Treasures from "Hard Rubbish" // Guest Post

Hi, I'm Samara and I live in Australia, where everything is a bit back to front and weird. For starters, we talk with these strange accents and have funny slang words, like Maccas for McDonalds. We have other funny things too- like a little thing called "Hard Rubbish" where everyone chucks their junk out the front of their houses once a year and it gets collected by the council (this may be called something different in Germany?). If you are like me, you use this opportunity to drive by and check out any junk that you can redo. As they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure! My husband finds himself regularly pulling over on the side of the road for me to collect another piece of furniture or old frame, which I then seek to breathe new life into. I thought I would share with you two of my favourite "trash to treasure" upcycles (both involving tables) and the lessons that I have learned as a result.

The first is my kitchen table. I am so proud of this little project which ended up taking me way too long.

This is a mixture of hard rubbish, thrift store and second hand sales finds. If you want to see the before and after shots check out the post I wrote about it.

My second table redo was this table that I found sitting outside a neighbour's house. You can read about it in this post here (the whole project only cost me $25, including everything on the table!)

I love the end products, however I learnt a few hard lessons along the way that I thought I would share with you.

1. Follow the instructions. When they say "don't sand in circles", they mean it. Even if it seems easier at the time, it will leave marks on your table top. Oops!

2. Don't take short cuts. Lightly sand between layers of paint and varnish. It avoids lumps and bumps on your tables. Again, they weren't joking when they said you should do this!

3. Get a few friends to help out. I regularly ask friends to help me with big craft projects- it gets done quicker and is a good chance to chat (if you can hear over the sanders!)

4. Do not start a project before you have finished your previous project. I currently have an advent calendar sitting in my sewing room that will spend another Christmas sitting there, unfinished. This somehow manages to make crafting stressful for me and ends up being costly when you don't finish projects. 

5. Be okay with less than perfect. All my craft projects have flaws- and that's ok. If you spend too long trying to get it 'perfect', chances are you will run out of steam to ever finish the project.

If you love crafting, check out some of the other crafts I have made.

Biscuit Holder/ Chalk Board /Thank You Bag/ Paper Flower/ Scarf/ Wreath

Any DIY or crafting tips you have to share with me? Goodness knows I need them!

Samara

xo

www.thesecretlifeofsamara.com

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Samara has visited The Blue Birdhouse before..... Thank you so much for stopping by again and showing us all these cool things. Now I remember....I found you over Pinterest....that doily table runner and then stuck because of Nibbles! ☺ 

Oh and in Germany we say "Speermüll" which means...."Hard Rubbish". ☺ AND...we say "Megges" for McDonalds in Germany. ☺ Maybe all the German students brought that from their travels to Australia...