I Couldn't Wait!!!

This is my new banner created by the lovely and very talented Kimberly Ryan! Thank you Kim! I am SO excited. I couldn't wait to use it on my new blog, so I just had to share it here now! LOL! Hopefully I will have my new BLOG and BANNER (with cute matching TAGS that Kim created) and SHOPPE set up on Typepad in the next couple of weeks. I will keep you posted =)

Slipcover Photos

Here are some photos (to go with the post below), as promised, of my slipcovered cabinet and chair - I just love 'em!

Lilacs & Roses

I just LOVE my new template. If you have never stumbled upon Ronda Juniper Ray's paintings, you are missing out! Her ebay id is "AntiqueCottageRose" and her paintings (done on old windows) are absolutely gorgeous. One of her windows is on my "Wish List", I love 'em but they are a bit beyond what my budget allows - LOL! So when I found this template on ebay I was so excited to see that "In My Cedar Chest" had used original rose paintings by Ronda Juniper Ray to create this gorgeous template. So I sort of have one of her paintings... =) I don't know about everybody else but I know that I get bored with my templates after awhile and need a change, so every once in awhile I treat myself to a new template or two. Makes listing so much more fun... =)

I also purchased an oh so pretty slipcover (made out of lovely lavender vintage curtain panels) for the chair in our bedroom that I basically just stole from Meggan's house - LOL! It is so pretty! It was an old junk store find that at one time must have been beautiful but the previous owner(s) had not taken care of it and the orginal fabric was stained and torn. Meggan didn't want it anymore so I took it. The slipcover was made by the wonderfully talented Ronda at "CottageSlipCoverGal". Her workmanship is fabulous!!! She did a GREAT job on this, and all without the chair. I just took photos and measurements and sent them to her via email as needed. THANK YOU AGAIN RONDA!

I also had a gorgeous, romantic looking slipcover made for a beautiful old cabinet that is in our living room. The cabinet was my grandmother's and when it came to me the top was in rough shape, although the rest of the cabinet looks great! So, I had it covered with a pretty old runner, but have always wanted something prettier, so I splurged and had a slipcover made for the top - I love it! Zoe at "Casa-Preciosa" is an extremely talented seamstress! I will try and get photos of the cabinet and chair in the next few days and get them posted. I'm not sure where this last week went, but I feel so behind on blog posts. I have so many new pretties that I want to share with you.

I hope everyone had a Very Merry Christmas and will be having a Very Happy New Year!!!

Ashton's First Visit with Santa Claus

Poor Doodles! Meggan went with a friend of hers and all of their kids to see Santa Claus yesterday. Poor Ashy, looks like Santa scared him to death. I can't believe how big he is getting! He will be one in just a few weeks, on January 11th... Where did this last year go? He is growing up WAY too fast for my liking! He is starting to walk. I'm sure he will be running by his birthday. Let's hope this Grammy can keep up - LOL!

Purple Poinsettias =)

Can you believe it? Every year for as long as I can remember we head to a local florists and pick out two "Fireside Baskets", one for our house and one for our neighbors (they are the sweetest couple ever!). These pretty poinsettias in baskets are meant to put on your fireplace hearth, but we don't have a fireplace so it sits in the middle of our dinette table. That little area is home to most of my purple treasures. The curtains are Longaberger Lilacs and Roses, there is a gorgeous vintage yard long of violets, two other beautiful vintage lilac prints, my two purple lamps, and other assorted vintage purple pretties. Anyway, I'm getting side tracked - LOL! When we walked into the florists to get the baskets for this year I was SO excited when I spotted a few purple ones - Whoo Hoo! I was a happy camper. I scooped one up and it now sits proudly on our dinette table. I love it! My neighbors aren't quite as crazy about purple as I am, so they received a traditional red poinsettia basket...

Merry, Merry Christmas!!!

Our tree is finally up and decorated. Goodness, I feel so behind this year for some reason. Usually by Thanksgiving all of the gifts are bought and wrapped to go under the tree when we put it up the weekend after Thanksgiving. But, everything is done now =) Whew! I love short, fat, chubby trees - LOL! And it has to be REAL. I love, love, love the smell of a fresh cut tree. I've added a few photos so you can get an idea of what our tree looks like. I like a wide variety of ornaments and I adore the old Christmas lights (drives Mike nuts as he's a firefighter and is sure they are not safe). I have lots of pretty Waterford and Christopher Radko ornies, but also love pretties that the kids made when they were little, and I, of course, LOVE vintage ornaments. The tree topper is an absolutely adorable vintage pink feather angel, but I couldn't get a good photo of her. For the final touch I love to add lots of tinsel and then I sprinkle on lots of snow =) The last photo is of my favorite gift that Ashy will be getting this year - a Radio Flyer bike complete with the old fashioned bell - I love it!!! LOL! Can't wait to see him riding it next summer. I hope everyone's holidays are going great and you are all enjoying the holiday season...

