The Faded Cottage

So where have I been?

2010-04-05T20:11:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I have been away from blogging for over two months. Just popping in to say I'm back and I'll be posting again on a regular basis! So much to share and talk to you about so instead of making one long post, I'll divide them up into several, how does that sound?

The table and mirror you see in the picture are recent purchases, not bought together, the table at a garage sale and the mirror was bought at an estate sale, I think they look perfect together. Here's some close ups.

I just love the detailing on this table. The top folds down so it can be used as a small kitchen table but I like it next to my couch in the formal living room.

Thanks to all of you who asked about how the boot camp went that I was enrolled in. It was an awesome workout for the two weeks that I went. I had to stop (per doctor's request) because of a supposedly medical reason/condition and it turns out after going to three doctors, I'm perfectly fine, nothing was wrong with me in the first place! So because of that, I never got the chance to finish the boot camp.

Love the swags on the mirror.

So I was thinking, for my next post would you like to see ugly pictures and read a horror story about what kind of destruction renters can do to a cottage built in 1935, yep, that's what we have been dealing with for a month now.

I told my husband, I am embarrassed to have our names on the mortgage papers because the cottage looks bad, really bad, like white trash ghetto bad!

Anyway, enough of my drama, so glad to be back blogging .

Make it a great day, Janice

Vintage Lampshade Frame re-do

2010-01-23T11:26:00.000-08:00

I blogged about these vintage lampshade frames before, I bought them in Riverside California and this picture was taken in the store I bought them from.

Since then, they have sat in my garage until today. I've had an idea about what I wanted to do with them, so today, I got busy. This is what they look like now,

tada.....

Are they too cute of what? So easy to do. I bought a yard of muslin, took the muslin to my sister Mary's house, shes a quilter so she has the rotary cutter, cutting mat and ruler. Mary cut 2" stripes and 1" stripes from the muslin (this was a couple of weeks ago).

I used the 2" stripes for the bigger frames and the 1" stripes for the smaller ones. I then draped the muslin pieces on the frames and tied a bow on the bottom to secure into place. I really like how the muslin add deptness to each frame. Total time to do all of this, about 5 minutes for three frames.

I did all of this on my kitchen table and while doing so I had another idea for these frames.

Wanna see?

I put some serving dishes on the top of the vintage lampshade frames adding a bit of whimsy to the table, total cuteness here:))

another look

Our Pottery Barn kitchen table is 90" round so I have a lot of room left over in the center of the table after the place settings have been set.

Some other ideas for these is to just stack your plates on top of them and place them on your kitchen counter so your pretty plates are always in view. Use these frames to add varying heights to your table for more added interest and they are the perfect pieces to use to place food on when serving a buffet style meal.

I was going to take these to the shop and sell them but I'm keeping a few of them for myself!

Have a fabulous weekend, Janice

Boot Camp

2010-01-19T16:05:00.000-08:00

Tonight is the first night of Boot Camp that I signed up for from our parks and rec center. I've been busy the last couple of weeks preparing for this six week, two nights a week grueling work out program. I deserve all the pain and torture that will be thrusted upon me, yesirree, I'm ready to embrace it. I so much deserve the aching feelings that come from a one hour continuous non stop intensive workout program. It's time to turn the flab into fab.

We'll start out with a mile run, a couple hundred sit ups, a couple hundred push ups and what ever else the book camp instructor man decides to be our punishment for the rest of the evening.

So, this is what I'm wearing.

I better wear the jacket, it's cold and rainy today. The class starts at 6:00pm but I'll leave early, I still need to register for the class (I can only hope the class is already full to capacity when I attempt to register, hahah).

So, my only question is, Mr. Boot Camp Instructor, I'm ready for you, are you ready for me?

(wish me luck, I'll need it):))

Pretty Vintage Glasses

2010-01-11T18:03:00.000-08:00

These gorgeous vintage drinking glasses were a Christmas gift to me from my mom. Love them!! A cute story goes along with this.

The last time were were in California together, we went to a peddlers sale. A lady at the sale was selling these. I loved them from the moment I saw them but I wasn't shopping for "me" I was shopping for things for our shop. As the day went on with all the buying we did, I kept thinking about those glasses, maybe she still had them? I walked back to her booth and yep, they were gone, I felt a pit in my stomach, I really wanted those glasses and imagined how cute they would look sitting on my kitchen counter. Plus the carrier for the glasses is all rusty and crusty with chippy paint and you all know how much I love that combination!

I mean look at the design of the carrier, it's round with metal tulips. Usually you see these vintage carriers with a square handle or at least that's all I ever seem to see.

It was much to my surprise on Christmas Eve when we were all at my mom's house to celebrate Christmas when I opened this present. I was so shocked to see these and sooo very happy!! You see I learned something about my mom, she can be very sneaky and that's a good thing, don't ya think?

My mom knew how much I wanted them so she went back to the booth (without me knowing) and told that seller she was buying them and to wrap them up and she would come back for them. My mom put them at the bottom of one her bags she was carrying and carried them to the car and I had no idea she had them.

We all had a good laugh as we shared the story about these drinking glasses with the rest of the family. And yes, they look perfect sitting on my kitchen counter!

Thanks mom.:))

Not Just Antiques Mart

2009-11-09T20:46:00.000-08:00

My mom and I share a booth at an antique store called Not Just Antiques Mart. It's not really a booth but a room in a great location in the 12,000 foot mall. This place is packed, lots of little nooks and cranies, big rooms to small rooms, downstairs and upstairs, and if you don't leave a bread trail as you walk around the store, you may never find your way out, haha!!!, but you could enjoy a cup of tea in the tearoom until someone finds you:)) Renee, the owner has just started her own blog called

estatesalefun, maybe you could stop by her blog and give her a big welcome to the blogger world. Besides being the owner of one of the most successful antique stores in town, Renee also does professional estate sales, sells on ebay, does consignments at the store and recently has been posting on Facebook, Twittter, and Blogspot, when does she have the time to sleep?

So today after work, I stopped by Not Just Antiques to take some pictures of our booth to share with you. I worked in the booth for 4 1/2 yesterday, bringing new stuff in and rearranging.

Everything you see in the above picture, I brought in on Sunday.

Remington, vintage typewritter.

Love the sweet looking goose!

I just love the detail and design of this sweet little table!

If you have been following my blog, you know how much I love rusty, crusty, chippy paint items!

This is a view of our room from the hallway, yes, we have a window which we just love! There are lots more items in our booth that were not photograghed so you will have to stop in if your ever in Las Vegas to see the rest.))

Make it a great week, Janice

~A Horse Feedsack~

2009-11-07T14:28:00.000-08:00

This morning my husband dropped off our youngest son at baseball practice and as he drove out of the neighborhood, he saw a garage sale going on a few streets away from us. Being the good husband that he his (all of my training has certainly paid off), he called me and told me about it and said I should go. Intrigued, I got dressed and went to the sale. The first thing that caught my eye was a vintage, horse feed sack, and no, I don't have horses just in case you were wondering, haha. I liked the the leather and heavy canvas combination, was in mint condition and for $3.00, I had to have it.

I came home and knew exactly what I was going to do with it.

I had some left over autumn flower stems

and decided to create a front door decoration, kinda like a wreath but without the wreath, make sense?

This is what I put together

This cutie pie hangs on the outside of our front door, so easy to do and I am pleased with the results

I had to tuck a little scarecrow in between the flowers

This is the first time we have decorated the front door for autumn, I guess I just needed the perfect inspiration to do just that, a vintage horse feedsack!

Make it a great weekend, Janice

Fall is in the house

2009-11-01T20:32:00.000-08:00

Certainly love this time of year! The scernery around here is the same as it's been throughtout the summer, no jewel tone colors in the landscape just yet. So if you want some fall colors, you'll have to create it in the house with a few trips from Michaels Craft Store and a 40% off coupon.

This is what I did today.

I created a few autumn vignettes, this one sits on top of the formal living room table. I already had all the items except for the real gourds and orange pumpkin.

Ironstone pitcher holds the flower arrangement from last year and I tied a vintage lace hankie on the handle.
I like how all the colors and textures work really well together.

Love these colors!
This is what I did on the foyer table
Do not look at the ugly cords hanging below the table! :))
I used my 40% off coupon and bought this pretty urn that the flower arrangement is in.

The flowers were on sale so in the shopping cart they went.

My sister and I are still doing our yoga class on Tuesday evening. When I made the commitment to take the yoga class, I was doubtful if I would like it cause I'm a faster pace kind of girl when it comes to exercising, but I am enjoying it!

My husband and I are still doing our walk/run almost every night. I was thinking about enrolling in a boot camp that our Parks and Rec center puts on. My brother in law is currently enrolled in one and he said its brutual, the instructor shows no mercy!!, oh, sounds like my kind of class!! I'll keep you posted!

25 days til Thanksgiving, I better start working on the menu!

Make it a great week, Janice

Community Sales in the Fall

2009-10-22T17:04:00.000-07:00

As the weather cools down to the mid 80's, we start coming out of our air conditioned houses to enjoy the outdoors, to feel and enjoy the nice fall weather. When fall arrives here, a lot of outdoor activities take place such as outdoor concerts, musical plays in the park, walk a thons, bike races, marathons and lots of community sales, garage sales, and parking lot sales.

Last weekend, my mom and I went to our favorite parking lot sale, it's held twice a year and it's one that we don't want to miss. On Saturday morning, my mom meet me at my house bright and early and off we went to do some serious shopping, with our flea market shopping cart in tow.

The following pictures are just some of the things that came home with me

Our shopping cart was overflowing with vintage goodies. I had to stuff a few things in my pants pockets, that how loaded down we were, seriously! Not everything was photographed, like all the Christmas decorations we bought (I'll save that for another post). I would had taked a picture of the over stuffed, overflowing shopping cart however the camera was at the bottom of the cart!

White throw pillow, vintage nesting bowls, cast iron brackets

Love these!

Bouquet of posy roses, in mint condition!

1940's Italian tole compote

Gorgeous design on the glass

" Made in Italy" metal tag still attached. This was the first thing I bought.

Perfectly tarnished, vintage monogrammed silver brushes

Men's cologne bottles with green plastic tops,

Love the design on the labels.

Rusty crusty candle chandelier, love it!!

Cute little planter. I'm gonna fill it up with some small white pumpkins.

Fufu flowered pillow. I laughed out loud when I saw it which meant I had to get it, haha

Hideous or cute?, humm

I bought this, not so much for the picture but for the beautiful vintage frame. As you can see, it has a small crack , bottom, left had corner, I think I can try and fix when I paint over it.

Adorable, vintage Autumn themed picture

I hope you enjoyed the pictures as much as I enjoyed showing them to you.

