A New Purple Rug

On a whim, I ordered this purple rug from Wayfair last week.

I tend  to do things like this in the wee hours of the morning (before leaving for work) and  then regret  the money I spent because the product is not what it appeared to be on my computer screen.

I bought the rug in the hope that it would be a spring update for  my quarter-century old floral love seat and sofa in my living room.

I am  thrilled to report that I LOVE this big 6 ft x 9 ft rug!

This room is rarely used, so the  25 year old furniture still looks new.  I think the rug does work to make the room look more up to date.

I also ordered  that flower vase holder from Wayfair.  I stuck some artificial pink calla lilies in it.

I  like it.

I am still working on the rest of the room, but , so far, I am thrilled with my purchase!

Denim & Diamonds

Today I wore the big bold diamond-like flower necklace that I showed you in my last post.  I wore it with black pants, black top and a white denim jacket. 

 I bought this jacket at the same time I bought the necklace, hoping they would work together.  The combo looked just the way I imagined it would and I loved it!  I think the Bling-bling from the necklace added just the touch I needed to elevate a jean jacket to wear-to-work status.

I even got a few compliments.  After work I went to get my hair done and two hair stylists commented on how much they liked it, which made me feel good. 

I also wore a CC belt with silver accents that I bought a few years ago.  I needed some silver on the belt to go with the silver snap buttons on the jean jacket.

I am planning to wear this exact combo again this weekend.  It is always nice when my purchases turn out to be exactly what I had planned in my mind when I hit the order button!

That is not the only good luck I had today.  I had 15 min. to spare between leaving work and my hair appointment.  Last week I bought two new lamp shades for my living room.  When I got them home, they were a tad too short.  I have been trying to find lamp shades for months and there is just NOTHING in my small town.  So I decided to keep the too-short shades and just add some trim to the bottom. 

The only place I have to buy trim in my town is JoAnne's Fabric store. I ran right to the back of the store to see if they  had any trim in the close-out section.  They had only one---it was exactly what I wanted!!  No kidding............look at this..................

I could not have had a better match if I hand dyed it!  It was $6/yard less than the same fringe in other colors.  I really should forget about this post and go buy a lottery ticket!  My luck just does not get better than it was today.

Vase of Real Eggs and Ornamental Grass

I did a bit of spring/Easter decorating today.  I removed my winter burgundy sofa covers to reveal the lighter spring/summer color palette.  Then I replaced the pine cones in my sled coffee table with Romantic Home magazines with covers in colors to coordinate with the sofa and love seat.

  I also replaced the pine cones from the vase of ornamental grass heads with real eggs that I decoupaged years ago.

I am liking the lighter look.  It's about 40 degrees and sunny today...feels like spring is in the air....kind of nice..........

Burlap Lamp Shade Remake - part 2

 (see yesterday's post for part 1)
I was happy to see that the shade dried completely overnight and looks good.

I am always amazed how Mod Podge dries and never looks blotchy. 

No, I am not leaving it like that.  The finishing details is where the fun begins.  I made a long piece of ruffled burlap (just like I made for the Ace shopping bag redo, but much longer).  Then I used hot glue to attach it across the bottom.

Of course, I won't leave that raw edge exposed.

Luckily I had just enough of the black wooden beads left from the animal handbag I made last month.

I just hot glued them on. I was very careful not to use too much hot glue because I didn't want a messy trim with hot glue gobs dried on the front side. I  bought those beads a few years ago with a lamp shade redo in mind. Yeah, it took awhile for me to get started. :)

I could not find anything new to use on the top edge, so I just reglued the original black trim back on.

I finished both lamps early this morning, but that was just the beginning. 

 I decided  the table needed to be covered in something complementary.  I spent until noon redoing things.

 When that was done, I felt I needed to add some burlap to the curtains. I ended up taking down the blue curtains and replacing them with an old set of tab-topped rusty maroon curtains. I cut them apart and added a 10-inch block of burlap near the top.

