Mantel Starting to Look Good!

Again, this post is being written on thursday to be published on sunday.

I've spent the better part of the day working in this family room of ours. Still a ways to go with the mantel decorating and behind the sofa, but here's what I have done so far. Nothing is "static" in this house; it's always "kinetic" around here!! LOL

Before. Just put mantel up last night.

This is what I've done so far. I wanted it centered on the wall but due to 2 outlets on that wall it's off by about 2 - 1/2". Eventually I might have hubs change the phone outlet and the electrical outlet on that wall but that can be a lot of work so this may be how it is foreverrrRRRrr on that wall!!! Two and a half inches isn't bad though but to kind of balance it out a bit I'm doing an asymmetrical treatment on the wall. If anyone has any other ideas, please let me hear them. I'm open to any suggestions. This is the best solution I've come up with so far though. This room is a bit more cottage, shabby, chic than the living room.

I've also hung the french antique wire basket on the wall inside the insert area to camouflage as much of the phone outlet as possible. Why do they always put phone outlets in the most inconvenient place in a house??? Could they put 2 or them in a room just in case you change it around?!

Ooooh, and don't pay attention to the tools lying around, pictures all over the place and some behind the sofa and chairs that you don't even see and the rest of it because it'll definitely change between now and next week! That table on the right side with a quilt over it will also be out of that room and in our bedroom before long and more pictures on the right side. Just give me some time and I can change/decorate/frou frou up the world, chickadees!!! Hah!!!
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Just a thought.

I thought of something today. Being happy and peaceful, especially at home but also in any place where you spend a lot of time, is the goal: stimulating the senses is one way to start. Learn to "tease" yourself into doing necessary and useful tasks by stimulating your senses. Think of the fountain pen squeaking across fine white paper. Smell the fragrance of the ink. Feel the smooth pen in your hand. Have a light bulb ring with the glorious scent of plumeria; you'll think you are in Hawaii. These oils can be bought for very little in many natural food stores or on line or ebay. Put a lovely small french style lamp on your writing table. Have a lovely little antique footstool under your desk for you feet. Set up the task so it will be pleasurable for you.
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Pink Saturday 8/30/2008

I'm doing this post early (thursday) because we're going camping. I'm just so excited you can see the bugs in my teeth from the grinning!! Maiden voyage of the hubs new popup camper. Just tooooo excited for words spending the weekend with the bears, freezing temps, mosquitoes, portable toilet (j-o-y !!) and maybe ever a skunk or two. Whoooooo knoooOOOOooows?!?!?!? ;-)

I was sitting here today wondering just what I was going to post for Pink Saturday and went out to pick up the mail and LOOK what came in the mail today from my sweet friend, Bertie!!! She truly has some of the most fantastic stuff for incredible prices that you should really check her out. Just scrumptious! A tea cozy, a fan, some roses stationery and the biggest bar of french milled soap I've ever seen! I just love this chickee and will forever.
Isn't this bracelet beautiful?!?!?! I cannot describe to you how lovely it truly is. If you want to know who did it email me because she doesn't want advertisement. She's a special little huney to us also. ;-) Please enlarge to see how beautiful her silk ribbon roses really are. That's a decoupaged button in the center. Just exquisite!!!

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Just a thought.

There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and, after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second. Of course, we have special events in our lives, but ordinary days need to be celebrated also. You have power over your daily life; no one else. What you do with it is entirely up to you. Celebrate even the mundane daily tasks. As I've said before, I like to putter. For me that can be taking apart a sock drawer and weeding out the socks with holes in them to discard or the silverware drawer and cleaning out the little crumbs that get in there. It can be re-arranging my office or a shelf in my office or living room or just the pictures and "fluff" on the wall. It can be "seeing the room with a different eye" and thinking "Ah, yes, I can do "this or that" there and a little "tweak" over here. It can be draping a beautiful silk scarf over an end table or coffee table or dining table. Little things make a difference. Whatever it is, look at it differently!
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Mantel Arrived

As most of you may know I post ahead if I have a few minutes to sit down from doing all the things I won't get to finish in my lifetime. Sometimes I'll get 2, 3 or maybe 4 or 5 ready to post for future posting. This one I am actually putting together on wednesday, August 27, 2008 but it won't be posted until 2 days from now - the 29th....MY BIRTHDAYYYYYYYY!!! Now how many of you celebrate the "old" birthdays? I do. Not in a glam or glorious fashion with presents although I do get them from my ebay friends, who treat me waaaaaaaay toooo special, but I love them no matter what. My ideal celebration is dinner OUT! We eat out a couple of times a week anyway but I just want to eat out on my birthday and come home and be with Love Bunny all to myself. I love getting older. Love it!!

