Blue Monday - I Am Blue..

Hi Everyone…..

The time is here once again to join in the fun of Blue Monday which is hosted by the lovely Sally at http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/. If you don’t know what Blue Monday’s are all about, head on over to Sally’s blog to find out more about it.

My Blue Monday post this week is going to be me telling you a little bit about my unlucky weekend that has left me feeling a little blue.

The troubles started Friday night when I accidently dropped my new digital camera (which I’ve only had for about one month) while trying to take a picture and I think I did some real damage to it. When I dropped it, the zoom lens was out and I think it was bent out of place as it would not retract back into the camera like it should have. After some twisting and pushing I was finally able to get it to retract, but I think I may have used a little too much force in doing that and damaged it even more as now the camera won’t even turn on.

I haven’t had a chance to take it in yet to see if it can be fixed or not or if I will just have to buy a new one and I may have to delay doing that for a while as other things occurred this weekend that may end up taking a big chunk of money out of my already tight budget.

Not to bore you will all the details, I will just say that I am having car troubles. Thought at first that it was the battery, but now I am not so sure. Appears it may be worse than that as putting in a new battery does not appear to have solved the problem with the car not wanting to start like it should. There is a delay in the engine catching, so may be the car starter or something else. I dropped my car off at the auto shop Sunday afternoon and left the keys in a drop box as they are closed on Sunday’s. The auto shop will not have a chance to look at it or diagnosis the problem until sometime today or maybe even tomorrow depending on how busy they are. Needless to say, that leaves me without a car so I will have to car pool to work with my sister the next few days.

Who knows what the auto shop will find and how much it will cost me to have repairs done. Until I know for sure, I will need to hold off on getting another new camera, so I am very short on pictures in my files of things with Blue.

The only ones I had not show yet were a few that I took a couple of weeks ago when I was on vacation. I stayed at home during my vacation, but I did take a day trip to the lovely town of Stillwater, Minnesota which is famous for its antique shops. Stillwater is only about a 45 minute drive from where I live and I love to go visit the antique and specialty shops that they have. In addition to its numerous antique shops, Stillwater is also famous for its historic Stillwater lift bridge that crosses the Mississippi river from Minnesota to Wisconsin.

As I was waiting to meet a friend for lunch, I snapped a few photos of the Stillwater lift bridge and the Mississippi River. These shots are facing east towards the Wisconsin side. The skies that day were a lovely shade of blue with fluffy white clouds floating by.

This first shot is of the Stillwater lift bridge….

A shot to the left of the bridge shows the dock where the river boaters can dock their boats. Many pleasure boaters will travel the river from Stillwater to the city of Hudson, WI which is south of Stillwater. This is a great place to picnic on a warm sunny day. It’s fun to sit and watch the boats cruise up and down the river and it’s even better if you are lucky enough to be there during the times the bridge is lifting to allow larger boats to pass under the bridge. If you ever make a trip to Minnesota, I would highly recommend a visit to Stillwater for anyone who enjoys antiquing. I would definitely be worth your time.

And one final shot of the river against the pretty blue sky and the tree lined bluffs along the Wisconsin side of the river....

That’s it for today. I hope to have more news to share in the next few days about my car and camera troubles. Say a prayer or two for me that my troubles will be small and nothing too serious.

Thanks for visiting today. Now head on over to Sally’s blog for a list of other Blue Monday participant’s and make sure you stop by and visit them also to see what fun and interesting things they are showing today.

Pink Saturday - More Vintage Cottage Linens & Things

Happy Pink Saturday.....

The weekend is here once again and it's time to share in the fun of Beverly's "Pink Saturday" event. Thank you Beverly for being such a wonderful hostess and for all that you do to coordinate the event each weekend. When you are done visiting here today, head on over to Beverly's blog at http://www.howsweetthesound.typepad.com/ for a list of other Pink Saturday participants. Make sure you try and visit the blogs of as many as you can. Our numbers our growing every week so it's a time consuming process, but it is well worth your time to see what lovely Pink things everyone has to share.

As for myself, I have decided to share some new pictures of my vintage kitchen linens. I have a very nice collection of vintage tablecloths, crocheted potholders and crocheted hotpads that I just love. They are things I enjoy searching for on my antiquing jaunts.

For Pink Saturday, I show mostly the pink ones in my collection. You can see some of my vintage blue linens in one of my earlier Blue Monday posts.