My husband and I are still walking/running, doing a little more running than walking and it feels great!

My sister talked me into taking a beginners yoga class with her so I'm doing that on Tuesday evening for 8 weeks. Our first class was this Tuesday and I really enjoyed it, the lights in the room were turned down low, candles lit and pretty soft music playing in the background, yep, I could get use to that!

Thanks to all my loyal followers who always post a comment on my blog, I get so excited when a comment has been left, it means the world to me!

Make it a great, autumn day, Janice

What Hangs above the door?

2009-10-16T16:55:00.001-07:00

One of the most overlooked areas in a house for decorating is above the doors, the wall space between the door frame and ceiling. In our home, we have ample room from the top of the door frame to ceiling, so why leave it bare? A few years ago, I hung this above the door in the family room that leads to the back yard.

Now the wall space doesn't look so bare and it's the first thing you see when you walk in the house from the front door if your looking straight ahead.

I just love the thick garland of roses

it's one of my favorite peices in the room.

Last weekend, I found this.

Wasn't crazy about the color but a few coats of paint changed all of that. Now it looks like this.

There were so many places in the house I could have hung this, making my mind up was some what hard to do. I decided to hang it above the front door and I just love the way it looks.

This has hung above the front door for a week now. The front door gets a lot of use and every night since the weather has been cooler, my husband and I have been going on a walk/run (ok, we do more walking than running for now). When we leave for our walk/run, we leave the house through the front door and my husband hasn't even noticed that something is above the front door. When he finally realizes it, he'll say, hey Janice, when did you get that? I'll tell him how long it's been there and he'll disagree with me, insisting that I must have "just" put it there, tooo funny, he makes me laugh!!

So, what hangs above your doors, I'd love to know.

Have a fabulous weekend, Janice

Some little white pumpkins

2009-10-14T15:39:00.000-07:00

The other day while at the grocery store, I bought four white pumpkins and thought they would look cute at each place setting at the dinner table. So, I placed the white pumpkins on the dinner plates and well, they just looked to small! I walked around the house holding these pumpkins, hoping for a decorating idea to pop into my head. Here's what I did.

I placed the pumpkins on some candle holders that I have. These are on one side of the foyer table.

I decorated one of the pumpkins with some vintage lace and an earring. So fast and simple to do. I secured the lace to the pumpkin with a straight pin and glued the earring to the lace. When I take my fall decorations down, I will simply take the lace and earring off the pumpkin and use for something else.

The other pumpkin sits on top of another candle holder surrounded by a pretty wreath.

Here's another look.

This is a candle holder that sits on the buffet table with all my beaded domes. I am so far behind this year with my fall decorations that I almost gave up. At least this is a start and now I feel inspired to get it done.

As I write this post, I have a whole chicken baking in the oven, stuffed with a large bundle of fresh thyme, garlic, and lemons and the house smells scrumptious! My kids are waiting patiently for dinner to be done and so am I!

Make it a great day, Janice

Boulder City, Nevada

2009-10-05T18:39:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, my hubby and I went to the historic, quaint little town of Boulder City, about a 20 minute drive from where we live. They were having their annual event called "Art in the Park" where the cities park is filled with vendors selling their one of kind art pieces. We went to Boulder City not to really see the art but to visit the antique stores that have their sidewalk sales just for this event. My friends, Maryann and Nancie have a drop dead gorgeous shabby chic booth in an antique store called Goat Feathers. Lets begin our tour on the outside of the building.

Is this too charming or what. This is painted on the outside of the store.

This one of the entrances, love the Christmas vignette above the door.

Adorable windows line the outside of the building with bright blue shutters and flower boxes.

Cute tie back curtains

A painted plaque on the outside briefly describes the history of the building that Goat Feathers now occupies.

Yep, love these windows!

Lets step inside, shall we?

This is the space that Maryann and Nancie share, aren't these doors fabulous. Nancie hauled them all the way from Texas and they are for sale!!

Oval windows and thick wood carvings surround the window!

Cute, vintage items for sale.

My sweet friend Mary would love this booth, with all the pretty, vintage teacups for sale.

Vintage window with pink curtains.

The following pictures are just random shots taken inside Goat Feathers.

Gorgeous vignettes displayed throughout the store.

Lets go outside to the side walk sale.

Pretty mirror, door, & window frames just to name a few items that were sale.

Patio furniture, lamps, candles, huge assortment of items!

Child's metal table and chairs, picture frames

And these are my sweet friends, pictured left to right, Maryann, who's booth was featured. She shares her booth with Nancie, (who is not pictured), Katie, Maryann's daughter, and Jessie, Katie's husband. I have to tell ya, this group of people all have such bubbly personalities all three are just adorable and they always have a smile on their face, you would just love them! So, are you wondering how we all met? Standing in line at an estate sale, too funny!

I hope you enjoyed your tour of Goat Feathers, in Boulder City, Nevada. I'll be doing a part 2 of this post in a week or so, so stay tuned.

Make it a great week, Janice

Vintage Cream Puff

2009-10-02T16:11:00.000-07:00

I went to my favorite antique shop today and this is what I found. This darling vintage lace ruffled hat with a pink velvet bow, it reminds me of a cream puff. If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know how I love these cutie vintage hats. No, I don't wear hats, I incorporate them in my decor.

This is the top of the hat, love the vintage lace. When I saw this hat, I was almost afraid to look at the price, thought it would be way outta my price range. So don't hate me, but it was only $10.00, whoohoo!! Well, sitting right next to it was this

Vintage aqua hat with the most delicate millinery flowers!! Total sweetness.

Both hats are in mint condition, doesn't look like they have ever been worn. The price for the aqua hat?, yep, $10.00.

I have a foyer table and on each end of the table, I have a vintage wrought chair. On one of the chairs, I have a vintage hat that sits on top.

The other chair doesn't have one. I thought the cream puff hat would look fabulous on the other chair but sadly, the hat is isn't big enough.

So, I've been carrying my new vintage hat around the house trying to find something to put it on. I'll let you know where the hat finally ends up.

You may remember this picture, another vintage hat sits on top of a cast iron cherub candle holder. So much fun decorating with hats.

This is the close of the hat, also in mint condition.

My shabby dog even wears a vintage hat.

Do you remember the post I did about my sister Mary, the quilter? I even did a post about the quilt she made me. Well, she finally has a blog and did her first post last night. I'm so proud of my big sister!! If you get a chance, please stop by Mary's blog and welcome her to the blog world. Mary's blog is called paper fabric scissors.

My friend Kristen made the template for her blog and you find Kristen here

and here.

Have a great weekend and enjoy the fall weather, Janice

Lets chit chat, shall we?

2009-09-28T23:33:00.000-07:00

Are you wondering what this photo is? Well it's a photo I took while my son and I were in North Carolina. It's a mural that was painted on a side of a building. I took a double take when I first saw it, made a U-turn as fast as I could and whipped into the parking lot to snap a few photos, to show all my blogger friends.

One thing I discovered in Cary, North Carolina, there are no emergency lanes, or no where to pull over like a shoulder on the road, nope, didn't see one as I drove past darling , pretty as could be houses. I won't even talk about when we went to Duke University, couldn't find a parking anywhere or the University of North Carolina, same thing, NO parking spaces, no where to pull over to walk the campus or to take pictures. You see, my son Michael who is 13 years old, likes to look at colleges, we do alot of travelling to different states for baseball. Whatever state we are in, we find the university to take a look, to do a little sightseeing around the campus.

So, the only pictures I have to share with you are the murals from two different buildings. I'm sure if these darling houses were built after Blogs were discovered, I'm sure that along the roads there would be little turn off lanes for picture taking with a sign that would read something like this: "Turn off lane for taking pictures for blogs."

I don't want you to like that I'm here to bad mouth North Carolina because it's a pretty state with lush green landscaping all around, huge trees with breath taking views, I just wish I had some pictures to show you.

Since I've been back from my trip, I have come to the realization that I need to slow down while driving. I've always been the dare devil on the road, driving just a little faster than the posted speed limit....just a little. The other day on my way to work at 5:30am, listening to my favorite radio channel, I looked in my rear view mirror and what do I see, yep, flashing red lights. I pull over to the right so the police car can pass me and get to where they were going but the car pulled up right behind me. Humm, I thought, what did I do? The nice police officer informed me that I was driving way faster that the posted speed limit. He informed me what the posted speed limit was and told me how fast I was going. Only 11 miles over the posted speed limit (I thought to myself, why is that considered speeding). We had a lovely conversation and I drove away without a ticket, yippeee! I considered my self lucky and since then, I'm driving the posted speed limit, well, most of the time.

I seem to drive just a little over the posted speed limit on my way home from work. So before I got off of work today, my son called and asked if I could stop off at Starbucks and get him and my youngest son their favorite frappuccino drink. I get their Starbucks request, come home for about 15 minutes, then it's off to physical therapy for my son. After physical therapy, went home and by now my husband is home from work. I'm home for about another 15 minutes and then my husband and I go grocery shopping.

With two growing boys, we buy alot of food! An hour and half in the grocery store, we head home. Unload the car, put the groceries away, fix dinner, clean the kitchen, make sure home work is done, tell the kids three times, "its time for bed" (they swear they didn't hear me the first two times).

With the house all nice and quiet, I can enjoy some blog time.

I have a lingering thought. Am I the only person who looks at the key board when typing? I thought about that today. Is it just me or are there others who do the same thing......please let there be others!

I'll be posting again real soon.

Make it a great week, Janice

Our Trip to Cary, North Carolina

2009-09-22T21:02:00.000-07:00

Michael and I had a great time while we were in Cary, North Carolina. As stated in a previous post, we were there as my son Michael who is 13 years old was trying out for the USA International Baseball team. This was the second round of tryouts. This was more of a showcase than a tournament. Sure the kids played baseball games, each team played four games. The games were played so the scouts could see the abilities of each player. The ages were 14-17 years old, my son being one of the youngest kids there.

The best of the best baseball players were there so the games were really good!! Michael's name was on the scouts list as one of the players to watch out for. Michael did what he knows best and played his best up until the last game that was played on Sunday. Michael was in the bull pen warming up with his pitching as he was going to pitch the next inning. As he was in the bull pen, he "tweeked" his back and could barley move. He told his coach what happened and Michael was pulled from the pitching position (the scouts wanted to see him pitch one more time). Michael was next to bat and he ripped the ball up the gap between first and second base. He could barley run up the first base line to get to first base, he was in severve pain! He got out at first and everyone could see the awful pain he was in even the scouts.

(This is Michael #57, 5'9 tall, 180 pounds, not an ounce of fat on his body!)

