Thrifted Treasures~

Here are some recent things I picked up. This Shabby Chic quilt and two matching pillow shams were only $8 bucks.Here is an assortment of neat-o things... a silver heart dish $3, the gold wooden box was $2, the hammered silver tray was only $2, the little saucer was .50cents and the two flower bouquets were $3 bucks for both.

This potting table with the tin top was only $10. I'm going to stain the whole thing, won't it look fabulous? I've always wanted one! I could use it as an outdoor (soda) bar or set it beside the b.b.q or just set super caute things on it!..... neat-neat-neat!Drum roll please....... lookie what I got for FIVE DOLLARS~ Ohhhhhhhhhh M Geeeeeeeeeeee!

I am sooooooooo painting this white! Won't it be fabulous filled with quilts or books... the ideas are endless! This shopping cart is so neat, it even folds flat. I lurve it!!

Playing house~

It is still dark and gloomy outside, at least the rain has let up for now :-) I thought I would take some time and work inside my house and make it lighter and brighter. Here is a small space beside my front door which also leads into my long narrow kitchen. I've had this small shelf unit here for ages-- just waiting for a larger narrow piece to take its place. Well... I found one-- twice. I bought this fabulous piece at a thrift store for only $20 bucks. Love it!When I brought it home I tucked it into my bedroom and filled it with linens and quilts. Well, while "shopping" around my house for things to use in different spots... I measured this cabinet and wouldn't you know it? It would fit into this small space. SCORE! See? I found it twice!I used some cardstock poster board which I cut to fit behind the cut out scrolled work on the front of the doors. I then used spray adhesive to adhere the vintage nubby pink fabric to it so it would be a little more sturdy. I backed the fabric inserts with sheets of music. Then I just used hot glue and glued it into place. Now, I get the fun task of loading it up with goodies. I think I'll even add some lace to the shelf. Caute!

2010 O.W.O.H. Giveaway~

This is my third year participating in the "One World One Heart" yearly event hosted by Lisa at, A Whimsical Bohemian.I really enjoy going to each blog and checking them out and of course entering to win something is like chocolate topping on ice cream, just makes it better! This year I am having two giveaways. The first one is open to anyone who would like to enter the drawing. The second giveaway is solely for new and old followers of my blog. Just a little sum-thin' sum-thin' to say thank you for making me feel like I'm not typing to myself. If you are listed as a follower you will be automatically entered in both drawings. The first giveaway is a box of full of random things.... here is the neat old box itself~ Here is a photo of whats inside of the box~Here is a list of whats inside the old box.... a bunch of old postcards, a crochet hankie, two old sequined ornaments, super old fruit jar labels, vintage cards, an old childrens school book, The Language of Flowers book, old ephemera and lastly, tons of antique rubber stamps! This second giveaway is for new and old followers of my blog~ An old-old antique tintype photograph. Neat huh? Here is a close up of the rosy cheeked lady in the photograph...Here is a photo of the outside of the tintype~The spine of this photo book is no longer connected. It is in two pieces, the velvet side and the photo side. I didn't want to fix it thinking I might devalue it.

Both drawings for my two giveaways will take place on February the 15th~ If you have linked to my blog and wish to view more... you can click here to poke around~

First big project of the Year

Okie dokie artichokies.... here is my first big project of the new year. I've had this fabulous shelf unit for about 15 odd years or so. I picked it up at a yard sale for $100. My hubby and I pulled up just as a bunch of men were going to unload it from the back of a truck. I said, "Wait a minute, how much is it?" Someone said, "one hundred bucks"--- I said, "leave it on the truck, I live right down the street....I'm buying it-- and your delivering it!" This piece of furniture was used in a cute country store as a display to hold candles, picture frames and other cute stuff for sale.
The entire thing is made up of shelves, which makes it hard to use as a piece to store things-- which I need more of. I decided to use large matching baskets on the two large bottom shelves to hold my extra stuff . I bought 8 baskets which I painted white and made lids for using plywood cut to sit on top of each basket. The baskets hold a lot and keep the clutter well hidden!

