"He followed me home"

This little guy was just too cute to pass up! He has his little tongue sticking out....... his whiskers are missing (there are holes for them) but will be easy to replace. He is marked Japan.

(Left) Another tea bag holder to add to my tiny (but growing) collection!


(Below) I don't *need* another bowl; but who says anything about *need* when it comes to pretty pink roses?

I just love trash-to-treasure projects. I found this old brown picture at Goodwill and reworked it into something romantic and shabby.

This wagon was another Goodwill find. I've shared the *after* in my blog previously, but never the *before*.......


I found this candleholder at a garage sale, and knew it would be prettier painted white!

More thrift finds..........
These little melamine dessert plates were only 49 cents each; there are six of them. They have pink roses with a little aqua as well. I'm not sure if I'll use them in the kitchen or relegate them to the camper, which I hope to redo in a vintage pink and aqua style.
They are so cute, I can just see serving desserts on them, so I'll probably keep them inside to use more often! :)

Thrift Store Finds

From today........ less than a dollar each! I'm a happy camper! The little flower pot is actually a candle holder. And one can never have too many pretty little frames!

My Childhood Dishes

Cleaning out an old dresser recently yielded lots of hidden treasures. Among them were my childhood dishes, pictured above. They are little china dishes with dark pink roses on them. The set started out somewhat larger, but when you are three, things happen (such as deciding my tea pot would enjoy a ride on my tricycle! :)

I am thankful these few survive........ I know that I enjoyed many hours of play with them....... my mother tells that I would often come out to the kitchen where she was working, and invite her to a party. She would ask what I was serving, and I would always say "cake and salad."

I stopped at the thrift store yesterday and found these goodies....... some sweet fabric pieces (Laura Ashley valance, pink pillowcase, green lace panel), and also a small pink and blue cottage planter; a tiny teacup with faded gold edging and a pink base; and my favorite ~~ this little ceramic lamb, sitting on his "pillow" and scratching his pink ear! He's a tiny thing, perhaps 1-1/2 inches tall or so! Isn't he cute?

Dining Room Wall Decor

Some of our dining room walls. We have high ceilings in the dining and living rooms, which provide a lot of wall space to decorate (much to my delight! :) The tole-type tray at top is one of my favorite finds, and inspired me to bring little touches of black into the otherwise pastel room. The picture at right originally had a very dark wood frame, but I painted it white.

Here is a large oval frame that was gold before I gave it a coat of white. I hung this pretty floral platter in the middle of it.

I like to hang my own version of artwork on the walls. My son recently said to a friend of his who was visiting, "My mom is weird, she frames wallpaper and hangs it on the wall."

I say why not? ;)

Wall Decor

Our living room wall....
I was looking at this before photographing it just this morning, and realized every bit of decor on that wall is either from a yard sale or an auction! The tapestry (closeup at top) was an auction find, and one of my favorite pieces. I just love the romance of it!

I loved both of these frames (at left) I found at yard sales, so I decided to just hang one within the other.

The shabbiness of the gold foil is especially charming on this little Florentia piece (right).

I am always on the lookout for pretty things for our walls.... I'll share our dining room walls in the next post!

Hello!! Some of my favorite fellow bloggers have been sharing photos of their pitcher/jug collections. I didn't even think I had such a collection, until I went searching the house for them to photograph! Turns out I have quite a few, they are just displayed apart from one another in various vignettes!

A closeup of the beautiful roses on the middle pitcher from the photo above....... This is an antique pitcher given to me for Christmas by my dear husband.


The photo on the right is a closeup of the pitcher I bought just yesterday. It has a pale pink background and sweet little roses.

The white hobnail in the picture below was given to me by my mother; it has little pedestal glasses with it from which we used to drink milk (I still do :) The three pitchers on the right in the last photo are all displayed in our bathroom. The miniature pitchers in front are from tiny tea sets that I have -- two of pink roses; another of bunnies.

Things are getting back in place after the holidays....... this table was put back where the 9 ft. Victorian tree stood in the living room...... The lamp was a gift from my parents many years ago; the picture is a little card I framed out, and the teacup & saucer were a gift from a friend in a Christmas Secret Santa exchange (thank you, Joy!)

Little Miss January

A vintage angel on display this month in my china hutch.

Little tea cup and tea bag holder, treasures found when antiquing. I have a small collection of tea bag holders, both vintage and new -- probably about six or seven. I'll share them in a future post.

More Treasures from Our Antiquing Adventure

I spotted this sweet little picture board yesterday, admired it, considered buying it, then walked on. My mom was several booths ahead of me, and when we met up again, she said "I want to show you something." I followed her back to the very same booth, and guess what she wanted to show me! You guessed it, the little picture. Unbeknownst to one another, it had reminded us both of my grandma's house, where one of the chores was feeding her chickens. Well, that sealed the deal, I had to have it then! :) The colors are perfect in my kitchen. I also found the pretty little bluebird planter (love the color), and the vintage rose tablecloth in the background.

I went antiquing with my mom and cousin today and found this fabulous vintage bottle brush tree. It is flocked, and has pink bulbs on it. The wooden base is aqua! I really don't *need* another Christmas tree, but I couldn't resist this beauty!

I also found this vintage reindeer on greenery. These finds almost make me wish it was Christmas all over again! :)

A Cinderella Story

Pictured is one of my Christmas gifts from my dear husband -- a set of vintage cake decor, featuring Cinderella, her prince, and carriage.

I collect Cinderella items because of portraying Cinderella in a 2nd grade play. Here is the story.

In reality, I was a freckle-faced seven-year old, but in my own little over-confident mind, I was a beauty! I won the role of Cinderella, and truly thought I was a princess! My teacher sewed a dress of yellow *silk* (Cinderella, dressed in yellow)....... I had sparkly (plastic) shoes and a glittery crown made of paper. My carriage was a little toy wagon, on the front of which had been glued a large cardboard pumpkin cutout!

In the play, we sang and danced.......... A little boy who had a crush on me was the prince, and when he asked me to marry him and I gave a very flat "yes", the audience chuckled at my lack of enthusiasm! (I, in turn, had a crush on the little boy who played one of the prince's footmen -- talk about second-grade scandals! ;)

Being in that play is one of my favorite childhood memories. Unfortunately, my parents did not own a very good camera at the time (and hardly anyone had movie cameras in those days), and the few pictures they took didn't turn out well. Therefore, I must rely on my memory for pictures of this special time! (besides, I grew up to live my own true-life fairy tale with my wonderful husband, who provided a horse-drawn carriage for his *Cinderella* on our wedding day, as you've seen in some of my previous posts!)

Though Christmas has come and gone, I extend the season by continuing to find little Christmas pretties to squirrel away for next year! Here are my most recent finds!

A New Little Bear

I found this little bear today at an after-Christmas clearance sale. She was around six dollars. She is wearing ivory cream attire, with a *fur* hat and muff.

I think she looks quite appropriate for January, so I will leave her displayed for awhile.

We rearranged our kitchen yesterday, and I am so excited with the extra room it seems to provide (it is not a large kitchen), and just as excited about decorating it all! (perhaps even more excited! ;)

Here is just a little preview; this is a pic of our kitchen table as it is now.

Well, the holidays are over, and I am excited to be getting back to *regular* decorating. A fun thing about putting the Christmas decor away, is getting to *redecorate* with all our pretties in a new way. Since I am in the process of doing so, I don't have any current pictures to share, so here are a couple of our bathroom as it normally looks. I hope to be sharing more new pictures with you in the next day or two! :)