Blue Easter

If Elvis (and Porky Pig) can sing about a Blue Christmas,
I see no reason I can't create a b-b-b-b- Blue Easter!

It all started when I came across this old print while cleaning out a closet.

I bought the framed print last year for our youngest daughter whose husband grew 

up with dairy cows.  Well he didn't share a room with them, but you know what I mean.
  

The print is part of a 1915 advertising calendar for the De Laval (cream) Separator Company.

 Before I give it to my daughter, I'm planning to add archival glass to preserve the pretty colors,
but until I do, I may as well enjoy it on my mantel!

I found these 3 chicks still in their original packaging just last

week and perched them on top of some eggs. ( Actually, all of the eggs in our
refrigerator.)  I added a few blue and yellow malted eggs for color,
 and the chicks seem happy as can be in the basket.

  I hope nobody wants scrambled eggs for breakfast.

I filled my wood caddy with Pottery Barn plants

 and, of course, a few blue canning jars.

My blue ice cream maker has been
 transplanted here for the season.

My Blue Easter mantel.

Yes, that's a blue egg carton I used to elevate the picture.  Recycling is good, right?
Sometimes you just have to make due with what you've got available when the decorating bug bites.
If you're wondering why there's no candy in the jars, our girls our spending the holiday
 with their in-laws, and I know I'd just gobble up the candy all by myself.   oink oink

Around the corner on the dry sink, sits my 1940's American Bisque cookie jar.
Just a few short days ago, the canning jar was filled to the brim with pastel M & M's.
 Now who do you suppose has been eating them?

"N-n-n-not   m-m-m-me!"

Hmmmm.  I have my suspicions,
after all, she is a pig!

These two are each keeping a close blue eye on the

temptation right in front of them.  

 They have a lot more will power than I do! 

Well, ble-ble-ble-that's all folks! 

 I wish everybody a Happy Easter!

Vickie

I'm joining the party at:

Cozy Little House Tweak it Tuesday
Creative Cain Cabin Budget Decorating
Common Ground Be Inspried

The Red Shoes

Just like Karen in Hans Christian Andersen's
The Red Shoes,

I looked high and low for vintage red shoes,

but they were nowhere to be found in the kingdom.

I bought these shoes at Junk Bonanza and loved the style,

but the worn white just wasn't cutting it.

So...

I painted them!

Two coats of Delta Ceramcoat Tompte Red (acrylic craft paint) and a finish coat of mink oil,

 and I've got the red shoes I've been searching for.

The jar of candy is safe from moi.
  It's not chocolate.

The shoes are sitting on top of my secretary which was

also fitted with some new old shoes of its own.

I took these original wood casters off when we had new

carpet installed at 2506.  That was 23 years ago and a different

house, so it was high time to restore this piece to its original state.

However.  I would not recommend emptying everything

out and tipping the piece on its back when you're home alone.

 Just sayin'.   :)

Elsewhere in the room,  red leather 

decorates my dry sink, too.

My Baba brought this photo album home from one of her trips
 to her father's homeland of Yugoslavia, as it was known
 in the 1970's when she traveled there.

Here's the inscription inside, and other than Mary,

my Baba's name, I have no idea what it says.

I do have an elderly neighbor who grew up with my Baba, so

I better get myself over to her house and have her decipher this,

or we'll never know what it says!

And lastly, after losing my one day off this week,

I prescribed myself a little retail therapy
to ease the pain.

20 minutes of driving each way on my lunch hour

left me only 20 minutes of shopping at Annabella's,

but look what I found..........

It was only 20 dollars!!!

Well worth the quick trip.

Keep warm and stay healthy!

Vickie

*I'm joining the parties at:

Cozy Little House Tweak it Tuesday

Funky Junk Interiors Saturday Nite Special

A Sneak Peek and a Winner!

I'm on my last day of vacation today and I'd like

to give you a sneak peek at what I've been up to these past 8 days.

