Feeling Better

It felt good to get out of the house yesterday after spending the majority of the weekend in bed. It was a lovely sunny day here in the PNW. My friend and fellow dealer, Lynne wanted to meet up with me to buy some old bottles I had at home. We decided to meet at Monticello so I got a few things together to take to the booth.

It's been awhile since I've taken any pictures of my space, so I thought I would show you how it is looking right now.

The new/old rug I got last week is a perfect fit. Here's a close up of it.


I was also able to do a little thrifting along the way and was pleasantly surprised with all that I found.

Three padded linen hangers and unusual petite point bracelet.

Little vintage sleeping cap and pearl necklace with rhinestone spacers.

Lovely framed floral print

Vintage vanity bench, neat old table with twisty legs and a drawer, two old wood step ladders, little wood cabinet with drawers and two fabric covered vanity boxes.

So after my last blog post, I guess I should eat my words as you can see, I found lots of good stuff. I guess the key is to just keep looking. Thanks to everyone for your get better wishes. I really appreciate it.

Don't forget, this Saturday is the Blog Party at Joy's. I hope to see those of you that are in the area there.

A Fun Weekend, Chair Redo and Monticello Stuff

A busy, but fun weekend for sure. Headed south on Saturday with our Washington friends to Corvallis and the big OSU/WSU game. The weather was sunny but cool. A perfect fall day. The game was awesome with the Beavs winning 66 to 13!

We were all pretty tired by the time we got home so we pretty much crashed. But I was up early on Sunday morning making breakfast for our guests. On the menu: Breakfast Casserole, Ritz Carlton Scones and Honey & Brown Sugar Sausages. Yummy!

After our guests left, my hubby said, "you worked so hard, cooking and cleaning, you should go have some fun." So, I went out looking for some estate and garage sales. (My favorite kind of fun.) I didn't find a lot of stuff, but a few things like an old chippy stool, some silver belt buckles (future project), a horse and buggy painting with ornate gold frame and some other small stuff I can't remember. Nothing picture worthy.

Does this ever happen to you? You buy a project piece of furniture and you have an idea of how it should look when complete, but by the time you finally get around to working on it, the end result is nothing like you planned and you're a little disappointed with how it turned out. Well, that has happened to me on more occasions than I care to mention. However, I did finally complete one of the chair makeovers that I showed in previous posts and I am happy to announce that I am thrilled with the end result. What do you think?

Here is an after picture.

And one with how the chair looked before. Quite a difference, right? Now, I just have to do three more.

Here's a close up of the seat fabric. I was going to use a different barkcloth fabric on each seat, but I have had this Ralph Lauren cotton/linen fabric for quite a while and I just love how it looks here. Very soft and kind of faded looking. It's nice and sturdy too, so I think it will wear well.

Yesterday Isabel and I had to go to Monticello to tear down our Harvest Sale booth. After lots of moving stuff around and packing up the older stuff I'm sick of looking at, I was able to completely redo my booth. Isabel too. Here are some pictures of our new and improved spaces.

Isabel's side

My side

I want to do a shout out to Laurie, aka Magpie Ethel, who I ran into yesterday at Goodwill. It was fun chatting with you. If you haven't been to visit Laurie yet, please do so. Her blog is filled with vintage goodness up the wazoo. We will both be doing the All Saints Christmas Bazaar on November 8th. I still need to get the specifics up on my sidebar and I promise to do it soon. I have never been before, but I hear it is a really good one with awesome vendors and yummy food.

Spent a few hours at the auction today. It has been a long time since I've gone and it was really fun. After filling my car yesterday I wasn't in a big buying mood, but I did manage to find a few things to bring home. I'll have to show you what I got on a future post. The rest of the week will be spent working on stuff around the house, but on Saturday, Isabel and I will be headed north to attend the last Barn House sale of the season. If you are going, let me know so I can make sure to look for you. Bye for now!

Monticello Fall Sale, Goodwill Outlet and Some Garage Sale Finds

On Wednesday Isabel and I headed over to Monticello to set up for the Fall Sale going on this weekend. We were there almost four hours trying to make everything fit in our special space and look pretty. Since it is a Fall Sale, most of the vendors had items in Fall colors, rustic pieces perfect for fall decorating. Us, not so much. We basically had what we always have, shabby chic pastel or white items. In our haste to finish up and get home, I forgot to take pictures. Fortunately Joyce at Monticello took one so here it is.