I'm Back... =)

Well, almost - LOL! As of about a half hour ago I made a payment to have my blog totally redone AND there will be a "Shoppe" attached to it that I will be selling my vintage pretties on. The only problem is my new blog will be on Typepad, not Blogger, and I was told there is no way to transfer this Blogger blog to Typepad, so once I get my new address, I will post it on here and then you will be able to find me at my new place. I'm excited to be coming back and hopefully it will be soon. P.S. The photo is of my very first oil painting (of purple/lavender roses, of course!) purchased just a few weeks ago on ebay. I was SO excited to have won it, I had been "wishing" for one for a long time...

My Last Post...

Live today to the fullest because tomorrow is not promised. If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change the way you think about it!

This will be my last post... I've been doing a lot of thinking about this lately and this morning after reading the above email that I received from a sweet email friend about "if you don't like something change it, if you can't change it, change the way you think about it", I've decided to stop blogging, at least for awhile. For the most part I've enjoyed my brief visit into Blog Land, but it's time for me to move onto other things. I'll still be ebaying my heart out and watchin' dear Ashy =)

Thank Yous and Hugs to all of the wonderful women I have met via Blog Land!

Happy News & Sad News

We'll start with the "Happy News". The magazine with my adorable grandbubby Ashton in it has FINALLY hit the newstands. Ashy looks so little in these photos as they were taken when he was only 2 1/2 weeks old and now he's almost 5 months and about 17#!!! He's my chunky, chubby man =)

As for the "Sad News", my 23 year old son, Charlie, was ROBBED AT GUN POINT earlier this week by three black guys in their late teens/early 20's. It happened right across the street from his work. Thank God Charlie wasn't hurt. They stole his wallet, which only had $20.00 cash in it, but he had been saving Best Buy gift certificates for months (we had been giving them to him for Christmas, Birthday, etc.) to buy a new TV, and he had $400.00 worth of those in this wallet also. He spent the next day going to the credit union, the Secretary of State, etc. trying to replace all of his ID and bank cards that were in his wallet, having to get a new bank account number, etc. (what a crappy way to spend your day off). I am just so thankful that he wasn't shot or killed! He was so calm about it, which I'm sure is why he wasn't hurt. He just did exactly what they told him to. I can NOT even imagine having a gun shoved in my back. What is this world coming to...

Angels above Us...

As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let you down probably will. You will have your heart broken probably more than once and it's harder every time. You'll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken. You'll fight with your best friend.. You'll blame a new love for things an old one did. You'll cry because time is passing too fast, and you'll eventually lose someone you love. So take too many pictures, laugh too much, and love like you've never been hurt because every sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back. And always remember, you are special to someone, someone cares about you more than you will ever know. So treat everyone in your life as you would like to be treated, special! Don't be afraid that your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin...

Chubby Sassy Bossy Chunky Doodle Man

Today was another Ashy Doodle Day. Ashy and I ran some errands. We went to the credit union, dropped off some ebay packages at DHL, filled the car up (well only half way up - gas prices around here are awful and I just can't bring myself to fill up my tank) and then we were off to do some treasure hunting... I collect old off white matte pottery pieces and we found one at a little antique shop, on sale, (whoo hoo! gotta love that!) for $4.00, so that is a present for me. Then we found the neatest vintage puzzle. The puzzle and box are round and the graphics on the front of the box are just gorgeous. I will be listing that on ebay. I'm hoping to sit down later tonight and make sure that all of the pieces are in the box. After a few stops we headed back home and Ash was whooped and feeling a bit sassy - LOL! So, I put Chunky Man in his stroller and wheeled him around our house - which is so very small and not intended for stroller use - LOL! Ashton gets SO hot and does NOT like the hot weather (neither does Grammy) so we cranked the central air and went for a stroller ride in the house and there he slept until his Dad came to get him a little while later. He looked so cute sitting in his stroller sleeping that I had to snap a few pictures to share with you. I just love that cute and chubby lil' man...