Two women were over last night from my church just visiting because they've never seen my home and one is a blogger and has seen it on line but not the actual inside. They were very complimentary and just in awe (meaning "wonderment") looking at the real thing because we ALL know pictures never do something justice. But that's neither here nor there today.

We did talk about getting older. One lady was 73 - near my age - and the other one was early 30s. Each of us said that getting older was not a problem for us and we just loved the "wonder" of aging. Quite refreshing actually to admit it. But we were of like mind on the issue.

Anyway, on with the mantel post. Yesssssssss, it arrived today - wednesday - and I had the FedEx man just "tip" it in the doorway since we know they don't like to bring things in but he probably would have since it was so long and heavy. Once inside I could push it and then open the box and carry each piece out to our back yard to spritzzzzzzzz with my spray can of white paint. It was primed, thank heavens. So here's the first view of my new focal point faux mantel!!! Squeeeeeeeal. How do you like my "painting are and table"?? LOL

I'm almost embarrassed to show you the back yard grass and this area because we've done almost nothing to the yard out there but MOW. It's just too hot in this desert to work out in it but it's starting to cool down and we're going to get some stones for that area in the lower left of photo. That will extend the patio a bit and solve the problem of grass just not wanting to thrive in that area. Hubs also needs to weed and feed the back yard. Our front looks like green velvet but this out back is becoming MY EYESORE!! But I wanted to show you how the star jasmine is thriving there. It's got shoots up twice the original height since we planted it about a month ago. I just love it.

Old Post on Living Colorfully

I've realized that when we have a lot of posts that the older ones don't get perused much after....oh, say, 10 or 20 posts and I have almost 400 so you may not have seen or read this one. But some of them are noteworthy. This one goes back to June of 2007 and I think is noteworthy to repeat. So if you've seen it sorry........just read it again for a reminder of beautifying your home office.

When I talk the talk, I walk the walk so to speak. I cannot tell other people to do this or that if I don't do it! But I always practice what I tell others when it comes to decorating. I love color as you probably know by now. In my kitchen, living and family rooms, bedrooms, bathrooms, office - everywhere. So this tip is about your home office. For so many years people thought that their office or computer room had to be utilitarian and boring. Not so today. Femininity, softness and genteelness has entered into our everyday existence in the form of lovely offices. Mine is truly a shabby, chic, girly office. Here I've got a pale birch file cabinet in which I have my household accounts in the top, but the bottom drawer is for my personal files. Again, the file folders are pink and purple No need to have those old green or manila ones when these are available. Then the envelopes also can be colored as seen here. I used pink and purple again, but they come in other colors. Then my daughter bought me some beautiful file folders with roses and strawberries on them. I adore them. So pretty to look at and colorful yet utilitarian. Live colorfully!!
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Crafting Today

Love Bunny made a decorating suggestion. Yesssssss, he did!! Now, he truly could not care any less about how I decorate his castle. That is NOT an exaggeration. He truly doesn't as long as it makes me happy. That's his aim in life - to make me happy because when mom's happy everybody's happy. :-) Anyway, he thought the print over the sofa that I got (see it here), should go over the new mantel. And I agree with him! Sooooooo since I'm kind of in limbo today about doing anything but getting ready for our camping trip for the labor day weekend (yes, I'll take my camera so you all can see the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho - gorgeous) I thought I'd do something creative for ME!

So I didn't have anything to do except craft. I got this little vintage drawer at a yard sale about 5 or 6 years ago and haven't done anything with it yet. So I've decided that it should go over the sofa.......with a bit of frou frou-ing up, of course. This is the inside (front). I've put little hangers on the back as you can see in a couple of the photos.

I've gotten this far using snippets of vintage laces, trims and roses tacks.

I also thought of doing this little bottle rack. It had 8 bottles when I bought it and sold 4 of them because it was a bit difficult trying to get the lower bottles in and out. So I sold them separately and put a little pizzazz on the bottom shelf and the other 4 bottles on the top. I'll be selling this on my selling blog, la maison rose, so you might want to check it out if interested at all.

