A Trip to the Flea Market

Every week or two hubby and I go to our local Flea Market. Hubby always looks for old license plates and any old automotive type stuff. I have been looking for a cloche and a white/cream soup tureen. I didn't find either, but I did take a few pics of things I thought you all would enjoy seeing.

If you are in to pink or shabby chic these glasses in the carrier would be great!



I've read that alot of you are collectors of milk glass, well here is a bunch of milk glass for sale.

I also know alot of you like old vintage kitchen scales...here is one that was $4.50. I think that is a pretty good price, what do you think?

How do you like my 19" wood carved owl?? I am not an owl person, but I do LOVE wood carved things...so I bought it! I thought this would be perfect for Halloween! Too bad I don't decorate for Halloween! I think I'll sell it on eBay this fall. Would you keep it like it is or would you paint him black??

A huge wooden trough(sp?) This was priced for $165...sounds high to me, but I don't know what they go for.

Here's the side view

A very old spinning wheel (sorry forgot the price)

Butter Churn Jars $30 each

So, there ya go. I got the carved wood owl and all of the 2008 Southern Living Magazines ($4)


Alright, I gotta go read my magazines now, I'll talk you later!!

Darlene

Can You Guess Who This Belongs To??

Here's a few hints......

Belongs to an actor on a hit show that airs on Sunday evenings. The actor plays a perfectionist. The actor is a woman and her character lives on a cul-de-sac in a suberb.

Ok, that's all the hints...now go look at the beautiful photos.






Did you make a guess?? Know who this belongs to???



The beautiful photos are of Marcia Cross' trailer on the set of Desperate Housewives. I wonder what the other housewives's trailers look like???

A Creative Valentine

Instead of going to the store and buying Valentine cards for your loved ones...get creative! It's fun & fairly easy to do! Best of all the person you give it to will be thrilled to know you took the time to do something so personalized for them!

I have done these for birthdays too. In fact I made one for our daughter's 20th birthday and our 12 year old daughter told me that she wanted me to make her one for her birthday...well she just had her birthday a couple weeks ago...and I forgot to make her a candy bar card. Luckily she forgot too! So...guess what she will be getting for Valentine's Day?? Yep, a Valentine's Candy Bar Card!



How to Make a Candy Bar Card

Write down the names of candy bars

Come up with something cute to write using the names of the candy bars

Now, go buy all the candy bars that you will need and a large poster board

Space everything out on the posterboard before you start hot gluing the candy bars. You may want to use your printer to print out your words so that you can cut them to properly fit on the posterboard.



A few ideas to get your creative mind a flowing

My Dearest (Sugar Baby):
Happy Valentines Day. May this bouquet bring you a (Snicker) as you read my message. It will not make you (Chunky) and I am not playing (Twix) on you.
You are my (Bit-O-Honey), you are worth more than a (100 Grand) to me, I get (Goo Goo) eyes every time I see you.
Our (Good-N-Plenty) life together is like shopping on (5th Avenue) on (Pay Day). I wish you (Mounds) of (Almond Joy) on this Valentines Day.
Hugs and Kisses
(Now and Later)

OR if you like you can make a Candy Bouquet like this


and just make a heart shaped card to include the candy bar poem.


Now go have fun & get creative!!

Let me know when you come up with your own creative sayings for your candy bar card.

Everyone has One... but Me!

Have you ever noticed something on the blogs that almost everyone has, but you?? Have you ever decided that you needed something just because everyone else seems to have one? Do you feel kind of left out...because you don't have that certain "something"?

Are you wondering what the heck I'm talking about??

Well, if you've been following any of the decorating & designing blogs then you have seen these! It is called a "cloche" or a "bell jar". I never even knew what that was until I started blogging, but now I have to have one! I'm determined to find one & get one this year! Why, do I need a cloche?? Not quite sure, but I feel I MUST have one!








Have you discovered something that you have to have...just because you see other bloggers have it??

Do you have a Hidden Room?

Have you seen homes that have hidden rooms? Where it looks like a bookcase or a built in, but it actually opens to reveal a room? I've always thought that having a hidden room was the coolest thing!! In fact we have a hidden room in our home, well it's actually a storage area...but it's hidden! I would show you, but hubby says it wouldn't be hidden if I shared the photo on the world wide web.

So anyway, I will go ahead and show you other people's photos of some hidden rooms to inspire you. Maybe you can find a place in your home to incorporate a hidden room! There's something I just find incredibly magical about them!








Do you have a hidden room?

How to Use Inspiration Pictures

Once my kitchen is completed I would like to start redecorating our master bedroom. We have redecorated both of our daughter's bedrooms and now it's our turn. Our children always come first...isn't it always that way when your a parent!

