Antique Finds and Losing My Mind

Hello Thursday!  How did you get here so quickly?  I was just thinkin' I should come in here and write a post for Wednesday, when I realized Wednesday has come and gone and left Thursday in its wake.  Not that surprising, really.  I have been up to my eyeballs in paint.  I am painting my family room, which has meant (1) sanding and painting all the woodwork, (2) sanding and repairing all the walls, (3) endless, endless taping, and (4) finally, painting.  This is done in one-hour increments, aka naptime.  I spend all my time covered in dust and bruises.

However, over the weekend I did find inspiration at a huge antiques show.  Check out these goodies:

yum.

yummer.

yummy-mcyummersons.

oh--cute!  and yummy.

Fun stuff, isn't it?  I love looking back at these pictures because for the last two weeks I have mostly been looking at this:

Wish me luck!

Free Fresher-Upper

Happy Monday Everyone!

I am now officially one of those bloggers who has to say, "I'm a terrible blogger because I forgot to take a 'before' picture!"  But anyway, the "befores" are embarrassing.  That's not to say I haven't embarrassed myself more than once in this blog already, including that I have just typed "embarrassed" eight different ways and haven't spelled it correctly yet.  So I'll just be embarrassed for that instead of my horrible "before."  And, through the magic of spell-check, I just learned that "embarrassed" has two "Rs."  For such a nerd, I sure aint too bright.

Moving on to an actual topic for today's post...before my trip I caught this bug about lightening up my china cabinet.  I've had spastic thoughts about refinishing this cabinet, but in the meantime I just wanted a more unified look.  If I could show you a "before" you would see a ton of mismatched glassware, ceramics, and serving bowls, as well as random decorative stuff thrown in.

Now, you will see this:

The cabinet is an antique which I feel privileged to have in my home, but you can see in these pictures that it might need to be refinished at some point.  I pulled the china out of storage and most it, too, is quite old.  It is Johnson Brothers "The Jewel," and I love the colors in this pattern.  I especially love the pale yellow that picks up on my wall color in the dining room.

I left my crystal champagne flutes, because I want to use them and I just won't if they are packed up somewhere.  For fun, I added a pile of corks...

and a ceramic pumpkin as my little shout-out to the season.  Easy breezy!

I also left in some white serving pieces as well as my Lladro.  If I was getting really serious about a streamlined look, I'd need to take that stuff out too, but baby steps are okay for now!  I just love that I was able to get a more cohesive look without buying anything new.

What do you think?  Better than before?  I guess you have no way of knowing...so, tell me instead... how would you refinish this furniture?  Keep the wood tone?  Or paint it?!?  Would you paper the back?  Add a mirror?  I'd love to hear it!

Weekend Best Buys

{Edited to get all linky with it!  Look below the post to see where I am linking up!}

Hello my dears!

I hope you had a great weekend!  In spite of Biggest Boy getting sick this weekend and my dear friends having to cancel a visit because their little gal was sick too (no coincidence that we all just started preschool!), I managed to have an upbeat weekend...and thrifty weekend finds don't hurt!

Went antiquing with my friend Jessica, mostly to look for furniture for her, but I did find this little friend:

It is an antique Jim Beam bottle--Jess spied it in a pile of junk because of the color, which is perfection.  When you factor in the authentic "trademark" on the bottom, I just had to take it home. I really hesitated to spend $8, but turns out $8 isn't so bad--found the same one on ebay yesterday for $24.95!

Also picked up (actually asked Jessica to pick it up at a yard sale for me) this super-cute towel ring which I plan on using whenever I redecorate my powder room.  It was just $5 new, can you believe that?  You tell me which one is cuter:

Won't you please put me out of my misery?  Also, why am I in a powder room anyway?

Hello Gorgeous!

And check out this beautiful fabric:

I didn't bring this one home and now I have the opposite of Buyer's Remorse.  Passer-upper's remorse?

Last but not least, Jessica's steal of the day was this gorgeous chair for just $49!

It is in great condition with great lines, and I think she did a good thing by picking it up.  Now, can you picture it painted an antique white with a new fun fabric?  Or maybe a dark distressed wood with grain-sack upholstery?  I love it when possibilities get all endless like that.

The best buy of the weekend, though, was date night on Friday night.  One of our local bar/restaurants has a membership program that rewards you for trying different beers--when you try 200 different bottles you are rewarded with a $100 party.  My husband signed on four years ago and Friday night was his party--drinks and appetizers for free?!?!  That's my kind of deal!  Now do I thank my husband for drinking all that beer, or what?  I don't know, but I did have fun.

Here we are, RIGHT IN YOUR FACE!  Sorry about that, but its the only pic I got:)

P.S. I'm lovin' the Linkys at:

House of Grace

Keeping My Cool

Everyone I talk to is sweating, and everyone I read in bloggyland is talking about how much they're sweating.  I'm with ya.  It is no fun choosing between A) man-eating mosquitoes and insta-sweat the moment I step outside or B) involuntary commitment after one more day of being cooped up with two hyperactive boys.

So, I've been on a Summer-long quest to find indoor activities that don't make me want to stab myself in the eye.  Seriously, I can only take so many trips to the play-place at the mall.  And as for taking the boys to the pool--well, I can think of better ways to get some exercise than donning a tankini and running after a chubby baby with a death-wish and an affinity for the deep end.   Sooooo, I recently braved a trip to this huge antiques mall over in Concord, NC.

The Depot at Gibson Mill: "The Largest Antique and Designer Mall in the South"
Their other motto is: "We Just Love Your Grabby Kids!"

I expected to have to shout "no-touch!" no less than a zillion times, but after I gave Biggest Boy his Secret Mission (finding soapbox derby cars), he coincidentally stopped flinging heavy objects, casually toying with antique glassware, and offering chippy painted objets-d'art to the baby for a snack.

Plus, I got to see some GREAT stuff, like these adorable vignettes:

Some drool-worthy rustic treasures:

Loooove these!

I don't know what it is but I kinda want it.

It might have toxic lead, but at least its super cute.

Old ceiling tiles--I am seriously in love.

This little jaunt was especially successful because I refrained from actually buying anything.  That way I can pat myself on the back for finding "Free Summer Entertainment!"  Also, I find that "shopping" with my camera is almost as fulfilling as actually spending money.  Although I do kinda wish I'd adopted this little guy:

I'm lonely!  Take me home!

It's okay, though, because having feasting the eyes is sometimes enough.  And it was a feast.  Check out one of my favorite things about this mall: all the COLOR!

  

Wow.  Well, here's hoping you are also finding fun ways to keep cool this Summer, and please know I am not really going to stab myself in the eye.  At least not today.