Surprise from the Mailman

I absolutely never ever expect something unless I've ordered something online and am always surprised and overwhelmed and humbled when I receive a present in the mail. If you don't believe me just ask hubs! We are not a "gotta buy a present for someone" family unless it is grandkids and once they reach a certain age, that's it. Just best wishes or a phone call to let them know we love them. I have all I could ever need and a pretty good percentage of all I would want. ;-) If it's pink and has roses then I want it usually. Hah. But anyway when I got the mail today a package was in the mail also. Not expecting anything that size in a Priority box (I am waiting for a new ethernet cable and keyboard from Apple, but they don't ship USPS usually.) so I was a bit surprised and perplexed as to who would be sending me something. I opened it up and immediately spotted this beautiful paper and knew I had to photograph it. Isn't it pretty? Then I unwrapped it and saw this adorable pillow from Vickie (she's in my ebay group and we just love her to pieces!) and just squeeeeealed with delight!!!! DIVA?!??! You betcha! A shocking fuchsia pillow with matching feather and DIVA on it! I AM a Diva!!!!

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Wylde Woman award from Shannon at Paint Mine Pink. This chick is one of my favorites because of the "tea parties" she has with her son and the sweet things she does for him. Plus her cupcakes are adorable! ;-) She brightens my day far more than I brighten hers, trust me! I wish we lived on the same continent but it's hard to get her to move over here..........hmmmmmmmm, would a free meal for a month do it, chickee?!?!?! LOL The wildest thing I've done lately is take the hair off my legs with Nair! Ouuuuuuch........that reeeeeallly hurt! I think I'll shave them next time or just not wear my hot pants!! Hah......... ;-)

The Story of The Urns

A while back I mentioned the urns that sit on my front porch and alluded to the story behind how I came to acquire them. Now, you probably think I forgot about that, didn't you? Come on, admit it, you did, didn't you?? Nuuuuuuu, just had other things to post and had to squeeze this one in, chickadees.

Several years ago I was on the County Board of Guardians for my county. We didn't have too many clients but we each took our share. I got a lady who we'll call Gertrude.

Gertrude was a sweet, feisty old lady who came from Europe. Her family lived on her land in a trailer home a distance behind her home. She resisted going into an assisted living home for a long time but it got to the point where there was no choice. (This is always a hard choice for the court appointed guardians also! Her daughter and son-in-law didn't want to do anything but live on the property -rent free! - and wait for her to........well, you get the idea.) We put her in it for her own safety, but let me say now that after a little while you could not have gotten her out of that assisted living home. She loved it and I knew the owners as they were my neighbors and one of the small town's doctors. Lovely place; caring staff.

Anyway, we had to go through all her belongs and do something with them and the house. Trust me, this isn't easy. (I'll never be a guardian for anyone again!) So we did. On a trip out to her country home I noticed those old concrete urns and inquired about them. They were just going to throw them out so I asked if I could have them or pay for them. I was told they weren't worth anything and to just take them.

So one afternoon I decided to go out and pick them up. Those things weigh a TON! I could barely lift them into the truck. There were 5 of them! (Also I have faux painted them since then giving them a "verdigris patina" of looking old.) It was a large country lot and I got out of the car in the front of the house and proceeded to load each one into the trunk of my car - all 5 of them. Going around to the back of the house to check on things, I saw the daughter's trailer and some dogs back there. I didn't realize there were DOGS back there. Well, they started barking and running toward me! You have never ever in your life seen a chick haul her buns outta someplace so fast as I did that day!!! I ran around to the front, slammed the trunk of the car, opened the car door and jumped in the driver's seat just in the nick of time!!!!!!! (One urn broke that day and 2 more broke through the years.) I thought I was going to have a heart attack or be an "afternoon snack" for sure. They acted vicious, let me tell you! Didn't know, but didn't take the chance. ;-)

I resigned quickly thereafter from the board figuring I probably wouldn't get a 2nd chance to out run hungry dogs. :-)

