My up and down relationship with eBay!

I know I've said it before...I have a love-hate relationship with eBay! I find it so frustrating to find something that I love at a great price and then have it snatched away from me at the last minute!!! So awhile back I ended my relationship with eBay but I couldn't stay away for long and boy am I glad I didn't give up on it all together! See that chintz cup above? It's an old James Kent cup and saucer and the pattern is called Du Barry. I got an amazing deal on this. It was less than $3.00!!! The shipping was $10.00 because it came from Scotland but still $13.00 for a vintage chintz cup, that's unheard of! Back in the 90s when everyone was collecting chintz this would have probably cost over $100! The prices have come down since then but you really can't find one anywhere around here for $13.00!

That was a good deal but this was the icing on the cake!!! I got 6 Cambridge water glasses in the Portia pattern for $34.00. I've seen one of these glasses selling for close to this price and I got 6! I told this seller that I feel like I stole these and that I would give them a little free advertising so click here to see their eBay store.

I'll be using these glasses for a Sunday brunch I'm having at my place this weekend! I think they will add a lot of elegance to my table!

See the beautiful shells in the photo above? (you can click on the photo to enlarge it) Those were the gift that Shari and Debbie sent me from Florida. They also sent a beautiful embroidered tea towel.

So cute!!!

I've been so busy working on my bathroom that I didn't have a chance to take any photos for my blog today so I thought I would share this cute cake pan I just found. It's from William-Sonoma...I just love that store!!! I think this would be great cake to make with an ice cream filling! I may buy one but I'm seriously running out of room in my kitchen to store anything else! If I get this, something else will have to go! Totally off the subject but is anyone else freaked out about this Swine Flu? I don't usually get overly worried about these type of things but this one is scary! One of the high schools in Lauren's school district just closed down today for a week because of a confirmed case there. That's really scary to me because it's so close!

Bathroom Decorating in Progress

The bathroom is painted (Behr Paint in Denim Blue, oops sorry I made a mistake in my original post...it's actually Bleached Denim) and it's been fun doing the finishing touches. I found the shelf above on clearance at Home Goods awhile ago. It was a much darker color than I wanted so I just spray painted it a creamy white. I still need to do a little antiquing on it to get rid of that flat spray painted look. That little oval on the top is just crying out for something but I'm not sure what. A monogram is the first thing I thought of but since I plan to go back to my maiden name soon and Lauren's last name will be different, I really don't want to do that. I wish I was good at painting I would paint a little seashell or something. Maybe I could decoupage a shell on there! Any other ideas?

I made the starfish picture above last night with just things I had around the house. An old frame, some old linens and a starfish. I really like it! Very beach cottage, don't ya think?

I bought the curtain awhile ago at a thrift store. It's a "Simply Shabby Chic" originally from Target. I think I paid $3.00 for it. I also made a skirt for the sink area last night using a white sheet that I had on hand and some ribbon. Very cheap inexpensive!

Tonight I need to paint the trim and also paint the mirror frame. I still need to either fix the chandelier I recently bought or find something else. Then it will be done!!! Now that I have color on the walls in there, I cannot believe I lived with a very plain beige bathroom for 5 years! I realized on Sunday after I finished painting it that it was our 5 year anniversary of living in this apartment! Time flies...Lauren was only in 5th grade when we moved in here and now she's in her second year of high school!

Friendships Made Here!

This is just amazing! These two wonderful women met in the comments section of my blog and are now real-life friends! About a year and a half ago Shari (on the right in the photo above) emailed Debbie about a comment she had left on one of my posts. They emailed back and forth and quickly became online friends. Recently Debbie from New Jersey went to visit with Shari at her home in Florida for 8 days!

Shari told me they have so much in common. The were born just 3 weeks apart in the same year! Little did I know when I started this little blog that something this wonderful would happen! Isn't this great?

They sent me a beautiful gift from Florida. I'll have to show it later in the week

FYI: The Debbie that is showing up in the stories below (under, "you might like these Stories") is a different Debbie.

A Giveaway!

