I bought this UGLY bench at the Goodwill for $7. When I was standing in line with it people were giving me 
the weirdest looks. It was so ugly but I knew with a coat of white paint and a new cover it would be beautiful. Here are the before and after pictures. I'm really happy with the way it turned out and I had a lot of fun doing it.
The mirror above it is the project I did awhile back (click here to see). I think I should have left the mirror gold. Some projects just don't turn out as good as I imagine. Oh well!
Yesterday on my lunch hour I went to a thrift store nearby my work. I found the little cherub vase there. I have so many vases but I thought he was so cute and for only 75 cents how could I say no. I was disappointed that was all I found so when I got home from work I went over to the Goodwill by my house and found this decorative birdcage. Okay so it's not this one but I plan to paint it white and it's going in my bedroom. I'm in the process of collecting things to redo my bedroom. I found a cute little bench but I'm not going to post a picture of that until I finish redoing it because it is so ugly. It is so ugly that when I was standing in line to pay for it people were giving me weird looks. They would look at the bench and then look back up at me. I just wanted to tell everyone that I was going to repaint it white and fabric from the 70s was going to be changed...but I just smiled back at them and didn't say anything. You'll see what I mean when I post the picture. I plan to work on it this weekend so hopefully by Monday I will have the before and after pics.
I know this is a strange post for the middle of January but I found this on the Victorian Trading Company website. I have never seen a firefly in my life, well not a real one. The only fireflies I've ever seen were in Disneyland on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. When I was little I remember asking my mom when we were on that ride what those blinking lights were. When we got off the ride she told me all about fireflies and how she used to catch them in jars when she was a kid in Pennsylvania. I've been so intrigued by them ever since and I would really love to see one someday. I saw this jar with faux fireflies and thought it was so cute. I may have to buy this! Where do fireflies live? I don't think there are any in California.
Okay, honestly, I didn't really have breakfast in bed. This was staged so I could send my son a picture of the cute little teapot I found for him at a thrift store for $4.99. It's so cute and made in England. Since I have more than enough teapots , I thought I would offer it to my tea-drinking son. The cute little egg cup I got on Ebay last week. There are 4 of them and they are little glass hens and made in France. When I saw these tulips in the grocery store, well...I just couldn't resist them either!
I could not believe the size of these artichokes I found at the grocery store. They are huge! They actually are larger than they look in this photo for some reason. I'll be cooking these tonight to go with my BBQ chicken and potatoes au gratin. We'll be dipping them in some roasted-garlic mayonaise I made earlier today. Yummy!
Photography by my daughter, Lauren (she's a much better photographer than me).
On a different subject...I rented the best movie I've seen in a long time. "An Unfinished Life" with Robert Redford, Morgan Freeman and Jennifer Lopez. It's from 2005 so I know I'm behind in just watching it now but if you haven't seen it you really should. It's a great lesson about forgiveness, which I believe is so important.
I just got this breaking news through my email (click for full story)
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proclaimed a State of Emergency throughout California due to extremely low temperatures forecasted for Friday night.
Buy your oranges and lemons now, I'm sure the price is going to go up.
I know some of you are going to be laughing at this post but I'm a native Californian and I don't EVER remember it being this cold during the day. It's 48 degrees outside right now at 1:30 pm. It's the talk of the office. Everyone comes in from outside and comments on how cold it is. Friday night it is supposed to get down to 25 degrees. The night time lows won't be out of the 30s for awhile! Brrrrrrrrr!
I love coming home to find a package on my doorstep. Today I had two! I knew my sheets were coming from Overstock because I've been tracking their progress online since last week, weather delays and all. But when I arrived home I found two packages. The other was a chintz plate that I ordered on Ebay. After I did my post on my chintz collection, I started thinking that maybe I should check Ebay for some good deals on chintz. I think I found a great deal here. This plate was less than $20 with shipping and it's not new it is vintage. I saw it for sale on another website for over $200. Okay, I know, I don't believe that everything I see on the internet reflects what an item is really worth but I know it must be worth more than $20. It is to me and that's all that matters. The 2 sets of 600 thread count sheets were a belated Christmas present from my mom. I've already washed a set and have them on my bed. My mom has these sheets and she loves them. I can hardly wait to go to bed tonight.
