Everyone Loves A Party, No?

I know I do! And I know I am really looking forward to the new magazine coming out this spring, Flea Market Style. They are having a party over there, so I decided to add this post from a while back. Check out the party though, LOTS of good stuff over there!

Junk Bonanza!

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that the boy and I went out to the Junk Bonanza. We had SUCH a good time, found some really fun stuff and got some great ideas! I wanted to share with you some of the pictures that I took of some of the spaces and objects that inspired me and gave me some ideas.

I have a couple of small stools around my house (who am I kidding, I am vertically challenged at almost 5'2" so I have a step stool in each and every room including my closet and my guest room closet) and when I see unique ones I like to pick them up. I did not however buy this one, but I really liked the use of the rulers!
I have a small collection of tin picnic baskets. I really liked the shape of this one and thought it was very unique. I love the look here, how the scale was displayed on top of it. I can see it in a kitchen somewhere if you had the right space. At the moment, I do not, but I have seen these scales at sales and have been tempted in the past to purchase. I may have to pick one up to stick away for a rainy day!
I don't have kids of my own, and neither of my nephews play baseball, but I just LOVED this and if I had a little boy I would love to decorate his room and could just see this hanging on his wall. Just love this! I am not sure how hard this would be to make yourself, but I think I would give it a try. . .
I LOVED these bottles, they were a little pricey though and I figured I could make them myself. Well, I should have taken a better picture because now I can't remember what it said on them and I have done a couple of searches (I am not done thoroughly investigating yet) and not come up with anything, but I am definitely going to give it a try! I kept thinking about these little cages with the skeletons, and my dad was out at the Bonanza the next day helping out, so I called him and asked him to pick one up for me, I thought it would be something fun to add to the spooky decor. See the matches? How cute are those? I think they would also be pretty easy to make and would be great hostess gifts this time of year with a candle!
This is from a booth that I really liked a lot. AND I found out that the woman who had the booth, has a shop right by my house! I have not had a chance to make it in there yet, but it is on my ta-da list! I took this picture though specifically because I thought it was such a cute idea and I have a dish like this, and I think I also have something that could work like the glass dome, if not, you know I will be on the lookout! But what a cute way to display a candle!
I have quite a few pillows on my bed (I do not have a headboard, I have been looking and looking but just have not found the right one) but the pillows I have had on there, have been there forever and I guess I am just starting to get bored with them. I thought these were some really cute ideas, I have a few chenille bedspreads as well as a ton of hankies, so I thought that this would be something fun to do. . . if I knew how to sew. . . but who knows, maybe I will learn!
I loved this idea! Can't you just see this displayed for a tea or just a dessert gathering with some little Italian cookies or small biscuits, even some finger sandwiches! I have a ton of glasses and plates, one of the things on my ta-da list is to go through my built-ins in my dining room and pare it down a bit, this would be a great way to make use of some of the mismatches! This would be a very fun and unique idea to create on your own as well. One of the things that I like to do is buy extra unique plates at the thrift store to take with an appetizer or dessert when I am invited somewhere. This would be another great thing to take along!
I loved these pillows, the pictures and the screen door. If I EVER see a screen door somewhere reasonable, you can pretty much bet I will buy it. I have a million different projects I would like to try with one.
I LOVED these, and thought they were some of the most unique items that I had seen there. If you don't know what they are, it is a garden totem and bird baths. I just loved them and I thought it was a really unique way to "recycle" things that people would usually throw away or give away to Goodwill or Salvation Army. When I had gone back to the booth that my mom had, her partner was working it that day, she said"oh yeah that idea is so over done, so and so originally thought of it but never copyrighted it so now everyone steals it. . .I don't know, I had never seen it before and these ladies had come up from Indiana and I just thought they were great. My friend J just re-did her backyard in Oak Park, IL, and I thought she might really like one of these, if I could have figured out how to get one down to her I would have. But I also took the picture because I thought maybe we could figure out how to make one too! Don't you think a bird would love to take a bath in one of these?
Last but not least, they had a challenge to create a beautiful and unique Tablescape for under $40 (I think it was $40, but don't quote me on that) from ARC which is a great thrift store in the Twin Cities. I LOVED this, and I think that it just goes to show you that you can really be creative and thrifty. I got some really good ideas from this too.
I loved the glasses, and of course now I am keeping my eye out for them!
I can't wait to do my November table, I have gotten some great ideas and I just love the look of this one! I love using the little frames as place cards. And all of the candlesticks and holders I think look awesome!
Look at how well the three different plates blend together? LOVE that! And the napkin ring? It is a drawer pull, very unique! I really loved this challenge and I would love to try it myself! I do change my table setting at least once a month, and also on my ta-da list is to go through my linens, I have TOO many at the moment and due to the fact that I have been keeping two leaves in my table at all times due to the amount of entertaining we have been doing, I need to keep larger table cloths handy. LOVE this challenge though, how unique!

