Hold These Please.....

We just love finding treasures

that we can use for other purposes....

Doesn't this piece of silver fit these glasses perfectly?

In what ways have you used a treasure

for something other than what it was intended?

It's Friday & We're in Love...

T

time for something we're in love with....

Care for a cup of alphabet soup?



P
possibly one of the cutest things we've come up with!
We had some lovely old ironstone tea cups & decided to initial them

L

Love.....it's Friday & we're in love with our initial cups tied with a bow....

What are you in love with today?

Table Service for your Plants

This year, not only will we be putting our broken dishes in our plant stands & garden....


We'll have these new vintage stamped silverware as well - forks & knives that are ready to serve up some style in your vegetation!!
(available with "flowers", "fleurs" and "herbs" printed on them!)

What's On Your Drawers?

If you didn't know it already - we love wallpaper
Since we don't have anything to wallpaper on the walls in our homes at the moment, we're looking for some furniture, because we love this!

image from Better Homes & Garden
The wallpaper just makes these drawers pop!

One roll of wallpaper is all you'd need for something so pretty - just imagine the possibilities!

This decoupaged dresser from Martha Stewart
How about vintage botanical, floral or bird prints? Look on eBay or estate, or garage sales for wall paper remnants, pages out of books, blueprints, anything to put on the drawers - you just need some wallpaper paste - and voila!

Fast and fabulous decorating projects article from Better Homes & Garden

Pick your paper out first, then pick out a fabulous paint color that compliments the paper.

photo from Better Homes & Gardens

Don't have a dresser?
How about a cabinet or shelf?
Wallpaper makes anything pop!

Decorating with Silver

Golly, we just love using silver pieces in the store and at home.
Many customers love it, but just don't know how to decorate with it,

so we thought we'd show you two ideas of how we like to use it:

We love grouping little vignettes together on silver trays....no matter what the size!

We also love putting things into our silver pieces - like this darling little chick in a nest - it fits perfectly inside this old silver gravy boat!

So....we ask

How do you use your silver?

Now We're Picturing It!

One of our lovely customers, Carolyn, purchased this reclaimed piece of wood at the store several months ago.

She sent us a picture of what she did....isn't this darling? She inserted a picture from her wedding day...and will hang it above her bed.


It is so wonderful to see what happens to a piece when it leaves the store.

Thank you for sharing some inspiration Carolyn!!

Pillow Power

So...these Pottery Barn sweater pillows are just really cool - we love the texture & that cozy look that it gives....but we've found sweater pillows that you can make yourself that are far superior to these (we just love it when that happens!)

image from potterybarn.com






The first pillow is from Country Living - the new issue just came out and we loved all of the ideas for old sweaters - the flower embellishment is just too cute!

image from countryliving.com

The next two pictures are from Martha Stewart - we love the details in these pillows - how the sleeves are even used in these - very clever Martha!
Image from Martha Stewart

These puckers are so adorable - can't you think of a million places to put these pillows? We can!

image from marthastewart.com

For a basic sweater pillow, we found instructions on the cutest blog Make It and Love It - cute, cute things over there!

So, what are you waiting for? Get some sweaters & make some pillows....go on....what do you have to loose?

"An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail." ~Edwin Land

Endless Possibilities

1. It seems that we have magazines everywhere...yes, we are addicted, but we need to do research...but what to do after we tear out all the articles we need?
2. Whenever we need to send a note to someone, we never seem to have note cards!

Today on Design*Sponge we found the answer!
This argyle patterned note card has truly inspired us today! How about silhouettes of animals, trees, flowers. You could make your initials or some fun squiggly shapes...there are so many things you could do! This would be a great gift too....get the kiddies out and have them make some for their teachers, babysitters (just think how much the grandparents would love this!)
What else? Well, why not paste things on paper or canvas to make a piece of art with? The possibilities are endless - just look at the fun you can have with old magazines, making them into something so useful!

photo courtesy of Design*Sponge

The Flowers of the Florist

Well...you'd never guess that she is a florist when you pull up to her house (ya...right!)

This weekend I was out to Karrie's house to take pictures of this container....you'll remember this great find here! It's blooming like crazy!


Karrie loves pots....any & all! These terracotta ones line her back steps (she has three sets of steps to decorate)

This side is by her patio and she always has her potted tomatoes & peppers here...of course along with lovely flowers!





On the other side of the patio is a wonderful shady spot for the best find of the year 2008....a wicker plant stand for $4.....



















Here is one of two cement planters that are just gorgeous!





There are more plants & flowers, but I had to snap this picture.

When our grandmother moved out of her house to go into a smaller home, we found this plant stand in her attic.

No one really wanted it at first, but we'd never let anything escape....we might regret it!!

Karrie had it for a while and a couple of years ago she painted it. It is a pretty neat, old plant stand....look at the detail of the woman on the bottom of it..

We were very glad that we kept it - now where would we find something like this in the stores?





A couple of years ago we got this pot and another like it at a flea market....we loved the design & the leaf stamping on it (not to mention the general chippy-ness of it!)

This licorice plant is such fun...we planted some in our planters at work. It loves the shade on Karrie's front porch!

The last picture I took was of this sweet crock filled with impatients.

So many ways to create color & texture outside during the summer....what do you like to plant your flowers in?

We're Chipper for Chips!

