Another Flea Market!

The first Saturday of April Marnie and I went to the monthly flea market in Rickreall. We had a fun experience and I brought home a ton of neat stuff! First, I decided we should attend the “early bird” time on Saturday – the regular admission time is Sunday starting at 9:00 a.m. The Saturday opening time is 10:00 a.m., so we got there about 9:40 to be sure we were close to the beginning of the line. We soon realized that they don’t even let the vendors in to set up until 10:00, so we walked into mostly empty rooms, haha! We made a beeline to the booth of the first guy that was quickly getting his things out on tables, and I immediately discovered bundles of Dr. Seuss books for a very reasonable price! I paid the man and gleefully stuffed all of the (heavy!) books into my very large bag. I had brought a large bag and a smaller bag just in case.

We walked around the market and looked at the items for sale as they came out of the vendors’ tubs and boxes. I saw one box and zeroed in on a Sue Grafton book in it and asked the man how much it was. He said, “You can have it, I don’t do books!” so I looked again into the box and found three more Sue Grafton books, and he let me have them all for free! I discovered when I got home that I already had a couple of them but I couldn’t remember all of the ones I have. I just grab them when I see them and sort them out later, like I do with Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books!

Happily, I found TWO booths selling vintage Fisher Price Little People toys and bought them up. The furniture is hard to find and usually very expensive!

I found many old Look and Saturday Evening Post magazines, all in plastic with cardboard backing.

And this not-so-old magazine I wanted because two of our kids were born in 1994 and I thought they might like to read something that was made close to the time of their birth…

I got this little nightstand/end table that I will redo somehow, it’s a great size!

One of my favorite things seen at the flea market. The little old lady who was selling him said, “Isn’t he handsome?” I thought he was a bit scary myself, wouldn’t want to run into his kind on a dark country road!

After we made a few more rounds to make sure we hadn’t missed anything, we got in the car and started back up the road from the fairgrounds where the flea market was held. We noticed that the Rickreall Grange was having a “bazaar”, so we decided to check that out too. There were a few tables with handmade items and vintage things, but the jackpot came when we went into another room and a lady was selling all sorts of clothes for $1.00 apiece! I rummaged through her boxes and found quite a few nice things, including a Columbia fleece in new condition and some great quality things for The Grandbaby when he gets older. I think we might go back there, I’d like to go through the boxes again!

Flea Market!

Over the past few weeks I have been to a couple of flea markets and came home with a lot of cool stuff. We attended a market in Albany that was supposed to be Linn County’s largest flea market, and I found some great buys. We got to the market early so needed to stand in line in the cold. I was proud of myself in that I had bought a long, warm Banana Republic sweater at the consignment store for $8 and it works great to go to events like this. It is warm enough to stand in line outside, but cool enough to not get overheated inside!

At every flea market, estate sale, or antique mall we go to we always find some item that is the “theme” of the day. At the Albany flea market, we saw quite a few of these old safety razors. They were everywhere!

Old safety razor. This was from a booth with very reasonable prices.

Here are photos of the things I bought at the Albany flea market. I got this lamp , which Marnie very nicely carried out to the car for me. I also got a vintage Fisher Price Little People village and a bag of cars and people to go with it, a large number of Hardy Boys books for just $8.00, a big bag of letter magnets for when the grandbaby is old enough to put words together (there are enough magnets to have some at Baby’s house and some at Nana and Grandpa’s house!), some Tupperware from a booth that had so much vintage Tupperware I didn’t know what to do with myself, a beautiful hand-tied necklace made of rose quartz beads, and other things!

I can’t resist these lamps if they are a good price. It might soon become a problem…

The village was a really good deal! It has the two sides pictured. An arch with a traffic light attaches the two sides together, but it didn’t come with the arch. I will be looking for one of those for sure!

These were a pretty good deal.

$8 for all!

I loved these when I was a girl.

These scoops and spatulas are very hard to find, so I bought 2 of each. The cake taker top was just what I needed as well, and only $1!

Hand-tied rose quartz necklace – worth much more than $3!

After we were done at the Albany flea market, we decided to go downtown for lunch. We chose to eat at the Brick and Mortar restaurant, since we had eaten there before and I wanted breakfast for lunch. The restaurant was full and they have the technology to text you when your table is ready, so we went next door to Sniffany’s Pet Boutique to check it out. It’s a lot bigger inside than you can tell from the outside, and oh, what a selection of pet things they have! More for doggos than kitties, but we enjoyed looking at all the fun things and petting the shop cat.

