Sweet and Sinister Swap--received

I was excited this year to be able to participate in ArtsyMama's Sweet & Sinister swap, a vintage-style Halloween swap where the theme colors were black and white. My partner was Julie B, who doesn't have a blog but is someone I had the pleasure to meet at Silver Bella last year. Julie sent me the most delightful package! It was tough to keep to the black and white color scheme (I know I added more than a touch of orange) but she did it well. Here are the fab things Julie sent:

The glittery Trick or Treat sign is hanging right outside my front door--very appropriate, no? The little glittery Boo is on the window ledge in my kitchen, where it looks just perfect. I can't wait to use the Martha Halloween banner in a garland I'm making--the letters are glow in the dark, how fun! Maren ran off with the googly eye glasses as soon as we pulled them from the box. Here she is modeling them:
Maren has also been enjoying the big jar of candy Julie sent! YUM! Julie decorated the jar with hand-stamped twill tape. Isn't it neat? I've actually been thinking of doing a little blog tutorial on how to stamp and print on twill tape. I love the little black crow she added!

I had mentioned to Julie that I'm really loving crows right now, so she made the neatest hanging with the words from Poe's "The Raven". I just realized that I forgot to take a picture of that so I need to add it later.

Julie also sent a darling handmade journal, great die cut felt ghostie garland, and look at these neat letter balls she made. They were in the candy jar--how clever, Sweet & Sinister! These remind me of the very pricey porcelain letter balls I've seen in catalogs and in boutiques. Julie made these by painting wooden balls and applying scrapbooking rub ons. Very neat! She also sent some great black 'pine' garland that will be perfect for decorating.

Julie sent her treats to me in a huge box filled with packing peanuts, and even that was enjoyed! Here's Maren taking a "bubble bath" later that evening:

Thanks again, Julie! You were a fabulous swap partner! Next up I'll show you what I sent to Julie. Right now, I need to go see what I can salvage from my sad tomato plants. We're scheduled for rain and snow and generally yucky weather for the weekend so I've got to work while I can. Have a lovely weekend!

Getting rid of UFOs

My house is besieged by UFOs. Not the shiny flying kind that divulge skinny little men with bulbous heads, but the Unfinished Object variety. It seems that everywhere I look I see half-finished craft, decorating, cleaning or organizing projects. I get excited and start projects, but inevitably something happens and midway through I lose my motivation or run into some other sort of technical snag that causes my momentum to grind to a screeching halt.

Take my curtains, for example. I've been dealing with (or rather, ignoring) that disaster since last year at about this time, when the original wood blinds gave up the ghost. Currently, I have curtains and a curtain rod but the rod is hung incorrectly and has been that way for months. I purchased the curtain rod for another window but it's still leaning up against the wall in the corner of the room, where it has been for quite some time. I'm finally to the point that I'm willing to pay a handyman to come take care of that mess for me.

Another such abandoned project was a gorgeous old mirror I bought last year at a thrift store for $10. The backing (a piece of old cardboard) that held everything in was falling off and needed to be replaced--an easy fix. I had planned to use mat board so I checked at the framing department of both JoAnn's and Michael's, but each time I asked the cost of a sheet of mat board I was quoted a completely ridiculous price--upwards of $25! I couldn't stand paying that much money for glorified cardboard, so I just waited and figured I'd find a cheaper option.

That was about a year ago, and the 'cheaper option' has remained elusive, so my beautiful mirror has stood collecting dust in the corner. On Sunday night I finally got fed up with these stupid UFOs and decided that no matter the cost, the next day I was finishing that mirror! Monday I went again to the framing department at Michael's, and when I explained my dilemma the very nice employee sold me the perfect piece of mat board for a whopping $3.50! At home, it took me 45 minutes to remove the old tacks, cut the new board and secure it using the old tacks. Here's my new OLD mirror (and it is old; the back was dated 1938!):


I am in love with it, and I can't believe that it was so easy to fix! All this time I could have been enjoying it, if I had just been a little more motivated to find a solution. That gave me the impetus to get working on a few other UFOs, and there are still plenty more where those came from! Hopefully I'll have more UFOs turned FOs to share with you soon!

