To the Rescue

Don't you love these drawers? They are 30" wide, 38" high and 13" deep. There are 27 drawers -- 27 little cubbies to hide bits and pieces of what my mother used to call "notions".
Isn't that a funny word? In fabric shops "notions" are the zippers and snaps and rickrack, the bits and pieces needed to complete a sewing project.
I got two sets of these drawers from my Boyfriend's dad who had recently passed away. These drawers were hiding in his barn for some 30 or more years. Two additional sets of metal drawers, all painted and pretty, wereput to use in his office. This pair, though, forlorn and forgotten. The Boyfriend got the pretty painted ones. Had I not snatched up these shabby drawers they'd have gone on the auction block and been going, going, gone. So I think of them as "rescued" --- for my notions.
And I have a few notions -- scattered all over my indoor workroom, or what a real estate agent might laughingly refer to as a "dining room". The bits and pieces in my "dining room" are just waiting for a sweet set of drawers like these to live in. And here are the drawers -- not so ready for their close-up. I think they need a little help... a good scrubbing... a little paint... drawer lining, new tags. They look a little disheveled here. The other set set of these drawers have been painted and living in my garage workshop.

See, they are right there under the television. I'm not really a radio kinda girl. When I am cutting lumber on my table saw, I like to watch a spot of TV. If I listen to the radio I'll wiggle and dance and then next thing you know I'm short an important digit. Back to the drawers -- they are endlessly handy. The set in the workshop holds hinges and knobs, but also beads and bows -- the "notions" called for on silly-frilly-girly wood working projects, like my pretty pretty pet dinettes. The drawers also do a nice job holding up the TV. But it occurs to me that I don't need the workshop drawers so much as I got a nice small fridge for my birthday which hasn't any home yet... if I put the fridge where the drawers are, it can hold the TV and the drawers can come inside... Hmmmmmm.

That's just what I did. I painted the ugly drawers to match the pretty workshop drawers and now they live in my "dining room". Previously this was a jumbled mess, too shameful to photograph. At best it was flotsam and jetsom -- at worst, a fire trap, a kindling box. Every place I settled to work I'd have to move remnants from some previous project outta my way. Aaaaack. But now... ahhhhh. There's my copier and my paper, my paper cutter and as homage to pretty pretty things, a basket of fluffy colorful yarn.
Little by little I am filling up those drawers. There are bits of copper and pieces of vintage millenery, shells and beads, pattern pieces and butterfly charms, all manner of delightful things live in the two sets of drawers, 54 drawers in all. I LOVE my drawers. This might actually masquerade as a dining room afterall.

Now, the question is, did I rescue the drawers?
Or did the drawers rescue me?

As for the bassinet ... coming soon.