I did manage to fit in a few quick trips through the antique shops in town where

I found 3 of these little elves.  One is hiding in the rear, one has gone missing, and

this one is still wearing his price tag!  Oops.

But the majority of the week was spent climbing up and down a ladder with

paintbrush in hand.  I finally made the decision to

paint our dining room!!!

The room is far from done, but even at night when I took this photo,

it is so much brighter and provides a neutral backdrop to add seasonal decor.

More to come in a later post.

It's time to announce the winner of this year's

Ranger 911 Christmas Giveaway!

I used a random number generator, but since I couldn't figure out

how to post it here, I simply took a picture of the computer screen.

It seems Nurse Sandy will be hopping on the next

Greyhound Bus to visit her new home in the Midwest!

The welcome mat has been laid out.

Her new owner shares her quirky sense of humor.

(Deer mount and the license plate of the truck that hit it.)

Congratulations Pam @ House of Hawthornes!
Please email your shipping address, and she'll be on her way!

Thank you to everybody who joined in the fun.

  I tried to reply to all the comments, but a number

of bloggers were listed as noreply so I was unable to respond.

All the comments were entered into the drawing.

Thanks for stopping by today,

Vickie

I've got the blues.

Last Saturday was cold, gray, and dreary 

until the mailman delivered.....

this!!!

I've been on a winning streak the past few weeks!

In my last post I showed you the cloth napkins I won and now

you're here to see the vintage Belgian beer bottle I won

from Laura at 52 FLEA.

She kicked off the opening of her new Etsy shop with the chance

to win this bottle in a pretty shade of teal blue with a porcelain stopper

and etching on the glass.  As soon as I saw it, I knew just where it

would go in my house.  And lucky me, I won!!!

Photo from 52 FLEA blog.

If you haven't visited Laura at 52 FLEA, you're missing out! 

 When I need a junk fix, I just pop on over to her blog to see photos of the

latest flea market or antique shop she's visited.  She picks the most interesting

and sometimes unusual items to share on her blog.

Photo from 52FLEA blog.

She also takes you along to visit the most enchanting homes

of her friends.  Her photography skills make you feel like you're turning the pages

 of a decorating book.  Trust me, you'll be oohing and aahing, too. 

So be sure to stop in and visit Laura at 52 FLEA and

see what she's got for sale in her new Etsy shop.

Thank you Laura and  congratulations on the

opening of your Etsy shop!!

I told you I had just the spot for the bottle, and here it is.

It's joining some old  friends on a shelf in my bathroom.

Our bathroom is still wearing the beige sponge paint look wallpaper applied by the previous

 owner, but I'm not yet ready to open the can of worms that the wallpaper camouflages.

We got rid of the oak vanity and cabinets and replaced the fixtures with a period medicine
 cabinet, white toilet, pedestal sink, and white wall cabinet.  I would have chosen
 white subway tile for the walls and black and white tiles for the floor,
 but I'm stuck  so very fortunate to have neutral beige wall and floor tile.

 I chose turquoise blue as an accent color when I found the old truck pictured above.

I carried it around the house until I found a spot to park it on top of the bathroom cabinet. 

*To date, it's one of my favorite finds.

The deal was sealed on my choice of accent color when I finally had a spot to display

 this charming couple who once belonged to my great-grandparents.



If you look closely, you can see that the little girl has been working very, very hard

by the smudges on her cheeks and clothes while the little boy looks relatively clean. 

* Just an observation by an innocent bystander.

I found this baby powder tin at an outdoor flea market

and it's the perfect color for my bathroom.

This rusty dustpan hangs over the bathtub faucet.

Of course blue canning jars have a place of honor on this shelf over the tub,

 and my new prize fits right in.  The letter "V" is a movie marquee letter that I removed red paint from to reveal the silver toned metal underneath.  Just to clarify, V is for Vickie.  :@

I found the fabulous old Venetian glass mirror at an estate sale

 down the block just a few days after we moved into this house.