It is super cute... but I was wanting to change it up a bit. I'm going for a softer decorating style~ I decided to paint the whole thing white and cover up the heart cut outs. It only cost $10 bucks for the thin board that I used to cover up the cut outs. I made a paper pattern and cut out each piece I needed with my jigsaw (on the kitchen table, its raining outside!) I then just nailed the wood on both the outside and the inside of the shelf unit. After that, I primed & painted with a flat white paint until I thought my arm would fall off. I like how it turned out. Here is the after~ You wouldn't think it would be hard to fill with stuff to make it look cute, but it was very hard! I'm going to look through my huge collection of decorating books to get ideas on what to put on those shelves.Here is a photo of it straight on~I also recovered the lids of the 8 baskets I have on this unit. I used some curtains from the "Shabby Chic" line as the fabric on the lids. I hot glued the fabric onto the plywood and then covered the fabric with clear contact paper to keep them from getting dusty. Now, I can take a soft cloth to the tops of the lids to keep them clean.

There is a linky party to see more before and afters at the blog: Thrifty Chick Decor..... go check them out! You can also see more Show & Tells over at Cindy's blog "My Romantic Home" Jen is hosting a linky party on her blog Sanctuary Arts. Please visit and see what everyone has been working on as their first big project of the year~ If you have linked to my blog and wish to view more, just click right here!

Silver Sunday

Silver Sunday...where does the week go? Here are three pieces of silver that I'm going to share~The silver champagne bucket I picked up this past summer for $2. I even have the base this stands upon so it can sit beside the table instead of on it. Both for $2 *grinning* The oval bowlie was $1, and the round bowlie that I've got sitting on a silver candle holder was a $1 as well. The mother of pearl buttons are just some of my collection, when I collect something I hoard COLLECT~
If your wanting to see more silver items go to The Gypsy Fish Journal and check out the beautiful photos of the other Silver Sunday Sistas.

Baby its cold outside...

down right freezing if you ask me~ We have been hit with a week long storm here in sunny California, and next week isn't looking any better. I am greatful for the rain as we are in need of filling up our water reserves... but it just makes for a gloomy outlook on everything when you've got so much darkness and cold rainy weather all around you with no end in sight.

Anywho... on the upside, I've been crocheting, painting, sewing and goofing around-- starting all kinds of projects and not finishing a blessed thing. Okokok, I did finish this skull cap for my grandaughter. Here is Miss Chloe Rose modeling the hat I made for her~ The hat took only an hour to finish and the flowers were a few minutes each and I then just stitched them by hand onto the hat. Easy-peasy! I found a free pattern online at "You can make This" Under the shop by category section there is a FREE section where you will find this pattern and the flower pattern that is on the hat as well. The flowers are so darn easy and fast to make, if nothing else go for that pattern as I'm sure you'd find a use for making them. You have to make an account with a password to get the patterns, no biggy, well worth the few seconds that takes. I am pleased as punch with the hat & flowers! Ohhhhhhhhhh for the flower centers I made a chain of 4 stitches and just slip stitched that to the beginning stitch and tied it off, scrunched it into a ball shape and attached it to the center of the flower, thats it!

Pete A.K.A. Cupid~

Little Pete wanted to play the part of cupid this year. I'm always happy to work with Pete, he is such a little sweetie. I've got him sitting in a round silver cage upon a glittered swing.

The base that the cage is sitting on is glittered with antiqued silver glitter, even though it looks to be gold in the photo.

Pirate chest~

I picked up this chest from a thrift store several months ago for $4.00... and I've finally gotten around to doing something with it. I've made it into a pirate chest for my grandaughter. Ok, more like a princess treasure chest~I started off by painting it pink and distressing it to look like its very old. I then added gold leafing to all the metal hardware on the chest. This is the first time I've ever done gold leafing-- it took FoReVeR and I'm still not 100% happy with it. I'm still finding teeny-tiny spots that need more gold stuck on. Who knew? Oh well, I do like the metal pieces looking like solid gold, so I'll continue working on them. I've went over the top of the gold foil with a glossy finish to help keep the foil from coming off-- and to keep the foil looking like bright gold. I covered the inside with some vintage fabric that I picked up this past summer. I am looking for a small inside lid hinge to keep the heavy lid from coming down and smooshing little fingers. I am hoping one of the craft/hobby stores sells little ones. After that is installed, it will be ready to hold some treasures!

