My front porch....

Like most of the country, I am over this extremely cold weather. The low 20's kill me. To get up and see 15 on the outside thermometer has been bad enough, but this morning it was 1 degrees when I left for work. 

That was enough to throw me into a depression. So I starting thinking about spring and what I want to do with the front porch. I want to replace the old porch swing that is metal with a new wooden swing. I love wooden swings and they bring back memories of going to Grandma Garretson's or sitting out in the yard and Mom & Dad's. I would really like to find a white one at a good price this spring.

 

My plan is to place nice fluffy cushions on it to make it a great place to sit and relax or read a good book. 

I loved my Swedish Ivy plant last year, but it is too much care required and grew so large that I had no where to put it in the house so I couldn't bring it in this winter. My first year here, we had Boston ferns and I loved them. I am going back to my ferns this year. I didn't realize how much I enjoyed them until I didn't get them last year. 

In my search for spring flowers, I found some unique ideas for flower outside. Being a lover of tea pots, I thought this was cute even if it is unrealistic. First, the expense of the teapots. Second, the ease with which they could break. But it is cute. 

I just love this. My back deck is so bland and has nothing on it. I am thinking of decorating it this spring with a gardening theme. This would be adorable on a type of gardeners work bench on the back deck.

I just absolutely fell in love with this. Of course you would have to watch what type of finish you put on it before you sit it out in the weather. It sure is pretty though.

Now this I could easily do. I have tons of random tea cups and this would be cute on a little table on the front porch.

This would also be cute on a front porch. I love the bright yellow.

A great idea for an old chair whose seat is worn out. 

There are so many ideas and ways to decorate. I can't wait till spring gets here so I can get started.

Friday Finds

Sometimes late in the evening when there is nothing on TV, I like to scout around and check out vintage items on Pinterest, Ebay and Etsy. I like to look for things that catch my fancy in the hopes that I my find them "in the wild" someday. I don't order online. I like the thrill of scouring thrift stores, yard sales, estate sales, and antique stores to find what I want. But I do like online window shopping to get ideas.



The first thing I found this week that caught my eye was this Pyrex carafe. My favorite pattern in Pyrex is Town & Country which consists of medallions. They are sometimes all brown and sometimes they are a mixture of yellow/orange and brown. When I saw this beauty, I just knew I was going to have to start looking for one for my Town & Country collection. 

I also stumbled upon this. But I am not sure who made it or how old it is. I forgot to write that down. But I do know that I think it is very cute. I would guess late 50's early 60's since it was pink. That seemed to be popular during that time. 

One thing I found I had seen before but have never been able to find it in the wild. It is a pitcher that is made by Arcopal. Arcopal is a French based company that has made Pyrex for sales in France for years. These are some of their earlier pieces that I really like. 

Just thought I would share some of these designs with you today. Hope you enjoyed them.

It's been a good week.....

My hubby knows I love him, but he swears he thinks I like the delivery men just as much.

This past week has been full of goodies. I've had the FedEx guy and the mailman come to my door, which always means I have a new goodie. The mail man was the first to arrive. I got this awesome Pyrex coffee carafe. It was a trade from my Pyrex group. From my research, it was from the 1960's and is referred to as Mod Black and Mod Flowers. I am not sure if either one is correct, but I know I love it. It is so clean and shiny that it doesn't look like it was ever used.

Another item I got on a Pyrex trade group, was this precious tulip creamer. I just saw it for the first time last week and then it showed up for trade in one of my Facebook groups so I traded a Pyrex coffee cup for it. I am in love. The colors go great in my kitchen and the tulip is something I am incorporating into my spring kitchen decor this year. It is just too adorable.

Then the FedEx guy came knocking. I had ordered a new mini-zipper pouch from Thirty-One and it arrived. They have this whole new whimsical bird theme on some of the new products and I just had to have this.

I am constantly on the go and have had several people tease me about flittering here and there. Plus my favorite movie of all time is Disney's Summer Magic. In that movie they sing a song called Flitterin' which was one of my favorite songs from the movie. So when I decided to order the little birdies, I just had to put Flitterin' on it for the personalization.