This is where I am at now. I have a major problem because I can't find the second set of rusty maroon curtains! I have searched two floors and they are nowhere to be found.  I am too pooped to do much more today. It's nearly 1:00 p.m. and I still have to get some major cleaning done.  

So one window will remain curtainless for a while. We always remove the curtains from that window anyway during the Christmas season as the tree goes in front of it.  Hopefully I will find the curtains before I take the tree down!

Rustic Frames

Love these twig/bark frames!

Not really feeling the love for this..

Really, must we be subjected to these ads on blogs?

I kid you  not, this popped up while I was surfing some decorating linky party blogs. I took a screen shot just so I could prove it.

 This blog was overloaded with advertising, enough to  cause my computer to bog down and stop before it all loaded.  As I was X'ing out (as I tend to do immediately on ad-filled blogs), this pop up got through. I will never know what sucks more than bridesmaid shoes because I refuse to click on a blog advertisement.  I will not return to that blog or any other that invites me in and then inundates me with advertising--especially the universally hated pop-ups.

Changed the Wagon Wheel Garden

You may have noticed in Saturday's post that I had moved the aqua milk can from the wagon wheel garden.

There used to be an aqua watering can here.

I swapped the two around.

The wagon wheel garden now looks like this:

I also moved the clump of tall purple phlox to the side of the stump. I like it better now. The tall milk can with the cobalt blue container was too much in one area.

Here is the view from across the path:

The gold lilies in front are the 'Condilla' double daylilies. The big yellow daylily is 'Charm Bracelet'--it has huge 5-inch blooms with ruffled edges. They are lovely when they bloom, but a big wet mess the next day!

I have been trying to think of a color to paint my dining room walls -- when and if they ever get re-drywalled--all the contractors are busy and taking forever to give me a bid...........anyway, I love this dining room:



Right now I am planning to paint the walls a light aqua and paint my dining room chairs white. Of course, that is subject to change...

Done with Santa, Now Bring on the Easter Bunny!

I suppose it is a little early for most people, but today DH and I took down the tree and all the Christmas decorations.

I started at 6:00 a.m. with the entertainment center. I was finished taking it all down in less than half an hour. I packed it all up and then had to wait a couple of hours until DH got up to do the tree. I wanted him to help haul up (and back down to the basement) the storage totes.

Working together we had it all done by noon.

While putting the totes away, I spotted a box with two wooden Easter bunnies that I had planned to repaint.

Why not today?

I brought them up to the dining room (covered the table with an old blanket that was already full of paint splatters) and spent an hour or so happily repainting them. Now I have a bright pink table, a chocolate bunny and a purple bunny to use in my Easter decorations. Once I have a mess in progress, I try to find other things that need doing. I decided to "pewterize" three frames that I have too much white. I never plan these things...I mean, really, who would be thinking of Easter bunnies the day after Christmas? This stuff just pops into my mind and I jump up and do it. I've always been this way............But I digress...........I decided the frames needed help and went down to the basement to find some paint. I saw this dimensional fabric paint called "pewter" and thought I would give it try.
I just squeezed it on the frame, like this:
Then used a small paint brush to blend it in. . . and....Voila! The frames resemble pewter! I think it looks so much better!

Now I have an empty space where the tree was. I think I will leave the side panels off for the winter. I like to let in all the light I can this time of the year.

I may bring up a desk from the basement to put in front of the window. I could use the desk area for a jigsaw puzzle. I always think that, but it's been years since I've actually done a puzzle.

Tonight I don't have to cook a thing for dinner. We are having leftover turkey sandwiches--can't wait! That's what I missed about not cooking for Thanksgiving.

Spontaneous Overnight Trip

I never did get any baking done.

Saturday morning DH and I decided to take an overnight trip to the upper peninsula. Look at the ominous clouds over the Mackinac Bridge when we came home today.

We love to get away for the weekend, but we will be doing it less with snowy weather like this beginning.

