Leftovers!

Oh I'm so excited!  Company's coming next weekend and I'm getting ready for them with leftovers!  You  might think that's not very nice of me, but I can explain.

Obviously I wouldn't feed my in-laws anything that's hiding in the fridge,  I'm preparing for my awesome guests with leftover JUNK, not food : ) 

I don't know about you, but I have a few items I really don't need anymore, but just can't seem to part with.  Take my wood dish drainer for instance.  The little devil was my constant companion for years and years at the kitchen sink.  When my very first dishwasher was recently installed I just couldn't part with the silly thing.

I couldn't bear to throw away the little straw purse I outgrew either.  Wouldn't you know it?  The drainer made a nice little shelf and the purse was the perfect size for my bird's nest plant I haven't killed yet!

Then there was this hunk of metal that I couldn't wait to get off the old washing machine, but couldn't bear to send to the junk yard.

(Sorry.  Just can't get enough of seeing what a difference a little tlc made in the life of Ms. Washer)

Anyway, I tried putting the pulley wheel in one of my gardens...

Blech.  It didn't really do anything for me.

The logical choice was to scrub and clear coat and bring it inside.

So I did.  I call it "Roses & Rust"

 And I like it!  (Even though in this picture it fairly resembles "Roses on a Waffle")

I also threw a few things together to beautify an empty corner.  The leftovers here include one of the bed springs and that beaded viny thingy I tried to shape into a wreath, but it wouldn't cooperate, so I gave up and hung it on the shelf pegs.

Okay then!  I have ONE CORNER in my entire house ready for company!
 
So tell me, what do you do with your leftovers??

I think I'll send this over to

and see if I can't meet some new bloggy friends!

I think Donna might like that rusty waffle too:

Perpetual Inspiration

What do you get when you double up on your inspirations?

Itsy Bits and Pieces

It was love at first sight when I saw Linda's little clock face turned Man in the Moon and I knew I had to have one of my very own.

Speaking of love, I fell in love with Donna's creative Kitchen catch-all decor and wanted one of those too!

Funky Junk Interiors

So I scratched and scrounged around came up with a double header from their great ideas.  A basket, three bed springs, a couple broken hangers, a little baling twine and I have a fashionable home for my address book, cell phone, pens, notepaper and keys - whoo hoo!

But there is sooooooooooo much inspiration to be found I couldn't stop there.

The always creative Kendra had me drooling with her little drawer display.

Creative Ambitions

Since I needed something to hide an unsightly outlet, I decided to go with the big flower idea.

Guess what?  The flowers do a great job of hiding my cell phone power cord too.  Oh the advantages of stealing the ideas of others!

I was feeling a little guilty about using everyone else's ideas.  It made me feel like my creative juices had dried up in the hot summer sun, so I decided to add a little creation of my own.

Can you guess what it is?  Here's a little hint that will also show you what a huge improvement all these inspirations have made in my kitchen organization area.

Say goodbye to the handy but rather unattractive calendar I actually paid 5 bucks for, and Hello(!) to my do-it-yourself Perpetual Calendar : )

Perpetual, of course, means forever and that is just about how long it took me to create it!  I found a chart on the internet and painstakingly created all the calendars - A through G - and the tables of months and years.  I found some graphics and a picture I liked and Mod-Podged it all together.  The only thing it's really good for is finding out what day a date fell on in any particular year.  But it's a great conversation piece! 

As you can see, I had to create a "real" calendar to add to the assemblage as well.  It would take too long to figure out what day it is using the other one!

So there you have it.  My new and improved kitchen catch-all area.  As far as inspiration goes, I'm calling it a home run, Linda + Donna + Kendra + me and it's bases loaded.  Add the most gracious Karen at the Graphics Fairy, where the adorable Man in the Moon came from and it's over the fence and gone!

I'm linking this perpetual project up here:

Funky Junk Interiors Saturday Night Special

&

Under the Table & Dreaming's Sunday Showcase

p.s.  I was born on a Sunday : )