October Giveaway winners & Embellishment kits!

Thanks you all for entering into the BIG October giveaway! Time to go drag the Goblet of Fire from its shelf in the basement...
Phew, it's dusty! Let's reach in and find the TWO winners for the giveaway!

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

26 9 

Timestamp: 2008-10-03 23:53:37 UTC

Comment #26 is....Jenny in Maine! Jenny has a gorgeous blog of her own...wish I had design skills like that!

Comment #9 is....Heather from Party in Pink! I love what she did recently to dress up one of those plastic drawer things we all have.

Jenny and Heather, please email me at stampinfraulein AT yahoo etc. etc. with your mailing address so that I can get your goodies in the mail to you ASAP! To everyone else who entered, thank you so much for stopping by and taking the time to comment. It means so much, really--and now I have a whole bunch more new blogs to look at! I tell you, blog reading is like a full-time job. LOL

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And my other exciting news for today... I've put together three special Trick or Treat Halloween Embellishment kits, stuffed full of great vintage goodies to inspire your Halloween crafting! I'd like to offer my blog readers first dibs on them, and anything that hasn't sold by Monday October 6 will go into my new etsy shop, The Merry Magpie!

What's in these kits, you ask? Well....

3 vintage cream and black Bingo cards
1 chandelier image stamped on vintage ledger paper
3 packets of vintage trim (seam binding, rickrack etc. Each kit has one each orange, black, yellow)
1 skein matching embroidery floss
24" orange and black tissue festooning
all of the Halloween Dresdens & scrap shown
a bag of pure silver German glass glitter, fine grade
Scrabble letters that spell out BOO, EEK, GHOST depending on the kit
vintage black buttons, a mini orange clip, acrylic gems
a vintage shoe clip
2 black and white birthday candles

Here are the photos of each kit's contents. The Dresdens & scrap in each kit are the same, so there's only one close-up photo. The main difference in the kits is the color/type of vintage trim, the type of vintage shoe buckle, and the Scrabble letters.

The 'Boo' Kit

The 'Ghost' Kit

The 'Eek' Kit
The Dresdens and German scrap included in each kit

Cost for each kit is $14.50 and Priority Mail shipping is $4.80. If you're interested in purchasing a kit, please email me at themerrymagpie AT gmail DOT COM and we'll work out the PayPal details. I absolutely adore everything in the kit! The Dresdens can be tricky to find (especially in an assortment!), as can the festooning so I'm happy to be able to include some in these kits.

Have a wonderful weekend! My grand plans include listening to Conference, getting out my Halloween decorations and working in my craft room--all things I love to do. Hope you're able do do some things to make you happy as well!

Recipe share: Salmon-Potato Cakes

Just a quick recipe share--this is what we had for dinner tonight. It's so quick and easy and yummy. The recipe originally appeared in the February 2008 issue of Better Homes & Gardens and can be found here as well. Here is the recipe with my changes:

Photo from BHG.com

Salmon-Potato Cakes

14 oz fresh skinless salmon fillets Here is my biggest change: I am lazy, so I used a 14 oz. can of salmon instead of fresh. I will admit that canned salmon is right on the high end of my gross-o-meter because I hate having to pick out the bones and skin, but once I get over that I'm okay.

2 cups refrigerated sour cream and chive mashed potatoes This would also be a great way to use up leftover homemade mashies. Also, I don't care for the Country Crock brand as I thought they were a bit dry.

1/2 cup seasoned fine dry bread crumbs
3 Tbsp snipped fresh dill I used dried, about a teaspoon
Nonstick cooking spray
fresh mixed salad greens enough for 4 people
bottled Honey-Dijon salad dressing

If you prefer to cook your own salmon, refer to the BHG link for the microwave cooking directions. If using canned, dump it into a big bowl and pick out the skin and bones, then break up with a fork. Add mashed potatoes (I find they mix better if they're not ice-cold from the fridge), bread crumbs, and dill. Form mixture into 8 cakes.

