Ta Da, I actually finished a project.....!

My version of a distressed supply cubby....

I like how the gesso doesn't quite cover the words on the side...

I can house some of my favorite (and prettiest) supplies..

In other news, I've been waiting very impatiently for these new beauties from French General to hit the stores...

The packaging alone is worth the purchase!

I've been looking at Michael's but finally gave up on them so I tried my local Ben Franklin....and hit the jackpot!
Happy hunting....;).

Some sweet vintage Easter goodness......;)

New in my etsy today....

because it's raining cats and dogs...

and because I have a humongous case of cabin fever...

please Spring, won't you show your face?

a girl can only take so much!

if you need a bit of Spring too, these have just been listed this morning as I listen to the rain pour down...;).
I hope you have sunshine where you are, and tulips and daffodils!

My makeover project for today.......

While reading the latest issue of Somerset Life I noticed that Stampington has a blog.....who knew? I sure didn't so I popped on over to check it out and I'm so glad I did. The talented Vanessa Spencer has made over an old crate....and I fell in love with it!
I went out yesterday determined to find my own crate. Hers was a gift from a friend ($6) at Goodwill. I went to a favorite haunt of mine that carries a lot of crates....hoping, hoping that I could find one that was affordable.

Mine was $10, not too shabby, right? My favorite part is all the cubbies!

I love the Pepsi markings on the side and want those to peek through....Vanessa used watered down gesso, so that's what I'm gonna use too....

I may try to hammer in a few of my nails a bit better and clean mine up some more (it looks like it came out of an old barn, it had hay in it!)

I'll be sure to post my finished product when I'm through decorating it up....!
In the meantime, treat yourself and go check out Stampington's newish blog....very fun indeed!

New goods in my shop........

A sweet little religious booklet with beautiful lithos

Sweetest little pin cube with white glass pins

Cool container of shoe thread

A creative endeavor by me

The gorgeous soap box with wedding cards inside

Tons of various crochet string

Pretty spring-like tags...
I do hope you're all having a wonderful weekend.
The largest garage sale was a bust, the only things I found were the little booklet at the top of this post (and it's beautiful!) and an exquisite lace handkerchief that looks like it could have been used by a bride.....it was .25 and it's just too pretty to part with.
Til next time........;)

Our kooky "Spring" weather..........;)

This was our street on Wednesday morn...we had the biggest mess of very wet, very heavy snow fall on Tuesday night, Wednesday morning. Of course, no school on Wednesday, it was a mess! Then our power went out around 8:30 a.m. It's not quite so much fun having a snow day without power, ya know? We ended up going down to my dh's office to keep warm. On Thursday it had snowed some more....still no power. Our house was frigid at this point, about 50 degrees. We got up and went to dh's office (again) to shower and spend the day. Got home to a very cold house...still no power. Built a huge fire in the fireplace and at about 8 p.m. our power came back on, thank goodness!

This is what's left of the snow in our backyard, at least on one side of the yard.....

Here's the other side of the yard that gets more sun.  And our temps today? 57 degrees! Crazy I tell ya! But we're loving this sun and it's Spring Break and I couldn't be happier!

I splurged on these two beauties today and can't wait to dig into them....they both look really good.
Tomorrow is our huge "World's Biggest Indoor Garage Sale" at the fairgrounds, that's where you'll find me and my dd....shopping our hearts out. Wish us luck! Hope you all are staying warm and that the sun is shining wherever you are.....;).
~Til next time~

A brutally honest post~can someone please enlighten me?

Why is it that some blogs appear on your blogroll more than once? It's an innocent enough question but one that is coming from a place of annoyance. If I'm on your blogroll.......I SEE YOUR BLOG POST THE FIRST TIME!
Why oh why does it appear 2-3 days later? The SAME post?

I questioned a very well known blogger lately on this issue. I swear I was nice about it.....I never got a reply but MY reply did get deleted off of her comments. (And yes, she's no longer on my blog roll, not that she would care one whit about that, but I'm just sayin').

And I'm about to remove another very well known blogger for the same reason.....the thing is....well, it's just plain annoying.
It seems a bit too much in your face for me....however, I'm open to explanations.....anyone? Is it just me that finds this annoying?......am I just a bit too prickly for my own good?

A grand day at the flea..........;)

There are few things I love more than going to the flea....by myself, thank you very much!
I take $$, i.d., (usually my phone but forgot it today). And then I just wander.
Found this gorgeous crazed transferware bowl for $5, no chips or cracks anywhere. It will hold some favorite supplies in my studio. A big mess of old keys, all different sizes and colors...love to use these in some of my artwork.

