Hog Wild at the Thrift Store

I just want to let you know that I don't normally go this hog wild at the thrift store. Normally I'll go and get one or two items, that's all. But the other day I went and lost control. Of course my good friend at this place is having a Vintage Open Aire Market in October and I'm going to have a booth. I don't normally do this kind of thing. Life is usually just way too busy for me. But the demands on my time this year have decreased considerably. I'm only homeschooling one class for Tina, that's English and our district is not allowing any over time at all. That's fine. So I'm only working my 3 1/2 afternoon hours this year. Lots of time to complete projects and do a few for the booth. A couple of my friends are going to have stuff also, so we'll be sharing a booth. Does anyone find that going certain days of the week to the thrift store yield better finds? I know that if I go on Tuesday to my favorite place then I'm certain to find more and better stuff. Well here it is; my thrift store loot:

Here's everything minus the skirt that Tina found.
Tina really likes blue and white, especially dishes. So this won't be going to the booth.

I loved the frame and can't wait to paint it white, but the picture has to go. Actually in this photo it looks pretty good, but it's not. Trust me.
I have plans for this little baby. Wait and see.
I hear Wal-Mart calling my name in the spray paint aisle.
These little lovelies are gifts for a friend who's birthday is coming up soon. She collects petal which is the name of these dishes. She's actually quite an authority in vintage dishware and whenever I find anything she's always helpful to identify it.

This cabinet needs a little help from the carpenter and then it will be all set. I was also hoping that he could duplicate it for me. ;-)
All in all I spent $35 dollars. I didn't think that was too bad. The most expensive piece was the cabinet at $13. I figure if it doesn't sell at the booth I like every piece and I'm sure I'll be able to find homes for them here. So I'm off to finish going through my cupboards, closets, garage, shed, etc to find those pieces that I just don't use and put them in the booth also. I'm also making pillows, runners, purses and a few other small things. All cottagie of course. I'll be sure to post pictures in October.

Everyone have a great weekend!

Writer's block

I know I've been so slow in posting but it just seems that I've not been getting anything done. I'm not one who likes the heat ( so I know you're wondering why I live where it's extremely hot during the summer) nor do I do will in the heat. Trigger doesn't either.

We're almost done with our summer long project of painting the trim on the house. Yippee I think we need to throw a party or something. Only the large paladin window

in the front to do and the front porch/stoop thing. I don't really consider it a porch but it's slightly larger than a stoop. I've even been slow in visiting my favorite people/blogs. I hope fall comes early for us because I am so ready for cooler weather so I can get some of those projects done and even my garden is played out.

Work has been going good and I'm glad to not be working in the office where it's really hectic. They are seriously shorthanded due to budget cuts which affected personal. But so far so good in the library. I've been putting up our theme stuff for the year and having fun with that. I really didn't get to do that last year because I spent so much time in the office. Oh well. We do an activity from each continent every month and we feature bread and fruit from that continent if I can find it in our area. The students really enjoyed this 3 years ago. So hopefully it will be a success again. Trigger isn't quite sure about all this leaving stuff though. He's had me at home all summer now he has to go outside for 3 1/2 hours and there's only Rascal to play with who doesn't like to play.

While visiting the Old Centennial Farmhouse I came across a link to Mary Engelbreit's web site and blog. It's amazing if you're a fan. You should check it out. Projects, coloring pages, what the company is up to now and so much more all in one spot. My whole kitchen used to be done in black and red with cherries. I had several of her pieces. Right now they're tucked away in the garage waiting to be reborn in the guest room someday. Speaking of kitchens several blogs that I read have been posting their kitchen redo's. They're very inspiring. Hubby has said his next long weekend he'll help me finish all those little things that need to be done in our kitchen. It's only been 2 years since the majority of it was done. If I can find my pictures of it I'll share our before and afters. Most of the pictures were done pre-digital days so I'll have to scan.

Tina and I went to the thrift store today and scored several great deals. I'll get pics tonight and hope to share tomorrow or the next day. So I've rambled enough and bored you all to tears. Have a great week everyone.

Back to School/Work

Yesterday was the first day back to work. Those first couple of weeks are kind of rough, settling back into the routine, getting things unpacked from being put away before the summer, meeting new students, greeting the return students and so much more.

Every year my co-worker and I do a theme for the library. We do art projects and other things related to this theme. This year we're back to one we did three years ago and we really enjoyed it including the students: Around the world in 180 days - Book a Trip. This is one of the displays we did three years ago. We try to decorate the library for the theme. It's always fun. I hope to get a Trip around the world quilt made for the library raffle. We do this to earn books. Everyone seems to love it and I love making the quilt. Of course Kelly always helps too. She's the one with the great ideas.

I hope everyone has a great weekend. For those of you heading back to school on Monday, we're ready.

Summer Travels

One of the trips we took this summer was to see my aunts and grandma who live in Redding, CA. That's where I grew up. Neil and I had a really nice trip just the two of us. It's been several years since we took a trip without the kids. Both of them had to work so we hit the road alone. It was strangely odd and freeing at the same time. We've been a foursome for so many years and a threesome before that. Now those kids are grown and don't really need us in so many ways. I mean they will always need our love and attention but I'm not dressing, feeding, changing, entertaining them any longer. In fact the oldest I don't even buy his clothing or necessities anymore. He does all that. Well enough about that. Our trip was great and we got to see several places that brought back so many memories for me.
This is my mother's oldest sister who lives in a nursing home now. We had two great visits with her and she hated to see us go. It was great to visit with her. It was her home that we got married at 20 years ago.
This is Dude's. I worked here during high school. Was amazed that it's still there and the food is still good. I also got soft serve chocolate ice cream on a cone. Sighhhhh.........

