Where did the sunshine go?!!

Boo Hoo! It's raining here again! I sure enjoyed the warmth and sunshine we had the last couple of days. I got so much done. I've made a lot of projects that I'll share over the next few days.

The first half of the week was cold and rainy, so I went to a couple of thrift stores. I found cutting board for $1.91 (odd price!), a wall candle sconce for $.90 and some molds for $1.35 each at one place.

At another TS I found a black mesh container and rusty metal bird for $2.00 each and candlesticks and another mold for $1.00 each. I'll show the makeovers at a later time.

My most exciting find was an old porch post. I've been searching for one for awhile without any luck. My hubby gave me a coach lantern that I've had my eye one for a while for Christmas.

There's an amazing website (http://www.handcrafted-artifacts.com/) that sells lighting fixtures and other things made from tin, brass and copper at very reasonable prices. My lantern was only $90! A couple of years ago, I bought a Paul Revere lantern for only $23. I've seen them elsewhere for as much as $40-$50. He has three different sizes, mine is 15", the largest size.

So my idea was to find an old porch post to mount my lantern on to replace my old post light going up my walkway.

All the posts I've seen in the past (long before I had this plan) were solid in the center. We had to figure out how we were going to run electrical wire down through the middle. We found drill bit extensions at Home Depot that were 18" long for $12. We would need at least three of them (we'd drill from both ends and hopefully meet in the middle) so there's $36.00 we'd be spending on something we'd probably never use again; plus, the cost of the post if we'd ever find one. Luckily, my brother had several extensions pieces we could use, so that problem was solved. Now we only needed to find a post.

I noticed some posts leaning up against the building of a nearby antique store. I stopped to check them out and was bummed because they were too rotted for my liking. On top of that, they were sold as a whole porch package. Darn! I went inside and looked around, but didn't see any, so I asked a woman if she knew of anyone that had one. A man that worked there said that there was one in the next room. Sure enough, leaning against the wall with stuff hanging all over it, was a post. It was only $48, which was only a couple of dollars more than I would have paid for a metal post at Home Depot if that was the route I would have had to take. I was so excited!!

After the man loaded the post into my Explorer, I headed for home, thinking, "This is great! It's going to be a nice weekend, I'll get my brother's drill bit extensions, and we can get my new light post up!". As I unloaded the post, I noticed a hole in the center at the bottom. I looked to see how deep the hole was and guess what ?!! The whole went all the way through!!! The hard part was taken care of! YEAHH!!

So here's my new post light.

I didn't think it was prim enough, so I antiqued it alittle.

I'M SO EXCITED!!

Well, I need to be going for now. As I mentioned before, I have a lot of projects to share with you in the next few days. I made a bee skep today using mortar mix, peat moss and straw. So far it looks great, but we'll see how it looks dry and if it comes off the mold!!