If I had an iPod

I'm officially an old fogie because of how behind I am in technology. (There are other reasons but let's not get into those right now.) I don't own any electronic devices that start with a lower case "i". My phone is not smart. One of my laptops' battery doesn't work so it has to be plugged in and the other one's screen is dead so it has to be hooked up to a monitor. Stone ages, I know. And I still listen to my old CDs. No wait, I'm usually listening to my kids' CDs so I don't even really know any new music released in the last year - except for what I hear coming from Pandora on hubby's laptop. And I haven't bought myself any new music in years. Until yesterday.

I stopped in at MorningStar to pick up some books for a friend's birthday party gift and liked what I heard playing overhead in the store. So I bought it - Chelsea Moon with Uncle Daddy, album titled Hymn Project: Volume 1.

I love it. It's acoustic, folk (with a little bluegrass) renditions of some of my favorite old hymns. You know, the old treasures. They don't write'm like they used to. Yikes, I sound like one of the blue-haired ladies at church. Sorry, but no organ on this album.

You can listen to quite a few tracks on Chelsea Moon's myspace page. This is the only song from the album I could find on YouTube. It just happens to be the track that caught my attention in MorningStar and prompted me to buy the album:



So if I had an iPod, this is what would be playing on it right now.

Window Treatments

I recently hung two "new" frames on the wall between my dining room windows, but I have yet to find the perfect way to frame the windows themselves. Often times when I feel stuck or need inspiration, I'll flip through my binders of inspiration photos that I've clipped from magazines for over a decade. This is my binder full of decorating/design/craft/DIY inspirations and ideas:



I can tell how long I've been collecting magazine tear-outs based on the collage I originally created on the outside. Let's just say my tastes have changed a bit since I started! I still have a fond appreciation for shabby cottage chic but wouldn't actually surround myself with this design at home. I could probably toss a lot of the pages in this binder that I no longer find so inspiring anymore. This binder contains magazine tear outs of gardening ideas/tips/pictures/articles:


Finally, this one is full of recipe tear outs, including many favorites that I return to often and many more I have yet to try:



Thanks to the millions of inspiring photos that can now be easily found, cataloged and shared online, I find that I tear and save magazine pages a lot less these days. My binders are officially old-school, thanks to Pinterest. I admit I am tempted to start using this site as my virtual inspiration binder for when I happen to stumble across a photo I want to save or if I am looking for inspiration for a specific project. However, at this point I feel very convicted to stay away because I know me - it would probably result in me wasting a lot of time oogling over the thousands of design/decor sites and blogs that are out there. I don't want to feed my materialistic temptations. I refer back to one of my first blog posts where I shared that I do not want things and decorating/designing to become idols in my life. I'm afraid that Pinterest would encourage these things to consume my thoughts and time, and that is idolatry. I'm not saying Pinterest is bad, but for me, for right now, it is.

So where was I? Oh yes, finding a way to frame my dining room windows...  So a few months ago I flipped through my old-school decorating inspiration binder and came across this photo I'd ripped out of the September 2009 issue of Better Homes & Gardens magazine:


While I really liked just about everything in this room, I saved it because of the window treatments. I do love the bamboo rods and clips but I'm not looking to dole out $ on new rods right now. I also really like the simple & natural look (and $6/yard price) of the burlap. What I liked best was the idea to customize the burlap by trimming the edges with ribbon or other notions to add a little color. If I decided to actually do this, I'd look for an interesting green ribbon (good excuse to make a trip to The Franklin Millstore) and I'd ask my seamstress Linnea, who I highly recommend for any sewing project, to do the job. (I don't sew. It's not that I don't want to. My hand-me-down sewing machine has no place to call home and I have no time to sew, therefore I don't. Some day....)

I've tried and contemplated quite a few different curtain panel options to hang from rods that I already own.  Unfortunately, everything had at least one of these three negative results:

• They cover up too much of the beautiful original molding. I love the character of the old wide moldings in my house and I hate to hide it, especially now that the hideous old terra cotta paint color that was there when we moved in is now covered up in a fresh bright linen white.
• They darken up the room that only gets direct sun for a few hours in the afternoon and is now painted about as dark as I would ever paint any room.
• They hang too far over onto the wall space between the windows, coming too close or even partially covering my framed china ads, which are staying put.

