Firkin Makeovers and A Few Finds

Yard sale and flea market season has arrived and I so enjoy finding new/old things for my home. There is something about the 'thrill of the hunt'.

This was a yard sale find from a local guy that had it marked at $25. I picked it up and he told me he would take less for it, as he was tired of bringing it back and forth from his house. He then offered it to me for $5, so I gladly accepted his offer.

The label is a winter skating scene and I ended up leaving it on there as it has a nice aged look to it.


I found this firkin at a local flea market. It was filled with cotton lace and old thread spools. The painted tulips had to go.

You may remember this smaller firkin/cookie jar from a previous post. I had been wanting to give it a makeover, as it has the brass bands and they needed to be toned down.

This is the completed makeover of the 3 Firkins. The bottom firkin is the one with the label and the top is the 'Tulip' firkin (acetone removed the tulips nicely). These were both very simple makeovers, as all I did was give them a cleaning followed by a coat of Minwax Dark Walnut Stain and a nice buffing. It really brought out the lovely age of the wood. The middle firkin is the cookie jar style with the brass bands - I gave the whole bucket a coat of blue paint, sanded in some distressing and finished with a coat of Minwax Dark Walnut Stain and a buffing.

This lovely 3 drawer wall box was a find from a local flea market. After a quick cleaning and a coat of Minwax Dark Walnut Stain it was ready for a new home.

I hung it in my bedroom with a nice square headed rusty nail. It's pretty heavy and I needed to make sure that it was nailed into a stud.

This lovely old working scale came from the same flea market. I just love the face of the scale combined with the black metal.

And lastly, this vintage pantry box - once again, found at the same flea market. The inside is stamped 'Manufactured by Gage & Co. Henniker, NH'.

I now have it displayed on my jelly cupboard with some of my other treasures.

Hope you are able to make some great 'finds' this summer too.

Until next time ~ Suzanne.

Gated Entrance Progress

This is a very busy time of year for us. The frost is gone and we have started our work again on a piece of property we own and I thought I'd share with you some of our progress. This is the entrance to the property. It has a very long driveway and that took the majority of last summer to excavate and complete.

This is the day we arrived with the gate my husband built for the entrance. That is my youngest son standing on the bumper.

With some much needed help from his equipment, my husband placed the first side. My son is about 5'5" tall to give you an idea of the size of the gate.

He then set the other half and straightened and leveled the posts and swinging arms.

We then gave all the wood a nice coat of stain and painted all the metal hardware black.

We built a stone wall on either side of the posts using Pennsylvania Thin Field Stone.

My husband made all the hardware himself. It is all hand pounded to give it a nice 'aged' feel. The cedar posts are 18" round and are repurposed powerline poles. The power company replaced them because the woodpeckers had got to them. The holes are on the opposite side and add an interesting detail to the gate.

This is how the entrance looks at the moment. The grass is just starting to grow.  We are now working at the top of the driveway making fields. I will post updated pictures once the grass comes in. It's a lot of hard work, but is so worth it in the end.

UPDATE:  The grass has grown and the entrance is finished!

Until next time ~ Suzanne.