It was bargain priced and nobody else wanted it because

 there's a small crack in the lower border that I've hidden behind the jars. 

 I love rejects!

This chippy old stool isn't blue, but it is in the bathroom and
it's too cute to be left out of the photo shoot.

 The blue colors in my bathroom are all slightly different,

 but they work well together

in my eyes.

Thanks for stopping by to see the

blue in my loo.

Vickie

*I'm joining the parties at:
Knick of Time Tuesday
Savvy Southern Style Wow Us Wednesday
Common Ground Vintage Inspiration Friday
Funky Junk Interiors Saturday Nite Special

Countdown to Halloween

How do you choose who'll be handing out candy

during a cold & blustery Halloween night?

In our house we use the ever so diplomatic

rock-paper-scissors method to decide.

   Although I've never quite grasped the concept behind the game, I always win! 

 As in..... I'll be parked in front of the warm fireplace

 doing something much more constructive like knitting or Pinning,

 while the Candyman hands out candy to the little ghosts and goblins.

(Have you ever heard of a candywoman?  No, of course not.)

After all, it's only fair that I get to rest after doing all the decorating!

I recently won a $50 gift certificate to Shabby Apple (visit their shop here) from
 Sandi at A Cottage Muse (visit her here to see the vintage treasures in her home
 and the ones she uses to stock her space at Wrentham Country Store).

Sandi's mantel. 

 Don't you love the way she used the rusty old springs?

 For my gift, I chose a set of eight numbered cloth napkins which
 inspired me to decorate our dining room in black & white for Halloween.
I simply folded them and hung them on the rungs of an old ladder.
They add a bright spot to a dark corner and help
conceal some of the many cracks in the plaster walls!

Thank you Sandi and Shabby Apple!

The napkins came tied with the numbered ribbon I've used to hang silhouettes of our

 grandchildren created by my blog friend Tracy of Crow's Feet Chic.

I printed small images in black & white and framed them out

in a pair of matching thrift shop frames.  You can see them up close

in the first picture above.  Thanks again Tracy!

This is the first year we've had the circa 1960's Sears fireplace

in our dining room for Halloween and I used the same rock-paper-scissors

concept when it came to prepping the room for the boo crew.

Well, I guess there weren't any rocks involved, but I made

good use of paper and scissors.

I cut out a pennant banner using construction paper and newspaper I had in the house. 

 I stamped letters on the newspaper and taped each piece to the fireplace. 

No sewing!

A few of my old clocks, vintage black shoes, black licorice in the covered
apothecary jar, and a few dollar store crows to spook it up a bit.
I picked branches and rose hips from our yard and stuffed them into a
vintage vase for my rather sorry excuse of a "floral arrangement".
Floral arranging is not my cup of tea.

I removed my Blue Willow plates from the holder between the
windows and replaced them with 4 circa 1950 framed silhouettes.

Here's the whole set.

My blue & white stagecoach blinds weren't fitting in with the

black & white theme, so they've been temporarily tossed aside for

a no sew valance.  A few pieces of sheet music, some tape, a

paper punch and voila!  (That's what happens when I'm

stuck in the house on a wet, snowy day.  Do you see

the snow covered branches through the window?)

For the table, I filled my tool caddy with scented pine cones and tangerines (they're round and
orange and close enough to pumpkins for me!) and set it on a runner I made from leftover

kitchen curtain fabric.  As you can see there's no cauldron filled with candy yet.
  Why?  Somebody (me) can't leave the chocolate bars alone,
 so we don't buy them until the last possible minute.

In a few days, when you're discussing who'll be handing out

candy, remember the tried and true Ranger method of
rock-paper-scissors.

I always win.  :@

Vickie

I'm joining the parties at:

Knick of Time Tuesday
Savvy Southern Style Wow us Wednesday
Cedar Hill Ranch Cowgirl Up