When trying to decide the look that I wanted for our bedroom I searched through magazines, catalogs, stores, and of course online. I kept the pictures of rooms or elements of the room that I liked. Now going back through all of the inspiration pictures I have found out alot of information...like what colors I'm drawn to, what style of furniture, what color of furniture, how I want the room to feel, the look of the bedding, etc...

Can you see what the common elements are?

Here is what I found out from the inspiration pics;

I really like the color combination of aqua, tan, and white/cream
I really like the mix of painted distressed wood furniture with stained furniture
I really like different textures..rattan, wicker
I really like clean, simple lines of a platform style bed
I really like a mix of pillows

So now that I know what I'm drawn to I will find a bed in a medium wood stain (needs to match the wood in our sitting room/office which is attached to our master bedroom. I will look for 2 distressed cream color nightstands (preferrably Gentleman's chest...as they are bigger) Need all the storage we can get!
I would love to get a chair like the one in the photo but not sure I have room for a chair in the bedroom. I will buy a off white/cream duvet cover for our down comforter.
I think I will paint the walls a tan like in the first photo. I will get aqua pillows & look for a striped pillow that has the aqua, tan, & off white in it. I will accessorize with rattan/wicker. I LOVE vases so I'll have to get a few aqua ocean glass jugs/vases. Something like these but in aqua. (I've seen them at TJ Maxx)

Will buy rattan blinds for the window and either do aqua or cream drapery panels. Of course will throw in some black & white beach photos in black frames with white matting. Gotta have a few strategically placed seashells around and may even make a custom rug for the new room.

What do ya think??

Has the Economy Changed Your Plans?

Today I'm grieving a bit for the plans we had. We planned on selling our current home and building a new custom home. We had purchased a beautiful 1 1/2 acre lot up on a hill with mountain views & rolling acreage. We made payments on the land for 6 years. We also found the look of the home that we wanted (chosen specifically for our property).

Here it is...isn't it pretty! :(

Then Hubby & I spent hours and hours designing just how we wanted the interior and had an architect draw up the blueprints for us. We were planning on self contracting the home ourselves. The plan was to build the new home with mostly cash and if needed only have a very small mortgage. This was only possible with the sale of our current lake home.

We put our home on the market & were told we could get more money for it than what we originally thought. Woo Hoo!

Then, the market died and we could no longer get what we needed to to build the new home. Now it brings me to where we are now. We decided that due to the economy our dream has died as they say it will be several years for the real estate market to make a comeback. We put our beautiful 1 1/2 acre lot up for sale and it just sold. We are signing the papers tomorrow. I'm sad thinking about all the times hubby & I spent up on our land dreaming of our new home, designing it, staking out where the best views were for window placement, seeing our girls running on the property so excited for the new home, etc... oh this darn economy ruined my plans! Is it crazy that I am almost in tears writing this?? I am sad, but have to trust that God has something better in store and that he knows best!

Has the economy changed your plans??

And the Winner Is.................................................

Thank you so much to everyone that helped us celebrate our 100th blog post!! It has truly been a pleasure doing this blog and meeting all of you.

You all have given us some great blogging tips and we have already put alot of the tips to use. Thanks again!

We haven't been the best at responding to your comments...not because we don't want to, but because of time constraints. We are a family owned business without any employees so we do EVERYTHING ourselves and many days there is just not enough time in the day to do everything that needs to get done. We will however try to devote more time to responding. We really appreciate you and read each and every comment you leave!

Now without further ado..........................................

We had over 100 entries in our giveaway...WOW! We wrote down each and every name that entered, (some of you even got multiple entries for advertising the giveaway) and then we put all the slips of paper in a vase.
Callie (our daughter) mixed them all up and reached in and picked out a piece of paper with the winner's name on it.

(Insert Drumroll)

And The Winner of a New Custom Rug Is..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................









CONGRATULATIONS Rhoda of Southern Hospitality!!!!!!!!!

Rhoda, we will be emailing you to find out what color you would like for the rug and what color you would like for the initial inlay. As well as what font style you would like & what initial.

Thank you for all that entered!! If you are interested in purchasing your very own custom rug...just contact us at: Creative Carpet Design.

Will Animal Print ever be Out of Style??

Last year I had a designer tell me that animal print was going out of style. WHAT?! I've never seen it be out of style! In fact, I just read in this months issue of Accents Today (a magazine for retailers in the home accessories biz) what they considered HOT & what they considered NOT. Guess What?? Animal Prints were on the HOT list! They didn't have to tell me...I knew because our animal print rugs are our Best Sellers!!

Take a look at some home interior photos I found that decorated with animal prints.











I personally don't think animal print will ever be out of style. I believe it is a classic...as I proudly wear my leopard print coat!

So what do you think? Will animal print ever go out of style??