Flea Market Chippy Window Adds Extra Texture To My Tablescape

A local collectibles mall sponsored a flea market this morning.  I grabbed my go cup of coffee, my hubby and a few friends and headed out to check it out.  We were somewhat disappointed because most of the participants were heavy on the pricing.  You gotta wonder why?  I wanted to stand back and loudly say, "Hey people!  It's a flea market!  What's with the pricing?!" 

Well....in the end, one of my friends bought a neat "I Like Ike" campaign button for 3 bucks and I found this neat chippy window pane for 10 bucks.  As we walked out to our cars, that same friend asked me what I was going to do with the window.  I told him that I would use it in a backdrop for photo shoots with my Homeless Finch furniture makeover.  But for know, I tucked it into this sweet little tablescape in my master bedroom. 

I love the layer and texture that it adds sitting in front of the antique bed frame that I have leaning on the wall behind this farmhouse work table.  This little lady is a sculpture that I made a few years ago.  She is made out of terracotta clay, glazed with flat, chalky off white under glaze.  She stands holding a little blue bird in her up-faced palms.  The ironstone bedside pitcher was handed down to me from my southern grandmother on my father's side of the family. 

Keep your eye out for interesting windows frames, doors and such when you are searching around yard sales and flea markets.  They make wonderful backdrops and add interest for very little money.  I didn't come home with a ton of goodies today, but I'm happy with this fun find.  It was also enjoyable to spend the morning strolling and chatting with friends.  Win, win.  Get out and enjoy the day!

-The End-

My Pine Hutch Shifts to Thanksgiving Mode Filled With Cherished Memories of My Mother

Over this past weekend, before my hands got so deep into painting my Master Bath Cabinets and Doors, I switched out the strictly Halloween accents on my pine hutch and placed a few treasured Thanksgiving friends throughout the already autumn inspired design.  If you missed how I put this together for autumn and Halloween you can go HERE to see the original post.  (By the way, I am typing this right now with days of dried white paint all over my fingers.  I gave up two days ago at trying to scratch it off!)

So here are my new friends.

My mother, who has has been gone for over 17 years, bought me these little paper pilgrims at a crafts fair at a local high school. She saw me eyeballing them and knew at the time that I couldn't afford them. She bought them when I wasn't looking and showed up on Thanksgiving Day with them for me as a hostess gift. I pack them away by themselves with fresh tissue paper every year. I truly treasure these little people. They remind me of good times with my mom.

I bought these that same year at an outdoor crafts festival.

I scattered these little blocks atop my vintage skates and along the top edge of the hutch.

My Mother gave both me and my sister a set of these little china pilgrims.  At the time she also gave us an octagon shaped mirror to set them on.  After she passed and for several years, I would set them up just as she wanted us to on that mirror.  Time has passed and I have grown to realize that what she really wanted for us is to figure out what we liked and do it our own way.  I think it takes being a mother to finally understand that.  I still have that mirror, but prefer to set them out together without it.  They have suffered damage over the years at the hand of my children when they were small.  I have mended them with some Elmer's glue and put them right back out. 

Somebody named 'Twinkle Toes" of Fort Lauderdale made this little Clay Pot Turkey.  I think he is ingenious and wanted to show you this.  As you can see he would be easy to replicate and is a possible great craft idea for a party. If you want me to email you close up images, just let me know.

This tall drink of water is one of my newer purchases.  I picked him up a few years ago at HomeGoods.  Below him on the table of the bottom half of the hutch are a wooden turkey I picked up along with way and a little scrabble message idea I took from the blogs. 

Scattered throughout the entire layout are my primitive boxes and vintage tools and utensils.  I love this collection and always try to incorporate much of it in my seasonal decorating. 

Do you have cherished pieces that you have kept over the years?  Do you remember to bring them out and enjoy them?  Do you have anything boxed away, shoved in a closet or drawer that someone special gave you? Perhaps that special someone is gone, like my mother.  Don't forget to bring those special items out and enjoy them.  I can say that just bringing my paper pilgrim couple and china pilgrim family out brings me back to a wonderful time in my life.  It somehow keeps me connected to my mom.  It reminds me of what an amazing person she really was and inspires me to carry on the legacy...


Now....I gotta run and get back to the cabinets.  They are really looking awesome, but they are just not ready to reveal.   Here is a sneak peek from yesterday on my progress.

