Saturday, November 28, 2009

Les Clés

I've been collecting keys for years, so I have bags full of them.  I'm not sure how many exactly, but they probably total several pounds in weight.  Some of them have ended up as necklaces, some have been given away as gifts, and there's one with a red ribbon tied to it that I keep with me all the time for good luck.  I had some of my favourites mounted on a piece of framed matte board hanging in the living room, but I dismantled it a while ago to make room for a new painting and I have missed them ever since. 

Last week I found a vintage needlepoint kit at the thrift store, still in the original packaging.  It came with a pre-stamped pattern of potted plants, enough yarn to complete the embroidery, and this small shadowbox to display the finished piece in.  I wasn't all that wild about the potted plants pattern (very 70's--looked like something that would have hung on the wall in Jack Tripper's apartment!  Oddly enough though, I actually started embroidering it the other night while watching tv.), but I loved the shadowbox and knew it would be perfect to house a few of my keys in.

With some orange textured cardstock, a liberal amount of E6000, and a few minutes, I had a new key display that I like even better than my old one!  The key in the top left square I found somewhere a long time ago, and I think it might open an old, forgotten trunk or chest.  The very large one in the upper right I purchased recently as part of a lot of keys at an antique store, and I love it to pieces--it's one of my all-time favourites, even though I bought it and didn't technically "find" it.  The bottom left key is very rusty, and has a small piece of twisted wire attached to the top hole.  It's embossed with the number 3, and came from a store that sells old furnishings--they always have a huge box of keys for sale and the nice man that works there lets me go through the box at my leisure and always gives me a bargain.  Incidentally, 3 is one of my favourite numbers.  The small key on the bottom right probably goes to a padlock.  It's also rather rusty, especially on the back side.  I found that one outside on the ground a long time ago.  It isn't as old as some of the keys in my collection , but I really like it anyway. 
Do any of you have collections?  What are they, and how do you like to display them?

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posted by Elisabeth @ 8:05 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Monday, February 2, 2009

Before + After

Quite a while ago I convinced my daughter to give me this empty Elvis Presely 45 display case (she removed the fake "Jail House Rock" 45 long ago... :P). I've been planning to take it apart, revamp it, and use it to display a 45 by my dad's old band Dahcotah, and I finally got around to doing it today!



Here it is after I took it apart. The original cardstock insert made a perfect template for my new and improved one, naturally.



Here it is all finished. I used some cardstock from a Martha Stewart set I got cheap at Wal-mart. There are a lot of really attractive prints in there for only around 7$, and they carry them at Michael's too, if you're opposed to Wal-mart. For the title I used self-stick letters in a circus/carnival-esque font. I love things that look like they should be at a carnival or circus! ♥ (Except for clowns...I really hate those. O_o)
Anyway, a little more info...
The band was called Dahcotah, and they were from Iowa. They were active during the early to late seventies. My dad played bass, lead, and rhythm guitar at various different times. He also wrote a lot of awesome songs, sang backing vocals, and once or twice sang lead vocals. He had a great voice, and was such a talented musician and songwriter. This 45 is signed by all of the band members except for my dad, unfortunately. I purchased it through an Iowa record dealer sometime after my dad passed away in 2004. I have a record player, but can't play this record because I don't have an adapter for the larger centre hole. I know the songs, though, and I do have a remastered CD containing many of their recordings, as well as old tour posters, live & promo photos, and various other memoribilia (including some of my dad's old "rocker" clothes ^^). The A-side of this 45 is "Too Easy to Love", and was a minor hit for Dahcotah in the 70's. The B-side is "She's a Bore". :) It's kind of hard to describe what they sounded like, but if you could cross early Cheap Trick with maybe Mott the Hoople, that would be a fairly decent description.
Anyway, I have a lot more things I'd like to finish today and I don't want to get all sad and nostalgic to the point where I'm depressed, so I think I will end this here....

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posted by Elisabeth @ 3:39 PM 4 Comments Links to this post