Michael was having back pain before we left, he's had it for about two months now. We've been to his sports docotor and many tests have been run to figure out what is causing his back to "tweek" (it stiffens up). All the tests have come back negative. He's been going to physical therapy 2 times a week and doing his exercises at home. His doctor said he may be going through another growth spurt which could be causing the problem (humm, not to sure I agree with that).

My husband received a call today from the one of the coaches who will be coaching the USA International Team. He said that he was really impressed with Michael and was one of the best kids out there in the showcase and Michael was their number one pick but due to the fact that Michael had gotten injuried, he is the first alternate on the team. Which means he didn't make the team per say. Each team consists of 24 players. If one of the kids backs out then Michael will be on the team.
I have to say, that my husband and I are not upset about the news. We would rather concentrate on Michael getting better than him playing on the baseball team (although Michael doesn't see it that way). Plus if Michael made the team he would have to miss 10 days of school, yep 10 days, that's a whole lot of school to miss!! Michael is still young and has a long baseball career ahead of him. He has been gifted with the most amazing talent and athletic ability, these things can't be taught, you either have it or you don't, and Michael certainly has it!!
Thank-you all for reading as I bragged about my son, we are so proud of all his accomplishments and love him to pieces!!

Make it a great day, Janice

I have a new look

2009-09-21T13:31:00.000-07:00

Look what happened to my blog when I was away in North Carolina. Yep, My blog got a new look and I absolutely LOVE it! I owe it all to my creative, fabulous friend Kristen. I swear, there's nothing that girl can't do!

Let's see, just for starters, she's an author(not yet published, it's only a matter of time before that happens), a singer, an inventor, a mother of two children, a wife, works full time (we sit right next to each other at work), a Harley Davidson motor cycle rider, the ultimate, loyal Pittsburgh Steelers fan. Kristen also owns and operates several power tools, and built an entertainment center for her lovely home, she built it in a day! This is just a very small listing of her many talents.

Kristen has impeccable taste in interior design, you should see her beautiful home. Nothing is ever out of place and you will never find any dust settling on her furniture, trust me on this, I've looked, :)).

Kristen's new adventure is creating amazing designs for blogs and has a new blog called glamjunkgirl. Looking for a new, unique design for your blog, visit Kristen's blog, she's even opened her own etsy store where you can find several already made blog designs. If your looking for a one of kind design, Kristen can help you with that as well as there is no limit to her creative ability.

My son and I got home, early this morning. Our plane got delayed in Atlantic City due to the terrible thunder storm they had last night, 22 inches of rain.

I'll post more about our trip tomorrow. It's time to unpack and do loads of laundry!

Make it a great day, Janice

My Mini HP & Cary, North Carolina

2009-09-15T19:27:00.000-07:00

Wednesday morning my oldest son (Michael, age 13) and I fly out to Cary, North Carolina and will return home Sunday evening. This is the second round of tryouts for the USA Baseball National Team. I won't go into all the details just in case your not a baseball or sports fan. But this is huge and a honor that my son made the first tryout which was in California. If he makes this second round of tryouts, then we'll be off to Tampa Florida for the third and final round which will be held the second week in October. If Michael makes the third round then they will immediately fly to Ecuador, South America where they will play baseball for 10 days, playing against different teams. Not every baseball player can tryout for this team. You have to be the best of the best and be invited to attend.

With all of this traveling and being away from home for extended periods of time, my husband and I decided to get a Mini HP from Verizon. I have to stay connected don't ya know, hahaha, and keep up with my blog. The Mini HP is a mini laptop, just perfect for what I need it for.

I've wanted a laptop for such a long time and I'm so excited to finally have one!

Ohh, can't you see my fingers just typing away on these big nice keys! Yep, love everything about it!
I bought a nice carrying case for it with lots of pockets, this will be a carry on for the plane ride.

I hope to post on my blog while I'm there and share my trip with you. Not sure how much time I will have to travel around as this trip isn't about me, haha. I've never been to Cary, North Carolina, have you?

Ok, I just had to have some pretty picture on this post,:))

I found some antique shops while I was online looking for things to do in North Carolina and I do plan on stopping at them.

If any of you know of any fabulous places to see or things to do, please leave a comment on my post, I'm open to any suggestions.

Time to double check all the luggage (again) to make sure everything is packed.

I'll be posting real soon, Janice

Mail Delivery

2009-09-08T15:30:00.000-07:00

In August, Elyse at the Cottage had a "giveaway" to celebrate the first birthday of her blog, calling it a Blogthday. Since I stalk, I mean visit her blog on a daily basis, I decided to enter in the giveaway, and to my lucky surprise I won!

This is what I found inside the box.

A darling handwritten congratulations note.

A French themed glittered canvas print

&.......

Five adorable, pretty embellished clothespins,

L O V E them!

Fairy Dust, pink and yellow chicks, clown pick, an assortment of pretty millinery flowers, stems/picks and look at these,

I'm gonna put all of this in a pretty little vintage glass jar and display it in my craft room.

Thanks so much Elyse, I loved winning your "giveaway"

Stop by the Cottage and check out Elyse's sweet blog.

Make it a great day, Janice

It's Chippy Paint Fridays, The final episode

2009-09-04T00:01:00.000-07:00

It's Chippy Paint Fridays over here at the Faded Cottage. This is the 11th and final episode. When I originally started this segment, I planned on running it for 8 Fridays but when the 9th and 10th Fridays rolled around, I couldn't resist showing you another vintage item that had chippy paint on it.

To conclude this episode, I am featuring my chippy paint cement dog, named Shabby Dog. As you can see, I have it pictured on the right side of my blog but here's another look.

I rescued her from a estate sale I went to months ago. She was sitting outside in the back yard just calling out for some attention, she didn't want to be left behind. I grabbed her and took her home with me and now she sits proudly in our cottage style formal living room.

She looked like this when I bought her but she needed a little something, I think the pink hat fits her just fine, makes her look a little more prim and proper.

Yep, Shabby dog loves to show off her cute tush and wiggle her tail at you.

And that gorgeous face will melt your heart every time!

A great big thank-you goes out to Mary at marysteacottage
and

Ana at apetitecottage

who had joined me for the 8th episode of Chippy Paint Fridays. Check out their lovely blogs when you get the chance, their blogs are super sweet and they are tooo!!

I hope you all enjoyed Chippy Paint Fridays as much as I enjoyed sharing them with you:))

Have a safe and Happy Labor Day weekend, Janice

PS, I just found out that Mary at marysteacottage as joined in for the final episode of Chippy Paint Fridays, make sure you head over to her blog to what she is featuring, it's too cute.!

You got the time?

2009-08-31T17:32:00.001-07:00

Ya, I have the time, all sorts of different times. Don't count on these vintage rhinestone clocks to tell you the time cause their times are different. Their hands never move, they display the exact same time every time. Sure, it's 1:25 somewhere, 2:06, somewhere else, 10:16 in another place, another country. If you need to be on time, don't count on these clocks, you could end up being late or real early:))

(Click on the pictures to enlarge them)

I was playing around with the vignette I created for Chippy Paint Fridays. I'm always moving things around, trying to capture a different look. I moved all these vintage rhinestone clocks out of our bedroom and brought them out here.

Every single one of these clocks, I won on auction. Didn't matter to me whether they worked or not, I didn't buy them for their intended use, I bought them because they were and still are, absolutely charming! This little clock is made by Phinney Walker.

This is my absolute favorite, just love the pink rhinestones and pearls and the design is so original and breathtaking gorgeous!, I've never seen another one like it and doubt I ever will, made by Landau.
This wind up clock is made by Semca and I just love the light green rhinestones.

How gorgeous is this vintage windup clock? Just smothered in clear rhinestones, not one rhinestone is missing, made by Bradley.

This clock is made by Westclox and is a Baby Ben clock. This clock is a little larger than most of the other clocks but I just loved the color of clock and the rhinestones outlining the face of the clock, just stunning!

This little cutie is made by Bradley and was one of the first clocks I won. A few of the rhinestones have darken over time but their all there.

This little pretty clock is made by Phinney Walker. I just love the design of the larger rhinestones, shaped like a heart, so sweet!

Do you want to create a pretty vignette? Go gather some of your favorite collections and display them all together. One easy trick is to make sure some of the items are at different heights to create some interest. More tips to follow in further posts.

Make it a great week, Janice

It's Chippy Paint Fridays!!

2009-08-27T17:45:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the 10th segment of Chippy Paint Fridays! I'm so happy your here and I hope you enjoy your visit.

This is the beginning stages of building a vignette around an old chippy paint corbel that my mom bought for me on my birthday a few years ago. Up until this point, I've had it in my master bathroom with a big chunky candle sitting on top, dreaming of the day when I would have enough time to take a nice long bubble bath, with the lights turned down low, sipping a glass of wine as I watch the light flicker from the candle glow. No time for a bubble bath in three years so it was time to take the corbel outta the bathroom and create something different around it.

After playing around with different items, I decided on this as a vignette.

I'm loving this look, how bout you? An old millinery hat is perched on top with a vintage strand of pearls. A few old make up compacts, a rhinestone clock and an embellished bottle completes the look. All of these items adds a feminine touch to the big chunky, chippy paint corbel.

A few close ups so you can appreciate the beauty of the chippy paint.:))

Here's another look

Crackly, peely, chippy paint!

The corbel looked like this (but was in the bathroom) and with a little imagination and with some pretty neat vintage items, it now serves as the back drop for a feminine vignette.

Simply elegant!

What do you have that's chippy paint?

Make it a great day, Janice

Lemon Blueberry Bread

2009-08-22T11:51:00.000-07:00

On Thursday, I was out running errands and the next thing I knew I was in the Home Goods parking lot, seriously, I don't know how that happened, haha. Since I was already there I thought it best to go inside and look around. I found this

A Vera Bradley cookbook. Am I the only person who didn't know that Vera Bradley had a cookbook? I thumbed through the pages and saw some amazing recipes and pictures, and cute graphics, so in the shopping cart it went. When I got home, I read though every single recipe and decided to try this

Lemon Blueberry Bread

This is what you need to make the bread

1.5 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened ( I used butter)

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

2 teaspoons lemon zest

I cup blueberries, tossed with 2 teaspoon flour (you can use fresh or frozen blueberries, I used fresh blueberries).

to make the lemon glaze that goes on top of the bread

1/3 cup sugar

3 tablespoons lemon juice (I used fresh lemons)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 5x9 inch loaf pan.

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the flour mixture alternately with the milk, beating well after each addition. (Begin and end with the flour mixture). Fold in the lemon zest and blueberries. Pour into loaf pan.

Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until a took pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Pierce the warm bread with a fork. Pour the warm Lemon Glaze over the top. Cool in the pan for 30 minutes of longer. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Lemon Glaze

Combine the sugar and lemon juice to a small saucepan. Heat until the sugar dissolves, stirring frequently.

This bread is just delicious, so moist, it practically falls apart when you slice it. I especially liked the bread because the lemon is not overpowering, just enough to let you know there's lemon in it.

I made two loaves of bread, it's that good. My family just loves it!

Come on over if you get the chance, I'll have a fresh pot of coffee and some lemon blueberry bread waiting for you.

And coffee always tastes better served in a vintage, pretty coffee cup, don't you agree?

Let me know if you try the recipe, I highly recommend it!

Make it a great day, Janice:))

It's Chippy Paint Fridays

2009-08-21T06:25:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

It's Chippy Paint Fridays at the Faded Cottage. I'm so glad you were able to stop by to see the 9th segment. Today, I am featuring a chippy paint, pink wrought iron chair, chipped to perfection!

I bought this many years ago from one of my favorite sellers on ebay. She always had the most amazing items and I was a regular buyer from her.

When I saw this chair she had listed, I knew right away I would be the new owner! Lots of people were bidding on this chair (can you blame them?). With a minute left before the auction ended, I placed my final bid. Anticipation was building, I was nervous, doubtful, unsure if my last bid was high enough to win the auction.

I hit the refresh button, and there it was, my name appearing as the highest bidder,

I was toooo excited as I loved that chair from the moment I saw it.

The excitement quickly wore off when I was sent an email stating the shipping cost for this one of a kind chippy paint, pink wrought iron chair.

I stared at the email, trying to take it all in, yep, $40.00 to ship this item which of course didn't include what the final bid was. I called myself all kinds of ugly names for winning the auction. I paid the money and waited the arrival of the chair.

And the huge box came. I ripped it open, took the chair out and there she was in all her glory, beautiful, chippy paint, the prettiest faded pink and white color, gorgeous design on my new vintage chair.

I would tell you what the final cost was for this chair however, my husband reads my blog every once and awhile and if he knew the cost, he might start paying closer attention to how much money I spend, (and I can't have that!), hahaha.

Thanks for stopping by, your presence is greatly appreciated and a big thanks to all those who left the nicest comments on my last post, they mean the world to me!

Have a fabulous weekend and I'll be posting real soon.:))

~Ikea & Craigs List~

2009-08-16T09:09:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday, I was trying to build my courage to clean my oldest son's bedroom, it was a wreck!! I walked into his room looked around, walked out, shaking my head, not ready to commit myself for the task.

I got onto the computer and looked at Craigs List, looked in the furniture section. An ad appeared for an Ikea white slipped covered sectional couch, I truly gasped, no kidding. I called the phone number that was listed on the ad and yes it was still available. My husband and I ran some errands and while doing so I was imagining how that white slipped covered sectional would look in our formal living room, or in the family room. I talked to my husband about the couch and we agreed to get it.

With the last week being extremely hectic around here, I didn't have a chance to do any sort of rearranging of the formal living room. Yesterday, I called my sister Mary over for some advice (she lives across the street from me). We decided the sectional looked the best, the way you see it. I moved an old door that was in the foyer and moved it into the corner as I thought the corner needed something with height. I moved funtiure around, moved furniture out, cleared out china hutches, moved a china hutch in my bedroom, moved stuff in the garage. My back was killing me from moving furniture and the only cure I know for a backache is wine, yep, two big glasses of wine will do the trick so I continued on.

I'm really happy with the way the room looks.

A yoyo pillow my mom made me adds a splash of color to the couch.

This is what the other side of the room looks like.

A vignette in the room, not to sure if I like the way it looks.

The formal living room and dining room is one big open area. When your sitting on the couch you have the view of the dining room and this is what you will see.

I started this project around 5:00 pm and finished at 11:00pm but the finial outcome was well worth it.

A beaded dome vignette in the dining room.

Make it a great Sunday, Janice:))

It's Chippy Paint Fridays!

2009-08-14T04:00:00.000-07:00

Yep, it's that time again. This is the 8th segment of Chippy Paint Fridays! I'm glad you all could stop by. This Friday, two fabulous friends will be joining along with me. Please stop by their blog and see what they have that's chippy paint.

Mary at marysteacottage

Ana at apetitecottage

Your gonna love their treasurers.

Oh, I just love it when people join along, the more the merrier.

When I started this segment, I was only going to have it for 8 weeks but , I'm kinda rethinking that idea. I think I will post this segment for a couple more weeks as I have a few more items (just a few) that's chippy paint. Wanna see a weathered pink wrought iron lawn chair that's all chippy? You'll have to wait until next Friday to see that, haha

Today for Chippy Paint Fridays, I'm featuring a vintage pink window

Love the design of this window.

This is the back side of the window.
Most of the paint has chipped away.

The original hardware is still intake, do you see the chippy paint?

Layers of pink and white flaky, chippy paint! It took approximately 60-70 years to achieve this fabulous, naturally worn look!

This is my favorite, chippy paint window!

Make it a great Friday, Janice

Just my rambling thoughts

2009-08-10T16:19:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, I sure hope you all had a fabulous weekend and enjoying all the wonderment's of summer.

I really do enjoy my little piece of the internet with my blog but sometimes circumstances prevent us from posting everyday, which has been my case. I'm suppose to be working on a few projects that have deadlines but I just had to post, you know what I mean?

Our summer has been pretty laid back until this week. Extremely busy, why does it always happen this way, why can't we just ease into it, slowly so we can enjoy the process, the adventure of it all?

So here's whats going on. The deadlines I mentioned, it all has to be done tomorrow, no exception. I work better under pressure so it will all get done with minutes to spare. Wednesday, I'm working late at work, won't get home till 10:00pm, then raise and shine Thursday to do it all over again, yippee, me!

Looks like we are going out of town, again, so that means laundry and packing needs to be done. Do I hear any volunteers out there??hahaha.

And with all of this going on, I want to do a post about something that happened on Sunday, I bought something new, well it's not really new, but it's new to me, I can't wait.

In the meantime, enjoy some fun in the sun.

I'll be back later this week, Janice:))

It's Chippy Paint Fridays!

2009-08-07T09:10:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday everyone! Thank-you for joining me in the 7th segment of Chippy Paint Fridays.

Today, I'll be showing you a sage green side table that I have in my formal dining room with a wrought iron candelabra that sits on top.

Love the color and design of the piece with it's scalloped edging and spindle legs.

The chippy paint is extensive on this piece which makes me love it even more.

This is the top view of the table. I like how the delicate look of lace brings some softness to the piece, one of my favorite combinations. How about you, do you like the look, chippy paint and lace?

It's pieces like this that our kids think were poor, haha, tooo funny!!

I hope you enjoyed this segment of Chippy Paint Fridays.

Have a fabulous weekend, Janice:))

Flea Markets & a Peddlers Sale, the finial episode

2009-08-06T16:23:00.000-07:00

For those of you who haven't read my blog in the last couple of days, I've been posting about the past weekend my mom and I spent in Southern California going to some flea markets and a peddlers sale.

We had the trip all planned out. Riverside California first. From there we would go to Costa Mesa and shop the peddlers sale on Friday and Saturday. Sometime Saturday we would leave Costa Mesa and head down to San Bernardino to a "swap meet" on Sunday. We had known about the "swap meet" for years and had always wondered what it was like. Did they sell vintage and antique pieces or was it a place where you could find just plain old junk (like tires for a car, used lawn movers, tools, that sort of thing). We would spend the night in San Bernardino and get to the swap meet first thing early Sunday morning as it was gonna be really hot there.

We told Erin who was a seller a the peddlers sale about the "swap meet" and she thought that a swap meet was a place where they sell tee shits, sunglasses, that sort of thing. Erin told us that the Irvine Flea Market was taking place on Sunday as well. My mom and I were at the Irvine Flea Market back in May and we really enjoyed shopping it, lots of vintage treasures. My mom and I had a brief discussion and we decided to go to the flea market instead of going to the swap meet. The change in plans were in motion.

My mom cancelled the hotel reservations in San Bernardino and we were off to New Port Beach (New Port Beach is about 10 minutes from Irvine) to the Radisson Hotel to stay there Saturday night.

(These darling place mats with the ruffles were bought in Riverside, California)

As I parked my SUV in the parking lot of the Radisson, I see a familiar face looking inside the passenger window, it was my sweet friend and co worker Kristen and her husband John who both live in Henderson, Nevada about 2 miles from me. As my mom and I got out of the car, I looked at Kristen and we both laughed and asked each other "what are you doing here?" After we told each other why we were there and shared the change of plans that lead us there, the four of us went to the bar to talk and have some drinks as happy hour was about to begin.

We stayed at the bar for about three hours, talked and laughed, we had a fun time.

Kristen has her own website called Cashchatter.

It's a website loaded with all kinds of information to save you money, at the grocery store, hotel deals, rent a car, coupons to use, free stuff and don't we all like to get a good deal every once and a while? Make sure you check out her website when you get a chance.

Kristen's husband John has his own website as well, called viadots . It's a user friendly website and a great place to visit where you can buy domain names, it has web site hosting and tools to help build a website, make sure to visit his website.

We found such wonderful and adorable things at the Irvine Flea Market, met some great dealers and had a lovely time shopping, talking and spending lots of money.:))

We left Irvine and started our way back home, but we still had this curiosity, what do they sell at the San Bernardino swap meet? We had to find out for ourselves since San Bernardino is on our way home.

We arrived at the swap meet and we headed in. What did we see?, Yep all kinds of junk!!! Junk just thrown on blankets laying on the ground, tools, used dirty baby clothes, lawn mowers, TV's with antennas on them, sheets, towels, cheap drinking glasses, just junk, until I saw this

A rusty crusty vintage cast iron candle holder, love it!!

We stayed at the swap for about half and hour and headed home. We learned a few lessons on this trip.

Change in plans are sometimes the best made plans. Of all the hotels we could had stayed in, we run into my friends, Kristen and John. Kristen and John decided to go to New Port Beach on the spare of the moment as well and had just made their hotel reservations at the Radisson as they were driving to New Port Beach.

If you hear two words put together in the same sentence, "swap meet", don't go, learn from our lesson!!

I'll be back tomorrow for another segment of "Chippy Paint Fridays."

Flea Markets and a Peddlers Sale Part II

2009-08-05T16:20:00.000-07:00

This post is a continuation of yesterdays post. It's about a shopping journey that my mom and I make a few times a year to Southern California to shop at the flea markets and antique stores. We always come home with the back of the SUV loaded with the most adorable antique and vintage items.