-The End-

Thrift Store Find Turned Tablescape Goodness

Don't you just love it when you stop off at your local thrift store and score big time?!!  Well, I had that happen last Friday.  Earlier this week, I showed you my nifty little owl that got a makeover in the post HERE.   If that wasn't exciting enough, during the same stop last week at my local Goodwill Thrift Store, I also found six very eye catching amber chandelier globes.  They were sitting all alone without a light fixture.

They were marked $1.50 each, which made me stop and ponder.  What could I do with these harvest colored crackly globes?  After all, they felt so seasonal with that amber glass.  In my thoughts, I new they would reflect light lovely since that was their original purpose.  Plus they were cheap, so I decided to grab them up and figure it out later.

After clearing away all the Halloween decorations, I needed to re-work my farmhouse table.  Let's be honest...I was sick of the Halloween stuff and wanted it put away!  Oh!  I was so very sick of it.  Cute at first, gaudy and annoying as the days dragged on.  I needed something simple.  Something just to set on the table so it didn't look abandoned, but wasn't too much either.  Enter....the globes!!!! Yeah!

I put a simple table-runner from my stash across the freshly cleaned and dusted table. (Did I tell you I was sick of those Halloween decorations?)  I then placed the globes with six red votive candles that I picked up at some point from The Dollar Store and half burnt this past year inside each globe.  Ahh! Fresh, clean, clear, sparkly and simple.

I will probably work in some fresh greens and berries for my Thanksgiving table later in the month.  For now, I am so enjoying lighting them each night and enjoying the harvest glow from my little fun thrift shop find.  Have you strolled your local thrift shop lately?  It's fun, relaxing and has the potential to provide something special for your table.  Enjoy the day!

-The End-

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White Shutters Window Treatment in The Master Bathroom

Ugly Curtains/source:here

I am not a fan of curtains.  I don't really know why.  I have had some really super beautiful window treatments along the way, but currently I do not have a single curtain in my house.  When I think of it I cringe.  Is it the dust that I perceive them collecting?  Is it the way they block part of the light coming into my rooms or the view they potentially block?!  I just don't know.  They are just the last thing on my list and they never seem to get done.  The image to the left is something I found doing a web search for ugly curtains.  They made me laugh.  If they are yours, well...sorry for laughing.

Enter....my Master Bathroom Project and these really plain windows with a need to do something. 

Okay....I probably need to admit that not having any privacy in a bathroom can become a problem, especially at night.  Since removing the cheap wooden blinds a few months ago that the previous owner installed, we have been stumbling around in the dark at night.  Yep, I know...  Morons!  

One window has a pretty good amount of foliage outside, so there is coverage there, but not for the one over the tub.  With a vacant lot next door, I figure that I have about 7 neighbors who if they were curious just might have caught a glimpse of me or my hubby.  Something had to be done! Not because I care about being seen, but because I don't want to traumatize my neighbors with such a frightful sight!

I spotted this shutter project on a blog I read, Tidbits from the Tremaynes. Mandy made these nifty shutters for a bedroom.  I thought, "Hey! I can do this same thing in the bathroom." 

I had my helper Ed come over and we created the shutters to fit my window.  Here they are just after completing them.

So, Ed left and I painted the shutters with two coats of Sherwin Williams Duration in Alabaster White.  I mainly used a roller, except for the hard to reach places.  I wanted the clean look that a roller provides.

Ed came back just the other day and we hung the shutters in the bathroom.  If you remember, I painted the walls a few months back in a pale yellow to match my master bedroom.  We used 4 three inch heavy duty chrome hinges that we attached inside the pocket, but giving the shutter room to fully open.  I took some quick images for you to see.  No fancy staging here.  I will work on that for the final bath reveal.  Here they are...

I love this image because it shows the lawn job some happy teenager
bestowed on the vacant lot next door.  Makes me smile.

Just like Mandy at Tidbits from the Tremaynes, these shutters are mainly decorative.  You have probably figured out that if I completely closed them, we wouldn't get complete coverage on the windows. 

If you remember, I have been collecting stained glass windows that I ultimately would like to hang in the windows to block the view, but still let in the light.  I have only found a few that I like at the price I am willing to pay.  There aren't a lot of outlets for that type of thing in my area.  The hunts goes on... 

In the end, I am left with one thought...a question.  Did you look closely at the last image of the shutters?  Do you think that what really prompted those teenagers, or juvenile adults to peel out in the lot next door could have been the sight of this past-her-prime gal walking in her pajamas to the toliet?!!  I think it could have been.

-The End-

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