Monday Morning Thrifty Finds

I hope you all had a fun and festive long Holiday weekend. We did. As usual I ate way too much, but we had a really nice and relaxing weekend. We had a fun visit with my hubby's folks but as always, it's nice to be home.

This morning after dropping the kids off at school I decided to hit a few thrift stores just down the road. I didn't find much, but am very happy with what I brought home.

The two little child's chairs were found at Goodwill. I got the black Cowboy boots at Value Village along with a vintage nighty (not shown) and the lovely slipper chair was 50% off at the Salvation Army. I love the fabric on this one. You may remember I got another cute floral slipper chair recently. I can't decide if I should keep them both. The dilemma us dealers face when we buy what we love.

This is going to be a very busy week. Monticello's Christmas Sale begins Friday as does Joy's Open House. I have been working on a few Christmas ornaments to take to my booths, but I still need to finish them before I show you. Hopefully I will have something to show on my next post. Happy Monday y'all!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing a Happy Thanksgiving to all of my wonderful blog friends. I hope your holiday is filled with family, good friends, good food, lots of laughs and shared memories!

Best Holiday Wishes from my family to yours!

Sweet Sixteen

Today is my baby girl's 16th birthday. I can hardly believe it! Where has the time gone?

I took this picture of her on the way out the door this morning. We were in a hurry so it's a little blurry, but still cute!

Adorable at 4 months old.

Playing dress up at 2 1/2 years old. Look at those curls!

I forget how old she is here. Probably 6 or 7. Love the pose.

She is 100% sweet in this picture, for sure!

I think this one is from 5th grade soccer.
Before the short blue haircut.

She is so sweet, smart, funny, and a wonderful artist. Happy Birthday my Blue-Haired Girl! I love you!

Fun Day of Crafting/Christmas at Splendid

Last week I got together with Joy and Sheila for a little soldering fun. I am ashamed to say that I haven't done any soldering since I took this class, so I was a little nervous. Soldering, while fun, is not easy peasy. It takes some skill and now after doing it a second time, I realize that I need to practice a bit more.

Here's cute Joy working on her charms.

And the adorable Sheila.

I was a very hard worker that day and managed to complete five charms.

What do you think? Not bad for my second attempt at soldering. Joy and Sheila are quite a bit more experienced than I am and were very sweet to help me when I needed it, which seemed like a lot. It was fun sharing crafting goodies with each other too. We had so much fun gabbing, crafting, eating that we decided that we need to get together on a more regular basis. I can't wait!

I also mentioned in my last post that I took some pictures of Mitzi and Paula's booths at Splendid last week when I was there futzing with my booth. I was completely amazed at all the Christmas goodies they have. I, on the other hand, have no Christmas in my booth yet. I don't think I have much, but I need to dig out the little bit I have and take it.

Paula's pink Christmas area. Lovely!

Another section of Paula's space. Love the glittery ice skates with black satin ribbons.

This is Mitzi's booth. Sorry about the dark picture, her booth really isn't. It's the photographers lack of skill.

Love her chippy revolving rack with lots of Christmas and other vintage goodies.

Well, that's it for now. We will be heading over the mountain to central Oregon for a lovely Thanksgiving with my hubby's folks. Hope you all have a great Holiday!

Old Friends/Old Junk

Once again I let a week slip by without posting, but since I posted three times last week, will you forgive me? I've been a semi-busy girl starting with a mini road trip to Eugene last weekend to see some old High School friends that I've gotten reaquainted with on Facebook.

I gave myself a little extra time so I could visit this adorable place for the first time.


This is Colby Cottage. This adorable shop is run by Kathy & Marv Colby and family. Kathy & Marv were vendors at Monticello up until a few months ago and I really miss having them there. Their shop is just adorable as I would expect it to be and business for them has been very good. You can find them at 370 River Road, Eugene, Oregon. If you are in the area I highly recommend you stop for a visit. The whole store is decorated for the holidays and there are treasures galore!


I also had a little time to stop at the much talked about Ruby B's. I didn't get to spend as much time there as I wanted, but was very impressed with what I saw. I read a couple reviews of the place online where people complained that there was "to much junk stacked all the way to the ceiling" and "you really have to dig, open drawers, to find stuff." I don't see how that is a bad thing at all. Next time I'm down that way, I will definately have to spend a little more time there.


No road trip is complete without a few stops at some thrift stores. I found a great St. Vincent de Paul and was enjoying some treasure hunting there when I spied a familiar face but couldn't place where I knew her from. She looked at me and said, "Are you Isabel?" That happens sometimes. I explained that no, Isabel is my biz partner, I'm Lisa. She went on to tell me that she was Jill and that we met at the Coburg Antique Fair. She was the one with the wallpaper.


