Kindness

Storage ideas a la vintage

Greeting on a beautiful Saturday! Browsing among decorating websites got me itching to share some new storage and decorating ideas for all of you in blog land who need ideas, pronto!
Truth be told, by camera was left in my car, and the battery was dead, so I had to troll the web for something to post, and what better than some of these...

First we have a large vintage frame, that has chicken wire strung across it, and hung to camouflage an unattractive window. The owner then tucked in her favorite bits of old photos and paper ephemera.

Love this old drink carrier that now stores some cheerful kitchen dish cloths.

Simple idea, but super cute, this old shutter painted a bright green holds the mail.

A vintage suitcase, has now been retro fitted to hold craft supplies. Love the mini clipboard and the scissor holder.

This is actually an old light fixture that has been re-purposed into a vase for some sassy flowers.

My favorite yet, the birdcage that is now a stationary holder and mailing center.

How about an old heat grate, now used to hold the newspaper?

If you had a really large bathroom, (and some skill with a saw), you can turn architectural details into a massive towel rack for your bathroom.

Finally, cute old bottles and silver pieces from teas sets can be turned into little storage holders for your toiletries.

All these storage ideas and more can be found here.

Have a great rest of the weekend, ya'll. It's actually warmed up here in Colorado to almost 60 degrees!

Memories of a printers drawer

This is a printers drawer that hold special memories. It was my mom's, and my dad gave it to me when she passed away about 18 months ago. She loves to collect little things from all over, and place them in here to look at.

Yikes, how a camera flash shows the dust. I am mortified (But not enought to actually dust every little piece before I take any pics, he he)

So cute!

Love the little jointed dolly on the left, and the old medicine tin. A "pleasant and effective laxative?

The little ceramic chef is one of my favorites. Next to him is an old metal jack, and a pair of old earrings.

More dust, an actual printing stamp of a man's face, and other small trinkets. See the old watch face?

The metal disk below was one of those trinkets you get out of a machine at the fair. You type in what you want, and the machine stamps it out on the disk. It reads- "Pat, Beulah, Cherie, I love you." Pat was my mom, and those were her two best friends. I'm guessing she made this when she was about 14.

So fun to see these things from her past. A few things in there were mine, and she saved them, which is fun to remember, too.
Well, I better get busy dusting out this shelf. I don't do it often, because it takes so long to take all the little things out, and dust before putting them all back in.
Next time I'll share the printers drawer I have of my own, that my parents bought for me when I was a teenager.

Framing inspiring quotes

Go check out all the cute ideas this time around, and leave a comment!

A fun and easy project? Yep!

I found these cute round frames at Goodwill a long time ago. I originally used them to frame a foot and hand print of Macie when she was newborn. They were gold, I think, and I painted them white with acrylic craft paint.
I found them stashed away recently, and decided they needed to be re-used for something else.

I simply took the back off of them, and used the circle back to trace my favorite scrapbook paper in the same shape. Then, I got on my computer and typed out two of my favorite sayings. The font I used was called Little Lord Fontleroy, which I found on Dafont.com. Here's the direct link to that font. Love it, use it for everything lately! Just cut out your printed words, and glue onto your scrapbook paper, then insert in the frame.

I blinged it out with a vintage button, then tied some black ribbon around the hanging loop.
These are on my bathroom mirror. I attached them with a little rubber suction cup. Super cute, super easy!

Yes, my shower curtain is fabulous. I bought it a couple of years ago at the Sears Home store.. Who would've thunk?

Are you broken?

Mornin, ya'll. Snow in the forecast today again. Overcast, grey, and chilly. I am soo ready for spring! I want to work the earth, plant some colorful flowers, and hang out on the glider out back, watching the birds splash in the water. {sigh}.
I've been thinkin' about life lately, and why sometimes it can be so hard. I know nothing is ever easy, but I think sometimes trial come in cycles, where there are just several things that just really kick you down.
I know my Heavenly Father loves me, and I am his daughter. I know that trials and adversity make me stronger. I know prayer brings peace and answers. I know sometimes, you just have to hang on and weather the storm!
I found this video on Youtube and wanted to share. Hopefully it will uplift you if you are feeling broken....

Do you love Taste of Home?

Found a fabulous deal for all you chefs and mommies out there who love to cook.
Go to Shop Taste of Home to see all the Taste of Home and Pillsbury cookbooks on clearance. I'm talking $5.00 a book, for the nice hardback books that have a whole years worth of TOH or Pillsbury recipes. I own two of these, and I LOVE them! The recipes are fabulous, tasty, and easy to make. The books are made very well, and have soo many recipes that you will actually use!



Here are some coupon codes to save even more upon checkout!

