Happy Spring!

What a busy weekend!  Rhonda's wedding was on Saturday so that meant the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner on  Friday night.  Everything went smoothly and the wedding was beautiful *sigh*.  It went by so fast so I can only imagine what a whirlwind it must have been for the bride and groom!

I wanted to post my mantel earlier this week but I was working on last minute wedding details and didn't get to it until today.  The candle holders came from Ross and were $6 each.  The adorable Easter egg vase is a thrift find for $2.  It's by Teleflora and other than needing a good cleaning, it is in perfect condition.  The wooden bunny came from Target and the blue oil lamp was also a thrift find for $1 --I'm a sucker for clear, colored glass and for $1 there's no way it wasn't coming home with me :)

The hurricane lanterns came from Home Goods and were a steal at $20/each.  I added the flowering branches (Michael's) actually as a decoration for the cherry blossom bridal shower I hosted for Rhonda a few weeks ago but I liked how "springy" it looked and decided to leave it up I left it.  The ceramic basket and bunny are also thrift finds.  The basket was in rough shape.  It was painted with some sort of glaze but it had yellowed which made it looked stained --and not in a good way.  It also had floral foam glue inside with what looked like a pine-needle bed stuck to the foam.  It looked like some sort of weird Easter/Christmas arrangement which I'm guessing is why for $3 it sat in the thrift store for a few weeks before I finally decided to bring it home and try my hand at a re-do.  I scrubbed it down, dug out all the floral foam from inside and sanded off the glue, then spray-painted 3 coats of Krylon white gloss paint with primer.  It looks fabulous!

The bunny was $3 and besides a small chip on the bottom of the mold, it is otherwise perfect and I love the pink bead eyes!  The grass mat inside the basket is from Hobby Lobby and my sis bought the eggs (Hobby Lobby too --Thanks again Shell :) ).

I hope your week is a good one!

Thrifty Finds! *AND* Our New Kitten :) - ***warning - pic heavy!***

Happy Spring All!  Although here in Virginia it's more like summer -- 80 degrees --this is some crazy weather!  I have some great finds from this weekend to share but first I have to show you the latest addition to the family, our new kitten, Sushi:

Sushi - 7 months

Technically, he's Jenna kitten but since she lives with us, I get to play with him and snuggle with him but Jen has to scoop the litter pan - LOL - so really, he is like my grand kitty :)  Jenna adopted him from "Last Chance Rescue" and under the terms of the adoption, Sushi cannot be declawed and he must be an indoor cat.  He was already neutered and our vet has given him a clean bill of health.  No feline leukemia so no worries bringing him in and around Lily...although Lily isn't sure about him either way.  We also have three dogs and Sushi loves them!  He was not at all afraid of them and of course they are great with cats so I didn't worry about them terrorizing him.  I haven't posted pics of our pups before so here they are:

Bailey, our 11 year pomeranian:

and Bixley, our 7 year old rat terrier:

and Denny, our 4 year old boxer:

and of course, I can pass up the chance to post a pic of Lily!  Here she is perched on the back of the recliner in my craft room:

and just for fun, here's Lily with laser-eyes - YIKES!  Jenna snapped this with her cell phone and, yeah, it's a little unnerving - LOL!

Lily doesn't like to "play" with the new kitten but she is really interested in everything he does.  He pretty much ignores her but every once in awhile, he'll chase her for sport - LOL!  But Lil' always comes back to keep an eye on him so I think that in time they will be friends (I'm hoping, anyway). 

Ok, so enough about our furbabies and on to my thrifty finds this week!

I totally had the luck of the Irish on Saturday!  My first fabby find of the day was the 1936 hand-painted peacocks:

and this is what is written on the back:

Isn't that so neat?  It's also a little sad; to think this may have been something very sentimental and treasured and there it was just thrown in among all the other discarded home decor :(  It's 76 years old!  It should be treated with more respect, no?  ;)  This is why I brought it home and it is now displayed in my living room.  I did remove the matting because it was water-stained and the painting looks far more vibrant without it.  