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I'm really getting behind in awards so here's another one to me from thefarmchick. She always has some scrumptious recipe from her farm kitchen and she truly is a farmer's wife. She's also very cute! ;-) Thank you kindly, my sweet chick.
The Rules for the Smile Award are as follows:
1. The recipient must link back to the awards creator (It's right on the award) (And I apologize but I simply CANNOT read the creator of this award on the icon!)
2. You must post these rules if you receive the award.
3. You must choose 5 people to receive the award after receiving it yourself.
4. You must fit the characteristics of the recipient of the award (see below.)
5. You must post the characteristics of a recipient.
6. You must create a post sharing your win with others.
7. You must thank your giver.
Characteristics for the Smile Award:1. Must display a cheerful attitude. (not necessarily at all times--we are all human).
2. Must love one another.
3. Must make mistakes.
4. Must learn from others.
5. Must be a positive contributor to blog world.
6. Must love life.
7. Must love kids.
***

So my recipients are:

1. Katie of rosebreezeboutique because Katie has just recently become a grandmother and is now experiencing the joys of that. She's a "spark" on the landscape of life.

2. Lorena of rosechicfriends because she absolutely adores kids.

3. Bertie of auntmayscottage because she is always in motion and is a tiny little whirlwind!

4. Alaura of cottagerose because she just sounds like she is always cheery and I love her name.....quite unusual. Very alluring! ;-) :-)

5. Joyce of justifiedjourney because she's Rachel's mother and any mother that could produce a child the caliber of Rachel is allll riiiiiight in my book! That is one awesome little 14 yr old chickadee! I'd love to adopt her as my granddaughter but Mandy might be a bit jealous since she is my only granddaughter among the 3 boys! Hah.....

Where Bloggers Create Sunday

Brenda at thebrendablog has invited us all to share our spot where we create. This is a scary thought! Hah.... But I'm game for anything as most of you know so here is my tiny spot of my own where I spend most of the day if I'm not sewing or crafting, which is another room but nonetheless scary. ;-)

I enter each day through this magical "portal" which has decal roses on the door. My view as I enter the door from the hallway. I have a wonderful window seat that is the front of my home and I can keep watch, but truthfully, I'm so busy usually that I'm not a person that keeps watch out of that window. ;-)

The view across from me as I type this. As you can see if you look closely, I "practice" different paint colors behind that door. Yeah, yeah, I'll get the room painted some time in the next couple of years. :-)

Proceeding to the left around the room this is a far view of the area where I do a lot of photoshoots. There are pictures on the wall of things chicks have painted and given me or I have purchased and there is even one picture of a bird nest I painted! I am not an artist but I give it a try to satisfy a need in me to be creative. I use the term "paint" verrrry loosely here. That's my computer screen on my desk in the near part. My computer is called Max. The green frog sitting on top of my Apple Cinema Display watches over me and goes with me in the car when we travel to keep an "eye" on Love Bunny's driving. I'm not the "back seat driver", Frog is!! This is entirely true; I'm not making it up. He sits on the dashboard until such time as I gently lift him up and stick his little bug-eyed green face into hubs' face and warns him to slow down that his "eye" is on him. His actual words are "I've got my EYEEEE on YUUUUU!"

Oooooops, sorry, that's Frog's back side. Now he's embarrassed......sigh...... But that's the front of my romantic cottage style desk. It's quite big and heeeeeavvvvyy. Wooooooeeeee, can't move it around very much.

View here is looking directly at me and what is behind me - bulletin boards, "fluff" and shelves with little cottage houses I collect. That's my iSight webcam sitting on top of my monitor.

Going further left around the room that's a closet. Duh!!!!!! I keep those doors closed always for a reason. I can't stand viewing its innards!

A little bookshelf that stores personal items and my "computer" books. I'm a techie and love computers. The clock was given to us on our 40th anniversary by my son.

Inside the closet. Lower half. Packing and postal supplies. Storage boxes with ephemera, bank statements and such items in them. There is rarely anything in my home that isn't useful or beautiful and pleasing to the eye, including storage boxes.

The very top of that closet with our old phones (Ya never know when a phone will disappear in this house; I lost one in here and never have yet found it! Thus we keep them for a little while.) An extra monitor also. I wanted to donate it to DI but hubs says he can use it in the office so it'll go there soon. If my monitor ever goes out I'm toast, I tell ya! :-(

My wireless printer/scanner/fax/copier. The plain printer cart underneath is covered with a cover I made because it's one of those cheap carts and hides all the papers I use underneath.

Back of the chair I'm in most of the time doing computer stuff. I found a gorgeous chair cover for it and just love it. That's my monitor, keyboard, and other essentials.