This is the home where I grew up. It was three bedrooms, 1 1/2 bath. That tree was planted when we first moved in. In my memories this place is so much bigger yet when we traveled down the street it seemed so small to me. Maybe because I was kid here, who knows. I'm not sure who lives here now ( I was too chicken to go to the door) but they have kept the place up nicely. It was beige and dark brown when we lived there and mom had a huge hydrangea growing under the window on the left. It was nice to stroll down memory lane. Thanks for going with me.

Sneak Peak

I just couldn't wait to share a photo of the shabby chic shower curtain in progress. The strips need to be squared up and then sewn to the lower row. Of course I still have the borders to put on and then I'll line it. But what do you think? Do you like it? Of course it's for this bathroom right here.

I'll be back with updates later on. Have a great day!

Wild Parrots and Sunflowers

We grow the sunflowers in our yard just so the wild green parrots can eat. I imagine that most of these are birds that have escaped from their owners. At least I hope so. I hate to think that people are just turning these birds loose. I was finally able to capture them with the camera. I happened to be up fairly early one morning and Trigger was still asleep. He usually goes bounding out the door before me and scares anything out there away. If I had half his energy every project I ever thought about doing would be done already. My quilting friend has said that we will lay out my shower curtain blocks this Wednesday. I'm so excited. Hope you enjoy the pictures. I was using the zoom lens so some are kind of blurry. I was afraid to get too close and scare them away before I got pictures.

Not blurry just a clothes line in the way.

I thought it funny that several mornings before these sunflowers were ready they would fly by to check them out. Have a great week everyone.

Grape Arbor

Seth has been working hard on the grape arbor, so I thought I should do a post on how that is coming along. You can see the poor grape on the ground. The old supports just rotted away and it has been on the ground for at least 2 summers now. Doesn't seem to have done it any harm but it would be nicer if it was picked up and out of the way. Seth got the inspiration after his Nana had one built at her house. Hopefully next summer this will also provide shade for the guest house as this end faces west. Seth has only to put the north/south crossbeams up and then the slats. We'll prune back the grape this winter and begin the training process. Hopefully that won't cause it any stress. I love the fruit this grape produces. It's usually very prolific.

Summer for me is coming to a close. This is my last full week of vacation. I have told myself that I have to at least finish painting the bottom cabinet doors in the kitchen. I have 3 left and hope to have those done by Wednesday. It's so easy to get discouraged when the weather is so hot and it's hard to do anything. I see the lovely pictures of everyone's houses and wish that I could just be finished. Well enough whining. I did get all 64 squares for my shabby chic shower curtain done. Yes!!!! 40 different fabrics. I only had to duplicate 24 of the fabrics. So I was pretty happy about that. Lots of beautiful fabric leftover. Next week I hope to lay them out on the dining room floor to figure out where to place them. Then I'll need to sew them together and put on a border. I'm thinking I'll just back it with a white sheet. Hope to post pictures of that soon. Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Corgi Love

Just a really quick post today as the weather is only supposed to be in the 80s. I can't believe it. So we are finishing the north and east sides of the house painting. I will be so glad to get that done. Thought I would share a little more about our newest member here at our cottage, Trigger. He's already bigger than these photos show him to be. He's a pistol that's for sure. Definitely a puppy. In to everything and anything and chewing on it all. Hubby said it was a good thing he was so cute or he'd be out on his ear. Both ears finally stand up and he looks so cute! We all love him.

he loves to sleep like this especially when it's hot.

Hope everyone has a great weekend. I'll try to post more next week. A quilting friend and I will be sewing tomorrow. She got the majority of Seth's quilt done and tomorrow I'm going to cut out my squares for my shabby chic shower curtain. I've only been collecting fabrics for it for about 4 years. Oh well better done than never.

Bye!

Vegas Again

I so meant to blog more last week. Where does all my time go? I think I need more hours in my day or less stuff to do or something.
I should explain why Vegas was such a disappointment. The boys worked really hard on their piece and I know that that alone is not why they should have won. I just feel that the competition wasn't even in their category. Not only that but then to have the student say the teacher did all the design work and a lot of the work on the project. This is supposed to be completely done by the student. The instructor also had the gaul to tell the boys what they had done wrong and that their piece was too fake. What???!!!! Why does everything have to be political? Why can't people be honest? The boys had a good time and actually took their loss better than the adults did. Which was good and I was proud of Seth for that. I going to share some of the pieces that were also there. There were many amazing pieces but I was shocked by the pieces that won. They weren't my style at all and maybe that's why I didn't like them and why I wondered how they won. They looked fake.
This clock was amazing.

So was this one and it was made by a girl. The title of the piece was Cogsworth.

This is the piece Seth competed against. You couldn't even sit in it without balancing yourself. Go figure. What's the point of a chair you can't even sit in?

Here's the boys piece.

Perhaps I am being really over critical. I think AWFS needs to rethink their categories. How fair is it to have pieces that are made from hand compete against wood shops that have state of the art equipment to include computer push the button it's done for you equipment? Our little school can't afford that. I should quit ranting and raving I know. In fact I'm getting so worked up all over again just thinking about that week. So that's why I was disappointed with Vegas.

Tomorrow, something a little more on the lite side. Have a great day.