Quick! Shadow Shot

The husband was chatting away with me when I caught his shadow. As he was talking I quickly turned.....grabbed the camera.....aimed......shot..... OK .....he's totally use to this bizarre behavior on Saturdays ~ thanks to Tracy at Hey Harriet for Shadow Shot Sundays... !!

See what other fun....and perhaps bizarre shadows await you on Hey Harriet!

We received a wonderful surprise from our buddy Lisa from Lisa's Retrostyle yesterday and wanted to share it with you!

This award Lisa presented us with is to be given to bloggers who show great attitude and/or gratitude ~ thanks Lisa, it was very kind of you to bestow this on us.....you know it means a lot!

Now....for the rules:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.

2. Nominate at least 8 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!

3. Link to your nominees within your post.

4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.

First off...if you haven't visited Lisa before - you are missing out on her funky retro items! Lisa always has something fabulous that she has found......you can even purchase something off of her blog, eBay, or Etsy site (she's a super busy girl....who we'd love to go junkin' with some day!!) Just keep in mind that the turquoise poncho on her blog will someday be mine....OK???

Now.....for those 8 blogs...

1. Mango & Tomato We've recently in the past few months visited back & forth with Olga ~ she has the most wonderful recipes and pictures.....we met her during shadow shots so....Olga we give you the award for always being gracious with our recipe questions, and for your passion for cooking!

2. Bobbityboo We met Bobbi over on Shadow shots too (are you seeing where this shadow shot thing isn't only about shadows....!) Anyway, Bobbie always had the most wonderful, colorful, happy things on Etsy, and we just adored her posts. She always has something fun over on her blog!

3. Eddie Marie's Attic Sherry came to our store last fall and we have blogged back in forth for sometime now....haven't we Sherry? She always has fun decorating ideas....one of our favorites was when she covered an old mannequin ~ it was so pretty! We also love it when she visits Cindy...there is always beautiful inspiration there!

4. Delightful Home Dear Mrs. Tee.......we loved Mrs. Tee so much, we had her on our blogroll 3 times (of course it was three different ways....but we sure had a good laugh!) She always has some great ideas full of sunshine (which is just the type of attitudes we need in this overcast, snowy world we live in right now!!) and....well it's just always a joy to visit her!

5. Quintessential Magpie We just met Shelia recently and we felt quite at home when we visit her. She is such a gracious host....we just love seeing what is going on when we visit. Quite often we see lovely warm pictures (we're seeing another theme here aren't we....shadows....now Warmth!). She always has a great attitude & much gratitude to those who visit!

6. Healthy Bakes by Catherine Well.....you have all got to visit Catherine! She has such a positive outlook on life....plus we have mutual gratitude towards each other. You see, Catherine makes our scone mixes in our store ~ and let us tell you they are the best darn scone mixes around! She also has these Granola Breakfast Cookies that are soooooo good.....and don't even get us started on her Happy Brownies! If any of this sounds tempting.....go over and pay her a visit so she can send you out something that is healthy to eat - and out of this world in taste!

7. Decorator to the Stars You will love Joan as much as we do.....she contributes to Junk Style and that is how we met her! She can turn trash into treasure better than anyone we know. (Plus, she always has the best decorating advice!) Hop on over and see what a great attitude you will get towards junk after seeing what Joan can do with it!

8. Ivy's Vine We are so excited to welcome our friends from Ivy's Vine in Genoa - a hop, skip & a jump away from us! Please welcome them to the blogging community....you are going to love what they will be posting about - we just know it! Carolyn & crew have the BEST attitude when it comes to promoting their (& other's) business! We have worked together for two years doing a community Shop Till You Drop during Christmas - and she worked so hard getting her whole town to join us - hip hip hooray! Thanks for all you do & your positive attitude Carolyn ~ Welcome....we are so glad you have joined us all!

Hooked on Shadow Boxes

Julia over at Hooked on Houses is hosting her Hooked on Friday's and we thought we'd play along....especially when we got a lovely package in the mail!

It just so happens that we have a dear cousin who is an artist in the family....so we decided to start carrying her art in the store. { It didn't take much persuasion you know......her name does start with a "K" after all!! }

Just look at these lovely shadow boxes....each lovingly made with little pins, ornaments, postcards, magazine covers, birds, flowers, and jewelry....just about anything to tell a story!



