I've Got Time to Play!

So I played with dishes in the backyard!

I saw on Instagram there was a #summerdesignchallenge for a garden party and I thought it would be fun to play along.  Of course, I missed the deadline, but oh well, I had fun and I took enough pics to share with you!

I started with this table runner I picked up at Home Goods earlier in the spring.  It's perfect for where I'm heading with my sunroom/dining room.  

We have my parents old chippy picnic table and I love the way it looks.  However, Worker Bee is fed up with it.  He is worried about ingesting paint chips.  I told him it's good for the digestion, but he disagrees.  I just might have to repaint it this summer.  

Then I used my thrifted vintage Wedgewood Hedge Rose plates.

I added my vintage, probably antique, silver-plate flatware and napkins I bought at World Market.

I used the sweet aqua glasses I got from Pottery Barn and wine glasses my mom picked up for me at the pharmacy she used to work at.  They are made by Tag.

Finally, I used these aqua bowls from World Market.

Who knew?  My wine bottle even goes with the beachy colors!

And I am such a rotten friend.  I texted pictures of my little imaginary garden party to my friends teaching summer school.  Don't worry, I promised to have them over for a nice garden luncheon.

Now, can I serve you a lovely gazpacho soup?  Or perhaps a cold berry soup?

Thanks for buzzing' along!

Linking up to Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Glorious Junk Days

Over Memorial Day weekend, I met up with the ever so talented More Creative Bee to start planning our fair tables and trees and whatnot.

Lucky for us….Glorious Junk Days was just a few blocks away from where we always do our planning (it's always Panera Bread - great inspiration spot) and I just have to share with you one of the best finds ever!

Nah!  It's not this great bread box! (Although I DO love it.  Twice the size of my old one from World Market – of course – and it's a fun beachy blue.)  I'm pretty sure this is not vintage, although it's got that great vintage style.

What I did find and what I wish I'd splurged on are these whimsical (you know I such a sucker for whimsy) and quirky (seriously, quirky too? how can I possibly resist - I even named my iPod Quirky Tunes) ROBOTS!

I KNOW!  

Of all things….ROBOTS!

But seriously, you guys are going to be charmed by these too. 

(And maybe a bit creeped out by a few too - I was so fascinated by them.  I hung out at the booth for quite awhile, but I WAS NOT acting creepy.)

You know you're charmed, right?  Who can resist a strawberry robot?

I loved the colors on this one and the biscuit tin!

Can you see the kitty and its mouse?  I mean c'mon!  Robots that amuse you! I love folk art that just charms you!

I was really drawn to this one - you know how Worker Bee and I love globes.  (Okay, it might be me that loves globes, but Worker Bee needs a collection and I need an excuse to buy globes!)

And this interesting one was the one I couldn't take my eyes off of.  I like it and then I'm creeped out a bit by it and then I like it again!

So.

Do you want to know where you can find such fun and funky and whimsical and quirky treasures for yourself?

Well, you can go here…

owbots.com

or

you can find their etsy store here…

Old and Weird Robots etsy shop

or

you can find some of their creations here on…..

their pinterest board.

And, by the way…it's been a pretty stressful school year.  But….it's almost over!  I hope to visit with you a bit more now that there's only 7 more days of school!!! (Can I hear an alleluia?)

Thanks for buzzin' in!

And Here Is What the Guest Room/Craft Studio Looks Like Now…(Before I Turn It into My Studio)

My last post was about inspiration for my future craft studio.

Here is what it looks like now.

It's sort of cabin-y, rustic and has always been one of my favorite rooms.  I used to have a wing chair in there for sitting and reading, but we moved it to the library and slipcovered it in white denim.  I'm on the hunt for another one though, because I think a room for inspiration should have a comfy little reading spot.

I use a quilt as an inspiration board - I just pin things to it that make me smile.

The new space will be bright and colorful and those barn reds will be going away.  I'm going to miss them though.  The walls will no longer be grocery bag brown.  Well, that's what we called that color.

I love all my Scotch Plaid picnic pieces too. 

I really don't want to get rid of them.  But I don't think they'll quite fit in the new room.  Hmmm…..Baby Bee is a few years away from going to college.  Maybe I'll save them for when her room becomes the new guest room.  (It was the old guest room before she was born.  It was cute too and cabin-y.  I had two beds with white coverlets and red plaid dust ruffles and shams.  Somewhere I have pictures of it.  I'll have to find those someday.)

One of my favorite things in here are the curtains and the "rods."  

I bought those two bent willow fence pieces to use as headboards in the old guest room (before Baby Bee was born) but when that room became her nursery, I just couldn't part with them.  Sound like a familiar theme?  The chambray curtains I think I picked up at Target, but then never really used them.  Then one day, the inspiration fairy came for a visit and she made me think I could use those fence pieces as a valance and then tie the curtains onto them.  Seriously.  That is one of my favorite things and it will not be going away.

Did you notice the duck phone? When it rings it goes, "Wank, wank, wank, wank…….wank, wank, wank, wank."  Frankly, it scares the (you fill in the blank) out of folks who aren't expiating it.

