« January 2009 | Main | March 2009 »
This morning I got out of my car at work and crossed the parking lot into the camellia forest.
It was beautiful with blooming flowers.
And little critters were enjoying frolicking through the blossoms.
These double blooms were so beautiful that I had to invite them into my office for the day.
Then when I got home I settled in for a relaxing evening of sock knitting.
The stuff that happened in the middle of my day is hardly worth mentioning.
Have a great weekends folks!
In my rush to get out the pictures of my new kitchen corner redo I forgot to include photos of one of my favorite parts of the kitchen.
Aren't they cute as cake? Both these treasures came from vintage sellers on Etsy. The delightful recipe cupboard came from Abi of Red Comb Vintage and the sweet table and chairs came from Kelly of The Vintage Butterfly.
I just love them!
Abi even included a recipe for some tasty sounding lemon squares. Haven't tried them yet but I aim to eventually.
Now, I think this scene needs just one more thing...
How about a lady gnome happily knitting away? My aunt sent me this little sweetheart a couple of years ago.
Ah, that's better. It's just the right size too. Doesn't she look cute there?
I think I'm finally done decorating this corner of the kitchen. You can see a before shot of this corner here.
I love how it turned out!
I found this Pennsylvania Dutch hand painted sign at the thrift store a while back for just a couple of dollars. Isn't it just perfect?
And of course I love how my potholders, tea house, and plate all came together to really perk up this corner. Let the shabby chic home improvement continue!
Those poor puppies of mine are about tired of me being sick. They haven't gotten have many adventures lately. So I managed to drag myself outside to get a breath of fresh air.
And boy did those trail dogs love it!
Notice how they'd stop on a dime if they caught an interesting scent.
But wow that Lucky Cowdog sure can move like the wind.
Amazing!
Ginger's a little more cautious these days.
She likes to size things up first before heading out.
But she gets there in the end.
And she usually ends up in the lead. Notice the mapper lagging behind.
But that's ok because he makes a mighty tasty mincemeat pie.
The cold that drags on with coughs and sleepless nights will not keep me from my quest to pretty up the place around here.
For 1, 2, 3 shabby chic home improvement:
1. Select a bag of fluffy flowers cough drops.
2. Pick out a pretty little pixie dish.
3. Rip open the bag and pour those suckers right in.
Much better. Hope you're having a great weekend.
Quite some time ago a very sweet person asked me if I ever made my kitty creatures out of corduroy. I had to admit that I never had. I was intrigued with the idea so I dug deep into my fabric stash in search of a rogue pair of purple corduroy pants. Well let me tell ya folks, that's a tough thing to come by!
But wasn't it worth the search?
I couldn't stop with just one kitty so I made a whole litter of them. They went on a road trip recently to their new home.
And their mom promptly set them free to roam and find their own comfortable spots around the house. See more pictures of them in their new environment over here.
Thank you so much folks for your sympathies yesterday. I appreciate it! I'm still sick but in between naps on the couch today I managed to squeeze in a bit of shabby chic home improvement.
I've had a couple of groovy decorative plates sitting around the house patiently waiting to be put up on the wall. Trouble is, I haven't had time or energy to get down to the store. Plus, let's face it, I'm cheap!
A thought was stirring up there in my head, a memory really, of how I could get those plates up there without those metal plate hangers. A few years ago I read about a way to do it in The Complete Tightwad Gazette: Promoting Thrift as a Viable Alternative Lifestyle by Amy Dacyczyn.
I gathered together four small paperclips and a couple of rubber bands.
I twisted open those paperclips.
Then I hooked the small ends on to the plate rim.
I flipped the plate over to make sure that I liked the placement of the four paperclips.
Then I flipped it back over and attached the rubber band. I added an extra one for more security.
Ta da! All finished. Now to hang it on the wall.
Not bad! I doubt anyone can tell that it's paperclips and rubberbands rather than a metal plate hanger. If you try this at home please, please don't hang your favorite heirloom plates with this method. I've hung my ninety-nine cents thrift store plates so no big deal if one crashes.
I'm guest blogging over at Absolutely Small today. You might remember Claire's adorable Chickenpants meeting with one of my creatures a while back. Anyway, I've offered up some super simple organizational tips that will hopefully motivate you to get your abode all spiffed up this year. Hope you get a chance to check it out.
It was a beautiful weekend. The weather was warm. Too bad I was too sick to enjoy it much.
Do you ever get the feeling that we're too plugged in? I find that if I don't corral the wires in one location then the one I need goes rogue and an hour long hunt ensues at the least opportune time.