Silver Sunday #3

Here are more silver things I have around my house, my bathroom to be more specific~ This silver vintage aluminum tray is perfect for holding odds & ends...Here is a close up of the tray along with a silver jewelry box and a mint julep cup holding pink roses~This fun shaped silver piece once had a handle on it, with roses in it you wouldn't know it was missing~This tray sits upon the bathroom throne~I recently picked up this small square footed tray for $2~Lastly, I have this round silver trivet holding some of my perfumes~If your wanting to see more silver items go to The Gypsy Fish Journal and check out the beautiful photos of the other Silver Sunday Sistas.

Cupid~

This week for show & tell, I thought I would share something I've recently made for valentines day~
I had bought a pair of white feather wings at a yard sale this past summer for the huge sum of one buckeroooooooo. I was going to put them on a dress form as angel wings... but never found the time to do it. Sooooo the next best thing? Cupid wings!I had to cut the wings apart and bring them a little closer together so they would fit a little better behind the dress form I used. I also made the sash and the quiver with the silver glittered arrows... and of course I recovered the dress form too-- although months ago. Now the hard part-- finding a place for this cupid dress form-- somewhere where my cats are not so tempted to chew on the feather wings. Here you can see one of my cats, Mocha, not two seconds after I walked away~
You can also see more Show & Tells over at Cindy's blog "My Romantic Home" If you have linked to my blog and wish to view more, just click right here!

Flashcards~

I cut up some cardstock cards I didn't need and quickly wrote out a few words for my 2 1/2 year old grandson just to get him started with putting letters together into words..... He knows all the words I wrote out, but he doesn't know which word goes with each written word. I am a very proud Nana... he was close wasn't he? :-P
I just thought this was sooooo funny~

Silver Sunday~

This is my first time in joining in on Silver Sunday... I am going to share just one piece this week as I'm getting a late start. This is a little sauce container from what I understand.... it would sit upon a table and you would place a bottle of sauce inside it so it would fit in nicely with your beautiful dishes and other silver pieces.This piece belonged to my great aunt Kathleen who lived in Edinburgh Scotland. The piece was given to her as a wedding gift by a man she had once been in love with. I'm not sure why the romance was cut short. Personally, I think it was because he was of a different nationality and way back then, that was really frowned upon. He gave this beautiful little sauce bucket as a gift to his once beloved.... and he had his name engraved upon it, Nisar~I got this from my mothers-mother when she was downsizing about 25 odd years ago. It sat in a pile of junk that was being tossed out, no one wanted it because they said the dummy (Nisar) had put his name on it not the family name or crest. *gasp* Am I the only one that not only can see the beauty in this little sauce bucket, but... the love story that this represented? Anywho, I normally keep a small glass inside this little sauce bucket so use it to as a small vase with flowers inside. Sweet!

If your wanting to see more silver items go to The Gypsy Fish Journal and check out the beautiful photos of the other Silver Sunday Sistas.

Thrifted treasures...

I picked up a few treasures recently.... this antique head form was $5 and this caute as a button jar was $2. This bed tray I've had for awhile...it was thrifted as well, I think I paid about $3 for it. Of course I had to paint it white....and ink/distress it a tad and add a band of pink in the groove of the tables leg. When I learn how to paint roses, the table part of this tray is going to be a nice canvas~

Baby steps...

You know it is very hard to get back into the swing of things when you've been laying around doing nothing for awhile! To get the ol'creative self back on track, I've had to start off slow just to get going~ I made this little blanket for my grandaughter using flannel leopard fabric and a fuzzy pink fabric on the reverse.I stitched some gro-grain black ribbon (into the edges seam stitch) about 4 inches down from each corner. Once it was completed I added some of those plastic linky rings.... which will hold all my little love-bugs toys within easy reach while she is sitting in her carseat. I am going to be making a few more of these.... so easy and very practical!

Nuts...

such big-big plans to start off the new year on a good foot... and what happens? I get sick~ I've been trying to sleep off this awful cold to no avail~ My drink to ring in the new year? Nyquil...
The upside? I betcha I've lost some weight! Along with all this beauty sleep.... I'm going to look hot huh? Okokok.... more like something thats been sitting under a heat lamp for far-far to long... back to bed for me~