I was recently contacted by Photofiddle.com and they would like to host a giveaway on my blog and also give all my readers a discount but because I have to comply with the rules from my advertisers I must host this giveaway on my product review blog. So click here see what we are giving away! It's good!!!

Have a great weekend!

Inspiration

Inspiration can come from anywhere. I've been thinking a lot lately about my tiny downstairs bathroom. I originally was going to wallpaper it with a beautiful toile wallpaper but I keep putting that project off because it intimidates me. I've decided now to just paint it, although I may still wallpaper it later or I may use that wallpaper in my kitchen. I was trying to think of the look that I wanted in that powder room and then it hit me...the packaging of Crabtree & Evelyn's Nantucket Briar fragrance line is just what I want! I've always loved this packaging! The first time I bought this product, I think it was in the 80s, I didn't even have any blue and white in my home but I was drawn to the packaging. I didn't even care for the scent back then but I loved the boxes! The scent has grown on me and I like it now! It's a blend of briar roses, bergamot, fresh greens, amber and vanilla.

This weekend I will be painting my bathroom blue and these products will be on a beautiful shelf I found at Home Goods awhile back. Who would think you could find inspiration from a fragrance box!

Have you or would you ever buy something because of the packaging? I have a feeling that if you are a visual person, like me, you have!

Roses and a new bedspread

My garden roses are doing really well this year! I picked this bouquet and thought that the colors would be perfect in my bedroom.

Last month when I was at"Move it Elsewhere" I bought this bedspread. It was really stained and I wasn't sure if I would be able to get it clean. I figured if I couldn't get the stains out I could at least use the vintage crocheted lace for something. Luckily I was able to get all the stains out! It was priced at $75 but everything upstairs was 65% off so I got it for $26.25. What a great deal! It's a full size and my bed is a Queen size so it a little small which is why I have it layered.

I may end up putting it under my mattress to layer over my dust ruffle. I think that might look pretty!

A look through the mirrored closet doors...

Update: To read how I clean my vintage linens click here.

What is it?

Isn't this beautiful? I bought this on my all-day shopping spree with Glenda last Saturday. I think we hit about 10 stores at least. It was a shop-til-you-drop kind of day! I bought this at one of my favorite stores, Vintage and Vogue in downtown Campbell. I'm not really sure what it was used for but I'm serving up some rose buds right now! Haha! I'll be using it for preserves, cranberry sauce, condiments...just about anything that you could put in a small bowl and serve with a spoon! It was too pretty to leave behind! 

*****************************************

We've been having a heat wave here for the last few days.  It was 94 degrees yesterday and it's supposed to be hot again today.  It feels more like August than April!!!  Luckily they are forecasting it to be 30 degrees cooler by Friday!  Yay!

Old Books

I recently purchased some old books from Jo-Anne Coletti's website, Vintage Rose Collection. They are titled Heidi, Heidi Grows Up, and Jack and Jill. I fell in love with the aged blue color of these books and even though the covers have some water damage, I think it really adds to their charm. I just tied them up with a satin ribbon and added a paper rose.

This weekend when I was at Move It Elsewhere with Glenda I found some more old books. I was looking for some with pretty blue covers and I laughed so hard when I pulled out a book titled "Forty Plus and Fancy Free". What a perfect book for me!!! It's about a woman who lives in an apartment and she's going on a trip to Italy! Hmmm...Is this a sign? Is a trip to Italy in my future??? First I receive a gift from Italy and now this book. Weird huh?

Here are the books displayed on a shelf in my living room. See that bowl with the cherubs on the left...that was a gift from Charleen, one of my readers! (Thank you Charleen!).

When I went into Move it Elsewhere on Saturday morning, the owner, Suzanne told me that she had 15 visitors (that she knows about) that came because of my blog! That was just Friday and Saturday morning (before 10:00) I hope those of you that went enjoyed it! I sure did! I had also stopped by there on my lunch hour on Friday with a coworker and met a fellow blogger... Mo from Mo's Cottage was there and I also met a couple of my readers, Fran and Esther. It was so much fun! To those of you that are local, if you ever see me, please stop me and say hello, I would love to meet you!!!

