Gold, Gold, Gold!

Hope you are having a wonderful weekend! Yesterday, Dwain and I drove across the Sorlie Bridge and went to the St. Joseph's thrift store in Grand Forks. I was looking for a utensil holder. I previously had a nice plastic one that was tall enough to fit my spatulas, my favorite big knife, slotted spoons, tall wooden spoons, potato masher etc..

I've had the stainless steel kind but I never liked it. My kitchen is decorated in vintage shabby style so I wanted something other than one of those types of utensil holders. St. Joseph's has one of the largest kitchen sections I've ever seen in a thrift shop so I knew that I would find something to our liking.

 I always take peek in the spoon and fork section because I always find the cutest little spoons. I use them for various things and I recently visited one of the blogs that I follow and she used hers for little salt bowls so she can just grab a small spoonful of salt while she's cooking. I do that as well so when I saw these cute gold spoons, I had to have them. They cleaned up nicely and look great.

 My love for fake gold (I like to call it "ghetto gold") jewelry, knows no bounds. I grab the beautiful pieces they have, be it bracelets, necklaces or earrings. I never leave empty handed from a thrift store without some piece of lovely jewelry. I found these beautiful leaf motif clip-on earrings. Did you see the price? I grabbed them off the rack because another lady was admiring them. I've already worn them today! Dwain and I took our new dog Ella, to the vet this morning to have her stitches (she was spayed) removed and mommy had to look nice!

 When I saw this beautiful gold heart locket, I knew that I had to have it. I can't wait to put a picture of Dwain and Ella in there! You can't beat that price!

 I have many pendants, hearts, diamond, turquoise with crystals but never enough gold chains to hang them from. I saw this lovely piece and fell in love with the clasp. I used to design jewelry many years ago and I still have gold and sterling silver split rings and bails for when I find a piece of jewelry that needs a bit of repair. I cannot wait to put one of my diamond pendants on this necklace.

 More gold? Yes indeed! This is what I am now using as my utensil holder. When Dwain and I saw it, we immediately said in unison, "My family used to have that very same gold pitcher!" It is very heavy glass with bubble orbs all around it. I'm not sure who the maker is but I know that you too, have probably seen these in your lifetime! We paid $5.00 for it and I love it!

Both Dwain and I admired the public life of Diana, Princess of Wales and when Dwain was stationed in the Air Force near Sandringham House, he was able to see the Royals during their Christmas visit to the estate. Since the anniversary of her death occurred five days ago, I thought it would be sweet to have this bracelet with the nickname the press gave her, "Shy Di." When I first saw it though, my first instinct was to snip off the 'i' with the little rhinestone  and leave the 'D' since it is my initial but no, I couldn't do it in the end. It's perfect they way it is.

Well, that was my shopping haul for this weekend! Hopefully I can make a good shopping visit sometime next week. I am wanting to find some vintage embroidered pillow cases for my guest room. Wish me luck!

The Children In Books, The Children In My Home

 Last week, I posted that I had bought some school primer books at a yard sale in a picturesque little town called Shevlin. I don't know why but I truly adore these books! I read them from cover to cover. It must be the art work inside. Innocent children playing, speaking cordially to one another, girls baking with their mothers. I am lucky that I got to partake in these timeless moments in my childhood. I actually studied the book, More Than Words, in elementary so I vividly remember the book and the stories inside. The other four books were way before my time but the art inside is incredibly beautiful. Children are rampant with manners, not such a lost art but harder to come by these days.

This past weekend, I again took care of Piper and her two brothers. It was a bit hectic since Dwain and I just adopted Ella, our new dog. Ella was in pain and recovering from her spaying procedure. We tried really hard to make a stressful situation for her be as calm as possible. We had picked Ella up on Saturday and due to an emergency, the kids had to stay the weekend with us. The kids and I colored, sang songs and we ate meals together at the table. We talked about everything that popped into their cute little heads. They are all adorable and I love when they use their imaginations. We love to color but I can't draw worth a flip! Piper used my decorative edged craft scissors and made a some beautiful snowflakes and hearts for my refrigerator. 