What we love about Kelli's shadow boxes, is that you can purchase one of her own inspired creations, or she will create a custom shadow box just for you.

Do you have some precious jewelry from your grandmother? How about some Christmas ornaments that your Aunt always had up on the tree that you've inherited....but don't know what to do with? Now you do!














{ We don't know about you.....but we're hooked! }

Stop on over at Hooked on Houses to see what everyone else is hooked on today!

Wednesday Words

"With food at our table and friends at our door, We know we have much to be thankful for."

Welcome to Wednesday Words! Every week we post quotes from our Wall Enhancer Line. Wall Enhancers are vinyl words that can be put on your walls, furniture & windows. Do you have a favorite saying or quote? Put it in your home!

Paste & Paper

OK - paste & paper....this is all you need to make a fabulous wall in your home! Don't believe us? Well, check this out......

We found this great idea on House Beautiful.....what we love about this, is that we've done things similar in the past.

We were just thinking of how we could cut out flowers, or paisleys.....gosh, just about any pattern from a great $3 roll of wallpaper that you find on clearance. Not enough to wall paper a wall, but just enough to make a statement!

Here they took random papers {of course they looked good together} and placed them on the wall in a lovely pattern. This is great - especially when it is prepasted paper!

But hold on.....why just stick with wallpaper?

Check this out.....

This is the Yankee room at Karla's house...on one wall is a custom NY Yankee collage. We copied pictures out of a couple of NY Yankee books and cut the pictures out. We then took wallpaper paste and put those pictures randomly on the wall. Now, just how easy is that?

Here is another idea.....Karla's son loved Star Wars and wanted a Star Wars room *sigh*. Well.....as we all know, favorite things come & go when your kids are little. Instead of going the usual Star Wars theme (blankets, sheets, or even a big wall mural) and being stuck with it forever, we got on eBay and found blueprints of Star War's vehicles. That way it was Star Wars.....but from a distance looked very sophisticated, so when he gets older we're not scraping the wallpaper off of those walls! We applied the blueprints the same way - wallpaper paste - easy as pie!

Hope this gives you some great ideas for those walls!

Remember Paste + Paper = Good Decorating!

Shadow Love

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxo

You must know....we are not mushy or gushy {except when we are watching Pride & Prejudice}, and Valentines is not a real important holiday to us, however, when you have a retail store, you are expected to carry a bit of pink, red, hearts & love stuff.

This year we had decided to go with color - pink and red vintage linens, quilts and adorable floral dishes, with new photo books, and bags mixed in for Cupid's day.

Things that looked the part....but are not screaming "Happy Valentines". We did, however, do one thing - we stepped out of our "comfort zone" and did a little craft....we were almost scrap booking...yikes! Don't laugh...this was our first attempt to use scrapbook papers & grommets {it involved putting a small hole in our counter top - oops!}. On our silver sticks we placed our paper hearts to greet everyone who walks through the door - and there....in the midst of our Valentine tree......were shadows ~ so worth doing again!!

Don't forget to stop by Hey Harriet for more Lovely shadows this weekend!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxxo

Coming Clean

Last night we had our first class making Herbal Cleaners.


Catherine, from Catherine's Healthy Bakes, stopped by showed our class how to make an Herbal Wood Cleaner, and Air Freshener. We had a lot of fun learning about these good-for- you & the environment cleaners.


Imagine the scents of Rosemary and Lavender drifting through the store.....now imagine six ladies, powered by their new cleaner, ready to tackle what lies ahead at home - ha!

Our next Herbal Class will be Thursday, February 19th from 6-7pm. Catherine will be showing us how to make an herbal cuticle cream and a sugar scrub.....lovely!


If you are in the area, and would like to sign up - give us a call to reserve your spot at 419-638-4205. The class is $10.

A Gem of an Idea

Great idea # 39
It's all about accessorizing - you knew that....but did you think of accessorizing your accessories?


We love using statues in our homes - especially garden ones. Here we put our little "putti" angel statue in the bathroom to be a catch-all for the baubles & bracelets taken off at night.

{ We also stick little antique plates below our "drop off" to catch earrings and vintage pins that we love to wear! }

Statuary is pretty easy to find - check out flea markets, junk stores and eBay. If you don't want an angel....try Venus - the goddess of love.

Paint the statue if you don't like the color, like we did here....


