~busy busy busy~

I have been busy, busy, busy.... preparing to head here , creating a costume for a vocabulary parade and hosting a cookout.  I have neglected my poor little shop and the blog...I hope to catch up next week.    


Since my Mom is heading to our cottage I had to take advantage of her sewing talent... My Mom purchased this chair years ago..in a beautiful olive velvet.  She then recovered in this during the late 80's... eeek

When I moved into my first apartment it went with me.. and it has traveled to   5 homes.  I have always kept it in one of the kid's rooms covered up.   It was always on my list to get recovered... I never did... until I talked my Mom into giving it a try.  She is a wonderful seamstress but upholstery is not her thing. You should see my list of things to do when we get to the cottage Friday.. for that chair!  
She finished the chair in record time and now sitting in my newly defined reading nook.  

~kitchen spruce~

 So for the 10 people that probably read my blog...... you will remember...wait just let me remind you...so everyone is up to speed.   I live in an old house.. it's not teeny tiny but it is not a great biggie~  Our kitchen needed a spruce up... not a remodel... a spruce up


This is the before.... and you can read here what I wanted to accomplish.

This is where I ended... I did not accomplish anything on my list...my husband    
who brings home the bacon said the cabinet hardware and cabinets were not in the budget... I agreed.


I splurged on paint and a rug...

After getting inspiration from a talented girl, who also has a smaller kitchen.  I decided just to spruce up with some paint oh and my rug from Dash and Albert.  I then made over some relics from the basement and garage and the the spruce up was complete.

Well excuse me as I head back to my living room spruce up... my lovely husband who brings home the bacon...said there was no budget for that.  Thank goodness I can paint and my lovely Mom can sew.  Please check back Friday... I will share some spruce up photos and we will announce a fun giveaway for our little shop.   Friday all our new goodies will be uploaded to Etsy.


And please head over to this talented girl for her kitchen link party.  Tracy is having everyone share their everyday kitchens.  

~distractions~

 This beautiful spring weather has me totally distracted from blogging or adding things to the little shop .  So I woke up early this morning to take advantage of the morning sun and snap some pictures of product.  We will be uploading items to etsy for the next two days.  On Wednesday we will have a full shop of vintage goodies and announce a fun giveaway.  

                   Fun Happy Birthday ribbons

                

Surprise Find

With the first signs of spring this week, we headed outside to work in the yard.  While I was raking leaves in the drive way; I caught glimpse of a diamond in the rough.  The previous owners left this old metal stool in the garage.  We have lived here 7 years and I never gave it much thought. When I looked at it the other day,  it looked  different then it had in the past...it just needed a little makeover.

My husband of course thinks that I am crazy... "what are you going to do with that ugly thing"


Why does he doubt me....

Never doubt a girl with a couple hours to kill, spray paint, glue and vintage ribbon.  Now we have a new addition to our little kitchen redo.
        
And let me not forget one of my most favorite people in blogging is having a linky party on March 21st.  I love the idea to share your everyday kitchen.  Head over to Tracy's blog Loving Pretty Things to check out the details.

                                        Linking up to.....     
                                       The Picket Fence    
                                   French Country Cottage    
                                    The Charm of Home
                                                          My Romantic Home

15 days and counting

 Most people head to Florida sunny weather for spring break...not this girl.    In 15 days I will be heading here....

My son Grif and I will accompany my Mom while she heads to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for the summer.   It is way up north and the weather is sketchy...but the one thing is where we are located,  we sit on a bay and it protects from harsh weather.  So right now it is sunny and 50 and that is almost a heat wave.   We will head up for a week and help my Mom get settled in...and head home until the end of June when we will go back for a month and a half.   People can tempt me breezy sunny vacations and honestly this is where my heart is ...

The sunny side

 Thank goodness it's Friday.. I have been busy working on my little kitchen re do here .  The funny think about my plans... they change, I never stick with the original one.  I received some great ideas and one of them was to put am  armoire on the brick wall.  I loved that idea...but I would have to get rid of my little space..the sunny side.  The place I sit in the morning, drink my Diet Pepsi (my coffee) and make my notes for the day..  It's my favorite place, especially when the morning sun shines in.   So I left my stainless island in the kitchen,  because you can't mess with a girl's routine.  I have painted and added some new touches,  just waiting for my new rug to arrive from Dash and Albert .  The funny thing is I picked out the exact rug in my inspiration picture.  I love their rugs,  they add a pop of color and most important can be washed!  With an 80 lb golden and a 65 lb greyhound it needs to be washable!   Back to my list and another Diet Pepsi....first thing on my list...stop buying diet pepsi.

Happy Friday!

a tisket a tasket...

 I saw a picture on Pinterest  of a beautiful old basket with a long rope handle and I just had to replicate it in some way.   I found two magazine baskets this weekend for 5.99 a piece.   They were natural so I spray painted them black.