So for the time being I'm using a pair of sheer cream panels that my mom found for me at Sally's a few years ago. Because I only have two panels, I've hung one from a spring rod on the inside of each window and I push each over to the outside wall.



When they are pushed to the side, you can't really tell what they look like, which is good. I don't mind the simple look. When the hot sun streams in on summer afternoons or at night when we want privacy, I pull them across to cover the windows:

Filtering hot afternoon sun

Because I like to look in people's windows when I drive by at night, I assume other people do the same thing so I'm a little nazi about privacy.

When they are pulled across, you can really see the scroll design and tab-top, both features of which I'm not a big fan.

On top of the molding currently rest other curtain rods. I had previously installed and used these rods on these windows for years but took them down for painting. I rested them on top of the newly painted molding when testing out other panel options. I didn't want to drill holes and remount these rods if I wasn't sure I'd end up using them again. In the meantime, I decided I kinda liked the way the look up there and haven't bothered to take them down.

While the price of my current spring rods & Sally's sheers combo is right, and they function just fine, I would still like to find something in a fabric pattern that brings some more color and interest into my dining room, including but not limited to green. When the last Ballard Designs catalog arrived, I swear it opened right up to these panel drapes and I was instantly smitten!

This is something I really like but.....

...in this color green, and only if they are sheer enough and the green doesn't clash with the green mattes in the frames between the windows. 

But at $69/panel...I'm suffocating...I'm gagging. I'm sorry, but I think that's ridiculous. Oh wait, I'm the girl with a $118 shower curtain...but...but...but I didn't pay with my own cash for it!! Maybe I could ask for gift certificates to Ballard instead of Anthropologie this Christmas. Then I would splurge on just two of these panels, and only hang one on the outside wall of each window like I do now with my sheers. And to show off as much of the molding as possible, either stick with the spring rods or use my rods that now rest on the molding by installing them high above the molding.

I also recently saw this clever & cute tieback idea in the September issue of Country Living magazine. Bonus: easy and cheap - everything can be purchased for a few bucks at a hardware store!



I haven't even been to a fabric store to look at other options for making custom panels. There could be some affordable fabric design out there that is "the one". Or I could just pray that I find some other perfect solution at a yard sale in the meantime...because good things come to those who wait!

Coral Bells

I've been wanting coral bells for my garden ever since I inherited my Nana's china. I've waited patiently, hoping to snag some for free or super-cheap from someone else's garden. A couple weeks ago I gave up and gave in when I stopped at Hartford Farm Garden Center to buy some local honey...but not without taking a stroll around the perennials for sale. There, a coral bell (Heuchera, "Purple Palace" variety) called to me and I answered her...and took her (and her friend, Hellebore) home.

I still have to put these in the ground and I better do it soon before I can't bend over any more! At least these don't bloom till spring.

Eventually I'd like to get this variety of Coral Bells too. Its foliage color and flowers look more like the ones in my china pattern.

This is what hellebore blossoms look like. So beautiful!

"You want me to marry a prostitute?"

"...Okay God, if you say so." That was the story and attitude of the prophet Hosea. 

I've been teaching Jr. High and High School Sunday School at my church for many years. Currently, we are studying the Old Testament book of Hosea, per the request of one of the teens - "I know what we should do next! Isn't there some book about a guy who has to marry a prostitute or something?"

I love my punk class. This is most of it. Mia is MIA, he he he.

 At almost 7 mos pregnant, I don't love walking up 2 1/2 flights of these old stairs to get to my classroom. But the kids are worth it so I huff and puff the whole way up.

Leave it to the teens to suggest what we read next and Hosea is where we end up (it was this or Revelation!). We are only about half way through now, but wow, what an amazing book so far. Anyone who says the Bible is boring hasn't read Hosea.

First let me summarize... God chooses Hosea to be a prophet to the nation of Israel. Though a prophet is often thought of as someone who tells the future, it is really just a messenger for God. God tells Hosea things that he is to pass along to the people of Israel, and this includes but is not limited to what they should expect to see or experience in the future.

