Crafting and Coffee and Donuts, oh my!

The weather has been showing signs of spring, so when we saw that we had a Saturday of temps in the 70s coming up, my sister and I planned to spend  the day working on some re-purposing projects and pricing some stuff for our Junque Rethunque booth. First, though, we had to meet a guy in Rogers about a couple of tables I found on Craigslist. On our way home we stopped by Walmart to pick up some snacks to keep our energy up for the busy day ahead.

I’m not a two-cup a day coffee drinker, but  I have learned over the years to enjoy an occasional cup if it is diluted with lots of sweet creamy stuff. I guess you could say I like my coffee like I like my wine – light and sweet. When we saw this Delicious Pairings display in the Walmart bakery, we had to stop and check it out.

I was scoping out the donuts (mmmmm…. donuts…. I ignored my low-carb diet for the day) and my sister was looking at the Starbucks coffee to see if there were any new flavors on the shelf. She is a Coffee Drinker, and tends to like a darker coffee, but she suggested we look at a light variety to have with the donuts… it was only fair that if I was buying, I got to pick. :) And since you can't have too many donut pictures...

The display makes it super easy to figure out what intensity each variety of coffee is – simply by putting them in light to dark order. The lighter flavors are in the yellow bags, then an orange design is next, then a kind of deep rose. The Blonde Willow Blend was at the very far end of the light options, so I took a chance. I've purchased the instant iced coffee mixes from Starbucks, and even have their app on my phone - I guess you could say those are the "gateway drugs" to buying a bag to use at home, right??

Even though I rarely make coffee at home, I do have a coffee maker in case we have company who would like some. I pulled it out and dusted it off and we were in business. I put some milk and sugar in my cup and poured in the coffee… it brought back memories of my mom – the coffee she drank was always a light tan color too.

The flavor was really excellent. It was a bit sweet even on its own without the sweetener in it, and had a tangy, citrus flavor. I felt like I was at a wine tasting - except that I didn't spit it into a bucket... It’s amazing how different GOOD coffee is from the run-of-the-mill kinds that come in the cans. I won’t name names. 

There was no bitter, burned taste to this Blonde Willow flavor. And drinking it with a bite of chocolate-glazed donut was a great combo. The citrusy flavor of the coffee went well with the chocolate – it reminded me of the chocolate oranges that I put in the kids’ stockings at Christmas.

After we spent the day painting and waxing and pricing and sorting, I was cleaning up the mess and found the bag for the coffee on the counter. (I had put the coffee into a vintage coffee jar to store in the cupboard.) I wasn't keen on the idea of throwing it away, since it's plastic, and I have been planning to try making a coffee cuff I could keep in my purse to replace the little cardboard ones you get at coffee shops... so I decided to do a little more re-purposing. It is National Crafting Month, afterall...

I used a cuff I kept off a cup of coffee (obviously around the holidays - I told you I don't drink it often! LOL!) and cut out a piece of the bag, and two pieces of fabric from the arm of a wool sweater. I sandwiched them together and sewed them up. Nothing fancy... I like the handmade look with little wrinkles and imperfections.

 It seemed to need a little "something" to finish it off (I'm fond of embellishing), and it needed a closure too, so I cut some circles out of the rest of the bag and made a flower. Isn't that black button cute for the center??

All that was left was to sew it on. The plastic was very easy to sew through - on the machine and by hand. Ta-daaaaaa!! What do you think??  I kind of love it. :)

So, now you tell me... what's YOUR favorite Starbucks flavor - and have you done any re-purposing lately? Have you visited the Delicious Pairings display at Walmart?
 

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Community and have been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study. However, all opinions are my own and I only write about products that I actually use. #cbias #SocialFabric

Just a little thrifty goodness.

I stop by my local Goodwill at least once a week. Sometimes I find amazing vintage goodies to resell in my Junque Rethunque booth, sometimes I find beautiful vintage things to give as gifts, other times, I just find things I will use around my own house. Today (and yesterday) provided the latter.

Yesterday, I found a great handmade cap and a little holiday tin - the hat for me, and the tin for my sister who reuses them to gift homemade cookies and candy (yes, you should envy me!). The cap is in perfect shape... wonder who got it for Christmas? Their loss!

