Made me smile...

Looking ahead

I'm just not sure how to dress. I ran out this morning for a quit trip and wore sweat pants and a t-shirt....WITH FLIP FLOPS. Guess the warm weather spoiled me and I just can't decide if it is spring or winter.

I start looking ahead to spring no matter what the weather is. In another couple of months it will be time to think about patio furniture and plants. I want to find another Swedish ivy. Except this time, I have a place to bring it in and sit it during winter. Lost one I had before because we had nowhere to put it in the house. It was HUGE. I want another one.

I want Boston ferns for my front porch. I love those.

I think I want white rockers for my front porch with a small table between them

I want a small patio set for the back porch, but won't need an umbrella.

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Several years ago, Thirty-One created this look for an office. I loved it at the time and I love it still, even though you can't get these patterns any more. I really regret not getting them back when they had them. 

Weekend wrap up

I got another set of bracelets from Paparazzi this weekend. The picture is not great because my lighting was bad with all the gloom and rain outside. But it has pale pink stones in it. Perfect to wear at my Thirty-One conference.

I did go to Hobby Lobby again when I wasn't feeling so overwhelmed over all the Easter stuff. I fell in love with the little Easter egg shaped saucer. 

And this plate matches the green in my spring tablecloth.

I picked up a plate holder with the thought of getting started on my basket for my table for Easter decor.

And I know I was looking at the wood white bunnies but once I saw this I knew my table needed to be in color NOT in white and tans. I need spring and freshness after all the snows and rains and cold weather this winter. I just love this little guy. He was on sale and I got him for just a few bucks.

I had bought this blue dish over the winter at Old Time Pottery but never found a good use for it. And I had picked up some speckled eggs at Dollar Tree.

I had a vase I wanted to use and I bought a spring of forsythia at Dollar Tree.

I already had a basket I planned on using so I arranged it in the basket and I like my result a lot better than the one I saw on Pinterest. It's more me.

I did pick up the salt & pepper shakers from Dollar Tree I told you about. I can't find the glass paint that makes them opaque but colorful. I will do that later when I can get to Michael's for the paint. So I decided to experiment with a blue. Got the paint for .50 cents at Walmart. 

I do not normally paint because I am messy. But I saw a tutorial where you pour paint INSIDE the bottle and roll and twist to cover then pour excess paint back out into your paint bottle. So I tried that. I did it on a baby food jar first and then on the salt shaker. It was so easy and so fast. As they were drying inside, I was able to put some jute on the baby food jar just to see how that would look. Please note what looks like a color difference on the salt shaker is actually the shadow of the jute string.

Once it dried good, I put some little flowers in it and did the first tier of my three tier stand. Still need to get more stuff for tier two and three before I show you the whole thing. But this is a good start. I just love it.

I didn't want a bow around the salt shaker because it was going beside a beach picture of me and Allen and a little angel with a seashell. So I thought jute would help with the beachy theme.

Just put some baby's breath in it. (Did I mention I keep little odd and end flowers around for just such occasions?) I couldn't be any happier with the result. 

Now I want to do a little red one and put a few small daisies in it for my craft room.

"Weather" you like it or not.....

Without a shadow of doubt you cannot control the weather. It has been beautiful this week. Lovely morning skies; beautiful evening sunsets. High 70's and 80's. Flip flop weather for sure. In the mountains. In February. But it was too good to last. Today is going to be in the 60's this morning if my weather app can be believed and rain some on and off. It's already rained twice here since 6:00 this morning. But by afternoon it should move out and be up to 75 by 3:00. We will see. 

I did get a couple of pics of the beautiful sky last night. But the funny thing is, I am not even sure where I took the pictures at because that building doesn't even look familiar to me. I take different routes home from work sometimes depending on the traffic so I'm not even sure where I was when I snapped this. But I do know it was beautiful.

I am heading to Dollar Tree this morning to see if I can find some of these salt and pepper sets and a few little flowers. I am going to stop by Hobby Lobby and see what kind of glass paint they have. 

I am hoping to be able to do something like those I posted yesterday.

You just gotta love Pinterest....

I love looking for things on Pinterest but you have to watch falling in the trap of letting it keep you occupied for way too long when you have other stuff to do. So this morning, I decided to just open it up and not search for a thing. It shows you items it recommends for you when you open it so I just scrolled through the things it thought I would like and picked out the first 10 that I liked. Was on there about 5 minutes or so and found these things of interest. 

I would never think about putting these colors together. But oh my, aren't they gorgeous in an afghan.

I hate ironing. I hate ironing shirts. But I do have a couple of button up the fronts that I can toss in the dryer and they are wrinkle free...except for the strip down the front between the buttons and button holes. Here's a quick fix. A flat iron. A lot easier to heat and do and a lot less aggravation than getting out the ironing board. I would recommend hanging the shirt on a hanger on your shower rod and run the curling iron down to fix the wrinkles in those hard to iron areas.

I found this interesting but also know that never in a million years would I do this. They recommend if you do not have nail polish remover, simply apply wood enamel to your fingernail and immediately wipe it off with a tissue. They say it will take the polish off. Okay, #1, if I don't have remover I sure am not going to have enamel. #2, with my luck I would put it on and get distracted and have a whole new dilemma. And #3, I would just take the same polish and polish over top the other until I could get somewhere to get remover.

