Platter, platter, on the wall...

Well its finally done! I got the idea from a few different blogs. It seems plates on walls are everywhere these days. Being the dish lover that I am, there was no way I could be left out! I had most of them up last weekend, but I had to wait until I got a couple more plate hangers to finish it up. I think it turned out very nice. All but one of them were thrift store/yard sale finds. Its definitely one of the cheapest decorating projects I've done. Now, if I could just get that hardwood down...

Say it isn't so...

Isn't he just the cutest? That's my baby. He'll be 4 in a few weeks. Today I got him registered for preschool. Surely he isn't old enough for school! Now, it isn't as though he'll be far away across town at school while I pine away for him. He'll just be a few doors down from my classroom when school starts, but still! I can't fathom the thought that my baby will be starting school. Sigh. They do grow up too fast.

Yard sale-ing...

Meghann and I went yard sale-ing and thrifting Saturday morning. We had a great time together. We visited a few yard sales, the Goodwill store, our local Vendor's Mall flea market, and even had breakfast out at our favorite breakfast spot, Dairy Queen. I didn't find too many treasures, but I did find a few pieces of Milkglass. And I only spent $7.50.

I found the plate at a yard sale (I sorta wish I 'd gotten the matching, bigger plate to go with it), and the urn at Vendor's Mall.

This compote dish also came from Vendor's Mall.
I'm excited about next weekend. Its the once-a-month antique sale downtown. Maybe I'll find some treasures there!

Tag, you're it...

Shannon over at Bless Our Nest has tagged her readers to list some random things about themseves. So here goes...

Six unimportant things about me:
1. I am the head carpenter in our house. Whenever something has to be built or assembled, I am the one in charge.
2. I hate swimming in lakes. There's just something utterly repulsive about getting into water that has fish swimming around in it. If I were to get nibbled by something, I'd probably totally freak out!
3. My dream car would be a truck just like John Boy Walton's, except that it would be retro-fit with an automatic transmission and air conditioning. If I couldn't have a John Boy truck, I'd drive a Chevy Nomad.
4. I always touch my husband's foot with mine when we go to bed at night.
5. When I'm nervous I wiggle my toes really fast.
6. I'd rather buy things for my house than to buy clothes for me.

Okay-you've been tagged!

Let's Dish...

I have always loved dishes. When Derek and I married, I already had two complete sets of dishes (and I still lived at home with my parents!). These weren't dishes we'd registered for; I'd had purchased them before Derek and I had even met. I knew that sooner or later I'd get married or move out on my own and need them. After we got engaged, we didn't even register for china since I already had a set of my favorite pattern, Blue Willow. We did, however, register for Corellware to use for everyday dishes. If I had my wish, I'd have a room in my house full of place settings and china cabinets!

I especially love old dishes. I've had these since I was a little girl. My mom found them at yard sales and I've had them on display ever since.

This cup and saucer was a gift from my cousin Lori. She got it on a trip she took with her mom (my aunt JoAnn) and my mom when they went to New York a few years ago to visit our other aunt, Frances. Everyone came back with a set and she brought me this one. It reminds me of another one of my favorite patterns, Old Country Roses by Royal Daulton. So when I started noticing plates on the walls of bedrooms on some of my favorite blogs (Nester, Shannon at Bless Our Nest), the wheels started turning. This would look great in my master bedroom, the one with the toile. All I had to do was find some solid white dishes (or some I could paint, a la Kimba). I took off to my newest favorite store, Goodwill. I'm fortunate to have two nearby, plus a couple other thrift stores as well. And after checking at two thrift stores and a Big Lots, here's what I got, all for the whopping price of $4.25:

That one is my favorite one. It was only 50 cents! They'll go up with a couple of larger plates that I already had. I do want a pretty tray for the center, but I haven't found one yet. I'm going yard sale-ing in the morning. Maybe I'll find one then.

The funny thing is, the plate hangers cost me more than the dishes did! I had Derek get them from the hardware store where he works, so we did get a discount. I could have gotten cheaper ones at the dollar store, but Derek's store has white hangers, so they won't show up as much. The only bad thing is that his store doesn't carry the white ones in stock; they had to be ordered, so I'll have to wait until the Tuesday truck comes in a few days. I'll post a picture as soon as I get them all up!