Israel was God's special chosen people. Many generations prior to Hosea, God had made a covenant with Israel regarding this: God would love, bless, take care of, grow and prosper Israel - even send a Savior/King from their blood line. And in return, Israel was to love, trust and obey God. Throughout scripture the relationship between God and Israel is described in the analogy of a marriage relationship. The book of Hosea is one of the strongest examples of this analogy.

So not only does Hosea follow God's call to be a prophet, an often unpopular if not hated role, but he accepts a very unique challenge from God that will enable him to take the messages God will give him very personally. Hosea is told by God to marry a prostitute, Gomer. So Hosea does just that with the understanding that she will continue in her elicit ways and even bear him illegitimate children. God wanted Hosea to live a life that mirrored the relationship God has with Israel.

God, of course, is always faithful to His covenant. As promised, throughout Israel's history He performed miracle after miracle to provide for their every need - from helping them win impossible battles to feeding and clothing them in the dessert. He gave them laws to follow that were for their own good, that would keep them safe and healthy and help them keep up their end of the covenant to love, trust and obey God. But Israel, like a prostitute wife, was unfaithful to God. They strayed big time. They disregarded God's law and so quickly forgot all of God's provisions for them. They were lured by the surrounding nations' kings, riches, religions and idols. Israel replaced their faith in the one and only powerful and loving true God - who they could not see but had more than proved His existence to them - for faith in many powerless idols that they would actually make with their own hands. Hosea 4:12 says, "They consult a wooden idol and are answered by a stick of wood. A spirit of prostitution leads them astray; they are unfaithful to their God." I love God's sarcasm there... Answered by a stick of wood...NOT! :)

So God gave Hosea a warning message to pass along to Israel. They were to turn away from evil and turn back to God with all of their hearts. Hosea 4:1 says, "There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgement of God in the land."  Verse 6 says, "Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I will ignore your children." Chapter 5 goes on to say that God will pour out His wrath on them, that they will be oppressed and trampled in judgement.  If the people of Israel did not repent and turn back to God, He would issue temporary punishment. Though He'd made a covenant with them, He would, for a period, treat them as if they were not His chosen people and not loved by Him. He would allow them to suffer until they were repentant and returned back to faithfulness.

Meanwhile, Hosea's wife Gomer was off being promiscuous, as prostitutes tend to do, and she bore two children that were not Hosea's. Though Hosea was expected to raise and love these children as his own, God told him to give the son a name that means "Not my people" and to give the daughter a name that means "Not loved." Ladies, can you imagine having a name that everyone clearly understands to mean "not loved"?? These names were to be constant reminders to Hosea of the judgement that God would issue upon Israel if they did not return to their covenant.

What I find most amazing and speaks to God's character is that immediately after each of God's messages of warning and judgement, He gives Hosea a message of redemption and forgiveness. For a time, God will treat Israel as if the are not loved and not His people, but He wants them to know that eventually He will restore the relationship, and ultimately keep His covenant - no matter what. Hosea 2:13 says, "I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baals; she decked herself with rings and jewelry and went after her lovers, but me she forgot." Then verse 14 follows with, "Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead"I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord." God makes it clear their relationship will not end in his judgement, but in His love, compassion and forgiveness.

Hosea is expected to do likewise with his wife. Gomer has sold herself to another man whom she is living with, but Hosea is told by God to go find her and buy her back (even though she had become so worthless that she basically only cost a couple bucks to get back!). Hosea is to remind Gomer that he loves her and will remain faithful to her and ask her to stay with him and do the same.

Of course a Google images search turns up an image of Hosea buying back Gomer.

In chapter 6 we actually get a response from the Israelites. They say in verse 1, "Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us." In the verses that follow, the Israelites talk more about acknowledging that God will forgive them and restore them than they do actually acknowledging their own sin. Nowhere do they actually admit they are wrong, show any signs of sorrow or remorse, or any give any indication that they will turn away from their ways to again love, trust and obey God. God, who knows, sees, and understands all, obviously picks up on this. He can see their hearts, which are poised once again to take advantage of God's faithfulness to them. His response in verse 4 is, "What can I do with you...??? Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears."