Front view of chair cover. Love Bunny made me a plywood mat because the plastic ones are always cracking on this carpet. He painted it bright candy apple red because that was the only can of paint he had enough of. You can barely see Max, my computer, peeking his head through to the left of the desk. He's such a showoff!!! Hah....

Full fiew of that lovely chair cover.

Now, this might not look like much to you but the blue dress is one of mine when I was a baby over 60 some years ago. The white one is one of my doll dresses. The Hawaiian outfit was one I got when I lived in Hawaii in the middle 1940s. It was for a mardi gras that they were having when we first arrived there to live for 2 years. Still fits, too!!!! Laughing uproariously!!!! Gotcha, huh?!!?!

Closeup of my little houses I've collected from all over and from when we were in Ireland.

Close up of what's behind me at this very moment.

My personal files and yes, they are pink and lavender. Just about everything in this house is colored, even my stapler and my staples are blue, red and green. I'm not kidddddding............

My window seat with the books I'm trying to get rid of and sell on my selling blog. I'm going to put them all at half the price on there now so you might want to look. It'll take me a while to do this but it's going to be the price as soon as I can do it. The window seat pad was made by me. It was my first attempt so I used inexpensive fabric but since I'LL NEVER EVER DO IT AGAIN, it stays!!!!! It is pretty fabric though.

Photo shoot area up close with all the stuff I just emptied out of a vintage drawer that I was going to sell but changed my mind and am frou frou-ing it up to put in my family room as a shelf/shadow box or something like that. I'll show you when I've finished with it. This area changes frequently with my whims!! ;-) The postal scale on the left sits on a "dumpster diving" find from my neighbor who was moving. I have no clue how I'll fix it up yet so it's just plain now.

My desk close up with all my daily essentials. My JBL speakers called The Creature are on the left and looks like a ghost or something like that. They put out powerful music on my iTunes though.

The little thing on the lower right is my external hard drive backing up all my files without me even doing a thing. You chicks DO back up, don't you?!??!! You'd better!!

And that's it, my sweet little chickees. My favorite spot in the whole house, the place where I blog. I hope you've enjoyed the tour through my tiny office space. It's not very big but then we're retired seniors and don't want a big house to take care of. Moving from 5,000 s.f. to this 1800 s.f. has been a blessing for us. We are truly blessed!

Thank you so much for dropping by and letting you into my "private spot" and as you can see I'm very much an "everyday chick" in an "everyday space"! It's been a real pleasure hosting this tour for you. Donations are accepted at the small drop box by the door!!! ;-)
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I've received several awards lately and it's very hard for me to keep up with them, but I do so appreciate you all who have given me awards. So I'll share one with you now.

This one is from Gina over at catnipinnprimitives. She's correct in that we don't share similar styles in our decorating but hers is cozy. Plus she's real close to me out here in the west. ;-)
I now have to name 7 blogs and why I love their blogs so much.

1. Rhea at sweetnshabbyroses. I truly believe her pictures are among the best I've ever seen on the blogs. Must be that Las Vegas sun! She and I share a love of many things and she knows exactly what I mean because we talk a LOT!

2. Shannon at Paint Mine Pink because, again, of the photos. Must be that AUSSIE sunshine! LOL And I love her items and the sweet way she has of giving her son a "tea party" when he comes home from school

3. Fitty at fittyspinkyrosecottage because she lives on the other side of the world from me but she lives in a romantic cottage in Asia. How much more special can it get to have someone with such a huge difference in geography live like we do here? She's a little doll!

4. Stephanie of angelicaccents because she and I "share" a true southern belle of a mom! How can this be, you ask??? Well, we've just adopted each other because Steph and I are "sisters" on a group together and we share each other's lives on a regular basis.

5. Ronda Ray Juniper of antiquecottagerose not just because she paints the most exquisite antique rose windows but mostly because she has a Mac computer! We Mac users have to stick together. But her painting is unbelievable!!

6. Kelly of rosevinecottage because she has a camper she has decorated in the shabby style and I could look at it all day. I truly WILL decorate our little popup camper the best way I can in emulating hers. Alas, though, I'll never come up to her standards. *Sigh*.............

