Blog vacation!

I guess I've been on a blog vacation! Been gone to see friends in North Carolina and haven't posted since last Wednesday! Wow. On our way to see our friends I found a new friend from the blogging world and stopped to see her darling shop! Her name is Becky and she has a shop called the Rusty Rooster! Check it out! http://rustyroosterinc.blogspot.com We had the nicest time visiting and shopping!

Into the 21st century

For those of you old enough to remember the 1970's, a fad about that time was to staple fabric to a board and frame it making a picture for your home, no glass mind you. Kinda like this:

I bought that picture recently "for a song" at my local Goodwill with the idea of turning it into a bulletin board for resale.

I took the picture apart, added batting to the fabric covered that with a funky rooster/chicken print, then criss crossed black ribbon, added vintage buttons and

VOILA! a 2007 bulletin board! You think it will sell?

moving on up

I am slowly "moving on up" stairs to my bonus room/studio. Jewel(as suggested by a fellow blogger as she is really a jewelry mannequin) has already moved in and feeling quite at home! My plans are to have all the furniture, etc.to be thrifted and frankly some of it needs alittle more TLC than others! lol That's an understatement, some of it is sad looking and needs help but it was free or cheap! I'll keep ya posted. But I'm already working up there( you knew I would).

"Over hill, over dell ....

as we hit the dusty trail "............ this weekend is one of my favorites of summer: www.us11antiquealley.com begins today and we pick it up just 30-45 minutes from us! Another wonderful reason to live where we do! DH and I have been hitting this 502 mile yard sale for several years now, of course, we just take in 30-40 miles of it, if that. It doesn't have the magnitude of the huge 450 mile yard sale ( which we pick up just an hour away) in August but we always come home with a pile of goods for cheap! Gota go, I'll post my finds of the day later! Happy Thursday !

More hats!

My friend Karen, is going to carry these straw hats I designed in her garden shop.I love it, now I'm a wholesaler!! lol I loved the way they turned out, don't you? I had such fun creating and designing them. Just let me know if you need one too, everything is for sell!

TJ treasures

My friend, Tracey, at www.acottageindustry.com, is always talking about TJ Maxx and the treasures she finds there. I find some from time to time, here are two I found there recently in the clearance aisle, which makes them twice as good. lol The metal "Parisian" sign was $5 and the vintage look mannequin is probably 18-20 inches tall and it was only $10! It had a couple of chipped places on it , but I knew I was going to give it a brown glaze over anyway so the chips would just enhance the look! Always check out the clearance section of any shop, some times the chips on an item just give the piece character!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day tomorrow to all of you Moms out there! Being a Mom is the very hardest job in the world but can be the most rewarding. My children are truly my most treasured accomplishments in my life! Thanks for reading my blog these past few months and leaving the sweetest comments, this has been such a learning experience for me.

Cheap find!

I recently ran across this old rattan chair at the flea market, complete with seat cushion. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a "before" picture, sorry! It was the kind of "treasure" piled on top of junk on the back of an open trailer. Got the picture? Figured you would. lol In other words, it was in rough shape. I bought it for $5 and had black glossy spray paint at home( as always) and some fabric I had used for another project already, I figured I used about $2.50 worth of this piece. Total in this chair? $7.50. Taking it to DD this afternoon for her "key lime" guest room.

almost there

We are almost finished with my "bonus room" studio, DH is out of town on business the rest of this week, so we'll have to finish when he gets back, but it's just about through. Yeah! Can't wait to get in there and create!!What do you think of my color combo?

Recycled hats

Last summer, I bought several straw hats on sale, deep sale with the idea of reselling them at the shop. I keep all remnants of ribbons, silk flowers, etc and love old buttons. I began by taking a plain black straw hat and added 3 or 4 different kinds of black and white ribbons to it. I put one kind around the band and then made a bow out of another kind, then topped it off with a large vintage button. That hat sold immediately so I did that several times over the summer. I got very creative but always using the same type materials. I've already sold a couple this spring but here are two more I just finished, thought you might enjoy seeing them before I take them to the shop to sell.