Heat a skillet coated with nonstick cooking spray over medium-high heat. Cook cakes 3-4 minutes on each side, until heated through and browned. Place salad greens on plates. Top with salmon cakes; serve with dressing.

The recipe yields 8 cakes which they call 4 servings, but the cakes are quite large so if you eat a lot of salad, you might just need one. That would also help cut the calories & fat on the NI.

Nutritional info for 4 servings of 2 cakes: 503 calories, 31 grams of fat (7 g saturated), 2 grams fiber

Enjoy! Don't forget, you still have until Friday (tomorrow) at noon MST to enter your name in the October giveaway. Just leave a comment on the post below!

Hooray for October GIVEAWAY

Sorry to be so late--I had some last minute technical difficulties on a project for my Sweet & Sinister Swap package (which was due out TODAY!) that took up quite a bit of time. But my package is now in the hands of the USPS and I promised a giveaway, so a giveaway we shall have!

Announcing...the Vacuuming in High Heels and Pearls "Hooray for October" giveaway!

To celebrate the advent of October and the fact that Halloween is a mere 30 days away, I thought I'd spread some love in the form of Happy Mail. For this giveaway I will chose TWO winners! And what will the winners receive?

Each package will include one of these darling Making Memories chipboard kits. Each kit has three big chipboard shapes that can be decorated with the papers, ribbons, stickers and small chipboard embellishments that are also included. How fun!

Each package will also include a set of these spoooooky haunted house Jolee's dimensional stickers, a set of cute witchy diecuts from Stampin' Up!, and various and sundry other Halloweenish tricks and treats!

To enter, please leave a comment on this post anytime between now and Friday, October 3 at noon MST. Don't forget, there will be TWO winners this time! Happy October!

Altered Soap Bottles: A Tutorial

A few weekends ago (when I was swamped) I taught some craft demos to the women at my church, including this one for Altered Soap Bottles. They are so easy and inexpensive and they make great little gifts! I thought I'd put together a little blog tutorial to show you how they're made.The trick to these soap bottles is that the art inside appears to float magically in the bottle. Okay, maybe not magically, but I guarantee you that when people first see these, they can't figure out how you got the words in the bottle! The secret is transparencies--the kind you'd use on an overhead projector.

Step 1: Design the insert. Because I have no idea what I'm doing in Photoshop, I used my Microsoft Word program. I knew that I could fit nine inserts to a page, so I did a little measuring and math and made nine text boxes to fill up the page (note: you will want to make your text box lines palest gray so they don't show up later--I learned this the hard way). Then I used a fancy font for the wording and downloaded a free dingbat font to make the snowflakes. (Getting those right was the hardest part, something I'm sure would have been easier in Photoshop.) Then I just copied and pasted the text into the eight other boxes. I printed it out, took it to a copy shop and had a transparency made. Easy!

It is important to note that for this project, you must use either a copier-generated transparency or one made on a laser printer. INK JET TRANSPARENCIES WILL NOT WORK! The ink will not hold up in the soap. Also, you do not have to use a computer to create your art. You can use rubber stamps or even have your child draw something cute--anything can be made into a transparency!

Step 2: Prepare the Soap Bottle. The soap I like to use for this craft is the Equate brand from Wal-Mart. The soap is clear, the labels are on the outside of the bottle, and best of all, they cost less than a dollar each! If you'd prefer to use another kind, just look for a brand that has the printing on the outside on a sticky label so it can be removed.

The labels can be peeled off fairly easily by hand. Remove any sticky residue with a product like Goo Gone or Un-Du. Unscrew the lid and lay aside the pump stem.