Thanks for taking my little tour with me, hope you enjoyed some of my favorite things as much as I did!

A Hunting We Will Go!

So this past weekend, the boy and I joined my sister at 6:30 am for what has become an annual outing. It was the annual sale for the Children's Cancer Research Fund. I can usually find one or two treasures along with some good books, but I hit the jackpot this year. Look what I found,
along with this, which reverses to pink
and this, which reverses to green.

I was so excited, $10 for the bag and extra covers. And the bonus part, I have three covers at home that I had bought at Marshall Fields when they were going out of business and turning over to Macy's. I bought them thinking that the wooden frame would not be that hard to find. I have had a watch on eBay on them for over two years, but they usually go pretty high at around $45 and I just could not bring myself to pay that for a cloth pocketbook.

This was my book haul. Looks like I got some pretty good titles of things I have been wanting to read and for $1 each! But we won't discuss how little reading I have been doing lately. Or how I did on my summer reading list. I guess I shouldn't even post a fall list. I want to, but I just know that right now it is not realistic. I will make more time though, the boy and I have discussed it.
After we left the sale, we decided to hit up an estate sale. I just love these adorable bags, and $12 each? I could not go wrong.
The detail of the needlework on this I just love.
I have cute little strappy silver heels that go perfectly with this one, can't you just see it with a LBD?
Later on in the day, while the boy was mowing his lawn, I decided to check into a consignment shop in his neighborhood. Occasionally people will bring in some interesting stuff, so sometimes I stop in to see what they have.

I was so excited to see these, like new, still in the box! I had all three of these when I was a kid and played with them like crazy. I would always take them with me to my paternal grandmothers house because she would always play with them with me. The stands and all of the clothes are all there and they are all in perfect condition. I am hoping my niece will play with them while she is at my house like I did. What a find.
I just love a successful day of hunting! Such a sense of satisfaction.

Friends T & G for dinner tonight. I am making the chicken enchiladas from the JLM cookbook "Always Superb" I will post the recipe and let you know how they turn out.

Things I am Looking Forward to!

My mom is showing her wares at the Junk Market Bonanza in September. I am SO excited. I have been to it the past couple of years and I always find some fun and interesting things. Last year I passed up a dry sink with a solid, perfect condition marble top. It was a bigger piece and the boy and I sat discussing how it would make a perfect vanity in the right house, but we just didn't know where we would store it until we would use it, so I passed on it, and it was only $100. I am not sure what I am looking for this year, I guess I never am looking for anything in particular, just whatever strikes me at the time, but I am really excited.

I have gotten some wonderful treasures at estate sales over the past couple of weeks, I will take some pictures and update later!

Project of the week! Chairs and more!

Last night the boy and I had tickets to Peer Gynt at The Guthrie. We had a wonderful time and started out with a wonderful dinner at one of our favorite spots M & S. It was so nice to have a date night in the middle of the week, we both had a really good time.
I also stopped by the Thrift store before heading out to dinner last night and found some really fun things!

A copy of the 1987 Junior League of Minnie Cook Book, I cannot wait to try a recipe or two. . .

The Daily Soup Cook Book, this used to be one of my favorite places to get lunch from in Manhattan. J-do you remember this place? You would get soup, an awesome piece of bread, a piece of fruit AND a cookie? NUM! Let me know if you need a recipe or two!

I also found this great pedestal bowl, now you will have to use your imagination here, but it did have a brass base, but I could not even wait two seconds and I painted it, ahh, love it!