Shells, moss and eggs & helping a stranger

Shells, moss and eggs...what a strange combination but I think it all works together, doesn't it? I'm loving this reindeer moss! It's such a bright pop of color, especially with all the white I have.

See the color of the shells...that was my inspiration for my new wall color.

***********************************************

Now on to helping a stranger...Yesterday I stopped in at the thrift store on my lunch hour. As I walked around the corner to the next aisle I saw out of the corner of my eye a woman who didn't quite seem right. She was holding on to her cart with one hand and on to the display shelf with the other hand and her head was down. Just as I was about to ask if she was okay, she called me over to her. I asked her if she felt faint and she said yes. OH MY GOSH...there was no place for her to sit down and she was a large woman and I know I wouldn't be able to hold her up if she passed out. My mind was racing...What should I do??? I ran as fast as I could (in high heels) to the front and yelled that I needed help. As I ran back to her I passed a large chair and I grabbed the big cushion off it. (I'm shocked that I even was able to think clearly enough to do that) I was relieved that when I got back to her she was still standing! I put the cushion on top of the shopping cart and told her to lay down on it. Her feet were on the floor but the top of her body was laid across the cart. I stood at the back end of the shopping cart and held her hands tightly so if she fainted she wouldn't fall. She was very clammy. I asked her if she was a diabetic, if she had eaten anything, all the while telling her she was going to be okay. What the heck was taking those people at the front so long to get back there? No one else was helping me and I didn't know what to do!!!!! She kept thanking me even though she could barely talk. She said she may just be having a panic attack...I've had those before and it's very scary to go through! I was trying to slowly lead her, as she was laid over the shopping cart, to a chair. Finally the manager showed up and the lady asked that they call 911 for her. They brought a chair to her but they never did call 911, I'm not sure why. After a few minutes she started feeling better. I went through a time in my life when I fainted easily so I know that it's important to get your head down below your heart and you can usually stop yourself from fainting so I think having her lay on the shopping cart helped. Once she was feeling better she thanked me over and over again for helping her. She even gave me a big hug before I left. She was there with her Aunt who was shopping in a different part of the store when all this happened so luckily I didn't have to leave her alone. The reason I'm sharing this is because we all need to help others in need even if they are strangers. Twice in my life I've been in this woman's position and no one helped me. They just stared at me like I was on drugs or something. Once I was like her, feeling faint and another time I slipped on a wet floor in a store and fell so hard that I couldn't stand up for a few minutes. Both times people looked at me and walked by, not even asking if I was okay!!! I think people hope that someone else will help so they don't have to get involved! We need to get involved! We need to help each other! Put yourself in their place. After I was in those situations I told myself that I would help a stranger in need and I have quite a few times now. Now I need to go sign up for a first aid class so I can do more than hold their hands and tell them everything is going to be okay!!!

Gifts from afar...

Monica from the gorgeous blog ~The White Bench sent me a package filled with wonderful things...all the way from her home in Italy to my home in California! Look at this beautiful sign she painted for me!!! I got teary eyed as I opened it...I was just so touched when I read the card that said she painted this just for me!

It captures so much of what I love...Martha's Vineyard, the cottage lifestyle, hydrangeas and of course my favorite color, blue! It's just so me! It's so Monica too...she's also a "blue" person!

Look at the other beautiful things she sent...

some vintage postcards from Europe that I put in this jar with the nest and eggs. The blue on the girl's dress matches the eggs perfectly!

She also sent me this bottle with a gorgeous blue rose on top. I saw this on her blog and had commented on how beautiful it was!

She makes these wonderful fabric dolls and sent me one.

Thank you so much Monica!!! I'm so touched by your generosity!!!

I know I've said this before but I'm just amazed at all the wonderful women I've met all over the world through my blog. It's so nice to know there are so many kindred spirits out there!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For those of you in Northern California: This weekend (Friday-Sunday) is the "Move it Elsewhere" sale. You can see the post I did on it last month or visit their website. I'm meeting Glenda~Many Fond Memories there on Saturday. I can't wait to see the new things they have this month!!!

