I'm Addicted.......

Oh, Oh, I think I have a problem.................

I've become addicted to Etsy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Since I've started blogging, I have discovered so many wonderful bloggers who create and sell their beautiful crafts on Etsy. Now, I'm finding so many pretty things that I want to buy. Some of the things that I would love to buy are sadly out of my budget of which I need to watch very closely, but luckily, there are still lots of affordable goodies out there just calling my name and asking me to bring them home.

My latest aquisitions came from Debbi at "Marionberry Cottage" http://www.marionberrycottage.com/. She has so many beautiful things to choose from that I had such a hard time deciding what to buy myself as a little Valentines Day treat, but these are the 2 items I finally decided on.

The first is a pretty pink rose lingerie/laundry bag that is just so pretty. The colors are gorgeous. Not sure where it will end up in my house, but I am thinking most likely in my office. It will look very cute hanging from the handle of one of my closet doors and it will give me something pretty to lack at when I am busy working at home. So much nicer than the ugly cubicle walls I look at on the days I work in the office.

Here's a close up shot showing the beautiful detail and colors of the roses....

The second item is a pretty Valentine hanging pillow made with two different rose fabrics, lace and a victorian lady graphic image... Not being the best photographer in the world, I had a hard time getting really clear picture of the hanging pillow, but you can still see just how pretty it is...

Debbi's service was excellent and I received the items within 4 days of placing my order. If you haven't discovered Debbi's Etsy shop, you must meander on over there and take a look at all the goodies she has to offer. If you're anything like me, you may have a hard time keeping yourself from buying a few goodies of your own.

Enjoy the rest of your day and the upcoming weekend. If you've stopped by for a visit, leave me a comment so I will know that you've been here.

Old finds from Target....

Don't you just love Target???

I know that I do. I loved it even more when the Rachel Ashwell's line of Simply Shabby Chic used to include more home decor items and not just bedding and bath collections like it does today.

One of my favorite Simply Shabby Chic items that I purchased a few years ago is this pretty silk floral arrangement that came displayed under a garden Cloche. It has my favorite colors of pink, pale green, cream and robin's egg blue. I actually bought two of these. One for my living room upstairs and one for my home office downstairs. It's so pretty and I just love it!!!


My hope is that some day, Rachel Ashwell will expand her line of Simply Shabby Chic items to include more home decor items such as these. I would love to find new items to add to my collection.

Hope you are all having a wonderful day. Take care and come back and visit again soon.

A New Award & Some Sweet Things......

Minnesota is back in the deep freeze again this weekend and the current temperature is -10 degrees as I am writing this. Even though it may be freezing cold outside, my heart is warm today as I was thrilled to bits to learn that Wendy from Pink Slippers has awarded me with the “Your Blog is Fabulous” award.

It’s wonderful to know that people are finding my blog and appreciating what I have to share with all of my visitors. Thank you so much Wendy for honoring me with this award !! Your kindness is very much appreciated.

Now my job is to pass this “Your Blog is Fabulous” award onto some of my fellow bloggers. I have discovered so many wonderful blogs over the past year that it is hard to chose just a few as I feel that everyone deserves this award, but these are some of my favorite blogs to visit for inspiration and beautiful eye candy. For those of you that I didn’t include in my list, rest easy. I love your blogs just the same and will continue to visit as often as I can.

1. Rose Garden Romantic - Michelle
2. Girls At Heart - Holly
3. Romantique Inspirations - Sandra
4. Pink Obsession - Cheryl
5. Paint Mine Pink - Shannon
6. Sugar * Sugar - Analise
7. Vintage Bella Studio - Andrea
8. Fitty's Pinky Rose Cottage - Fitty
9. Vintage Home - Clare
10. Lucy Bloom - Lucy

The rules for this award are:
1. Put the logo on your blog or post
2 Nominate at least 10 blogs which show GREAT ATTITUE and/or Gratitude
3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post
4. Let them know that they have received this award by leaving a comment on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received the award.

Now for some fun and pretty eye candy to share with you, I thought I would share a few photos of some more of my recent antique store finds (and what I will consider the start of a new collection).

While I am single and have no children, I find myself loving the sweet “BABY” planters that seem to be so plentiful and easy to find in the antique and thrift stores. Up until recently I have always passed them by, but suddenly I felt the need to start a new collection and I am now the proud owner of these two darling little BABY planters. I just love the soft pastel colors of the planters. They are so spring like.

The first one is in the style of a highchair with a sweet little teddy bear draped over the edge of the planter. The second one is in the style of a bassinet.

They are just too cute and I can't wait until I can find more to add to my collection.

Have a great weekend!!

Antique Store Finds......

In keeping with my goal for the new year, I'm back with another post before I let too much time pass by.