A Chocolate Craving

It was 9:00 on a Tuesday night. I was watching TV when it hit me. I have a brownie mix in the cabinet.

So I hopped up and turned the oven on and grabbed one of my Pyrex mixing bowls. 

While the brownies were baking in the oven, I remembered that I have a box of 10X confectioner sugar in the cabinet.

I also remembered this wonderful recipe for cake icing that works perfect on brownies. You put it on brownies or cake while they are still warm. I like that because you can fix it as soon as the brownies were done and don't have to wait forever for them to cool before you can frost them. (I left the nuts out.)

So in 40 minutes I had this delicious dessert done and ready to eat. 

And yes, I had to have a sample while it was warm. 

The only thing missing was some vanilla ice cream. Hmm, I haven't had breakfast yet this morning. 

Top 10 Tuesday

There is an estate sale happening this weekend in a neighboring town. I probably won't get the chance to go, but I did see some things that would interest me if the price was right. 

I spotted some Pyrex (of course) Cinderella bowls that I would check out.

I am a sucker for old typewriters. I always check them out, fall in love with them and never buy one. But I would love to see this one up close. Looks in pretty good shape.

I am in love with the vintage looking cookie jar with the red lid.

This is a gorgeous piece of furniture. I would almost sell my antique secretary to make room for this...almost.

This is a pretty piece of furniture as well, but it wouldn't go with anything I have. I thing it would be gorgeous for a linen cabinet.  

I don't know what it is about this picture, but I fell in love with it.

This is just too precious. It would need clean up and a new paint job, but I love it.

I would really like to have this in my craft room. Definitely needs some TLC.

I have a weakness for teapots and these colors are in my craft/office room where I keep a lot of my tea pot collections.

But this was my favorite item of all. I would absolutely love to have this for my craft room. Imagine all the goodies you could store in it. 

I may not make it to the estate sale, but I got some good ideas for my wish list for spring.

I changed my mind.....

Do you ever buy something that is a good deal only to get it home and later on decide it wasn't what you wanted? Well, this past year I picked up some good deals at various thrift stores and yard sales that I have changed my mind on. I liked this Fire King Meadow Green casserole dish when I saw it, but I have decided to sale or trade it off. 

I had bought the matching baking dish in the same pattern and have never used it. I have a Pyrex one I use all the time.

I bought this Opal Pyrex 023 because there was no pattern, just simple white. Now, I don't like it any more because there is no pattern, just simple white. 

A friend gave me this gravy boat because I had this pattern in some bowls. Now I am tired of this pattern and want to trade for something more in the line of what I am collecting. 

This Glasbake loaf pan is pretty, but just something I have never used and never found a good place to put it. 

The Old Orchard Pyrex 043 is a common piece, but not everyone collects it. I used to have several pieces in this pattern, but that was way back before I started collecting and they have ended up in yard sales.

These were two of my first Pyrex pieces I bought when I started collecting. Now it is not one of the patterns I collect any more. 

I'm going to hit the Varage Sale, Craigslist and Facebook Vintage groups this morning to put all this up for sale or trade. If you know anyone who is a collector that may be interested in these pieces, feel free to send them a link to this blog. I would love to part with these to make room for the patterns I am collecting now.

Sunday Morning Song

I had four young girls at my house ranging from 5 - 12 last night. We had a blast doing crafts and making homemade pizza. There was a lot of laughter and fun. But the highlight of the evening was when they all starting singing. 

They sang. They danced. They cheered. They performed. And they had a blast doing it.  

They didn't care what song it was and it was fun just watching them get excited about the next song they picked out on You Tube. 

It was such a relaxing, fun evening. Not a one of them had a shy bone in their body when it came to performing.

It reminded me why I like to be in the choir. There is just something uplifting and tension releasing about singing.

Because of all the joy they found in song, I wanted to find a really upbeat song for this morning. Hope you enjoy.