Step 3: Insert the Transparency. After you have cut apart the sheet of transparencies, it still may be necessary to trim them slightly to fit in the bottles. Simply hold the transparency up against the bottle to get an idea of how much you may need to trim off. Sometimes I find it helpful to round the top corners to mirror the rounded shape of the bottle.

Next, roll up the transparency with the printed lettering on the inside and stick it down into the neck of the bottle. (Note: some of the bottles have manufacturing lettering printed on the outside of the bottle, near the top edge. You might try to remove this with fingernail polish remover or just make sure that is the back side of your bottle.)

When the transparency gets down into the soap, it tends to unfurl by itself. If yours needs a little help, use a skewer or even the stem of the pump to gently unfold it and move it into place. Replace the pump, making sure the stem is BEHIND the transparency.

Tie on a ribbon and a cute tag and it's done! These bottles make great little gifties because they're easy, inexpensive and can be mass-produced if necessary. I'm going to make these as Christmas treats for the teachers in Maren's classroom. Another thing I love is that they can be easily personalized for the recipient--who doesn't love a personalized gift?

Here are some other examples to give you some ideas:

This one was given to my mom as a birthday treat from some ladies at church. I love how they combined the different fonts! Cute.

On this one, the pumpkin is a rubber stamped image. I couldn't find an image on the computer that I liked so after I printed out the lettering, I carefully stamped a pumpkin on each box.

This was one of my prototypes for the demo and I actually used black StazOn stamping ink on a piece of a report cover instead of a printed transparency. The black ink has held up just fine but a similar transparency I stamped using brown StazOn ink completely disappeared! I also embellished this one with a blue eyelet. It seems to be holding up for now but I'm not sure about the long term. You can also embellish the transparencies with small silk flowers, but make sure they are colorfast first. I think it would be fun to try using scrapbooking rub-ons or those adhesive vinyl shapes you can put on your walls. In either case, they would need to be applied on the back side of the lettering so that both will show. Anything that is colorfast and can be rolled up to fit in the neck of the bottle is fair game for embellishment--be creative!

I hope this tutorial has been helpful! If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments and I'll be happy to answer.

*****************************************************************

Also....to celebrate the beginning of October and the 'official' beginning of the Halloween season (yippee!) tomorrow I'll be announcing a GIVEAWAY! Be sure to come back and visit so you can enter!

T-minus 3 hours, 50 minutes

Oh come on, I can't be the only geek out there who's totally excited for tonight's premiere, right? Right?

Making me happy today...

Just a few things I'm loving today...


The old jointed yard stick I shaped into a star. I've been looking for one of these in my thrifting travels for years with NO luck! I finally found one for a great price in an antique store in Utah. Years ago I saw one in a Pottery Barn catalog that had been shaped into a crown; maybe that's next when I'm tired of the star.

This (thrifted) shocking pink flower brooch. Wore it on my jacket on Sunday and it made me happy all day! It is very thick bent plastic and I love the light and dark pink striations. I haven't seen one like it before and I'm glad it came to live with me.

My beloved new bench, spruced up for autumn. The garage sale acorns from the other day are in a garage sale wooden bowl--if I turn them just right you can't see the broken one! LOL The beautiful gourd is from my dad's garden and the berry wreath was purchased 90% off last year after Halloween.

What is making you happy today?

Inspiration struck this weekend and so there's more than a wee bit of Halloween crafting going on around here!
I love seeing all my pretties in one place. It was such fun to go through my stash and pull out trinkets and treasures to match. This is when being a pack rat comes in handy. :)

It feels good to be creative again after being away and being too busy. I love when my head is swimming with ideas and images and I wake up in the morning with fresh ideas. Although I've dabbled in many craft mediums, paper, scissors and glue will always be my first and best loves.

Hooray for Autumn!

I was so happy to find these cute acorns at a garage sale this morning,

which made it extra swear-inducing when I went to take the price sticker off and dropped the brown one on the floor, shattering the bottom. @&%*$&@ If I add a few fake leaves maybe it won't be too noticeable. Thank goodness I didn't pay retail--then I'd be really mad!