The natural colored straw hat is one I picked up at a local flea market, it had a ribbon/bow on it already of natural colored ribbon but I "embellished" it alittle more.

smock pattern

I love this pattern, found it in the box lot I bought earlier this week. Not because of the smocks but the size!!! Check what it says about the sizing, it says 14-16, SMALL!!!!!!! I would have bought it for that phrase alone. lol I'm a big girl, 5'10"and have been since I was 12, and have always been pretty good size. Never have I bought a small anything! I wore size 14's for years,now I'm even bigger, never heard anybody refer to me as a small. I just thought this was cool. Have a good weekend.

Weird Tag??

That sweet Francie of www.thescentedcottage.com has tagged me with the "7 weird things about me" tag. I know it's all in fun, but this is very hard for me. In my mind, there are zillions of weird things about me, hard to pick just 7! lol We'll try... but I'm not tagging anyone else, cause all my fav bloggers have been tagged already, sorry.
1) I've always like my eggs with the yolk broken and cooked firm, not runny. I know I'm weird. I didn't know until a year ago there was a "term" for that: "over-hard". Cool.
2) I rarely salt my food, but I love salt on almost all FRUIT. To me, it enhances the flavor of apples, orange, watermelon, cantaloupe. Weird, huh?
3) I always have a water bottle close by. I drink approx. 100 oz.of water per day!
4)I can remember odd things like tele. numbers from years ago, my first boyfriends ( when I was 10years old) birthday- August 13th!!
5)I have a strange ability to be able to look at something and see it's halfway point immediately. Like I can look at a wall and tell you where the halfway point is, and be within a 1/2inch of being correct everytime. Strange.
6) I have been the height I am now, 5' 10" inches, since I was 12 years old! Early bloomer, I guess!
7) My second child, a son, weighed 12 lbs when he was born and I used natural childbirth, no drugs!My pain tolerance is very high!
There's plenty more, but that's all I'm sharing...........

Flea market treasures

We have a local "Trade Days" or flea market in our community on Tuesdays. I love to go! You never know what you will find. Ya know? When I go with just a little cash that's when the treasures are there, isn't that the way it always is? When you don't have any money that's when your favorite dress always goes on sale!Well... Tuesday I had $25 in my pocket and I found tons of stuff I wanted, both for the shop and myself.Lately ,I've had my eye out for things I can use as storage in my studio. I plan to use the old wood drawer that the patterns are in as storage after I put casters on it so it will roll around when I need it. I loved the old dress patterns I found, I thought I might decoupage them over the body of my new mannequin, remember her? I'm always looking for stuff to rehab and sell at the shop, hence the small side table that I will paint the bottom black and leave the top wood. Should be very cute that way. I bought all this stuff and came home with $2 in my pocket, pretty good, huh?

Spring Cleaning Au Natural

Because we celebrated Earth Day last week, I 've slowly added more and more "green " cleaning to my household habits well as being more aware of the eco-friendly aspects of our life. We do several things now that are very eco-friendly but I've been wanting to try a more natural approach to cleaning. In this month's Romantic Homes( www.romantichomes.com ) magazine , Kaari Meng of www.frenchgeneral.com gives tips on organic spring cleaning. She certainly inspired me! Yesterday, I cleaned all the kitchen windows with old newspapers, using a mix of one part distilled water to one part vinegar. They sparkled this morning! I highly recommend it. I have super clean windows and did it the "green way"! I'm just "pleased as punch"!

It's that letter thing again!

I've told you what a fascination I have with letters, monograms etc. Well... I won this little coverlet on Ebay recently. Isn't it too cute?Our master BR has tan walls and I use blue and white toile comforter, bed skirt, etc in the winter. In the summer I prefer to change the bed linens to all white but I thought this vintage coverlet would look very sweet across the end of the bed this summer with all white linens. What do you think? I'll need to make a picture when I get it "dressed" for summer. It smelled alittle musty when I got it so I soaked it overnight in BIZ, as I do all my vintage linens and hung it on the line to dry. I just love it! Cost me a whole $18, including shipping!What a steal in my book!