.....just remember - get a statue that is you - you could even try a statue that is a bird feeder { lots of room for those pins & earrings then! } or a bust would even work!

Any statue or bust will do, as long as there is the hang-ability / storage factor!

Coco Chanel is said to have used a big bowl to put her bracelets in, and used a bust to hang her necklaces from......I guess if it was good enough for her ~ we can do the same!

Wendsday Words

"May our home always be too small

for all our friends and family."

{You can take this quote one of two ways...!!}

Wednesday Words are brought to you by our Wall Enhancer Line. Check out all of the other fun words you can put on your walls, furniture and windows to see what inspires you!

A Perfect Pick-Me-Up

Did you see the new Country Home magazine yet? We fell in love with it's "Life Under Glass" article. There are such darling ways to make a terrarium and dream of spring! Feel like creating you're own miniature garden to shoo away winter? Start by visiting the article here , collect all of your old glassware, and just see where your creativity takes you!

Shadow Shot Sunday

Seeing Spots.....and shadows!

Come on along with us as we travel the world seeking shadows on Hey Harriet!!

Something Fresh & New

A Christmas-free Zone....

We don't want to step on any toes out there....but if people haven't bought it by now...will they??? We know that Christmas is the last thing we want to see when we go shopping right now!

Put that Christmas product away and bring out something new!

We are always so happy to get Christmas product out of the store and bring in some fresh items for our customers.
Look here....Mimosa is the color of the year according to Pantone.....you're going to see a lot of it this year, so start out with a darling photo book.....how could you not smile when you look at that?

Come on & Bring on the New Year!!

Wednesday Words

Countless numbers of people have eaten in this kitchen and gone on to lead normal lives.

Wednesday Words are brought to you by our Wall Enhancer Line. Have a favorite saying or quote.......go ahead - put it up on your wall!!

****Just to explain....this picture is of a camping moment....and THAT is why the ax is there....maybe???!!!!

Snow Ice Cream

Did you ever make Snow Ice Cream when you were little? What a treat it was!

We seem to have a lot of snow of late...and are getting ready for some more - so....let's make some Snow Ice Cream!!

What you'll need:
A big bowl of fresh, clean snow
Sugar
Cocoa
Evaporated milk (or regular milk will do)
Vanilla

Put your evaporated milk little by little into your bowl of snow and mix it until it is the right ice-creamy texture. Add Sugar, Cocoa and Vanilla to taste - enjoy!
Last year we decided that we liked to add a bit of cool whip to the mix too....we've also read where you can flavor your ice cream with 1/4 - 1/2 package of jello instead of cocoa!

As you can see with our recipe, we like to just wing it, but if you'd like a real recipe, here is one:

SNOW ICE CREAM

Ingredients
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 cups clean snow

Directions
1 In a large bowl, beat cream at high speed with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form.
2 Add sugar and vanilla (adding more of each if you prefer).
3 Fold in snow, stirring gently to blend.
4 Eat immediately or freeze until ice cream hardens.

Enjoy!!

Shadow Shot Sunday

On this cold and chilly night
we saw something dynamite!

A shadow that made us stop -
Of no one we know's doorstop.

{ok, ok - it's the best we can do this late!!}

To see some fantastic shadows...and read some real poetry, visit Hey Harriet for Shadow Shot Sundays!

Quite Nice!

Our New French Mints are a hit! Try something different - French tins full of either anise or violet mints....one for you, one for a friend!

Wendesday Words

"A daughter may outgrow your lap…but she will never outgrow your heart. "

Wednesday Words are brought to you by our Wall Enhancer Line. Have a favorite saying or quote? Put it on your wall!

A Quick Change Artist

We just love these slipcovers for lamps - don't you? We saw these last year in one of our vendor magazines and thought "why didn't we think of that!"
This weekend, when we hopped on
Southern Living magazine and saw this picture - We remembered this company, & thought we'd share it with you all! Check out the Frockz website for information on how to update your old lampshade.

Shadow Shot Sunday

Getting Back Into the "Swim" of Things!

With the New Year comes a clean slate....or calender - ready for our pens to write down all of the great events that we will have for you all! January and February have filled up so fast....
Amongst all of the Summer Kitchen activities....there are swim meets this winter ~ Today I snapped this shot for our first shadow of the year!

See what other shadows are floating about in blog world over at Hey Harriet's!