My favorite verse of the book so far is Hosea 6:6, where God responds: "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings." The laws He had given the Israelites included requirements of animal sacrifice and burnt offerings as signs of repentance and to pay for their sins. After bringing these sacrifices to the temple, they would essentially get a clean slate of forgiveness and "start over". The sacrifice was to be an outward sign of the payment for their sin but they were to bring and offer that sacrifice with a sorrowful and repentant heart. Though God still wanted them to turn away from idol worship and return back to following His sacrificial laws, He was more concerned with the state of their hearts. Instead of treating each other with hatred and abuse, He wanted them to have a heart of mercy. Rather than just go through the motions of bringing their burnt offerings, He wanted them to acknowledge Him and worship Him in their heart. God wasn't interested in legalism but instead wanted attitudes of love and obedience.

I like that verse because it helps me to apply the book of Hosea to my own life. I certainly don't consider myself to be like the Israelites - a prostitute in my relationship to God. I'm faithful to Him. I love, trust and obey....But how often am I just going through the motions? How often do I go to church, sing some songs, hear a sermon and walk out the door, yet my heart is not in it? Sometimes I get to the end of singing a song - whether in the car or in church - and realize my mouth uttered the all-familiar words but my mind was completely distracted. How often do I rush through my Bible study questions simply because I don't want to show up to my small group with an empty page? How often do I reach out to others expecting a huge pat on the back? God is not interested in my religious actions if my relationship with Him and the state of my heart is not where it is supposed to be. It's not about religion, its about relationship.

The other thing I really appreciate about this study of Hosea so far is the realization of what Hosea had to go through. What a privilege to be called and used as a messenger of God. But how would I respond if God asked me to do something as hard as entering into a committed, loving relationship with someone that was guaranteed to be unfaithful to me?  In Hosea 3:1, God tells Hosea to "Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites." When Hosea buys Gomer back, there is no mention of her telling him how sorry she is for cheating on him or any promise from her to never do it again. God asks us all to do some hard things. Am I listening? Am I willing to love others and not be loved in return? Am I willing to give and have it not get acknowledged? Am I willing to keep on forgiving no matter what?

As I skim over the rest of the book, I can see it continues to talk about Israel's sinful ways and stubborn hearts, God's punishment/judgement on them, and God's love for them and faithfulness to his covenant. And the book of Hosea ends with this treasure:

"Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them.

The ways of the Lord are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them."

Hosea 14:9

Anthropologie package

It's all in the details. Opening and unwrapping a package from Anthropologie is almost as much fun as shopping in the store. Well okay, not quite, but it's still an experience. I realized the other day I still had a small gift card left over from the holidays last year so I went online to find something that had been on my wish list for a while. The treasure I went searching for was the first of a few items I previously blogged about here. I didn't find the exact headband I originally liked but ordered a close second:

I love when I forget to expect a delivery and I open the front door or mailbox to find a surprise package. Just seeing this return label made me smile.

Lovingly hand wrapped in beautiful bird & branch tissue paper and sealed:

Even the packing slip/receipt is enclosed in a fun stitched up envelope:

So after carefully unwrapping and discovering my not-so-surprise treasure, I immediately tried on my headband. Yup, wearing it tomorrow.

Now I'm left with a cute little empty box and I'm inspired to put together a fun little surprise package for someone else. Friends, watch your mailboxes! :)

Gay romantic or forthbright modern?

Not long before I got married, my Nana (my mom's mom) passed away and I was given a small set of china that was hers. The design was Coralbel by Syracuse and it included only the basics to serve eight.  I'll be honest - I didn't really care for the design at the time but I felt compelled to keep them because they were my Nana's. However, at some point within the few years that followed, I actually developed an appreciation for the pattern and ended up proudly displaying the set in my dining room hutch. As I grew more fond of the pattern, I started keeping an eye out for additional pieces on eBay and Replacements.com. It wasn't long before a HUGE and complete set- including everything from soup toureen, tea pot, and serving dishes down to demi-tasse cups and saucers for 12 - became available for auction on eBay. I remember thinking it was probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to score the complete set all at once like that but it was way more than I could afford. I mentioned it to my parents, drooled over it and monitored it for a week or so, then I put it out of my mind and moved on.

