Weekend Beauty and Some Rain

My sister Laurie's zinnia's that my mother and sister Cyndi planted for her in May. Laurie's husband Mike, brought her the seed packets from Japan. I love and adore zinnia's!

Zinnia's from my sister's home in Alaska

            Happy Sunday to you! Dwain and I are enjoying a relaxing day. We had major thunderstorms last night and discovered to our horror that our front living room window was leaking. We also discovered underneath the molding of the window frame, that the wall/drywall was soft and a bit mushy. We set out to dry it and this morning, seemed to be drying out pretty well. I'm sure at some point we will have to repair it and purchase a new window. Not gonna be cheap since our front window is about ten feet wide. Boo!

Where's the butter? Yum!

 Too cheer us up and to stop thinking about the leak, I got in my kitchen and started cooking up Dwain's favorite meal. Oven baked chicken, pork n beans and good ol' corn on the cob. Nothing like biting into a corn cob that is slathered in butter and lightly seasoned with salt. Something about corn makes me happy. I don't know if it's the long dark green leaves or the silky tassels but when I get a whiff of corn fresh off the farm, I want to skip and prance around like a little girl! I even like cleaning corn although nowadays, I use the microwave to loosen the leaves and silk. Works great!

Fleur- de- lis decor for a blank wall over my staircase

 I forgot to include this giant fleur-de-lis wall decor that I purchased at St. Joseph's when Piper and I went shopping last weekend. It is 30' tall and will find it's home on a wall that is over our staircase that leads to our laundry room. The only "work" I'm going to do to it, is apply guilder's paste in King Gold around the draped part in the middle. I feel it needs to have some 'pop' there. 

So my sister Cyndi, who lives in Texas, has been on a decorating binge. She is taking cues from Libby Langdon and has been acquiring pieces of furniture, trays and decor. She transforms them and has truly given her pieces a new lease on life. Above, she had sent me the photo of the end table which most of you I know can imagine the dark hideous wood that it was in it's former life. Cyndi decided to paint it a creamy white and highlighted the wooden inserts in gold paint. I think it looks rich and luxurious. Her sofa table was purchased from Varagesale for a few dollars. Well, due to her present love of trays, be they metal, wood or sterling silver, she now has ME addicted to finding trays to make over. They make the perfect vehicle for creating a lovely vignette.

Last month, Dwain and I stopped in a little town called Shevlin and we noticed a large yard sale was going on in front of a large warehouse. I immediately found this wooden tray. I liked that it was heavily carved but the wood was just too dark for me. The tile was perfect so I wasn't about to do anything to that. I didn't want to paint it white since I am currently loving an Old World decor style. I still have a shabby/cottage guest room and my kitchen is a kitschy vintage/cottage-y style but for the rest of my house, I totally removed everything shabby chic looking and really leaned towards dark rich and comforting colors.

I ended up using Rustoleum Metallic spray paint for the tray. I taped up the tiles in painters tape and happily sprayed away! I think it came out looking pretty nice.

While we were there, Dwain noticed a small wire trailer that was chock full of library books that had been discarded from the Shevlin Library. Wow! There had to have been over 150 books. They had a sign that said you could have the whole lot of books for $50.00. There were some great books with beautiful dust jackets and then I saw them.....vintage school primers. I bought six of them. The art inside of those books are just adorable. I love storybook art and I just couldn't pass them up. I have quite a collection of vintage school primers. I haven't photographed them but I will do that tomorrow and post them on Tuesday. I'll be sure to include photos from the inside of the book. 

I hope your weekend is ending on a pleasant note and that you are enjoying a restful evening with loved ones!

Be a thrifty treasure hunter and save the landfills.