Today I ran by again to see if a frame I passed up yesterday was still there, which it wasn't, and picked up this great basket. The lid has been removed, but I am going to use it to hold wood and kindling next to our newly-refurbished fireplace. Note: if you see something you like at the thrift store, don't wait - someone else will like it too!! :)

What are some of your recent thrift or junky finds? Share with us here or on our Facebook page HERE.

Who you callin' GRANNY???

An old friend (as old as me, in fact) recently commented on a photo I posted on Facebook, saying "You've really got this granny gig down, don't you?"  It was this picture of a great set of vintage canisters I put in my flea market booth this weekend...

 Now, this friend is a male. And, he is an admitted arrogant smart-ass. But even so, it occurred to me while responding to him that he's probably not the only person out there who maybe doesn't really comprehend how brilliant it is to buy 2nd-hand and use "granny" stuff instead of buying whatever Pottery Barn and Target are selling this week. Kind of suits my "refuse to follow trends" inclinations. Except, there does seem to be a pretty big group of people out there who love the same non-trendy stuff I do. If we all love it, does it mean it's a trend??

I may not be making my own bread or canning my own veggies like my Grandmother Whillock did, but I do furnish my home with a lot of stuff found at second-hand stores, yard sales and even curbs. My first dumpster-diving experience was with my Grandma when I was probably around 10 years old. We were driving along one afternoon when Grandma spotted a great set of rattan furniture - a couch and love seat I think - sitting next to a dumpster. I don't remember details... did she have rope in the car, or did we go home and get it? But somehow, we got that set up on the roof and hauled it home for my aunt's new apartment.

My mom didn't really shop in thrift stores or hit yard sales when I was younger, but as I got older we enjoyed hunting flea markets and junk shops together. I think the biggest thrifty genes just skipped a generation, because I definitely got a bunch of 'em! I'm all about getting something at a great price, and turning something a little less than perfect into something brilliant. It was our love for finding a diamond in the rough and imagining what it could be that made us start our business, Junque Rethunque, that my sister and I are carrying on together.

So go ahead and call me Granny, my friend. I'm fine with saving hundreds of dollars and will continue to believe I'm doing my part to save the planet at the same time.

A cleaning proverb, a sweet chair and a table with potential.

I'm kind of amazed at myself today. I spent a solid 8 hours cleaning and organizing the garage and carport, and my poor old 45 year old body is now letting me know that it may have been a bad idea. I disagree. I might be a little really sore tomorrow, but by god, I have SPACE in my garage again!

I know everyone has messy garages, but ours had gotten pretty ridiculous. It's not just the boxes and boxes of things that I brought home from my mother's house over the last year. (sisters' sorting parties are in the works!) Those are definitely taking up a lot of space, but the other issue that is more frustrating is the lack of interest that my family seems to have in putting things where they belong. I clean off a shelf, or organize a drawer, or provide a basket - but stuff still gets left between where it was used and where it should be.

I know you are nodding your heads. :)

So I heartlessly threw stuff in the trash all day, I put stuff in the attic, I put like things together and organized them, I listed a ton of stuff on Craigslist.com... and at the end of the day I have some space in the garage again. Awesome. I feel lighter.

And as a bonus, I pulled out this sweet chair that I brought home from my mom's a couple of weeks ago and cleaned her up. It was in the workshop that mom and I had been using as our "this has potential!!" storage area, and I just couldn't leave it behind.

It's missing a couple of cross-braces between the legs, and obviously a seat. It was filthy to start with, but as you can see it cleaned up pretty well. The plan is to staple some nylon window screen into the seat so that it can be planted with some annuals and put on someone's porch. Adorable!

 

 

How cool is it that you can see where the rungs in the front are worn from someone's little feet resting there? I love stuff like that. 

I also pulled this table out and gave it a second look. It is too colonial for my taste, but it was a freebie on the curb I picked up a while back. The top was hinged so that you could store stuff in it, but where it hinged didn't allow for it to open enough  for it to be really useful. It would be hard to find stuff back in there, you know? I thought about just putting it on MY curb... then I thought again. I grabbed my rubber mallet and started giving it some whacks, and eventually it was topless.

Definitely better... of course that's when I saw that the top wasn't just glued in, but actually had screws in it. I was too impatient to discover this pre-whacking...No damage done, however. I'm thinking it would be a great display table with a small window or even just a piece of glass placed over the top. Ideas? What do you think??