Yesterday, I talked about our shopping adventure in Riverside California. If you ever get the chance to go there, I highly recommend it. It's a city packed with the most charming antique stores and thrift shops so much so, that we didn't get a chance to visit all of them.

After Riverside we headed to Costa Mesa for the peddlers sale. The sale starts on Saturday but the dealers set up their booths on Friday so we always make sure we are there on Friday to get first pick of all the treasures, the typewriter being one of them.

I have never owned a vintage type writer before but there was something about this one that said I had to have it. It's loaded with vintage charm and makes an awesome display piece.
After shopping the peddlers sale, we went to a few more antique stores,then to dinner, then to the hotel to get some much needed rest!!

We were up early Saturday morning to head on over to the peddlers sale. This is the first thing I bought, a vintage sugar dish, stamped on the bottom R/S Prussia absolutely daring! I think I'm gonna put it in the bathroom and fill it with cotton balls or maybe I'll add it to my china hutch, ooh the decisions.

Cute vintage cardboard box, love the decal on top.

My mom and I have been going to this peddlers sale for years and all the regular dealers who sell there know us, they call us as the "Vegas girls."

We even heard one vendor say, "there's the Vegas Girls, it's gonna be a good day in sales today", tooo funny!!

Yes, we are loyal shoppers and we always make sure we visit and buy from our favorite dealers such as the sweet Erin, check out her blog. She has impeccable taste and her booth is gorgeous!! Yep, we bought a few treasures from her to!.

I bought this hat on the trip as well and I might even wear it! Look at the ruffled brim of the hat, love the look!!

I usually display hats and lampshades on pretty candleabras as shown in previous posts.

The hat is a pink/peachy color with pretty flowers and trim

A few more pictures to show and a funny story to share with you tomorrow.

Make it a great day, Janice

~Flea Markets & a Peddlers Sale~

2009-08-04T16:50:00.000-07:00

My mom and I had a wonderful, shop til you drop trip in Southern California this past weekend going to flea markets and a peddlers sale. We go on this trip a couple times a year, just me and my mom, no boys/ men allowed, haha! Over the course of several years we have always taken the same route, hitting some antique stores along the way before we get to our destination.

This time was different. Thanks to this wonderful world of blogging we learned about a city that is on our path but never would have known about the treasures that were there. We stopped off in Riverside California. Our first store to visit was Old Glory General Store. To see some fabulous pictures of the store, check out Heather's blog, the pictures she took are amazing. The top picture on my blog, is the one I took, love the green ceiling and that wrought iron fence is just fab-lu-lous!! This shop is absolutely amazing loaded with the best of the best antique and vintage goodies. Here's what I bought, this is the picture taken in the store

and these are them in my home.

Tattered and torn, vintage lampshade frames. L O V E them!! I bought all 6 not leaving any to share with any one else, I can be selfish that way:))

So many decorating possibilities, what would you do with them?

Would you like to see a pink vintage window, the prettiest type writer you ever saw and a funky pink hat, plus many more pictures of some of the treasures we bought? Well, stay tuned and I'll share them all in the next couple of days, I promise.

It feels so good to be back, to connect and share with my loyal readers, I appreciate every single one of you!

~It's Chippy Paint Friday~

2009-07-31T05:00:00.000-07:00

This is the 6th segment of Chippy Paint Fridays !!

Make sure you visit Mary here. She's my sweet partner for these segments and she has a lovely blog with lots of pretty things to drool over!

Today I'm showing a faded chippy paint pink wooden pedestal, yep, that's right. I've had this pedestal for years and is so much fun to decorate with.

Can you see the pink chippy paint on the corner pieces? Beautiful patina!

Made of solid wood with deep decorative carvings in the wood.

As you can see there are cracks in the wood but does not interfere with it's stability.

The only pink paint that remains are on the top, bottom and corner pieces. The paint has naturally worn off the sides and is now the color of creamy beige, love the color. It blends in perfectly with our home decor.

Never stays in one place for very long, I move it it around from room to room. This pink pedestal is very heavy. I never pick it up to move, I push and shove it making grunting noises as I do it.:))

Today, me and my mom are going to California for three days. So excited!! We'll be hitting some flea markets and checking out some stores we have never been to before. I'll have my camera with me and I'll be snapping some pictures to share with all of you when we return.

I thank each and every one of you who has left me a comment, it truly means the world to me!! I sent an email to every person who left me a comment but something tells me that the email never went through. Can you please leave me a comment to let me know if you ever received an email from me as I need to try and find a solution to the problem if there is one.

Make it a great weekend, Janice

~A white pedestal~

2009-07-28T16:23:00.000-07:00

Pedestals are great to have on hand when decorating. I have several and incorporate them whenever I can in my decor. Pedestals come in all shapes, sizes, and color. From new to old, from plain to ornate, made out of wood, cement,or plaster they're out there and you can usually find them at flea markets, that's where I got mine.

This pedestal is a newer piece that I bought several years ago. I love the design of the piece but wasn't thrilled with the baby blue color it once had. Several coats of creamy paint, and it matched the cottage decor perfectly. On top of the pedestal sits a old milk can with vintage lace and is filled with white silk flowers. This pedestal sits between a wicker settee and a chippy paint hutch. I wanted something in between the two pieces as there was room. If I put the milk can on the floor by itself it would be too small and look out of place. By placing it on top of the pedestal it adds substance and the right amount of height.

Here's another look

The milk can I love it to pieces, with it's rusty crusty attitude! To add a little chicness, I draped a vintage lace piece around the front and tied it in the back.

Yep, love the look !!

Oh, and speaking of pedestals, I'll be showing another one for "Chippy Paint Fridays."

Make it a great day, Janice:))

A Sunday morning project

2009-07-26T11:11:00.000-07:00

I've been in a creative mood lately and decided to add some fu-fu-ness to this wrought iron candle holder/ plant stand. I just love the ruffled edges, don't you?

Here's what it looks like with some candles.

It looks fine as is but I wanted to add some deepness to where the candles would go. I looked around the craft/computer room and found some brown shredded grass, so I added it to each ruffled holder.

Kinda like creating a nest to where the candles will go.

So, I gathered three candles

I decided to add some chicness to each one. I found some lace, cut three pieces

wrapped the lace around the candles and secured the lace to the candle with a straight pin. I thought the candles would look even better with some bling, so I got out some of my vintage jewelry pieces.

Oh, which ones should I use, love them all!

a tough decison had to be made.

I selected three vintage clip on earrings and attached the earrings onto the lace. I picked this one,

and two of these.

This is what she looks like now.

A closer look. This is the top candle,

and these are the candles on each side.

A fast and easy way to dress up some candles.

Make it a great day, Janice:))

It's Chippy Paint Friday!!

2009-07-24T05:00:00.000-07:00

This is the fifth segment of Chippy Paint Fridays, my favorite post to do! As always if you would like to join along, please let me know, the more the merrier, right?

My sweet friend Mary at http://marysteacottage.blogspot.com/ has joined in for Chippy Paint Friday. Please check out her pretty blog. Thanks Mary!

I bought this china hutch exactly as it is shown, minus the china of course:))

The only glass that remains in on the door. The other glass pieces were missing, so chicken wire was added in it's place, clever don't ya think?

Ample show room for just some of the china I have collected throughout the years.

Love all the spots of chippy paint

A one of a kind piece that can't be duplicated.

Because beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Vintage floral china adds softness to the piece.

This chippy paint hutch, is one of my favorite pieces!

So, what do you have that's chippy paint?

~Vintage mirror makeover~

2009-07-20T05:00:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I did a post about a vintage mirror I had hidden away in the garage, the wood frame was gorgeous but I didn't like the picture that was in there (see yesterday's post). I removed the picture, grabbed the paint and paint brush and got busy. I gave this mirror some dignity that it well deserves.

Ready to see?

The mirror is much prettier now, don't ya think? The spots on the picture is just the reflection of the chandelier that hangs above.

I used some scrap booking paper that I already had to replace the previous picture.

Yep, I love the way it turned out, much more delicate looking.

Humm, Now where should I hang this? I'm off to find a place for the mirror.

Make it a great Monday, Janice :))

Sunday Project

2009-07-19T12:59:00.000-07:00

Ive had this vintage mirror for a while now, out in the garage. Thought it was time to bring it inside and do a little makeover ya know, make it little more prettier than it is now.

Gonna paint it, yep that's right!

Not really diggin the sheep grazing in the snow picture.

Gonna remove the picture and put something pretty in it's place, hummm what will it be?? A piece of fabric, vintage hankie, pretty paper, not sure yet.

I'll show the re-do tomrrow.

Have a peaceful Sunday, Janice

It's Chippy Paint Fridays!

2009-07-16T05:00:00.000-07:00

This is the fourth segment of Chippy Paint Fridays. If any of you would like to particpate, just leave me a comment or email me and I'll add your blog address to the next segment, sound fun?

A few years ago during the holiday season, my husband asked me the same questions he asks every year.

Husband: Janice, what do want for Christmas?
Me: nothing honey, I have everything I need.
Husband: well, that didn't help, what do really want for Christmas?
Me: I can't think of anything.
Husband: Janice, I need some ideas!

Hearing the frustration in his voice, I told him I would go out to look, to get him some ideas and I knew exactly where I would end up.

Yep, at my favorite antique store at the time (it has since closed).

I was only in the store for a few minutes when I saw this shelf. It's made from vintage ceiling tin that was put on a big chucky piece of wood. I needed something to hang on the wall above the couch in the family room, and knew this would be perfect.

And you all know by now how much I love the combo of chippy paint and rust.

After paying for the shelf, I went home and said in a very cheerful voice,

Honey, look what you got me for Christmas!

I just love this chippy paint vintage ceiling tin shelf my husband bought for me, haha.

On Christmas morning when I walked into the family room, I saw that my husband had put a big bow on it with the most meaningful heart felt card attached:))

Pumpkin Seed Quilt

2009-07-14T18:27:00.001-07:00

If any of you have been following my blog, you may remember the post I did on the yoyo throw my mom made for me last year for Christmas. Well, you see, my oldest sister Mary inherited my mom's sewing gene, sadly, it didn't carry over to me.

My sister has been making quilts for the past 20 years or so. She is a dye hard quilter and at any time, she has a couple quilts going at the same time. Her work is absolutely amazing and done with perfection just like my mom's quilts.

This is just one of the quilts she made for me, the pattern is called "Pumpkin Seeds." I love the whimsy design of the quilt and the colors she chose are all my favorites.

This quilt has gotten it's use over the years.

And still looks brand new because of the quality of fabric and craftsmanship.

Love the design!

My sister goes on a couple of quilting retreats a year to perfect her passion.