The next finds were the vases.  I mentioned last week my obsession with colored glass and vintage glass so these were right up my alley.  The pink of the FTD vase is really subtle but so pretty.  I see lots of Teleflora, FTD, and Edible Arrangements items while thrifting and they are some of the prettiest and cutest designs!  I have two other vases (Telefora) that I picked up awhile ago (before I decided to blog about it!) and I will be sharing one of them this week when I do my "spring mantel" post :).  The other vase is vintage hobnail milk glass by Brody.

Next up is the casserole dish:

Isn't this graphic so simple and cute?  And it's milk glass - win/win!   Now I want the whole set ;) 

Finally, I walked into the Salvation Army thrift store and these beauties hollered my name - "yoo hoo, Lisa, look at our teal gorgeousness - we'll look great in your kitchen..."  NAB...that's me grabbing them off the shelf in a death clutch - Ha ha :)  I also scored an aqua glass mixing bowl (seen in the pic of the day's haul) and it's stamped "made in France."  I don't know anything about it other than it's super heavy and AQUA :) oh, and it was $2.  

I hope you have a lovely week!

Lisa

  

Thrifty Finds!

So I thought it would be fun to start sharing pics of the things found on my thrifting excursions.  It's amazing the wonderful things you can find and for such little cost.  One man's trash is another man's treasure - Yup, that's true :)   Here is my latest haul from Goodwill:

The picture is particularly special to me as it is the same one that hangs in the guest bedroom at my sister's house :)  It was $20.  I'm leaning toward hanging it in the guest bedroom too because it has such a peaceful feel to it but I enjoy looking at it so the family room is also a contender.  What do you think?

It's probably better if I come clean now and tell you that I have an obsession with aqua Ball jars.  I love colored glass and look how gorgeous aqua jars look against the backsplash in the kitchen:

Here's a closer look at the ones I found today.  The tall jar was $2 and the small ones were each $1--oh such joy for $5 ;)  The baking dish was $1 and so was the cross-stitched chicken sampler:

The little duckie is in perfect condition and just in time for Easter :)  He was $1.  The ornament made of resin hydrangeas was $2 and while I'm not 100% sure how to display it, I liked it and decided I would figure it out.  My other weakness is vintage glass - depression, milk, cut, carnival  - I love it all.  So, when I saw the Brody hobnail bud vase for $1 I knew it was coming home with me as was the pedestal vase!

  

I am looking forward to the weekend.  I will be working on the programs for Rhonda's wedding.  What are you up to?

Happy Thrifting (and Crafting!) ;)

Lisa

Cherry Blossom Bridal Shower - Invitations

Hello everyone!  I wanted to share the  invitations I've been working on for my best friend's bridal shower. Lots and lots of coloring but I'm really happy with them. The image is from A Day For Daisies, "cherry blossom cluster" (find it here) and I believe it was part of last week's release.  I designed the invite using MS home publishing software --oh yes, it's super old but I've been using it for so long, that it's totally my go-to program for invitations and especially when I have lots of them to do :)

I printed them on Cryogen white cardstock from Paper Temptress (here) which is perfect since it has a slight iridescent sparkle to it; plus it's copic friendly and wonderful to color on.  I added the little gem as a nod to the solitary diamond in an engagement ring ;)  The shower is in a couple weeks and since I'm hosting it, I'll have a few more crafty things to share soon.  

Happy Crafting! <3 Lisa

Bittersweet

Hello All.   Today is my last day as a designer for A Day For Daisies.  :(  When I saw this sad, little mermaid, "Mermaid Sympathy," among Tammy's new releases today, I knew it would be my swan song image.  *sigh*  I did some paper-piecing --her hair and tail --and embellished her locks with turquoise Stickles.  Oh she looks soo sad!

