Six Sweet Things

1.  Found this great tutorial last night on How Does She, and gave it a try today.  It is brilliant!  My son dubbed them Watermelon Pops.  Give it a try soon...follow this link to her blog.  (photo credit How Does She.)

2.  In the knick of time, I received my new Etsy shop labels in the mail. Bonnie at One Eyed Bee did a terrific job, and even the packaging is cute.  I'm so happy they are precut and ready to sew into my purse organizers at Perfect Darlings.  Check out both of our shops...and be watching for new purse organizer fabrics in my shop soon.

3.  What a happy sight.  Itsy bitsy yellow squashes are in my garden.  Can hardly wait to saute them in olive oil and pop each 1/2" round into my mouth.  Bliss.

4.  Since I am done home schooling for this school year, I am so enjoying having time to do those little extra things that have been on hold.  This week I made scripture cards of verses to pray for each of our sweet grandchildren.  While I walk or bike, I enjoy praying these truths and blessings over them.  When you pray God's Word, you know you are praying His will for them.  (Sorry these 2 pics aren't as sharp.)

5.  While sewing for my Etsy shop, I love to listen to audiobooks through Overdrive, an app that our library uses.  Listening to Louisa May Alcott's Good Wives, which comes after Little Women, has been especially delightful this week.

6.  While waiting for my son to finish his computer class recently, I went into an antique mall.  These adorable tags decorated with vintage photographs were calling my name...loudly.  They are so so sweet, and for just $1.50, they have added new stories to my home decor, which admittedly is very vintage. 

 I've spread them throughout my vignettes and am enjoying them immensely.  Question?  Why do husband 'toys' cost so much more than wife 'toys?'  Some girlfriends and I were wondering that last night. :)

Thank you for stopping by!  Your comments are so appreciated!
Blessings,
Donna

Smitten, Again!

Yesterday I met my dear friend Lori half-way between her home in Florence, KY and my home in Evansville, IN for a Girls Day Out in Louisville, KY.  The weather was frigid but sunny, and alittle 'feels like -2' never stopped a girl from Flea Marketing or Lunching Out, right?
Lori found a string of Flea Markets in Louisville called Peddler Mall.  There are several locations...I see many shopping trips ahead for us!  :)  Anyway, as we strolled along through booth after booth of vintage goodies, we spied this interesting box up high.

I got it down and we oohed and aahed over how interesting it was.  Five little wooden cubbies, and a  slanted glass lid on hinges.  The little label holders in front were unique too.  

I put it back up on the shelf where we'd found it, and we went on on our way.  But within minutes, I decided that little cutie needed to come home with me.  I don't think it is vintage, but it is def. vintage-inspired.  And soooo unusual.  And soooo versatile.

I brought 'her' home with me with glee.  Vacuumed out the cobwebs inside, wiped her down, and then began the super fun work of styling her cubbies.  This little gal will surely live in different parts of my house over the years and be styled with seasonal vintage goodies that can easily be changed out.  For now she is on the old organ bench so I can prop the lid open against the wall.

She's alittle Valentine-y for the present and I am completely smitten.  Wonder what I should put in the little label placards on the front?  What would you put in her cubbies?

I'm like a kid in a candy shop at vintage flea markets...are you?!

Thanks for stopping by....Blessings, Donna

Linked to:
Tip Junkie
My Romantic Home

70 Booth Rummage Sale? Bliss!!

Today was the county-wide 4H Rummage Sale at the Fair Grounds.  With more than 70 booths of goods for sale, it was a fun Saturday morning!

We got some wonderful treasures at this sale as well as a church Rummage Sale.  See that black computer bag?  Like new with plenty of zippered compartments.  $2!    Boots for my little Northern Indiana grandboy and a .25 Cat in the Hat book.  :)

I like to have a pretty seasonal plate on display, and this is my new Johnson Brothers Autumn plate.  :)  $2

Can you believe that a digital frame was on my Christmas idea list?!  This one is brand new and a great price...told my Honey and to save it for Christmas.  :)

And then there are the vintage items.  Oh. Man.  

The painted trays were popular in the late 50s and early 60s.  This is a miniature one, about 5 inches long.  50 cents!  This is before I washed it up.

Vintage Christmas ornaments with a vintage price tag on the end...50 cents!

I grew up with my mom's aluminum measuring cups and still love using them at her house.  These Ecko ones from years gone-by were....50 cents.  :)

My favorite find.  My Grandma from Texas had this very cookie jar throughout her married life.  She passed away 20 years ago and I have wished I would have asked for her cookie jar.  Today I got this one just like it at the Rummage Sale for $5.  I am thrilled!

A lady with a booth at the sale was selling things from her elderly father's home.  Including this 1960's Kodak Brownie Starmite camera and leather Kodak case...50 cents!  I had to get it.  It's so cute in my house...show ya in a minute.

I have been looking for one of these all summer!  It's vintage...cost 97 cents at Safeway many years ago (tag on the back).  I'm going to paint it Heirloom White and use it in my kitchen for hanging my vintage potholders and other vintage kitchenware on it.  Yippee!!

And now to see my goodies in their new found homes.  Kodak Brownie is hanging out on the mantel.  

For now, miniature handpainted metal tray is at home on the Gossip Bench.  Look...it appears that the lady of the home (in the 1940s of course,) came in from shopping and removed her hat, put her purse down, and took off her earrings to talk on the phone, laying them on the tray.  :)  I'm sure the tray will move around the house as I figure out new places for it.  May even stick it on the wall with a 3M strip.

The measuring cups are at home in my vintage drawer in the kitchen.  And see...I DID paint the drawer's handle aqua.  Love.

