A Living Room Re-Do

I am a little behind in my posts. Thursday I had to help my Mom with moving some stuff, but before I met her, I managed to hit a couple thrift stores. Later after helping Mom, we stopped at an Estate Sale. Here is what I managed to find:



Little lamp with vintage shade, mirror, vase with yellow rose, little pink rose vase, vintage hair receiver, 6 vintage hankies, brass and glass towel holder, jar, needlepoint pillow, two sided doll (one side black the other white), red tackle box, vintage baby wrapping paper, deer rug and my favorite of all, cowboy boots for me!


By now you probably think I have pretty ecclectic tastes in what I buy, and I do. I am never really looking for anything specifically, just what appeals to me visually or if I have had good luck selling a particular item in the past, I will buy that item again. Of course I do tend to gravitate towards things with roses.



I spent all day Friday and part of Saturday redecorating my living room. Joy came over on Friday and helped me. She is such a wonderful decorator and I can't believe what great ideas she had using my stuff. I got to use a lot of things I wasn't really using anywhere and it was fun searching other parts of the house for stuff we could use. We started with the mantel which actually took a long time before we could get it to look like this:





We used lots of mirrors and frames, creamers, little roses paintings and my new lamp. I love it! I wish I took a before picture of it, but I forgot. You can't really tell by the picture, but it is a very large mantle on top of a corner gas fire place which we never use. In fact, when we first moved here I hated it as I felt it took up too much space in the living room, now that it is all decorated, I really sort of like it.

We worked our way around the room counterclockwise and next focused on this area. I think it is really very sweet and not too cluttered. Hey, I just noticed that you can see both of my "surprises" from my previous post (the white mirror and rose water color).















Here is the next area with my tv cabinet. I looked for a long time to find this one. I love it! It is a corner cabinet as I needed one to balance the corner fireplace and since the room is not really that big. It was already painted white and I just added the rose applique and glass knobs.















I found this little table with the drawer in my cluttered front room and decided it would be perfect here since I had so much white furniture I wanted to mix it up with a little rustic item. It is the perfect size to hold this vintage birdhouse I bought at an auction last spring. The mirror behind it was another one I bought awhile back and wasn't really using. We then rearranged the rose paintings on the wall above. The curtains I notice are a little messed up. I love these curtains, they are Martha Stewart from Kmart I bought them 6 years ago and still love them. I think I need to go through and weed out some magazines a little. Kind of messy looking, but the perfect spot to store/display them, don't you think?





Decorating the inside of the bird cage was so much fun. It came together pretty quickly too.


















I have more pictures to share, just too tired right now. Gotta go to bed. Will post the rest tomorrow. Nighty night!

An Enormous Thank You!

Yesterday I was having trouble getting motivated. Must have been the big breakfast. So, I just puttered around from one thing to the next. Not really getting anything major done. I did however finish one project. Remember this?

Now it looks like this.

First gave it a good sanding, then I primed it and painted it with aqua spray paint (thanks Joy). After it was completely dry I sanded it again and added the vintage rose wallpaper I got at the Coburg Antique fair to line the drawers. It goes perfectly with the paint color. I think it turned out pretty cute. It is a nice size to store little bits of stuff. Jewelry, buttons or other craft supplies.

I also followed directions provided by Fresh Vintage to make these tea dyed tags. They turned out okay. Next time I will use a bigger container so the color is more uniform. I can't wait to embellish these to make some cute Christmas tags.

But the best part of the day for me was receiving this in the mail.

These are the goodies I won from Becky's recent giveaway! I wish my picture was better, but you get the general idea. She even threw in some "extras." I just love it all, especially the tote handmade by Becky herself out of some adorable Cath Kidston fabric, rose ticking, pink rick rack (my favorite) and the most adorable buttons. It is just perfect! So thank you so much Becky! I feel like the luckiest girl in Blogland. You are too generous! Now I'm looking forward to doing a giveaway too.

More of Isabel's Eye Candy Home

Yesterday was fun being part of Karla's Romantic Country Home Party. So fun to see everyone's pictures. If you haven't taken a look you can do so here.



Just met my friend Bobbie for breakfast at a local diner. Yummy biscuits and gravy! So much for the diet, huh? It was fun catching up with her. She is the sweetest and so fun. We are going to get together again next week. The weather has definitely turned here. Pretty cool today. Suppose to have rain tomorrow and Friday. So, since I need to be working on some projects and I don't know where to start, I thought I would start by showing you some more pictures of Isabel's lovely home.
One of two corner cabinets in Isabel's bedroom. She got this one at Monticello. It has the best chippy paint and she added the beautiful wallpaper on the back. As you can see, this is the home to Isabel's vintage pin money bank collection. A couple of her vintage purses are hanging on the wall and just a peak of one of the lamp shades Isabel makes. She makes the most gorgeous lampshades and made one for me recently which I just love.

