver matte metallic spray paint for the bottom pulls.

We had to run out and get another can of the paint
towards the end of painting.

So all in all we spent around $28
 for our "new" cabinets in our office.

I am happy we could salvage those bottom pulls

I absolutely love them.

I run a business out of this space at home. 

Behind those cabinets you will find scanners,

 and scales and packing tape and stickers

 and reams of paper and printers ink, everything

common for a home office is kept tidy and unseen.

I may dabble with embellishing them a bit more

but for now I just wanted them placed

and was too excited not to share with you!

This is a wonderful and haunting print of my sister's - on loan.

She lived in New England for years running an ad agency.

One of her art staff took this winning shot of his aged father

who played violin his entire life and won many contests.

I adore this print and it currently and happily resides

in my home office with its black, grey and white decor.

My pic of the pic doesn't do the shadows justice.

As always, thank you for your visit!

♥

~Michele

Linking:

Met Monday   *  Mosaic Monday    *   Before & After Wednesday 

Sweet Wink Kitty and Derby's New Toy

Greetings, dear friends!

You must be thinking I have fallen off the face of the Earth!

However, I just HAD to pop in today

 to share my granddog Derby's 

NEW SQUEAKY TOY!

It's a cute pink doughnut!

You see, last week my daughter and her husband

 lost their very first fur baby;

their tiny, beautiful, rotten 18.5 year-old kitty cat WINK.

She was the runt of her litter,
 and fully grown maybe weighed 9 pounds.

She was itty bittiness.

She was so pretty, with the best markings.

That is when she allowed you to even SEE her.

She spent her life hiding upstairs-
she was super shy and scared, even living with my daughter,
The Animal Whisperer.

My daughter has a way with animals,
and she actually prefers them over most humans.

There are days I can't blame her, either, haha.

She is a sometimes foster-home to resuced English setters,
as Derby is a rescue.


She really and truly does love her fur babies.

(Perhaps a little too much, in my opinion. lol. So gross!)

There aren't many pics of Wink when she was young-
way before digital cameras and iphones
 and even before most of us began using email.

I really had a love-hate relationship with Wink.
(Most of you know how much I really do love most cats.)

We always joked Wink did have 9 lives.
She came so close to death so many times, but never did! 

She was horribly anti-social - wouldn't let anyone come close to her, and in no way was she going to allow anyone to touch or hold her.

She was the only cat that ever bit me!

All I did was say "Hi" and then try to pet her.
 (Big mistake!)
 So we all learned long ago to just let her be.

But slowly over the last few years -
 since Derby Dog's arrival-
 and with her old-age illnesses starting to set in -
she began sitting on the landing of their stairs.

We think she was re-evaluating her people...
or maybe she could finally see all the fun Derbydoo was having
that she was missing!

Perhaps she was a tiny bit jealous or just curious.
Or, in more likeliness, was to come and simply give us all
The Stinky Wink Eye
in hopes that everyone would just tone it down a bit
 so the old gal could get some rest!

Regardless of why she came down, she did come around in the end!

You cannot know what the meant to my daughter.

And you cannot know what a shock it was to us all.

Wink the Kitty Cat actually became lovable. 

Well, kinda.

At least to those who loved her so much.

Who knew it would ever become so!?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have to wonder if God planned this,
All Knowing what it meant
to Eve and Dan -and even Derby and Katie too-
who loved that cat so much;
they were able to really get close to Wink
before they had to say goodbye to that old friend.

Wink was in their first apartment way back in the college days.

Wink knew Yoske, their roommate years ago from Japan.

Wink saw many moves with careers grinding into high gear
and better living conditions/moves being part of their success.

Wink was there for all the good times and the sad times.
She was always close by; being her ever-silent presence was a comfort.

Wink was there for the move to their first real "home," too-
 and where she grew old...with them loving her every single day....
and she, in her own odd strange way, loving them right back.

Yes, Derby misses Wink terribly.
They ended up pretty much inseparable.

Derby's been so sad,  and depressed and doesn't understand
where her tiny fur ball kitty sister went.

But we know she is simply waiting at Rainbow Bridge.

Except we're all pretty sure she's haunting the house.

I kid you not- we hear her all the time.

It's not spooky, it's just what it is, ya know?

Added on 2/12/17: last week they found a muddy kitty paw print
on their kitchen floor.

And no, it cannot have been left there - that floor is washed
all the time due to Derby's always getting it so filthy!

OK, LET'S END ON A HAPPIER NOTE TODAY:



A cute pic of my eldest daughter Evelyn
sitting with her sweet fur babies and brand new niece
on the very first game day of the football season watching 
The Ohio State Buckeyes win!

Go Scarlet and Grey!


I notice that DERBY is the ONLY ONE paying
any attention to the game, though!

She's wondering why no one noticed that fumble!

However, sometimes the babies sleep through the games, too.

Won't this sweet grandbaby look cute when she's a toddler
wearing a little OSU cheerleading costume?!

Till then we'll just let her dream about it.

And yes, Vivian, your momma really DID make you awesome.

As always, thank you for visiting!

Hugs, prayers and love!

~Michele

Linking:

Pink Saturday

Teacup Giveaway Winner Announcement!

Announcing the winner

 of my little teacup and creamer giveaway!

I apologize for the announcement being a week late -

 I simply just lost track of time!

The winner is:

♥ Debby Ray ♥

 of the blog

My Favorite Things!

Congrats Deb - and thank you all for entering

and also for leaving such sweet comments!

HUGS!

♥

~Michele