I Drank the Kool-Aid...

Over at Nester's place you're very likely to see lots of tassels. She puts them on everything! She makes all kinds of tassels and they are very beautiful. I finally gave in and bought a couple. They're not nearly as ornate as Nester's, but its a start.

What to do, what to do...

For quite a long time now, I've been thinking about painting our front door. Can you believe it is still the same white that it has been since we moved in nine years ago? White. Boring white. I want to paint it black to match the shutters and to coordinate with the gray siding. I even went on an internet search yesterday to find out the right way to do it. I thought I had it figured out, and mentioned it to Derek. He asked a few guys that he works with about it (he works in the office at a building supply store--handy huh?) and came home with the bad news. It would seem that if I painted our door, it would turn into a huge disaster. See, we have a glass storm door, too, and a lot of heat gets trapped between the two doors. This would inevitably cause the paint to bubble up. Apparently, what is on there now is just builder's primer, therefore, no bubbling. Sigh. I'm stuck with a white door. Oh, I could order a new door. Yeah, that's gonna happen.

Anyone have any ideas about what to do about a boring, white door?

All hands on deck...

After two years of talking about it, Derek and I have finally decided to do something about our deck. It has needed a new coat of stain for a long time, as well as some sprucing up to the furnishings. I couldn't tell you the last time I had a flower out there. So when we got our "G.W. money" as Derek calls it (our economic stimulus check), we put a few dollars into some new stuff, along with plenty of elbow grease.

So far, we've had the deck stained a beautiful Red Oak color, and I spray painted all of my old green chairs black. They finally match the table I bought three years ago! Yesterday we bought a new umbrella and umbrella stand. Our old one was nearly blown away a couple of weeks ago during a storm and couldn't be repaired. The stand had to go because the screw that holds the umbrella in got stuck and no amount of WD-40 could get that bad boy loosened.

We also bought these beauties. They'll be a nice splash of color to an otherwise almost all black deck.

And here's the new fire pit. Assembled by yours truly. I can't wait to roast some marshmallows!

Hopefully tonight we'll get everything in place (I'm waiting for Derek to get home because some of that stuff is pretty heavy). I'll post a picture when its all done!

Happy Independence Day!

The Stillness of the Morning...

Do you hear that? There...do you hear it? If you're saying to yourself, I don't hear anything, well, then, you heard it! That's the sound of quiet. No TV, no radio, no yelling at one's brother or sister to get out of his or her things. No cartoons. Ahhhhh. If only every morning were like this one.

I don't know why it is that I've had an extra hour to myself this morning. Mr. G never sleeps this late (he's my early bird child). Miss M, on the other hand, usually has to be pried out of her bed with a crow bar. I guess they're especially tired this morning because they went swimming last night in Uncle Butch's pool. They're usually very hungry and wiped out when they get out of the water, but for G to sleep this late is unusual.

Having this extra time has given me a chance to catch up on some of my favorite blogs. Nester (http://nestingplacenc.blogspot.com/ ) is giving us a tour of her new home. I'm going rummaging through my linen closet for some curtain panels to hang on my porch! I also found Kimba's blog ( http://asoftplacetoland-kimba.blogspot.com/ ) and she has inspired me to go antiquing or junking and spray paint something! I'm definitely going to be spray painting some plates!

Check these ladies out!

It Ain't Easy Being Green...

Remember our "good old friend, Kermit the Frog" singing that song? While Kermit was lamenting the difficulties rendered by his hue, these days, being "green" brings with it a whole new meaning. I must admit that being "green" was not something I easily embraced. I preferred convenience to environmental responsibility. I guess I had a hard time seeing beyond the present. But lately, I have had almost a conviction, if you will, about being a better steward of our earth. We've made a few changes around the house that has gotten us on the path to living greener.

First, we've started recycling. Now around here, there's no mandatory recycling program, so its up to us to sort and drop off recyclables at a local recycling center. Since I don't have bins yet for plastics and newspaper, we're just doing aluminum cans. The majority of our drinks come in cans, so we should have a lot to drop off in a short time.