I'm in love with the daisy motif, have been for quite some time. I find myself drawn to it, whether on old postcards, books, china, whatever. It's a happy flower!

Totally in love, can you tell?

A couple of the keys.....

An old Flinch game, can't ever have enough of these cards, and some awesome and very large old shipping tags with wire attached......for a song!

A book I've always wanted, haven't decided whether to keep it or not...it has gorgeous illustrations!
Also found a huge bag of crocheted trim from old pillowcases.....these are all washed and ready to use.

I love to get old laces home and launder them, there's something very satisfying about it, now they smell like lavender as opposed to....well, musty old trim!

And I couldn't grab this old soap box fast enough because of the amazing graphics....who knew that it would be filled with.....

Beautifully written signatures from someone's wedding gifts....

She even tucked a sachet inside this box to keep them smelling fresh, it still has scent to it! 

Beautiful handwriting!

I thought it was so sweet that someone would take a beautiful soap box that says "The Bride" on it to keep her wedding guests cards inside....

Well, that's all for now, hope you all had a lovely weekend...we even had snow today!

Happy St. Patrick's Day......

May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May sun shine warm upon your face,
the rain fall soft upon your fields,
and until we meet again
may God hold you in the hollow of His hand.

Happy St. Patricks Day!
This has long been one of my very favorite quotes!
Hope you have a wonderful one.........;)

All the king's horses and all the king's men.....

Couldn't put humpty together again.....

Have you ever broken a favorite piece of china? I've had this lovely sugar dish for a very long time...I fell in love with it's colors and the sweet victorian style baskets on it's corners.....over the holidays my dh dropped another dish on it and it broke into several pieces, which I kept of course! I kept looking at it but not dealing with it until last night when it hit me to just glue it together as best I could. I envisioned it filled with white buttons......and here is the result. Now it has a purpose again.

I've never seen another piece in this pattern (it's by Meakin).
Sure wish I had a whole set of this!
Hope you're week is smashing!

Do you have a favorite "fragrant" flower (now that's hard to say 3 times)

Well I certainly do and her name is "Daphne"
I have yet to find a fragrant flower to match her beauty....

Here she is preening for her close-up (she's so smitten with herself, but who could blame her?)
We used to have an elderly neighbor lady across the street from us who was soooo sweet! One day while I was out working in my front yard she came over and gave me a clipping of her humongous daphne bush in front of her house.....that was my first introduction the to wonder that is the daphne plant. The fragrance is so wonderful that you can smell it from the street should you be walking by. I knew I must own one (or two or three!) Luckily the one I planted in our courtyard took off like gangbusters and loves it's location (they can be finicky when moved so luckily we haven't had to do that!) Every time we walk up our courtyard you can smell it's heavenly scent...don't get me wrong, as large as our bush is it's still not overwhelming.
Of course, my favorite thing to do is to bring 3-4 sprigs inside....my kitchen, dd's bedroom, bathrooms, and the smell is so subtle but wonderful when you walk in there. Of course it bother's my dh who is allergic to every molecule known to man....sigh....I told him the other day that had I known he was so allergic to 'everything' and didn't like fragrances that I'm not too sure I would have married him! That's how different we are when it comes to smells and fragrance. Oh well, I still made the right decision.....;).

This is a photo of one of three other Daphnes that I planted in the very front of our courtyard.....there are many varieties available today and ask me how thrilled I was to find this one that blooms several times a year.....SCORE!
When planting a new plant or bush, my first consideration is always for it's fragrance...how about you? What do you look for?

A milestone that astounds me..........:)

It seems like yesterday that I opened my etsy shop......I put in a few items and thought because I love my items that, well naturally everyone would! Didn't turn out that way and I was so confused. It takes a lot of work and perseverance to make it, online and anywhere else.

I would read the advice on etsy from those who had done well (keep listing new items, make your tags relevant, take great photos, etc.).

Many days it seemed like the impossible dream.....mostly because I (like everyone else) have a regular life to lead and needed to fit etsy into it.......well, I learned to do that and now I have over 600 sales and I'm very proud of that! I'm helping to bring income into our home and I have a bit of extra spending money to put back into my business.

That might not seem like a lot to some of you, but I used to always make my own money.....never had to depend on anyone else. Then I got married and we made a decision to try to start a family and have me stay home full time...I was totally on board with that. It's important to us that our daughter have a firm and steady base. She's secure and happy. But with that, I also wanted to branch out and see what I could do online. It was new territory for me and I'm so happy I went down this road!

So for those of you who are contemplating opening your own online shop, my advice is to just jump in and work it as hard as you can......the rewards are amazing!