Starting with my small round kitchen table, this is a picture of my favorite vintage tablecloth. It's the one I use as my "everyday" tablecloth. It has a lovely floral design in pink, blue and green. The colors are so soft and pretty and it reminds me of spring, even in the coldest months of winter. It has a few small stains on it, but that doesn't bother me in the least.

A closer shot shows some of the detail better...

Now for some of my vintage pink potholders and hotpads...

A gathering together of some of my collection with a little blue, green and lavender mixed in for fun....

A creative way that I came upon to display some of my potholder collection on my counter top is by using a vintage metal coffee mug holder that I spray painted pink. The hooks on the coffee mug holder work great for holding the vintage potholders, most of which have a loop to hang them.

And some I keep displayed in a wicker basket on a small chest of drawers that I keep in my dining room to store some of my linens in.

After teasing you the past several weeks with just small glimpes of my dining room, I decided it was time to share a photo of the entire room. It is not a separate room but is an extension of my kitchen. This has to be one of my favorite rooms in my house. I love the soft butter yellow color of the wall and the white table and chairs, china hutch and shelf. Add in my collection of china and pretty vintage linens and it makes for a charming cottage dining room.

Well, that's it for today. I hope you enjoyed seeing more of my vintage linen collection and my dining room. Maybe you will leave here today with a an idea or two on how to display some of your collections.

Have a lovely weekend everyone. Until next time......

Birthday Fun

Hi everyone... I hope this day finds you happy and well.

Just wanted to drop in to share some pictures with all of you. As I had mentioned in my post on Saturday, my mother Velda turned "75" on the 18th of October and my siblings and I hosted a birthday party for her. The party turned out great with lots of good food and fun. The skies were sunny and the temperature was around 60 degrees. The only downside was that the winds were very gusty so it was a little chilly being outside, but all in all, we could not have asked for a nicer day for the party. Living in Minnesota like we do, we were just thankful it wasn't snowing !!

We ended up with approximately 70 guests throughout the afternoon. Some were family, some were friends, some were neighbors and many of them were families that my Mom used to do daycare for. She has been doing daycare for over 35 years and is still at it. She still babysits her 3 grandchildren (my younger sisters children) and she also has 2 other kids that she watches. It keeps her very busy but she loves it.

With many of the old daycare families, it has been close to 10 years since we had seen some of them. The kids stopped coming to my Mom's for daycare around the time they started kindergarten or first grade (age 5-6) and they are now in high school. Some of the other families that we have kept in close contact with have kids even older. Kids in college, kids graduated from college and working, kids who are getting married and one who even has 2 children of his own. It was such a treat for my Mom to see the kids after all this time and to see what fine young adults they have turned out to be.

Some of kids has such funny stories to tell. One of the boys who is now 26 and is getting married next month was saying how strange it seemed to be back at my Mom's house and how much smaller the house seems now than it did when he was younger. He also saw an old "football" shaped toy box that my Mom still has after all these years and he said he remembered crawling inside of it when they would play hide and seek. He definately would not fit inside of it now :)

I wish I could have taken more pictures to share, but I was so busy visiting with all of the guests that I only ended up with a few pictures from the party. Here are the ones I did manage to take...

This first picture was taken before the party. It is a picture of my adorable nieces and nephew who were supposed to be helping us make one of the desert salads, but like most children, they were more interested in sneaking and eating some of the cut up apple pieces that were supposed to be going into the desert than they were in actually helping.

This next picture shows my Mom visiting with some of her friends (my Mom is the one in purple sweatshirt wearing the sunglasses..)

A few pictures of some of the party guests. There were many more guest than what you see here. Some were inside, some were outside in the front yard under the tent and some were in the garage where they were protected somewhat from the winds.

A picture of the yummy birthday cake decrated with lovely fall colored flowers. There was quite a bit of cake leftover and we are still eating it...

And one final picture. This last picture has to be one of my favorites. It is a picture of my Mom surrounded by several of the kids she used to babysit. Several others had been at the party earlier in the afternoon, but had already left before we were able to get this picture, so unfortunately they were not included. The kids are all grown up now!!! The little toddler in the picture is the younger son of one of the boys my Mom used to babysit.

We all had such a fun day celebrating my Mom's 75th birthday and I know it will be a day that she will never forget. It meant the world to her that so many of her old daycare kids were able to come to the party and help us celebrate her birthday.

Thanks for visiting today. Come back and visit again soon.

