Primitive DIY Candle Stand

In my previous post, I forgot to include my 'Candle Stand'. I found a tutorial from Kris's 'Simply Prim' blog.

I went on another 'burn pile' adventure and found a lovely old shovel handle for the vertical piece and a smaller old piece of wood from something else for the base. I beat the wood up a bit more with my 'medieval torture chain' (a chain with misc nuts, bolts and metal objects attached) that my husband had made for me. For the finish, I painted it a barn red, followed by a black and then sanded in some wear spots and finished those areas with a bit of Early American Stain.

Until next time - Suzanne.

Primitive DIY Towel Rack

I needed a towel rack for the bathroom that I've been working on. I love the antique blanket cranes and thought that a smaller version would work perfectly for a towel rack. This is what I came up with.


If you recall, I had used the tines from an old hay rake for the pegs on my peg board.


I used the remaining parts to make my new towel rack.


It turns back and forth just like the blanket cranes. This makes it nice to slide the towels off the end.


The hinged end is simply a nail on each end that allows the rake to pivot. I really like how it turned out.

I purchased a lovely new reed diffuser at a a local prim gift shop and it now has a new home on top of the medicine cabinet.

I ended up hot gluing it to the cabinet, to be sure it didn't get knocked off.

A view of the medicine cabinet (my husband built the medicine cabinet many years ago) and the towel rack.

This is an overall shot of the bathroom counter area, including my peg board. The bathroom is very small and it is really difficult to get a good picture. I still have to replace the faucet and the light fixture, but then this room is done and I'm off to my next project.

New/Old Peg Board

I am in the middle of redoing one of my bathrooms and wanted a pegboard on the wall. I found a lovely tutorial on Kris's 'Simply Prim' blog and decided to give it a whirl - with a few small changes. My bathroom is pretty small, so I had to make my board just 24" wide and I spaced the pegs much closer than hers. The end result is below.

My husband found me scavenging through his 'burn pile' for some old wood and was tickled pink that I was doing some home dec without having to go to the store! For this, he says that I am his dream woman!

I came up with this old board, which my DH cut and drilled for me. For the pegs, we cut the tines of an old hay rake. We sanded the square ends enough to fit in the round holes with a little persuasion from a hammer.

For the finish, I did some light sanding (keeping the old blue paint), stained it with Minwax Early American and then a couple coats of tung oil. A quick buffing with a clean rag gave it a nice patina.

This was a fun project and I look forward to many more 'burn pile' adventures.

Snowy Update

We have had snow for quite some time now, but this is the first chance I have had to update my blog. A fresh coat of snow came overnight and is giving our yard a nice clean coating.


I haven't been doing much sewing, but did start the quilting on my Mom's anniversary quilt. Ignore the mess - I need to tidy up my shelves.

I have been looking at pictures of inspirational craft/hobby/art studios on the internet and have been getting lots of great ideas that I would like to incorporate into my next studio. The room I have now is in the basement and it has served me well. My only complaint is the lack of windows - it has just the 1 window on the door and there is a set of stairs outside the door which block the sun.
My newest favorite gadget in the sewing room is in the photo below. It is a turning caddy with all sorts of cubbies and drawers. I found it at Home Goods, but I have seen it online through several different scrapbooking stores. I will be making labels for the drawers.


Another new favorite thing is this rag light string that my SIL made for me. It is simply homespun tied onto a string of lights. It looks much nicer than the picture shows. I laid it around some antique hammers that are in the cubby above our wood dumbwaiter for the fireplace.

Remember the vintage wooden boxes that I had my scrap fabrics stored in? I decided that the fabrics really needed to be kept out of the sun light, so I went on a search for something else to keep them in. I ended up with these lovely faux vintage suitcases that I keep stacked.

A peak inside one of the boxes finds my green scraps.

And I will end this post with a couple new pictures of 'Charlie Boy'. He has grown so much since the last photo's.
He is still a ball of fire and getting a picture of him sitting still is quite a challenge.

He is going through a 'wild hair' stage that matches his personality!

Until next time, Suzanne