snow day projects

 Home-bound yesterday meant projects...

like bread-baking,

 tweaking the painted mattes of these

soft-blue vintage pictures,

and adding a few more touches to the dollhouse.

Thrift store and garage sale finds for me

usually require some type of repair or finishing touches...

and there's No Day like a Snow Day for getting them done.

the pleasure of a panel

 It's just about impossible for me to pass up vintage curtain panels.

 I'm especially fond of this print...

so cheerful!

Fifty cents was a small price to pay for the pleasure of this panel!

a very good day

 I just KNEW it was going to be a good day,

and so I donned my "everyday" grey skirt

 and chose a golden top to accompany it!

 I knew I was meeting a friend for an early Christmas lunch at Grabill Inn

so I pinned this festive pin on my shoulder.

(After seeing the picture, I repositioned it....)
The baked cod was delicious - as was the cherry crumb pie!

 What I DIDN'T know was that I'd receive a phone call resulting from an ad I'd placed

 indicating my desire to buy a vintage white or tinsel-style Christmas tree!

 Though I'd hoped to pay less for one, I decided to "give" it to myself

and call it an early birthday present.

I DID meet a charming couple

 in transacting the deal!

 They think this tree is about 60 years old.

Each branch was carefully contained in these "sleeves" (above).

 We began the assembling process as soon as my husband got home from work.

 THIS is the finished product.

I guess all I need is a color wheel.

We ended the day skyping one of our granddaughters to wish her 

 Happy Birthday. 

She lives in Illinois; we live in Indiana.

Except for that (the miles that separate us)
it's been a very good day!

Nice While it Lasted...

 I did a double take when I drove by a garage sale yesterday and saw this sectional!

 I had to find a driveway to turn around and return to check it out!

I fell in love with it instantly.

The price was right,
it was clean; it was comfortable;
so I brought it home...

put it together in the garage...

and went ga-ga over all its retro features.

We thought and thought and could think of no new arrangement

 to make it work in our living room.

 Within hours I made a contact or two,

 and this morning it is sold.

It sure was nice while it lasted.  

Better than Starbucks

 For less than a cup of coffee

 I satisfied myself with some thrift store shopping this morning!

I'm thinking I'll paint the sunburst with a bright color

and add it to the side of our shed.

 I was surprised to find this vintage toy in such great condition AND in its original box!

 But by far, my greatest excitement was over this vintage fabric!

 It actually was one panel of a drapery with pleats at the top.

I removed the pleats, cut it carefully down the center, stitched up the edge,

and created a pocket for the free shower curtain rod I'm using here above our kitchen sink!

I've been searching for just the right fabric at just the right price

for quite awhile.  This works just fine!

Looking Back at the Week

 We found this great brass umbrella/walking stick holder

just this past week.  My husband polished it and I think I've already

sold it on a local facebook virtual garage sale site!

(I'll be kind of sad to part with it, though...)

I liked these trays when I ran across them at a garage sale a little over a week ago.

 Light, portable and a little rusty,

the two of them have already proved their 25-cents-worth!

Outdoor trays they are.

And OH - wait till you see what I found yesterday!
These, for starters!

 A wooden box.  I have a "thing" for them...

 Pottery bowl from Shakers & Thangs, Marshall, TX
and a vintage pillow case (I ♥ the colors)!

 

And this desk!  OK.  It was purchased last Saturday...

repaired and painted by my husband.

He finished it this evening.

 

I think the desk and pillow case belong in the same room, don't you?

curtain call

Here are the curtains I found at the thrift store last week - 

"remodeled" and hung on our kitchen windows.
To see their "rick-rack" hem, go here.

They'll help keep out the heat of the summer sun.

(Shutters are the reason for the lower shadows.)

Bird cage - garage sale find!

(I find myself gravitating quite naturally
toward these colors.  Not sure why...)

Here's the third of the three skirts
I also "thrifted" last week.
I call it "white",
but obviously it's tan.
I'm wearing gold beads and a gold belt
with some tan heeled shoes
for church this morning.
So I guess that's a
"curtain call" for the red, white & blue skirts, too!

the atmosphere here

Mrs. Rabe at Creekside Cottage posted yesterday about "atmosphere". I was intrigued and warmed by her creative use of lighting to bring an atmosphere of coziness and hospitality to her cottage.

It set me on a quest to photograph the lamps that were "on" in our house as daylight lazily entered OUR four walls this morning.  I have many, many lamps.  Because our house doesn't have a lot of windows, table lamps are our primary source of lighting.

They create different effects at different times of day.

 In addition to lamps, I enjoy the atmosphere that WORDS create.  

Whether on vintage plaques such as these or stenciled on walls, 

they "warm the cockles of my heart"!

 (I see I need to do SOMEthing with the cord on this lamp...)

Except for the rooster lamp which my grandmother made,

all of the items seen here were either

purchased at thrift stores or garage sales.
That includes the canisters and wooden bowl holding tea bags
on the kitchen counter and the lantern above.

i really like...

"Be faithful to your own taste

because nothing you really like

is ever out of style."  

(Billy Baldwin)

I really like these chairs. 
I have tried to remember when and where
I purchased them, but cannot.

What I DO remember is handing the vintage curtains

over to a friend who upholstered the chairs

and this ottoman...

Together with this small hooked rug they have occupied 

a room in the last three houses we've lived in.

They are very much "in style" as far as I'm concerned!

"the coolest store on the planet"

My husband was a good sport while going through shops in Millersburg, OH with me this morning.  This was MY KIND of place!  The first floor was filled with vintage furniture -- some of it embellished with colorful paint.    Pieces of original art decorated the wall & funky jewelry was displayed on the counters.  Upstairs was a vintage-clothes-lover's dreamland!

I couldn't take my eyes off this chandelier bedecked with beads and miscellaneous jewelry.  It hung on the second story ceiling and was visible from the first floor and as we walked up the old oak stairway.  I can't wait to see if I can create this whimsy on a couple of our chandeliers at home!

Serendipity

ser·en·dip·i·ty  (srn-dp-t)

n. pl. ser·en·dip·i·ties

1. The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident.

2. The fact or occurrence of such discoveries.

3. An instance of making such a discovery.

 For a grand total of $.67,  I bought these items.  The vintage fabric pillow case (I'm going to remove the zipper and figure out another way to use the fabric) and the book were in a thrift store in Watseka.  I stop there anytime I'm passing through on my way to visit our son and his family.  Books, regularly priced at a quarter, were buy-one-get-one-free.  I picked up several for the grandkids and kept this one for myself!

Now the Remington Steam-All....I've been wanting one of these.  Getting out an ironing board is such a pain for the little bit of ironing I do.  This was marked a quarter at an estate sale that I "happened on" last Friday.  I don't think it's ever been out of the box.  I can't wait to see if it will take wrinkles out of some of the sports jackets we find for my husband at thrift stores!  Of course, I'll read the directions that are inside the box.  And I love the turquoise color!