skip to main |
skip to sidebar
First I want to say thank you for all of the lovely people that have visited from My Romantic Home's Show and Tell! THANKS!
As much as we'd all like to deny it, the economy is not in great shape. I'm hearing from everyone that times are TIGHT and we all are pulling our belts a bit tighter! Getting new Christmas decor drops to the bottom of the list when 3 of your kids want IPOD TOUCHES! I'm not saying Ol' Saint Nick is going to comply but you know what I mean.
Fortunately/Unfortunately we have a new Dollar Store next to our grocery. It's a little too easy to pop in there now and then for a big movie box of SUGAR BABIES (my current candy obsession). Yesterday, I stopped in to see what Christmas decorations I could get that would be inexpensive and update our Holiday decor. I think I SCORED!
Let me back up a moment and say that the first idea with the Ball jars isn't mine. I saw it on another blog and I've lost the link...sorry and if you know who's it is, let me know so I can give them credit. Anyway, THAT imaginative blogger had a NEW ball jar and put EPSON SALT in it with a little tea light for some ICY CHEER! I LOVED it! Considering I have this old milk carrier filled with OLD BLUE Ball Jars and my family room (You can sorta see the color above the board and batten molding is a GORGEOUS soft Robin Egg blue (if i do say so myself) in one of the photos, they fit perfectly with my color scheme. I poured epson salt from the dollar store into the jars, popped in some tea lights from Ikea (you know the pack where you get like 50 for 2 dollars and they have a lovely vanilla scent) topped it off with some FREE branches of Holly and lime green cypress (I think that's what it is) and a bit of bow from a roll of ribbon from the dollar store. This bit of ribbon was left over from the lenght I used on my re-styled wreath. QUICK. EASY. CHEAP!
This petite ladies antique shoe form is from Bob's, Ye Ol' Curiosity Shop (you know the one, in the show and tell post below). I'm currently have a girl crush on her. I snipped some greens from the front walk, put on a little ribbon from the dollar store and 2 dollar store bells that came in a mega box from the DOLLAR STORE. They were left over again from my re-styled wreath! I think she's so PRETTY NOW and festive and almost FREE!
This wreath is an extra from what we put in the windows every year. Look how utterly SAD it looks all squished and lonely there on MY NEW(OLD reclaimed wood) ISLAND TOP (more of that to come in a future post...it's still not all done, so you'll have to come back for my kitchen reveal party). She's had a 11 month long sojourn in the basement and she needs a little spa treatment. I fluffed her up and added some FREE branches of Holly and lime green Cypress clippings. tied on big gold bells from my mega dollar store box. I clipped off red berries from my BUNCH of $1 red berries from you know where and wired them on. Slapped on a fresh bow from the ribbon roll from the same ol' cheap place where everything is a DOLLAR. VOILA! She's ready for the front door that I'm going to stick to our leaded glass door with one of those 3M removable hooks (again I saw that on someone's blog and I don't know where...sorry). We haven't had a wreath on the door since we put in the new leaded glass one SEVERAL YEARS ago!
Last but not least, we used to have a 80's style oak rail covering part of the step down into our family room. Years back (maybe in '01) I told Matt how much I hated it. I don't have a photo to show you. I went to work that night and came home, and as I pulled into the garage, there was the railing up against the wall. In place of it was this pretty pretty white column. Instint UPDATE. Matt wraps a lighted garland around it every Christmas. Here's where the handy dandy DOLLAR STORE comes into play. While there, I picked up a couple packs of little white birds and a couple packs of glitter covered snow flakes and we put them on the garland covered column. It's so icy and festive!
That's my Dollar Store Decor for the Holidays! ;-)
BEFORE HER MAKE-OVER
AFTER HER MAKE-OVER
EDIT------- I've been teasing you forever about going to my favorite antique/vintage goodies/junk shop and taking photos of all of his SCHTUFF! I'm definately going tomorrow, UNLESS it rains then he won't be open. I haven't left the house much since Turkey Day...it really threw me to the wolves and then rain just makes it worse and it's been RAINING HERE! I'll post them late tomorrow, so come check them out, you won't be sorry! Plus I'll give his number and you can call him if you see something you HAVE TO HAVE.