Lucky for me I procured this beautiful old bowl the other day in which to store them. It's big enough to hold them all and look pretty while doing it. Because you know those pesky wires have to remain handy otherwise the world goes spinning wildly on it's axis.
Did I mention that I'm sick? Hope y'all have a great day!
Houston, we have a problem!
Some how the tea zone has gotten quite out of hand. Even the aliens and the robots are invading.
Hum, possibly there's some room here to wiggle things around. A makeover seems in order!
And maybe there's even space for my groovy new potholders.
Yes, indeed, frog hooks to the rescue!
And a family of robots to watch over things.
Ah, that's better. A perfect little tea house to store all sorts of goodies.
I think I'm knitting my third, no wait, my fourth pair of socks. I'm so glad that I found my way back to sock knitting. It is truly satisfying!
I've also been reading too. But I seem to have switched from fiction to non-fiction. I think I ran out of really good novels to read so I migrated over to how-to's and decorating.
One book in particular I've enjoyed lately is Made from Scratch by Jenna Woginrich. Part memoir, part urban homestead how-to, this book will leave you inspired. She talks about her life before starting her small farm and about the process she went through to get there. But it's not all roses. She paints a stark picture of some of the realities of the so called simple life. And the amazing thing is that she is only twenty-six! At that age I hadn't really even figured out what my life goals were, let alone made huge strides in accomplishing them. And even if homesteading is not your dream, Jenna's story is sure to inspire and motivate you to work toward your own goals. This would be a great gift book for a young person.
I think I've found a true kindred spirit in Mary Randolph Carter. Her books, American Junk and Garden Junk are a celebration of groovy junk she's aquired in all sort of places, yard sales, flea markets, etc. The book is crammed full of photos of those junk treasures as she found them. And best of all? She shares with us the price she paid for each item! It's like a conversation for your Saturday morning yard saling mama who comes home at lunchtime with an armload of treasures and a slew of stories. Love these books!
Now a couple of books that I recently found and could not put down are Junk Beautiful and Decorating Junk Market Style by Sue Whitney and Ki Nassauer. I don't think I've ever been as inspired to transform junk into treasures. These ladies are fabulous! You might have seen their articles in Country Home magazine. Their website is sure to inspire you as well so I hope you head on over there and check it out.
And finally, I've also been revisiting one of my favorite Better Homes and Gardens books, Flea Market Decorating: Creating Style with Vintage Finds. I actually own this one and love to flip through the pages every so often for a big old jolt of inspiration.
Finally, some of my favorite trash to treasure TV shows are Decorating Cents hosted by Joan Steffend and Junkin' with Val and Dave. Sadly, this last show is no longer on the air but you might be able to find a show or two over on YouTube. Or perhaps we should all email Turner South and demand that they put the show back on the air! Oh, and some of the older Decorating Cents shows are even better than the newer ones. Hope HGTV figures out they'll increase their audience by replaying fome of those old classics.
Ok folks, that's it! Hope you find some inspiration in these resources.
The Year of Shabby Chic Home Improvement continues with a trip to the bathroom. I rarely see home tours of bathrooms out there in the blog world so I thought y'all might enjoy a visit to mine. And you just know it's going to be full of fluffy flowers!
Here's an in progress shot where I seem to be in desperate need of some pretty towels to spiff up the place:
After a major hunt down I found some fabulous vintage towels over in Red Comb Vintage's shop.
I love these towels oodles and Abi is such a sweet person that I hope y'all zip on over there and pay her a visit.
This little bathroom is slowly but surely turning into a perfect little tweet's nest.
Complete with a little tweet that lives in the coo coo clock:
Had to ditch these horrid old towels:
For some much prettier ones:
And a thrift store picture or two fits right in:
Can't forget the all important bathroom reading material:
I am head over heals about The Gentle Art of Domesticity by Jane Brocket. Based on her blog, Yarnstorm, this book is so full of inspiration that I look forward to visiting the bathroom just so I can read the next essay. I rarely buy books, favoring instead to borrow them from my local library, but this is one that I will gladly add to my collection and cherish for years to come.
Hope you enjoyed the tour!
Slash enjoys a precious few moments of peace and tranquility.
It never lasts for long.
I'm still hot on the crusade to spiff up the ol' homestead with never ending shabby chic home improvement projects.
My latest one involves this door that lets in all manner of prying eyes.
You just never know what kind of riff raff will saunter up and stare at you through the glass.
So I thought it best to install some sort of screening devise. And you know it had to involve some sort of fluffy flowers.
I picked up these fabulous vintage curtains a few months ago at a Madison, Georgia antique shop and I've been itching to find a place to install them ever since. I'm kind of loving how they look up there.