The sale started on Friday and goes through the weekend. Our space will be set up for a whole month.

As if that wasn't enough, next weekend we are having a "Vintage Stuff" Sale at our friend Mitzi's house. We did this sale in the spring, but since we still have a lot of stuff to get rid of, we are doing it again.

After the success of last weeks trip to the Goodwill outlet, I decided to go again and was so glad I did. In addition to finding great stuff, this is also a great place to people watch. You get everyone from Mom's with kids to Men who are probably there looking for stuff to sell on ebay. Regulars will stand around and chat. I like to go it alone, that way I can stay focused on my hunting for treasures.

It's also fun to see what other people have in their baskets, that is if their baskets aren't covered up with a blanket like so many are. In the spirit of Halloween coming up, I thought I would show you what one guy had in his cart.

So funny. Not really something I would want to add to my bride and groom collection though. ha ha The same guy also had a three foot tall vintage Santa in his cart as well. In case you were wondering, I did ask permission to take a picture first. I'm sure his thought I was wacko, but I just thought it was so funny.

While shopping there I ran into this guy. His name is "Tam the Cap." At least that's what he told me. I had met him at the July Expo Isabel and I did. He was a dealer there too and had some Elvis stuff for sale. I had told him about how I'm related to Elvis and we had a nice chat. He is Scottish and has a very thick accent so it was hard to understand everything he said. He only had a few items and since they charge by the pound and the more you by the less the price per pound is, I let him add his stuff to mine so he could get it cheaper.

Now, I suppose I should tell you what I found there. Well, even though I told myself that I have way too many linens and they are not always the easiest to sell, I found some fabulous linens. A lot of them. I just couldn't pass them up. Several embroidered runners all rolled up on a cardboard roll, pretty doilies napkins, a fabulous crocheted table cloth, two down pillows, a pair of jeans for me, an itty bitty pink flower pot (it has a big chip, but I didn't care, it's still cute), vintage etched glass lamp, plaster santa face and a cute vintage doll. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but that's mostly it.

Oh I did forget something. This cute wool hooked kitty rug. It is already at Monticello in our special space. Hopefully some kitty lover will see it and have to have it for their own.

On Thursday morning I woke up with a nasty cold so I didn't do much. I'm still suffering a bit with a drippy nose, but I'm feeling a bit better. Friday, I felt up to hitting some garage sales with my pal Andrea. We found a trailer park that had sixteen sales and I was very pleased with what I scored . I think I spent a total of $20 at sales. Everything was really cheap. Here's my Friday haul.

Two pink wood shelves (not pictured), old locker basket, italian gesso mirror, oldish tole rose, little italian easel, six old wood finials, some white painted wood for shelves, little book shelf/holder, cute metal recipe box, metal necklace, silver snack caddy and some Donna Karen glasses. Everything you see here will be headed to Monticello today. I'm going to take a load over, clean up our spaces, rearrange and pick up some of my older stuff for our sale next weekend.

Well, that's it for today. On my next post I'll share with you my day out shopping my my sweet girl. Lots of housework and projects to work on this week. Can't wait!

A Week to Myself

The kids arrived safely in California and are having a great time with their Grandparents and Cousins. Yesterday they went to the beach and today will be going to play mini golf. I spent my first day of freedom doing what I do best. Thrifting. I decided to head on over to a neighboring town to check out a few thrift stores there. As usual I found some great things. Here is a picture of my spoils.

I found the two mirrors, sampler, sewing box and large pc. of floral fabric at Goodwill. Next I went to the Goodwill outlet to do some digging. There I found the blue chenille spread (big holes, good for the chenille bundles I sell), rachel ashwell shabby chic sheet, down ticking pillow, pink cami, blue with pink roses duvet cover and some other miscellaneous clothing items (not pictured). I also hit a couple antique stores in the area, but didn't find anything great to buy.

This is something I didn't buy. Do you think I should go back for it? I don't know. But look, it has a pink rose on it.

After dropping the kids off at the airport, we made a quick stop at Monticello where I dropped off a few more items and took these pictures to show you how our booth looks now.

My side of the booth

Isabel's side.

It was really hard to get good pictures because of that big window. Okay, maybe it was just me, the bad photographer.

I wanted to show you what my sweet Isabel gave me for my birthday last week. All my favorite Rosy things, a cute piece of fabric, vinyl apron with roses, porcelain rose pin and the oh so lovely roses painting.