The other corner cabinet. This one holds her wedding topper collection along with vintage baby and mother items. Isabel has a huge collection of mother prints. I don't think she had hung them yet. Will have to get a picture of them when she does, or maybe she will have her own blog by then. No pressure Isabel!

Wall of Victorian lady prints in bedroom.

And finally, a simple lamp Isabel threw a cute pink slip over the shade, and voila, instant cuteness!

I hope you enjoyed the tour of Isabel's home.

On another note, my dear husband tells me this morning that he has two weeks off of work at Christmas and what do I think about going to Mexico for a vacation! Wow, I couldn't believe it. We went to Ixtapa for our honeymoon several years ago, but this time we would take the kids. So, my job now is to research vacation packages, resorts, what have you. Any suggestions on a family friendly place to go in Mexico would be greatly appreciated.

What I love about my home!

I am a little late to the party, but better late than never I always say. My home is a newer craftsman style home. When we bought this place it was not what I would call my dream home. We had been looking for a new house for about 2 years with no success when friends of ours who had moved to Vermont called us and basically asked us if we wanted to buy their house as they were having trouble selling it. To make a long story short, we bought it and since then I have been able to make it into a home I love. My house is not what I would call "decorated," but has evolved and has a definite lived-in look to it. It is usually a big mess unless we are expecting company. I have an antiques business so my finds/projects are usually everywhere much to my husband's dismay. Some of the pictures I am showing are ones I have already posted on my blog, some are new pictures. I hope you enjoy taking a peak at why I love my home.


A cute shelf in my bedroom with lots of yummy stuff.














A corner of my living room. Note the unfinished corner cabinet with tole trays and victorian figurines. Maybe someday I will get around to painting it.
















A picture of my back deck. I love our backyard even though it is a mess right now and needs lots of work. It is very lush and green, (gotta love Oregon rain) and I think monkeys might be living back there. We have big plans for the back yard including a shed and a flag stone area with a fire pit and lots of landscaping.








Another corner of my living room.

Another corner cabinet (this one is painted) in my bedroom with lots of my collections.

My husband made this wood cornice for a corner window in our bedroom. More space to show off my treasures, yeah!

Inside a rustic cabinet, odds and ends that make me smile just looking at them.

A shot of my bedroom. I love chenille bedspreads, they are so cozy!

Wall of landscape prints in what we call the front
room. I call it my "staging area."
















China cabinet with lots of mix and match china from flea markets and family members.




















Downstairs "Powder Room." Love this sign. Got it on ebay awhile back.





















Well, that's it for now. So, why do I love my home? I love it because it is filled with things collected over time that make me smile and warm my heart, and it's where I spend my time with the ones I hold dearest of all, my family. Don't forget to check out all the Why I love my Home partiers by visiting Karla at her blog.

Do I have time for a Nap?

I'm so tired from my weekend. Aren't weekends suppose to be fun and relaxing? The flea market I did on Friday and Saturday was kind of a dud. Didn't make much but I got rid of a few items, so I guess it was okay. Don't know if I will do it again, but the the best part was the very sweet ladies that were there selling too. They were some of the nicest people you will ever meet. Anyway, now I have piles of stuff I just don't know what to do with. Some items will get new tags and go to Monticello, some I will save for a garage sale and some I'll probably just take to Goodwill.

I really need to get my house cleaned up. I am suppose to post pictures tomorrow of why I love my home. Right now I'm wondering, why I signed on to do this. ha ha If you haven't been to Karla's Cottage blog, please do so to check out what in the world I am talking about.

I went grocery shopping this morning which was big fun, but now I am so low on energy, I just want to take a nap, and it's only 11am. Maybe I will get a second wind. Hey look at the cute new converse I just got. The best part: they were 50% off! Sweet! I pretty much live in jeans and I wear lots of white tops, so these will be perfect for that. I love that I can get tennis shoes and groceries in one place. I could even get paint and hardware there too if I wanted. Gotta love one stop shopping! Yeah Fred Meyer!

Here is another picture of some stuff I snagged at a great garage sale I went to on Friday morning before the flea market.

The little crochet coin purse and jar with decal came from the flea market where I also got a bunch of old bottles and some jars of old broken pearl and crystal necklaces.

But the best thing I got at the flea market was this picture of what else, my fav pink roses. It looks like it was done in crayon, but the back of the picture says it was done in pastels in 1968. Kind of cute and amateurish. I paid $2.00 for it. A steal, I think. It will probably hang out with some other floral paintings in my bedroom.

