Some things are just meant to be...

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I saw this glass dispenser at Marshalls about a month ago. I had it in my cart and when I got to the check stand I changed my mind. It was $49.99 and I decided I shouldn't be spending that much money. Someone else must have bought it because the next time I went in, it was gone. Of course, later I regretted not buying it. I went back into Marshalls last week (I'm addicted to that place) and saw they had a new one in. The best part....it was $10 less than before....only $39.99! I figured it was just meant to be! Now the bad part. I brought it home and washed it and as I was tilting it in the sink I hit the pedestal on the tile and a piece broke off! You can see it in the photo below. I just have the piece sitting there, I still need to glue it together. Anyone know a good glue to use on glass?

Saturday was a great day for lemonade. It was so hot, in the 90s. Way too hot for me! I hope you all had a great weekend.

Did you hear the great new about Victoria Magazine? If not, go over to visit Carol at Raised in Cotton, (one of my new favorite blogs) to hear some great news!

Inspiration Friday - Backyard houses

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In keeping with the theme of last week, here are some more little backyard houses. Someday I would love to have a little place in my backyard that I could decorate. I don't care if it's a play house, garden house, conservatory, a pool house, a studio or just a potting shed. Just a place to decorate with things I love. First I need to get a home that has a backyard big enough! Hmmm...Maybe I should start looking for a husband or maybe just buy more lotto tickets???

Herbs

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When my son was younger we lived in a house on 3 acres. It was great because we had enough room for a big vegetable garden. My son who was 10 years old at the time became interested in growing herbs. He's always been the type of kid (and still is) that becomes very passionate about what he's interested in at the moment. He would spend his own money buying books on herbs and he learned many of their medicinal uses (lavendar for headaches, etc). Because of his passion I became interested in herbs also. Before this, I wouldn't have been able to tell one herb from another. My daughter never grew her own herbs but she does know a lot. One day she and I were sitting in the backyard. I think she was 11 at the time. She commented on how good the basil smelled. I was shocked that she knew what basil was. We played a little game where I picked some different herbs we had growing and then I blindfolded her and she smelled the herb and tried to guess what it was. She got all of them correct except one (thyme). I never taught her this but she was always in the kitchen with me while I was cooking so she must have just picked this up on her own. I was truly amazed.

I have a very small patio area now so I grow my herbs in pots. A strawberry pot with the pockets works great. I have chives in the top of mine and Italian parsley, oregano, thyme in the pockets. I also have a rosemary wreath. I have other pots with basil and mint.

My favorite herbs are rosemary and basil. Here is a great recipe for Rosemary Focaccia http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/106275 I bake mine in a stoneware pan (Pampered Chef Large Bar Pan) It is so good!

Do you have a favorite herb?

Don't laugh

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Last night was our last night of cake decorating classes and we had to decorate a whole cake. In my mind I thought my cake would turn out perfectly...but it didn't! The side of the cake started collapsing. My daughter's cake did the same thing and so did 2 other of our classmates. I'm bringing it to work today....a cake for me, from me, for Admin's Day. I anxious to try another cake now. I'm sad that the class is over, we had so much fun. They are having an intermediate class in the fall so I think I'll sign up for that.
To all the Administrative Professionals out there, I hope you have a great day!

I ♥ Garage Sales!

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After seeing some of the things other bloggers have found at Garage/Yard Sales, I decided to give it another chance. I've had some bad experiences in the past. It seems that I only found garage sales with trash, things that I would have thrown out. You know, dirty pots and pans that have been burned so badly that they are unusable, damaged tupperware, mismatched cheap glassware, dirty toys, etc. I went out first thing Saturday morning and headed towards the town of Los Gatos (location, location, location) because you have to go where the money is. I found only one garage sale there, probably because a storm was coming in later that day. I bought a necklace for $2. I only brought $10 with me to start. I drove around and couldn't find any more yard sales in that town so I headed for the Willow Glen area of San Jose. As I was headed that direction I saw a yard sale on a busy street. I spotted this glass terrarium as I was sitting at the stoplight. Remember I only have $8 left. I figured since it was now 10:00 am and this was still here that it was probably a lot of money. I asked the man how much and he said to make him an offer. I hate that. I told him to tell me how much he wanted. He said $5.00...I said "Sold"! I love it. I bought some maiden hair ferns for in it (I still need to get some little terra cotta pots for them so ignore the green plastic ones.) I'm thinking about painting it white. What do you think? I found some magazine clippings of painted ones which are shown below. I think the color it is now, rust (real rust not faux) is too dark for my home. Should I paint it white?