Let me explain. At the Coburg Antique Fair, a lady walked into our booth carrying a most lovely full roll of vintage rose wallpaper that I was so bummed I didn't find first.


Anyway, we stood there chatting for quite awhile in the middle of the thrift store and she graciously offered her home as a place to stay when we come down for next years show. So nice.


After I got home and looked up her blog and I noticed that she was just in Portland putting on a class that was taught by this talented lady, at this fabulous gal's house. So much fun, sorry I missed it.


So, back to the mini reunion. It was being held at my friend Tracy's house. This is Tracy and Jeepers. You might remember her from this post.


Aren't they adorable? I swiped this picture off of her facebook profile. I hope she doesn't mind. Tracy just moved back to Oregon after living several years in Southern California and I couldn't be happier. You see, Tracy and I have been friends since Jr. High. We were on rally together. If you don't know what rally is, it's cheerleading. I don't know why they called it rally at the time. Anyway, Tracy, myself, and two other friends from our class, Cathey and Kim had the best time looking at old yearbooks. Tracy and I even attempted to do the "fight song" cheer, but we couldn't remember the whole thing and if it was the one from Jr High or High School. I'm glad I'm not the only one with a forgetful brain.


It was a really fun weekend and I did find a few treasures. Some ended up at my Splendid booth others are keepers for now. Here's a few new things that have landed at the booth.




Cute glass Nestle shaker. I don't think this is old, but I have never seen one before. I think it's for making chocolate milk.

Vintage french style lamp. I had the shade which I just added a little lace to. A mini project if you will.

This divided drawer was one of my "Bins" finds from last week.

Found a couple pretty, old frames with prints in them. I love the ornate detailing on these frames.

The big piece I added to the space is this glass display bookcase. I found it a couple months ago at at a neighborhood garage sale for a steal. The only problem was I had to replace the glass in one of the doors.

This post is getting a little long. I have some great pics to show you of my friends Mitzi and Paula's booths all decked out for the holidays and I want to tell you about a fun crafting day I had with Joy and Sheila, but I will save that for next time. Have a fabulous weekend!

White Wednesday on Thursday

Just didn't get my act together to post yesterday. Kids were off of school and my #1 girl and I took a field trip to Portland to do a little shopping on Hawthorne Blvd. We had a great time and both of us found some cute things. I'll show you what I got on another post.

On Monday I headed out to one of my favorite thrift stores that I haven't been to in awhile. The Goodwill Outlet aka "The Bins." It's usually hit or miss at the bins and you can't be afraid to dig. In fact, I think it should be call "The Dig" because that is exactly what you do. It was a great day for me as I found lots of cool stuff including a rusty metal bucket with wood handles, an extra large metal "in" basket, wire basket, cute chalkboard that will only need a little makeover, and a whole lot of whites.

This little chippy cake container was one of my first finds that day. Love it!

In this messy white pile is a chenille bedspread, several sheer tab top panels, a pair of grungy but cool quilted shams, lace runner, and lace tablecloth. Most of this is headed to the washing machine for a good oxy soak. BTW, I know I've mentioned this before, but I absolutely love OXY CLEAN. If you haven't tried it before, what are you waiting for? It is awesome!

I also found several cute tops including these.



The one on the far left is one I got at Expo for $3.00. I love it, but unfortunately I need to lose a few pounds before I can wear it. Wouldn't it be adorable with jeans? Anyway, the other tops in this picture were all found at the Bins. They need a little soak too but will be great after a little tlc.

I also got this sweet, not vintage, nightgown and cute little crinoline slip at the bins.

You would hate me if I told you how much I paid for all of the goodies I got that day, but believe me, it was a steal.

Here are a couple more white cuties.

Sweet vintage double doily.

This is a linen runner that I found at Monticello a couple weeks ago. It has this embroidered picture at both ends. It is unhemmed and my thought was to cut it in half and make two hand towels for my powder room, but now I'm thinking I might make one towel and one pillow. The embroidery on this is just lovely.

That's it for me. Wow! Three posts in one week. What has gotten into me? Hope you are having a fabulous Thursday and thanks for stopping by.

Dreaming of Paris-Part Trois

This is part three in a series of posts from my trip to Paris three years ago with my Dad. Each night I wrote down what we did that day so I could remember all the things we did, saw and ate. Most nights I was too tired to go into much detail but you can get the general idea. Also, this trip was pre-blog and I didn't take as many pictures as I would if I took the trip today. If you want to read parts one and two you can do so here and here.

