Yay or Nay?

So if you read my last post you know there are some big changes in store for me.  I resigned from my current position, accepted a new position and will be moving away from all my close friends and immediate family members.  I will be living on my own in a new city for the first time in my life.  No I am not having a mid life crisis but I will admit to not being happy in different areas of my life and when a new opportunity arose I decided to jump on it.  I know you take your problems with you, I'm not running away, I'm just ready for a change.

The last couple of weeks has had me traveling back and fourth looking for a new home...I may have found it, finding moving boxes, starting to go through my things to decide what I will be taking with me and be getting rid of.  Did I mention I do not have a lot of my own furniture.  I have my bed, a dresser, a desk, some shelves, a few dishes and utensils but I will pretty much be starting from scratch.

I've had some projects that have been hiding out in my garage for the past several years.  I have started some of them but when the hand sanding became to much they sat there getting rusty and dare I say moldy!  So that is where the Yay or Nay comes from.  Would you try to save a piece of furniture that has lots of rust and some mold?  Not to mention a lot of other work needed just because you love the piece and can see what it can become?

I have 5 projects that I'm working on, hoping to take to my new place.  3 pieces are or were really rusty, one has mold growing on it and the other has a roughed up paint job.  Here are two of the worst looking projects.  Would you keep them or toss them to the curb?  They are worse in person than they look in these photos

This stool I found in the garbage 3 or 4 years ago.  It went directly into my garage never to be seen again until now.  It has a ton of rust, needs a new seat and back, new upholstery and new steps...It basically needs to be totally rebuilt.  Would you take on this challenge right before a big move?  Do you think it can be done or should it be tossed?  The reason I want it?  I had one of these growing up as a kid and I loved it.  Plus my possible new home has cupboards that go up to the ceiling and I thought I could use this to reach the shelves.  Any ideas for fabric or color?  I also have another, better conditioned stool I am also working on.

This dresser.  I LOVE this dresser, but I put it in my garage while I tried to figure out what I wanted to do to it, my garage sprung a few leaks in the roof and mold started to grow on it.  I have sprayed this down with bleach several times.  Do you think it can be saved?  Any ideas on how to stop the mold.  This piece doesn't seem to be damp or rotting.

The bottom drawer in the above picture has what appears to be the worst of the mold on it.  This was the drawer closest to the floor and standing moisture.

The top drawer in the above photo cleaned up the best.  I realized though that I will have to re-sand and paint the whole entire dresser because there is a lot of discoloration and stains from something.  It looks like someone tried to clean the dresser in the past because there are spray marks from some type of cleaner on the frame of the dresser.  The discoloration looks like it could have been tar from cigarette smoke on the dresser but it doesn't smell of cigarette smoke.  

I cleaned the yellowness from the top drawer with a magic eraser.  The magic eraser fell apart after cleaning that one drawer.  I think I would need 15 of them and a lot of elbow grease to get the crud off this dresser.  Do you think this dresser can be saved?  Look at that hardware, it is the reason why I bought this dresser.  Do you have any ideas about what I should do with it?  Do you think it can be tackled in a few weeks especially since I am working a full time job and refinishing other pieces?

Well what do you think, am I crazy?

Did I also mention I joined a Halloween Ornament Swap hosted by Sarah at Makin' Projiks and that the ornaments are due the same time I am moving?  I think I am crazy.  I will let you know how things go but feel free to send me suggestions. 

Big Changes, Breakfast Fried Rice and Some Found Treasures

I'm sorry I have been missing in action for awhile.  There are some big changes in the very near future for me.  I have resigned my position at my current job, will be starting a new job that I am looking forward to and will be relocating to a new area by myself.  I have always lived with someone, in a small town, but I am relocating to a city and will be living by myself, so this will be a big, major, change for me.  I am looking forward to the change and I'm of course a little scared.  I have always had immediate family near me and now they will all be at least an hour away.  I'm a big girl though so I think I can handle it.