When I was on my way upstairs tonight (carrying a glass of red wine) to get on the computer to post this I tripped on the leg of my pants and fell. The red wine went up onto the wall and onto the carpet. I fell so hard that I have a rug burn on my knee. So here's my question to those of you over 40...do you feel like you are more clumsy now? I never used to fall and the last few years I fallen a few times. Sometimes it's not my fault, you know, flip flops on a wet floor sort of thing. I think maybe when I was younger I could catch myself better before I actually would fall, maybe my reflexes are just slower. I think next time I go to the doctor I'll ask him about this although it's sort of embarrassing.
(I have no idea why my pics are so small. They were fine when I first loaded them on Sunday and then on Monday the quality was really bad so I tried to reload them and now they are small...it's a typical Monday for me!)
About a month ago I got to pick out a gift from my company for my 5-year service award. I was really excited when I saw a Herman Miller Mantel Clock on the list. Okay so it's not exactly THE Howard Miller Clock I wanted but it chimes so I'm thrilled. I grew up with a Grandfather clock in my parent's house and the chimes bring back beautiful childhood memories for me. I love the quote from the movie "Under the Tuscan Sun" "Never lose your childish enthusiasm." I don't think I could lose that if I wanted to. The Fed Ex man came today and when I opened the box and saw this clock, I did a happy dance! I was beyond excited. It doesn't go with anything in my house, I don't have a bit of dark wood but I still love it. It's chiming now as I write this...I'm happy! Thank you wonderful Fortune 500 company that I work for!!!
I dropped my daughter off at the movies and stopped at the store to get some bottled water. I ALWAYS have to go by the magazine section to see what's new. I got so excited when I saw a new issue of Romantic Homes and then I saw the Cottage Style magazine and could hardly control myself! A Friday night, a glass of wine and two new magazines, now that's my idea of a perfect start to the weekend.
I almost forgot, today on http://craigslist.org/ I found a FREE headboard that I'm going to paint white and give it the shabby look When I called about it she said a guy was on his way over to get it, about a half an hour later she called me back, for some reason the guy didn't want it...probably because it needs to be refinished badly. Once I start painting it I'll post some pics. My plan is to paint my whole bedroom set so it may be awhile.
Time to go read...
Christi Carter's Art of Accessorizing
I cannot say enough good things about this book! Wow I love it. The rooms are so beautiful and I've already learned so many great decorating tips. I have a lot of decorating books but this is by far my favorite. I got it through HomeStyle Books
I love that book club! When you join you get 5 books for just $2...then when you buy more books you earn points towards more discounts on books. What a deal!
Happy New Year everyone! Here's to 2007 being a great year!! My new year's resolution this year is to be more organized. I'm a neat freak on the outside but my drawers and closets aren't always as clean as I would like them to be. So, I started today by cleaning out my hall closet. It feels great to open the doors and not see a mess. Yesterday I took my English chintz china collection (photo above) down and washed them all. I keep my collection in this beautiful cabinet that my dad made for me. I have it hanging in my living room. (He also made the sign hanging on the door.) A couple of these teacups are very sentimental to me. My mom gave me the cup and saucer on the left on the bottom shelf. She bought this set in the late 40's when she was on vacation at Niagara Falls (way before I was born). I always loved it so a few years ago she gave it to me for my birthday. An ex-boyfriend gave me the cup and saucer in the middle on the top shelf. He also gave me some other pieces here but they are not antiques but I still love them all. Since I live in California I'm always so afraid that these might get damaged in an earthquake but I can't imagine not having them out to enjoy every day.
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