A Belated Happy Valentine's Day

I wanted to post yesterday, really I did. But after dropping the kids off at school, hitting a couple thrift stores and Barnes and Noble, going to the movies (Definitely, Maybe-sweet movie), I got home and started to read the book I bought at a mini-mart on my trip home from the In-laws and I couldn't put it down. Finally at 11:00pm as I was drifting off to sleep, I remembered that I forgot to post my Valentine Greeting to you all.

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day with your loved ones. We didn't do anything special for Valentine's Day as I explained to my sweet hubby, "every day is Valentine's Day being married to you!" I know, corny, right? But it is so true. My special guy is just the best! He is the greatest friend, husband, father, comedian I could ever hope for. I truly am "the luckiest girl in puppetland" as I alway say to him.

Here we are on our wedding day, back in 1991. I had some seriously big puffy hair being held together by about a million bobby pins. Wow, we looked so much younger, but happy, don't you think? We dated 4 1/2 years before getting married. You can read about how we met on this post.

I have a couple awards/recogition thingys to share. Charlotte from At Home in Scottsdale passed on a blessing to me. So sweet. Thank you so much Charlotte!

Elizabeth from The Merry Rose gave me this award that I have seen going around. Did you know my blog is rated E for Excellent? Wow! I am so honored. I would love to pass this one on to some really and truly excellent blogs, but the list would go on for days.

Today I am working at the Middle School. My kids really love it when I work there. (Not really, they are pretty mortified.) Daughter: "Mom, how would you feel if your mom worked at your school as a lunch lady?" Me: "I would hate it, but my mom wasn't cool like I am." Daughter: "Mom, I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but you aren't cool" Me: "Yes, I am! I am too cool!" Daughter: rolling her eyes.

Three day weekend for us! Yeah! Hopefully I can stay away from the thrift stores long enough to get some projects done to show you next week. Have an Excellent weekend!

What I've Been Up To

Hi there! I'm back. We had a great time on our weekend away. Lots of sleep, relaxing and catching up with all the magazines I've been neglecting. So nice to get away and not worry about projects half done, cleaning house, etc.

Worked yesterday at the High School and was wiped out for the rest of the afternoon. Got a second wind in the evening and worked on a couple little projects.

I've been making these cute earrings out of all the old jewelry bits and pieces I've been finding. I just stuck them on this wire thingy I had. Now, I'm thinking I need to pretty it up a bit, but you can get the idea. I am going to try to make a few more and I will take them to Farm Chicks to sell.

I had this little wire chair frame for a while and finally got around to putting a cushion, rick rack and some flowers on it. I have two other little chairs like this already in my house, so this one is going into a little art project I have planned.

The last project I want to show you was so much fun. I had this little straw hat that I bought at Expo last summer and decided to make it prettier by adding a few flowers to it. I have this thing about using my best stuff. I just don't like to do it, but on this project, I just went for it. I love how it turned out and guess what, I hardly made a dent in my flower stash. It was pretty hard to get a good picture showing all the flowers.

Anyway, that's what I've been working on.

Today I headed over to Monticello to drop off a few items and clean up the booth a bit. I found a couple little things there and at the Goodwill where I stopped on my way. Here are my prizes. Vintage print with neat white and gold frame, vintage basket, amature landscape painting and this little rhinestone pin.

Well, that's it for today. I hope to work on some housecleaning and other projects tomorrow and on Thursday I have a thrifting date with my new friend Tammy! Yeah! You may remember me stalking her a while back. Well, she has her website up and running so a thrifting we will go.

91 and Counting

I can't believe this is my 91st post. Wow, that sure went fast. I guess I need to start thinking about a fabulous giveaway for my 100th post. I love giveaways, don't you?

Yesterday morning I spent a couple hours at the Goodwill Outlet. I can't say that I found as many exciting treasures as last time, but I still found some good stuff. I threw most of it in the wash before I got a chance to take a picture, but I found a neat duvet cover for my daughter, an old light green chenille bedspread, pretty much a cutter, but will be good for projects, some miscellaneous vintage linens with their garage sale stickers still attached, a couple pair of shorts overalls (project in mind for farm chicks), and this stuff.