Frayed ends on your tennis shoes. Dab clear nail polish on them to seal them back and keep from fraying. I have done this before. But usually by the time they fray, I need a new pair of laces anyway.

Tie up baking powder in cute sachets and place in your shoes at night to keep odor away.

This is the coolest thing ever. Some companies are making tank tops like this now with a snap inside to go around your bra strap to prevent it from showing out from under your tank top. I absolutely love tank tops, but the bras I find to wear under them that don't show are so uncomfortable and too hot which defeats the purpose of wearing a cool tank top. I am going to have to find some of these tops.

It said I might like this cute cookie sheet tray. And I do. Simply tape off and paint your design. Of if you are really good, you could do this with the new skinny duct tape.

My daughter sent me a video yesterday about making little flower vases with salt shakers you paint. So I looked it up on Pinterest yesterday (I'm sure there is a post in my future with all the finds). But this one popped in my "things we recommend" this morning so I thought I would show you this. They painted the little clear glass salt and pepper shakers from $1.00 tree. How neat is this.

And this was on there. I had seen it recently because my niece, Amy, shared it with me. Probably why it recommended it. The main thing about it was the fact that whoever designed this pineapple with the saying, used the new Thirty-One pineapple pattern for the background. I just love this pattern. What a whimsical design. Saw it in person the other day and it is so gorgeous.

I love Arcopal kitchenware (plates, cups, coffee pots, etc. ) but you can't find them around here because they are vintage and made in France. But according to Pinterest, they also made tea cups and saucers. Check out this pastel set. Turns out a lot of people have these for sale on Etsy. At $60 - $80 a set of six, I will pass. I wouldn't pay more than $5.00 for just one cup and saucer.

Well, I think they nailed it today on what they recommended I would like.

A little blessing.....

Many of you know that I have been saying I needed to get a camera because I love my phone other than the pictures it takes. It doesn't do great and especially at a distance with the zoom. So yesterday I walked into work and their was a camera on my desk. One of the ladies told me she knew I wanted one so she gave me this that she had come across. You will note the small dents in the upper part of the zoom lens, but it still goes in and out perfectly and has nothing else wrong with it. The dent is just on the flat surface so doesn't effect the functioning at all. 

It even comes with the case that came with the camera.

There are a lot of you tube videos that will help me figure out the settings. 

It was dark when I got home, but I decided to test it in the house. Sitting on my couch, I used my cell phone to zoom to the max it will zoom and took a picture of a miniature tea set. As you can see, zoom on the phone is horrible. That's why I complain about it so much.

Then I picked up the camera, sitting in the same spot and zoomed in on the same item. Check out the little cardinal tea set with the camera. What a world of difference.

I can tell I am going to love the camera. Very thankful for friends who do the little things that make your day so wonderful.

I want a do-over for yesterday....

It started out as a beautiful day. I was filled with anticipation and excited to be going antique shopping and to Hobby Lobby. 

My goal was to find something to create a similar display for this.

Until I started pricing the cotton plant stems. Anywhere from $6.99 - $9.99 each. Not going to happen. I will regroup on that idea. Maybe go with some forsythia. That would add a pop of spring color.

I am also still keeping my three tier stand for each holiday. The above idea is for my dining room table. My three tier is on a side table and I would like to do something like this with it for Easter.

So off I went look for things for both displays. I got side tracked in the first antique store when they had a big table of books at awesome prices. Was thrilled to find one on depression glass dirt cheap at $5. At McKays and other used book stores I see them for $15 and up. But that was the only thing I found at that one that interested me.

At the next one, I found two vintage hankies for $1 each. I want some with color as well but these were so feminine. 

They are going in my Fenton Hobnail Flower Basket in my bedroom.

At the third one, I didn't find a thing so I gave up on antique stores. I stopped by Karm thrift store. They always have holiday decorations. Not today. I found nothing for Easter that I was wanting. But I did pick up a little mug just the right size for my chocolate milk. 

I headed to Hobby Lobby with a side trip through Krispy Kreme. Hobby Lobby had TOO much Easter stuff. I got so overwhelmed on exactly what I wanted that I just decided it wasn't a good day for me to be there so I left with nothing. This is what happens when I go without a list! I went home and later went to my friend's house to get my order from her of my new Paparazzi jewelry. I got a necklace this time. I love that everything is $5.00 from them.

Then I stopped by the cemetery to visit with hubby. Oh what a beautiful sky. I started my day with a beautiful sky and ended it the same way. 

Just some table ideas

I need a centerpiece for spring for my dining room table. Not sure what I want to do. I can't seem to find a tablecloth I want that I'm really to pay what they are asking. So I am thinking a simple runner. But I also need ideas for spring/Easter centerpieces. So, of course, I have been on Pinterest today. Here are some things I liked. This first one is kind of cute. 

Not sure on this one. But I love the round tray.

Beautiful flowers.

Simple and sweet.

Another simple one. If you could keep real flowers all spring this would really smell good.

Kinda. Maybe. Sorta. 

Pretty hydrangeas in a box. Cute.

Pretty but more summery than spring and you would forever being changing the lemons out. I don't want upkeep on my table centerpiece.

I am a daisy gal. I love them and think there is nothing springier than a bunch of daisies in a simple vase. Was debating on doing this one for my table. 

Until I saw this and fell absolutely in LOVE! 

I am heading antiquing, thrifting and to Hobby Lobby today. May just have to check this out and see if I can find similar things.