Codes:
Save 10% + Free Shipping on order of $40+ LST16
Save 20% on the entire Shop Taste of Home Exclusives category! Includes great cookbooks! LST17
Save 15% on $25, 20% on $35 or 25% on $45 LST18
Free Shipping on $20 or more LST02
Free Shipping on $10 347 - exp UNKNOWN

Now where did I find out about this fabulous deal? Pinchingyourpennies.com is the coolest site ever. You can join the facebook group, or get their daily emails. You get so many coupon codes, and notices on clearance deals on places like Children' place, cheap magazine subscriptions (got me two of 'em) and other well known retailers. Check them out!

What does your day hold?

This was my day yesterday.

After a long presidency meeting I was:

Doing Laundry.....

Folding clothes.....

Putting away groceries....



Then picking up Macie from school, going to Kohl's to use my Kohl's cash and find some new shoes for Mace,( a BIG drama, let me tell you), coming home, doing homework, and still able to throw a fabulous dinner on the table.
What did you make, Susan, please please please tell!
OK!
I grilled these yummy sausages with cheese that were Johnsonville brand, and also tried my hand at making home made sweet potato fries. I love the ones at Ruumbi, so here's what I did:

I selected about 4 large sweet potatoes, and slice them up into large french fry size slices. I placed them on a greased cookie sheet, and then I swabbed them with butter, then sprinkled them with garlic salt and basil. I placed them in the oven at 400 degrees for about 1/2 hour. If you want to crisp them up a bit, keep them under the broiler for a couple of minutes. They burn quick, so watch them! Serve with ranch or ketchup or whatever sauce you fancy. I didn't think to take pictures, so you'll have to imagine the fabulous tastes of all the foods.
Then, I whipped up some Sassy apples. Those are super easy!

I only have three in my family, so you'll need to adjust accordingly, but I peeled 7 Fuji apples (our favorite), then cored and sliced them with my handy dandy Pampered chef corer/slicer thingy.

OK, so It's NOT Pampered Chef brand, I lied. It's just an inexpensive store brand, and I actually got it at a yard sale for 50 cents, but hey, who can tell?
Throw apples in a pot with 1/2 cup water (more for more apples), and bring to a mild boil for about 20 minutes. Stir occasionally.
At this point, they should be mushy, so go ahead and mash them up with a potato masher. Add a little cinnamon and brown sugar to make 'em sassy, and there you have it! Brilliant!

This girl looks like her day could be going better.....

Brrrr!!!!

Slacker slacker, eat a cracker

Soooo, I haven't posted for awhile....
I think I forgot how, it's been so long!
I got blogging burnout, but I THINK I can do it again! Looking at how cute and darling and fabulous my blog is, I know I must again join the blogging world and enjoy sharing my talents with all you fabulous ladies out there, so stay tuned.....

Can this cabinet be saved?

Today I have a confession to make.
Almost 7 years ago, I wallpapered my soon to be born daughter's room. It turned out lovely.
Note: Don't wallpaper a room with your husband unless you REALLY love him, otherwise you may be headed for divorce court.
Back to the subject... Well, the confession is, I never returned the large wallpaper sample book I borrowed.
Yikes, I know!
It has been sitting under our couch for about that time span, and gets pulled out occasionally, and then put back under, due to guilt.
But now I think, heck, it's been SEVEN years since I borrowed it. Do you really think they're going to want it back, let alone that the samples are now obsolete?

Time for a project!

I decided my bathroom cabinet could stand to be cleaned out, so here's what I did.
I went through and pulled out everything, and yuck, I guess I don't clean in there enough, cuz I was grossed out!


I then went through the wallpaper book, and here's the trick: depending on the size of what you're covering, you may need to piece the samples together, and you definitely need two of the same pattern to make it work. I didn't end up having a lot of that, so I had to improvise.
There are some great patterns in this book.
Makes me itch a little to wallpaper something in my house!
Look at some of the fun ones:


Love this one for the laundry room!
So I basically went through the book, and tried to find more than one sheet of the ones I thought would work in my small cabinet.
Alot of the patterns in the book were large, or not the right colors for my bathroom, so I picked something neutral for the project.
I took an exacto knife, and carefully removed the sheets I chose from the book.
Then I fit them in, and cut them to size, again with the exacto knife. These samples were not pre-glued on the back, like regular wallpaper would be, so in my hurry to get it done, ( I am an instant gratification kind of girl) I used tacky glue to adhere them to the bottom and facing side of the inside cabinet. It worked, but I think next time I would use spray adhesive to get a good stick. The tacky glue made it bubble a bit here and there.
'Oh well, no project truly is perfect, is it?

The back has a wider stripe, and the bottom has a narrower, darker one.


A view of the second shelf

So nice and clean! I didn't have enough of one pattern that was the right color to do the back of the second shelf, so I left it as is.
I'm looking for ideas to use the rest of the book with, so leave me a comment if you have any bright ones!