What a night! The good and the bad!

Yesterday I took the day off work for a mother-daughter day. It was a fun day of shopping and then off to lunch at Lauren's favorite restaurant, The Fish Market and then a little more shopping! Then about 4:45 we headed to San Francisco to see Wicked which started at 8:00 pm!
I mentioned yesterday that I really don't like driving in San Francisco and yet again I had another bad experience! First off, I should say that I live in Silicon Valley and I'm used to traffic, crazy drivers, etc. but it's nothing like driving in San Francisco! When you come up to the traffic lights there are lanes just for taxis and buses and another lane for the automobiles, with an island area in between them. Sometimes the taxi/bus lanes are on the right and sometimes they are on the left so you're always having to look at the signs while watching to see if the light is green, yellow or red. At the same time there are masses of people walking and riding bikes so you have to look out for them. These people walking and riding bikes must not see cars because they will step out directly in your path...you must somehow predict that they are about to do this! I need to get better at that! Also, you can't make left turns on most of the streets so if you want to turn left you have to turn right and then left and go around the block and make a big loop. The only problem is a lot of the streets are ONE-WAY streets. So not only are you looking out for people and bikes that suddenly jump out at you, you have to make sure you don't turn down the wrong way on a ONE-WAY street. Ummm...a trip to SF wouldn't be complete without me turning down a ONE-WAY street and seeing cars coming towards me in all the lanes! Luckily I had Lauren screaming at directing me not to turn down that ONE-WAY street!!!

We finally found the Theatre. Yay...but where is the stinkin' parking lot? Now, in Silicon Valley all the theatres have their own parking lots but not in San Francisco! You have to drive around to find a place to park! Again...we go through all the above steps with the taxi/bus lanes, people, bikes, ONE-WAY streets to find parking! Finally about 45 minutes later I found a garage close enough that I would feel somewhat safe (not really though) walking to after the show in the dark of the night. It's about 2 long blocks away. I drive in and park, and then I couldn't find my way to get back on the street so I ask the attendant. He asks me how long I'm going to be parked there which I thought was a really odd question since I'm paying $3 for every 20 minutes...what difference should it make! When I tell him he informs me that his STINKIN' garage closes at 8:00pm! At this point I was ready to just go home. I ask the guy where should I park if I were going to a show at the Orpheum Theatre and he told me there are two places down the street. I find them and they are right across from each other so I choose the one on the left, go to pay and it's only $5...Yay! But they only take cash and the machine doesn't give change and I only have $20 bills on me but luckily the lot across the street takes credit cards so back in the car and across the street we go! Finally we are parked and ready to eat. I figured there would be lots of places to eat around there but there wasn't and we were running out of time so we ended up at a BURGER KING surrounded by homeless people. As we were eating our meal at a bar that looks out onto the sidewalk there were homeless people watching us eat! It was horrible! It's funny how things work out though...we peeled back the little tag that came on our drinks and Lauren won a free milk shake and I won a free Whopper so we went up and got them and gave it to a very scary-looking but very grateful man that was digging through the garbage. That made it all worth it! He said this would be a lot better than garbage food. I walked away with tears in my eyes!

Oh, I almost forgot...Wicked was GREAT!

A day off

I took a vacation day today! Lauren and I are going to see Wicked in San Francisco tonight. I bought these tickets months ago and I'm so excited the day has finally come. San Francisco is only an hour away from us but I really don't go there very often. Probably because I have a car with a stick shift and I always end up in a panic on those San Francisco hills! My next car will be an automatic!!! We're going to go up early to beat the commuter traffic and have dinner up there. It will be nice because it's been close to 100 degrees here and it's supposed to be in the low 70s in San Francisco. The SF Bay Area has weird micro climates so you can drive an hour and the temps can be close to 40 degrees different!

Thanks for all the nice comments about the tray. I'm so excited that so many of you are going to make one for yourself! If you do, please email me a photo. I would love to do a post with every one's creation! If I get enough photos I'll post them sometime in early August. I think it will be fun to see all of them together.

Also, you still have time to enter my giveaway. I'll be drawing the name on Thursday evening. And to "Mad in Montana" and "anonymous" (who I'm pretty sure are the same person), you said my giveaway is cheap, I would just like to say that this same teapot is selling on eBay for over $50 with shipping! I don't think that's cheap. Also if my ads on my blog make you that mad just don't visit. Those ads bring in money for my family so they are staying! I didn't start my blog to make money and I blog because I love it and making money while I do it is like icing on the cake! My thanks to the 99.9% of you that are so wonderful and so nice and come back here regularly to read my blog. I really appreciate it!