Blue Monday

It’s Monday once again and that can only mean one thing… It’s time once again for “Blue Monday” hosted by Sally at Smiling Sally. Thank you Sally for allowing all of us to join in the fun of sharing something blue each Monday.

My “Blue Monday” post is going to be a short one today. My weekend was very busy with my Mom’s birthday party on Saturday and running errands the rest of the weekend, so I didn’t have much time for taking pictures. I also have the same problem as I did last week. Trying to find something blue in my house that doesn’t also include the color pink is a little difficult, so there is even more pink here today in addition to the blue.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, I just love pretty china. I have a large collection of teapots, teacups, desert plates, etc. that I can’t quite seem to stop adding to. Someday, they will probably overtake my house, but until then, I will enjoy them.

The photo I am showing today is of one of my favorite tea sets. This set has a lovely blue background with a pretty pink and yellow rose print. Don’t you just love it??

Thanks for stopping by for a visit today. Come back later in the week as I will be sharing a few pictures from my Mom’s birthday party. Now head on over to Sally’s blog for a list of other Blue Monday participant’s. Make sure you visit all of them too so you can see what they are showing today.

Pink Saturday - Home Goods Finds

OMG!!!... I can't believe that Saturday is here already. This week has flown by and I have been so busy I haven't had much time to sit at my computer and do as much blogging as I would have liked to. Working full time and maintaining my home takes a lot of time out of my week and this week there has been the added task of helping plan a "semi-surprise" birthday party for my dear sweet mother who is turning "75" today.

I say "semi-surprise" as my siblings and I were only be able to keep it a secret up to a point. A rented tent being put up in her yard is not something very easy to hide, nor is much of the food preparation that is going to be done at her house. We managed to keep it a secret until Friday when we finally had to tell her about the party. The party is going to be so much fun. My mother has done daycare in her home for over 30 years and many of the families that she had done daycare for will be coming to the party. Seeing all of the families with their kids all grown up is is going to be such a treat for her.

Even with my time cut short this week, I still wanted to participate in this weeks "Pink Saturday" event hosted by Beverly at http://www.howsweetthesound.typepad.com/,

unfortunately, I've only had time to take a few photos this week of some of my "pink" to share with you today, but I think you will like what I have to show.

I have a new favorite store near where I live. I'm sure many of you out there have heard of the store Home Goods. I just love this store !!

For someone like me who loves to find great things to decorate my home with, this has to be one of the best places ever to shop. They have an ever changing variety of home decor items in so many different styles and I find something new almost every time I go there. Over the past few months, I've managed to find several items that include my favorite color of pink.

This first one is a table runner that has a lovely pale blue background with the most beautiful roses in the prettiest shades of pink. It fits in perfectly with my shabby chic/cottage style decor.

A closer view shows the fine detail and coloring of the roses. The rose pattern is gorgeous!!!

Another item I found at the Home Goods store are these accordion files that were in the stationary aisle. I purchased three of them, but am only showing one of them here. These too have a pattern of a pale pink roses scatted on a pale blue background. They are great for organizing paperwork and bills in my home office.

This last picture is of another Home Goods find. On one of my visits, they had these really cute painted wood hinged boxes in a semi-oval shape. The sides are painted with pink and cream stripes and the top has a pretty rose pattern on it. It can be used as a jewelry box or just to store small odds and ends in. I also purchased a similar one in green that I keep on my coffee table in the living room to hide the television remote controls in when they are not being used.

That's all for today... Now I am off to my Mom's to celebrate her birthday. I will try and get a few pictures to share sometime next week. I will be away from home most of the day today so won't have much time for visiting all of the other Pink Saturday participants right away, but I promise to come visit within the next day or two. I don't want to miss out on seeing what everyone else is sharing for Pink Saturday.

Have a great weekend everyone..

Blue Monday - Vintage Kitchen Linens

Hello everyone and Happy "Blue Monday". I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend. My weekend was very quiet and relaxing after a busy week at work. Except for some short rain showers on Saturday and cloudy skies today, the weather here in Minnesota has been very nice with temperatures in the mid 70's. These warm autumn days won't last much longer so I am enjoying them while I can. Winter will be here all too soon.

Now that Monday is here, it's time once again for Sally's Blue Monday where participants can post about something blue. To find out more about Blue Monday's, take a trip over to Sally's blog at http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/ for more information.

Over the years I have found much joy in collecting fairly inexpensive vintage kitchen linens including vintage tablecloths, tea towels and crocheted pot holders. These nostalgic items bring a lovely cottage charm to my home that I find to be very cheerful and welcoming.