These are doggie treats!

The shop cat. We didn’t get his name.

But then we saw these:

😦😦😦😦😦😦

And these:

😧😧😧😧😧😧

And THESE:

😨😨😨😨😨😨

We tried to have some fun with them, but we really got quite a case of the heebie-jeebies, and while I’m sure these chewies are great for dogs we both decided that we wouldn’t have them in the house! Ewwwwww…

What is that? Why, it’s a…hog snout. 😳😳

The restaurant texted shortly and we went in and sat down to get ready for our brunch. Thankfully looking at the doggo “treats” hadn’t ruined our appetite, and we both ordered our breakfast foods. I had my hashbrowns “mortar style”, with cheese and all sorts of other things, and they were delicious.

Marnie concentrates on the menu.

Here is my brunch.

After our meal we walked around downtown Albany for a little while. We searched for and finally found a clothing consignment store we were interested in and looked around in there. Then we walked back to the car (at least we got some steps in!) and came on home. All in all a profitable day! I’m so thankful that my bestie likes to come with me to these events!

Flea Market

On Sunday we went to the Polk Flea Market at the Polk County Fairgrounds. The flea market is held on the first Sunday of the month, and we hadn’t ever been to this one until now.

The market opened at 9:00 a.m. for general admission ($1.00) and we got there around 9:12. You can pay $5.00 admission to go to the early bird times on the Saturday and early Sunday morning. Obviously many people had done that, because the parking lot was quite full by the time we got there! We went inside and started at the far end.

Whenever we go to estate sales or flea markets there is always a theme — some item we see over and over. This day’s theme was dark red dishes and corn-shaped cast iron cornbread pans. I didn’t get a photo of any of the cornbread pans at the market, so I’ll put on one from Etsy so you’ll know what I mean. We saw so many of those I even exclaimed to one of the sellers about it.

Photo from Etsy. Click to go to the listing.

I saw this deer head on the wall and had to look at it more closely, it has a weird antler. The seller there had a taxidermy business advertised on his shirt said said his son had mounted the head. There was another head that the man informed me was the three-point buck he had shot on his son’s third birthday. He said his son had passed away and he had no room to keep all his things. That interaction was rather sad all around. I’m not a fan of hunting but I understand it’s important to some people.

In one of the side rooms of the main building I found this vintage “Sift-Chine” sifter. The seller said it had been in their kitchen for years. I asked was he downsizing then, and he said yes, most of the people in the place were! I already have one of these sifters with the green stripes, but the price was so good I couldn’t pass it up.

We made our way to the other building and found all sorts of goodies! At the antique mall last week I had seen a vintage melon baller with a green handle, and from what I could see it was priced at $10 or $12. In that booth there were a number of green-handled kitchen gadgets, but they were attached to a board on the highest shelf. It would have been hard to get it down anyway. At the flea market we headed into Building “C” and I found this for just $1.00!

The lady that sold me the melon baller also had this in her booth — haha! It’s an egg baby! Well, it’s really just an extremely weird pincushion. I wouldn’t want to put pins in something with a head! She also sold me an old photo dated Easter 1946, which I bought just because 1946 was the year our house was built.

Written on the back is “Baby Frankie B., Noila (?) Jean, Bobby, and Helen – Easter 1946”
Why do people not print the names clearly and put last names on the backs of photos? Let that be a lesson to you!

Here are all the other nifty things I got at the market. The ambulance is a Fisher Price Adventure People toy from the 1970s, we played with the same one at the neighbors’ when we were kids, My sis had the Adventure People medical people but not the ambulance, and I had a hiker set with backpacks and a rock climbing rope. Fun! The green bed and yellow chair are Weebles accessories from the 1970s, the stretchers, bed with white figure, and wheelchair with yellow figure are Playmobil toys also from the 1970s, as are the cow and dog. The little white vehicle is a gurney from a Tonka Toddlers set (and the nurse cap in the back may be as well). I don’t know where the brown rubber broom came from. The two nurses are also Adventure People. The things that attracted me first to the box of goodies were the 1970s Fisher Price Little People sinks, chair, suitcases, and scale! I have been looking for the suitcases for a good price, and the furniture is always welcome into my collection. 😀

But the most important thing (besides the FP Little People things) was that the lady who sold me the melon baller and the photo told us about Google Lens, which is an app where you can take a photo of a thing and Google will tell you what it is. It’s unbelievable how much research that will save when I’m looking to list things on Etsy! It brought up the Tonka Toddlers item right away. I might never have figured that one out if it hadn’t been for Google Lens. What a blessing!