What a WEEKEND! Whew!!! =)

Look at all of these treasures!!! On Saturday, Meggan, Ash and I all went to the "Heritage Hill" garage sales. Heritage Hill Homes are in the heart of Grand Rapids and were all built at the turn of the century. Over the years they have been bought/sold and restored, and some of them are just gorgeous! I found lots of pretties that day. On Sunday I went to the Ann Arbor Antique Market to help out a friend with her booth (check out her pretties at "ShabbySeller" on ebay) and found a several more treasures, and she gave me a few more! I had a great weekend (except for the migraine (I had never had one before and hopefully never do again!) Sunday that I thought was going to be the death of me...). Some of the pretties in the photo I am keeping, but most of them will end up on ebay. I'm hoping to get a few listed this week. Click on the photo to enlarge it and you will be able to see all of my treasures a little bit better.

My Blog - Whoops!

O.k., while trying to work on my blog, I inadvertently deleted all of "My Favorite Blogs to Read" - ARGH!!! I've been all over blog land trying to find all of the addresses that I lost, but have only been able to find about a third of them. Soooo, if any of you out there happen to notice your name missing from my "Favs", please leave me a comment so that I can start reading your blog again. T*h*a*n*k*s!

I'd also like to wish everyone a HAPPY Mother's Day!!! Mine was very nice =) I went to lunch with Mike, Meggan, Dan and Ashy. Charlie and Amber had to work. Charlie gave me the sweetest Mother's Day motto print (won from the wonderful Melanie at ChicPinkRoses on ebay) - I love it!!! AND, the kids gave me a gift certificate to go get my hair done and my eyebrows waxed. Whoo Hoo, I'm a h*a*p*p*y* mom!!!

Also, I just purchased this adorable banner/header from Jullie (be sure to check out her blog if you'd like a new header/banner at http://shabby-jules.blogspot.com). I love being able to change my header/banner whenever the mood strikes... I love how she turned Ashy Doodle into a little purple fairy and added purple polka dots to my favorte grouping of lamps (two of which were made by the very talented Coll at CollsGarden). Thanks Jullie!

Lilacs & Lily of the Valley

Finally, I did some weeding of our flower beds this afternoon. I love the flowers but don't particularly like weedin' 'em =) But they sure look better! I also took a few pictures to share and then picked a bouquet of Lily of the Valley and a bouquet of Lilacs - Mmmm! Our house smells wonderful...

I had SO much FUN!!!

I hauled out all of my vintage wallpaper, sheet music, greeting cards, buttons and sewing misc. and this is what I did with it... The first photo is a vintage MOP picture frame that I have added vintage sheet music, greeting cards, pink buttons, MOP button and pink curly ribbon to. The next two photos are of an old hat box that I covered in vintage sheet music, calling cards and pink bias tape. The vintage hat box is currenlty listed on ebay and I will be listing the frame today. Thank you for checkin' out my pretties =)

I've been "Tagged" - TWICE!!!

O.k., as I was tagged by Stephanie at "Angelic Accents" & Shannon at "Paint Mine Pink", both on the same day, I will just combine "Tags". I don't think you really want to know 14 odd/weird/facts/habits about me, seven should be plenty - LOL!

1. I am like Shannon when it comes to my pillows - Do NOT sit or lay on them!
2. I am an obsessive flosser. I have dental floss with me at all times =)
3. I clean everything with warm soapy water, I'm not into all of the latest cleaning products at the store, I like good old fashioned warm, soapy water!!! Mike for some reason thinks this is extremely odd...
4. In this day and age of electronic everything, I still write checks for bills.
5. I hate to put gas in my car. Why? No idea, just never seem to have time - LOL!
6. I bring my own Coke to restaurants that only have Pepsi - You get used to it once you've eaten out with me a few times =)
7. And last, like Stephanie, I am a Lampaholic (and have a few OCD issues) LOL!

O.k., now my turn to tag: Cherub Kisses, Karla's Cottage, Misadventures of Mama and Jack, Pink Paint and Roses, Rose Petite Maison, Shabby in the City and Twinkle Pink.

