Goodbye 2011, Hello 2012!

Didn’t think I would post until the New Year, but here I am. After seeing some posts about favorite projects of the year, I thought I would make a little mosaic of some of my favorite projects this year. This little exercise made me realize two things,  A: I kind of slacked off in the project department this year and 2. I need to do a better job at taking pictures of my before and afters. I’m thinking about a couple projects that never saw the camera including a super cool table I re-did and sold at Barn House to this super cool chick.

So, for your viewing pleasure. Here they are in no particular order.

I have big plans for 2012 starting with the Funky Junk Sisters show in February. I have a bunch of projects sitting patiently in my garage. Some really cool junk, I tell you. Rainy weather and painting don’t really go well together so I’m thinking I need to work on a few indoor projects first.

No big plans for New Years Eve, but I thought I would try to share this sweet video I saw a few days ago ago on Facebook.

Zooey and Joseph, love them together!

I just want to end this post with a huge thank you to everyone that continues to stop by, whether you leave a comment or not, I so appreciate your visiting me and reading about my silly little life. I know I have been a blog slacker this year. I’ll try to do a better job in 2012. I really want to do a blog makeover and am currently looking for someone to help me with that as I am not the most computer saavy gal around. In the meantime, I hope you will drop in from time to time.

Happy New Year everyone!

Merry Christmas!

We spent a fabulous week in Southern California with family and at Disneyland. But now we’re back and getting ready to open presents, make homemade waffles and later, have a big dinner at my Mom’s house. Life is grand!

Here we are waiting in line for our first ride at Disneyland, the Matterhorn.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I’ll be back in 2012 with more vintage finds, projects and more! TTFN!

Vintage Christmas, Mitzi Style

As I mentioned in my last post, my good friend Mitzi is a serious vintage Christmas person. While in futzing with my booth the other day, I snapped some pictures of her space at Stars. Please know that my picture taking skills do not do Mitzi’s space justice. Everything is just so much cuter in person.

Mitzi makes the most adorable little diorama’s inside vintage clocks. I chose this one because it is just so dang adorable. Look at that frowny face snowman wishing you a Merry Christmas.

And finally, my one and only Christmas project is this vintage chenille tree skirt. It was super easy to make. I just googled Christmas tree skirt directions, watched a video and dove right in. I had just bought this cute cutter chenille spread and for the backing, I used an old sheet. It took me about an hour and a half from start to finish. I was going to add pom-pom trim or vintage lace, but I wanted to keep it super simple. Very happy with the results.  If I don’t make it back here before Christmas, I want to wish you all a very merry one! Big hugs to you all!

Winner!

Good Morning! Thank you every one who stopped by and entered my giveaway. I loved reading your comments and words of support and encouragement.

The winner of  the giveaway is comment #4, Heidi Ann of Gold Country Girls.  Yay!

Just wanted to let you all know. The tree finally got decorated. I will share some pictures soon along with some pics of my friend Mitzi’s Vintage Christmas booth at Stars Antique Mall. She has been working her butt off for months gathering and crafting vintage Christmas. I am always amazed at her creativity. Until then, happy Monday!

400th Post/Holiday Giveaway

Hi all! Once again, I’ve been a bit absent from my blog. No special reason. Just living life. I wish I had some lovely pictures to share of my beautifully decorated holiday home, but I don’t. The tree is up. No ornaments or lights on it, but I am hoping to tackle that today.

I was surprised to see that my last post was #399. I don’t know why that surprised me as I have been blogging for 5 1/2 years now. That surprises me too. It has gone really, really fast! I have to be honest. There are days when I have thought of stopping blogging as sometimes, I just don’t feel like I have much to say. Really, I’m doing the same stuff I did 5 1/2 years ago. Collecting and selling vintage goods, hanging out with my family, etc. But then I think about all the wonderful people I’ve met through blogging and how much I would miss being able to share my latest finds or crafty goody I’ve made. To thank you for joining me here, I decided that it was time to do a giveaway. It’s been awhile and I think it’s the perfect time for giving.

The lucky winner of my giveaway will win either a rhinestone charm bracelet or

a vintage bling belt buckle.

*Important note: the above pictures are just examples of what will be given away. I will be making either a custom bracelet or belt buckle for the lucky winner.

So, if you would like to enter, please just leave a comment. That’s all. You don’t have to post it on your blog, or facebook or tell all your friends. How easy is that? I will draw a name on Monday morning and post it right here. So, until then, have a fabulous weekend! XO 

Banana, Bread Pudding

If you know me personally, you know I love to bake. Fall and Winter are the best times to bake as there is just something so cozy about comfort foods. For me, baking is all about comfort. I don’t really like to make anything fancy or elaborate. Easy, and being able to use ingredients I have on hand, is always my idea of good baking.

About a week or so ago, I was feeling the urge to bake and wanted to try something different. I looked around my kitchen and noticed I had some really ripe bananas and in the bread drawer, lots of heels and miscellaneous buns and rolls. So, I quickly did a google search for Banana Bread Pudding and came up with this easy recipe.

Banana Bread Pudding

1 loaf day old French bread, cubed with crust on (I used the above mentioned bread and it was just fine)

1 quart milk

3 eggs

1 c. sugar

2 T. vanilla extract

4 ripe bananas, mashed

1 t. nutmeg

1 t. cinnamon

whipped cream

Optional ingredients which I didn’t use: dash of myer rum, 1 c. raisins

Put cubed bread into a large bowl and pour milk over all, let stand 1 hour. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray 9 x 13 baking dish. In another bowl, beat eggs and add sugar and vanilla. Stir this mixture into the bread mixture. Fold in mashed bananas and spices (raisins if desired). Pour evenly into baking dish. Place uncovered in center of oven and bake 1 hour and 10 minutes. Remove and cool. Serve with whipped cream. Enjoy!

