Thrift Desert

How did it get to be Thursday already? This week is zooming along. My thrift expeditions have been on the skimpy side the past few weeks. On the weekend before Easter last month there were two book sales in town. Mr. B and I went to one in the parking lot of one library on Saturday morning, then I went to bag day for the Houston Public Library the next afternoon at the big convention center. Aside from those, even checking neighborhood stores regularly has turned up few treasures. Here are some of this meager lot:

There are some of the haul from the Bellaire  sale, an old trimline phone, a small floral decorated tin filled with pastel candles, a jar (already had it) full of alphabet letters, a gold, crown-like metal bowl and a gorgeous bird ornament, now hanging in the living room with the other bird decor. 

I've also done some work in our bedroom after finally locating a decent quilt at Marshalls last week, when weeks of combing thrifts for one never paid off. Once Mr. B and I wrestle the mattress off to switch out the dust ruffle this weekend I'll take pictures in there where a few more finds have shown up to work with the new color scheme going on now.

Now, off to unload the dishwasher and reluctantly consider the dinner issue. 

Have a great evening!

Michele

April Door

Hi, folks,

This post should be titled D is for Dumb. It was written a week ago and after previewing, I hit "publish". Too bad it didn't occur to me to stick around and make sure that actually happened, because it didn't. Which makes last Friday's not true at all.Sigh.

Let's try again. The egg wreath from Easter was switched out last week. First, a little back story. One day in February, 2010, encountered while out walking on the sidewalk was a trash bin that had been emptied by the sanitation department, but they weren't pleased with all the content, and left some behind. There were multiple branches of pussy willow, five - six feet in length not supposed to be put out with household garbage. I grabbed as many as it was possible to carry and took them home. At some point before that, I'd seen a decoration I wanted to try, and this was the final piece needed. It took me a long time looking to find the right umbrella, but eventually one did turn up at the Sand Dollar, for under $2. Combining the two resulted in this:

A sweet ruffled child's umbrella to hold the pussy willows, the perfect way to welcome spring and its showers and flowers! Cute and dead easy as well, a combination hard to beat.

Meanwhile, we're having one of those showers right now, and thoroughly welcome it is. How is spring treating you so far? 

Stay dry!

Michele

Space, space, beautiful space!

No, not the kind astronauts work in, space in my kitchen. Besides having the world's ugliest floor and counters, the kitchen in this house is small. Here is the area available to work in:

There is very little room to work in. The sink is so small it won't hold regular sized pots or pans and the cupboards are so high only the lowest shelf is reachable by me. At the house we moved from there was space on top of the cupboards to set out seldom used or decorative items, but that's not the case here. Things were crammed in everywhere, falling out if you opened a door without being careful. We needed more space. Last week while at the Guild Shop I found this:

 

and this:

We don't have a truck, so I made sure to find out the sections could be separated. Saturday Mr. B and I went back and somehow got the whole thing into his Toyota. More amazing, we got it home again without breaking the glass in the doors, no minor miracle. 

This is how it looks set up:

Unfortunately, the upper shelves aren't wide enough to stack plates on, but they are fine for crystal, silver and a few other items. The top of the cabinet section holds dishes, a vintage tray and the cute birdhouse bought before Christmas that looks like it's made from an old cook book. The lower section has a huge stack of trays, baking pans, vases and more. Best of all, there is a drawer for dish towels, that for the past four years have been in a variety of baskets and other containers, none in the least satisfactory. The top has two birdcages on it and an old tin tray.

One of the pulls was broken, so I replaced both with these cute ceramic checked ones from our neighborhood hardware store. This piece is behind the back door off to one side of the kitchen. The chest/wine station that was there before has been moved to one side of the refrigerator, not a great solution, but it works well enough. The whole thing was dirty and hard to clean. We think it was in a house with a smoker or smokers, there seems to be a sticky invisible residue on it. Once it's cleaned well it may get a paint job at some point. Oh, I almost forgot to give Mr. B credit. He made and installed a third shelf in the upper section, so it holds even more now.

