Chairs, and Lamps and Tables, Oh My

This week has gotten away from us. We intended to post, but amidst school, doctor's appts., work, laundry, etc. it just didn't happen.

I also intended to participate in Sanctuary Arts at Home trash to treasure party, but it wasn't meant to be this time. Check out some great makeovers over there if you haven't already.

Remember this adorable chair that Victoria bought for me to use as a photography prop




A fresh coat of paint and a cute little baby, and you get this



This lamp came from a thrift store over a year ago. I paid probably $2.00 for it. It finally found a home, right beside an oil painting from the same thrift store. I love these contemporary oil paintings from the 70's. Probably someone taking an art class, or just enjoying painting for fun in their basement.


The lamp is sitting on a table that I bought at a garage sale for $5.00. A super cheap brown press board table that probably came from one of those rent to own type places. The table has been primed and painted and I'll reveal the makeover next week.
Before



Victoria and I are getting together today to work on some of her recent finds. She found some great things at a Goodwill in other part of town this past week. Maybe, just maybe, we will have lots of fun things to show you next week.

Have a great weekend everyone! My reader is full to bursting. I haven't gotten around to visiting much this week. Hope to change that today.

Valentine's last hurrah

I know, I know, Valentine's Day is over and everyone has their Spring decor out already but I don't want to pack mine away yet. The red and pink is still making me happy. :)

I bought these babies on clearance at Target. I want to eat them!
I took an old Smuckers jar and filled it with sale M&M's. Let me tell you people, the Dark Chocolate Peanut M&M's are out of this world! LOVE them!

My Sweet Girl and I started some seeds and I needed something to place the cups in. I pulled out an old dish that I bought at a yard sale and think they look much sweeter nestled inside.

Hello basil and tomatoes
Sweet Girl's Valentine tree.


Old fashioned hot cocoa made with milk and cocoa powder. Just what Mommy and Sweet Girl needed...
Hope you have a beautiful Monday, surrounded by all the things that make you smile.

~Victoria~

A New Bed in 10 Minutes

So, I wanted to join up with The Nester's Linky party today. Mmmm, what should I fluff. So many things to choose from. Ten minutes could be spent in almost every corner of this house to make something look better. Dusting or even sweeping away cobwebs would be a great use of ten minutes. Not kidding--really.



Immediately our bed came to mind. Now this could not mean fluffing the entire room--way longer than ten minutes for that, but what about my bed. I can do that.

Many months ago, I started taking down artwork from over our bed. I was very much determined that my bedroom would be painted. Of course, we all know that requires my time or the money to hire our painter. It requires picking out a paint color, which is always hard, and requires the will to move furniture, etc. Well, for months half of the art was down, and the other half remained. The quilt that I loved in the store and bought was really disliked after we had used it for awhile. I pushed it aside along w/the beautiful pillows, and bought a pretty neutral coverlet on clearance at Marshalls. Blah! was the word to describe what was left.

Our kiddos took a luscious bamboo blanket off of our bed one day. We just pulled out an old ugly blue quilt out to lay at the bottom of the bed to keep our toes warm on cold nights and I never took the time to get it back. I hear them arguing over it from time to time. They trade out using it on their beds. hmmm, mommy is going to get it back!

Well, enough is enough. The Nester gave me resolve. We need a beautiful bed. Remember her talking about this recently.

Into the wash my sheets went. The fluffing began. I even ran by the store this afternoon and bought a fluffy new mattress pad to replace our twelve year old one.

Here is the bed made up and ready for a little bling.

I shopped the house for some accessories.

Out came the red pillows that had been tossed aside months ago. An Asian boat oil painting that I had bought at a thrift store months ago was hung on a nail that was already there--so why hadn't I done this long ago?

Pillows with a touch of yellow bought at Target, and just put aside for something??? What a waste of beautiful. Hello me!!! All it took was a about ten minutes to add some yum to the bed. Why do I do this? I don't get the room painted, so it goes to the dogs. Procrastination is a beast. Crazy!!! It won't take me any longer to move a few pillows and accessories when we do finally get around to painting.


The only thing I bought was the mattress pad and the mossy rocks in the urn. I found those today and didn't even plan to use them in our room. Just loved them and brought them home. They are plastic, but look just like real river rocks.

My husband's bedside table is sparse because he has to use a C-PAP at night and it takes up much of the table along with the giant alarm clock ;0. I'm sure the plate will be gone very soon too, but that's ok.

About ten minutes girls! It's amazing what you can do.

Make sure to visit the party. There are some amazing things over there.

I am also participating in the Friday Linky party at The Inspired Room. Check over there as well, and be inspired.

Christina

It's Time to Talk of Many Things

Spray paint is in the air here at my home today. After a trip to Goodwill last week with Victoria, it was about time to get busy with a find or two.

If you are like me, often my finds are not to be used as is. There is often a vision.

So, here is my little basket thingy. Of course, it needs paint--couldn't leave it alone.


So while it dries, I have to mention something that bugs me. This basket was $1.71 at our local Goodwill. Much better than many of the prices there. Every time I see something that speaks to me, I joke, "Is it $14.95?" The prices at our store are very often ridiculous! Victoria saw a really pretty mirror, that would also require a makeover w/paint. The price...$38.00. What!!! We may could buy a new one for that amount, or at least close. Last year Victoria found something from Target's dollar spot marked for $2.55. She said that the $1.00 tag was still on it. It seems in blogland that some of the Goodwill prices are much more reasonable than others. How are the prices at your Goodwill?

So, now that I've gotten that off my chest and given my basket a second coat, let me tell you about another little find from this weekend.

The fabric behind my little basket thingy above is by Laurie Smith, of Trading Spaces fame. My introduction to Laurie was not on TS as I have only watched show maybe twice all the way through and it's just not my cuppa. My introduction was from her book, Discovering Home with Laurie Smith.


I bought this book several years ago at Hancock Fabrics. She had designed a line of wonderful fabrics for them, though they didn't seem to do all that well. Maybe Hancock's was not the place for the contemporary edge that her fabrics had. The piece pictured above was a small remnant that I found under a pile of other fabrics this past weekend. Though I would have loved to have found the golden color of this same pattern, we will find something to do with this eventually and the price tag of $1.00 was great.

If you ever have a chance to pick up her book, which is now deeply discounted at places like Wal-mart and Amazon, do. If you love classic with a twist of contemporary, you will enjoy flipping through this book. I really enjoyed seeing her personal home, a 50's ranch, remodeled and decorated and the thought that went on behind it. The finished product is just lovely.

Here you see her living room. It is full of wonderful fabrics, furniture and the classic/contemporary mix that I love.


Here she shows a vingette on the same table, but changes out the lamp shade and the other displayed items.


There are also a few photos from inside the book on Amazon.

So my basket is dry and ready to hang, which is great as the rain has just arrived. I have this niche in the kitchen that is very awkward. I'm adding the basket here for pens, pencils and scissors. A small vase tucked inside one of the spaces allows me to add some fresh rosemary from my yard. Adding a small bowl, also thrifted for 10cents, adds just the needed touch to fill in the empty space on the wall.

I didn't have a plate hanger, so I did a very "bad" thing. Hot glue and a ribbon=plate hanger.


Disclaimer: Only do this if you don't have a huge attachment to something. Though I've done this many times and never had anything to fall, I don't want to be the cause of great aunt Gertrude's beautiful china falling and breaking. Make sure to mush the glue around with the tip of the glue gun and glue, glue, glue to get it to adhere very well.

Every item in this vignette came from a thrift store, or was given to me except for the lamp shade(from Ross), the burlap ribbon(Michael's)and the crown knob (Hobby Lobby).

I am participating in Diane's (A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words) 2nd Time Around Tuesday.

Please visit her site to see what others have to show and tell about.
Christina

Please come to my Valentine's Party!

Last year in a moment of insanity I decided to host a Valentine Party for Sweet Girl and a few of her 3 year old friends. Sweet Girl, became "Screamy MacPherson" and cried the WHOLE TIME!!! I think I put her to bed before the guests even left!

(2008)

In a fresh moment of insanity I decided to have another party this year. My Sweet Girl woke up sooooo excited about the Valentines Party today. Thankfully, this year went really smoothly and we had no tears until the last 3/4 of the party!!! Wahoo!


Christina's Chloe came to be my assistant and helper. She and her Mommy arrived and she and Sweet Girl decorated the dining room with red crepe paper while Christina wrapped pigs n blankets for me.

We started the party by stringing popcorn and dried apple pieces on florist wire then shaped them like a heart to hang outside on a tree. I saw this idea on someone's blog several weeks ago and now don't remember where!

The attention span of 3 and 4 year olds is not that long so we did as much as they could handle then moved on to making sugar cookies.
I made sugar cookie dough earlier this week then refrigerated it. I rolled small amounts out onto wax paper and each child used heart shaped cookie cutters to cut their cookies out then decorated them with "sparkles" (aka sprinkles). I baked them while the kiddos ate their refreshments.


We had simple refreshments of pigs n blankets, carrots, Chex mix and raspberry lemonade heart-shaped ice cubes.


A girl after my own heart, Sweet Girl's little friend went for the BIGGEST cookie on the plate!

We exchanged Valentine's...

Look at this adorable puppy my sister and her little boy made! He added all the spots.
Sweet Girl and I made one of these Purrrfect Valentine Kittens earlier this week then I stayed up last night watching TV and cutting them out for the rest of the kids.

Sweet Girl & I made goodie bags for each of the kids earlier this week.


After that we let the kids run wild in the yard. It was a beautiful day to play outside as it's 65 degrees here in Ga!

Thank you for joining us for our party! We look forward to seeing you again next year. :)

~Victoria~

It's the Little Things-Heart Edition

Edited to add: Some of my pictures were so large that part of them were cut off. I've been experimenting this afternoon and I'm sorry if my editing caused you to get multiple posts on your readers.

A Heart shaped breakfast. Egg in a heart shaped nest of toast and the middle toasted up with butter and cinnamon sugar.


Hormones raging means mommy needs a large cup of this

provided by my sweet sister Victoria. Yes,almost empty--I needed that!

A sweetheart of a child's vintage chair that Victoria found at Goodwill for me to use in my photography business. This will get painted, so hopefully I will have that to show you soon.


A sweet baby boy photography session from a few weekends ago.





Caleb is my nephew. Isn't he just yummy!

I had an engagement session a few weeks ago with this wonderful couple. I used my "love" sign from the $1 section at Target as a prop. They were married this past weekend in a beautiful wedding.








My kitchen chalkboard

The beautiful heart came from the $1 section at Target. I think the chalkboard did too, though it was long ago.

Of course, don't look too closely, or this is what you will see on my kitchen table

Just adding some real-ness into the mix.

I'm off to watch Anne of Gables with my dear daughter. We are almost to the end of the series---again. It just never gets old. This is also to keep me from being grouchy with the household while I get my self in check.

Christina