I wish I had a picture of the end result to show you, but unfortunately we all gobbled it up too fast.  It was very tasty.

The pictures on this post obviously have nothing to do with Banana Bread Pudding.  I just thought I would share some images of some of the pretty things I’m enjoying around the house today.

We are having some really wet and windy weather here in the PNW. Perfect for staying home and baking. I think I’ll make a pie… I hope wherever you are, you are warm, dry and cozy.

A Little White Wednesday Project and my Stars Booth

I bought an industrial cart from my good friend, Mitzi when we had our fall clean-out garage sale. It sat around in my house a few months and I finally got the motivation to tackle the project I planned with it.

Here is the before picture.

And here is what it looked like after I worked my magic. (ha ha)

A little wrinkly, but so much cuter and very practical to use in my laundry room. I was sick of dirty clothes on the floor, so now I have a big enough place to put them. I used a drop cloth for the outside, a vintage sheet for the inside and the lace was a large piece I bought from Amy of Charlotte’s Brocante. She got it on one of her buying trips to France and I had it for sale in my Stars booth until a few days ago when I brought it home to use on this project. Love that I found a use for it.

Speaking of Stars, I finally remembered to take my camera last week when I went in to do a complete booth re-do. It was fun moving things around and I have to say that I’m pretty happy with how the space is looking right now.

As you can see, I have quite a different color palette from my Monticello space. It’s fun to have two completely different looks going on. Did you notice the cabinet in the above picture? Do you remember when I showed that cabinet before on my blog? If not, here is the before picture.

I got this cutie last summer from a dealer who was getting out of the business. I had never seen anything like it before. To those who may cringe over the fact that I painted it, I apologize, but honestly, the wood was in sad shape in several places and I personally really like the way it turned out.

Hope you all are having a good week.  This rainy weather we’re having is just making me want to get cozy and eat a lot of comfort food. On my next post, I’ll share a recipe I made recently that was a huge hit with my family. TTFN!

Waiting Just For Me

Is that a song title? If not, it should be. I guess I should google it. Let me explain the title of this post, as I’m sure at this point, you might be a bit confused. Last week after futzing with my booth at Monticello, I headed home and stopped at a couple thrift stores along the way. Didn’t really find much except a cute vintage picture frame which I felt I paid too much for. There were a few more thrift stores on the route home, but I was feeling tired and discouraged, so I decided to head home.

At the last minute, I decided I would just check out the Value Village store. I’ve had good luck there in the past, so I thought, what the heck. I headed straight to the jewelry counter and took a quick inventory as I’m always on the lookout for some cute rhinestone/vintage jewelry to use in my projects. This is what I found.

Now, to most people, this wouldn’t look like much, but to me…well, let’s just say that my first thought was this was waiting just for me because, let’s face it, I am that self-centered.  $2.99 of vintage pink and rhinestone goodness! Here’s what it all looked like out of the bag.

Those chippy pink flowers with the rhinestone centers are awesome! Love them so much, can you tell? Guess what else was in the jewelry case, waiting just for me?

Vintage rhinestone earrings plus a spare. Love these too! And the best part, they were 50% off!

Today I had to head back to Monticello to clean up my booth after selling another pink cabinet. I finally remembered my camera so I took a couple pictures.

It was so hard to get the whole thing in at once. It’s a really small space, but as usual, I have a lot packed in there. The little white hutch and the white drop leaf table were purchases from Sylvi’s sale a couple weeks ago. They are perfect for my space.

On my way home today from Monticello, I stopped by that same Value Village and found nothing, but I tried another thrift store and look at what was there waiting just for me.

A big old bag of vintage buttons. Lots of great ones too. Here’s just a few I quickly picked out.

Am I a lucky girl, or what?

So, for all you junk loving peeps out there, tell me I’m not alone in my thinking that some junk is out there waiting just for you.

Ruffles & Rust 2011

Kate and I had an amazing trip up to the Ruffles & Rust show. Timi sure knows what she’s doing, because I was in awe of the talent she pulled together for this event.  Eye candy everywhere you looked.  Booths where I literally wanted it all.  I really had to restrain myself because I could have gone a little crazy buying more than I actually did. I am not always the best at taking photos when I hit the shows, but I was proud of myself for getting a few snaps of some of my favorite peeps. I apologize as somehow, I always seemed to end up in the photo too.

Amy, Me and Kris from Today’s Country Store

Me and Deb from Garden Party (she’s a sweetie!)

Me and Karoline from Cherished Vintage

Mary Larsen and Me.

Shelly and Me.

Me and Timi’s posse.

Me, my home girl, Isabel and Kate.

Kate and me hamming it up.

Isabel took some amazing pictures of booths and lovely vignettes. You can see them here.

So, wondering what I bought? Thought you might be. That’s always my favorite part.

The two glass lamps came from a shop in Centralia we stopped at on our way there. The pillow was from Isabel’s booth, plates and juicer from Lisa, Sea Worthy Home, wicker basket from Karoline, wire planter from Shelly and I forget where I got the tea pot.

Button pins and blingy rings from Karoline, skeleton key necklace from Sara, bow pin at a shop in Centralia,  doll eyeball necklace from ReDeFind Vintage and metal hooks.

Didn’t buy anything big, which is a good thing as I am flush with furniture projects right now. Expo is coming up this weekend so there will be lots of out of town buyers coming into the malls. Need to get over, restock and fluff soon. Hope you have a fabulous Monday!

Added note: Not sure why some of my links aren’t working. I apologize for that, hopefully I can figure it out soon.