Meet Gail McCormack

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For me, the best part of having a blog is all the wonderful people I have met because of it. Awhile back I was on Flickr looking through people's photographs. I came across a photo of beautiful painting. The person that posted it said that it was painted by Gail McCormack from Australia and to do a Google search to find her. I did find her website and I loved her paintings so I put a link to her website on my blog. Through the wonders of sitemeter she could see some of her web traffic was coming through my blog. Last week I received the sweetest email from her.

Gail and her husband, Tony live in Australia. The have two children, Todd 24 and Ellie 21 and a beautiful Aussie Bulldog called Guss and a cat called Bella . They sell at craft markets, supply retail outlets, eBay and their own website. Gail and Tony work as a team, he creates wonderful furniture and also works on all their prints.

I'm in love with her paintings and I thought a lot of you would love to see their lovely work. You can see more on their website http://www.gailmccormack.com/index.php

Inspiration Friday-A backyard party

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Click on photo to enlarge

As I was going through my large stacks of old magazines, I realized that I have been saving these longer than I thought. In my stash of magazines are issues from 1995! Twelve years old! I bought them when my daughter was 2 and now she's 14! As I look through the pages of these older magazines, I realize that a lot has changed as far a decorating then vs. now. The decor back then was really floral. Layers upon layers of different floral fabrics. Large florals! Floral wallpaper! Everything was floral! I love flowers but as I look at these old magazines they do not appeal to me at all anymore. It was just too much. The Romantic Homes issue of March 1997 is one of my favorites though. I remember when it came out, I was so impressed. As I was looking at it last night I was still impressed. I loved this backyard party photo and it still really appeals to me now, 10 years later. I love these tables and the little house in the background is so adorable. There is also the cutest baby's nursery in this issue too. I will post pictures of that next Friday.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Words around my home.

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Last Friday, Cottage Bethy asked what words are hanging around our homes and then I saw that Suzie Q of Rabbit Run Cottage did a post of all her cute signs. So here are the words hanging around my house.

This is in my entry way.In my kitchen...

Also, in my kitchen. My dad made this one. The little tea pot is cut out of wood so it's raised a little bit which you can't tell from this picture. (sorry it's so blurry)
My dad also made this sign. It was in my daughter's room until last weekend when she declared she no longer wants a surfer girl room and just wants to put up posters (I'm not happy about this). I hung it in my bathroom just to take this picture.

My dad made this for my son when he was 10 years old (he's 20 now). My son used to have his own herb garden. The sign is falling apart but I want to save it forever. It just reminds me so much of that cute 10 year old boy. (I also have a HUGE box of his Legos that I can't seem part with).

My dad also made this one and I've had it in my garden for many years which is why it looks so dirty.

Another one by my dear dad, hanging in my kitchen

And yes, another one my dad made for me.

And he made this one too. Can you tell my dad spoils me?

Another one from dad... Don't ask me why he put the apostrophe so low, but spelling and grammar are not one of his strengths. I never told him this was wrong and I still hang it in my patio area.
It makes me smile.

My dad made this one.... It says Fancy Baking Our Specialty (he spelled this one correctly, it's just hard to read in the photo.)

A cute little blue and white plate that my mom gave me years ago.

And last but not least, another one from my dad and one of my favorites. He's sold many of these over the years at the flea market. This hangs in my dining room doorway that leads into my kitchen.

Thrift store shopping and Susan Branch!