I have to tell you the story about the painting. On Friday at Expo after we got set up, I did a little walking around and spotted that very painting in a booth. Since we just started I thought I would wait and see how much money I made and if it was still there later I would buy it. Well, I went back on Sunday and it was gone. I talked to the dealer about it and she said, "oh yeah, that was a nice one, it sold." Well, I was a little bummed, but I do have a lot of nice rose paintings so I just had the attitude that it wasn't meant to be. I had told Isabel about it after I first saw it and apparently she went over and bought it for my birthday present and had to have Joy hold it so I wouldn't find out. So sneaky, but I love that she did that. The more I look at this painting the more I love it. Right now it is sitting on a cabinet in my entry until I can find the perfect spot for it.

Aren't bloggers the best? I wanted to acknowledge a couple awards that my blogging friends have given me.

First, my BFF Timi gave me this award. She is so sweet and just lives a few hours away. You may remember that I met her at Farm Chicks and she was so sweet to buy one of my lined shopping carts. Timi has some great vintage things for sale on her blog right now. Hop on over and check it out.

Another new blogging friend, Stacy, contacted me to let me know how much she enjoys my blog which she found out about from her Mom, Niki who lives here in Oregon. Stacy was kind enough to give me this "Fantastic Blogger" award.

Stacy says "I have spent probably a year researching blogs every Friday to pull inspiration for my own work. And even though I am not able to be in the pacific northwest, after visiting "a thing for roses", its almost like I am there. The reason I mention this, is I don't think we give enough credit to the people who influence us in our daily walk, and I just wanted to say "thank you." "Isn't she the sweetest?

I am constantly amazed and inspired by so many blogs. It just gives me a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that I am actually inspiring others, little old me. Who would have thunk?

Today just gonna stick close to home. Do a little housework, maybe work on a project. The weather is cooler today so I probably should work in the yard a bit, but my bedroom is on the top of my list to get cleaned up right now. It looks like a laundry bomb went off. Hope you all have a great Tuesday.

Oh, I almost forgot. Isabel and I went to see Mamma Mia! the other night and it was fabulous. I highly recommend you go see it right now. Make sure to stay and watch after the credits roll. You'll be glad you did.

Where some of the stuff landed

I promised to show you where some of the items I bought at the antique show last week ended up. So, here goes. I hope you have your coffee, this may be a long one.

I added the floral hat to the vintage hats I have hanging on the wall in my bedroom. All the other hats belonged to my Grandma Pressley. I found them in an old hat box at my Dad's a few years ago and told him I wanted them. He said he would mail them. Over a year later I still hadn't received them (ironically he worked at the Post Office at the time). Finally, on a visit to us, he brought them along. I love that she actually wore these hats. She was an amazing woman. I will write more about her on another post sometime.


The two silver watches were added to their siblings here on my pink swivel mirror. Do you think I have enough? I guess my motto is if you have one of something, 8 more are better.















Here is Manni sporting the new mother of pearl necklace I bought for her, I mean me. I love how all the necklaces look on her. Personally I wouldn't wear more than say, two necklaces at a time, but on her, it works.















I made the rhinestone earrings you see here with some broken vintage earring pieces I got for $1.00. I love these kind of simple, takes five minutes to do kind of projects.













I have lots and lots of vintage postcards, primarily ones that feature pink roses, surprised? I keep them in 2 photo albums so I added the pink roses postcard I got (lower left corner) to
this one.








More rhinestone button bling was added to my collection. This little box is too pretty to be sitting in my sewing room all the time, so I have it out in my living room so I can enjoy the sparkle when I walk by. More and more I want to see my finds on a regular basis, so I have been trying to find ways to display things so I can see them. More things in jars, see through containers, etc.

Speaking of bling, I had to add the three little rhinestone pins to the others I have in my bedroom. I love this little glass and metal tray I found at an antique shop in Troutdale a couple years ago.

The fabric scraps I bought are all washed and ironed and are now ready to be cut and sewn into a couple pillow tops. I'm thinking a little vintage lace and some pom pom trim might be a nice addition. Maybe some cute vintage rick rack, not sure yet, will have to play with it a little.



I did end up going to Monticello like I said I would and had fun adding some new things to the booth.


I was happy to see that a few of my items had sold, which left more room to put some new items.

As usual, I had to do just a little thrift shopping on my way there and of course, while I was there.

Here is a picture of my finds from Tuesday. Go ahead and click for a better view.

