Happy Father's day

I had planned on making a tribute post to my wonderful husband but I came down w/ the creeping crud, the grands had last week, so I don't feel up to it today. But this photo shows you just how high he rates w/ the grands. Caralyn obviously doesn't want anyone intruding on her time w/ her Grouchy!

I have an old copy of this print that I bought years ago. I plan on giving it to my son when Little Noah is born in September.



Not much on our agenda today but relaxing. The kids & grands will be coming over for dinner later. I've agreed to low-key it & do it the way Chris likes it done. No fancy table, eat on paper plates, hamburgers from the BBQ (our sons are doing the cooking!), etc etc. *sigh* I guess it IS his day. ;o)

I went shopping again!

Hi y'all! I've been very busy the past couple of weeks. I'm still trying to get the rest of my studio furniture painted & my daughter has gone back to work, so I'm keeping the grands for the summer . Life got really hectic, very suddenly!

But don't think I haven't taken the time to hit the thrift stores...of COURSE I have. I just don't do it w/ the grands in tow. ;o) I do it in the evening for relaxation & a reward, after their mom has picked them up. I tried to take them w/ me once....NEVER AGAIN! You have to park Coleson (he's almost 2) in the center of the aisle & block everybody off or else he will pull everything off the shelves. Connor (who's 10 & you'd think would be the easy one) has to have a running dialogue kept w/ him, the entire time & I can't think/shop like that. Caralyn falls in love w/ every single object she sees & has to have it, because she "just luuuvvvvs it!" (wonder where she gets that from? *grins*) & Caeden keeps me updated on everything Coleson, Connor & Caralyn say or do. *rolls eyes & sighs a deep sigh*

Luckily I live w/in 10 minutes of a Goodwill so it's no biggie to jump in the car & scope out a reward, for me not beating my grandkids, that day. (I wouldn't really...I was never on board w/ spanking, even w/ my own kids but there are days they are sooo lucky I'm anti-spanking *winks*)

So I've gone thrifting, I just haven't had time to blog about my trips. I didn't get all this in one trip...it was probably 2 or 3, maybe even 4, but still a great haul!

I've already painted this teacup stand white but haven't found a place for it yet.

Brown & white toile curtain panel (probably destined to be a tablecloth or pillows for fall), rhinestone tiaras (wish they weren't gold but I'll rub most of it w/ white paint).... I'll add some tulle to fou-fou them up some. I got all 8 for $2! I love the old tincan tramp art chair....it will get a coat of white paint. I also love the french paperback....it has a 1920's date on it but I'm not sure it's that old. The pages are a nice shade of yellow though. The title reads The Pastoral Symphony in English.

Sweet needlepoint pillow.

This silk rose pillow still had a $25 price tag on it...I paid $2!

The "alabaster" lamp is actually plastic but you'd never know it unless you picked it up. Love the el-cheapo candlestick w/ built-in snuffer...it'll look great once it's painted...you guessed it...White! Not sure what I'll do w/ the iron hooks but I'll use them somewhere.

Love the upper portion of this lamp (especially the ruffled shade! I think it'll look much better once I steam it) but the bottom is tacky. I'll paint the silver part ivory & maybe even the marble base...I don't know if I'm feeling the painted roses on it. (did I just say that?) They just look cheap to me.

Isn't hubby lucky I don't run off to Neiman's to reward myself?

It's Monday but it's Sharing the Wealth day

I spent the weekend @ my son's & his girlfriend's house, planting flowers for her birthday. I wore myself out (Texas heat is awful & we were hotter than normal this weekend) & never even thought about my blog or Sharing the Wealth Saturday. My son & I did it together & it was just like old times! He was always my gardening buddy but he's 27 & super-busy & it's been a long time since we worked a garden together. *sigh*


Anyway, I'll share garden graphics today since that's what I spent the weekend doing. This one is too sweet & very apropos! If I were to use it in a project, I'd probably edit the label out...it's too bad it's there on the title.

remember that you can click on any image to enlarge, before saving to your computer

I'd also like to turn y'all on to a website I found a while back. She is extremely generous w/ her graphics, has it all organized & there's a vast assortment, as well. Go check it out but plan on spending some time there. Karen's Whimsy

Show n tell

What fun! I haven't done show n tell since grade school & that was a verrry long time ago. ;o)

I'm in the midst of moving my office/studio from one room to another & I am painting an assortment of furniture, that I have bought over the years & saved for this purpose. I sure wish I had painted as I had bought. It's a bigger undertaking than I had imagined. Over the past few weeks, I've painted a hutch topper, an old desk & a huge armoire (inside & out!)...all with very dark stained finishes, that bled through. So several coats were required even w/ using Kilz...I swear by that stuff! The walls of the room I painted Antique Fan Pink by Vespar @ Lowes & it's a fabulous color. It's rich enough to be bold w/out being overwhelming. You don't walk in the room & think, "Well it's pink!", you just think, "What a great color!". It's almost the shade of pink depression glass but it's not quite as bright.

I still need to do a long drop-leaf table, another hutch topper & a dresser so it will probably be a couple more weeks before I am done w/ the whole room but thankfully both the table & teh hutch-topper have been previously painted so they won't be as big a job.

I am about finished w/ the armoire & I'm all done w/ my desk area. All I lack on the armoire is putting on the crystal knobs & adding a thin piece of trim, around the wallpaper panels. The wallpaper wasn't quite as wide as the door so instead of doing the whole piecing & seaming bit, I just centered them & then I'll tack on trim around the edges.

Wish I had thought to do a before pic on this piece. It had a very dark stain & on one door, the finish was ruined. I'll hang more stuff on the sides to make use of the space.

I strung white lights through the decor on top of the armoire & of course, they stopped working as soon as I got everything all arranged. They're back on now though. *rolling eyes* I have some stuff in the boxes but I can't remember what now so I guess I'll have to label them. Nevermind the popcorn ceiling.

We added shelves to the inside of the armoire & decided to wallpaper them instead of painting because it was a lot easier. I chose to go more for function than looks, on the inside. I envisioned it looking a lot neater & more attractive but I under-estimated how much stuff I have. ;o) I tacked plastic baggies of trim & misc stuff on the inside of the doors & used plastic shoe boxes, glass jars & tins to contain the rest of it.

I made use of the clothesrod already in the armoire & made a ribbon holder out of it. There were rods, on the bottom of the armoire, meant to rest shoes on & we moved them up to the clothesrod to use them also.

Hubby said I've ruined it by putting too much stuff in it. He says it looks "junky". I told him I had to, that I had a lot of stuff. He said I needed to "get rid of some it". *sigh* He's just never gonna get it.

As you can see, I underestimated the amount of ribbon I have too! These rolls have the small holes though so they won't work on the other rods anyway. I'll have to come up w/ some other way to store them.

I'm very, very happy w/ the way my craft closet turned out & it was worth every bit of work. As soon as I finish painting all the other pieces of furniture, I might actually create something.

It'll be this week before I am able to see all of your storage methods & ideas.... I can't wait! Head over to Cerri's @ little pink studio to see the other submissions, should be lots of great inspiration!