The Druggist’s Apothecary Cabinet

I’ve been patiently awaiting the discovery of the perfect vintage storage piece for my future barn studio. I was in search of it when I found this antique hardware cabinet at the flea market recently, and though it’s going to make one incredible organizer, I knew it wasn’t the piece. Just the other day, while shopping in one of my favorite stores in town- Sienna Antiques, I heard a sweet sound from the third floor. I made my way up and there she was, gently calling to me. Not only was she on sale, but the kind dealer dropped the price for me just a bit more to make the whole deal happen at half the original price. (Thanks Cindy!) The piece has a 25-drawer base and two glass sliding doors opening to the shelving unit. (I’ll need to have a few extra shelves cut to match.) The two pieces stacked stand nearly 8-feet tall and stretch 6-feet wide. Each drawer handle hardware has recessed framed areas for labeling. The cabinet is now safely stored in my garage awaiting it’s new home this fall.

We could guess all day what it’s original use was, but no need since the druggist’s labels are still in the drawers!

With a bit of research I found one of the products, Wanous Shampoo Bags, at it’s drawer’s same price in the Register of Women’s Clubs book of 1916. Speaking of research…Check out the cabinet I mention in the first paragraph above. A very kind reader did a bit of research on my behalf and you won’t believe what we found out about it. You’ll find the story in the comments of that post.

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Prize Ribbon Rosette Image Brooches

Here is a project I came up with last year when designing a craft for a workshop. This wasn’t the final craft I shared, but wanted to dig it back out to share on my blog. They are little prize ribbon rosettes with images used for the centerpieces. Unfortunately, I didn’t shoot step shots of the process, so I’ll do my best to describe how they were made.I’ve been collecting vintage paint-by-numbers for some time now and thought small vignettes pulled from a couple of them would make great centerpiece images for the rosettes. Here are a few from my collection.I scanned sections of my paintings and reduced the images to fit 1-inch x 1.25-inch oval wooden disks that are 3/16-inch thick. You can see in the first photo that I modified the some of the colors in the paintings in Photoshop to match my different ribbons, such as the flower stand umbrella and flowers. I printed the images to a printable cotton fabric sheet, trimmed them out 1/4-inch larger than the disk, ran the cotton piece through my Xyron Sticker Maker and wrapped the piece over and around the disk. I didn’t coat the final piece- I preferred the cotton fabric finish.

I strung enough beads onto upholstery thread to circle the disk, I tied off the string, placed it around the outer disk and glued it secure from the backside with Beacon 3-In-1 craft glue. I used two rows of small beads on one brooch. I then made petals or ruffles from ribbon adhered them to the back of the disk to create the rosette, adding one or two extra strips cut at angles as tails. I finished the pieces off with pinback hardware covering the bases of the hardware with scrap leather to hide all the glue and raw ribbon ends of the rosette.

I used the group photo from a previous post for this brooch.

These make really fun gifts. My pheasant brooch was given away in a pin exchange at the event I mentioned earlier. I just love brooches! Don’t you?

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Unique Spray Paint Ideas

Aside from freshening up old furniture, there are lots of crafty things to be done with colorful (and not so colorful) spray paint. I’m sharing a few on my latest post on SC Johnson Family Economics, I would just love for you to add to the list over there!

I always appreciate extra comments on my SCJ posts, but I realize it can be a bit frustrating to have to wait for your comment to show up the following day. It’s a big site and I think all comments have to run through a few hands before going live. So I sincerely appreciate your effort and patience. I love clicking over every day to look for new comments left on my posts. It means a lot. Thank you.

Disclosure: I am a paid blogger for SC Johnson

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