I painted my Living Room!

I've been wanting to paint my living room/dining room area for awhile now. My taste has evolved a lot since I painted it yellow almost 5 years ago and the bright yellow just wasn't doing it for me any longer. I wanted a more subdued, softer look.

I LOVE it now! It's still got a little "golden" color to it but it's much calmer. It makes the room feel so tranquil. It was hard to get a good photo of the color, it's actually a little more golden than it looks in these photos.

The inspiration for the color was from the beach. I wanted the walls the color of sand and shells and I got lucky and hit it right with my first choice, which is Behr Paint in "Cozy Cottage". The color and the name could not have been more perfect! It's just the look I was going for!

I ended up taking down my vertical blinds on my sliding glass door and raising the drapery rod higher. My next project is to make some drapery panels. I had planned to do this while I was off work for a few days but I ended up catching a cold and Lauren had the stomach flu so that slowed me down quite a bit. Hopefully I'll be able to get to that project soon. My draperies now are hanging about a foot off the floor and it's driving me crazy!!!

Updated: Here's the before picture. As you can tell, it's not a drastic change...

Happy Easter!

I hope you have a great Easter!  I'm going to take a blog break for the next couple days.  I took some time off of work for Spring break and I have some projects and spring cleaning that will be taking up all my free time!  I'll be back soon!!!

Happy Friday!

~click on photo to enlarge~

Easter weekend is almost here and I haven't even taken any photos of my faux chocolate Easter bunnies that are displayed on my dining room table to share with you!  It seems like Easter just crept up on me this year!  I bought an adorable basket at a thrift store that I was going to paint and use as Lauren's Easter basket but it's still not done. Maybe I can get it done on Saturday and post photos of that and my chocolate bunnies this weekend! 

The mosaic above is from some of my flickr favorites and some of my own photos. There is so much beauty on Flickr...I just have to share it with you!   Photo credits are here.

Vintage Lace Trim

You may remember awhile back a beautiful mirror that Cathy gave me that I put in my dining room. At that time she also gave me a bag full of vintage crocheted lace trim.

It was way too pretty to put in a closet so I rolled them up and put them in a large jar. This jar is actually a beverage dispenser but I just turned it around so the spout is in the back.

It looked a little plain so I dropped in some of my old white buttons.

Now I can enjoy looking at the lace every day. I'm sure if I had it in a drawer or closet I would forget all about it! I have almost all my vintage lace and linen out where I can see it and enjoy it daily!

Sunday Shopping

Last Sunday when I went to the Alameda Antique Flea Market I saw a million things I loved. I was almost afraid to buy anything because I was worried I would find something even more wonderful right around the corner and I didn't want to run out of money. My friend Nelson spent all the money he brought with him by the time we got to aisle D!!! Luckily they have ATMs there or it would have been a long day for him just watching me shop! I passed up some really great things but I'm very happy with the purchases I did make and I even came home with money in my wallet!

I found a vendor selling really beautiful puffy sand dollars and I've been wanting one of these for my shell collection. I would have loved to buy a lot more of these but they were $5 each and she wasn't willing to make a deal if I bought more.

I found this beautiful ceramic basket filled with roses at Marilyn's booth for $20. I grabbed it as soon as I laid eyes on it! There was no hesitation what so ever with this purchase!!!

It's not only beautiful like this but it lights up! This will probably go in my downstairs bathroom once I get it fixed up.

I've been looking for a petite crystal chandelier for that same bathroom and I found a great deal on this one. Only $12!!! It's pale robin's egg blue color, that is so shabby chic, but I think I'm going to paint it a cream color and add a lot of vintage crystals to it. I also need to rewire it. This will be the 4th chandelier I've rewired!

It was such an amazing day filled with wonderful friends, great weather and lots of exercise with all that walking! Unfortunately I won't be able to go next month, I'm hosting a brunch for my supper club at my apartment that day. I plan on returning the first Sunday in June though!!!

Fondant Shells: Step-by-step

I had quite a few requests asking me to share how I made the fondant shells on my giant cupcake. They are very fast and easy to make but they look very impressive!