7. Cami at camillefano because quite simply she touches my heart with her musings. Plus she got a painting for $2 and I lust for it!! She takes a great deal of time to raise her children when she could be out in the world making big buckarinos but she chose to stay home with the Princess and her brother. I admire that immensely. Cami reads "thinkers" books and I read trashy espionage, mystery and once in a while will pick a "thinker" book. Sometimes though the most "thinking" I can handle is Erma Bombeck and a blind date with Walter Brennan! Yeah, yeah, I read Robert Bork and David Horowitz, but I love seeing the bad guys get caught and burned!!! LOL ;-) My all time favorite book was Lonesome Dove though. I think that book is an American Classic!
~*~

I think you've had enough of me for one day though. Tata, my sweet chicks!!

Pink Saturday 8/23/08

Here it is again - Pink Saturday. Last week there were 80 participants and that's good. I, however, never did get around to visiting all of them and for that I'm very sorry. That's just a lot of surfing and I simply didn't have time with all the other things in life.

I have favorite bloggers I visit. Some just because they may need a lift that day. Some because I simply like reading what they write. Some because of the "eye candy" it provides and we ALLLLL know how I feel about "eye candy"! ;-) Some because I have a history with them and they make my day and make me happy - my ebay group. :-) Some because someone said, "Connie, you're gonna love this blogger so go see her." Well, I've whittled my favs down to about 120 now. Yep, that's just the ones I visit pretty regularly. I have a feeling I'm going to have to "whittle" some more. But I definitely try and visit as many as I can. I may not leave a comment if it doesn't particularly warrant a comment but most times I do.

Now, part of why I blog is to help all you chicks make your homes beautiful. That can involve many, many things - from having a loving home to having a comfortable home people like to visit for the "comfortableness" to simply making "all things beautiful" in the home. (Messy teenagers excepted here!) So let's look at how you can have gorgeous containers out of some "mundane" things.

Old pickle, olive and marshmallow creme jars are what I've done to make these lovely jars. Spray the lids, add roses to the tops if you desire, add some decoupage of your kitchen or whatever you desire (I always do roses.) - and this can even be pix of the munchkins(!) - and then start putting "stuff" in them. I've combined things in these jars and still have to add more stuff to a couple of them, but I'm putting nails, screws, picture holders, etc. in one of them. The other has just snippets of ribbon, fringe, just anything that adds color to it or that you can think of that you'd use everyday and want to be handy while "pizzazzing" up the place. So don't throw those jars out; put them to good use, chickees!

My little wall pocket where I put papers until I'm ready to file them.

My packing supplies! Yep, I will occasionally send out something in these pink envelopes. They sure do get noticed when someone pulls them out of the mailbox!

This is a faux rose and you've seen it many, many times over in my photos but it is the most realistic rose I've ever seen in silk. It has fooled just about everyone who has seen them in my home. It is truly exquisite and I was lucky enough to buy all that the store had of these. I have them all over the house. I've never seen them again anywhere. :-(

Since it is "pink saturday" I thought I'd show off this "pink" coupon I got. I've obliterated some of it so it can't be copied and taken advantage of, but not many "coupons" come in PINK! :-)

Steal of the day..........uhhhh, I mean my "best deal" of the day. These sheets were $7.99 each and the pillow cases were 2 for $3.99!!!!!!!! Squeeeeeeeal!! Now, I'm not needing sheets at the moment but I simply could NOT pass these up. They are high-end decorator sheets and pillow cases. PLEASE enlarge the pix to view the tone-on-tone loveliness of these beauties. Just so gorgeous and SOFT!

I have been waking up at 3 or 4 in the morning lately because I'm so jazzed with energy. (My ebay group is starting to worry! Hah) But I'm fine, just so much to do I need to start early. ;-) Anyway, I got up and started making a pillow for the popup trailer Love Bunny just got. (Yes, it will be frou frou-y and I'm working on it!) I have this quilt that I finally cut into and made this darling little pillow to take camping. The quilt is double sided so one side of the pillow is one pattern and the other side of the pillow is the other rose pattern. Came out quite cute I think. The one in the background is a bed pillow that just may get to travel to the campgrounds also. ;-)

A cute little card someone gave me last year. Pink mice chicks having a cup of tea.

I made this polka dot rose to put on this little letter holder about 5 years ago. It is on a paper holder for a wall next to a desk. It has specialty rose papers in it also. Now I've learned there is a blog called the Polka Dot Rose! Cute.

A sweet tag given to me last year for my birthday which is coming up next friday the 29th!! Yippeeeee...........

Okay, little chicks, get busy and make your home gorgeous - no matter what your style. I've given you enough "hints" for this day..............