I've been looking for a few new fall things to spruce up my house, which is why I was so jazzed to find the acorns. I go all out for Halloween beginning October 1, but I need a few fall colors to make me happy until then. I won't lie--I'm already itching to get out my Halloween decor but I know if I do, I'll be sick of it by October 15th so I'm trying to resist. The acorns and my fall wreath will have to get me through! Wish I could find some beautiful dried Japanese lanterns like these from Sue's garden. I looked at some silk versions at the craft store today but they were a sad copy--nowhere near as beautiful as the real thing!

On the docket for this weekend: the official family "clean up the yard for autumn" day, work on my Sweet & Sinister swap, and I think I may take advantage of the fact that my basil plant has finally decided to grow (hey, it's only two months late!) to make some pesto. Frankly, I'm just tired of keeping my plants alive. Time for them to fulfill the measure of their creation, if you know what I mean. Yum!

What are your plans for this last weekend of summer?

Tick Tock, A New Red Clock

I was tickled when I found a darling RED vintage-style clock at my local thrift for a mere 80¢! It is a reproduction but I thought it had plenty of charm and would look great in my vintage-style kitchen. Only problem--when I got it home, it didn't work! Even after putting in a good battery, the clock hands failed to move. I determined that the clock mechanism itself was kaput, but I knew that I could buy a replacement at the craft store.

Armed with my trusty 40% off coupon, I headed to JoAnn's but was dismayed to find that a new set of clock works was $7.99. Now, I had a coupon that would make it less expensive, but people--I AM CHEAP! I didn't want to pay 6x more for the mechanism that I did for the darn clock itself!

Enter Plan B--find another cheapo clock at the thrift and harvest its organs...er, mechanism. I've searched unsuccessfully a few times now but today I found it! A boring, cheapo clock also priced at the magical 80¢. I didn't have a battery with me to make sure it worked and that thrift store doesn't accept returns, but for that price I was willing to take the gamble. I may be cheap, but I'm not crazy!

I didn't think to take a photo of the "donor" clock, but just imagine your garden-variety plastic, few bucks at Wal-Mart type of clock. I used a butter knife to pop off the plastic dome, unscrewed the hands and removed the little black box. Threaded it through the hole on the red clock, reattached the hands and the glass dome and hurrah--it worked! I did have to fiddle with the hands a bit to make sure they were seated correctly but it's keeping time like a champ now.


Now to hang it and enjoy!

Finding higher ground, but not on dry ground yet

I think I've successfully climbed out of the swamp, but I'm afraid I'm still hovering around the edges and not completely on dry land yet. Whew! Being gone for 8 days and then coming home and immediately jumping into a huge project really wiped me out. I still feel like I'm trying to get things back in order and regain my energy. I hope to be back tomorrow with a 'real' blog post, but until then I want to share a couple of photos of The Mister, who ran his first triathlon while we were in Utah.

I'm so proud of him! And he's hot, too. :)

Swamped!

I'm back from Utah, but I'm swamped! I'm getting ready for a huge event tomorrow and it's sucking up all my time, energy and thoughts--I even dreamed about it last night! I'm seriously looking forward to tomorrow at 1 pm when it will be ALL OVER and I can get back to my normal life and blog posting!

Benched

I'm taking a break from packing for the week-long trip we depart upon tomorrow to show you my favorite garage sale find from the weekend. A goodly portion of the items at this woman's sale would definitely fall in the "shabby chic" category--just the kind of sale I like to find, but rarely do! I asked the woman if she was changing her decor and she laughed and said that she was just weeding out her collection. She had some pretty neat things for sale (and for very reasonable prices) so I'm guessing what she kept was fabulous! She laughed and said that sometimes divorce is not such a bad thing--then there's no one in the house to complain when you've decorated everything with pink, flowers and chandelier crystals!

