Winter blahs and a few pretty things.........

Urrrrrggggggg.. Winter is back in full force here in Minnesota. It started snowing around Noon today and they are predicting up to 8 inches of the fresh white stuff by midnight tonight. Is winter never going to end?

It’s a good I worked from home today and didn’t have to be out driving on the messy roads. That is never something I look forward to. I only took a short walk out to the central mailbox station in our culd-e-sac and nearly slipped and fell on a patch of ice that was hidden beneath a layer of snow. Thank goodness I was able to catch my balance. Sure would have been embarrassing to fall and land on my rear out in the middle of the road. What a funny sight that would have been…. LOL.

To make up for the dreary weather, I had to show off a few pretty things. One is new and the other is old. The new is this darling little lamb baby planter that I found in an antique store a few weeks ago. I just love the sweet look on its face and the soft shades of pink and blue.

The old is this pretty floral vase that has my favorite colors of pink, blue, yellow and green. It so reminds me of the spring I am longing for.

Seeing these pretty things everyday always puts a smile on my face, even when the winter blues having me feeling down.

Hope you are all having a wonderful week and that you have fun plans for the upcoming weekend. Tomorrow is payday for me, so that means I might have to visit an antique store or two over the weekend to see if I can dig up some pretty new treasures.

Take care and come back soon………..

Pink stuff for the office.......

Gosh, this week is going by so fast. I can’t believe its Thursday already and that I haven’t done a new post since the weekend. Sometimes, it feels like all I do is get up in the morning, go to work, come home, cook dinner, clean up afterwards, do laundry, clean the house, blah, blah, blah , go to bed and do the same thing all over again the next day. Makes me feel like a robot sometimes… LOL.

By the time 7:00 or 8:00 pm rolls around, about the only thing I feel like doing is crashing on the couch and vegging out in front of the television. I’m sure all of you who work outside the home can relate.

As for work, I’m lucky in that I have the privilege of being able to work from home two days a week. I’ve fixed myself up a nice and pretty office space in the lower level of my home. I spend a lot of time in this space either working or being on the computer. I love to surround myself with some of my favorite things in some of my favorite colors of blue and pink. If you haven’t seen photos of my office space, check out my blog archives. I did a post last year.

Here’s a picture of something pink and pretty that I have sitting on my desk. I purchased this lovely shabby pink letter holder at from Cindy at Cute Pink Stuff. If you’ve never been to her online shop, check it out. She has lots of great stuff to decorate your home office space with. I have the letter holder filled with some Laura Ashley stationary items (note pads, post its, etc) that I found at JoAnn Etc. They came in a gift set with 3 matching folders, and an erasable monthly calendar. They are so pretty, I almost hate to use them, but I know that I will eventually. For now, I can just enjoy looking at them everyday.

Enjoy the rest of your week. I'll be back soon.

Changes...

Hope you all had a great weekend and a Happy Valentines Day...

I was looking for a little change and decided to change the photo on my blog header. This one is just as pretty as my old one as it has my favorite pastel colors of pink and green, with a little red thrown in as well. It is a picture of some of my treasures that I display on a bookshelf in my living room. Someday, I may go back to the old one, but for now, this one will stay. The colors remind me of spring!!

Another old treasure that I have sits on my nightstand in my bedroom. It is a vintage jewelry box that is covered in a pretty paper depicting different Victorian images.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and have a great week !!

Happy Valentines Day !!!!!

Oh my, what is a poor girl supposed to do when she doesn’t have a sweetheart on Valentines Day??

Well, she can just play “let’s pretend” and think of all of the wonderful things her sweetheart might do for her if she actually had one.

First, that imaginary sweetheart would bring her a beautiful bouquet of pink roses….

Then, he would give her a box of homemade chocolate candies which he surprised her with by putting them in a vintage fabric covered heart shaped candy box….

After giving her the beautiful roses and box of candy, the girl’s sweetheart would take her out for a romantic dinner and some dancing….

Once he’s brought her back home, he would surprise her again by giving her a beautiful heart shaped necklace made of pretty pink stones………..

A girl can dream can't she?????

Wishing you all a Happy Valentines Day!!

Vintage Candy Box.....

Not much to post about lately as life has been quite dull, so I was going through some of my photo's that I haven't used yet and I found one of this lovely vintage candy box that I found many years ago in an antique store. The cover of the box has a portrait of a lovely lady and is done the softest shades of pastels, including sage green, lavender and cream. The sides of the box (not shown..) is covered with a small floral patterned paper. So pretty!!!

Hope you've been enjoying your weekend. Take care and come back and visit again soon.

I've Been Tagged.............

I’ve been tagged by my new friend Debbi at Marionberry Cottage !!!

Here are the things to do:

1. Go to the fourth folder in your picture file on your computer.
2. Post the fourth picture from that file
3. Explain the picture
4. Tag 4 more people and have them do the same.