Here are some other things I saw that I hadn’t seen before:

Flamingo Pink Pyrex!!

Square Pyrex bowls! I have a round yellow one but had never seen square ones.

After the flea market we decided to stop in West Salem to get a pizza at Walery’s Pizza. We are very partial to their pizza! While we were waiting for the pizza, I noticed this over by the game room. I hadn’t seen one of these since I was a kid!

I decided I needed to get an egg. It was 50 cents. You put your money in and the chicken clucks and “lays” an egg.

Inside my egg was a strange temporary tattoo. I used to love those when I was a kid, but I don’t know if I would have liked this one, ha!

We had a fun time on Sunday and it was nice to spend some time with The Hubs, who has been working quite a lot lately. I’m looking forward to the next market when I think I will try to get in on the early bird time on the Saturday!

Hike – Miller Woods Conservation Area – Part 2

Here is part 2 of our hike to the Miller Woods Conservation Area near McMinnville, Oregon. Don’t forget to read Part 1 first!

After exploring the pond and field areas, we continued on to the forested areas. The trail was sticky mud in many places and I was glad I had on my waterproof boots!

Kangaroo getting a selfie of us while I get a photo of her, haha!

On the way to see a stream, we found this small plant with a protective fence around it — can you see the plant?

Very spindly shrub.

The plant had this label. Neither of us had heard of a Western Wahoo. Sounds like it should get to be rather a large shrub.

There were these nice benches scattered along the trail, and I thought those people knew how to build a trail right! Oh, how we wished for benches when we were hiking the PCT!

A lovely bench.

We reached this summit…

But this was the view…

In one area some trees had signs. We admitted we would have a difficult time telling the conifers apart without the labels!

Grand Fir

Douglas Fir

Another tree full of nesting boxes

This little guy was on the trail, quite aways up from the stream. We wondered how long it took him to climb all that way, and Kangaroo suggested he might be on a thru-hike 😃

Newt friend. (Photo by Kangaroo – she always gets the best wildlife photos)

This is actually a data collection site for snow. Considering that we seldom have snow here, I thought it was a strange location for it.

After the hike we planed to go to the little town of Lafayette, a few miles away, and go to the antique mall there. We didn’t find anything at the antique mall we couldn’t live without, but there were some interesting items. One was a giant buffalo head that was positioned next to the entry door (I believe they were asking $2700 for it!). Because of the moisture in the air, the poor buffalo smelled like wet dog, ugh! There was also a wonderful secretary desk with supports that automatically came out when you opened the door of the desk. So neat! I didn’t get photos of either of those, unfortunately!

Before we went in to the antique mall we walked a couple of blocks down to get some lunch. We went into the little “Cafeyette” and noticed a sign that said they were serving soup, but no other signs of food except pastries and coffee. I asked the lady what they had for lunch and she said they had sandwiches, ham and turkey. She suggested that olives on the sandwich would be delicious, so I chose to have everything except onions on my sandwich, and Kangaroo chose everything as well and did add onions. As they were making the sandwiches, the lady asked if we would like jalapenos, but we both declined. I got an Italian soda to drink and Kangaroo got a berry smoothie, and we sat down to wait for our sandwiches.

BIG yummy sandwich

The lady brought our sandwiches, and they were BIG and very yummy! While we were eating we noticed a man come in and look around. He asked us if there was a menu, and I replied, no, but there are sandwiches. He went up and put his order in and left the building, and when he came back he had an armful of yardsticks. I was about to comment on his yardstick haul when he said that he was going to be using them for projects, and that the man he got them from had only wanted 50 cents each for them so he bought them all. I said they were nice yardsticks too, and he asked us if WE wanted yardsticks, and we said sure, we’d love one, and he gave us each one. It’s a very nice, strong yardstick from the Power and Telephone Supply Company.

A very nice yardstick.

On the way home we came through Dayton towards West Salem, and I suggested we take the Wheatland Ferry since it would give us a straight shot home instead of going around through West Salem. The Boy works in the McMinnville area and takes the ferry home to Keizer most days. I hadn’t ridden the Wheatland Ferry since The Boy’s first ferry ride when he was a tiny baby! It was a nice adventure to end our day 😊

On the ferry

Leaving the ferry

We enjoyed our hike and decided that we will go back to visit Miller Woods in the spring sometime when the birds and other critters will be out.

Just keep walking!