I've been looking for an old garden bench just like this one, so I snapped it up without a second thought. It looks like it was kept outside because there's a bit of water staining on the top, but I can easily cover that. It sits just inside my front door, right beneath a mirror that looks like a window pane. I can't wait to decorate it for the seasons! First up will be a big pile of gourds and leaves, I do believe. I am looking so forward to decorating for autumn.

The only tricky part is that it's right at the height of a certain curious 3-year-old, so whatever I use to decorate will have to be extra sturdy. When I first brought the bench in I was so excited that I temporarily lost my mind and adorned it with my treasured aqua Bauer bowl. When I found the bowl full of rocks from the backyard I snapped to my senses and put it back up on top of the china cabinet where it is safe! Gourds are tough little things, thank goodness.

And now it's back to the suitcases!

Goodbye, England's Rose

Do you remember where you were and what you were doing 10 years ago today? I do, and I have the photos to document it!

Ten years ago last Wednesday, I boarded an airplane bound for London, where I spent the next semester doing a Study Abroad through my university. August 31 was a Monday that year and it was a Bank Holiday That weekend is also the Notting Hill Carnival, which took place just a few blocks from where we stayed. Wow, was that ever an experience for a bunch of sheltered BYU students!
August 31, 1998 was also significant for one other major reason--it was the one year anniversary of the death of Princess Diana. The building where we lived was just across the street from Kensington Gardens which is of course home to Kensington Palace, where Diana had lived. After our eardrums were well and truly numbed by the Carnival, we walked over to Kensington Palace, where thousands of people had gathered to remember Diana. The huge iron fence surrounding the palace was packed with bouquets of flowers, cards, photos, drawings--all of the beloved People's Princess. I've never seen anything like it before or since.

In this photo I knowI have a weird look on my face. I wasn't sure what expression to make--a big cheesy grin seemed very out of place at such a somber occasion. I will tell you that I remember being so HOT that day! Even though it was the end of August it was unusually warm for London. I had bought that sweater and the jeans (those pants were SO cute! Wish I still had them) from the J.Crew outlet before I left and I was dying to wear them, even though they were much too warm for the day. The necklace I had just bought at what would become one of my favorite London shops, Accessorize.

The year previous, the year she died--I remember that too, although I don't have a scrapbook page about it. I was working at a scrapbook store at the time. That night we stayed open late for a crop, and I had the radio turned to my favorite station, which had a request show on Saturday nights. I remember hearing the DJs saying that someone called in to request "New Dress" by Depeche Mode, because it repeats the line, "Princess Di is wearing a new dress." They then went on to talk again about the news reports just coming in about her death, and I went into the classroom at the back of the store to announce the news to all the ladies there at the crop. That next week was the first week of my sophomore year at college, and I remember my roommates and I watching the coverage of her funeral on TV and crying. I had no idea that a year from then, I'd be able to see it all in person.
I can't believe it has been 10 years since I went to London. I had the time of my life in those three months! I actually still dream about London; strangely, in my dreams it never looks like it did in real life, but I always know that's where I am. These photos are scanned from a scrapbook page I did several years ago. I am maybe halfway done with my scrapbook from my Study Abroad and haven't done a page in literally years, so perhaps this fall would be a good time to get out my photos and get to work again.

Do you remember where you were when you heard the news of Princess Diana's death?

Good Junk

My blog absence last week was partly due to the fact that I went down to Southern Colorado to visit family for a few days. I've mentioned before what a great place it is for small-town thrifting, and once again it didn't disappoint. On my way out of town I hit a great garage sale! Here is what I bought:

The old dictionary is to cannibalize for art projects. I have no idea why I bought the red book with the lady but I think I can use it for display (apparently Rebecca and I have a similar affliction). The book on the right is most interesting. Here's what it looks like inside:

Beautiful, spidery copperplate handwriting! It is a very old composition book that the owner used as a place to copy poems. Each poem is dated at the bottom and at first I thought it was the date the poem was written, but upon further investigation I believe it's the date that the poem was copied into the book. Let's see a close-up of this particular poem's date:

Yup, that says 1882, folks! I think this definitely qualifies for the oldest thing I've found while thrifting. I love it! I can't wait to use the pages in my projects.