It was pretty, but not the safest driving conditions. We already have hotel reservations for 3 days the first weekend in December. Last year we had reservations on the same weekend and had to cancel because of a big storm. I hope we get to go this year as it's my birthday weekend. How often does a girl turn 39? Hee hee. . . I guess this will be about the 14th year for me!


We were home by noon today and I worked on my kitchen valances. I finished all of the panels and then started to think about what embellishment I would add between each burgundy triangle. I wanted to introduce some turquoise color because I have it in the family room.

Recently I found a new blog called Sparkle Jars. She posted a how to for rosettes that she used on a table runner. They inspired me to try something similar on my valances. I think I am really liking these. My original intention was to put a burgundy fabric covered button in the center. But now I think this may be enough. I need to make about 30 of these, which will be plenty of work without having to cover 30 big buttons also. I don't even know if I have any more of this fabric. I will have to do some detective work in the basement to see if I can find more of it. It seems like I saw some down there last week, but I am not sure.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

One of my best junk store buys

This 1950's cabinet has been one of my favorite junk-on-the-verge-of-being-an-antique purchase. If you ever watch old Andy Griffith shows, you will see a very similar cabinet in Bee's kitchen. I am always changing the display.

Since I am one of those rooster people, I really liked this county cupboard display. It went well with the table when I did the chicken settings.

Then I moved it to the living room and changed to this one -- quite a difference with all its frilly pink components.

I love to hang this old French purse filled with ladylike items over the knob.
This is an odd combination of Peach Lustre dishes and fruit shaped salt and pepper shakers, and even my old bronzed baby shoes!
Lots of green with purple accents to go with the old TV trays hanging on the wall.

When I was painting the living room, I decided to change the color of the inside of the china cabinet to white. I think I like the new white color, but I was not very creative and just put a bunch of purple items in it.

I really need to come up with a more creative display.

This old relic deserves better!

Campbell Soup Embellished Valances

Talk about differnt! LOL.
While searching the basement for something to embellish the valances, I came across these tiny little boxes of cambpell's soup. Hmmmmmmm....I wonder..........I do have a Campbell's kid cookie jar.

Well, I think they are quirky....maybe a tad too quirky for me.......so I continued my search.

I found three packages of these little mirrored black circles.


I wish they were about twice the size.
I spent some time trying to find something to back them with to make them bigger, but found nothing.
So I used them as they were.


And these valances are finished for now. I may change the embellishment if I come across something I like better.

My Kitchen Windows have been Bare for the Past Month

I took the winter/holiday curtains down and have not replaced them because I want to make something different.

I have had this Simplicity 4973 pattern for quite some time.

I am always buying valance patterns when Joanne's has their .99 pattern sales. Most of them never make it out of the envelope. :)

But this cool weather puts me in a sewing mood.

Look! Not only have I removed it from the envelope, but I have even cut the pattern out.

I was surprised to find that only one piece is needed for each style. The envelope says, "Easy", but I wasn't expecting it to be that easy!

When I got home from work I went to the basement to rummage in the fabric bins to see if I had anything suitable. Finally I found two fabrics that I thought would work. I cut out two sections and sewed them together. It was just as easy as the pattern claimed....really, this pattern is a beginner's dream.

In about two hours, I had six sections sewn and pressed. I still need to sew the casing for the rod pocket and do a bit of embellishing....buttons, tassels or something.....but here they are so far:

I guess you can't really see the fabric pattern/color (at least not on my monitor). I will post a better pic when I get them all gussied up. I still have to make 4 more panels for a second window.

Cock-A-Doodle-Do

I can't seem to shake my passion for poultry.

I've been buying them since I was about twenty (oh, I guess it's only been a few years--ha, ha).

Today I thought I would show you a few of the roosters/chickens that reside above my kitchen cabinets.





This is a floor rug. I think it might be cute framed and put on the wall.

The only thing I dislike about these farm birds, is cleaning up after them. I climb up and take them all down to wash at least three times a year. I don't like sticky dusty chickens!