Well, I better go and get something done. But before I go, I want to share a funny picture my daughter took on our way home from her soccer game yesterday. I stopped to get gas and saw this. It gave me a chuckle.

Click on the picture to enlarge and read what it says on the garbage can. hee hee!

OO LA LA!

Remember these tool boxes?

And these cool collage supplies I got from The Decorated House?

Well, I used some of them to make this.

I think it turned out pretty cute for my first attempt. Stay tuned for another Parisian themed project coming soon!

Flea Market and a New Project

This is where I'll be for the next two days. I signed on to do a mini flea market in my town. They have been having them monthly. Only about 8-10 dealers so pretty small. I don't have a clue how I'll do. As you can see, I have a pretty small space. A 6 foot table actually and space underneath, a little bit on the side and a teensy bit behind. I still don't have enough room for all my stuff and I intentionally only brought small items. I am never good at estimating how much will fit in my space. So wish me luck!

You would have thought that I would have spent the day getting prepared for the flea market, but no. As soon as I dropped the kids off at school, I hit three thrift stores and an antique mall. What fun! I found lots of great stuff. All smalls which is a good thing as my husband has made it very clear that I shouldn't be bringing home any more big furniture.

Here's a picture of what I got:

I found some vintage slips and a nightgown, two vintage floral sheets, bag of plastic doll heads, rose cottage piggy bank, tole silent butler, three bags of birds, wedding topper, little rose pitcher, metal bull dog, a bunch of vintage keys, black and white picture of boy and girl, two brass easels, cherub tin, vintage doll wedding dress, big wood spool, rhinestone pin, crusty plant holder, toast rack, glass bowl with silver holder and spoon, pretty porcelain lady with pink lace, Victorian looking oval picture, and cute wood cabinet.

Here are some close up pictures.

I might use the doll head in some kind of scary Halloween decorating thing. I'll let you know.

The little wood cabinet was just screaming to be sanded. It had an ugly sponge painted finish on it.

Here is what it looks like after I sanded it. Much better, right. Now I just need to decide what color to paint it. I'm thinking either a sage green or maybe aqua. It is a really nice older solid piece. The drawers are a little on the stinky side, but I can fix that.

I finally finished up one of the projects I was working on, but since I'm getting tired, I will show you in my next post. Have a fun weekend!

Isabel's House aka Eye Candy!

If you are regular reader to my blog, you know that Isabel is my good friend and partner in crime, I mean business. ha ha We have been friends for about 4 years now and we are true kindred spirits. Just yesterday when I went to her house to take some pictures, I noticed a barkcloth panel that she purchased on eBay. I bought the exact same one from the same seller. This happens a lot. She made me promise not to show the messy parts of her house. I told her I am an experienced not showing the messy parts photographer.

Isabel is a wonderful quilter/sewer and just amazes me with her handiwork. I am in awe as to how she is able to do as much as she does with four kids. So here are some of Isabel's collections.

A corner of Isabel's living room featuring just a few of her vintage rose paintings.

A neat story about this cabinet. We were shopping in a small town of Vernonia, OR when we spotted this cabinet in a cute little shop. We both loved it, but the price tag was super high. Months later Isabel was still thinking about it and wondered if it was still there. We went back to that shop and found out that it was no longer there, but after talking to the store clerk, we found that the dealer had moved some items over to another shop across the street so off we went. We were pleased to find it there and the price was quite a bit less. After a couple phone calls and some negotiating, the cabinet was hers! To make this story a bit more interesting, we found out that it was built by Ludmil Marcov from Willow Nest

This is were Isabel stores her rose patterned china and her french enamel pitchers.



A cute little shelf that holds orphaned salt or pepper shakers. Rose shakers of course.

A vignette on a shelf above the front door. Picture taken from the second floor.

Isabel's wall of cottage prints. She wanted to straighten them up before I took the picture, but I said, not to worry about it. They are still lovely even a little crooked.








A little nook above the guest room doors.







Some tole trays, tins and china on cabinet in dining room.

More tole trays and tins on cute lace lined shelf over family room window.

This is one of my favorite collections of hers. Becky did a posting recently on her blog about collecting vintage mirrors.

Another cute corner in the living room, more tole trays and rose mugs with writing on them.

An lastly, I leave you with this cutie.

This is another favorite of mine. Hand painted pink roses with text that reads, "The Little Sharp Vexations and The Briers that Catch and Fret, Why not take All to the Helper Who Has Never Failed Us Yet." Polly, I know you will love this one.

I have more pictures to share with you of Isabel's house, but my camera battery died mid uploading so I will save them for another time. Have a great Wednesday everyone!