Now onto projects, I have a couple today, one is kind of a reveal, I finally finished getting my dresser into place. It started out looking like this,

And now here is the completed result! I found the mirror a few weeks ago at an estate sale with my mom before she left for places down South, the two trinket boxes I found last week at an estate sale with the boy, I am not sure if they will stay there though. . .I still don't have any clothes in it yet, that is on my ta-da list this week, but I did get them lined with pretty smelly drawer liners.

And now for some chairs. I have my wine club here as well as other family functions and I am always in need of extra chairs, so I have at least one extra chair in each room that I can pull out when needed. You can see the one next to my dresser up above. This is one I picked up with the boy at an estate sale this past fall, it started like this

I actually painted it up at the lake. I wanted to put a cushion on it, but I can't find one that fits would love some suggestions. I have been reading so many cottagey blogs and everyone always has such cute ideas and everyone is so crafty, I can get the basics, but I am having a tough time taking it that next step. . .

Here is another that my mom and I found on the side of the road.

You may recognize this dresser as well from another project post,

but it started like this,

This chair sits in my office and

started out very dark and drab.

And this was a $2 auction find, I didn't change anything about it, but I love it.

WHEW! You do not even want to see the Ta-Da list for the week and how much is still left on it, and will I be working on that tonight? Nope, it is out with the girls for a night on the town, looking forward to it too!

The boy and I have the kids for the weekend, would love to hear some fun kid friendly food suggestions from some mom's. My only thought was hot dog with cheese wrapped in croissants. . . my niece is a very sensitive and picky eater, she has SDD (sensory deprivation disorder) (among other things) so she is SUPER picky about food.

Weekend Recap!

So again I have to apologize for lack of posts and absence, I had a relapse last week of what I had over the holidays and was down for the count most of last week, on top of that I was busy as ever with work, so my apologies.

We did get in a couple of things last week before I got sick again. Last Tuesday night, one of the coldest nights of the year (it was -26 as we were out and about), we saw the sneak preview of Penelope with Christina Ricci which is due out February 29th. Great movie with a great message, very cute to bring teens to. Also, if you did not fall in love with James McEvoy in Atonement, you definitely will here.

The rest of the week was pretty much a wash, it was SO cold Wednesday I did not even think about leaving the house. I did make a pan of lasagna for the boy Friday night and we had a fire and watched some Netflix movies. We saw A Mighty Heart with Angelina Jolie. Have you seen it? You know, I really just do not get the hype around her. Her character in the movie pretty much portrayed what I think she is like, cold and unfeeling. I don't know why I think that, probably because she had an affair with someone elses husband and I think that anyone that does that is pretty much cold and unfeeling. The movie was "eh" nothing special.

We did venture out to a couple of estate sales Saturday morning, one of our favorite things to do and I was feeling better too. We found a couple of fun things, but mostly we just had fun. We stopped for a late breakfast, did some errands and then came back to my place for a nap, I guess I was still not back to myself completely. So after a two hour siesta (aren't those the best on a dreary cold day in the middle of the afternoon?) I was feeling better so we decided to head to the movies and up to the boys for the rest of the weekend.

We decided to take in a double feature. We saw 27 Dresses which we were both pleasantly surprised with. It was a cute, fun, uplifting film and I definitely agree with everyone, Katherine Heigl is the IT girl of the moment. We had seen her on Oprah on Friday, and she is just seems to be so relaxed and herself, but at the same time she has an elegance and grace about her. Whomever is choosing her wardrobe at the moment also gets a huge thumbs up from me. I love her hair and her dresses!

We also saw There Will Be Blood. I thought Daniel Day Lewis did a phenomenal job, but I did not enjoy the movie overall. There was not very much to the story line and I just wanted more I guess.

Sunday we worked on some projects and I made some wings to take to the boys parents house for the big game. The boy happens to be a Pats fan, so we were looking forward to a good game. So after knocking off some more items off of my ta-da list, including picking up tickets to this, we headed to his parents. When we got there we discovered that his dad had the flu. Probably not the best thing for me to be around, but what were we to do. So we enjoyed the game, well, I enjoyed getting caught up on some magazines, and the commercials of course. Did you have a favorite? It was a good game, but needless to say the boy was pretty disappointed in the outcome.