Note: Sorry, I don't know what happened but the Mr. Linky link on my giveaway post is not working any longer!

A shabby cottage tray project

In a book about cottages that my friend Lorrie sent me recently I saw a beautiful tray made with an old picture frame and vintage hankies. I couldn't wait to make one of my own!

I found this picture frame at the thrift store for just $4.99 and knew it would be perfect!

Then I went to the hardware store and bought some wooden knobs to use as feet. I glued them to the bottom corners of the frame and then painted it all white.

After I sprayed it and let it dry I used some Rub n Buff in Spanish Copper to give it a shabby look. Sorry, I forgot to take photos of that step. Rub n Buff can be found in the paint section of most hobby stores and some hardware stores. You just put a little on the tip of your finger and rub it over in small areas. You can see the Rub n Buff in the photo below. The Spanish Copper color is my favorite to use. I love the distressed look it gives. You could also sand it but I think this looks better.

Then I arranged the linens I was going to use on top of the cardboard backing that came with the frame. I used some vintage napkins and a vintage hankie.

Then you carefully put the glass over the linens and drop it back into the frame.

That's it! Now you have a cute shabby chic tray that you can use in just about any room in your home! The total cost was less than $10.00 since I already had the linens.

Instead of vintage linens you could also use fabric, scrapbook paper, old postcards, wallpaper, ribbon, old photos, dried flowers...the possibilities are endless! Now I want to make more!

Monthly Giveaway Party

It's time for my monthly giveaway party! If you have a blog and you have a giveaway on your blog please sign up with Mr. Linky below so others can visit you.

If you are here to enter my giveaway just scroll down to my previous post and leave a comment there if you want to be entered to win.

Update: If you want to see who's having a giveaway on their blog, you'll have to click on Mr. Linky below to see the list. I don't know why I've keep having this problem with it showing up on another page.

My Giveaway for July

I have 2 items I'll be giving away this month! First up is a Cath Kidston teapot that I bought at a thrift store awhile back. I remember how excited I was when I found this. I couldn't believe that someone would give away a Cath Kidston teapot! I loved it but it's been tucked away behind closed doors in my china cabinet for awhile and it's time to pass it on to someone else.
The next item I'm giving away was donated by one of my readers, Jen from Vintage Home Interiors. She sent me one of these adorable garden angels to keep and one to giveaway!! Jen also has a blog and you can also see her garden angel there. Her photo looks much better than mine!
Would you like to win one of these items? Here's how it works. Leave a comment below and let me know if you would like to be entered to win the teapot or the garden angel or if you want to be in both drawings that's okay too, just let me know. I'll be picking one random winner for each item this Thursday, July 16th around 9:00 pm PDT and I'll announce the winner on Friday. Please make sure to leave your email address if you don't have a blog so I have a way to contact you!

Found Alive!

Many of you asked me to update you if I found out anything about the missing man in my city and I'm happy to report that he's been found alive! He's been missing about a week and a half and they found him in a dry creek bed in Saratoga which is walking distance away. The news report says it looks like he has been there awhile. He was dehydrated but otherwise okay. I'm so happy for his family!!!

More info here.

Update: Here is a picture of Ross at the hospital with his family. Click here.

Ikea Sofa Review

I've been getting a lot of emails and comments lately asking if I'm pleased with my Ikea sofa that I bought last March. It's been 4 months and I still love it! I've washed the slipcovers numerous times and they look the same now as they did when I first bought them. I'm glad that I bought an extra set of slipcovers because you can't put them in the dryer and they take a least a day to air dry.

I'm still amazed at the quality of this sofa for the price. It's only $399 and the extra set of slipcovers is only $49.

If I had room I would buy the matching love seat but I think it would be too large for my room. I am considering buying a chair though. I have wicker chairs in my living room now and they really aren't that comfortable so I would like to replace one of them, maybe with one of these:

This chair above is $249 in white but if you want it in pink it's $349! I'm not sure why pink costs $100 more??? Pink wouldn't look right in my place so it doesn't really matter to me. I wish they had it in light blue though.

This chair above is only $199.

Which chair do you like better?

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Don't forget, I'll be hosting my monthly giveaway party on Monday! I'll have Mr. Linky up sometime Sunday evening if you want to join in and have a giveaway on your blog.