~Ninja

Etsy

Just wanted to put in a little ad for my Etsy store, Little Miss Jackie’s Fascinating Vintage. We have lots of awesome items for sale, including Christmas items, with many lighted ceramic Dept. 56 Christmas village buildings offered! There are also some vintage Shiny Brite ornaments!

Ceramic village building — isn’t it cute?

I have three boxes like this for sale — they have that cool vintage look!

This is our Jackie, the namesake of my shop. She went to the Rainbow Bridge in September of 2014, just shy of her 15th birthday. She was a good girl and we loved her very much.

Marketplace Haul

This last week on Facebook Marketplace I was looking for some books to use for decorating this Christmas, and while I didn’t find the Christmas decor I was looking for, as I was scrolling I found two postings I was interested in. The first was a lot of Hardy Boys books, old and newish, for $10. Now, I had seen this posting awhile back and the set was $30, and I had passed on it then even though it was a good deal, but now for $10 I couldn’t resist!

There are over 30 Hardy Boys books — 15 from the 1960s (reprinted more recently), two from the ’30s, a few from the ’90s, a few from the ’80s, and one from the 2000s. This is a grand addition to our collection — after all, someday I will have grandchildren and they will want me to read to them! (I will also probably want to read to them “The Ransom of Red Chief” by O. Henry, like my grandma read to us when we were little girls.) When The Boy was little we read all the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books we had.

The other score I got was a lot of random books and old magazines for $20. The girl I bought them from said she didn’t want to just donate them, she knew someone out there would want them. The magazines are from the 1920s, ’30s, and 40s. I’m very interested to look through all of them! The ads are super fun 🙂

A number of the books I don’t think are sellable on Etsy so I’m going to try to get the used bookstore to take them, there are some modern children’s books that I’m not that interested in and some other more modern weird books. You never know what they’ll take at the bookstore, though!

There is a dictionary mentioned in my last post that is almost 100 years old, and another old book, “Evangeline” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, that was published in 1895. It is a pretty book and in good condition for being 127 years old!

There are some music books and sheet music (hey, I have a ukulele!)

Some old kids’ school readers…

Kids’ school books.

…and a ton of old recipe books. In years past (and I suppose now as well, but not so much) companies who made kitchen appliances or who sold things like baking powder or other food-related products put out little recipe books that showed how to use the product the company sold. They include booklets from Pillsbury, Rumford (baking powder) and General Electric, among many, many others. I’m hoping I can sell many of them on Etsy, as I don’t need them here at home.

Many recipe booklets from the 1930s on to the ’70s.

When I went on FB Marketplace I was originally looking for some books in certain colors to decorate with, we are doing black/white (buffalo plaid) and blue. I found two blue books at the Great Junk Hunt last weekend and thought that would be good, but when I started looking through them I found that one of them was about eugenics, and I didn’t want that one! It went the way of all things. The other one, “The Master’s Violin”, seemed fine. Yesterday we went to the Farmhouse Show in Turner, Oregon, and all I bought were some books, and kettle corn for The Boy. I found a nice blue book, “Hans Brinker or The Silver Skates”, published in 1903. It is a very heavy book, and has shiny pages, which is unusual. It will look fine with the other blue book. I might see if I could find some black and white books as well.

Blue books.

The other books I bought yesterday were some kids’ mystery books à la Nancy Drew, but featuring a girl called Judy Bolton. I hope the grandchildren enjoy being read to and reading as much as I did as a girl!

Honor Book

This week I got a bunch of goodies from Facebook Marketplace. I got a large group of Hardy Boys books from one seller, and a lot of old magazines, recipe books, and other random books from another seller. One of the random books was this Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary with a publication date of 1925.

Honor Book

Mary Collison was such a good speller from Detroit in the 1928 National Spelling Bee that she won this dictionary. It was awarded to “one of the best spellers in the schools of the Detroit Metropolitan Area” by The Detroit News. The dictionary is three inches thick! (I’ve always enjoyed dictionaries. In middle school when I got caught talking and had to copy the dictionary, I didn’t mind a bit. I think the teacher knew it, ha.)

Lots of words in here!

It has nice little illustrations and is still very usable, although the binding is damaged and some pages are coming out.

I had never heard of a fulmar until I read this page.

Binding not in such great shape.

I found a surprise or two in there!

I have the dictionary for sale on Etsy, and hope someone else will think it as fascinating as I do! I’ll share some of the other goodies I got in a later post.

