You know it's a happy shopping day when.........

you need to go get a cart!!!! My hands were getting very full...of course, the office supply area gets perused early on and I saw this oh-so-cool Globe-Wernicke heavy cardboard letter file for .99!
That's a good sign, right?

how about this adorable little red english-french phrase book? It measures about 4x4 and has all the interesting words, phrases, and their translations on the coolest old weathered pages.

the inside cover picture of this old school reader left me breathless so I had to have it....gorgeous pictures inside, from 1901.

fantastic old receipt book that has never been used with absolutely gorgeous writing on it...a hint as to the age are the options at the bottom....return call, wire, or write! Wire? hmmm, it's definitely been awhile since I've "wired" anyone, how about you?

and one of my very favorite children's books that may be turned into a journal.....

and perhaps my favorite find of all, there are yards of this unknown trim. I don't know what it was used for, it's about 2 1/2" wide and it used to be white before I dyed it with coffee to "age" it a bit...

it has a silky/satiny feel and it's just scrumptious.
The rest of the day was spent with my dd, who seemed to need my attention more than normal today so I was happy to oblige her!
I do hope you all have fun weekend plans with lots of good food and drink included.....:).

A new Etsy offering........

Out shopping with my dd today I decided to stop in to a local Arts & Crafts store that I haven't visited in quite some time....

I found this stunning swallow stamp that I just had to have!

And I knew just how I wanted to use it....on some large shipping tags and some gorgeous ribbon....sometimes it doesn't take much to make me happy! I just wanted to create a little something today so thought I'd share...hope you're all having a peaceful Sunday.

Loving the unusual and different.......

After dropping my dd off at her golf class yesterday I visited a Goodwill nearby.....on one of the endcaps I saw these four tiny creamy frames with what look like oil paintings on top of the glass..

and while I find the paintings somewhat interesting when I turned them over to check out the backs I couldn't believe the paper that was covering them!

It's really thin paper and at first I thought that the flowers were handpainted on the paper as well...but no, it's just some gorgeous old backing paper...

I'm going to doing something creative with these beauties by adding my own twist on them....

stay tuned......oh, and have a marvelous weekend! Get out there and find some treasures....tis the season!

Trying to get in the "summer" groove.....

after all, it is officially summer now, right?

got out my favorite of all time vase...found at the Salvation Army, of all places...it was one of those serendipitous moments, you know, when you turn around and there it is? Think I paid $2 or $3, can't remember now...

it has violets and hydrangeas on it...what could be more old-fashioned or charming than that?

love it to bits....!

here she is in all her glory holding my peonies that are blooming like crazy right now!

happy ant, what is it with peonies and ants anyway?

And the winner is...........!!!!!!

Sweet Thespa from vintiquitiesworkshop! If you haven't been to Thespa's blog yet, you must treat yourself. This is one fabulous artist and I'm so happy that she (hopefully) will be using some of these fun elements in her lovely works of art.
Thanks so much to all of you who entered, I promise I'll be doing another giveaway....Thespa my dear, please send me your address so I can ship your goodies out soon.
Happy weekend to all!

A before and after white stool makeover and a couple of finds....

So I went to my Vintage Mall today hoping upon hope to find just the perfect stool for my studio...mostly I stand when I work in there but sometimes it's nice to have the option to sit down....I've wanted one of these old Cosco stools forever but they always seem too high priced for me (not that I'm cheap or anything, but, well I really am!) 

Today I saw this "beauty"  for $9.95.....and it's a really old one that is structurally sound, all I needed to do was to tighten a couple of screws and get out my sander. This used to be red, then green, now white. And a former owner's attempt at artwork just didn't cut it for me....:).

So I just added a decal and sanded off the "offending" flowers...

I even added a couple of my favorite stamps to the back of it....

At the same mall I found this awesome green breadbox..........................

and this awesome cutter quilt with gorgeous florals on it...it was a good shopping day for me..
I'm linking up to white wednesday here.
Hope you come over and join in the fun, and don't forget my giveaway (it's 2 posts back..... you have until Friday to enter!!!!

~Girl power~ and some great advice from my best friend

so sometimes collections can just happen without trying....these books about "girls" are one such collection for me....

I've had the top two books for a very long time, purchased for the subject matter and the graphics on the covers.....

I mean, seriously, who would have thought back in the 1800's of writing books like these for women...we surely didn't wield a lot of influence back then....but someone had the forethought to do so.
The third book "But yet a Woman" was found yesterday at the thrift....soooooo very perfect to go with the other two that I already own....and I happen to have a "thing" for daisies!

This old suitcase was another find yesterday.....and here comes the advice from my bff.....always open the suitcase to check out the inside!

Ummm, o.k., so glad I did!

It's filled with this gorgeous blue and white paper....makes me swoon!
Don't forget to scroll down to my previous post to be entered in my giveaway.....I'll be drawing a winner at the end of this week..:).

It's giveaway time!!!!!!! Step right up for a chance to win......

It's a giveaway of epic proportions! O.K., so I embellish a bit!
It's a mixed media extravaganza.....!

Still too much?

O.K., it's a lot of fun stuff to create with.....

Vintage velvet goodness.....

Lily of the valley and french stamped ribbon all wound around an old clothespin....

Some fabulous tally girls......

Scads of romantic ribbons....

Wound around a vintage spool.....

Tiny box that is so sweet to put a gift in....

Very cool vintage Boston store tickets to do with what you will...

All packaged inside (well as much as I can fit anyway) into this simply awesome Meloto piano roll box. Have you ever? When I was researching piano rolls on Ebay and came across these beauties I about died! This lovely lady had a ton of them and lived in my own state, so shipping wasn't too bad. I ordered all she had because I thought the box graphics were incredible.
And of course, this will all be shipped in a very large padded envelope so I'll be adding more, count on it!

Here's what to do.....comment on this post.  If you tweet about it you get 2 chances, just let me know that you tweeted so I can enter you twice.  I'm new to Twitter and don't really know what I'm doing yet over there but you have to start somewhere, right? So I'll be tweeting about my giveaway and we'll see what happens, maybe nothing so that just means your chances are better of winning!  I just so appreciate the comments I get.
The drawing will be on Saturday, the 18th,  and I will have my 10yo dd pick a name out of a hat...we like old-fashioned around here.

Thanks so much for looking....love you all!