Today, I thought I would show you some pieces from my collection that include the color blue. There is still a lot of pink in this post, but that can't be helped. Finding something in my home without at least a hint of pink is actually pretty difficult if you can believe it. The blue and pink just blend so well together that when I do buy the vintage linens from the antique stores, they usually have both blue and pink in them, so I hope you will forgive me.

One of my favorite and least expensive things to collect are sweet little vintage crocheted potholders. I have quite a collection of them in my favorite colors of pink, pale green, blue and even some purple ones. This first picture is of the only two blue ones that I have in my collection. They are very hard to find in this color and especially one's that are still in good condition with little or no stains on them.

These following pictures are of just a few of my vintage tablecloths. I just love these!! It's fun to change the look of my kitchen table by using the different tablecloths and they look so pretty folded and displayed in my small china hutch when they are not being used.

This picture is of one of my tea towels that has the most blue in it. It has a blue background with a trellis design and red apples (and also a touch of pink !!).

A fun and creative way to display my collection of tea towels is on an old wooden "ladder" that I found in a junk store several years ago. I had seen similar ones in decorating magazines and was thrilled finally find one for myself. I have it propped against the wall in my dining room and it makes for a great display piece to showcase my collection.

The mix of patterns and colors is so cheery and always puts a smile on my face...

I hope you have enjoyed your visit today and seeing a few small pieces from my collection of vintage linens that have a little blue in them.

Now head on over to Sally's blog for a list of other Blue Monday participants and take the time to visit their blogs to see what they are showcasing today.

Come back and visit again soon....

Pink Saturday

YIPPIE!!!

It’s time for another “Pink Saturday” being hosted by Beverly at How Sweet the Sound. If you don’t know what Pink Saturday is all about, click on the Pink Saturday button on my right sidebar for a link to Beverly’s blog. Beverly had the wonderful idea of designating a day of the week that everyone could “show and tell” about something pink. Anything pink is fair game. It can be something from your own personal collection, or just random things you find from somewhere else.

Considering that pink is my favorite color, I couldn't pass up on the chance to join in the fun. My only problem each week has been deciding which of my many pink things to share with all of you. My house is full of pink, from pretty china, linens, storage boxes, pottery, figurines, books, office supplies and so much more. The possibilities each week are endless and I don't think I will ever run out of new pink stuff to share. At least I hope so. If I do, I guess I will just have to go out and buy myself some more (hee, hee, hee...).

Today, I thought I would show just some random pinkness that is scattered throughout my home..

This first item is fairly new to me. I recently purchased this storage box from Cindy at Cute Pink Stuff. It is a wood box with a basket weave texture and has a lovely hinge closure that just screams “cute”. It is about 12” in height and width and is painted in the prettiest shade of pink, both inside and out. If you’ve never had a chance to see the items that Cindy offers for sale on her website, you must check it out. She offers a wide assortment of white and pink painted items for sale that are great for organizing your work spaces at home. With a website called Cute Pink Stuff, you can be guaranteed to find something you like.

This next picture is of a lovely pink flower pot that has the prettiest floral design on it. I currently have it sitting on a small desk in my spare bedroom/sitting room where it holds a few pens and is also being used as a prop for a lovely vintage card box that I discovered years ago in an antique store. Even the card box has roses in the loveliest shades of pink.

Even more pink can be found on one of the shelves on a bookcase in my living room. The shelf holds a random collection of different pieces of china that I have collected over the years. Each piece has a varying floral pattern, but they all have a common theme of pink and roses which allows them to blend together beautifully. Notice the pretty rose patterned wallpaper covering the back of the bookshelf. I disliked the look of the plywood back on the bookcase when I first purchased it, so I decided to cover it with a pretty rose patterned wallpaper. It makes a lovely backdrop to my rose patterned china.

The same shelf also holds a small pink wicker basket that I have filled with a small collection of pretty rose patterned desert plates. You can see just the edges of the plates peeking out. These pretty little plates are getting harder and harder to find in the antique stores. I used to be able to find them all the time and they were very inexpensive (usually in the price range of $5 or so) which is great for me considering I live on a very limited budget, but I am not seeing so many of them anymore. When I do find them now, I appreciate them even more.

That's all for today. I hope you enjoyed your visit and a chance to see some of my pretty pink things. What you saw here today is just a small sampling of some of my favorite pink collections. You can be assured that there is more where this came from and that I will be showing it in the future.