And Grandma's cookie jar...it has been washed and shined.  It's on my raised bar.  And the site of those raised ceramic cookies with all kinds of icings and decorations on them still make my imagination dance.  As a girl, I thought they looked so yummy!  Grandma's cookies inside the jar were yummy too.  I miss that beautiful, sweet lady.

Thank you for stopping by!  Your comments warm my heart!

Blessings,

Donna
Linked to:
Hope in Every Season
Moonlight and Mason Jars
Think Tank Thursday

Vintage Book Decor ~ Rehearsal Dinner

Our sweet son just got married this past weekend in Chicago and I had the fun of putting together the decor for it!  

The dinner was held at a fabulous eclectic place in Logan Square called JAM.  Please give them a look-see at jamrestaurant.com, and make a point of dining here for breakfast, brunch, or lunch if you are in the area.  We had TONS of comments on the delicious and different foods that Chef Jeffrey Mauro served for our buffet dinner.  The service is fabulous, the building is gorgeous, and it's refreshing and different...but not weird.  :)  Chef Jeffrey is actually going to be featured on the Food Network this Spring in an episode of The Sandwich King!  

Our son loves to read and has alot of vintage books and vintage decor in his Chicago condo, so I found it a perfect match to use vintage books as the theme for my handmade decor.  I barely had to buy anything, as I already had vintage books to use for crafting and others to use for stacking.  So this was a very inexpensive genre to use, and so much fun!  I'll blog about the different things I made in several parts.  

I found this fantastic idea of 'book flowers' HERE...a big thank you to the creative blogger, Sara, who posted this tutorial!! I looked at our thrift store and found ONE vintage book with colored page edges.  For $1, I bought it, removed the cover with a craft knife, and it was rather easy to then do all the tucking of segments of pages.  A rubber band keeps it in place, and the ribbon dresses it up and covers the rubber band.

Isn't it pretty when the colored edge shows?  The spine of this book was too stiff to allow the book to bend completely around into a circle, but it worked GREAT as a half circle.

I made about 50 of these paper tags to dress the favors with, and used one of them to go in the center of the ribbon...the finishing touch.  More on these toppers another time.

Ready to try this project for yourself?!  It makes a great centerpiece for a table, but it's now also standing on my fireplace mantel here at home!  :)  Let me know if you make one!
Come back soon to see some of the other projects I made, including vintage page table runners, buntings, tags, and favors.

Enjoy!

Blessings,

Donna
Linked to:
Beyond the Picket Fence
My Romantic Home
Sunday Showcase
Sew Many Ways
Sweet Little Gals
Shabby Art Boutique
Finding Fabulous
Shaken Together

Vintage Winter Tablescape

 One of the things I love about changing seasons and holidays is the opportunity to practice creativity in changing out my coffee table scape. 

 This antique sewing drawer has graced my home for about 1.5 years after I fell in love with it at a flea market.  I've been watching for a vintage muffin tin that I liked, and found this little sweetie this fall for just $4!  They are both lovely vintage blank-canvases in which I can create little seasonal scenes 4-6 different times a year.

The muffin tin is so cute because it is smaller than usual and has smaller cups than most.  Eight little pockets to stash something cute for each season.  

For January, my tin has a fortune cookie (we traditionally eat out at a Chinese buffet on New Year's Day!), a crocheted snowflake, a candle, red and white peppermints, and two little cups with Epsom salts in them for 'snow' and figurines that depict winter.  The other two cups hold a red and white ribbon wound into a mound and Scrabble tiles that spell JESUS.  :)

My sewing drawer vignette was inspired by my childhood copy of Frosty the Snowman.  All of the things in there with the book are things I already had...vintage cookie cutters are just begging me to make Sugar Cookies, yarn with the colors of the stuffed snowman reminds me to crochet, and the little scoop is my newest flea market treasure that I LOVE!

It's cute and small and roundish and has a red handle.  And is another little empty container that can hold something adorable and seasonal whenever I wish.

At Christmas, it held peppermints.  I'm pretty sure conversational candy hearts are in its near future.  :)

And lastly, I was glad to find that I had enough vintage blocks to spell out 2013 for the table, too.  A good reminder this first month of a brand new year as I try to remember to write the correct date!  And if you like the paper table scarf, it is just 6 pages from a vintage hymnal that I zigzagged together on my sewing machine, and then edged with a paper cutting tool.

The vintage things in my home that I've picked up for a few dollars here and there are my favorite accessories.  I'm a modern day mama with a vintage soul.  :)

Thanks for stopping by!  In just a week, I'll be adding some Valentine decor to my little tablescape...won't you?

xoxo,

Donna

Linked to:
Your HomeBased Mom

A Vintage Little Christmas

My love for all things vintage is sparking some creative fun as I decorate the house for Christmas.  I am using some of my vintage belongings to make a few new tablescapes.  Here is the coffee table's new look for December.  The little old muffin tin is something I found at the flea market this past weekend, and I already LOVE it.

The same scene with the flash used, so you can better see what makes up the vignette.  

Eloise Wilken's book Baby's Christmas is a true favorite.  Both of my darling grandbabies have Eloise Wilkens cheeks and profiles!

The tin is holding miniature candy molds, Peppermint Pillow candies, and Scrabble tiles that spell Jesus.

With the flash, you can see my $2 bag of ABC blocks from this summer's garage saling is being enjoyed!  On the left is my childhood Christmas stocking, and I tucked in a few photos from my childhood Christmases in the 1960s.

That's me in the snow above right in 1967 and the lower photo shows my mom, my baby brother, and me with a large teddy bear in 1965.  :)

Lastly, this fabric underneath the display is called Dick and Jane at Christmas Time!!  Bliss!

Thanks for stopping in!

Christmas Blessings,

Donna

Linked to:
My Romantic Home
Funky Junk Interiors
Sunday Showcase