"Woke to clowdy skies and took bus #69 to the Marais area. Grabbed a chocolate/almond croissant and oj at a bakery once we got there. Found Avenue St. Paul which was suppose to have a flea market, but we didn't see one. Shops in the area not opened yet so we strolled around the area a bit and visited Place de Vosges, a neat former Palace with a park in front.

Went back to St. Paul and a couple of the shops were open. Very expensive stuff. Did not buy one thing. Decided we would head to Montmartre (the area in the movie "Amelie") so we took bus #65 to bus #30 to the base of Montmartre and went to the top to Sacre Coeur.

Great view of Paris, but couldn't see Eiffel Tower from there, too cloudy. Walked down some really quaint cobbled streets to this square with lots of painters selling their works of art. Lots of people there to paint portraits too. Such a neat atmosphere. We stopped in the square at a restaurant to have lunch. Escargot and a croche monseur for me. Very tasty, but too much food. Surprised by the large portions here in Paris. Oh yes, I forgot to say, I paid .50 euro to pee in pub in Montmartre.

After lunch we made out way to the Moulin Rouge on a very seedy, X-rated, touristy, street. After that we had a hard time finding a bus back to our hotel. Ultimately we took a cab back to the Marais area and then caught the #69 bus back to Rue Grenelle right by our hotel. Rested and cleaned up for dinner.

Spotted a fancy restaurant called the "Cafe de l'Esplanade" on Rue Grenelle. Very posh. Valet parking on a busy street. Hard to read menu. Had some kind of fish with Bearnaise sauce and yummy mashed potatoes. Keith (my Dad) had steak again which ordered medium well and it came pretty red. He sent it back after he had eaten most of it and it came back okay looking on the outside and raw on the inside. He wasn't too happy. I guess he should have said "well done." He had fancy cookies for desert and I had some kind of pastry with strawberries and cream. Walked back to the hotel on St. Dominque and passed out."

Hope you are enjoying my little trip down memory lane. Part four will be be about meeting up with Isabel and her family for a little site seeing.

Sweet Friends

The other day I got a little package in the mail. I was curious because I wasn't expecting anything. It was from Amy. Here's what she sent.

Adorable little vintage embroidered guest towel, lavender heart sachet, vintage fabric covered notebook and adorable fabric covered magnets. All with my favorite, pink roses! She sure has me pegged.

These little gifties were a thank you from Amy. Awhile back I sent her a little package in the mail with some vintage fabrics I knew she would like and would use in her projects. If you haven't already visited Amy's new blog. Please do so and say hi. She has an etsy shop too. I noticed on her last post some adorable little towels she has embellished with crochet pieces. I know she was planning on taking them to the All Saints Christmas Bazaar on Saturday, which unfortunately I didn't get a chance to go to, but I'm hoping she has at least one left for me to buy.

On another note Sheila from Tattered Goods who I have never met, but consider her a friend, gave me a sweet blog award. This one says I have to tell ten things about myself. I have done this before and always have a hard time coming up with things to say but here goes.

1. I am a movie freak and now a Netflix addict. Watching movies online is my number one time waster these days. Probably the reason I can't motivate myself to work on projects.

2. While I love shopping thrift stores, antique shops, garage sales, etc. I am not a big fan of estate sales. I just don't like the competitive, pushy people there so you won't find me at an estate sale unless I just accidentally drive by one. Most of my good friends already know about this one.

3. When I was a little girl I took lots of dance classes. Ballet, tap and jazz and was convinced that I would grow up someday to be a professional dancer. Then I got into cheerleading and did that for six years. I also played softball and did track in High School. My kids hate sports.

4. I graduated from Oregon State University (Go Beavs!) with a degree in Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management. Worked for 6 years as a Hotel Sales Manager for Hilton, Red Lion and Embassy Suites Hotels.

5. I decided to be a stay-at-home Mom when my daughter was born almost 16 years ago. I have never once regretted that decision.

6. I am absolutely crazy in love with my husband of 18 years and my kids. They would just say I'm crazy.

7. I can't believe I am a parent to two teenagers. Wasn't I just a teenager myself a few years ago?

8. I'm loving Facebook and all the friends I have become reacquainted with. Will be going to a mini reunion/sleepover with some friends from High School next weekend and recently met up with a friend from college for lunch which was so much fun.

9. If I could, I would move to France for a year. I wouldn't want to live there permanently, just long enough to become fluent and become completely absorbed in the culture.

and finally

10. I never could have imagined how blogging would change my life and open my world to new friends, inspiring ideas and touching stories. It has been such a great almost 2 1/2 years since I started this silly thing called blogging.

That wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. If you want to see my other posts with things about me, you can go to the bottom of my sidebar and click on the "About Me" category.

I'll be back soon with another installment of "Dreaming of Paris." Happy Monday!