Forgive me, but I must cheat at this game of tag, for to understand the significance of the fourth picture in my fourth folder, you must also see the third picture, so I am going to show both of them. Just call me cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater (hee, hee , hee.....)

Just a little over six years ago, I took a giant leap of faith in this thing called life and I purchased a townhouse. This was quite a scary process for a single girl who doesn’t make tons of money in her job, but I knew that after more than ten year of apartment living and all the restrictions that applied and throwing my money away on rent, it was time to “grow up” and start investing my money is something that I could eventually call my own and turn it into the real home that I wanted.

When I bought my house, there was a large overgrown lilac bush in front of the house that just kept growing and growing to the point that it got too hard for me to manage and which, within a few years became an overgrown MONSTER!! I’d like to know who the idiot was that thought it was a good idea to plant a lilac bush less than two feet from the structure of the house. Didn’t that person realize how fast those things grow and how big they could get?????

By last summer, the lilac bush pretty much covered the entire left side of the front of my house. In addition to the lilac bush, there were also a few low ground bushes, a half dead pine tree on the corner of the house and another tree of some unknown type that was also on the corner of the house (which one of the townhouse association board members figured probably grew from a seed planted by a bird). That tree grew so high that it reached the overhang of the house and would bang against the house whenever it got very windy.

Well, after 5 years of being in my house and with some financial help from the townhouse association, last summer I was finally able to have some major landscaping done in front of my house.

Out went the overgrown lilac bush, the overgrown and half dead trees on the corner of the house and the poor dead bushes that had been buried under the lilac bush where they died from lack of sunlight. In went some new brick landscape edging, three small, easy to keep trimmed bushes and a few Day Lily plants.

Now, for the pictures.

Picture #3 in my folder was the before shot of what the front of my house looked like before the landscaping project started.

Picture #4 in my folder is the after shot which shows what it looked like when the project was completed. What a huge difference and one that I am enjoying very much. You can see that I actually have windows now. They were covered by the lilac bush before.

Doesn’t it look soooooooooooooo much better now?? It’s amazing how different it looks all cleaned up. I’m still amazed each time I go back and look at these pictures.

These are my blogging buddies who I’ve tagged:

Queenie at

Queenie's Vintage Finds and Treasures

Janice from The Faded Cottage

Lorena from Rose Chic Friends

Valerie from Traveling Through

Now, I'm off to let these lovely ladies know that they've been tagged.

Until next time............

Five Favorites.....

Hi Everyone…

Thanks for stopping in for a visit today. I hope your week is going well. My week is going fairly well. Things are good at home and at work, but I’m not enjoying the weather so much. While the sun has been shining brightly in the sky, the cold air has once again moved back into Minnesota after we had a mini heat wave over the weekend when the temperature on Saturday reached a balmy 46 degrees. Boy did that mild air feel nice. It was so nice to be outside running errands and not feel like your ears were going to freeze and fall off…. LOL

It was just a little teaser day to let us know that spring is not so far away but that winter isn't quite ready to leave either.

Now, on to a different topic. I have been a collector of interior decorating books for as long as I can remember. I have quite a collection of them and I can spend hours thumbing through the books looking for new ideas that may inspire me to recreate the look of something in my own own, or even better yet, start me off on a new collection for some sort. While I love all of the books I have, I do have a few particular favorites and today I am going to give you a peak at what they are.

Of course, with my love of everything "Shabby, Pink & Pretty", I'm sure you won't be too surprised to learn that two of my favorite decorating books are Rachel Ashewell's "Shabby Chic at Home" and "Shabby Chic Treasure Hunting & Decorating Guide". I just love the Shabby Chic look, from the pretty, soft floral fabrics to the slightly shabby furniture and collectibles, soft pink roses and beautifully decorated rooms. If a girl could live inside the pages of a book, these are two books that I could move right into and feel perfectly at home.

Then there is the stunningly gorgeous book that Niki Fretwell from Nostaglia at The Stone House created and which is available for purchase thru BLURB. The book was a little pricey, even for the soft cover which I purchased, but it was totally worth every penny!!! This book is loaded with page after page of beautiful photos. I so love the look over shelves, nooks and crannies stuffed with all kinds of pretty things. It makes everything look so pretty and cozy. You can read more about Niki’s book and how to purchase it on her blog.

Another one of my favorites is “Decorating Vintage Style” by Christina Strutt. This is another book that features rooms decorated in a vintage style with soft romantic fabrics and pretty collections.

Rounding out the top five is the book “Vintage Vavoom” from the editors of Romantic Homes magazine. This too is a beautifully photographed book that has page of page of photos of different vintage inspired collections and decorating ideas.

I hope you enjoyed your little sneak peak into my bookshelf to see what some of my favorite decorating books are. I would love to know what yours are...

How about if I "Tag" all my visitors and ask you to share a list of your top five decorating books with me and everyone else. It will be fun to see how many of us enjoy the same books.

I'll be back again soon. Take care and have a great week....