Kerosene Heaters & Crafts I've Completed

If you clicked on the "pages" section and saw the interior of my house, you may have noticed I have a few old kerosene heaters. I have a weakness for them! (Did I just say that out loud?) Yes I do. I always look for them at salvage yards and they are pretty abundant and inexpensive. I never paid more than $25 for one though they do need a good cleaning and refinishing. I always get them with their "guts" already removed cause that would just be messy to deal with.

I got my first one in an antique store in Lake George while on vacation a few years back. I ALWAYS wanted a pot belly stove but every time I found one, they were either HUGE or very expensive so I fell in love with these little kerosene guys. The one from Lake George was already painted so that required no cleanup or painting. I display that one in my foyer.

My next two came from an old and now defunct salvage yard in Bird in Hand, PA. It was called Stolzfus & Son but to be humorous they crossed out the word Stolzfus and wrote Sanford....Sanford & Son...Anyway, we had gotten some good stuff from him including an old, and I mean OLD, wood burning stove. It has to be refinished but Billy said that is HIS project. I also got a beautiful kerosene heater with a glass body. I had never seen one like that before. It was covered in layers of dirt and was filled with leaves and twigs from being outside in the salvage yard but I loved the glass body of it and bought it. Instead of it being all metal, it had enamel parts to it that once cleaned up are a very pretty brown. I ran an electric candle through her and use a "flicker" bulb, and she gleams so lovely! Sadly, Stolzfus & Son closed up his yard after years and years and retired. They now have a little bakery in their house instead.

While visiting my husband's sister and her husband in the Poconos, we went to a barn sale. From there I got another plain black kerosene one, and then I saw a little something I didn't know what it is and I still don't! All I saw was: it was small, had punched tin, and a little spigot! I was in heaven. I love punched tin. That is what my kitchen backsplash is going to be when Bill has the time to put it up! I bought the wee "thingy" with the spigot for $5 and the kerosene heater for $15 and refinished both. The black one I redid with a fresh coat of stove black and affixed a prim American Flag decal to it. The little guy I painted burgundy mixed with black, then distressed it with a dry rag. It now sits in my bathroom.

I hope my post wasn't boring--- gushing over my heaters. I love them and still plan on adding to my collection and maybe one day I'll actually get my pot belly stove. Something to hope for!

I also wanted to show you some of my crafts. I love working with flowers and birds and grapevine. Oh, and my little amish buddies I know are a little kitschy~~I know they are but they were adorable and I couldn't pass them up. When I got them home, I found them hard to display. Looking in my closet I found a stand up rack/holder that held suspended metal baskets for fruits or vegetables. I had put it away cause it was just too big. I took off the baskets, suspended my amish friends and added some ivy and then some clear lights. Now they can swing till their heart is content!