My parents (who I'm pretty sure had no experience with eBay at the time) had secretly decided to bid on and won the auction. They surprised me one night by handing me a printout of the announcement. To justify their insane purchase, over the next several years they gifted me portions of the set for birthdays and holidays until at last I had the entire collection in my possession. It became a running joke as I'd open my birthday present from them each year..."Hmmm...I wonder if this box is full of salad plates, soup bowls or berry bowls?"

Here are a few of the pieces from the set that I have grown to love and is an inspiration for my dining room decor:




Sugar & creamer that are usually packed away, only these never quite made it back into storage with everything else after I hosted Thanksgiving 2010. So they keep getting pushed into the back corner of my kitchen counter.



Dinner plate already on display in the dining room.

 

Demi-tasse cup and saucer that also remains on display on a shelf in the dining room. I need an espresso machine so I have an excuse to use these! :)

Around the same time that I had started looking online for pieces to add to my original set, I engaged in a brief but torrid affair with eBay. It was during that spell of addiction that I won! I won! purchased  two vintage magazine ads promoting this Syracuse Coralbel china pattern. I think the copy in the ads is kind of humorous, and clearly from a different era:

One says: "Deft Touch of Tomorrow...Coralbel Pattern, A Restrained Modern. . . Syracuse China weaves a thread of vitality and freshness in the rich tapestry of poised and confident living. Onondaga Pottery Company, Syracuse, N.Y." 

The other says: "Flair for simple beauty... Whether you're a gay romantic, or a forthbright modern, today's flair for simple beauty is changing your world. These two popular Syracuse China patterns reflect this trend in strikingly different ways. Coralbel pattern...smart and platinum bright with an abstract simplicity that mirrors the new and dramatic. In a 5-piece place setting for only $9.75. West of the Rockies $10.75."

Because of the odd sizes of the ads it wasn't easy to find two relatively similar frames that fit them. I was too cheap to buy new frames, so I was determined to do the best with what I could find second-hand. Eventually I found two inexpensive yard sale frames that would accomodate the ads; I painted them a cream color and gave them a distressed look with a dark brown rub. Then to make them "fit," I mounted the ads on dark brown craft paper in lieu of a proper matte. From the front, they didn't look toooo bad, considering I probably paid a total of $3 to frame them.

The one to the left shows at the bottom of the page that it came from a June, 1947 issue of Better Homes & Gardens. The other one is supposedly from an October, 1953 issue of House & Garden - at least that's what the eBay seller said.

So that is how the framed ads hung next to the china on display for a few years. Unfortunately, the frames barely functioned because neither one had a proper backing. As a result, the ads were often slipping, crooked, and practically falling out. Despite my best efforts to salvage the frames (with string, paperboard and masking tape), I had to give up and take them down.


This is one of the framed ads from the back - my feeble attempt to make it work! (Unfortunately duck tape and WD-40 would not have done the trick either.)

When we moved almost 5 years ago, the ads in their makeshift frames and sorry state never got unpacked. I've had good intentions. Two years ago for Christmas I asked for and recieved money from my parents to frame the ads properly, but I never actually got around to doing it.  Finally, due to my newly painted dining room walls and the motivating factor of baby-on-the-way nesting instinct, I decided it is time to actually get them reframed and on the wall.

Being the cheapskate thrify shopper that I am, even though I received gift money towards professional framing, I have continued to keep my eyes open for frames at yard sales and thrift shops. In a previous post I shared how I bought these two Thomasville frames for $4 a piece at The Blessing Barn, with my ads in mind.

So I decided I would try using these frames before jumping the gun on going everything-brand-new. Because the wood tone is too dark and cherry compared to the other current frames and future shelving in the dining room, I thought they would only potenially work if they looked good painted. Besides, they had quite a few scratches and dings that I'd need to cover up.