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Last Saturday I wandered over to the Goodwill by my house, and when I say "by my house" I mean it. It's probably only a 1/4 of a mile away. There was a beautiful antique secretary desk there but it was sold. Out of curiosity, I looked but couldn't find a price tag on it. I would have loved to be the one that got that. I did find this cute ceramic basket dish for $7.99. I picked it up but wasn't sure if I wanted it or not. I've learned that if I'm not sure, I should always pick it up and then decide as I walk around because if I go back to get it, it will be gone. As I was walking through the store with it, three ladies came up to me and said how beautiful it was. I knew then, that I wanted it.

Also, if you haven't been over to Cherry's at Tales from Pixie Wood, go on over. She got to interview Susan Branch! Susan Branch found her blog and sent her an email, you have to scroll down to read that post first...it's called "Yeh, It happens like this...IN THE MOVIES." Susan agreed to do an interview and Cherry asked her readers to submit questions. I LOVE Susan Branch so of course I submitted a question. I can't tell you how excited I was to see that she answered it!!!! Here is what I asked:
I've been a fan since Heart of the Home first came out. I went to Martha's Vineyard in 1987 for the first time and just like her, I'm a California girl that fell in love with the Vineyard. I wish I could just move there like she did the first time she visited. I would love to know how she got the nerve to move across the country to a small island and about the transition of living there vs. living in California.

The most amazing part is that Susan said she visited everyone's blog that submitted a question! Isn't she amazing!

Saratoga, California

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Silicon Valley sounds like such a harsh place but it actually has some cute, little, quaint towns. Saratoga is one of those and I feel lucky to live just on the outskirts of it. I have the benefits of living close but not the high rent...actually, I don't think there are many rental places in Saratoga but the houses are more expensive. I grew up in Saratoga when I was little before we moved to San Jose. I remembered that there were cute little houses behind the church I attended. I found this cute neighborhood because my best friend and I used to cut Sunday School when we were in Jr. High and roam around the town for an hour and then make sure we were back in time before her parents came out of their service ....can you believe that! My daughter and I took a drive through these streets the first Saturday in April on our way home from the flea market. During our drive we stopped and took pictures from inside the car. Here are some of the homes we saw (these look so much cuter in person than they do in these pictures).

This house below is on the main road, Saratoga Ave. I'm not sure if this is an old house or if it's new and meant to look old. Lucky for us their gates were open so we just pulled up. See the french doors on the left side...I was so afraid someone was going come out of there and ask why we are taking pictures of their house!

This house was really nice but hard to take a picture of because of all the trees. It has a huge front porch.

There are a lot of quaint little areas in Silicon Valley so I'm going to try to get out and take some pictures to share with you in the future.

Inspiration Friday - Outdoor spaces

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Since Spring is here I thought I would share some inspirational outdoor spaces.

(I noticed on some of my posts the pictures are getting cut off on the right side. It's fine on my work computer but at home I use Mozilla Firefox as my web browser and I think that may be the difference. If this happens to you, can you please let me know.)

I was getting my little patio looking pretty nice and then my landlord said she was putting in a new fence but first she had to get the trees trimmed. They came out this week and stomped all over my impatiens that I just planted. I can only imagine how bad my plants are going to look once they rip out the old fence and put in the new one. When I moved in 3 years ago, I planted a creeping fig vine that was just getting to the point where it was covering the fence. It was so beautiful! My plan was to gently pull it off the old fence and reattach it so it could climb the new one. The tree trimmers ripped the whole plant off the fence and cut it down to the ground! I guess I'll have to wait another 3 years now to get it back to where it was.

Last night my daughter and I went to our first cake decorating class. There are 4 classes, each 2 hours long. In our last class we will have to decorate a cake by our self. I'm so excited! If my final cake turns out, I'll post some pics.

One more thing, I put pictures of my bedroom on HGTV's Rate My Space. Click here if you would like to rate my bedroom. Please be honest with your ratings though. Don't just give me 5 stars because you know me! I have to say that I am totally shocked with how well it's doing. I have 4 stars out of 5 and I've only told 2 people I know about it so these votes are from strangers. The comments have been really good. I only have one sort of negative comment but when I looked at that person's room I can see why they wouldn't like mine. They said it had too much clutter but they are absolute minimalists. I've heard that people can leave really hurtful comments on this site so I was a little worried about posting the pictures but I'm glad I did.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!