Prim and Propah: Swap It Like It's Hot Fall 2016

It's Swap It Like It's Hot time mutha effaaaaahs! Can you tell that I love this? It's only my second time around (check out my first one here) but I was super stoked when I got that special email from Charlotte over at Ciburbanity. Sign me up, sistah. I love a good excuse to craft and this is such a special situation, where there's the challenge of not getting to pick what you're going to create with! Here's the sitch: Everyone runs around and shops their favorite thrift store/ flea market/ yard sale. Once you’ve found a cart load of stuff for yourself (hypothetically), find a few items (spend no more than $10) that have real makeover potential. Pop in the mail and call it a day. Eagerly await your own goodies to arrive... and GO!

Karen of Copper Dot Interiors shipped me this go 'rounds goods! She picked out an orange mirror, a music box base (that still works and plays the theme from Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Carousel") and this cute little basket with yarn stitching. I had grand plans to make a hanging planter using just the base of the orange mirror and the basket but I'll be damned, whoever glued that mirror together really took pride in their work, because I couldn't for the life of me get that sucker apart without breaking it... sooooo change of plans. Where's that gold spray paint and painters tape when I need it?

OK new plan is to make a decorative raised tray using the mirror and music box base. I wanted to play a little with mixed metallics so grabbed some silver and dark gunmetal paints in addition to my gold spray paint. Snagged some wooden buttons from the craft store and some metallic thread and I was ready to begin my vision/ creative work in progress. I used a gun metal gray for the buttons and base and gold spray paint for the mirror. Once dried, I took some silver craft paint and light brushed both the buttons and the base to give it a more weathered look/feel.

With the help of a little E6000, I glued the base to the mirror and affixed the painted wood buttons around the top. Zig-zagging some metallic wire thread seemed like a good idea (and hid a little bit of my gluing mistakes)...I'm fairly pleased with the outcome and my love of a good can of spray paint has certainly been reaffirmed. The new addition fits nicely in our living room, right above where it looks like a toy factory exploded (not pictured). What do decor and design bloggers always say? You just have to clean up one corner to photograph? That's what I did folks. Check out the afters and let me know what you think!

So the Propah Toddlah and I took a trip to the Goodwill in NH (because it's super big and I wanted a selection, yo) and I was actually super handsy grabby when it came to picking out stuff for Thea of It's a Sweet Tea Life! I was actually getting inspiration when perusing, which is why I picked these items. Thea told me that at first, she was admittedly stumped with what to do with her new treasures but then, aren't we all? I'm super excited to hop over there to see what she did; check out what I sent her below... I mean, couldn't you polish off some of this dust and make a go of it?

Check out the rest of the participants this week! I've loved seeing all the transformations from what one creative mind sends to another. It's really such a fun thing to take part in!