Thrift Trencher

How do you like my trencher?  I have been wanting one of these for years.  There were two problems with getting one--the first being old antique ones are quite pricey; secondly, some of them would be too primitive for my space.  Imagine my surprise when I found this little beauty in the thrift store the other day!  Of course, you know, she didn't look quite like this when I got her.  The trencher was painted a yellow color not unlike the stripes down the middle of the highway.  I couldn't wait to get a couple of coats of paint on it and start sanding it and roughing it up.

After I'd it carried around awhile and was making my way to the check out, I discover it was actually resin--pffft, now what?  You know that "antique" plastic stuff?  I really liked the size and shape and it had "real" scrapes out of the inside.  So it obviously had to come home with me regardless.   I tried spray painting it black, but I'm not sure if my spray paint is going bad because the last couple of times I used it (two different colors), it just kind of brushed off the items after they were painted.  I pulled out my black craft paint along with my mocha glaze and mixed them together and got this great looking wood tone.

I decided it would look nice and summery full of seashells.

Then I decided everything looked quite crisp and hard, so had to make a casual tassel to go along in the trencher.  It's just ripped strips of muslin tied with burlap and jute.

It was starting to look like sun and sand and warm breezes.  Then I remembered (aack!  too many great ideas floating around causes the domino effect!) this clone (it's either a PB or Ballard knock off) project I'd seen at The Frugal Designer blog.  You need to use netting (purchased at Micheal's) and a glass bottle.  I cut a piece of netting to fit around my glass bottle (also found at the thrift store) then tied the bottom together and threaded up the side with a narrow black ribbon.  I wound jute around the top to make the netting edges look neater.

I am so happy with how everything came out, you'd never guess this is not an awesome old trencher.  I realize this is not a grain sack project.  I plan to work on that this weekend and complete another DIY project I started last week.  Please don't miss out on signing up for my giveaway through May 31.  

I'm crashing these linky parties: