A little birdie...

has been waking me up lately! Actually it's several of them at my bird feeder in the front yard. I love the happy, cheerful sounds but it annoys my husband to no end (he's not a morning person). :)

I found this little birdie for 55 cents at Goodwill and after seeing all the rabbits and birds that everyone has spray painted I wanted to try my hand at it.

I was pleased with the results...

How about under a cloche and on a pedestal that I found at Goodwill. I love how Cherry has painted different items to use as pedestals and I may just paint this one once the sun comes out again.

Speaking of sun....I am so ready to see the sun again here in Ga! We just finished a rainy weekend. We went from sunny blue skies with temps in the 70's to rainy, dreary and cold for two of the last three weekends. :( Blah, blah, blah (sorry all you folks that need rain ~ we actually do too but I am weary of it!).

Although I didn't fully "unplug" Friday as I do some work from home so I have to check work email , I was more conscious of my time and spending more of it with my daughter. We did this until I was too cold to take it anymore.



She had a ball!
After hot chocolate and a warm bath we dyed some of our Easter Eggs.

Sweet Girl was rather proud of them.

It made me feel good to have a "good Mommy day" after a week of hormonal imbalance! Believe me, earlier in the week we did very little besides watch Curious George!

Have a wonderful Monday. I'm off to enjoy some sunshine before it starts raining again tomorrow.

~Victoria~

From Drab to Fab

Party time! A little late today, but oh so fun!



Make sure you go over to Sanctuary Arts Blog and look at all the makeovers.





Victoria bought me this little side table at Goodwill a few weeks ago for $4.00ish. It was kind of small for a side table and she saw potential for it to be made into a stool for my photography business. As you can see the top was a brown laminate. The legs are brown wood.


I immediately started looking for fabric and found this lovely Michael Miller fabric called "Garden Trellis." If you are familiar with Kelley Wearstler , you will recognize this as a copy cat of her lovely Imperial Trellis fabric.

I painted the legs a satin black and used a double piece of memory foam to pad the top. My daughter and I then covered the top with our lovely piece of fabric. We ran out of staples, so the corners are not as tight as they should be, but oh, well. It will get fixed someday.

Some of you know that my daughter was tired of me painting things black, so she hid this stool in her room when she found out that I was going to paint it-she loves how it turned out.

You can buy this fabric on line or at this wonderful quilt store if you are in GA. They have it in a citrus, robins egg blue and a couple of other colors--all so beautiful.



I have not found a place in my house for this yet, but since I love how it turned out, my goal is to find a place for it and also use it for photography.

Here I added a lamp on top to show you that even a stool or chair can be used to brighten up a corner. Add a lamp and a few books or little items and you will have the perfect cozy vignette. Chloe and I found this little pear at Goodwill today.



Victoria is going to post a sweet itty bitty makeover in a few days. It is all about seeing potential in things. It is so much fun to transform things from drab to fab!

Some Thrifty Finds for My Mantel

We've been a little under the weather around here. Back among the living today and thought I would show off just a few thrift finds and a couple of other fun things.



About a month ago I found a vintage globe at a local antique mall. They had it priced at $14.95. I didn't think that price was too bad, but I wasn't willing to pay what they were asking when it wasn't something I needed anyway.

Fast forward to a lovely weekend trip with Victoria and our other sister Beth last weekend. We went to a Goodwill in another part of town and I found this lovely old dusty vintage globe for...


$1.91!!! Now that I was willing to pay. It is all grungy and has paper peeling off---I love it. The apothecary jar was a Ross find for $4.99. Add some of Chloe's rock collection, and it works just fine.

A .25 plate hung with burlap ribbon over a thrifted ceiling medallion that I found for a buck.


The old book is a little family treasure. It doesn't belong to me, but I have had if for a long, long time. It is my mom's and is very old and vintage yummy. Many of you --esp. you silhouette lovers-- would go bonkers to see the beautiful illustrations that abound. Oh such wonderfulness! This is a book about the poet James Whitcomb Riley. Here is the old swimmin' hole illustration


Here is his poem.

The Old Swimmin' Hole

Oh! the old swimmin'-hole! whare the crick so still and deep
Looked like a baby-river that was laying half asleep,
And the gurgle of the worter round the drift jest below
Sounded like the laugh of something we onc't ust to know
Before we could remember anything but the eyes
Of the angels lookin' out as we left Paradise;
But the merry days of youth is beyond our controle,
And it's hard to part ferever with the old swimmin'-hole.

Oh! the old swimmin'-hole! In the happy days of yore,
When I ust to lean above it on the old sickamore,
Oh! it showed me a face in its warm sunny tide
That gazed back at me so gay and glorified,
It made me love myself, as I leaped to caress
My shadder smilin' up at me with sich tenderness.
But them days is past and gone, and old Time's tuck his toll
From the old man come back to the old swimmin'-hole.

Oh! the old swimmin'-hole! In the long, lazy days
When the humdrum of school made so many run-a-ways,
How plesant was the jurney down the old dusty lane,
Whare the tracks of our bare feet was all printed so plane
You could tell by the dent of the heel and the sole
They was lots o' fun on hands at the old swimmin'-hole.
But the lost joys is past! Let your tears in sorrow roll
Like the rain that ust to dapple up the old swimmin'-hole.

Thare the bullrushes growed, and the cattails so tall,
And the sunshine and shadder fell over it all;
And it mottled the worter with amber and gold
Tel the glad lilies rocked in the ripples that rolled;
And the snake-feeder's four gauzy wings fluttered by
Like the ghost of a daisy dropped out of the sky,
Or a wownded apple-blossom in the breeze's controle
As it cut acrost some orchard to'rds the old swimmin'-hole.

Oh! the old swimmin'-hole! When I last saw the place,
The scenes was all changed, like the change in my face;
The bridge of the railroad now crosses the spot
Whare the old divin'-log lays sunk and fergot.
And I stray down the banks whare the trees ust to be --
But never again will theyr shade shelter me!
And I wish in my sorrow I could strip to the soul,
And dive off in my grave like the old swimmin'-hole.

James Whitcomb Riley

Mirror that you've seen before was $10.00 at a flea market we go to every year.
Starfish--Michaels with a coupon last year. My first apothecary jar-also a Ross find-with shells from Victoria's trip to the beach last year. Another candle stick, $1.21 at GW, a thrifted picture for a buck and old books that my hubby and I always pick up a yard sales and junk stores for a song finish up the mantel.



Hope you enjoyed my thrifty finds. Judging by the amount of allergy medicine making its way into my cabinet, spring has definitely sprung in GA.

Making Cozy out of Boring

We have a very long and narrow hallway. It is very boring and leaves little room for decoration. Even the pictures hung on each side often get bumped. Daily I look down the hall from the kitchen and just see blah--or our bathroom which is the door on the left.



I decided to add this little table and lamp to brighten things up. There was not a plug in, so we had to run the cord to the plug behind my sons bedroom door. So far it is working and not getting bumped or turned over. Only time will tell.

Much more cozy, wouldn't you say? Both of my children have commented about it.

The table came from a junk-tique store a few years ago and the paint is very chipy. I may paint it soon, but didn't let that stop me from using it today.

The white bowl is one of two and they are the only things I own that belonged to my dear Papa who passed away when I was in high school.

I added a frame from the $1 section at Target, cut some brown scrapbook paper to fit and hot glued this plaster lion head on it. First I tried just the lion head, but it needed something else. The frame pulled it all together. My hubby bought me the lion head over 12 years ago. I have three of them, all different sizes. They have been everywhere in our house. Love them!!




Have you made something cozy today? Give it a try.

Christina

A sprinkle kind of day

Today was NOT a sprinkle kind of day but looking at these pictures tonight made me happy.

Everyone needs the kind of day where they put lip gloss on their cheeks and enjoy a sprinkle or two.I was trying HARD to have a project finished for Metamorphosis Monday but alas, it has given me fits.

In other news, spring is breaking out all around me...

Hope you have a happy Tuesday!

~Victoria~

My "New" Desk

Edited: The ISO on my camera was cranked way up to 1600. No wonder the pictures weren't turning out. I have now changed some of them and they are a little clearer.

Do you remember the before of my $5.00 garage sale table?


I don't usually use primer, but decided it might be best on this makeover. I used gray spray primer.


My only regret is that I didn't take a picture of the finished table outside. I have heard others say that black painted furniture is hard to photograph. Well, now I can attest to that fact.





Here is an up close of the finish. It is satin paint, though the flash makes it look shiny. It is not that shiny in person. This is the best I could do of the finish up close.


Awww, who is that masked man in the picture?



This is our sweet dog Max. This is the first picture I took and there he was, right in the way. That's ok--I love him.

For now this will be my computer table. It will get moved elsewhere eventually, but it works well, and hey, you can't beat a desk for $5.00.

I added this beautiful little piece of pottery that Victoria found for me at Goodwill last week. Isn't the color just beautiful?


Underneath, to cover some cords and the box that keeps lighting from frying our computer I place this woven bag. I found this a Goodwill a few weeks ago and was really surprised that is was only $2.40. The handles are leather and it is nice and substantial.



Hope you enjoyed the makeover.

Until next time!

Christina

Burlap to the Rescue

I was totally planning on showing you my table makeover today, until I couldn't for the life of me get any good pictures. The light wasn't good and the flash caused a glare over the whole project. I love it how it turned out, though the color that it is painted is a magnet for dust---and in my house that is really a bad thing. Stay tuned. Pictures are coming.

Here is a quick project that I worked on this afternoon. A jewelry frame is certainly not a new idea. Others have done these wonderful frames using chicken wire, screen, radiator covering and other mesh wire. I love them all. Olive Rue did a beautiful frame using tulle and this is what set my mind to working on mine today.





Although I had bought some chicken wire a couple of weeks ago, I decided to try my hand at this using burlap. It worked wonderfully. Just hot glue or staple the burlap to the back of the frame and add a ribbon or trim for necklaces. Some tiny "S" hooks would also work well. I love how Olive Rue hung her necklaces over the edges, but I just didn't have anywhere to prop mine at the moment.


Have a great Tuesday evening!

Christina

Spring?

Typically this time of year in Ga it's 65 - 70 degrees, daffodils blooming, tulips out of the ground, etc but yesterday, as you saw in Christina's post, we had SNOW! I had already planned to link up to the Spring party at The Inspired Room so I laughed as I pulled out happy spring items while the big flakes fell.

First a few snow pictures. Here is our cozy (another word for SMALL) house. I love it...coziness and all!

Our "Frosty" with the family. My Sweet Girl insisted on a carrot nose, button eyes (oops those are prunes) and then we could try to "make him come to life"!

Sweet Girl


Now for a little sunshine. :) My current spring centerpiece. I love this old tray that I spray painted black! It is so much fun to change up what goes in it.


Love these little birds my Mother-in-law gave me. She bought them at a yard sale years ago. I am thrilled that she and I both share a love of all things old!

Can you tell that I love old books? I bought several on a recent thrifting trip with Meg and Sarah. They were 50 cents each and beautiful colors!


Love the Forsynthia in this vase. Christina has it blooming in her yard and sent some home with me last week. Again...notice the books. :)


I have had this "birdhouse" for years and put it on my door each year. It is simple but I love the uniqueness of it.

A 50 cent platter I found while thrifting. It is Robin's Egg blue and just beautiful! I have several other oval platters like this in yellow, light green and dark green.
A sweet little bunny card for a 1st birthday. It looks happy and springy to me!!!

I will be tweaking and adding spring stuff over the next couple of weeks and will show more then. I have a lot that I need to blog about that I just haven't taken pictures of yet and need to do that this week as well.

~Victoria~

We Interrupt Regularly Scheduled Programing to Say

It's snowing!!!

Ok, so that might not mean much to many of you, but in GA, it means a great deal.
Here stores run out of bread and milk and often the town closes down.







It's fun while it lasts. Or at least fun for a few hours. We don't own snow clothes or boots, so the kiddos are constantly coming in to get warm or to change out of wet jeans or socks. At that point, though fun for them, it starts to loose its appeal for me. : )

My son just came inside and said, "you know mom, for about an hour I wish we had snow all the time, and then I'm glad we don't." My dryer is full of wet clothes drying and then they will go out and the fun will start over again until they are soaked to the bone and ready for some cocoa.

Anyway, happy snow day Georgia!