Happy Silver Sunday #5!

Just a quick post for S.S. (I have company coming over and I still need to pick up the messes we made yesterday!) A little glittered bird sits in an abandoned nest found on the trail, all nestled in a sweet silver basket. I don't know my silver pieces like a lot of you maybe this is for condiments??? Sorry this next one is blurry, little lovebirds salt and pepper shakers sitting on a branch.

This Hotel coffee thermos is one of my first adult garage sale antique finds I think I must have been about 19 or so when I went to visit a good friend in Ohio and her mom took me 'sailing' it was wonderful and I found all kinds of goodies, this is one of the few that I still have. It says Hotel Statler 169 on it. I love using it, it makes my coffee a little more special, well that and a little vanilla cinnamon creamer!

A antique tin type of a dapper looking couple sits in a vintage metal frog.

Another one of my favorites a champagne bucket with a ribbon wrapped around it pinned together with a vintage rhinestone. BLING!! Gotta have it!!!!

It sits on my newest upcycle. Last week our round coffee table just couldn't take the wear and tear we were giving it and one of the legs came loose. It was already held together with glue when I bought it so now I need to come up with a better repair job for it. In the mean time, I am loving this! I found this door in the rafters of the white barn when we bought the house and left it there knowing that one day it would be something special. This is it's day! I cleaned it up and propped it on top of a couple of the garden urns and wahlah a new coffee table! Ofcourse it can't last... spring will be here and then I will need those urns again, I'll have to find a more permanent solution for legs before then! Thanks for stopping by and a special thanks to Beth for hosting this fun party! Happy Sunday! Theresa xoxo

A love of toolboxes

First of all I gotta tell you all, I get so inspired by all of the creative genious you bloggers put out here. It gets my juices flowing like you wouldn't believe! (being trapped in the house helps too!) Here's the thing, if when I pull up to a garage sale and find a little old man selling his goodies well, be still my heart! When I go to an estate sale I love going in the garage first, I love to see the 'man stuff' so I can turn it into the 'girl stuff' :) I've had this handmade toolbox for awhile now and it usually has candles in the jars, like now, but sometimes in the summer they get replaced with flowers. It's always been bare wood until recently when I took it to the basement and gave it a quick facelift with some white spray paint, but it still needed more... here it is after the spray paint (sorry I forgot the true before pics.)

And here it is all shabbified with some vintage lace and a old rhinestone (funny I'm not usually a lace girl but the dingy balls I usually use just didn't cut it this time!). The lace was too easy, the lady I bought it from kept it in a continuous loop so all I had to do was slip it on the box! Don't you love it when a project is just that easy?

O.k. this next one was even easier. I bought this from a 'man sale', It was full of screws and nails and such, all of which I bagged up for later. I just scrubbed it really good and then gave it a good rub down with lemon oil. I love it!

The compartments were so big that I could fit 12 old restaurant plates in the back two and our silver in old blue jars in the front. I finished it off with napkins and a jar of flowers, I hated using fake ones but that was all I had, you can be sure that the blue jar will be filled with real ones ASAP!

Even D. commented on this as soon as he saw it! Sometimes he just scratches his head at my upcycled projects but he's a sucker for organization! So thanks for all of the inspiration you've sent my way, I hope I've done a little of the same for you!

Happy Saturday! ~ Theresa xoxo

The collection in the hallway and my lighting solution!

This is the hallway going to the upstairs of the house, where 3 of the bedrooms are. I had these floral pictures scattered all over the house when we first moved in here almost 4 years ago but it gave the house a 'old lady' feel and wasn't really a good fit for the whole family. Now mind you I generally like the 'old lady' look and when I see a vintage floral picture I go gaga but D., well not so much! He doesn't really say much but this many was a bit over the top for him. My solution? Hang them in the hallway so that I can enjoy them without overtaking the house with 'flower power'!

This stairway is a really tight space so I tried to squeeze in all of the areas without making you dizzy looking at the pics! I didn't match up the frames heck some of the pics don't even have frames! I like the gathered over time look to them.

This is one of my favorite lighting solutions. There were just bare bulbs hanging in the hallway so when I found these paper lanterns here I was so excited! I think I paid 20. for 3 gorgeous lanterns that are huge!

I put cup hooks on two sides of the light fixture and then hooked the lantern onto them. I did have to snip the bar that went across the lantern but it didn't affect it. You can see the hooks in the pic. above.

Well that's it for now, stop back soon though as I have been going a little stir crazy around here and so have been sprucing up the place a little. (I once had a lady walk past my house when I was sprucing up the porch say to me 'you like playing house don't you?' my response what an enthusiastic 'YES'! I never thought of it that way but I always loved playing house when I was little, not so much the doll part but the making a home part.) I have a couple of upcycled projects to share with you and of course Silver Sunday! Thanks for stopping by, TGIF!! Theresa xoxo

Dreaming...

Of this. I know we have a lot of winter left here in Michigan but I cannot wait to be able to get my hands in some dirt and be outside for longer than our riverwalk takes us. This is our backyard, this area is our picnic area behind the house and on the backside of the barns. Those are lilac bushes and oh I how love it when they are in bloom! This is a relatively new area as a couple of years ago I layed tarp down of the grass and then covered it with mulch so we could have a 'real patio'. It works great (not that I don't have dreams of a field stone patio mind you!) This made D. so happy because now when he mows he doesn't need to move everything in this area. I aim to please! The bushes go around where Penelope stands too so we have a little privacy when we dine, or carve pumpkins, or read, or play, yes we love it out there!

This is MY barn otherwise known as The White Barn or as D. lovingly refers to it as the junk collection! Every spring I clear it out and organize it so that I can create in there in the summer but I fill it up as fast as the garage sales show up in the paper! This summers project will be to give it a paint job and work on it's little garden a bit. can't wait! :)

This is the back of the house and where I want to put in another patio... right behind the chadelier and the bird house, right up to the back of the house. There is good amount of under used space that would make a great little get away spot. Now to convince D., ofcourse the first thing out of my mouth will be how it would be nice and shady (the chandelier is actually hanging from an enormous pine tree) and we could put a lounge chair in there for him! It really won't take much because it's 1/2 way there already, the mulch goes just beyond the glider bench... sounds like a good argument for a patio right?!

But of course this is my reality! It's not going away any time too soon and as far as the kids are concerned, this is fabulous! My thought is, 'if it's gotta be cold then I want snow to make it pretty!'

but one can dream.

Happy Wednesday! Theresa xoxo