collections

Well, it has been raining non stop for at least 24 hours.  I feel as if I need a boat instead of a car:) 

A few months back, I was looking at my Pottery Barn magazine that had just come in the mail.  They had old cameras on sale for over $100 a piece.  They had them displayed in fun arrangements and I wanted them.  It took my brain a while to remember that we had quite a few from relatives collections.  I immediately went to work putting them together.

Last week I was at Goodwill and found this Brownie movie player:

It was only $10!  It is so fun to look at:)

Maybe you have old stuff hiding in storage that is being sold at Pottery Barn for $100's of dollars.

I hope you have a great rest of your Monday.

Stay dry,

Dena

Things that make me smile :)

Happy Sunday to you.  I hope your weekend was good.  Today I thought I would share with you more things that make me smile.

Coastal Living Magazine September 2004



This brings me back to my son running about as a toddler at the beach.  It also makes me think of summer and warm weather:)

 Coastal Living Magazine September, 2004

This makes me sigh.  I think my blood pressure drops too.  I imagine myself collecting shells to bring back to my beach house.

 House Beautiful May, 2010

I never thought about decorating my closet.  I guess it is time to give my husband notice that I need his clothes moved:)  It looks so whimsical and pretty.

 Country French magazine, fall/winter 2008

The garden cart as a coffee table looks so fun and unique.  I also love the wooden box hanging on the wall.  The old letters are placed just right.

 Better Homes and Gardens Beautiful Kitchens Summer 2009

I love all of the white!  The chandeliers are amazing.

Better Homes and Gardens Beautiful Kitchens Summer 2009

I would so enjoy a drawer specifically for pretty platters.

I hope some of these images made you smile too:)

Dena

Bus Rolls

Good Thursday afternoon,

Well:)  I guess the spoon under the pillow and inside out jammies worked:)  My kids had so much fun sledding down the streets in our neighborhood.

My neighbor and good friend Marty 2 introduced me to bus rolls.  She had one  made from a seller at Etsy that listed all of the streets her and her husband have lived.  I fell in love with it and decided I was going to steal her idea, with her permission of course.  Another good friend has the computer skills I needed to make my "bus roll"  look almost as good as Marty's.

Evidently on your computer you can google bus rolls and find a website that will help you print your own bus roll with the same type of font for free.  Don't you love google and your very talented, smart friends:)

Have a great rest of your day!

Dena

Old jars not just for flowers

Good Wednesday afternoon,

My family is anticipating snow and are already discussing the pajamas they will wear inside out and the spoon that will be under their pillow:) 

I love old jars and lucky for me I have a lot of them:)  Here are some ways I have put them to good use:

 I know, some of you are saying wow, shells, I can't believe she thought of that!  I know, I know, I have a lot of shells, but don't they look great like this?  :)

In a later post I will be talking about showing off the first letter of your last name.  I love all of the different old G's I have found at antique stores.  I am sure I paid waaaaaay too much for them!

I hope you have a great afternoon! 

Here is to snow ball fights:)

Dena

Goodwill is soooooooo much fun!

Good afternoon all,

I had a quick look in Goodwill today and found a $2.99 basket that is too cute!  I also found some place mats that look like they came right from Anthropologie.  The beaded purse was 1/2 off at $2.49 and was made in Italy.  I felt like it was summer with my finds:)

I forgot one candlestick from yesterday.  I found the moss covered bunny at Goodwill.  It was in an ugly plastic plant container.  I took it out and put it on top of my candlestick.  It looks much better.

I hope you have a great day!

Dena:)

Candle sticks without Candles

I have a thing for many things:)  One of them is candlesticks.  I like using them to hold things other than candles:

 When I found this coral, I knew it would be perfect on a tall candlestick.

 I love how it puts the flower on a pedestal.

 When I found this candlestick at Goodwill it reminded me of something you would fnd at Anthropologie.  I think the white and dark wood contrast looks great.

I love how the bunny and flower sit together on this candlestick!


I hope you are inspired.

Have a great day!

Dena

Things that make me smile:)

Today I thought I would share with you a few things that make me smile. 

Every morning while I read the morning news and sit over the heat I get to look at these five beautiful shells.  I love how unique they are:)  I found the card letters at an antique store in the Pearl.

I found my swim suit beach girl at 3 Monkey's on NW 23rd.  She is sooooo cute!  The scepter was a Goodwill find.

I found these old water ski's at Goodwill and I strapped my snowgal to them.

I hope you all have things in your home that make you smile:)

Happy day to you all.

Dena

Easter Decorations

Today I continued my Easter decorations.  I used the same bunny pattern from yesterday and cut out bunnies from fabric I already had.  I placed them on duck fabric and made a banner and I also put them on already existing decor.

I hope you have a great Friday:)
Dena

Turning a frame into art

Good Thursday morning to you.  Yesterday I went to Craft Warehouse to look for Easter decor ideas.  I didn't find anything that inspired me Easter wise, but I did find a .38 piece of paper that I loved.  Today while at Goodwill I found an oval frame for .99 and knew I had just the thing to make it beautiful.

I will let you know about the film case I found later:)

I cut the paper to fit into the frame and here it is:

I have been looking for a bunny stencil and haven't found one.  Today I found a bunny cookie cutter that I thought would work for a stencil.  I made a stencil and used paper, burlap and duck cloth to make bunnies.  I gathered together my frames with Valentine's decor and switched them out.

I hope you have a great day!

Dena

Making a chair mine

I hope your day is treating you well.  As you know, I love to go to Goodwill.  A few weeks ago I spotted a chair that was $14.99, and I loved everything about it except the fabric on the seat.  I decided to buy it and proceeded to go to the fabric store and spend waaaaaaay to much time searching for the perfect fabric.  In the end I found the perfect fabric and went home to get started on my project.  I hadn't started my blog yet so I didn't take a before picture.  Here is the final product:

I love how it looks like it was professionally done as long as you don't look under the chair:)

As you can see, I used duck tape.  My husband won't let me near power tools and so I have to wait for the perfect time to ask him to get out his nail gun:)  My husband hides his tools from me because I may have hurt myself in the past a time or two trying to do a project.  Anyone else out there banned from tools?

I hope you all have a fabulous Wednesday!

Dena

Displaying your treasures

Happy Sunday:)  I hope your weekend is treating you well.  I stop for all garage sales no matter where I am supposed to be going.  I spotted my display coffee table while taking my daughter to a birthday party.  I had been eyeing them on Craigslist for some time, but they were always over $100.  I was able to buy this coffee table for $35!  I was sooooooo excited:)

A friend's mother in law used to collect fossilized shells in Arizona.  I was blessed to get to buy most of her collection.  I couldn't wait to put these unusual shells under the glass where they could be looked at individually.  I also had my wonderful husband take black and whites of our kids at the beach and added these.  I used fun inherited items such as the opera glasses, and old jewelry to decorate.  I love using scrabble tiles to spell special places we love.  I hope you enjoy the close up pictures of these fabulous shells:)

Have a great rest of your day!

Dena

Fire Flies

I have always wanted to see fire flies.  They make me smile when I think about what they might look like:)  I don't have any curtains on my windows downstairs because we are blessed to have privacy.  I wanted it to look like maybe I captured a fire fly in a jar.  I put the battery operated tea lights in the jars.  They are really fun to turn on at night:)

Here is a picture at night of them lit:

I hope your Valentine's Day was good.  Have a good Tuesday!

Dena