A little wood doll high chair, wood step stool, funny glittery part hat and old ironing thingy, rose needlepoint picture, old lamp shade , old frame, little white birdy, some little sparkly flowers, baby slippers, needlepoint sampler, lace, rick rack, pink satiny fabric and some floral chintz fabric. Grand total for all of this stuff, plus what's in the washer soaking, $25.00. Gotta love the Goodwill Outlet!

After getting home from Goodwill yesterday, I worked on another project that is taking me longer than I thought it would, so I don't have pics to show you just yet. But I can show you this:

Remember the wedding veil I got the other day at the Deseret shop? Well, I gave it a little tea bath on the stove and look how cool it turned out. Right now it is hanging on a frame over the cabinet where my vintage wedding topper/other wedding stuff hangs out. I will most likely sell it, but maybe it can hang here for a while.

Later today we are heading over the mountain to go visit my in-laws for the weekend. It will be good to see them and just hang out and relax. I'm sure they will have a warm and toasty fire in the woodstove upon our arrival. Ahhh!

Have a great weekend!

The Benefit of the Writers Strike

I don't know about you, but I am so over tv. I can't believe I just said that. I love tv. Always have. But since the writers strike has cancelled so many of my favorite shows, I have been a lot more productive in the evenings. I don't know, maybe I just have too many ideas of things to do running around in my brain and I finally realized that I just need to get busy.

Yesterday I got busy working on a couple projects. One I actually finished that I'm pretty happy about. On my way to Monticello yesterday, I hit a couple thrift stores. I'll show you my thrifty finds in a minute, but I also found this cute little denim jacket ($2.50) and dress ($4.99) at Value Village. You may remember recently that I just reconnected with an old college friend and found out she has a daughter I didn't know about. Well, we haven't made any plans to get together yet, but I wanted to make something special for her little girl, so that when we do get to see each other, I would have something for her. So, after washing everything I started to work on cutifying this little ensemble and here is what I came up with.

I used some of my favorite barkcloth era cotton twill fabric.

I found the perfect piece of vintage lace from my stash and made a little band around the bottom of the dress. I then stitched a rose from the same fabric on the front of the dress. On the jacket I just sewed more of that fabric on the back panel and collar and voila! Instant sweetness! I still want to do a handstamped label and maybe a little coordinating head band. If I was really adventurous I would make a little fairy wand to match too, but that might be a bit much. We'll see...

Now for my thrifty finds. I am really low on funds right now, so I tried to be selective in my purchases. First stop, Goodwill, where I found this adorable bed tray. I don't know how vintage it is, but it is in great shape and the tray part actually tilts up. Price was $9.99 which was a little higher than I hoped, but, what's this? A $10.00 coupon hiding in my wallet? Yes, it is. Yeah! So, price for bed tray, free! I also got a pewter alphabet/numbers dish and a little handmade candy/gum dispenser which of course will be painted white with maybe a little rose wallpaper added. Wouldn't it be so sweet with pink and white gumballs in it?

Also at goodwill I found this sweet little hand painted daisy lap desk. Very nicely done. That will just get a price tag and go directly to Monticello.

Next stop was the Deseret shop which is a thrift store run by the members of the LDS church. I almost always find something here and I can count on the prices being really cheap. There I got the wedding veil, wire basket, metal planter, double picture frame and weird little safety pin and bead doll all for $3.75.

I was pretty good at Monticello and only got two things. The little cabinet box and little metal hanging thingy. I just sold two of these in my booth, but I've never seen a tiny one like this before. It will hold some of my bracelets in my bedroom. And lastly, the necklace came from Value Village. It is really long and I'm sure I can come up with a lot of uses for it.

Well, I told myself that I must go walking today. Once a week is just not cutting it, but I guess it's better than not at all. I am meeting some friends for lunch today, but also plan on working on some more projects. Hopefully I can finish something to show on my next post.

Happy hump day!

I don't know why, but I'm having trouble with spacing today. I keep trying to fix it, but it isn't saving my changes.

I'm not worthy!

I want to thank Michelle at Back Through Time for giving me the "You Make My Day" award. You are too sweet Michelle. I love all of these fun bloggy awards.

In turn, I am going to pass this award on to my new buddy, Suzanne, of Pink Roses. I have been an admirerer of her blog for a couple months now and just recently added her as a contact on Fickr so I could access her photos easier.

