What Junk?!

I'm a junker.  Yep.  Not the Sanford and Sons type. Although I could see it all heading in that direction!  But let me get something perfectly clear with you.  My junk is treasure, so maybe I should have started out saying that I was a treasure hunter.....yes, that's it.....a treasure hunter.   I have a few friends who are reading this saying, "No, a junker." 

Well, whatever you want to call me, I will admit to loving stuff that is discarded.  I spoke about that in my first blog post, What Am I Getting Myself Into, and it pretty much explains the title of my blog, The Homeless Finch.  My philosophy?  Nothing is lost. Nothing should be homeless.  Everything is renewable. 

For the most part, this translates to transforming furniture and furnishings from ugly ducklings to swans, but it also touches on my need to collect...., well, junky treasures!  So hear are some of the junky little things that I have laying around renewing my world. For this blog post,  I collected them on and around an old fireplace mantel that I picked up 10 years ago at Scott's Market in Atlanta.  Yes, it's sitting backwards because I need to fix it up since it is purple and black.  It sat in my daughter's room for the past few years and that was the colors in her room at the time.  Anyway, these things are on display throughout my house.  I just brought them here today for you to see.

I picked up this old, red gas can last week at a yard sale for $1.  The glass container with the rusty handle has been in my stash for years as has the neato gym locker basket.  I use the gym locker basket on my kitchen counter to hold chips, cookie and bread. 



Label on the Gym Basket.
Cool....I know.

I also just picked up this thinga-ma-wob at my local Goodwill Store.  I plan on using it as a toilet paper holder in my master bathroom when the renovation is complete.  I have no idea what it was....For me, it resembles the top of a butter churn.  I still need to figure out how I am going to install it.  Maybe on a stand??  I don't know.    

I will admit to saving stuff even when I don't need them, but have some strange attraction or inability to get rid of them.  Yes, I know, I sound like the makings of a hoarder.....  An example are these little clay pinch pots. I made a ton of them back a few years ago and just don't really have a reason to keep them.  I just can't part with them.  I especially love the one with the cracked edges.  Notice the little egg inside one?  Well, last year a pair of my finches laid a few that never hatched.  Here is one of them.  Something about pinch posts look like nests. Perhaps I will use them someday, somehow.  The  wire basket they are inside of has been used for a ton of different things, like a biscuit basket and a sea shell holder. I still don't know what it's original purpose was.....

I keep these little 'collections' in spots in my home. I took a quick snap shot of an area of my dining room to show you how I display my stuff in a cabinet and inside a wooden box.

Did you check out the little lady hanging on the wall above the fireplace in the first image?  Didn't see her?  Really? 

Well, I see a little lady in this rusty, crusty fish trap.  It hangs in my studio with no purpose other than to please me.  I bought her years ago when I was doing figurative work and thought she would come in handy.  Maybe someday..... 

Above is another great example of my junk.  In Florida, we are required to vent our houses in areas to guard from hurricane force winds.  I am not going to explain this now, just know that these concrete goodies are for construction of homes in Florida. They come in all sorts of designs.  I trash picked this off a bulk pile in my neighborhood and here it plays the role of a garden element. Sweet, don't you think!?

There is one particular junk pile that needs to go......this box of broken crackle glass.  They use to be the neatest globes on a mid-century lamp that I loved.  It fell over, they broke and so did my heart.  I think I will finally throw this trash away......because after all, they are not junk, or treasure, they are trash.....and still do know the difference.

-The End-

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