I've told my sister numerous times that she needs to do a blog about her quilting but the request has fallen on deaf ears for now. In the meantime, ever so often, I'll do a post on her quilts cause I'm so proud of her and I think she needs a little recognition for all that she has accomplished!

Happy Weekend:))

2009-07-11T10:24:00.000-07:00

This weekend is suppose to be the hottest weekend so far this summer with tempatures soaring to 107 degrees yep, that's too hot for me, so I'm staying inside where it's nice and cool. So, here's what my weekend is looking like so far. As I write this post, I'm sitting in the computer chair, wearing a pair of boxer shorts and a tee shirt and don't plan on changing any time soon!

I've been in the kitchen, cleaning, rearranging, going through every cabinet and drawer, condensing and throwing things out, useless stuff. In the kitchen there are 13 drawers and each drawer has something in them, that's about to change. I figure this project should take most of the afternoon to complete. Now I need a little something on one of the kitchen counters, humm, I'll have to look around the house and see if I can find something. Perhaps a pretty plater ? I don't like alot of things on my kitchen counters or island but there is a little counter that sits all by itself so it needs something pretty sitting on it.

When the kitchen is done, maybe I'll have time to relax on my settee pictured above.

Tomorrow, we will be going to California to pick up our oldest son who has been there for seven days, visiting with his best friend, playing baseball and having baseball training. Yesterday they went to Magic Mountain to enjoy all the roller coaster rides and they had a blast.

Gosh, I have sure missed him and can't wait until tomorrow to give him a great big hug (which will totally embarrass him, he's 13 years old, they get that way) and kiss.

Have a fabulous weekend cause you all deserve it!!

Smiles, Janice

It's Chippy Paint Friday!

2009-07-10T14:38:00.001-07:00

On this chippy paint Friday, I will be showing you one of my vintage, cast iron heating grates. Love these things!

Fabulous design on this one.

Layers of Rusty

Crusty

Chippy

Paint!

~Vintage Sheet Music~

2009-07-08T17:22:00.001-07:00

In the crafty and creative world, sheet music is all the craze right now and has been for some time now. So many beautiful projects have been made using sheet music so when I stumbled upon a pile of this stuff at a sale, I just had to buy some.

I didn't buy these to use on a craft project as I'm not that talented in the "art world", I bought them because I love the beautiful images on the covers. I can't even imagine taking a pair of scissors to these, can you?

Here's some more images for you

About four months ago when we had our yard sale, I grabbed this pile and was headed out the door to put them in the sale but as I started to look through them again, I just couldn't sell them, I wasn't ready to let go.

I don't think they make sheet music like this anymore.

So for now, until I can bear the thought of selling or giving away this pile of vintage sheet music, they will remain on a shelf making the closet look pretty!

Have a fabulous Wednesday, Janice

My Yesterday's post

2009-07-07T16:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I was gonna do a post about my vintage bedspread that we use during the hot summer months,

that was the plan anyways.

I was gonna show you the pretty design on it and tell you it's all done by hand.

I was going to show you these designs

But never got the chance.

Instead,

When I came home from work, my eleven year old son asked me what was for dinner, gee, I thought to myself, "I don't know." Since I didn't answer right away, he asked if it would be cereal again! Cereal, I was confused. Yes, every once in a great while we have breakfast for dinner, crispy bacon, scrambled eggs, waffles and biscuits (does anyone else do that)? But never cereal. So I asked my son what he was talking about. He said last week when I was on the computer for most of the night(he exaggerates a little) doing my blogging, I didn't make dinner so he made himself a bowl of cereal (that explains the clean kitchen).

I quickly remembered how I always wanted to be nominated for mother of the year and thought for sure if one of my boys wrote an essay on why their mother should be chosen and wrote in the essay how they have cereal for dinner on the evenings that their mom does her blogging, I knew for sure their essay would be disqualified and thrown in the trash.

Being the good mom that I am, not wanting to disappoint my kids, I made them dinner and we enjoyed a nice family evening together. Now, the vision of me winning the mother of year award gleams brighter then before.

So, your probably wondering what am I gonna make them for dinner this evening, since I'm blogging.

Leftovers!

Oh, I just know I'm gonna win that award!!

It's Chippy Paint Friday!

2009-07-03T13:50:00.001-07:00

What a beauty I have in store for you on this continuing segment of Chippy Paint Fridays.

I did a post on my garden gate back in 2008 but I will share it with you again in case you missed it. Years ago, my sister and I went to Boulder City, a historic town, a 20 minute drive from where we live. We went to our favorite quaint shop and I saw this. A vintage chippy paint wrought iron garden gate.

Without any hesitation I told the owner who just happens to be our friend that I was buying the gate, not even knowing the price for it. What I saw was how fabulous this piece was and knew where this would be going in our home. It hangs on the wall in our foyer.

It's rusty and crusty with chippy paint, my favorite combination.

It's sheer beauty demands your attention.

Simply elegant

It truly is the essence of everything that is shabby yet chic.

Thank-you for taking a little time out of your day to pay me a visit, it means the world to me!

From my family to yours, Have a Happy 4th of July, Janice

Cooperstown New York

2009-07-02T17:11:00.000-07:00

As the temperatures slowly rise here, I think about last summer when we went to Cooperstown New York to watch our son Michael play baseball at the Cooperstown Dream Park. We went twice last summer, in June and August. My oldest son Michael, who is 13 years old played for two teams, the Nevada Wildcats and his California team, the Long Beach Dirtbags.

Isn't he adorable. He is all business when he steps onto the baseball field

In case you were wondering, when we went in June, he played for the Nevada Wildcats and we won the championship game, yahoo!!! In August we went with the Dirtbags and didn't do so well but still had a great time.

I fell in the love with the little sleepy town of Cooperstown. This is a place where you can run in to a store and leave your car running in the parking lot without worries of it being stolen (so unheard of anymore). I loved all the old pretty houses that were probably centuries old nestled upon fields of lush greenery. When I saw this house, I said out loud, "This is where I was meant to live."

This truly is a faded cottage. This sweet house sits at a corner of a windy road with the most breath taking views all around. When we stopped to take pictures, the owner of the house came outside to see what we were doing. We asked her if it was ok to pictures of her house and she said go ahead. The owner said she has lived in the house for 60 years where she raised her family. She said her husband pased away a couple years ago and she now lives in the house all by herself (how sad is that). Here's some more outdoor views of her home.

Side view of the house

Not sure what this piece of farming equipment was/is used for but I thought it looked rather charming with the flowers perched on top.

another view

I want to be in this place, in this town where no air conditioning is needed and there isn't a palm tree or cactus in sight!

I want to drive on this road everyday and look at all the bales of hay and the only thing you see is green landscaping, no desert landscaping required . I want to see this quirky sign as I travel down the road.

Yep, as the temperatures rise to 100 to 110 degrees here, I'd much rather be in Cooperstown. I'll have to wait til next summer when when we go again to watch our youngest son play.

~Flower Bouquets~

2009-07-01T17:04:00.000-07:00

I just love flowers, the best are the muted colors in varying shades of pinks, creams, yellows and violets. I don't always have a fresh bouquet of flowers in my home but I always have these.

Yep, these bone china flowers are in all my china hutches and I like to display them in pretty coffee cups, creamers and vases as shown above. I gathered a small collection and displayed them in a pretty vignette just for you. :))

I found most of these at garage sales, estate sales flea markets and thrift shops and have never paid more than $10.00 for each one. Some of the makers of these pretty little bouquets are Adderly, English Bone China, Royal York-England, Annsley, Royale Strafford, just to name a few and they are all hand crafted and hand painted.

And you can never have enough flowers right?

Nope, I don't think you can!

Here's another look

Display the flowers on a pretty plateau mirror for a more dramatic effect.

Do you need a pretty center piece for the dinning room table, coffee table or night stand? Gather up all your bone china flower bouquets and make a pretty vignette, fast and easy to do. The end results will be just lovely.

Sprinkles Cupcakes

2009-06-29T18:12:00.000-07:00

The last time when me and my mom were in California, we spent the night in Newport Beach as we were going to the Irvine Flea Market the next day(Sunday). Of course we had to do some shopping, so we headed on over to the Corono Del Mar Plaza. As we drove around trying to find a parking space we noticed this sign.

I mean really, I've seen this place on talk shows and articles written about the company in magazines and here we were standing directly in front of this place. So of course we had to get a few cupcakes after we waited in line for about, oh half an hour on a Saturday night. We always heard there was a line but on a Saturday night? Finally we got in the store, and looked at all the cupcakes in the big display case. We knew we only had seconds to make up our mind on which ones we wanted as there was a crowd of people behind us, patiently waiting their turn! I decided on the Red Velvet and a Black & White cupcake, $3.25 a piece. The plan was that we would have these for dessert, sometime later that evening.

Then we saw this store

Yep, Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic Store. The store was still open during the time we were there (has since closed), everything was marked down and the store was practically emptied. I just had to get a picture.

We had dinner then headed back to the hotel. To get to our rooms, we had to walk pass the bar. Hummm.....a decision was made and we decided to have a few Margaritas before going to our rooms. I have since learned that alcohol makes a person take silly pictures and here's the proof

Way to full from dinner and a few drinks, the cupcakes travelled with us all the way back to Las Vegas.

The anticipation is building and I can't wait to try one,

Ok, I decided to try the Black Velvet Cupcake,

going,

going,

gone!

Very good, indeed.

Today was not a good day to start my diet, yea, maybe tomorrow:))

~Cottage Creamy, White Mirror~

2009-06-28T20:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I painted my 1920's mirror a cottage creamy white and couldn't be happier with how it looks now. It's just amazing what a few coats of paint can do. I absolutely love how it looks and I think it looks fabulous hanging above the bed.

Heres a closer look

Do you see the nail sticking out at the very top of the garland? Not sure why it's there but I don't dare remove it. I think I need to get my paint brush out again and put a dab of paint on it to conceal it.

The coloring of the pictures isn't that great. By the time we had a chance to hang it, it was already dark outside and had to turn the lights on in the room to take the pictures.

I want to thank everyone for all the nice comments you left me yesterday. I get so thrilled when I see a comment has been left, it really makes my day:))

Make it a great week and I'll be posting again real soon.

~Thick Garland of Roses Mirror~

2009-06-27T13:17:00.000-07:00

A few years ago, my mom and I went on one of our buying trips. We stopped off in Barstow and hit a few of the antique stores along the way. I found this drop dead gorgeous mirror, looked at the price and thought no way am I paying that much. After all, this was our first stop of a three day shopping extravaganza and I had to make my money last. The women who worked at the store saw me with a contemplating look and asked me if I was interested in the mirror. Of course I had to pick out all the flaws, like the missing gesso and after a few negotiating deals back and forth, the mirror became mine. So, as happy as I am to have the mirror, the mirror has leaned up against a wall in my bedroom. A few months ago I lugged the mirror from room to room(and it's very heavy and soild wood) trying to find a spot for it, nothing seemed to look just right so back to the bedroom it went. I lugged the mirror back out today and thought it would work perfect in my home if it was painted, yep that's right, painted a cottage creamy white.

