The Summers of my Youth

I remember summertime when I was young as a time of wonder and excitement.
We would play outside for endless hours. Sometimes Mom would fix our lunch and we would eat it on a blanket in the yard under the old oak tree.



We would take walks to the store and library. We usually had a quarter and would go to the Stop & Shop and get 25 pieces of penny candy.



My favorite was banana Kits, Pixie Sticks, Sixlets, and BB Bats.



My favorite food in the summer was a cheese sandwich with Miracle Whip and pickle on it.



My favorite drink was grape Kool-Aid with lemons squeezed in it.



Sweet summertime memories.

A tea party...

It has been suggested to me that a tea party would be a great theme for a Thirty-One party. As usual I went to Pinterest to get ideas. Love the idea of these little sandwiches.

And check this out. They bought the white paper doilies and dyed them various colors to use under tea cups.

Silverware was wrapped in vintage napkins. Isn't this cute. 

I love the thought of small vases on the table with a single rose in each vase.

How cute is this for lemonade for those who don't do tea.

And the next time I serve lemon with a drink, I am definitely doing this so I can have fancy lemons. 

Isn't this a beautiful table setting?

I have several matching teacups so this is a cute idea to do for cookies. 

Talk about a simple, yet elegant looking dessert. This is as cute as can be.

I need to think this through and see if I can do a tea. 

The room makeover....

I finally, finally have my room like I want it. This is my craft room/home office so I am in here quite a bit. I love the new room darkening curtains. They keep that horrible, headache-causing afternoon sun from being so glaring through the window. This is my desk area where I do my Thirty-One business.

And this is my craft table. It has two chairs because I reduced the size of my kitchen table and needed a place to put the chairs. This is the table I got at a yard sale for $10.00. You can tell it matches my kitchen chairs really good.

I use my book shelves to organize crafts and catalogs and to display some of my favorite things.

My door pockets and favorite wreath.

My utility card with my vintage style clock and radio. 

My storage bins for paper supplies and my awards corner for acknowledgments for reaching my goals in Thirty-One. 

Craft supplies, Thirty-One catalogs and order forms, etc. And my favorite tea set along with my sister tea for one set and my Little Women display. Need to find the other two dolls.

My miniature tea sets, my beach memory shelf, more craft storage and some of my books.

My quilt rack that Daddy made for me.

I love my two big storage bins.

My favorite wreath that my dear friend Georgeanna made for me last year.

Well, there you have it. My finally organized favorite room of the house.

Weekend Wrap-Up

It was a beautiful weekend and my daughter and I decided to take Saturday to hit some yard sales in a neighboring city. We had a great day and found some pretty good finds.

I am not sure why, but I liked this little bird. I have a thing for glass. I got him for just 5¢.

I picked up a solid white linen tablecloth with no stains or marks for just 75¢.

Not sure what these were. They have the feel of a cloth napkin, but they are smaller than any I have ever seen. But since there were four of them, I think that is what they are. I got the whole set for just 50¢.

I love tin cans. I don't collect them per se, but if I see one I like I will get it. Especially when it was just 25¢.

This little crystal jar was so pretty and in perfect shape. I was looking for something to keep rubber bands in for my home office so that is what I am using it for. It was $1.00.

I am starting to gather quite a few little cream pitchers. I am not sure why, but they are so cute that I just started collecting them. This one was just 25¢.

My daughter found these plates for me and together they were 75¢ so I got them. Look for them in a future posts holding a candle or something.

I love this little vintage style powder box. I am not sure if it is actual vintage or not, but I picked it up to send my cousin Patty because it matches the Victorian style of her home. I can't remember what I paid for it, but it was either $1.00 or 50¢. 

And the whole reason we went yard selling was because I saw a pitcher on Craig's List for $4.00 that was from the 1930's to early 1940's. It is made in the USA. And I called the lady and she was going to hold it for me until I could get to her yard sale on Saturday. She did and I am so happy with it. It is a lot bigger than what I thought it would be, but you can tell it was definitely made to use not for decor. I am loving it.

After we left all the yard sales, we made a quick dash to Walmart. I picked up some yarn to make coasters. I have a pattern I use that makes beautiful plastic canvas coasters with variegated yarn. I show them to you when I make them.

And I picked up some curtains that are the room darkening. I know with them being pink you wouldn't think they would darken. But they do and I love them. 

I tried to iron them, but they are going to need a wash to get all the wrinkles out. But I wanted to hang them first to see if I am going to like them before I went to all that trouble. I will have to take them down this week and take care of the wrinkles. The curtains triggered a whole energy moment where I cleaned the office/craft room from top to bottom and got organized. Be sure and come back tomorrow to see how my room finally finished up.

Inspirational

 

My Sister's Decor

Well, I was right. I told you my sister liked to put cookbooks in baskets just like I do. We are so much alike. It was one of those things I started doing and she started doing and then one day we were exchanging pics and realized we both were doing that. This happens to us all the time. Thank you Sis for sending me some pics of your decor to share today. 

I do love the little vintage rolling pin in this basket of books. I need to look for one of those.

A bread cloth in the basket is another good idea.

These sit very well in this cute wire basket.

A few more in a wicker basket. That is another thing we share...our love of baskets of any kind.

She has a gorgeous collection of Fiesta Ware so I asked her to share some of those with us today. I want you to take note of the roosters and chicken scattered throughout her displays. That is another thing we share. We get our love of roosters and chickens because Mom decorated with them and still does. I don't know if Rachel remembers this or not, but Mamaw Eden used chickens and roosters at one time in her kitchen. As a matter of fact, I have 3 of  Mamaw's roosters in my house. They are very old and fragile. There is a set of a rooster and hen and then one individual rooster. I think I will bribe her that the next time she comes down she can have the smaller rooster if she wants it.

This is my favorite cabinet of her. I just love the red on it.

This is just a cute apothecary style jar she has that I like.

This is a very pretty display.

Love the little angel. And oh, look, she has a grandma's kitchen sign exactly like one I have. Told you we are SO much alike.

Love the blue chip and dip bowl.

I think she said she got this at Hobby Lobby, but not positive.

This is a very pretty display.

Check out the little cats on a rug under the table. I would never have thought of doing a display like that. She is so talented.

Love the ladder back chair under a shelf idea.

Our cousin Jeannie made Rachel this dishtowel for all her Fiesta ware. Isn't it adorable.

I love this chicken. She thinks she got it down here some where. And look at the chicken wire table. Again, we both started decorating with chicken wire and didn't have a clue we were both doing that. Just cracks me up how much we have in common. We are only 13 months apart in age so I guess it is only natural that we share so many common bonds.

I love all her displays and am adoring all her roosters and chicks. But she sent me a picture of the cutest chick she has. Her granddaughter Makenzie. Isn't she a doll baby. Her mom Amy puts her on the phone with me sometimes and she is definitely going to take after the rest of us because she loves to chit chat. 

Hope you enjoyed a tour through the decor in my sisters house today. Again, thanks Rachel for sharing these beautiful displays with us.