 (Well you will now since I just put a picture here.)  When Worker Bee and I were first married and we lived in two bedroom apartments, the second bedroom was always an office.  This was in the early 1990s and Worker Bee decided he wanted a duck theme in there.  We even found a wing chair in hunter green (remember, it was the early 90s) with embroidered ducks on it.  In fact, it's the other wing chair in our library that's also covered with a denim slipcover.  (Don't tell anyone, but Worker Bee thinks ducks will come back in fashion one day and he'll get his duck chair back.  Ha! Ha! Ha!)

Eventually I will find a bigger china cabinet for out in the sunroom/dining room to store my dish hoard and when that happens, the old china cabinet will come live in the studio.  

I'm not sure if I'll keep the little armoire or not.  

(True story - in one of Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion issues they used this same armoire for one of the cutest cottages ever and I was obsessed with getting one.  I believe it was from Wal-Mart.  Worker Bee went to every Wal-Mart in the valley trying to find one of these for me.  Isn't he a sweetheart?  So.  Maybe I can't get rid of this piece.  Too much sentimental value.  I originally used it in the kitchen to put the microwave in and the dream machine and other kitchen supplies.  It was great! Wow!  That was a very long parenthetical passage!)

So.  Now you know the story of the guest room/craft studio.

This is going to be fun!  

The Guest Room/Future Craft Studio

Worker Bee and I have been talking.  That's a good thing.

We have a guest room that has also been functioning as a part-time crafts studio.  I love the room, but it doesn't quite function completely as either room.  

So, Worker Bee and I have been talking.  Okay, I might have been doing most of the talking but he nodded in agreement.  

We are going to turn the guest room into a full time craft studio!  YIPPEE!

And if you can't find it in a store, you can find it in this etsy shop.

I am so glad I picked up a copy of this magazine 'cause it has provided some SERIOUS inspiration.

In particular, this little work table set up is perfect for my little room.

It will involve a road trip to Ikea.  

This studio used this set of drawers from Ikea…

a hollow core door…….

and a trestle from Ikea.

And hopefully I'll be able to pick up one of these there too….

 And I have to get one of these from Harbor Freight.

And, of course, here are a few more images of studio inspiration….

All images from my Pinterest board: For the "Studio"

The project will get underway during our Spring Break.  That is if I can talk Worker Bee into that road trip.  There might have to be some serious bribery involved.  

Serious bribery.  

Do you have any suggestions or idea for my new studio?

Thanks for buzzing in!

And So the Aqua Quest Continues...

I am so obsessed with my beachy colors these days.  

OBSESSED I tell you!

I was just innocently entering the shipping information for a recent etsy sale and I decided I needed to search for aqua/turquoise pottery while I was there.  

And, of course, I found something.

The real McCoy, you know.

Should be here in a few days!  Can't wait!

Wanna' see what else I found?

etsy

etsy

etsy

So, what random things do you search for on etsy?

Thanks for buzzing in!  Such a delight to see you!

P.S.  And thank you so much for your kind words from my last post.  That's one of the things I love about this community!
P.P.S.  I bought the basket weave McCoy planters, but the rest are available on etsy…….for now…..

Let's Just Pretend I've Been a Good Blogger, Shall We? PLUS Bonus Milagros!

Please go about your business and let's just all pretend that I've been posting projects and recipes and ideas here regularly, okay?  That way I can lift my head out of the deep pit of blogger shame I am in.

Agreed?  Good.

So.  I've been busy going to estate sales (and not listing on etsy or posting here) but I had to share something kind of fun I found recently.

First, my little cottage was built in 1951 (and I wish Chip and JoJo could work a bit of their magic on my kitchen/bathroom/living room/etc.) and my cute (but kinda' dated) kitchen has vintage pine wood paneling along some of the walls.  Why am I telling you this and what does it have to do with an estate sale?  Well, we went to the cutest little cottage - and it made my house feel like a mansion - on the second day and almost every wonderful bit of vintage fun had been picked over and sold off.  But the intrepid Worker Bee and I ventured into the garage which was filled with a lot of junk (as garages tend to do) but for some reason I looked down and found some cut pieces of this same gorgeous pine paneling that we have in our house.  (btw, ours is painted white) 

I knew I had at last found the perfect piece of wood for a project I've had in the back of my head for many years.  Do you ever have something like that happen?  Just all of a sudden the pieces fall in place and it's like something you'd totally forgotten about suddenly is solved!

You see, a few years ago, like maybe ten, Worker Bee and I had gone to that gorgeous town of Carmel and I had found these three milagros in a charming little shop.  

I bought three of them because we are a little family of 3 (and maybe because I like odd numbers too, but the story sounds better the other way) and I knew I wanted to put them on a piece of wood, but I knew I wanted the wood to have some character to it.  

You can just imagine the glee I felt when I saw this piece and how it connected to what we already had in our house and how I finally had the piece of wood that had the right character for my sweet milagros.  I bought every piece they had (which was 4) and I paid $2 for all of them! 

So, this weekend, along with several other projects I have in mind, we will nail these onto the board and then I will hang it in our living room!

What do you think of that?  And, no, I didn't dust or clean anything off, I was just THAT excited.  

So glad you've buzzed in for a visit.  Hope to see you again soon. 

P.S.  Cute indigo washi tape from a flash steal from Decor Steals!  I LOVE them!