I decided to draw a beach scene for Dwain. It's still summer and even though I am ready for fall to come, I drew a sail boat drifting along the sea shore. Ahh, the lazy days of summer are almost coming to a close. I'll take them all with a side of kids, a dog and a box crayolas. Heaven.

Wedding Veils

 The Kennedy Brides

When I was a teenager, I found a lovely maroon leather journal with empty pages at a thrift store that my mother took us kids to. I think I paid about .50¢ for it and I already had plans for what I was going to put inside. Brides. My hometown newspaper had a lovely bridal section where the brides photos were place in a row (just like the Kennedy ladies above) with their newly married last name; Mrs. John Doe, Mrs. Thomas Jones...etc. It was my favorite past-time to cut out the large squares of beautiful bride portraits and paste them in my journal. 

Brides from the seventies and early eighties had such lovely gowns and most of all, the most astounding wedding veils. I was obessesed with wedding veils. Long, short, waist length, it didn't matter what the length it was as long as the top was extraordinarily beautiful. Three years of devoted clipping, I wound up with a full journal of brides from Lubbock. Some of the brides were my high school friends or my friends from my neighborhood. There was nothing more beautiful than seeing a pretty young bride with a voluminousness veil of white, delicately studded with pearls, sequin and flower appliqués dangling as if catching a bit of air to make them mobile. I'd like to think that I started my first homemade Pinterest board! 

By the time I got married in 1994, I had stopped clipping photos thirteen years before. I still loved looking at my bride journal and from time to time would hear that some of the lovely brides were divorcing. Sad, but that's life. 

When my husband and I moved from Lubbock to San Antonio in 2003, I tossed it away. I can't explain why I did that. I think I was in a cleaning beast mode. I regret it of course but I can recall the memories I have of those clippings. 

One day, about ten months ago, I was thrift store shopping at Gramma's Attic and it was getting close to Halloween day and I wanted to see if I could find some costumes with angel wings. I needed as many pairs of fairy and angel wings that I could find for my photography business. I was lucky and struck gold when I found four different wings. Two butterfly-like ones and two angel wings. As I entered another aisle, a Hefty ziplock bag caught my attention. I opened it up because I could see there was some delicate looking tulle in there. It was a wedding veil. I bought it and the wings and now the veil sits in my guest room. It has an abundance of pearls and little dangling flower buds. White satin rosettes form a little tiara-like effect and the body of the veil is interspersed with beautiful little cabochon pearls. I wonder to whom that veil once belonged to. I'll never know but I'm sure that she once had a beautiful portrait taken of her in her wedding finery and that her veil was her crowning touch. Every once in a while, I try it on and think about her and what she thought when she first put in on for her wedding day. It's in good hands. I like being its guardian.

My thrift store wedding veil find

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.

Thrift Store Shopping With A Purpose

Last week when Dwain and I had our friends children stay with us, Piper and I went thrifting and she found some lovely outfits and my favorite item was a little plastic glitter rainbow purse. It had a nice long chain on it and Piper adored it. 

I found some great items that met my list of requirements for the week. 

1. ✔ I have always wanted a grand cake stand but I could never afford the prices at the antique malls. It had to be vintage and heavy. I could only ever find the stands without the top. When Piper and I went to St. Joseph's Thrift Store (my favorite place, by the way) I found my cake stand. It was sitting on a table and it was amazingly beautiful. The topper is extremely heavy and you definitely need both hands to pick it up. The top weighs five pounds. I know this information because I weighed it on my cute Counselor family scale! The cake stand and lid price on the tag said $35.00, then 15.00 and then unbeknownst me, when I carefully took it to the register, I was informed that the store was having a half-priced sale! Whoa! I finally got it for $7.50! I dusted off my shoulder in pride, truly proud that I had not only found a perfect crystal cake stand but got it for less than ten dollars!