Here you can better see the texture/design of the frames I'm trying to use, and the wood tone compared to the other lighter, warmer-toned frames in the room.

When I had put together my frame/plate wall in the dining room, I painted a few other really dark frames the same Linen White color of the room's trim. My plan was to paint these frames that same color:

In the meantime, I took the ads, frames and a paint chip for my dining room wall color to my closest Michael's craft store framing department to pick out mattes. I decided on custom green mattes to bring out the green in the china pattern and to add a little pop of color to the room. Turns out the mattes alone would cost a little over $50. What a coinkidink that the $50 mattes plus the $4 thrift shop frames brought me just within my $60 "budget" from the gift money I'd received towards framing these!

Less than a week later I was surprised to get the call that my mattes were ready for pickup. I was so impatient to get them but that ended up being a crazy busy week full of other priorities and I hadn't even painted the frames yet. Finally, almost another week later I got everything out to paint the frames and I started having second thoughts. Maybe I should just wait and see how the prints and mattes look in the wood tone first because once I paint, there's no turning back. Besides, none of the other frames or shelving would even be on the same wall so it would be harder to tell the difference in wood tone. But then I was reminded again of the scratches. There were quite a few and they were pretty noticeable.


Here are a few of the scratches on one.



This was one of the most noticeable scratches on another. (Of course my sucky camera won't focus.)

Somehow I remembered a possible remedy I had heard or read about somewhere for reparing scratched wood - rubbing on brown shoe polish! I figured it was worth a shot.



So I whipped out my brown shoe polish and the old sock I keep with it. I started rubbing it into the scratches, and sure enough it helped a lot. They didn't completely disappear but were barely noticeable.

This is the same area as the first scratch picture above, but after rubbing on some brown shoe polish. Major improvement.

This is after rubbing shoe polish into the area in the 2nd scratch photo above. Almost invisible.

So here it is the day after shoe-polish treatment and I finally had a chance to pick up the mattes from the framing store.  I put the frames, mattes and ads all together and confirmed my decision to keep them unpainted. The frames are definitely a more formal style then I would have chosen new, and I would prefer if the wood tone were a little lighter and less cherry, but they work fine. The price was right. Here they are complete:

I think I need to go back over them with the shoe polish or try one of those wood corrector pens or something. There are still a few dings and scratches to take care of.

It didn't take long to hang them up on the wall between my dining room windows. All in all I'm happy with the results and am glad to get them back up on display.



So does this make me a gay romantic or a forthbright modern?? :)



I'm wondering if I hung them a little too high?  I just didn't want people sitting on that side of the table to bump into them.  If I end up hanging curtain rods above the molding that might help to balance out the height...will see...



Sweet Silhouettes

I was a little bummed that I didn't go yard saling this past weekend. It was a GORGEOUS morning for it too but I had work to prioritize instead. Being given a unique old treasure that I didn't have to hunt for almost made up for it. I love silhouette art. It has come back with such a vengeance that its almost too trendy right now. My favorites are silhouettes of children, I just think they are so sweet. My dear friend Naomi surprised me with with a vintage silhouette treasure she found in Maine for $2 recently. It is absolutely adorable!

It's 4 little kids checking out their stockings on Christmas morning. The frame is a little worn but I don't mind.



There is a wonderful Christmas poem on the back. My favorite lines:
"So, Father, grant that every year
The Sun of Righteousness more clear
To our awaiting hearts appear ;"

 Now I just need to figure out where I'm going to hang it. I'd like to incorporate it in a display with/near the silhouettes I have of my girls:

Pardon the poor photo quality. I already shared about how these came together in this previous post about wallpaper projects.

It hit me recently that besides needing an updated silhouette of my youngest (now that her profile actually looks like a girl), I'm going to have to add a silhouette of a third child eventually. But I don't have a third matching frame and I'm not so sure they'll all fit on this wall. So I may need to move the entire silhouette collection to new location if I'm going to keep them all together, which I definitely want to do. I'm okay if the third frame is not matchy-matchy, as long as its not too much smaller - gotta be fair. I'm confident I can figure out how to work in an odd-ball frame (that I should start keeping an eye out for) and include the Christmas silhouette print in the final display as well.