Cute tole waste basket, scrolly metal rack thingy, pink plastic hanging thingy, neat beach painting in pinks and browns, ruffly umbrella, wood salvage piece, pink basket, metal frame, paper trim, pair of rose pictures, little metal scrolly rack, vintage pearls, vintage watch pendent, wire heart wreath form, two vintage aprons, and a roll of rose wallpaper.






Love this little vintage crinoline I got from Randy's booth. It was tucked in a cabinet. After washing and doing a little repair, it is as good as new. This is the before picture.
















Yesterday, I met my hubby for lunch and did a little more thrift shopping on my way to meet him. I will tell you more about that experience on my next post as this one is getting a little long. Okay, a lot long.

Today, I am doing lunch lady duty and tomorrow, I just plan on staying home and getting some cleaning/projects done. My swaps are about 90% completed and I really want to get them in the mail.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures of my junk. More pictures of more junk and some projects coming soon. Have a great day!

Monticello and Madison Park

What a fun Friday! Isabel and I headed over to Monticello to do a little rearranging in our booth. We could have spent hours there, but we wanted to get done so we could go to Randy's new store, Madison Park. Here are some pictures of our booth. It is very cluttered right now. Too much stuff. I guess that is what happens when two people who are crazy shoppers share a booth.
I just got this vanity on Thursday evening. Bought it on craigslist. It was so nice to be able to just take it straight to the mall. Didn't need a thing done to it. It isn't very old, but still a cute piece. Note the lady on top from one of my recent thrift store finds post.














Kind of a messy area that needs a little more work. We really need to do a thorough cleaning sometime soon.













The other side of our booth. Isabel just brought in the white dresser. It turned out really cute and she put a vintage style decal on it which unfortunately I didn't get a good picture of. That little green cabinet is the cutest thing and has been here forever. I'm surprised it hasn't sold yet.

Here is my display cabinet that I mentioned before. I think it is just the perfect size for our littles. It is sitting on top of another display pc. I got a long time ago.


I am going to have to cut this post short as I was asked to do snacks for two soccer games today. Why oh why did I say yes to this? I don't even know the time or location of one of the games so I better get busy and figure that out. Tomorrow I will share pictures of Madison Park.

Oh yeah, Sandi tagged me yesterday to list 6 facts about myself. This is the second time I've been tagged, but I'll play along. I'm trying to come up with some good ones. Will list them tomorrow as well. Until then....

Shopping, Crabbing and More Shopping

Wow, has it been a busy weekend. Friday morning I started off doing a little thrift shopping on my way over to Monticello. I found some cute things. Take a look!

Little black trunk, crusty corner shelf,two wood cigar boxes and a little trio of valentine paper mache heart boxes all came from Goodwill. I also got another metal shopping cart there too. (not pictured) From the Deseret thrift store I got the wire basket, doll chair, two floral paintings, white wood shelf, round wood boxand bag of vintage seam binding. Not too bad for a day of thrifting.

After that I met Isabel at our booth and we did some major reoganizing. I think our booth looks so much better and it is so much easier to see everything now. That felt really good. Here is what it looks like now.

So, as I mentioned in my last post, we went crabbing at the Oregon Coast on Saturday. What a fun day. The weather was beautiful, the crabbing okay, but the best part was that we were all together and everyone was in good spirits. We took along a picnic and ate on the boat. We had four crab traps that kept us pretty busy, but the seals that were stealing our bait didn't make it much easier for us. We ended up with about 10 crabs total. If you know anything about crabbing, you know that you can only take crabs that are a certain size and you can't take any females. So in the following pics it may look like we caught a lot, but most of them had to be thrown back.


Mr. Crab aka "Old Salty"

What we ended up with! Yummy!
Last time we went crabbing I got enough to make crab lasagna and a yummy Paula Dean recipe for crab and shrimp au gratin. This time I think I will make some crab enchiladas. Now I'm getting hungry.

Today Isabel and I did a mini road trip to a flea market about an hour from here. We were both pleasantly surprised by what we found.

Here is what I got. Bag of vintage rick rack and binding, little tin with roses, wood box, satin organizer, pearl neckace with rhinestone clasp, tole tray and four vintage song books. On the way home we stopped at another Goodwill where I got the little metal shelf and a cool glass jar with lid. While trying to organize everything for a picture, I dropped and shattered the jar. Oh well, accidents happen. Bummer though.

Have a great Labor Day everyone!