Yup, this Grammy is BRAGGIN'

Guess what?! My sweet 'n sassy chubby lil' grandbubby Ashy is going to be pictured in the June "Baby Issue" of the G.R. Family Magazine. I can't wait until it comes out on the stands! How EXCITING =)

Today's Message of the Day is:

Life is short,

Break the rules,

Forgive quickly,

Kiss slowly,

Love truly,

Laugh uncontrollably,

And never regret anything that made you smile.

I recevied this email today from a friend titled "Today's Message of the Day is:" and liked it so much that I thought I would share it with all of you.

Lucky, Lucky Me!!! A lil' Southern Belle

How exciting is it to go to the mailbox and find a present?! I had purchased a lovely vintage greeting card trinket box from Lisa at her "PinkPantandRoses" web site and I also won two of the sweetest vintage wig (hat box) boxes from her on ebay and what a surprise when I opened up my package and also found THIS! HaPpY DaNce!!! This is so me, I love it!!! What a sweetheart she is! She also included two absolutely beautiful vintage (that nice thick cotton that we all love) purple floral napkins. My heart skipped a beat =) I was so, so, so excited. What a wonderful thing for her to do for me, for NO reason?! Thanks Lisa!!!!! You made my day. For any of you who haven't yet stumbled upon Lisa's vintage pretties, please check out her goodies on ebay and on her new web site...

Pretty in Pink Parchment Paper Roses

Oooooh, look what I found on ebay! (Excuse the photos, it's really dark and dreary here today.) I love old paper roses, but they are so hard to find. I found these fabulous shabby pink parchment paper roses on ebay and was SO excited! I also purchased one parchment paper hydrangea along with the six roses and created this - I love it! This sweet lil' bouquet is sitting in a vintage matte off white pottery piece that I found at a thrift store when I was out junkin'. Life's Simple Pleasures... =)

My Vintage Millinery & Thrift Store Pretties...

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon this shabby sweet cherub vase (I just LOVE vintage cherubs!) at a thrift store (only $1.49, whoo hoo!) and I had every intention of listing it on ebay, but after I hauled it home and washed it up it ended up on a shelf in our living room (go figure lol!), well yesterday I decided that it needed "something", but I wasn't quite sure what. I started rummaging through my stash of old millinery flowers (we have an antique shop here in G.R. called "Acanthus" and she has the BEST treasures ever and that is where all of my vintage millinery florals came from - I totally splurged one day) and this is what happened. I simply love it! Roses, Lily of the Valley, and lots of other pretties. I did list the few vintage millinery pieces that wouldn't fit in this vase, on ebay. So if you like millinery pretties as much as I do, please check out my ebay auctions.

Home * Sweet * Home

I think that all of the snow has finally melted and hopefully done for the season =) These are some photos of our home last Spring. I'm ready for the flowers to bloom!!! We have some Lily of the Valley along side of the house and a wonderful smelling Lilac bush in the back yard. There is also some Lavender in the front. I can't wait for all of those w*o*n*d*e*r*f*u*l smells. And I'm ready to get out my shabby, chippy vintage plant stand and fill it with PINK Geraniums and fill our garden urns on the front steps with more PINK Geraniums and haul my PURPLE chairs out and put them on our Veranda (LOL!) as Mike calls it...

Something Different... Again =)

Well isn't this pretty! Mary at "IsabellasCloset" made this for me for my Email Signature but for the life of me I couldn't get it to work, so I thought I'd try it for a change as my Blog Header/Banner (thanks to Erica at "Haphazard Happenstances" I now know how to do this - Thanks yet again Erica!!!) As much as I don't like change in my life, I am having lots of fun changing my Blog Header/Banner, probably because I am in control of these particular changes... LOL! I hope everyone's week is off to a good start...

Feeling Creative

I'm so happy with how this pretty piece turned out! I started with a vintage mother of pearl frame that I found at a thrift store for .99 cents. I than added a piece of vintage sheet music found at an antique shop for $1.00, then I added a pretty rose card that I recently received from an ebay friend, then I added two vintage calling cards (one in the top right corner, one in the lower left corner) purchased on ebay for $1.00 each. Then for the finishing touch I added a vintage millinery shabby pink rose pin (won on ebay for $5.00) and a vintage skeleton key that Mike found for me an an antique shop last weekend ($1.50) and wa-la! Shabby, Pink & Pretty!!! When I originally purchased all of these goodies over the last few months I had no idea what I was going to do with them, but I loved 'em and just had to have 'em - LOL! Well, I was struck with the creativity bug today and I must say I love how all of my vintage pretties came together to create this =)