So this week I have a ton of meetings, but it is snowing today, so I am thinking about rescheduling a 3:30 meeting because the thought of getting all dressed up and trudging through the snow and nasty streets does nothing for me. I also have a doctors appointment schedule since even though I am feeling better, I am nowhere near myself yet. I have a couple of projects to post and a recipe of course and I have started gathering some spring items (seriously I could not help it, and spring better get here QUICK). I have my taxes to do this week and a million things as usual to cross off the ta-da list. I also have something exciting to share with you all on Wednesday!

If you have not stopped by the garage to wish Chloe well, please do so! It was so nice of her to throw her a virtual shower, what a beautifully sweet sentiment!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Weekend Recap!

Sorry for my absence the last couple of days. No, I am not frozen up in the arctic tundra, but I will say that this is how cold it was when I woke up Saturday morning.

And these were the windchills. Can you even imagine? Egads.

I had a really hectic and busy week even though, as my dad would say, it was colder than a hookers heart outside. Something going on every night last week and work absolutely insane.

On the work front, lots of changes. Not only is the project that I have been working on for the past 7 to 8 months about to implement, but I spent last week getting ramped up on a new project that I am taking over this week. So a lot of reading and twice as many meetings, that is what it is going to be like for the next couple of weeks. I have to say, I feel kind of bad sometimes when I work through the evening and the boy is just kind of there to hang out with me. When he is done with work, he leaves his job and he leaves his work. He also is a true 9 to 5er, I also think that makes it harder for him to understand when I need to put in more hours. Don't get me wrong though, he has never complained once and because I do work from home, at least we are able to spend time together. Well, we were able to anyway.

The new project that I am taking over, at least for the next couple of months, is based out of Fort Lauderdale, FL. So for the next couple of months I will be in FL every other week, meetings and just sorting some things out. So, I went from negative numbers to 70's on Sunday morning. But I am getting ahead of my self here.

So, work=nuts. Enough said there. We had a couple of wine events last week, I had a work dinner, and I also had the girls over Friday night for drinks and munchies.

After finding out Thursday evening that I was going to be leaving for a week, we decided to forgo the wine tasting we had planned on going to so that we could have one last night by ourselves (I also had a ton of work that needed to get done). I was kind of bummed when I heard about the event the next day, 600 people, South African wines and food, plus they raised a bit of money for the local food shelves. This is a once a year event, so I am kinda bummed that we passed on it, but something had to give.

Friday night six girlfriends and our token male, Max the dog, came over where we had cocktails and munchies. The boy stopped in and helped with a fire and grabbed a bite to eat so we had a nice relaxing evening.

Saturday I woke up to FRIGID temperatures. BUT, the boy brought my dresser back from his house and we had an estate sale to hit as well as some errands to get done. I will take some pics of my dresser when I get back. Had a lot of fun at the estate sale and found some great treasures, no pics, but I will try to be better about posting our treasures when I return. Then it was a Super Target run and a bite to eat, but it was even cold IN the restaurant. Truth be told we had lunch at one of our favorite dive bars which is a NE Mpls institution which even catered one of my aunt and uncle's anniversary parties. Libby, I was thinking of you when I donned my cap that day!

I needed some things for the week in FL as well as a pedicure so after a bite to eat we did some shopping and the boy hung out and read while my toes were taken care of so that I could sport these this week.

Saturday night was a BYOB event for the wine club at sister J's house. We decided to go with a Winter White theme and only have white wines. This was actually because at times people have been known to spill here or there and with sister J just moved in to her new place, we wanted to avoid that. It was a lot of fun and we had a great turnout, especially considering how cold it was!!!! The other problem was the fact that she lives very close to the Metrodome as well at the Guthrie and several area restaurants. Well guess what, the dome was hosting a Monster Truck rally and for some reason no matter how cold it is, Minnesotans venture out, so parking was at a premium. Luckily we ran into sister S's husband who let us into the heated garage, but there were 4 people who could not find parking so they were not able to make it.

Our Hostess and a good friend of hers from home.

It really was a good time and a great group.