When you spend as much time laying around as I do (I know some of you are like, "oh GAWD, she's going to complain about having to lay around!" but I'll gladly switch with you. ANYTIME.) you have tons of time to READ. A. LOT. I'm not really a TV person so I'm not up on any shows. However, if you want some book recomendations, I'M YOUR GIRL! I just finished one that I want to share with you. It's "DEAR JOHN" by Nicholas Sparks. I don't often read him because they are often just a wee bit too bittersweet for me. I think he has awesome talent but I'm often a FLUFF reader and he's not a fluffy book guy, in my opinion. When I went to see New Moon with a bunch of girly's, there was a preview of the Dear John movie and then I saw the book in the the grocery store so I picked it up. It's a MuST READ. Very poingnant and shows the true meaning of love. Get it. Read it. Let me know what you think!
I'm probably going to do a lot of cyber shopping this year like last year. I want to share some of the little places that have some awesome and unique wares that you won't find at the mall! I love gifts like that! ENJOY!!!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/susieharris
http://sanctuaryart.blogspot.com/2009/12/busy-little-elves.html
http://junkrevolution.myshopify.com/collections/classic-gear/products/womens-peace-love-junk-tee
http://laurieannas.com/
http://www.etsy.com/shop/CreationsbyKara
http://www.etsy.com/shop/mysweetsavannah?ga_search_query=mysweetsavannah&ga_search_type=seller_usernames
http://www.queenbeedesignsbyamanda.blogspot.com/
I joined this little show and tell party at http://romantichome.blogspot.com/ . It's a wonderful blog I've recently started following and I LOVE it. I thought I'd share some things that were given to me and something I gave myself! LOL
OLD ROYAL TYPEWRITERMy Dad gave me this old typewriter that I just LOVE. LOVE! My kids and the neighbor kids love to type little notes on it! I told Cole he should type his first love note (which I hope is several years off) on it because it would be SO romantic. Of course he looked at me like I had two HEADS.ANTIQUE BABY SHOES
These little booties have such a cool story. One day when I was a teenager (so like a LOOOONG time ago) my father was taking some trash that we cleaned out of our basement to our local landfill. While he was there, he noticed a very old man struggling to get an old trunk out of the back of his truck. He immediately started to help him, of course. While helping him, the man explained that his wife had passed away and he was getting rid of things that
been packed away for years. He had apparently already made one trip earlier in the day and that trunk had contained his wife's wedding dress, he said. My father felt like he couldn't let someone else's memories just be put into the dump and asked the man if he would mind if he took the trunk home to HIS wife. The man gladly agreed and my father loaded the trunk into his now empty truck. My mother was happy to have it and we all had fun going through the goodies. I can't remember everything that was in it now, since it was SO long ago, lol. BUT these delightful little baby booties and their button hook were included. I them!
MINI IRONSTONE PITCHERSMy wonderful mother in law recently passed these two little pitchers onto me from her mother. They both came with a little saucer and are just so sweet. I'm
so happy to be their new owner and will treasure them! After having them for a few days, I thought of the Ironstone pitcher I had purchased from my favorite antique/junk man, Bob. (I will be taking those photos in the next day or so...I saw Bob today and he said would be open tomorrow or the next day if the weather clears, so stay tuned, you won't be sorry!) Anyway, I think these pitchers make a very happy little trio! Also, our dining furniture set is from my grandmother-in-law as well. It's such a pretty set and we are fortunate to have it!
ANTIQUE DIVIDED RESTAURANT PLATEThe last one is this plate in the center of the photo. Click on it to make it larger and you'll see that it's divided! It's also from Bob's store and it apparently is from an old cafeteria style restaurant that was in Baltimore, Maryland. I've lived in MD all my life so I think it's extra cool! These plates are on the wall in my little entrance foyer.