Second, we're changing out our old incandescent light bulbs to CFLs. Honestly, this is one thing I thought I wouldn't do. I remember the old greenish light of the old fluorescent bulbs, but nowdays, its hard to tell them apart from incandescents. Derek brought home two big packs of CFLs from work today, and I've already switched out most of the lamps.

We've also been doing a few little things like running the dishwasher and dryer either really early in the morning or late at night, hanging up some clothing to air dry, using ceiling fans, and keeping the doors and curtains closed during the day to block out the hot sun. I've even bought reusable grocery bags. Hopefully, over time, we'll be able to do things like improve our home's insulation, trading our van for a more fuel-efficient vehicle (wouldn't a hybrid be nice?), and using no VOC paint when I decide yet again to change the color of a room.

I guess this "green" thing really isn't as bad as I thought it might be. In fact, most things that we can do to help the environment will actually save us money. Now that's right up my alley!

IDHTBPTBB

See that blinkie over there? There, on the sidebar. The one that says, "It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful"? I got that from Nester, who writes one of my favorite blogs, Nesting Place (there's a link over on the left). She has challenged her readers and fellow bloggers look around them to find things in their homes and lives that may not be magazine-perfect but that are beautiful nonetheless. So this morning, after Derek left for work and the kids lay in their beds for a few more minutes, I took Nester up on her offer. Here goes...we'll begin in the bedroom.

Here is that toile bedroom I wrote about a while ago. See those BLOOD RED walls? Sigh. Hopefully they'll get repainted soon. But, I digress. The IDHTBPTBB in this isn't actually the paint (although my paint job is far from perfect!). See that bedside table? Its a folding tray table that my kids and their cousins have eaten off of in the living room countless times. The tablecloth? A remnant of fabric that doesn't come close to fitting it (its only about 4 inches long in the back and is actually paper clipped and clothes pinned to keep the front corners from being too long. Not perfect at all.

Hey! Look over there to the right...see that beautiful famed art that is surely from a high-end art store? They're actually postage stamps from my collection that I put in frames I got on clearance about 15 years ago at KMart (they had Christmas prints in them-I ripped those out and, voila!- new frames!).
Now to the living room. See that lamp? Spray painted. Used to be gold. It even has some places where the black chipped of and the gold is showing through a bit. But with the new shade, I love it.

And finally, the end table. Now this table belonged to Derek's Mom and Dad. It sat by Pa Smith's chair for years. He had pictures of all his granddaughters lined up on it and a bowl of candy that he'd sneak into on occasion. It has lots of little scratches, but I treasure it because it was Otis and Beulah's.

The timing of Nester's challenge is funny, since this is an idea that Derek has been trying to get through to me for a while (maybe not as elequently as Nester). "Honey, quit worring about it. We don't live in the Smithsonian! It doesn't have to be perfect!" Of course, he's a man, a man who never thinks about cleaning or fixing things up-what did he know? Well, maybe more than I gave him credit for. Thanks Nester, for driving home an important point. Stiving for perfection will drive us crazy (and to the poorhouse) in the end. We don't have to have a home that looks like it came straight out of a Pottery Barn catalog for it to be peaceful, warm, and comforting. What matters is that the things (and people) in that home make us happy and feel loved. And that definitely is beautiful.

Happy Father's Day!

Here's my Daddy. Isn't he cute?

My sweet husband. He's such a good daddy.

Happy Father's Day! I love you!

The Laundry War...

As of this moment, all of the towels in my house are clean, folded and put away. All 48 of them (yep, I counted-and that doesn't even include hand towels or washcloths) are stacked neatly in our bathroom linen closet. That doesn't happen around here very often. It seems that no matter how much I wash, dry, and fold, there's always at least one straggling towel laying in the hamper. Or at the end of Meghann's bed (the most likely place).

How did we get so many towels? We got most of them as wedding gifts. The rest, probably only about 4 or 5, I bought over the years when I redecorated the bathrooms and needed new towels to hang on the towel bar. You know, the kind you don't actually dry your hands on. But the everyday towels that we got 10 years ago are still being used and honestly, are still in good shape. It sure is hard to wear out a JCPenney towel!