Sunday morning I had to get up early to pack, that had not happened at all, but luckily I was pretty organized. I like to just bring one or two basic colors when I travel for work, so this week it is black, white and a little khaki. But I could not resist and threw in a Lilly dress just in case.

It was in the 70's when I landed and should be all week, so I will enjoy it while I can. I have a good friend from out East who lives here in Fort Lauderdale and they just had a baby about 8 months ago so I had dinner with them last night and will be seeing them again tonight, then he heads out of town for work, but I will be busy the rest of the week, so sneaking a couple of nights in with him is wonderful. My team actually gets in later this afternoon, but I needed to get down early and check out a room we are using a make sure that everything was ready to go. I am also staying at a different hotel which is kind of nice, I won't feel like I have to be with work people non-stop.

So no movies this weekend, and they are announcing the Oscar nominees this morning, so looking forward to those! Hope you all had a good weekend!

Weekend Recap!

So I "think" I am finally feeling like myself again, although a nap everyday is still needed, but shouldn't we all have nap time?

We had a nice weekend, while taking it easy of course. Friday we stayed in and had a wonderful fire and the boy ordered pizza from a new place we had not tried yet. I tried one slice, not too bad and I am looking forward to going in and trying the place out, it looks so cozy and inviting when we drive by.

Movie night of course, so we watched a couple of Netflix DVD's. Transformers which we missed in the big theater, and I have to admit I am really bummed I didn't see that one on the big screen. Good action flick. We also watched Elizabeth. I want to see the second one which is still in a couple of select theaters, so this one was a must. It is your typical period movie, but pretty good. I was also paging through a bunch of my magazines, Country Living, Cottage Home, Country Home and BHG as well as some of my decorating books looking for ideas to inspire me for 2008. My Christmas decorations are all pretty much down and put away, so time to move on and I would like to do something new and different with my mantle.

Saturday we were off to an estate sale. Nothing too terribly exciting, but always fun, I will try to post some photos later today.

After, we went and looked at a couple of houses. The boy is getting the bug to rehab again, but with the market the way that it is right now, we are thinking it would have to be a live-in rehab and I don't know if that is something that I want to do. But it is a thought. We found one that we like, now it is just a matter of price and such.

We had plans to have dinner at my parents and I also set up a wireless router for them and a new printer/scanner/fax. So now my mom and dad each have their own office. It is nice for my mom because she is just going to be doing eBay going forward. She still has one occasional store, but I think she will give that one up soon too. They leave at the end of this month for AZ, and who knows when they will be back. I am going to miss them that is for sure.

After dinner the boy and I decided to head out and catch a couple of movies, PS I Love You. I pretty much cried through the entire thing. And have you seen it? I LOVE Hillary Swanks wardrobe throughout the ENTIRE movie! Even her loud colorful outfit was cute. It is a great movie though, and I am glad that the boy was able to get through a true chick flick. We also caught Charlie Wilson's War. I really liked the chemistry between Julia Roberts and Tom Hanks, a great movie and I learned some things that I did not have a full understanding of before.

Sunday morning I went and picked up my mom for some shopping. My mom is a great shopper and I love going with her. She wanted to get some new things for their trip, we headed to the estate sale that the boy and I head been at and then we had some lunch at Convention Grill. Very good.

The boy worked on my dresser, I can't not wait for it to be done and in my bedroom. Look for picture this Thursday for my project of the week!

Sunday nights are typically spent with the boys mom and dad for dinner and some Amazing Race, it had been a while since we had done this with the holidays and such, so it was nice to get back to our routine.

Busy week here, but I am still going to be taking it easy, I am still not 100% and I know that but we are volunteering Tuesday evening with JLM, should be fun it is our first volunteering opportunity together and sisters J & S will be there as well.

Hope you all had a good weekend, we had a heatwave here and it hit 36 and is quickly melting our snow, which truth be told, makes it really gross and slushy out. I am actually hoping for fresh white snow this week!

Weekend Recap!

Okay so even though we had to push dates about by two months for my most recent project for work, and even though I thought I was going to be crazy busy with travel the whole month of December so I got myself really organized in November, I wasn't supposed to be this busy with work right now. I was supposed to feel totally caught up, relaxed with not a care in the world. But I am not. I am traveling, I am swamped with work and I feel like I don't have everything done. But I do think I am still pretty organized.

