Orphan Annie's: be-YOU-tiful in the making!

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!  We have been working like crazy over the last two weeks, and our laundry piles show it!  Two weeks ago, we decided to take our creative juices to a new level and raise some money for our adoption.  We have been dappling here and there in various creations that we have sold to raise money; however, the last two weeks have been intense!  We decided to purchase a space at the Little Prairie Girl Barn Sale, and feel like we were incredibly blessed to get a great space inside their barn...we had expected to start with an outside space, hoping to find room in the barn "some day."   Prairie Girl just started her sale weekends in March, and has wildly successful shows! 

Friday night was literally shoulder to shoulder at times...crazy busy!  Saturday was also amazingly busy...slowing down just a bit at the end.  Morgan was along for the duration both days, and LOVED being a shop "owner."  As people would purchase items, Morgan would help re-arrange and straighten things up a bit to keep our space looking good.  Then, despite pure exhaustian afterwards, the two of us teamed up for a "junking" Good Will adventure where we found several orphaned treasures that are beauty-waiting-to-happen!  Our new business adventure is called "Orphan Annie's"...with 100% of our procedes going toward our adoption...and once we have funded our own, we will be raising funds for others who are wanting to adopt.  Thus the concept of "Orphan Annie's"... orphaned items re-created to help actual orphans.

We sold the last of our Haiti fundraiser bracelets...pretty amazing to have sold 250 of them in less than 4 weeks!  We will be sending off those funds to The Apparent Project this week, and will request more in time for Prairie Girl's October sale. 

Here is a peak at some of our favorite items...some of them are still available, so let us know if you are interested in these pieces!

I do love this little desk...perfect for a boys' room.  It says, "Work hard. Play hard" on the surface and comes with the little stool.  It was an ugly little thing that I picked up at a used furniture store in Sheffield.  I had a different vision in mind when I bought it, but after I made a mistake in my painting technique, it turned into this rustic little thing...I love it...there are truly no mistakes in this biz...only re-direction & re-invention!  And paired with the gigantic, old, wooden "No Parking" sign donated by a friend helping our cause...it is even more cool!

Oh, yes!  This is my favorite dresser ever!  It was an ugly find from a used-treasure store in Hampton.  He is now called "Dapper Dan" and is filled with classiness.  Morgan wants to keep it! 

"It is Well with my Soul" signs are another of my favorites.  They serve as a gentle reminder that

"when peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll...whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say, 'it is well, it is well with my soul'.....no pang shall be mine for in death as in life thou wilt whisper thy peace to my soul."

And here is an old pallett-turned-wall shelf.  With its yellow background and water spicket flowers, it is its own little piece of sunshine!

Speaking of sunshine...I found this little rocker at an estate sale filled with dusty, dirty, rusted out goodness!  She did not look very sunshin-y when I found her, but what a cutey she is now!

My favorite garage sale find?  A pair of water skis that Bruce skillfully turned into a leaning ladder-type shelf.  It's pretty cool, I must say!  Oh, and the Pepsi crate on the top shelf...matchbox car storage...perfect!  I went out of my way at this sale to create cool things for boys, because it is so very easy to create cool things for girls, and I think those little guys get left out!

Somehow, someday, I will get better at this blogging thing.  For instance, I don't know why my photos are little, and I don't know how to fix it!

Take care...I'm off to tackle the laundry pile!  (in between putting a first coat of paint on one of my latest finds, of course!)