Go toThe Romantic Home Blog at http://romantichome.blogspot.com/ and check out everyone's show and tell and participate too, it's fun to see what everyone shares! Just like in kindergarten!
I hope you all had a delightful and wonderful Thanksgiving. I am so thankful for my family and friends far and wide! I'm thankful for comments too :-)
I was trying to go with another song title like the past couple posts but I couldn't figure one out so instead of "Islands In The Sun" you've got this one! So I'm corny, whatever ;-)
I had a couple emails wondering where I have been (THANKS for checking on me!). I try to mostly post happy good thoughts. I'm a typically rose-colored glass half full kind of chic as I've said before. Admitedly, the longer this stuff goes on with my back the more of an effort that is. I'm going to tell you a bit about that and then move on to happier stuff, you are welcome to skip the next paragraph...it won't hurt my feelings, I really DO have somewhat tough skin!
After the first Rhizotomy on my right side (my more painful side of my spine) I had about 11 BLISS-FILLED days of reduced pain. I was SO EXCITED! THEN, it came BACK! I thought that I had perhaps done too much in my better feeling state of mind. I believe what actually happened was the anti-inflamatory that they put into the injection before they actually cauterized the nerves, wore off.
During the prep for the next injection, I was telling the doctor about the weight I was gaining like a sponge soaking up water. He said that he thought I was re-acting to the anti-inflamatory in the injection and took it out. (You have to realize that this place on surgery days is like cattle in a cattle yard and they get you in and out SO fast that the doctor never really sees your face. Every 15-25 minutes they are calling on this doctor over the intercom, "Dr. Doctor your patient is ready in the OR", Since he's not looking at my face, just my back and butt, he really doesn't know WHO he has under his xray machine. LOVELY. The poor man!) During the procedure he took the anti-inflamatory out of the injection and then I mentioned that the weight gain started before the first rhizotomy and that I gained about 7lbs in the first 7 days on Lyrica. So he says "OHHHH, you're on Lyrica, then THAT is what is causing the problem. He had me wean off the Lyrica over 5 days. Unfortunately I had NO relief after the second procedure and in fact I spent most of last week laying down and had to increase my pain medicine as per the doctors orders. He thinks so far I'm one of the cases that gets worse before it gets better. LUCKY. Enough of the Debbie Downer attitude...let's talk about my island! ;-)
We picked up the island top from our friend. We had it lightly sanded and joined together. I wanted to make sure we could still see the
original saw marks and patina. We even found WORM HOLES in one section of the wood. I got so excited over those. Yes, I'm a geek like that. If you click this second photo to make it larger, you can see them. After giving her a good bath with Murphy's oil soap,we did some internet research on finishing the piece. I DID NOT want to use a urethane product. We decided on a Tung oil finish and then topped with bees wax or another wax (we haven't decided that yet) Tung oil has the smallest molecular structure so it seeps into the wood better. I want to be able to FEEL the wood not feel the finish. Of course, we'll have to wax it like once a month but that's not a problem for Matt, he loves waxing. Wax on. Wax off. :-) We don't know how we are going to do the mahogony legs yet. They need to be cut down to size still and finished but we can decide that after we put it on the island base. It looks so different now then it did doesn't it? http://whimages.blogspot.com/2009/09/reclaimed-wood-second-chance-salvage.html I'm in LOVE!
I know I promised photos of the antique store I love but when I went by there today, he wasn't open. I will get that done soon. I can't WAIT to share it with you!
She's so purty! How sad am I to get excited about a new faucet. And a not very expensive one either! It probably helped that we haven't had running water in the kitchen now 4-5 days or something. I haven't had a built in soap dispenser since our last house and I love love love having one! Look at her lovely gooseneck! My last one had a gooseneck too but this one's a bit higher...ohhh the BIG pots I can CLEAN in there! SICK. Yes, I must be sick. I think I'd rather Matt buy me this and put it in then get jewelry anyday of the week. Yeah, so I'm a freak. ;-)
First I want to say thank you for all of the lovely people that have visited from My Romantic Home's Show and Tell! THANKS! 