Last Thursday the boy and I, with list in hand, hit TJ Maxx/Home Goods (it is a combo store and wonderful) then we hit Super Target and just about knocked off all of our holiday shopping and holiday food shopping. Not too bad! We came home and finished decorating my tree, cleaned some things up and had some dinner.

Friday we were fortunate enough to be on the guest list of a VIP birthday party for a special friend. It was a really good time, so much fun to see faces that it had been years since I had seen and it was also SO much fun to see her parents and her sisters new house which is not far from me at all. I just can't believe she is finally older than me :)

We got in quite late Friday night, basically early Saturday morning, but that didn't stop us from hitting our estate sales Saturday morning, so we woke up early, bundled up and headed out. We watched the weather as we were getting ready to leave, but I could have sworn I heard them say we were not supposed to start getting snow until 6:00 PM. But as soon as we got down the road a ways, it started coming down. I wish I could have taken a picture to show you how beautiful the snow was coming down. The snowflake crystallized on my jacket and did not even melt! We found some great items at the first sale, really fun stuff. My sister LOVES Birkenstocks, me, well my feet start to break out in hives as soon as you get them on my feet, same thing with crocs. I just don't get it. Well this sale must have had over 100 pairs of Birks, all. . . .in. . . my. . . size. No, I refuse. BUT, my sister sells on eBay, so I picked up 7 brand new pairs of the clogs, for $6 each. I knew that she would be thrilled. I called her up and said I have good news, I just bought you 7 brand new pairs of Birks for $6 each (oh my goodness if you could have heard the hysterics on the other end of the phone) then she asked what the bad news was. I had to tell her they were all in my size. Since I am more than one full size smaller than her, she was not happy, but it was funny. She was really excited to put them up on eBay though.

We hit another estate sale, the snow was really coming down at this point, and the roads were really starting to get bad, thank goodness for AWD. This estate sale is what they call a diggers sale. We were having so much fun, I found some great vintage jewelry, the cutest napkin rings I have ever seen and some wonderful books for my mom for one of her shops. All of them dated back to the late 1800's and were in very good condition. Lots of fun.

As we were heading to Perkins, for some refueling and to talk about all of our great finds, we got a call from the boys friend. We were having him and his girlfriend for dinner to celebrate his birthday, but had figured that with the snow they would cancel. But what was I going to do with a flourless chocolate cake, especially when the boy and I are not big on chocolate? So, we headed to Super Target (again) and all but finished the shopping. We actually have two items left to pick up, but they are small and easy. It has been so much fun making lists and shopping with the boy this year. We have both really been enjoying ourselves.

So now with the evening to ourselves, we decided a little Wii action was needed. We actually had played this really fun game the night before on PS2 called SingStar, it was a lot of fun and reminded me of Boogie. But we had gotten Big Brain Academy for Wii, so we decided to work our muscles that way. After taxing our brains, which was fun, some jiffy pop and The Christmas Story was on the menu. The boy had never seen it. Needless to say I fell asleep about halfway through it, but that was okay, I think I have seen it about 100 times.

Sunday was supposed to be my girls brunch and cookie exchange. But with the weather the way it was Saturday, and knowing I had to make two of the dishes in advance, I had to cancel. I was really bummed, but there wasn't much I could do. So, Sunday we were all about the projects. Plastic went up on the windows, my new dining room chairs got new fabric on them (pictures later this week) and I worked on cleaning and reorganizing. We ran some errands and then headed out to see No Country for Old Men. During the movie I thought it was very violent and gross and didn't really like the story line, but there were a couple of times during the movie where the boy and I looked at one another in wonderment and then after the movie we must have discussed it for over two hours, so after all of that, I decided if it held my attention, got me thinking and discussing, it must be a pretty good movie. It is not for the faint of heart I will say and I also told the boy that after that pick I get to pick the next two movies in a row, but if you are curious, I recommend seeing it. We are going to see a sneak premiere of Juno on Wednesday so I will let you know how that is. Busy week here, countdown to my annual holiday cocktail party this weekend, so lots to do in preparation for that and of course work and a million other things. I hope you are all well and had wonderful weekends!