Don't cry over those chipped plates of Great Aunt Louise...

In fact...rejoice! Another piece of art to put outside in the garden!

You'll have so much fun "planting your china" that you'll look forward to your next break!

What To Do With an Old Shovel

The other day the birds were having a hey-day playing in our simple solution to direct the water elsewhere. Made us smile...so we thought we'd share it with you.

What to do with an old shovel? Now you know....at least one idea!!

T-Shirt Round-up

It's that time of year....clean & purge!
We've been going through closets this month, pulling clothing out that the kids have grown out of. Piles are on the floor - one for the cousins, one for eBay, one for Goodwill, then there is THAT pile. The pile that has stains, holes, or missing pieces, and could never really be used again.....until now!

We were reminded of this picture from Country Home recently. They took old t-shirts and some canvas stretchers {from any craft or hobby store} and stapled the t-shirt right over it - instant art {not to mention fun & creative too!}

Do you have vacation t-shirts?
How great would a collage of all of the places you've visited be on a wall?

What a great way to re-use things that we didn't think of before!

Favoring the Table....

Looking for more table decorating inspiration for Easter?







How about some vintage jell-o cups?


Use them as little place favors with grass {real - like we used here...or artificial} and put Easter eggs in them!







No jell-o cups? Use some old tea cups - transplant some spring bulbs in them and set them as a place favor or table decoration.





Go on now....Hop to it!! Easter's only a few days away!

Trash 2 Treasure

Today is the big day...

Kari & Kijsa have invited everyone to show their creativity in making ordinary, discarded things into beautiful & desirable things.

We love this...and thought we'd show some fun things to do for your Easter table {it will be here before we know it!}

We've decided to invite the girls over for a tea party at Karrie's house {we are known for our tea parties you know.....} and we'd like to discuss a new tea flavor with our dear sisters.....it would taste like diet coke {now you see how we would get those poor girls to come see us!}

Amongst the hand-me-down china from grandma, we have vintage plates that we have been collecting. Things that have been discarded and marked down so low....even at the junk stores....we just had to save them!


Well....on those darling plates that will hold our tea cakes....we have a party favor for our guests......let's see what they are....

Hobnail votive cups....pick them up in any junk store, flea market, or garage sale - not just for holding candles anymore! Take some ribbon and tie it around your votive cup. Embellish with buttons or rhinestone pins {also found objects from your favorite hunting spot...could even be in your own jewelry box!} Stick some Easter grass in them and top with an egg - voila! An Instant favor for your table!

Our last treasure that we want to share today is the name plate holder....

That's right...just some old window pulls - we just strung some ribbon through the screw's holes and made the cutest spot for the place cards to sit!

Oh....how much fun we've had - do stop by and visit Kari & Kijsa today and see all of the great Trash 2 Treasure ideas there! Thanks for popping in today....now ahhhahmm....back to figuring out this diet coke tea....

An Illuminating Idea

Sweet & Pretty for spring!
What a great idea we found on Martha Stewart this week!
Remember all of those scrap fabrics....another great use!
Grab some glass hurricanes and measure how tall they are and what the circumference is. Take your fabric and cut it to the dimensions you measured (adding on a 1/2 inch to overlap the seam). Glue your fabric on the outside of your hurricane and you are ready to welcome spring!


Our Open House starts tomorrow...so excited!
Also, go on over to our friend Catherine's blog - she is giving away her MOST delicious granola cookies.....you've NEVER tasted anything sooooo good!!

Another Use

So, I went into work on Saturday, and Karrie was cutting. What was she cutting? Well....let's see.....

It seems that she is indeed cutting....some shapes out of the discarded fabric swatches that we have in the back {of course we are good girls, and keep them....just in case we'd need them for anything!}

Well, since we are getting the store ready for our Spring Open House next weekend, we needed some new decorations for under our glass where we ring our delightful customers up!

Well...it's pretty cute!
When you are in furniture stores, or drapery stores, ask if you can have their discontinued fabric samples. You can cut out your own designs and use them under glass, like we did here, or you can put them in frames - either as the background for another pretty object, or as the design itself! How about putting those shapes onto pillows...or even use them as patches on your kid's clothing!
See what we did here a couple months ago for a "miss manners" tea party with our discontinued fabric samples!

Think creative - you'll get some GREAT {original} ideas!

Patching It Together

Here's another Reuse, Recycle, Re-purpose Post for you......
What a great idea for all of those bits & pieces of left over fabrics setting in that pile......because "someday you will need it" or better yet... "do something creative with it!"

We loved this idea we saw last week on Country Living Magazine's website. We are collectors....of lots of things, but fabric is something we end up with a lot of. Getting samples in for clients - you know, to see if the fabric would work....or just left over fabric from a sewing project. Another great source of fabrics are all of those worn out shirts and dresses that you just don't want to throw away.....Gather all those fabrics up and make a darling patchwork pillow.

We are thinking of summer....and just how adorable some patchwork pillows would be on those wicker chairs! How about your guest room? We're sure you can find some place for a quick project like this!

Cut squares out of your assorted fabrics {a 3 - 5" square would work great!} and sew some squares together - depending on the size of pillow you'd like! Before sewing the two sides of the pillow together you can add a rick rack trim, or your favorite fringe to give your pillow a finished look.
Go on.....get a good start on that fabric pile....summer will be here before we know it!