Great Junk Hunt

Today I attended The Great Junk Hunt, a vintage show and flea market held at the Oregon State Fairgrounds. It is, according to their website:

• Voted top traveling vintage market in the USA by Flea Market Style magazine!
• Recently named one of the TOP 5 2019 Flea Markets in the U. S. and voted one of the Top 15 Flea Markets 2016!
• Listed as a must attend Flea Market in America by Flea Market Decor magazine!

I’ve been to the market once but it has been a few years. Marnie had other plans today so I went (gasp!) by myself! I wore my fall black cat/pumpkin shirt to be festive.

Last time I wore this shirt I received many compliments! Today not so much.

I paid $12 for a ticket for the early bird entry (an hour earlier than general admission) and got there at 8:20 to be in line for the 9:00 opening. They had even earlier-bird entries available yesterday, but those were even more expensive and in the afternoon, and I prefer to go places in the morning.

I waited in line and listened to the ladies around me talk about their teenagers and lawyers and other things. It started to rain a little and people ran to their cars to get coats and umbrellas, after which it promptly quit raining. It was definitely very chilly and my eyes were watering from the cold! I’m glad I got there early because there was quite a line behind me as 9:00 rolled around. The show encompassed two fairgrounds buildings and since I was in the right-hand line I went in the building on the right first.

Here are some things I saw that I found interesting (obviously there were many more interesting things, these are just a few of the things I saw):

A large fungus – we see them on trees quite often on our hikes. I didn’t see what the price was.

$35 is a bit steep.

Adorable Racoon Family metal sculpture. I’m going to see if The Hubs can make something like this.

Super neat “ferris wheel” plant holder. It was $110 or I would have snapped it up. I saw that later someone had bought it.

This is from the Rusty Birds metal artists. They make many cute birds and lots of other garden art, including the little kitty peeking over our fence you can see in some of our yard photos.

This lady added weird things to paintings. I guess that is Boba Fett(?) added to Gainsborough’s Blue Boy. I prefer the original Blue Boy myself.

I have some lamps like these. They came with plastic ruffled shades with a fabric overlay. I didn’t know they were worth this much, ha!

Plastic dinosaurs with candle holders. What a fun idea! There were also some dinosaurs made into bookends. This was in the booth where I got my treasure 🙂

Lots of children’s books at this market, but no Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys. I did see a couple Bobbsey Twins.

Someone’s old floppy disks made into notepad covers.

One booth had a lot of this pottery. I can’t remember the name of the maker but it is vintage and very expensive. This vase had no price tag but the one below it was $245. It has a wonderful, soft feel and beautiful pastel colors.

I got a couple of frames like this at the Mama Roost yard sale for $5 each. This one was $32.

I should have grabbed a couple more of these old keys, but I couldn’t get past the $4 price tag. Although, that is the going price for these.

Old paintbrush with case.

Back of paintbrush jacket. Isn’t that interesting? The man who had this booth was telling me he was running on only 4 hours of sleep in the last few days, after we literally bumped into each other. It was their first time selling at a show. I told him I had an Etsy store and he asked for my info, so I gave him a business card I cleverly had with me. 😀

Why did it never occur to me to make magnets out of my Scrabble tiles?

I could make a garland like this with all the scrap fabric I got a few weeks ago at the Mama Roost yard sale.

I thought it was a fine idea to make a little storage space under a chair cushion.

I have three little chairs like this.

I have this exact same light fixture globe for sale in my Etsy shop but mine has the fixture and chains that go with it. I am selling mine for quite a bit more though. Perhaps I should lower my price.

This was already sold or I might have grabbed it up too. Isn’t it fun? It’s made out of an old door like the one I have in the storage room.

And FINALLY, here are the treasures I bought, including the most bestest one, a rolling pin with green handles! That’s what I was searching for and I found it for the right price. Hooray! The little Christmas tree was only $5 and it has lights! The books are just for color to decorate with, since we are doing a black/white/blue/silver theme for Christmas this year. I think I will use the drawer and basket to put on my kitchen decor shelf to make “levels” so I can display things better.

Treasures!

These tiny ornaments came with the tree, the booth man came running up to me after I took the tree and said that the ornaments and garland went with it. I think they were anxious to get rid of them, ha! The garland is in bad shape with the paint coming off, so it had to go “the way of all things”. There is an interesting assortment of tiny ornaments, including 4 Bratz doll ornaments with a hanger that says “Bratz” on it. I’m sending those with The Girl to take to The Youngest Girl, who enjoyed playing with her Bratz dolls when she was little.