This is great progress to upping our quality of life in general. A crummy kitchen is hard to deal with, especially if it's rented and there is little you can do to improve things because you don't own it. More space for storage with easier access is a wonderful aid. The Guild Shop is generally very expensive, so I seldom shop there. I'm very glad I went by last week. The furniture is by Thomasville and in generally good condition, so it all worked out well.

Have you sought solutions in rented homes before? Do you have any great tips to share? 

Have a great evening,

Michele

One Year Blogging

Hello, all. I'm having a hard time realizing it's already been a whole year since I started writing this blog. I hope you are enjoying spring with cooperative weather wherever you are. It's been changeable here, but no doubt all too soon will settle in to be hot all the time. 

After Easter I switched out my decorations for birds, in honor of the season. Here are a few pictures:

 

The bird, feather and French script saucer is on the coffee table now.

The feather plate is settled on a book shelf.

A bird nest in an urn, under a cloche is on the desk, along with a yellow bird.

Nests, pictures, tins and feather on another bookcase.

There are more near the door.

One on an end table.

it's hard to see inside the green cubby but that is a ceramic trio of birds, wings touching with a votive candle in the middle.The rather blurry blue blob next to it is an owl.

More birds and nests, a box, little chair and pedestal in the terrarium, with a Spode platter in the back with a picture of a flycatcher on it.

So far I haven't figured out a centerpiece for the dining room table yet, so stay tuned.

I'm going to try to take the message of the early bird to heart and post more regularly from now on.

Until next time,
Michele

A Little More Easter

Hi, all,

While taking pictures yesterday there were two spots missed, oops! Here is a tiny bit more Easter decor.

This is a little wicker buggy with a big decoupage egg in it and a couple of smaller ones, on a nest of grass.

Here is the bright green cubby bought recently with another giant paper mache egg in it, sitting on top of a hatbox with a bunny design on it, perfect for storing Easter things off season.

Today I also purchased a can of paint for the other small sectioned cabinet, so stay tuned for its transformation.

Is Easter a favorite holiday of yours? Since it's a long time till 4th of July, I'm going to enjoy it to the max!

Happy almost spring!
Michele

Marching through March

Hello, everyone! We've had some wild and wooly weather lately. I'm not complaining, mind you, it's certainly more interesting than summer when it's hellishly hot, period. For months on end.

Today I'll share some of our Easter decorations with you. First of all, in a cloche that was a Christmas gift from oldest daughter, Hilary:

It is filled with eggs, both solid and the decorative paper mache types. There is another of those in a little pail, a sweet small lamb and fuzzy brown bunny. The aqua pitcher has Cadbury eggs in it.

On the buffet, there are more decorations inside the terrarium. The little egg cup filled with carrots was on the small shelf at the back between the lamb and bunny until Flossie got into it and stole some of the carrots, which is when it got moved out of her reach.

There is a small vignette on an end table:

A big paper egg and fuzzy bunny.

An egg garland on the dining room bookcases. This was supposed to go round the light fixture over the table, till Freddy stood on his hind legs and expressed way too much interest in it to imagine that idea would work out.

This postman bunny seems to be handing a letter to a sweet cottontail lady. There is a tiny nest with a jewel-like blue egg in it above them.

 This is just a basket full of eggs on a wicker tray, under a big cloche. This is necessary because of scenes like this:

when the furry residents are very anxious to explore the current decorating up close and in depth.

All the decorations came from thrift shops except for a couple from Tuesday Morning and the cloche on the desk. It is by Smith & Hawken and was from Target.

I hope you're enjoying the lead up to Easter and spring too.

Till next time,
Michele

Something for the Season

Hello, friends,

This week has been mostly overcast and dreary, appropriate for this time of the year, but hardly cheerful. While stuck inside I used items already on hand to make this modest addition to my religious display:

 

The electric candle left over from Christmas joined one of my statues of Jesus, a small globe and Scrabble tiles used to spell out the message of his role as Light of the World. The candle is usually left on, but had to be turned off to take the picture.This is a good reminder that the wait through Lent to Easter won't last forever, and the untold blessings in store.

Do you enjoy putting disparate pieces together in new ways? 

Have a great weekend!

Michele