I thought I would share this recipe I threw together.  I thought it was good, not great and I'm not really sure if I would add this to the regular recipe rotation but it whips together fast and is filling.  I had leftover Chinese white rice that I wanted to use up and so came up with this recipe.  I would have taken more pictures but fried rice happens so fast I didn't have time.

Breakfast Fried Rice 

Ingredients:

Bacon

Onion

Red Pepper

2-3 Eggs

White Rice

Soy Sauce

Fry up your bacon, drain but reserve some of the fat.  Add you onions and red peppers and cook until they are just about the way you like them, push them to the side.  

Add a little of the reserved bacon fat to the pan and add your scrambled egg yolks, cook until done.  Add your white rice, mix together ingredients, add your soy sauce, turn off heat, taste and adjust seasonings.

This recipe is different but if you are looking for ways to use up leftovers you can give this a try.  I like the contrast between the salty bacon and sweet peppers and onions.

So while I have been working on the changes in my life and weird recipes I have also been hitting some sales.  I know I shouldn't be buying anything since I will be moving but I couldn't pass up these items.

I apologize for the really crappy photos.  These pictures do not do the items any justice.

I found this really great homemade picture.  I believe it was made sometime in the early 1900's.  It is quite large.  Someone painted the roses and leaves on what appears to be silk and added two pictures of "A Pair of Jacks."  There are no names or dates on this framed picture.

Jack number 1.

and Jack number 2.  I bought this for $5.99.  I will be cleaning the frame up and removing the stickers.  I will be keeping and displaying this in my new place.

A set of six Vera napkins.  I have never seen these before.  I was thinking about making these into pillows.  Did you see the price tag?  I bought these for $1.99.  I'm not sure what they sell for but I loved the colors and design.

I can never pass up Vintage Nativity Sets, I don't know why.  I definitely do not need anymore and I will have to invest in a shelf to display them all.

But look at this angel, isn't she sweet.  I think this box holds several different sets.  Some of the figures are marked made in Italy.  

Some random Christmas items I found at a church rummage sale.  I love these melted plastic figures, I have never seen this snowman before.  Everything in this photo was $2.

My haul from a festival.  I bought everything in this photo for $7 dollars.  Oh wait there are two Vintage White Pyrex Mixing Bows missing from this photo.  The seller gave me a package deal...I wish I would have bought more but I didn't think I would have enough money and the seller was so helpful and carried everything to my car. 

Look at the graphics on these domino boxes.  I was told originally $1 for both.  The little taffeta angel was $.25.  The embroidered linens were $1 each.  There are seven of them.

A cute kitten table runner.

Look at these Deer.  I can't imagine the time it took to make these.

If you look at this photo in the upper right hand corner you can see there is a black ring,  Do you guys have any cleaning advice for vintage linen?

A vintage pink floral table cloth.  They wanted $3 for it.  You can see there is rust spots on this vintage pink floral table cloth.  I would like to try and clean them properly before cutting them up if I can't remove the stains.  I have tried some cleaning recipes I have found on Pinterest on other vintage fabrics but have never been happy with the results, so if you have tried something and it worked I would be happy for the advice.

I also bought a little plastic swan pot.  It was on the $.50 table.  It is still waiting to be cleaned.  

Do you see the white background in these photos.  That is a full/queen Matelasse coverlet by Spiegel.  I have been looking for a Matelasse coverlet for awhile now but they are always so expensive.  I inquired about the price thinking maybe $40.  They told me a $1 before bundling everything together.  Finding that coverlet made my day but the pricing of it made it even better.  I would have paid more for it.  And lets not forget the two white Pyrex mixing bowls (sorry no photo, they are being cleaned)  They told me $1 for both.  I loved that sale.

My funky, memory inducing find was this Lite Brite.  I plan on using this at my new place.  It has the pegs and paper images but I need more.  So what funky and awesome finds have you scored lately?  I would love to hear from you.