So, A Day For Daisies has been my tether to paper crafting for the last few months.  I have thoroughly enjoyed creating with these incredible images and  will still be doing so *BUT* I am really itching to try my hand at refinishing furniture.  Isn't that funny!?  I have scrapbooked since 1998 and was planning parties way before that yet in the last year, I have become obsessed with restoring and refinishing furniture.  I think above all I just need to create whether it be with paper or otherwise, I just have to have an outlet.   I hope my paper crafting friends will stick this out with me!

Happy Crafting! <3 Lisa

Entryway Monogram

I have been inspired by so many great images of monograms on Pinterest, that I decided I wanted to have one too :)  I decided to put ours in the foyer - sort of like signage for the establishment - ha!  Originally, this was going to be a total DIY using the ol' Cricut and craft vinyl but the size needed to fill the space turned out to be larger than the size I could cut.  So...I did the next best thing..headed directly to Etsy!  After looking at a few designs, I found the perfect one from Mulberry Creek.  Both our initials surrounding the J and the "established date" = year we were married.  Love it!  And, it was customized to the size needed (20" x 20") and in the colors I wanted - circle and letter J = beige, D and L  = chocolate, and date = black.   It turned out beautifully!  I was nervous about applying it but with Dan's help, it went pretty smoothly.  It came in 5 sections and the circle was the trickiest but once that was in place, the rest was a piece of cake.

Ok, since a makeover (even a mini one) is nothing without  Before pics - here they are :)

This is the wall right inside the staircase in the foyer.  It's the first thing you see when you walk in the front door.   Since we've moved in, this pedestal and flower arrangement has sat here and while I love it, I figured it was time for a change.

The rest of the foyer needs  to be painted and we are installing wainscoting around the outer walls too. 

...but since little space is so isolated, it got a coat of natural almond paint (Behr with primer).   The console is from Ikea (Hemnes) and it's a shoe cabinet!  How smart is that!?  The mirror is from TJ Maxx and the other accessories were pulled from other rooms in the house.  

So, here is the finished look:

I love it.  This is the "everyday look."  The hardware was switched out with these darling acrylic knobs I found at Michaels for $1.50 each:

And when I saw this tiny lamp at Pier one -- it has the same shape as the legs on my beloved dining room table --i.am.dying!!!!  Plus, ever since the teal velvet chairs entered my life, I'm a peacock kick  and the shade is rockin' that feather :)

The "32" is our house number.  Hobby Lobby had them for 50% off.  I had a ball decorating this little space for the holidays.  Here is Halloween:

and Christmas:

But, I'm loving the "everyday" look:

for now...Valentines Day is coming~ :)

Happy Crafting!

<3 Lisa

Mermaid in a Snow Globe!

Well all, my term on the DT for A Day For Daisies is (sadly!) coming to an end :(   I have one more week left but I really hate goodbyes so I decided to do this now.  I am very grateful to Tammy for taking a chance on me and allowing me to stay on for as long as I have.  It's been such a joy! :)

Ok, so, onto the fun stuff!  A new challenge begins today at A Day For Daisies and it is to use glitter - woohoo!  I love my glitter *giggle* - and since the new release are snow globe images (CA-UTE!), it's the perfect combination!  I used Tammy's "Mermaid in a Snowglobe" image - oh she is such a cutie!  I love how she's pressed up to the glass...and that gave me an idea :)  I wanted my own little ADFD mermaid in a snow globe!  I printed the image on heavy vellum and colored it with prismacolor pencils.  I fussy-cut out the mermaid and mounted it on a thin strip of craft plastic.  I gently rolled up the image and slipped it inside the clear ornament, leaving the craft plastic to stick out the bottom a little; this way, I could move the image around.  Once she was in place (looking out the glass), I hot glued the plastic strip and cut off the excess.  I put some "bubble" beads, beach sand, glitter, and tiny shells as well.  I used an empty ribbon spool to create the snow globe base.  Oh, and I made a matching card to create a little gift set :)

Happy Crafting! <3 Lisa