Next was a whole bagful of old hankies. I spent a relaxing afternoon earlier this week ironing each and every one. Hankies are the ideal thing to iron--no tricky cuffs or plackets to work around, and they're pretty to look at while you're working! Here are a few of my favorites:

And here is my very favorite hankie of the bunch:

Not only is it pink and turquoise, but it's a state souvenir, and it's from Colorado! A trifecta!


I cannot pass up pretty crocheted potholders, especially when they're in such lovely colors and such good condition. The jewelry will be remade, and there's also an old glass knob hiding in there. And would you believe that I once had a big bag full of those vintage Halloween cake picks? I sold it on eBay, and for not even that much money. Whoops! These may find their way into something for the Sweet & Sinister Halloween Swap.

This is a fun little trifle. It's not a hat, but I do believe it was meant to be worn on the head over the hairstyle. I thought maybe I can use it for Halloween somehow, as it does remind me of a spiderweb. If nothing else I can use it for parts. The bows are velvet ribbon and the little crescents are flocked as well.

And one last treasure:

This is a bit odd. It's definitely a veil, as there are small hair combs sewn on the underside but the lace feels very heavy, like it was a curtain panel or a tablecloth in a former life. Generally you expect a veil to have lace or tulle that is very fine and light, so that leads me to believe that this must have been homemade. The trim is vintage with pearl beads and rhinestones and it's gorgeous!

My goodness, I'm glad it's Friday! This has been a long, busy week and I'm worn out. Because The Mister is in the National Guard, they've been staying downtown for the past week to be available in case riots happened during the Democratic National Convention. Thankfully things were much more peaceful than everyone had worried they might be, and we are more than ready for DH to be done with all of that monkey business. We're leaving town next Wednesday for a week and I have a huge project for church to prepare for as it happens right after we get home, so that has me stressed. And I love my kid but she wears me out, so I'm eager for DH to come home and give me a break! Our plans for Labor Day are mostly to relax. Hope you all enjoy your long weekend!

Going for the Gold

Because one of my personal flaws is apparently laughing at people who fall, I find this video (currently making the email rounds) to be HILARIOUS, each and every time I watch.

Until yesterday, undoubtedly the most unusual piece of furniture I had in my house was this:

an old wooden greeting card display that once resided in the drugstore in a small town in Missouri. I bought it off of Craigslist in July 2005 from a man who had purchased the entire contents of said drugstore and was selling it off, piece by piece.

It seems the drugstore's doors had been closed (with merchandise still on the shelves) for the better part of the 1970s and 80s, giving it the air of a time capsule when it finally saw the light in 2005. When I purchased the card display it came with all of the old greeting cards and wrapping paper that had been on (and in) the unit when the doors closed. Can you imagine what fun I've had going through all those fab vintage cards?

When I bought the display I had the idea to use it for display of my black and white wedding photographs, a plan that never actually materialized. I did use it at Valentine's Day to display my vintage Valentine collection, and at Christmas it made a great place to show off the holiday cards I received in the mail. I loved having the large drawers in the bottom for storage of my to-be-eBayed treasures.

Even still, it never really fit in with the rest of my living room. Its size (large!) was awkward and took up too much of a room that's not big to begin with, and since I could never really make it into what I wanted, I decided to sell it and listed it on Craigslist a few weeks ago. It was purchased by a woman who is opening up a gift shop who plans to use it to display a line of greeting cards she'll be selling.

I'm a bit sad to see it go but mostly now I'm excited because I get to buy something new to fill that space! The front room is a little weird and not that functional right now, so I'd like to create a seating area or a reading space so that I can actually spend time in the room rather than just passing through. I loved this vignette from the most recent Country Living.

I already have a chippy white dresser and a great old chair like the one sitting beside it. Now I need to find an armchair and maybe something to use as an ottoman. The hunt is on!