2. ✔ Counselor scale. I had the very same scale right before I moved here but I arrived with some missing boxes. Unfortunately, the scale was inside the missing box. I actually found the exact same scale at Gramma's Attic and since that particular thrift store has their items at a very fair price (I'm talking inexpensive, really!) I snagged it for $6.00. You can even negotiate the price and they always agree to what you are willing to pay. Now that's my kind of thrift store! Isn't the scale just adorable? The bunny and rocking horse decal are in great condition! I put my handmade Laura Ingalls doll on top of it. She's cute too! I found her about twenty years ago at a rummage sale.

3. ✔ Sidedoor window curtain. Yes, I have one of those front doors that has that retched side window attached to it. I can't stand it but unless Dwain and I plunk down $1235.99 for a brand new door and sidedoor window, I'll have to do with painting it over (the whole door and molding)and making it look new but being thrifty at the same time. I'm embarrassed to say this but I had a pink flat sheet covering the sidedoor window. Well

 lucky me, St.Joseph's had a lovely dark oyster colored panel for that long but short width window. It was brand new and still in it's original plastic zippered bag from T.J. Maxx! I got it for $2.50/$1.50!

4. ✔ Valances. I was very lucky to find two sets of much needed valances for my home. Our front living room window is quite large and we have cloth vertical blinds hanging but the window needed a touch of something other than the rack where the blinds hang. I found five pieces white muslin with tabs for $4.00/$2.00 and I think they are adorable! The next valance I found is a single piece and it is quite long. It is floral with pleated fold that shows a sections of homespun inside. I can tell that this valance was custom made by an upholstery seamstress. The fabric reminds me of Brunschwig and Fils.  Yeah, I still like that type of decor, just not a lot of it! It was $2.00/$1.00 I am going to put that piece in my dining room window or maybe even in my kitchen. Stay tuned...

5. ✔ Something cute. I always look for something that tickles me pink after I have checked off my list of wants and needs. I love looking in their spinning rack for high end perfumes and cosmetics. This time I found a sandwich baggie with some silver metal letters. It was $2.00/$1.00!

I grabbed them, put them in my cart and when I got home, I filmed a short video on Viber for my sisters, Laurie and Cyndi to show them my bounty. I didn't even notice that the baggie had writing on it. When I dumped out the letters, I saw: a, g, m, e, I and a small i. Hmmm...oh! It spells Imagine! Wow! How cool is that? Then I tell my sisters on the video, "Hey girls, guess what? The letters spell I.m.a.g.i.n.e!" My sister Cyndi had no qualms in telling me, "Hey dingbat, the bag you just took the letters out from, says that the letters spell out I.m.a.g.i.n.e." she said, cackling. 

I had to laugh.

The collage below shows some beautiful papier mâché clowns that my best friend Shannon gifted me with last weekend. I was so incredibly touched by her kindness and maybe it was her way of thanking me for taking care of her children. She didn't need to thank me because it was definitely a good change of pace for Dwain and I. I would do it again a hundred times over. 

The precious clowns are vintage and have a stamp that says MEX so I'm assuming that they were possibly made in Mexico. Ay carambia! They are truly colorful and fun. They are also very fragile and I will be their guardian until I bequeath them to my niece Mikaela. I hope she likes clowns. I don't like real clowns, never have but something like this is much different. What a treasure of a friend I have for thinking of me. I truly love that woman!

I am almost finished with my green shelf (now a pale grey) that I bought two weeks ago. I just have to run to Hobby Lobby to find the perfect drawer knob. Hobby Lobby has the penultimate selection of beautiful decorative knobs. That is the only place I purchase knobs from. Go take a looksie. You will be astonished with the choices you have!

Until next time! Be a thrifty treasure hunter and save the landfills.