They are just so beautifully done and of things I love, hello, her blog name is Pink Roses. Anyway, she sent me a flickr mail back saying, "OMG, I just looked at your pictures and you could be me, do you have a blog?" Or something close to that. I emailed her back with my blog address and next thing I know I get a comment from her saying, "I've been here before...." It was all so funny. We really do have so much in common, I'm just so sad that she lives all the way on the other side of the United States from me and we can't just go thrifting together every day. Now that I think about it, it's probably a good thing as we would most likely be fighting for the same stuff. ha ha I'm sure someday we will meet in person, but for now, I will just have to be content to stalk her on her blog on a regular basis.

Speaking of Flickr, the other day I got a note from Pearl from A Story Book Life telling me that she used a couple of my pictures on a feature they did on decorating with bird cages. Wow, I'm so flattered, really. You can view the feature here. I love the other pictures she shows. Some I even recognize from some of my favorite bloggers. She even made a sweet comment that it would be fun to do a feature on my whole house. Does that mean I have to clean?

I had a good time yesterday at the Flea Market. Unfortunately I didn't sell as much as I hoped, but I guess I did better than some others. It seemed like there was a lot of people there buying, just not from me. Joy met me at 6am to help me set up. Thanks so much Joy! She couldn't stay as she was expecting company for Super Bowl and she was going to get busy making another crown with Sheila. I'm sure they had a lot more fun than me. But, I'm not really complaining, I did have a little time to do some shopping. Here's what I found.


I got the cute pink vase really cheap, lots of rhinestoney bling, a cute belt buckle that I'm going to add some bling to, a broken pearl necklace, mustard seed bracelet (love this), and another silver watch. Just couldn't pass it up. It's hard to see all the little stuff here, but if you click on the pic, you can get a better view.







Oh, and I also got this lovely diamond (aka rhinestone) ring for only $3.00. It says it's 18kt on the inside. I just thought it was pretty. It was hard to get a good picture of it, but it has five diamonds, I mean rhinestones, up and down and three across.

On my way out the door I spotted this cute drawer. 3 bucks the dealer said, sold, I said. I think it will make a darling shadow box, don't you?

I don't know if I will do this particular sale again, but it is definitely worth it to go and shop. I always come home with some good treasures.

Heading over to Monticello tomorrow to pick up our January check and drop off some goodies. Hey, I wonder if there is a Goodwill Outlet over on that side of town? I would love to do some more digging.

Happy Monday!

P.S. One quick last note. Dede mentioned on her blog the other day the fabulousness of jewelry designer Tammy Fischer and said she lived in Oregon. After checking out her blog, which is awesome, btw, I sent her a little comment saying how much I loved her stuff and that I too live in Oregon. Long story short we live only 30 minutes away from each other and now we are new best friends. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but isn't blogging great? I would probably never have met her if it weren't for fabulous blogs like Dede's. Thanks Dede!

Thrifted Finds and More Valentine Love

Yesterday I went to that little flea market here in my town. There was actually a little line when I got there which surprised me.

Anyway, I'm so glad I went because look at what I found.

A local antique dealer just closed her shop and she had three big tables full of treasures for just $1.00 each! I got all ten vintage frames, four with glass for a buck a piece. I also got the little box, vintage earrings, vintage collapsible cup, pearl necklace and three other necklaces, and the two tin heart ornaments (not old). I got everything pictured here for $21.00.

Click on picture for a better view of the cool junk I got.









Next, I headed over to a town just down the road as I saw that there was an estate sale going on. I usually don't have a lot of luck at estate sales, but occasionally I get lucky. Usually I am too cheap to pay the prices they are asking, and I wouldn't say that the prices yesterday were fabulous, but they weren't too bad. Here's what I got there.


After uploading this picture I realized I didn't arrange things very artfully. Oh well. You get the gist. I love this little pink stool. Also found the vintage fruit dish towel, pink and brown apron, bag of trim featuring little pink rose appliques, vintage sweater, little rose & heart necklace, pearl choker, and bag of vintage plastic clips. I got all of this for $24.00. Not too bad.

Close up of pearl choker and sweater. I love vintage sweaters and wear them all the time. Usually with a rhinestone brooch from my collection. This one is a neat greyish tan color that I think will look great with a white t-shirt and jeans.

All in all, I'm very happy with the short time I spent thrifting yesterday.