Just after the Christmas and New Year holiday when the last of the bills were paid off, it was time for some more antique store shopping. On my last visit to an antique mall about 30 minutes from my home, I hit pay dirt. I love to visit this antique mall as the prices are always very reasonable, they are always bringing in new merchandise and best of all, one of the dealers has a booth filled with the beautiful vintage/shabby chic type of things that I love, from white or cream painted furniture, china, linens, etc.

Lucky for me on this visit, she was having a huge sale trying to clear out some of her older stuff so she could bring in some new things for spring. I ended up finding three great pieces of furniture that fit in perfectly with my vintage/shappy chic decor.

For years, I have been wanting a small 2-tiered white round table and now I can say that I am the proud owner of one. I snagged this cute little 2-tiered round table for a bargain price of just $18.00. It was painted a distressed eggshell white and matches my china hutch just perfectly. It now stands proudly in one of the corners my dining room displaying a few items from some of my collections.


The second item I found was this sweet little shabby chic style end table. Just like the 2-tiered table I showed earlier, this one was also less than $20.00 and is painted the perfect shade of white. I currently have it in my living room, but I may move it someday.

Lastly, is this painted chair that was on sale for just $5.00. I couldn't believe the price and with it being so low, how could anyone not buy it. It is painted a cream color with a pretty rose boarder. For the moment, I have it sitting in my home office.

I felt like such a lucky shopper on this day to find three pieces of furniture for less than $60.00. Makes this old girl who lives on a very tight budget feel proud of herself for staying within that budget. Now, I can't wait to go back to this store to see what pretty new things the dealer is going to be bringing in for spring. Sigh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Until next time....

A Beautiful Christmas Gift From My Baby Sister.....

Just dropping into to say Hello and that I hope all is going well with everyone out there in blogland.

Things are going pretty good at my house. I’m surviving the snow and freezing cold temperatures we’ve been having this week, but just barely. A normal 30 minute commute home from work yesterday took me 70 minutes on account of the snow and slick road and if that wasn’t bad enough, the temperatures overnight dropped to a bone chilling -18 degrees. Good thing I was able to work at home today and didn’t have to leave the house.

Anyways….. I wanted to show off one of my Christmas gifts that I received this year. I received this lovely rose painted sugar dish from my “baby” sister who knows my tastes in china and decorating so well. Thank you my dear sweet sister for finding such a lovely gift for me.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit. Please come back again !!!

A Collection of Tea Things............

Wanted to pop in and say Hi to every one and let you know that I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth. I can’t believe that it’s been almost a month since my last blog post. I guess I’ve been hibernating and just trying to get through another long, cold and snowy Minnesota winter. On top of that, I guess I just haven’t had too much to blog about lately.

Just for fun, I thought I would share a few close up pictures of my collection of tea things, both in my small china hutch and in one of my kitchen cupboards. I’m almost embarrassed about the large size of it, but I can’t seem to stop adding too it. It’s been one of my favorite collections for over twenty years and it will continue to be one of my favorites.

Is it a bad thing to like something so much that it’s starts to overtake all your storage space???????? I don’t think so. My feeling is that you can never have too much of something you love.

First, let’s take a closer look at the inside of the small china hutch that stands in the corner of my dining room. The four shelf hutch itself was purchased at Walmart years ago and I wish I could find another just like it. I’ve looked everywhere, but haven’t had any luck.

As you can see, the main theme of my collection is roses. Roses bloom on the teapots, teacups and china plates. I also store my collection of vintage tablecloths here.

Top shelf and second shelf ..........

Second and third shelf shelf (sorry for showing the middle shelf twice)...

Bottom shelf...

Now, here’s a sneak peak into one of my kitchen cupboards in which I store all my tea paraphernalia, from more teapots and teacups, desert plates, tins of tea, etc. It’s a jumbled mess, but it still looks pretty to my eyes.

That’s all for today. I need to save more for some other day. I promise not to stay away so long next time. I’ve actually been doing some antiquing and thrift store shopping the past few weeks and have lots of new treasures to share with you. I just haven’t had a chance to take photos of them yet. Hopefully I will get that done over the weekend and will be back sometime next week with a new blog update.

Take care and come back and visit again soon.

Hello and Happy Holidays to all of my visitors.

I hope this holiday season is finding you happy and well and that you are enjoying your time getting ready for the upcoming holidays.

Sorry I haven’t been around very much lately. I have been busy with things at work and getting ready for Christmas so I haven’t had very much time for blogging.

I finally had a chance to take a few more vacation days before the end of the year which has allowed me to catch up on things and finally getting around to some blogging.

As usual, part of my vacation time was spent visiting some of my local antique and specialty shops. Earlier today I visited a wonder shop called “The Vintage Pixie” which is a shop that only holds what they refer to as “occasional sales”. They are only open about 6 times a year over a long 5 day weekend. I was lucky in that my vacation time this week fell on one of the weekends that the shop was open. After this weekend, they won’t re-open for their next sale until April or May.