First start with fondant. You can either make your own (there are recipes online) or you can buy it premade.

Fondant doesn't taste very good but I heard that this brand "Satin Ice" is the best tasting. (available at Global Sugar Art) I'm still using the fondant left over from my cake decorating class so I haven't opened this one yet to try it. There is also recipes for marshmallow fondant that I heard taste better as well. You can do a google search to find those. You will also need a silicon shell mold, which you can buy online at Global Sugar Art, small paint brushes and lustre dust. I bought my lustre dust at Michaels in the cake decorating section.

First you want to knead a little bit of fondant. If it's sticky you can use a little corn starch or powdered sugar. You can either use the fondant white or add some paste food coloring. If you've never used this before...a little goes a long way. Just dip the tip of a toothpick in the color and dab it on the fondant and knead it until the color is blended.

I like to combine two colors and knead them together just a little so you get a two toned effect.

Take a small amount of the fondant and place it in the mold.

Press down and remove any excess.

Turn the mold over and bend it to get the shell to release.

You can let these harden a bit overnight or you can continue on with brushing on the lustre dust. Just dip your brush in the bottle and brush on the shell. Lustre dust can also be used by mixing a little with some clear vanilla extract or vodka to make a liquid paint. I used mine dry though.

I like to use multiple colors on each shell. The colors I've used are a bronze, pink, gold, yellow and pearl white.

That's it! You can store these a LONG time in an airtight container until you are ready to use them.

This would be a great project to do with kids...it's so easy!

Antiques by the Bay

My friend Nelson and I left at 6:30 am yesterday morning to drive an hour to Antiques by the Bay, which is held the first Sunday of every month. It's basically a big flea market but everything sold here has to be at least 20 years old.

It is HUGE...over 800 vendors. We must have walked at least 10 miles going up and down each isle. I lost 2 lbs in one day with all that walking!!!

It was a gorgeous day with temps in the low 70s. I even got sunburned! About 10:00 am Glenda from Many Fond Memories came and she walked around with us.

Lots of beautiful things (you can click on the photos to see more detail)...

This is Marilyn's booth (below) and I bought something from her again...

There's Nelson down below looking at old photographs (his passion). I was actually taking a picture of that huge Easter bunny chocolate mold in the center of the photo...

I didn't get a good picture of Tracie's booth because it was packed with people but you can see photos on her blog here We got to the show at 7:30 am and I didn't get to Tracey's booth until around 11:30. Did I mention we did a lot of walking? I told Tracey I would be back to take photos but I lost Nelson and it took over an hour to find him so I never made it back.

Here is the beautiful San Francisco skyline and the Bay Bridge in the distance.

I bought a few things but I haven't had a chance to take any photos yet. As soon as I got home I had to take Lauren to the mall to buy a prom dress...more walking!!!

A Giant Cupcake

Yesterday I used my 40% off coupon at Michaels to buy a giant cupcake pan. I've been wanting one of these for a long time!

I had also recently purchased some shell molds to make fondant shells so I used both my new purchases to make a giant cupcake fit for a mermaid!

I had so much fun making this last night. I had formed the fondant shells earlier in the week and last night I brushed them with lustre dust which is an edible powder used by cake decorators. It made the flat colored shells just come alive and look so real!

It's a dark chocolate cake with butter cream frosting and I have it sitting on a mixture of brown and white sugar to resemble sand. I had a blast making this!!!

I'm joining in on Gollum's Foodie Friday, please stop by her blog to see some other wonderful food creations!

Just playing around

click on photo to enlarge

I was playing around on Big Huge Labs Mosaic Maker today and made this with some of my photos.  I just can't seem to get enough flowers lately...must be Spring Fever!  

Two posts in one day...I don't remember the last time I did that!  

Fabric

I recently found a great online fabric store! It's called Fabric Guru. Some of their fabrics are sold by the yard but the great deals seem to be on the buy it "by the piece" items. I got 9 yards of this fabric for $45. I'm either going to use it for drapes or to cover two tufted slipper chairs I found on the side of the road.