One Person's Junk...Wait - That's MY Junk!

Inspiration can come from the strangest places.  Take, for example, this post.  Yup - this whole post was inspired by my cat, Shadow.  I know you're thinking "Really?" because who is inspired to do projects around their house by their cat.  And no I'm not some crazy old cat lady.  But I got a great idea from my cat.  Let me explain.

A couple of days ago, I started the process of updating my dining room (I explained that here and here).  This is the before -

We moved the table and chairs into the foyer.  The buffet -

and china cabinet -

moved to the center of the room -

And this is what I didn't show you -

This is what was under the buffet - a ton of little stuffed animals.  Who put them there?  My cat, Shadow.  He loves stuffed animals.  He can play with them for hours.  But most of them end up under couches, beds or, apparently, the buffet.  Since this is a very heavy piece of furniture, it doesn't get moved ever often.  Shadow has had plenty of time to rack up a collection under here.  My daughter cleaned these little guys up and gave them back to Shadow.  He was thrilled.  So thrilled in fact, he left me alone the whole time I painted - which he never does (he likes to monitor my work on the house).  And he made a point to take care of all of these animals.  This is where most of them ended up the next morning -

They are having breakfast.  And here is the proud cat dad -

So this got me thinking - I bet I have stuff in the back of cabinets and drawers that I could love again.  I do donate a lot of stuff regularly because I don't really like having stuff in the house that doesn't get used but I'm sure there is something I could reuse.  I spent about five minutes going through the house, gathering old stuff and this is what I found -

Some mismatched, dated picture frames and candle sticks.  And a canister - that we actually use (holding my head in shame) - with ducks all over it -

I know I can spruce these items up and make them look great again - and it will cost me zero dollars!  Woohoo!  I didn't even have to go the Salvation Army to look through other people's junk - I have my own! By the way, if you haven't seen what I have done with other people's junk, check these makeover's out - ceramic pears, orange planters, fruit-covered vase, copper pot, old $10 table, and copper planter.  Every one of those items was purchased at Salvation Army and I gave them a second life.  Oh, and if you're wondering about that mess under the buffet, of course I cleaned it up -

And of course, Shadow watched.