One part of the shop was full of Shabby Chic/Vintage style items. They had everything displayed so beautifully and I wanted to either move in or buy everything to take home with me. However, being a good girl and staying within my set budget, I couldn't’ buy everything that I would have like to, but I did end up finding a few special items that I ended up buying. I found a very pretty flower vase and a set of 4 small glasses made of pink milk glass that I think I will use as flower vases. I am only showing 2 of them here. They are a wonderful addition to my pink milk glass collection.

Another recent find from an antique shop is this pretty bone china flower basket that has a lovey raised pink rose in the center. It fits in beautifully with my collection of pink and robins egg blue that I have displayed in my office at home.

Once the holidays are over and things start to slow down again, I hope to get back to blogging on a more regular basis. Until then, may all of you have a wonderful and blessed holiday season.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

An award and a decision....

Hi Everyone,

Have you missed me???

I know I have been absent for a week or so and I will explain why in a minute, but first I would like to take this time to send a very warm thank you out to Marilyn at Our Victorian Cottage for awarding me with the Marie Antoinette Blog Award. I feel extremely honored to have Marilyn share this award with me and I will gladly add the wonderful award to my sidebar. Marilyn, your kindness and thoughtfulness is very much appreciated and I am sorry it took me so long to let you know that.

Ok!! Here are the rules:

1. Please put the logo on your blog
2. Link it to the person from whom you received the award
3. Nominate at least 7 or more blogs
4. Put the links of those blogs on your blog
5. Leave a message on their blogs to tell them

And the winners are:

1. Beverly at How Sweet the Sound
2. Katie at Rose Breeze Boutique
3. Cori at Gingerbread, Crumbs & Company
4. Niki at Nostalgia at the Stone House
5. Linnea at Nearbear and B-Daddy's Nest
6. Lynn at The Vintage Nest
7. Katie at Hazel's Vintage Pretties

Please take the time to visit these wonderful and inspiring blogs.

Now, to explain why I have been absent from blogging for the past week or so…

I decided I needed to take a blogging break and do some thinking. When I first started my blog a few months ago, I never realized how time consuming it could be and that I would start to feel stressed out over participating in some of the weekly blogging events like “Pink Saturday” and “Blue Monday”.

Even though I have really enjoyed participating in those events, I was beginning to feel a little overwhelmed with trying to come up with new and creative blog posts each week for both events and to also find the time to try and visit as many of my fellow bloggers as I could. Add that into a full-time working girls life and I’m sure many of you will understand how I was feeling.

I realized that I don’t want to give up blogging altogether, but I have decided that for the time being, I will no longer be participating in the weekly blogging events. I will however continue to add new blog posts on my own time schedule and I will also continue visiting my fellow bloggers as often as I can.

That has been the one thing I have enjoyed the most over the past several months. I have met so many wonderful new friends through blogging and I have really enjoyed visiting all of your blogs and seeing and reading about the wonderful decorating and craft projects that you are working on and all of the collected treasures that you have acquired in your antiquing, thrift store and garage sale hunts. For me, blogland is like an on-line decorating and collecting magazine and I have found so many great decorating ideas in my visits to your blogs that I would like to use in my own home and they have even inspired me to begin some new collections of my own.

My greatest hope is that you won’t forget about me and that you will continue to visit my blog as often as you can.

That’s all for now. Take care and come back and visit again soon !!

Pink Saturday - Pale and Pretty

Oh my... Another week has flown by and it's time once again to share in the fun of "Pink Saturday" hosted by Beverly at http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/. Thank you Beverly for being such a wonderful hostess and for allowing all of us that love the color Pink to share some of our favorite Pink with others.

Today, I am showing a vignette of some of my pale and pretty pinks. Included in the vignette is a sweet pale pink lady chalk figurine, some pretty pink buttons, a vintage postcard and a couple of pale pink milk glass candy dishes. A sweet rose patterened plate is the backdrop to the vignette. The color of the candy dishes is such a pale shade of pink that they almost look white. Only if you've ever seen similar pieces in your own eye will you understand just how pale the shade of pink is. I love to use these candy dishes at Easter filled with pastel colored candies.

The vingette re-arranged with the candy dishes removed to show more of the rose patterned plate....

And I would like to send out a shout of THANKS to Katie at Rose Breeze Boutique who last week shared a photo of some beautiful floral fleece fabric that she had found at JoAnn's. After seeing her picture and falling in love with the design of the fleece fabric, I had to run to JoAnn's and purchase some of the lovely fabric for myself. Just like Katie, I now have a beautiful and "shabby" lap throw of my own. Perfect for getting cozy on a cold Minnesota winter day !!

Thanks for stopping by for a visit today. Now head on over to Beverly's for a list of more "Pink Saturday" participants. Make sure you visit the others also to see what lovely Pink they have in store for you today.

Have a fabulous weekend!!