Queen of Junque - an upcycled crown

I've been crowned a Queen of Junque!

Okay...so I had to make my own crown...does it still count? :)

It all started when I saw this:

In my friend's garbage can. Yes, I garbage can dived. No one saw me so it was sneaky garbage can diving too. My friend and her husband had installed a clothes dryer and this was a leftover piece or an old piece, I can't remember. I saw it and knew it needed to be a crown. But that was months ago!

In September I bought a bucket at Goodwill and turned it into [this project]. It came with a little of what I called "Christmasification" that needed to be removed but I had just the thing to use them on (they were whispering "crown adornment" at me, I swear)


I needed height on my "crown" and since this was looking very much like a shabby chic junque project (and I knew I had a ton of it) chicken wire seemed my best bet! I made sure to cut a section wide enough to fit the circumference of the dryer fitting.


The lip in the center of the fitting was perfect for holding my chicken wire in place and I snipped the excess off the top leaving little uplifted bits to look like crown points. Where the wire meets in back I simply twisted it together to hold its round shape.


I recommend wearing some medium thickness gloves for working with the chicken wire. I also had some medium sized wire cutters (not the tiny ones I use for jewelry making).


Twisting the beaded sprigs onto the chicken wire was just a matter patience and a little finesse with some needle nose pliers.


For the bottom half - since I didn't want it to be rough or scratching any surface I happened to set it on - I used a long rectangle of white eco-felt and glued it both inside and outside of the crown edge.



I used some white decorative trim to cover the seam between the eco-felt and the dryer fitting.


And that, dear friends, is how I got crowned Queen of Junque. My friends and family now know that I will really make something out of anything. No one's garbage cans are safe! ;)



Also, don't give up if you have an idea and it doesn't come together right away. Like I mentioned earlier it took me months of little bits trickling into my stash and for me to formulate the right way to put them together.



But I think I need a smaller "head" for it to sit on...








Linking to:

House of Grace's Twice Owned party

The Shabby Chic Cottage's Transformation Thursday

Mosaic Monday - evening mist

Click image to enlarge.

I realize that almost all my Mosaic Monday posts are about nature, but really that's what I photograph 99.9% of the time so I have an overabundance of that to share. :)

In autumn and winter when the skies clear up towards evening after being covered over all day, the most haunting but lovely mist rolls in across the fields (of which I am surrounded by on all four sides). To see it well in that top left photo you'll have to enlarge the mosaic.

One particular evening as it rolled in and the moon turned from dull to glowing as the sky darkened the horses pranced around in it making a most magical sight. Sadly my little point and shoot and my seriously amateur skills couldn't capture it, but I was able to capture some of the evening.

Be sure to visit Little Red House to see all the beautiful mosaics!

The generosity of bloggers

If you've spent much time in blogland I think you'll find that bloggers are, for the most part, encouraging, uplifting and generous. I've been a recent recipient of some of that generosity.

Susan at Pieces of Fate participated along with many others of us in the Halloween Party at A Fanciful Twist. I won her lovely giveaway (after a wrinkle in the plan) and my prize arrived the other day!

I love that she put the banner for the Halloween party on there (as well as on the shipping label) just to let me know what it was I was opening up.

I was completely entranced by the book - SO up my alley. I love reading about the mysterious and bizarre. :) And a booklight too! I love to read in bed and this will be perfect!

So Susan your generosity could not have been spent on a more grateful person. Thank you so much, I love my treasures!

Thank you, veterans.

Thank you, veterans, for your service.


Here's my dad at basic training in 1966 - he looks so young! Well, he was 22 so I suppose he should look young. Even so, he was older than most and got called the old man.

Cupboard door turned wall art

So says the White Queen (hence the crown filling up my empty space) in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass.

My mom bought me this old cupboard door for two dollars. She figured I'd "do something fun with it...make a chalkboard out of it or something."



I like the glass knob with the super rustic wood and rust patina.


I taped and papered off the edges and spray painted with several (I think it was as many as 5) coats of chalkboard paint. You could just as easily brush on the same paint from a can, but the spray variety was what I had on hand.


To hang it, I added two eye loops by first drilling a small pilot hole and then screwing them the rest of the way in using my hand. These little guys came in a picture hanging kit I have. One on each side does the trick and you don't even have to worry about getting them perfectly lined up.


I was originally going to use some wire that also came in my picture hanging kit but the piece I had left was too short by justthismuch so I grabbed my role of small jute string instead.


Knotted securely on both sides this will make hanging a snap! I should mention this cupboard door is made from wood so old it barely weighs anything so my string may look tiny but will do the job perfectly.



I really need to get one of those chalk pens so my handwriting looks not quite so insane.



It fits right in with the rest of my eclectic junque. :)


Now what should I dangle from the knob? I was thinking about an old skeleton key to go with my growing collection seen there on the right. Any other suggestions?


Linking to:

Funky Junk Interiors