This mirror dates back to the 1920's and is just gorgeous the way it is, don't ya think?

I mean, look at the thick garland of roses on top

Simply breath taking

Can you see the etching in the mirror?

So what would you do, paint it or leave as is, I think I'm gonna paint it and hang it up right after I read the current addition of Romantic Homes,

right out here

Have a fabulous Saturday.

Chippy Paint Fridays

2009-06-26T12:44:00.000-07:00

For the next 8 weeks, I will be hosting a segment called Chippy Paint Fridays. Every Friday, I will picture items in my home that have the natural, worn weathered chippy paint, peely paint for a perfect patina. I just love the look and have acquired a lot of items over the years that will fit perfectly in this segment. I invite you to join me and tell your fellow bloggers to join in as well. Sorry for the short notice but I'm a spur of the moment type of gal, I get an idea and I run with it:)). If you would like to participate, you can email me or write me a comment and I will include your blog name with picture(s) of your item and a brief description on my Chippy Paint Friday posts, sound fun? And lets be honest, don't we love looking at pictures of other people's houses?? I know I do and have been known to drool all over my keyboard when I see something absolutely fab-u lous.

Lets begin, shall we?

My husband bought me this vintage mirror two years ago and is one of my favorite pieces. I love the chippy paint though out the piece and the faded green corbels each side adds a dash of architectural flair. The mirror hangs on a old door that I have leaned on a wall in my foyer.

Crackled, peely paint

closeup

Vintage lace hangs on top of the door adding a bit of femininity to the look.

It's an old, ornate salvaged wood mirror, love the look!

Here is a sneak peek of what I will featuring next Friday.

More posts to follow though out the week.

Make it a great day, Janice

Back in Place

2009-06-21T13:08:00.000-07:00

Last night I wheeled the dresser back into our bedroom. I needed to decorate the top of it and wanted it to look different, I didn't want as much stuff on the top of the dresser. Before I began, I poured myself a glass of Merlot (I have BIG wine glasses, hehe), put the ipod in it's docking station, turned it on, then lit a few candles, the perfect setting for decorating, don't ya think?(and you thought I was talking about a romantic evening, come on people, stay focused:)) Ok, here's what it's looks like now.

another view

This is the view you get once you walk into the room.

I just love this vintage display case, velvet trim with glass sides. It currently holds some vintage jewerly.

A close-up

I just love this vintage display case, the doors on the bottom open for more storage space.

A few of my favorite things.

I just love this vintage little pink elephant.

These are my all time favorite rhinstone clocks.

I just love the way the dresser looks now. It took me an hour until it all came together. Lots of different looks were created, putting different things on, than taking them off, such as a cement dog, floral wreath and many other items before this look was created. Tomorrow, I'm changing the comforter on the bed, oh, one thing leads to another, hahaha.

All Done

2009-06-20T16:23:00.000-07:00

Heres a little reminder of what this vintage amoire looked like before, my make over project:

And this is what she loooks like now:

More pictures

I added larger appliques to all the drawers and the door, I like the way the amoire looks with the larger appliques then the smaller ones (a before picture below)

Close up of the appliques

This was written in the book that I used to line the drawers with, dated 1830, wow! This page was included in the lining of the drawers.

When I first started this ~make over~ project, I wanted to paint it a differnet color, ya know, I wanted to step out of my comfort zone. Well, I did paint it a different color and when I was all done, I changed my mind and repainted it my favorite color of cottage white. I started out painting it a robin's egg blue, it did not come close to matching anything in my house. Heres the only picture I have of the robins egg blue.

Don't get me wrong, I really like this color, I thought about repainting my bedroom just so this color could work in the room but I really don't like to paint that much, haha.

I have a few more minor details to take care, like touching up the paint in few areas then a light sanding than back to my bedroom where it once was. I really like the way this turned out, don't you?

My next project will be repainting my dining room chairs. I'll keep you posted.

Make it a great weekend, Janice

Almost Done

2009-06-14T12:41:00.000-07:00

My make over project is almost done, just a few minor details before her reveal. Yesterday, I took the door outside to give it a good sanding and look what appeared right before my eyes. I couldn't believe it! This vintage decal was underneath a few layers of paint and parts of it still remain. Looks like a teddy bear, love the eyelashes. She looks so cuddly and sweet.

I turned the sander off and took some pictures of her. And all this time I thought the appliques were orginal to this piece of furniture, boy was I wrong!

Since these photos were taken, all painting has been done and drawers have been lined, heres a little peek of the progress so far.
I lined all the drawers in french writing from a book . I Mod Podged all the pages together and then gave it a good coat of Mod Podge ontop to hold into place.

Trying to center the applique, yes, this is what a real applique looks like. I still need to apply the appliques to all the drawers and put knobs on them. I went to Lowes last night and they were all out of the crystal knobs (darn). I might have to buy some wooden ones until the crystal knobs come in. Hopefully by tomorrow I can show you the completed project.

Make it a great day, Janice:))

~My Day Off~

2009-06-12T19:58:00.000-07:00

Yep, I love having a three day weekend, but then who won't right? I said yesterday in my post that I would show more pictures of the project that I have been working so I'll show the latest work done on it.

Here's how my day off went. My mom came over this morning as I needed an opinion on the color I choose to paint the cabinet as I was feeling a little uneasy about the color choice. I didn't want to paint it white, I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and do a different color.

After my mom came over, I showed her the half finished project and she loved the paint color and said to leave it that way. I showed her the door that was attached to the cabinet and she examined the damage to it. My mom gave me her suggestions (she's so smart that way) for a quick fix to the damage and off we went to Lowes to get some spackle. We bought a tube of Dry Dex Spackling, it's the neatest stuff. It goes on pink and when it dries, it turns white, super easy to apply, we used our index finger tip! Here's a picture of how it looks now,

It still needs to be sanded, primed then painted, too much fun. Ok, before we went to Lowes, we had to go to Home Goods, love that place, We walked around and headed to the clearance items. Here's what went in the shopping basket for me, it smells wonderful!

Tangerine vanilla body wash, yep this big ole bottle for $4.00. I love the design on the label, don't you?

Here's another look,

More shopping was done then off to lunch, yep the perfect way to spend a day off.

More pictures to follow in a few days of my "re-do" project.

Have a fabulous weekend, Janice

2009-06-11T17:30:00.000-07:00

Top of the dresser, no I didn't do any sanding to the top at this point, this is how it looked when I bought it. You can see in the picture where the little door was repaired, not a very good job, the pieces of wood were just stapled in place

Love the steel wheels, makes it so nice to move around

This is how it looks with the door off

I love my electric sander!!:))

sanding off the broken appliques
Since this picture was taken all drawer knobs taken off, all appliques have been sanded off, primed and painted the drawers, primed the cabinet. I still have a lot to do but I thought I would share with you what has been done so far. I'm off tomorrow, so I should be able to finish with the painting and start lining the drawers. I'll add more pictures on Friday. Thanks for being patient with me, Janice

~A new project~

2009-05-30T19:21:00.001-07:00

I bought this dresser a few years ago with the best intentions of turning it into something fabulous. It truly is a lovely piece with great potential, don'tyathink? It's painted on old aqua color with lots of chippy paint, it has five drawers all with appliques on them, some of the appliques have broken off pieces and the door on the right has been damaged but other than that, it's a solid piece of furniture. So, I wondered for the longest time about repairing or replacing the appliques. Sooo, today I took one of the drawers out into the garage, got the sander out and sanded away at the applique (you can see my work on the fourth drawer). It took about 20 minutes of sanding with course sand paper and the applique is completely gone, yahoo!

Then I thought this would be a good a project to show before and after pictures, so I took the drawer back inside and snapped some pictures before I started to sand again. Here's some pictures for your viewing pleasure :))

Kind of a side view, you can see the chippy paint.

Close up of the work in progress, applique is completely gone!, four more to go.
Missing drawer knobs which can be easily replaced, how about some glass knobs??

Kinda threw this picture in for fun, it sits on top of the dresser.

Ok, I need some opinions from all you creative people. I haven't decided what color to paint this darling dresser, creamy white, robin's egg blue, aqua color, some other color??

I was thinking about lining the drawers with some french pages and maybe doing a little antiquing to them ,then applying a thin coat of mod podge to hold the the pages in place.

Don't be shy about leaving a comment, I'm off to do some sanding:))

Make it a great week!

2009-05-17T17:52:00.000-07:00

My favorite pink hat

Remember this vintage hat I found at the Irvine Flea Market. I found the perfect spot for it for now. It's one of those things that will be moved around from time to time as the colors work perfectly in my home.

Make it a great week everyone and I'll be posting real soon:))

Flea Market Fun Continues

2009-05-16T14:23:00.001-07:00

close up of the sweet vanity

Breathtaking, every rhinestone is intact

Vintage prom dress which now hangs in my bedroom

another random picture

not the best picture but this wooden bed frame was unbelievable, just fabulous.

chippy paint cabinet

we bought some stuff from this seller

Yes, this pink hat went home with me

oh so pretty perfume bottles

I wanted those cranberry candles holders

Gorgeous old blue hutch

just snapping a picture

Loved everything in this spot and so did everyone else.
do you see the aqua bottles with the ornate tops?

a booth jammed pack with enamelware. Some of it went home with us.

some great old green posts

I had to get 2 pictures of this idea

cute idea for for selling, packing, storing jewelry

precise cargo packed and

ready to head home

Flea Market Fun

2009-05-14T20:05:00.001-07:00

What a fabulous time me and my mom had during our weekend trip to California. We have a favorite place we go to every year, it's a peddlers market. The sale takes place on Saturday. Most of the vender's start setting up on Friday and we make sure we are there on that day. We shop on Friday as the vendors are setting up, they are happy to sell there items early and we are happy to buy from them, we get the best picked items! The peddlers market is one day only on Saturday and me and my mom are always there early. We always have such a fun time and we meet the most fabulous people along the way. See the red and white potting bench in the picture above, yep it's mine now. The moment I saw, I knew I had to have it. I bought it from the most adorable person, Erin, all her items were beautifully displayed and look at her custom made canopy cover! Erin handed me her business card and I noticed on the card her blog address. We started chatting and we realized that we follow a lot of the same blogs. Erin is super sweet and you can find her blog here.

