Blanket Chest Built From Piano Parts

I am continuing my quest to repurpose many of the parts and wood from my Grandma’s old upright piano. My latest project was a blanket chest. It turned out very well. Almost all of the wood came from this old piano that my son helped me disassemble.  If you look closely at the top part of the piano you will recognize the wood for the front of the chest. I also used the bottom part just above the pedals and the very top of the piano. All three of these large parts come off very easily without...

Handmade Pewter Church Plates–Another Found Treasure

I’m taking a break from the travel posts to catch up on some other posts as I have recently completed several projects on my long term to-do list. One item I checked off my list was polishing and hanging the antique pewter plates that I found at an antique sale. According to the seller, they are hand hammered church plates that came from an old church in Charleston, South Carolina. They were a great price (I think $15 for all 4!!). I purchased them more than a year ago but temporarily misplaced...

Amsterdam Part 3

While visiting Amsterdam we had the opportunity to see some wonderful art. The Dutch painters are responsible for some fantastic pieces. While biking through the city we came to Rembrandt Square. It was a very pretty green space with life size statues of his famous work The Night Watch. It was quite impressive. Please excuse the tourists in the photos. I gave up on trying to get clean shots. We also rode to the Rembrandt House museum but after reading the brochure we decided not to go inside....

Touring Amsterdam Part 2

Today I am sharing photos of the Amsterdam flower market and the Delft workshop that we visited as well as a few other shots. All of the flowers were very beautiful and were fairly reasonably priced. This shop had all bulbs but they were not certified to bring into the US so I couldn’t buy any. While we were in the shop pictured above, the shopkeeper came over and rolled back this rack to reveal a hidden stairway to go downstairs. Those bouquets were spectacular. The photo...