The only other silhouette art I have is this little plaque I picked up at a yard sale a few years back for a quarter:

I liked this because of how small it is, its painted one of my favorite vintage green colors on the outside edges, the and the price was right! It sits above our thermostat in the kitchen.
(Again, pardon the grainy photo. My camera is on its last leg.)

This week's scores

Well here it is Thursday and I've finally cataloged my treasures from this past Saturday's yard sale-ing. The girls and I had a lot of fun and we hit the jackpot at one sale in particular. Without further ado, here's what we scored:

$3 - Large, wide-framed mirror...reflecting the constant plight of my porch floor - KID CRAP



Everything else you see in that picture are yard sale treasures. I think this frame was my favorite score of the morning in terms of value. It's a very heavy, quality piece. It just needs a fresh coat of paint then I think I'm going to hang it in my bedroom, which is in serious need of a makeover.

10 cents - Green bud vase:


I have a strange obsession with green vases. So what if they take up a whole shelf in my kitchen cabinets? I really do use them all. I refuse to collect and hoard things that I won't actually use.



 

$1 - 2 vintage Audubon/bird watching books because, as shared in a previous post - I like bird stuff.



 

I bought the bird books knowing I'd add them to the display of old books on the "new" shelf in my family room. They fit in just perfect.
 


$10 - Disney Princess bike w/training wheels for my youngest:


She was showing it off to our neighbor as she expressed to him with glee - "I'm a BIG girl now!!" My response - "You'll really be a big girl when you stop wearing DIAPERS!!"

I paid $5 for a bag full of clothes for me & my oldest, including this fun hat and cute little Gap bag for me, modeled by my little angel.



I also stuffed into the $5 bag 3 pairs of brand-new size 0 skinny jeans with the intention to stuff myself  into them post-baby. AH HA HA HA HA!!! Who am I kidding?? Though I do have the best of intentions, I ended up giving them to my currently-size-negative-0-friend who stopped by my house the next day.

$1 - Bag full of streamers, blow favors and party napkins:




My oldest's birthday is in the winter but since we picked these up she's already started planning a pajama themed birthday party. I've lost track of how many times I've told her to leave that bag of decorations alone and to stop making goody bags!


$2.75 - 4 pairs of baby girl shoes:




$2.75 - 1 pkg of 4 toothbrushes and a bag of 75-count flossers:




My oldest requested we buy these because they collect them in Children's Church for an orphanage. I was so proud of her thinking like that! Then we confirmed Sunday morning that collection is over...guess we'll save them for Operation Shoebox this fall.

And speaking of toothbrushes...



$1 - Toothbrush holder for a family of 20. Kidding. Yellow vase with a stem holder cover. (I think there is an official name for that? Can I call that a frog??) Regardless, I love it. Here is the vase in my kitchen filled with hydrangeas from my yard... Cuz if you can't pick 'em, why grow 'em? 



When I asked how much for a couple pairs of these latex coated heavy duty work gloves, the seller said I could just have them. Sweet!



$2 for a couple pairs of new light-knit house slippers with embroidered and beaded flowers. How cute! Maybe I'll keep one and gift one.



$2 for 8 "classic" kids books. I love sharing books/stories that I read as a child with my kids, though these probably won't be age appropriate for a few more years.



Often times I'll be out on the hunt and I'll come across something that's just screaming someone else's name. This past weekend I came across a few decorative items that I just had to get for a friend of mine who has a great sense of style, loves to decorate, and is always so generous, thoughtful and giving. I hope she loves and can use these treasures I picked up for her.

$1 for 5 black & white mini shades:



$2 for 2 large light-blue bowls:



20 cents for 2 small vases from Pier 1, one of her favorite stores:



And finally, Monday morning was not complete without a roadside stop to dig through yard sale leftovers someone left on the curb. I wasn't out of my car 30 seconds before some guy with a truck pulled over to do the same thing! The only thing worth salvaging was a clear glass vase:


Later that day it was already filled with gladiolas from my garden.