An American Picker

In a moment of transparency, I admitted to my husband that I have a slight crush of Frank Fritz of American Pickers. Since then he's teased me mercilessly, pointing out every bearded man he can think of and asking if I have an affinity for them as well. It's really just Frank. 

While I don't quite "pick" in the same way as Frank and Mike, I do like to peruse the thrift stores and have, on occasion, been known to look at people's trash. The latter has been very limited, however, because in the community where I live, people don't put things out at the corner...

 

All that to say, look what I found, when I was back visiting my old stomping grounds, (where trash is put at the end of the drive for the garbage man). Here they are farm fresh, as Mike Wolfe would say. When I spotted them, these stack able bookshelves were sitting in a pile of disarray and garbage in front a church (where you'd think they could have gotten some love, tsk, tsk.)

I didn't recognize them as bookshelves at first, because they were in such disarray, but was initially drawn to the wood and the possibility of making something else out of it. (I try to find cheap wood because when it comes to woodworking, I have know clue what I'm doing.)

 

 Look how well they cleaned up! Granted they are missing their glass doors, but seriously, I don't care... that would just be another place to wipe off finger prints. I used a product called "Restore-A-Finish" to freshen them up and had to glue a broken spot on the bottom, but other than that these babies were beautiful.

 

They also gave me a better spot to display one of my favorite St. VDP "picks" --- a beautiful, original painting depicting a moonlight water scene, which was relegated to the stairway, but is now in the living room where I can really enjoy it. I tell you, it's the little things in life that make me happy.