Now that’s you’re done visiting here, head on over to Beverly’s blog for a list of other Pink Saturday participant's and go see what they are offering for “show and tell” today.

Have a great weekend everyone..

Kim

A Heartfelt Thanks....

Hello my lovely friends...

I am having such a wonderful week so far and I hope that you are as well.

While I may not have met any of my new blogging friends in person, I have enjoyed meeting them and getting to know them through their blogs and from the comments they have left for me on mine. I wanted to take the time today to acknowledge and send a very special thank you out to two of them.

First, I would like to send a big thank you out to Becca at http://bluebirdroses.blogspot.com/ for being so sweet and kind for mentioning me and my new blog in her latest blog post. It means a great deal to me that Becca was willing to take that extra little step and introduce me to those who may not have had a chance yet to discover and visit my blog. Becca, you are the best!!

Being a new blogger, I was so worried about how anyone would find me, so for Becca to give me a little “free advertising” is something that I really appreciate and will forever be thankful for.

My second thank you goes out to Sweetie at http://sweetiesworld-sweetie.blogspot.com/

Today, Sweetie is living up to her name by graciously presenting me with the BFF Gold Card which I will gladly display on my sidebar.

This award comes with some rules which are as follows:

You may choose five people/blogs to give the award to.
Four have to be dedicated followers of your blog.
One has to be a new follower of your blog or live in another part of the world.

To share in the generosity and spirit of giving, I am in turn presenting this Gold Card to the following recipients. Please stop by and visit them at their blogs to say hello and find out what is going on in their world.

Shannon from Paint Mine Pink @ http://shannonthompson.blogspot.com/
Faith from Grandma Faiths’ Fabulous Life @http://grandmafaith.blogspot.com/
Gabriela from Gabriela Delworth @ http://gabrieladelworthclasses.blogspot.com/
Jan from Jan and Tom’s Place @ http://jt-jantom.blogspot.com/
Connie from Living Beautifully @ http://connie-livingbeautifully.blogspot.com/

Until next time…..

Blue Monday

Oh My... Where does time go??

It's hard to believe that the weekend is over and that it's Monday once again. If only the weekends could be longer. On the bright side, it's time once again for Sally's Blue Monday. Head on over to Sally's blog at http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/ for a list of other Blue Monday bloggers to see what they have in store for you today. It's so fun to see all the different Blue things that everyone is posting about.

As for myself, I wasn't quite sure what to post about today, but then I remembered the comment Sally had left me last week telling me she was anxious to see what the rest of my blue home office looked liked after I showed a darling little blue lady figurine that I keep on a shelf in there, so I thought it would be a great idea to share some photos of my blue office with you today.

To explain a little bit, my home office is not that large. In the lower level of my townhouse, I have a combination laundry/utility room and the room that I use for my office. It is actually one long room, but is divided somewhat by the placement of the washer and dryer, water heater and furnace on one side and an open room on the other side.

This before shot of my office shows how drab and ugly the room was when I first moved into my house over six years ago. It was painted in a drab peachy beige color, the window was covered in some very ugly brown curtains (left by the previous homeowner) and the cement floor was bare. If anyone is curious, the barrel shaped item in the lower right hand corner of the picture is my water softner!!

With a little pale blue paint, an extra carpet remnant to cover the cold cement floor and some pretty white curtains on the windows, this room now makes the perfect spot for a home office. I spend a lot of time in this room on my computer and when working from home which I usually do two days a week.

It also has two large storage closet where I store my office and craft supplies and a southern exposure window that allows a great amount of sunlight into the room.

My desk looks a little cluttered, but I love it just the way it is. I love being surounded by all of my pretty things. The desk is nothing fancy. It is just a folding utility table covered with a white linen tablecloth. It is the perfect size for the space in my office.

Under the window, I placed a small shelf unit which I found at Target (it is from the Rachel Ashwell Simply Shabby Chic collection). It was the perfect size to fit under my window and it does not block my closet doors. This is the shelf unit that my lovely lady blue figure that I featured in last weeks post sits on. It also holds some other pretty items and some storage boxes and a basket that I can hide some of my paperwork and office supplies in.

The only ugly spot in the room is my black office chair. When I started working from home, I knew that I would need a really comfortable office chair, but I could not find one in white which is what I would love to have. The only color choices they had were black, gray or maroon. Maybe someday I will find my white dream chair, but for now, I must live with the black one.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my blue home office today. Thanks for coming to visit today. Please come back again soon :)

Have a great week !!