Later when I checked the mail, I got a package. Oh boy! Don't you just love getting packages in the mail? I sure do! And I was really looking forward to this one as it was from my "oh so charming, itty bitty swap" partner Jo. Yesterday I showed you what I sent her. Well, take a looky at what she sent to me.

Everything was so wonderfully packaged, I didn't want to open anything, it was so pretty. Did I mention Jo likes all things French? I just loved her little french themed gifts. She even drew a picture of Le Tour Eiffel on the envelope. Just gorgeous. And look at the little rose treasure chest! Wow! She went all out.

Here's a picture of what was inside all of those fab packages. Lots of yummy goodies and dvd of French Kiss, and Paris CD.

Here is a close up of the itty bitty valentine Jo made for me. She is really one creative person. I wish she had a blog. Really Jo, I know you are busy with your twins, but you really should have a blog to show everyone how incredibly talented you are.


Last night I got a call from the lady at the Polk Flea Market which is being held tomorrow. You may remember me trying to get into it last month with no luck. Well, she called to tell me she has two tables available if I want them so I said yes! That's what I will be doing tomorrow. Selling at the flea market. I do realize that it is Super Bowl Sunday, so hopefully people will still come and want to buy my junk. I will be busy today getting everything together so I can leave here tomorrow at 5:00am. Ugh! Wish me luck!

My Newest Favorite Old Thing and a Little Valentine Love

Yesterday on my way home from being lunch lady at the high school, I decided to stop at that antique mall where I used to have a booth, just to look around and see if anything jumped out at me. Well, something did and I'm in love. Here it is.



I can't believe I found this. It is probably the prettiest vintage shoe organizer I have ever seen. Love, love, love the fabric and it is in perfect shape. In fact, I don't think it was ever used as there is really no way to hang it. I won't tell you how much I paid for it because it was more than I normally would spend, but I didn't care and I splurged anyway. My thinking is that I get such great deals on a lot of stuff, that it's okay to splurge once in awhile on something really special, and to me, this is. I still can't believe it's mine. Okay, I know, I am officially gushing, but I know some of you out there will "get it."









On to the valentine love part of this post. I promised to show you what came in the mail the other day. My very first swap, my vintage heart swap, I was partnered with Barb from Lavender Lollipop Lane. Wow, did she ever "get me." Here are a couple pictures of what she sent me.










Just look at all of these lovelys, and pink roses galore!















She even made this adorable little bracelet, just for me. See my name on it? And, I just love those vintage buttons.














Barb, just sent me a note to tell me my package arrived to her, so now it's safe to show you the swap I sent her.











Pretty pink & red box I found at Cindy's last sale.

Here's what was inside. Swirly lollipop, bag of vintage valentines for crafts, heart shaped lavender sachet, sweet tarts, heart shaped cookie cutter, with heart shaped recipe card for cut-out cookies, heart shaped cherub box with vintage buttons, calling cards and key, little paper heart holding crystal heart earrings (not shown) and a heart shaped box of chocolates. In case you couldn't guess, the theme was hearts.

Here's what I sent my partner Jo in the oh so charming itty bitty swap. Jo, if you haven't gotten this yet, please don't look.


The rules for this swap stated that you were to make a 3 x 3 inch valentine to swap with your partner. I got a little carried away and made four of them. Of course, I couldn't just send those, I had to include a few extras.




Here is the tin I sent them in. I found it someplace, I forget where, last summer, but it was the perfect container to use for this swap.





Inside the tin were the four itty bitty valentines, true love suckers for Jo's 5 year old twins, sweet tarts for them too, chocolates for Jo and some vintage wallpaper and french poetry book pages for crafting.

















Here are some close up pics of the valentines I made.

This is the first one I made. I just love the little cherub and the rusty key.

The second one I made features a sweet vintage valentine that I cut up along with some sheet music, crochet pc. and red fuzzy button. I love the black and red together on this one.

This one features another vintage valentine pc. with some french poetry book paper, little love bubble and red rhinestones.

And finally, this is one I made especially with Jo in mind as she loves all things french. Not your typical valentine, but still cute.

I had so much fun with this creative swap I'm now eager to stretch my creative muscles and do some more.

No school for the kiddies today. I am planning on heading over to a little flea market in my town. This is same one that I did here. Have a great weekend!