Monday, March 22, 2010

Meaningful junk - Tool box seed holder

Argh. I had the flu all weekend...or a stomach virus or something but this was my "ease back into the living" project. Nothing too complicated, but useful and meaningful.

I was digging around in some piles of my mom's junk and I found this beat up old tool box that belonged to my grandpa. It is really beat up, a bit rusty, for some reason there isn't paint on the lower front part (oookay?). And you know what? I'm not going to paint it or recover it in any way. Really.


I love the rusty bumpy scratches. :)

Plus my grandpa wrote his nickname on top and I don't want to cover that up for anything.

He also wrote the words "boat tools." Well I don't have a boat or even tools to fix one and since he was quite the gardener himself I decided to turn it into some seed storage.
I washed up the outside with a damp rag then opened it to find...

Spiderwebs. And spider carcass thingies. Like when a spider sheds its skin to get bigger. Ew ew ew ew!! Sorry but I don't do spiders and for some reason I'm always experiencing traumatic spider incidents (large spider+shower+my leg= scene from a horror movie. True story!). Thankfully there were no live spiders in here.

I found these reproduction wooden berry boxes and popped three inside my tool seed box.


With three separate boxes I can organize them by vegetable, flower and herb.


After I took that photo I remembered all the other veggie seeds I had in the other room. I go a little seed crazy this time of year, especially when my local store has a 50% off sale. :)


Since I wasn't doing anything major, yet wanted to make the box's new purpose clear, I used a blog header created by The Graphics Fairy and added the text using Picnik. For some reason my printer was being possessed and wouldn't print any red ink so it came out quite yellow, but it works. I stuck it on with glue dots so it is removable should I change my mind about what I want to use it for.


And you know what? My grandma's nickname was Seeds so this ended up having a lovely unexpected double meaning for me.




I guess I'll grow me a garden of memories. And yummy things to smell and eat. :)

Linking to:

Reinvented


13 comments:

Jennifer MacNeill said...

That is wonderful! I need to make one of these, my seeds are everywhere!

Sonja @ Craft-Werk said...

That toolbox is really cool. It is always great when you can reuse something that actually reminds you of a special person. And I love the way you are uniting your grandparents in their nicknames on the box. Cool!

Jessica said...

I love the character that the toolbox has and it's great that it was once your grandpa's.

Room to Inspire said...

This is very sweet. I love the history behind it and that you found a way to utilize it so you can continue to create great memories!

Chelsea

philben5 said...

Grandpa would be proud! Love it and love the turquoise blue of the lid. Makes me smile.
Blessings
Roxanne

la maison LaFortune said...

That's a great toolbox. I wouldn't have re-done it either. It has a wonderful patina and the blue is really pretty!

Melissa said...

I picked a toolbox very similar to that once at a thrift store for .25 someone wrote drill bits on the side...I love it. Right now it serves a caddy on my sewing table.

I love that yours has a sentimental meaning too...

Laura said...

This is so pretty! It turned out great!

abnsigoslady said...

I love it. What a wonderful repurpose idea. Laura @ the mansion

Alicia@Thrifty And Chic said...

this turned out very cute. And I totally understand your fear of spiders...I'm pretty sure I would have shut the thing and left it...for good. So, good for you! You were able to bring life back into your grandfather's tool box. I love it :)

Dianne said...

Great redo!

Unknown said...

This turned out just stunning! What an adorable place to store your seeds! I have all my seed packets sitting on the counter wrapped in rubber bands waiting for me to come up with a place for them--thanks for the inspiration!

Its So Very Cheri said...

I love the color, the depth of the metal and the bird--too cute--and it is going on my favs list.

Cheri