I purchased some rope from the hardware store and used four ikea dishtowels.

I made sure to pick a basket with open holes for handles so the rope could be slipped through and knotted. I simply stitched two Ikea towels together.   If you wash them first they have a more vintage appearance.   The towels from Ikea probably have 100 other uses then just an old dish towel!  Such a quick and easy project.




                                        Linking up to
                                   Savvy Southern Style
                                                                  Primp

i have nothing....

 I made a promise to myself that I would try to post daily... well maybe Monday - Friday.   I am knee deep in painting and reworking some things in my little kitchen redo;  so I don't have any eye popping posts for you... I do have this...   I love this antiquing glaze it can add the look of old in a few strokes.

A few years ago I was searching for an old vintage dress form....but here is the thing about me,  I am, well frugal...and those little sweeties can get you deep in the pockets.  While searching the net a few years ago, I  found on Heather Bullard's blog how she made a new dress form look old.   Well I jumped right on ebay and ordered a dress form for $45 dollars and waited for her to arrive.
I started with a coat of  a creamy colored paint, and with the brush added some texture.  After she dried I added Valspar Antiquing glaze..

I sanded the base and added glaze to that as well I covered the metal with old music sheets.  I am sorry to say she has a lovely wood top...and at the moment it is missing.... I think it fell into the abyss or better known as my closet.

I added some vintage satin ribbon and embellished the top from my stash of buttons.

You can never go wrong attaching vintage baubles and keys with twine....

Perfect to display my vintage horse ribbons.....

A well wrapped package

My love of paper and wrapping started early....when my Mom recruited me for the job!!   She wrapped with Kraft paper back in the day when it was not trendy... she found a roll at my Dad's office and it was free and on the plus it looked great with plaid ribbon.   I believe a present should be wrapped so that it adds a smile even before you see the gift.   Whenever I wrap an order up from the little shop I put a lot of care into it.  I  always have my staples on hand to get the job done... Kraft paper, tissue, and boxes, jute webbing, twine and tons of ribbon!

This may sound a little type "a" but all my scissors have a specific job if you will.  I have a pair for paper, fabric, ribbon, etc.  And at the home of an 8 year old I constantly have to keep my eye on them...my kitchen shears were the recently snatched up to cut tires off  matchbox cars....ugggh~   These scissors are my favorite, mine are a little longer but  they are my go to scissor for any paper project.

Of course the cover is a great Martha Stewart detail!  Another favorite of mine are her fringe scissors~  And for my Kraft paper supplies you can head over to Paper Mart, where you can buy in bulk.  I have a huge roll of Kraft paper that has lasted a year.
With Spring in the air I have been looking for bird chirping inspiration.. and I found it at Nice Package.  Hop on over there to see the most beautifully wrapped packages.   When your there check out there tutorial for
their paper pom poms...so cuuute

picture source.... www.nicepackageblog.com

The final touch to a wrapping up orders and presents is a handwritten note.   Whenever I see a cute box of note cards, I grab them for my stash so I always have variety on hand.    My newest favorite stop for stationary is Sugar Boo Designs .  Don't you love these note cards and paper I just added to my stash!

     picture source sugar boo design

Happy Monday All!

What are your dream luci wallis?

 
I was driving in the center of town in our sweet community and I almost caused a traffic accident.....I slammed the brakes on in the middle of the street.  There was no missed stop sign or dog in the road....there was my favorite store front with a FOR RENT sign on it.   I proceeded down the street to the post office and then turned around to sit in front of that shop for about 15 minutes.     In my first post you will notice I left my retail career of 19 years, while I left the stress and demanding schedule I did not leave my love of retail.   My dream for as long as I can remember was to open my own shop.   I have wanted to open a shop that would offer a combination of vintage finds , paper products and gift items.  I would also have to have room for a big farmhouse table,  where workshops and parties could be hosted to produce the most lovely paper creations.

So you ask how in the world does this fit into "what does your blog want to be when it grows up"...... I should probably title my post "what do I want to be when I grow up".  While I was sitting in front of that beautiful storefront it dawned on me I was not ready for this yet.  The next thought was how can I get there?
So this link party fit perfectly into my mind set...and helped me decide what  I want this blog to be.    So here we go..... my goal is to rent the store front of my dreams... one of the ways to get there.
Develop my Etsy shop and make it the shop of my dreams...one of the best ways to do that is to grow my blog.  I have never put the time into blogging to make it a success.
So my goals....

For my Blog... Post daily, open myself up, put the time in
For Etsy... Add merchandise daily, connect with other etsy sellers and continue to find unique goods.
For my Shop....put a business plan together and make it happen!

I hope to look back at this post in a year while standing in my own shop, wrapping up pretty packages~
Happy Friday...