Odd assortment of ornaments.

Tiny Bratz ornaments. I might use the little snowflakes since they are blue and white.

After the show I went over to see The Boy and take him a couple of things. I visited with my grandcat, Basteta, and The Boy’s roommate’s cat, Piglet. Basteta is a fluffy gray kitty, and Piglet is a big cat with a curly tail.

I’ll say that if you want to go to The Great Junk Hunt, it is worth the extra few dollars to get in early. By 10:15 there were so many people that I could barely get through the booths. Much nicer to be there when it wasn’t so crowded!

Eggbeater!

I looked in some storage bins this last week in order to consolidate things, and found this vintage eggbeater I had bought awhile back. I completely forgot about it! I think I put it away because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it.

I like green-handled vintage kitchen implements because my kitchen color theme is green. The green theme came from this green secretary desk I bought at a second-hand store a few years ago.

Vintage Secretary Desk – chippy and shabby

I asked The Hubs to figure out how to hang the eggbeater on the wall with my other kitchen things, and he decided to make a hook:

Eggbeater hook.

Eggbeater on hook.

Here it is on the wall with some of the other vintage kitchen things. The ads for canned fruit and cookies came out of a 1922 Ladies Home Journal. All I need now is a vintage rolling pin with green handles and my wall will be complete! Well, maybe… 😃

Porch Bench

A couple of weeks ago one of our local vintage/antique malls had a parking lot sale, and Marnie, Aryn, and I attended. I saw a bench and thought it would be perfect to sit on our back porch in place of the little table that’s there now.

Little table.

I just recently painted the table and wanted something to put packages or other things on, so there it sits. The top of it is expanded metal which matches our patio table and a couple of chairs, so I think it will look good and be helpful on the patio instead as sort of an end table.

(Yes, I know our house is pink. It’s actually pink AND green. No, I don’t know when we will paint it. We need a new roof first. But, when we do paint it I believe it will be Sherwin-Williams Urbane Bronze. It was the color of the year for 2021. I wanted a “modern brown”, and I think this is it. Sherwin Williams believes it to be “a color that is ‘nature-inspired’ that elicits feelings of calming energy”. I debated about painting the house a different, nicer pink since we are surrounded by pastel-colored homes, but I don’t know. Probably we will just have pink doors as an homage to the color of yesteryear.)

Photo from knightcarr.com

Anyhoos, back to the bench. I spied it in a booth and asked for the price and the lady said it was ten bucks, so I bought it. The wood alone is worth that much! It is solid and heavy, but poorly made by an amateur or perhaps a nine-year-old child. That’s okay, though, because it is just going to sit on my back porch to be a place to put things or for someone to perch for a second if they really need to remove their shoes outside.

As found, the bench was a combo of purple, chartreuse, and white. Here it is as I found it:

The top of the bench was a bit too “southwest-y” for my purposes, so I had The Hubs slice the topmost rectangle off with his chop saw. He got out the level and did his best to make it straight, even though I don’t think the person who made the bench probably used a level at all. Here it is after the alteration:

Well, he took a bit more than just the topmost rectangle off to make it level.

Closeup of cut area.

Back of the bench.

Aack!

You can see in the photo above that for some reason a screw was put in right at the top of the piece that goes across the back. The other screws were put in reasonable places, but this one looks like the builder did it blind. It doesn’t really show from the front though, and after a little sanding and painting it will look fine. From the front at least!

I plan to paint the bench in an off-white color in a door and trim formula paint. It isn’t specifically for exterior applications, but since the bench will be under cover and I have plenty of that paint, I’ve decided to use it instead of buying a very expensive quart of exterior paint. I also have a plan to use this mold to make a motif to put across the back of the bench, isn’t it pretty?

From Etsy

Of course I would use the design horizontally and not vertically like it is in the photo, and plan to just use the birds and branch they’re sitting on without the other branches. You can use the silicone mold with many different mediums, the ReDesign company has a modeling material that can be used, or you can use resin or just about anything. I was thinking of using the modeling material but many reviews on Amazon say it cracks a lot. I would like to use something that would remain somewhat pliable after hardening so it would be sure to stick to the bench. If it wasn’t pliable it seems like it might fall off eventually. The Hubs says that any kind of clay or anything I would glue on there would eventually fall off because of all the moisture we have here, but I don’t know about that. I might try it anyway and see how it goes. If it falls off I can always glue it back on, heehee!

So that’s the plan. I’ll start on it sometime soon, so stay tuned!