A picture of me and Erin, Erin is on the left and that's me on the right of the picture

close up of the potting bench, chippy red and white paint

On Sunday we went to the Irvine Valley College Flea Market. It was our first time there. To our surprise it's not a super huge flea market, you can actually see everything in one day, lol. We had lots of fun leaving our money there. Here are some random shoots I took as we strolled around.

Look at all the ruffles!!

beautiful aqua vintage dress

Cute vintage vanity

Make sure you stop by tomorrow as there is so much more to share, Janice

Yard Sale Success

2009-04-21T19:36:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a great weekend, the yard sale was a huge success. Yep we sold tons of items and now I am able to park my SUV in the garage with plenty of room left over!

Our sale started 8:00 Saturday morning. I was up by 5:00 am to enjoy a couple cups of good strong coffee, ya I would need my energy for the day. By 6:00 am my mom arrived and away we go getting everything set up. 7:30am my husband got all the signs in position and by 7:45, the cars are lined up in my cul-de-sac and the buying frenzy began.

Our adorable friends showed up and bought some of our best stuff. So glad they got it, I know it went to a great home. Friendships were made along the way and we thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of the 2 day sale. I can tell you this though, it will be a very long time before I do this again.! The amount of work that goes into a garage sale, who knew?

Here are some of the highlights of the sale.

2 brand new folding lawn chairs each marked $2.00 a piece. A guy walks up to me with $2.00 in his hands and says he'll buy both of the chairs for $2.00. I explained to him that they are brand new, never sat in and the price is $2.00 for each one. He gave me that stare wondering if I would take his deal and I gave him my stare letting him know I was firm on the price. He walked away with both chairs and I put $4.00 in my pocket, thankyouvery much.

I had 2 signed oil paintings with gorgeous ornate frames that I was selling. I bought them from a art show, many years ago and paid way to much for them. I had a $50.00 price tag for each one, extremely fair price. I older gentleman looks at the paintings and yells out in disbelief $50.00. I asked him, did you see the signature on each one, did you feel the brush storkes on the canvass, did you notice the ornate frames and I said you can't even buy the frames for $50.00. There was no way I was backing down on the price and I can tell you, I'm still the owner of the pictures, hahaha.

A hair dresser came over Sunday morning, She said one her clients was at our sale on Saturday and told her about all the adorable stuff we were selling. The hair dresser was at our sale bright and early Sunday morning and bought a ton of stuff. My husband even delivered the shabby chic rocking chair she bought from us, there was no way it was gonna fit in her compact car. We heard from several other buyers that their friends told them about our sale and that is how they ended up at our house. Word of mouth is the best advertisement. We were tickled pink that people were talking about our garage sale.

I've had very few garage sales so I didn't really know how much business we would have on Sunday. Let's just say, there are lots of people who garage sale on Sundays. The cul-de-sac was jammed with cars, parked every which way just to park their cars, too funny. Yep, business was also good on Sunday.

By late afternoon Sunday, whatever didn't sell we packed it all up and off it went to the Goodwill trailer that is parked in a shopping center close to our home. The men who work at the trailer unload everything for you, thank goodness cause at this time I was completely exhausted.

Of course no pictures to show you of the sale, yep, I'm bad but please forgive me:))

Have a fabulous week (I'll be posting soon), Janice

Yard Sale

2009-04-17T14:18:00.000-07:00

Since my last post, I decided to change the days of our garage sale to Saturday and Sunday. You see, I thought I would spend Friday getting ready for the sale, ya know pricing items, deciding what I would sell and what items I would keep, etc. Yep that was plan alright! So what have I done in preparation for the sale? Very little. Sure, I've gone through some cabinets and drawers in the house, pulled some things out and made too many piles in the formal dining room of items that will be for sale. We had a garage sale in December and a lot of the items are already marked, many aren't. I work better under extreme pressure, so I'll get everything done tomorrow morning, 2 hours before the sale starts. So what did I do today? Meet my mom at an estate sale, we bought very little, just couldn't afford the outrageous prices.

Then we went to our shabby chic guy's house and spent some money! We bought some really cool stuff for unbelievable prices. I promise to share pictures in a couple of days.

Here is our agenda of things we will do in California, the first weekend in May. First stop is this place.

While we are there maybe we will be able to meet this blogger and seller at Country Roads Antiques and seller at the Irvine Flea Market, first Sunday in May. Ya, we'll be there, to excited. Let's just hope there's room left in Suburban by Sunday. The back of the Suburban gets re-arranged many times to have more space for stuff!! A couple years ago we were at a flea market and we went nuts buying stuff, unloading our flea market carts and going back for more. We had to take everything out cause we needed more space. We did this about 4 times. We were barley able to fit everything in and I mean barely. We always run out of space before running out of money. I think a u-haul truck would be suitable for our buying frenzy, hahaha

While in California, we'll head over to Coronado and visit this place. Maybe we'll be able to meet her. I've followed her back in the days when she was selling on ebay and was even lucky enough to buy some of her items.

Our buying trips consists of traveling to one place to another. Trying to hit all the shops in such a short time. Loads of fun and laughter.

Well, it's off to the store and get some poster boards for signs for the sale tomorrow. Maybe I can make a sign like this

Have a fabulous weekend, Janice

We're having a garage sale

2009-04-13T17:30:00.000-07:00

This Friday and Saturday, April 17th & 18th me and my mom having the second part of our yard sale. We had our first one in December and now we're having another one, to try and sell the rest of the stuff. My mom comes over the night before the sale and helps out with all the prep work which can be a little exhausing, but boy I tell ya, I couldn't do it without her. She is super organized and loves to help out. She brings things over that she wants to sell and helps me get all my junk, I mean treasures priced and organized, we have a lot of fun doing it all.

You see, here's my strategy. Me and my mom are going to California Friday, May 1 and staying until Sunday, May 3rd. We usually do this once a year to have a mom and daughter trip. We'll be shopping the whole time and spending like crazy. On Friday, the Suburban will probably be packed full of goodies from our favorite antique stores. Our first stop is always the City of Orange, a beautiful quaint little city loaded with the most adorable antique shops. One of our favorites is Old Country Roads, lets just say it loaded with eye candy, my heart always starts to race upon entering the store! Can you tell how excited I am about this trip, I just keep rambling on and on.

Ok, back to my strategy. My garage is loaded, no room to put anything, not even a car and we have a 3 car garage! We have a little walk way in the garage and that's it, kinda like a fire escape route. So, when I bring home all my treasures from California, there's no room to put them (not that I intentionally buy stuff just to sit in the garage although my husband would have a different opinion about that). So we need to clear away the stuff already in the garage to have a place for all the new/old stuff, make sense?

I would take a picture of my garage so that you could truly appreciate what I mean about having stuff but it wouldn't really be a blog worthy picture. Maybe after we get it all set up, I can snap a picture and add it it my blog.

If your in the area this weekend, stop on over, we would love to see ya. Wish us luck, I really need to sell alot of stuff!

I'll be adding another post about all of this, this week and adding some wonderful links, so stay tuned, Janice

Estate Sale Shopping

2009-04-05T08:37:00.000-07:00

Hubby and I headed out Saturday morning to an estate sale that was about 10 minutes away. It felt good to get out, it's been quite a while since we went to an estate or a rummage sale. The following pictures are things that I found.

I always go outside to find stuff at estate sales and I seem to be the only one who does that. Lucky for me cause I get first pick. Isn't this cement dog just the cutest with the sweetest face? She is all chippy and battered but still intack.

Here's what she looked like when I found her.

I think she looks much better wearing her vintage hat, don't you? Now all she needs is a rhinestone necklace or a strand of pearls.

Another picture of our finds.

Vintage pictures with the prettest ornate fames. The frames have a few spots of missing gesso. I was thinking about painting them white to conceal the blemishes,What do you think?

Clusters of flowers on the frames, gorgeous! I paid $10.00 for both frames, what a deal!!

These pictures were $1.00 a piece. Who could pass up a deal like that. One of them has a water mark but that didn't stop me. Love the scalloped frames.

Notice the watermark?

A vintage hurricane candle holder with etched glass.

Another set of pictures.

This gorgeous vintage pitcher went home with me. I squelled silently when I saw it.

I'm heading over to Trader Joes to get some fresh flowers to put in it.

The pitcher has beautiful grazing and the colors are my all time favorites.

The lady who puts on these estate sales is having an estate sale every weekend this month. She said next weekend is another sale full of antiques and I'll be there early waiting at the front door to get first pick. Oh, how I can't wait!! I'll be sharing pictures of what I find at the next sales.

Have a relaxing Sunday, Janice:))

The Faded Cottage

So where have I been?

Vintage Lampshade Frame re-do

Boot Camp

Pretty Vintage Glasses

Not Just Antiques Mart

~*A Horse Feedsack*~

Fall is in the house

Community Sales in the Fall

What Hangs above the door?

Some little white pumpkins

Boulder City, Nevada

Vintage Cream Puff

Lets chit chat, shall we?

Our Trip to Cary, North Carolina

I have a new look

My Mini HP & Cary, North Carolina

Mail Delivery

It's Chippy Paint Fridays, The final episode

You got the time?

It's Chippy Paint Fridays!!

Lemon Blueberry Bread

It's Chippy Paint Fridays

~*Ikea & Craigs List*~

It's Chippy Paint Fridays!

Just my rambling thoughts

It's Chippy Paint Fridays!

Flea Markets & a Peddlers Sale, the finial episode

Flea Markets and a Peddlers Sale Part II

~*Flea Markets & a Peddlers Sale*~

~*It's Chippy Paint Friday*~

~*A white pedestal*~

A Sunday morning project

It's Chippy Paint Friday!!

~*Vintage mirror makeover*~

Sunday Project

It's Chippy Paint Fridays!

Pumpkin Seed Quilt

Happy Weekend:))

It's Chippy Paint Friday!

~*Vintage Sheet Music*~

My Yesterday's post

It's Chippy Paint Friday!

Cooperstown New York

~*Flower Bouquets*~

Sprinkles Cupcakes

*~Cottage Creamy, White Mirror~*

*~Thick Garland of Roses Mirror~*

Chippy Paint Fridays

Back in Place

All Done

Almost Done

*~My Day Off~*

*~A new project~*

Make it a great week!

Flea Market Fun Continues

Flea Market Fun

Yard Sale Success

Yard Sale

We're having a garage sale

Estate Sale Shopping

~A Horse Feedsack~

~Ikea & Craigs List~

~Flea Markets & a Peddlers Sale~

~It's Chippy Paint Friday~

~A white pedestal~

~Vintage mirror makeover~

~Vintage Sheet Music~

~Flower Bouquets~

~Cottage Creamy, White Mirror~

~Thick Garland of Roses Mirror~

~My Day Off~

~A new project~