Inspiration Friday & A Potluck

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Potluck:

Shabby in the City has invited everyone to a potluck. We were supposed to bring something to eat from our region. I didn't have time to make some great California cuisine so I just made some ginger scones. The recipe can be found here. I used a heart-shaped cutter instead of a round one.

Inspiration Friday:

When I was in high school and dating my now ex-husband, I remember telling him that I would never marry a man that didn't want to live by the beach. Here I am, 46 years old and I still haven't lived near the beach. When I say "near" I mean walking distance. I live about a 35 minute drive from Santa Cruz so I guess that's not too bad. Sometimes when the fog rolls in from the coast to my area the seagulls come along with it and I pretend I'm living right near the water....I'm such a dreamer! I love sound of seagulls! I've always wanted a beach house and if I had one I would love it to look like this. These pictures were taken from Better Homes and Gardens Decorating Magazine -Summer 2005.

For more Inspiration Friday photos go check out Vintage Pretties blog. She found something great that I didnt' know aboug.

More Buttons!

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I'm beginning to think I have a serious addiction. First it was dishes and now it's buttons. I went to the thrift store on my lunch hour yesterday. I was just about to walk out empty-handed when I looked at the area with hanging bags of sewing notions. Usually there isn't much of anything there...old cheap lace (not the good stuff), cheap, ugly ribbon, etc. I squealed out loud when I saw a bag of old buttons, and then I found another, and another. Four little bags of old buttons for 69 cents each! I was happy!

Birdcage Makeover

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Remember this birdcage I bought at a thrift store back in January? It was a little too bright green for me so I painted the whole thing white but I still didn't like it. I put some green and blue Rub N Buff on it and I like it better now. I also bought a metal planter which I painted the same colors and put it under the birdcage upside down so it looks like it has a pedestal. I like it much better now.

I put it in my bedroom. The mirror behind it was brown and now it's white. If you look through the mirror you see more mirrors on the other side. I'm working on that now...they are mirrored closet doors and I hate them. I just bought some lace curtain panels on Ebay to cover them up so my room doesn't look like a crazy fun house with mirrors everywhere. When I roll out of bed every morning I see myself in those closet doors....I HATE THAT!

Making a pillow from a vintage towel

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I bought this vintage towel at a flea market years and years ago. It's been sitting with many other vintage linens and lace in my hall closet. I finally decided to make it into an envelope style pillow last weekend. It's just folded in thirds, a seam up the sides on the bottom half and a button closure. I then made a pillow insert to go inside (this is when my sewing machine decided to die and spit thread up through the bobbin.) I have it sitting in a wicker chair in my bedroom. I've been putting off posting pictures of the bedroom because I'm waiting for something I ordered online but I'm afraid now that I've been ripped off. It's only been 3 weeks since I ordered it but I've left the person 4 email messages (2 at each email address I have for her) and I haven't received a response yet. All I asked is when she expects to ship it. I ordered it from her website, not through Ebay but I did pay $50 through Paypal so I think I have some protection through them. Maybe I'm just being really impatient (which I tend to be). It seems years ago you would wait 6-12 weeks for delivery on something but now everything I order seems to come within 2 weeks at the most. The thing is, I REALLY want this thing I ordered. I LOVE it. If it doesn't come by this weekend I will take pictures of my bedroom without it...I promise.

Lamp makeover

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This weekend I attempted to make my lampshade cover. I wasn't sure if I would be able to do it so I just used fabric from an old slipcover that was worn out to make the prototype. I decided not to make the button down front on this one but I will on the next ones I make. I went to the fabric store and bought some white cotton fabric yesterday for those. Just my luck, my sewing machine is acting up and I think I'll have to take it in for service so the white covers may have to wait awhile. I bought these two lamps at the thrift store last week for $15/pair and I bought the lampshades at Target. I painted the brass base white and antiqued it. When I make the white slipcovers for these I'm going to make the bottom ruffle a little bit shorter.

As you can tell, the camera has been found. It's amazing that when I told my daughter if she didn't find the camera that she would be grounded during spring break, it suddenly was a priority for her.

Speaking of my daughter, I fear that I have raised a food snob. I love to cook (and eat good food) so I make almost everything from scratch. Awhile ago my daughter came home from a friend's house and said with the most disgusting look on her face "MOM, have you ever heard of Hamburger Helper? Agh it soooo disgusting!" I always thought that was cute and kinda funny but now it's getting out of hand. I picked her up from another friend's house and they came out eating french bread. As my daughter got in the car she handed the bread to her friend and said it was horrible because it has margarine not butter. Her friend's reply was "What's the difference?" Then yesterday she came home and told me her friend's mom had made scallop potatoes from a BOX! When the mom saw that Lauren didn't like them she asked why and I can't believe she said this..."My mom makes it with real potatoes and cheese!" Then my comedic daughter told me the box said "Au Gratin Potatoes" and it should have said "All Rotten Potatoes" The two things I love the most about my daughter's personality is that she speaks her mind and she has a great sense of humor but I don't want her to offend people. I talked to her about this but I think it went in those 14 year old ears and out the other side....very frustrating.