We love the way this blogger and her husband "de-cluttered and re-purposed" items laying around on their farm. She has a great blog site with some really fun reads. Check it out at

http://thebrambleberrycottage.blogspot.com/2011/09/sweet-tweet-retreat.html

Today's Friday's Find is brought to you by our son Quintin. He found this when he was out walking to a fishing hole one day. He must have a lot of me in him, because he seems to have a knack for finding someone else's "trash" and seeing beauty in it. He also found the Beer Wood Crate that I wrote about a few weeks back.

I would like to claim this as my Friday's find also. When I was cleaning up leaves around our yard, I found it on his work trailer. I kept an eye on it for a few weeks and he never moved it. So....Finder's Keeper's. We fight over it from time to time, but it now sits in the front room of our new office. 

The palm tree sits atop a cut-out of the state of South Carolina. It is pretty rusty and dirty and could use a good clean-up. I haven't decided yet if I am going to paint it or leave it in it's natural state. Quintin wanted to paint it orange for Clemson and put a tiger paw on it. Nice, but I don't think so!

Tim and I had an opportunity about 7 years ago to visit a metal fabricating shop in Florida that makes electric gates for large horse farms. The whole process was pretty interesting and definitely made you want a custom electric gate. If you ever get a chance to drive around Ocala, Florida, you are in for a treat. Miles of black and white fencing and custom electric gates are everywhere!

I'm not sure where Quintin's metal palm sculpture came from, but I believe I may have found the manufacturer. If you click on the photo, then watch the video, a lot of the work looks like the palm tree we have.

Here are some other metal fabrications and links to websites.

Why is it that you can find so many vintage dresser-mirrors laying around? Whatever happened to the dresser it was attached to? This weeks Friday's Find is just that - a mirror with no dresser. The top of the mirror frame has a decorative wood design and the center mirror tilts up and down.

My original plan for the mirror was to remove the posts that connect the mirror to the dresser and use it as the bathroom mirror at our new office. But...it's too large for the space. So now what?

As the weather has changed in South Carolina to the cool fall mornings and evenings, I have started wearing a jacket to work and hanging it on the back of my desk chair. That's how I got the idea to turn the mirror into a front hall mirror with hooks for coats.

I can't decide if I should paint it, stain it a darker color or leave it natural. Any ideas???

Here's a few photo's for my inspiration.

Here is the front hall that the mirror/coat rack will be hung

Today's Friday's Find brings joy and sadness. First, joy- because I love the crate and can't wait to use it in some decorating form. Second, sadness- because when our son, Quintin, and I found the crate in an old barn we were cleaning out, we only nabbed two of probably 50 crates. Quintin, a college student at Clemson, wanted to take the crates to school and use them for who knows what. NO WAY! They were staying with me!

After doing a little research on the crate, I found out the crates were used by The National Beer Company in Baltimore, Maryland to transport their National Bohemian Beer. The beer, known as "Natty Boh" or "National Boh" was first brewed in 1885, but is now brewed by the Miller Brewing Company in North Carolina.

As a reference to the Chesapeake Bay area, the slogan for the Bohemian style beer was "From the Land of Pleasant Living". Mr. Boh, the companies one-eyed, handle-bar styled mustached mascot (as seen on the crate) was retired in the early sixties, but is now considered the area's "unofficial mascot". A neon sign of Mr. Boh now sits atop the former Brewery which has since been converted into the multi-million dollar office and apartment complex known as Natty Boh Towers. 

When I was doing some research on the crates, I found this interesting bit of information - New Zealand kiwis have come up with a way to celebrate the first day of summer. National Crate Day! It takes place December 1st, 2012. The concept is to grab a crate of beer, get together with your mates, dust off the "barbie" and share the crate have a good time. http://www.facebook.com/NationalCrateDay/posts/407781832616819#!/NationalCrateDay

Here are some "crate" ideas for some crates:) Click on the photos for links to the websites.

Here is a link to our pinterest page for other ideas

http://pinterest.com/carolinafarmse/re-purposed/

I love today's Friday's Find! And you're not going to believe where I found them -  the Scrap Yard!

After we purchased the building for our new office, our youngest son volunteered (LOL) to remove the old heating ducts so they could be replaced with new duct work. Bless his heart, he crawled around in the very small crawl space and cut out the old duct work. We piled it, and the old metal awnings from the front of the home, onto the trailer and off to the scrap yard we went.

After weighing the scrap and dropping it off in the back of the lot, I went inside to collect Brody's money. $28 for the first load. We went back to the office and loaded up the remainder of scrap, and back to the scrap yard we went. This time, when I went inside to collect Brody's money I saw the large and medium sized copper planter's and fell in love! BUT, I walked away with only the $30 in cash for the scrap. Brody was happy. Me, not so much.

Several days went by and I couldn't get the copper planter's out of my mind. They were sitting in the scrap yard office on a dirty old shelf with layers of dust on the outside, and scraps of copper wire, bolts, nails and the likes, piled on the inside. I had to find out how much they were.

Tim and I finished up an appointment on a Friday afternoon around 4 o'clock. I asked him to stop by the scrap yard so I could look at the planter's again and find out how much they were. I was only interested in the large one. I thought it would look nice in front of the fireplace at the office. We pulled into the scrap yard just as they were closing the gates and went in and talked to the owner. After a lot of negotiating, finagling, and adding on copper planter's, we settled on a price for all three. $80

Click on the photo for more information on the pictured copper planter.

 http://www.brydenroad.com/Antique-Copper-Finish-Planter.html

http://www.signaturehardware.com/product15315?utm_medium=shoppingengine&utm_source=pronto&utm_content=Outdoor-Planters%20Windowboxes

http://www.signaturehardware.com/product15385

http://www.bellacor.com/productdetail/dessau-home-gu741-copper-finish-rivet-planter-691909.htm

http://www.hayneedle.com/sale/taubaovalcopperplanterwithironhandlessetof3.cfm?source=shopzilla_hayneedle&mr:referralID=e55ba68c-1ee6-11e2-97b3-001b2166becc

http://www.bellacor.com/productdetail/imax-44106-3-tauba-oval-copper-planter-with-iron-handles-set-of-three-612984.htm

Its nothing special. Just a metal cart with shelves and wheels. We found this in the crawl space under the home we purchased for our new office. Tim and I have been using this as our lunch table while we remodel the office kitchen. Continue reading ...

Call me cheap. Call me Frugal. Call me a pack-rat, dumpster-diver, or hoarder (that would be extreme). The truth is, I have a hard time throwing away something that still has "some" life or re-purpose. In todays economic times, people are finding all kinds of ways to up-cycle, re-cycle, refurbish or refinish to bring new life to an old item. Just check out our "Re-Purposed" page on Pinterest. Continue reading ...