Don't even bother with the Banana Nut Bread Votive....

Thought you all might enjoy a little story of how I spent a small part of my Wednesday this week. Mr. OTM (Russ) was kind enough to work at the shop all day while I stayed home to finish up a bunch of projects that can be put out for sale. I had two errands to run ...take some items to put in my booth at the Curious Cat and then to the bank. So everything is running along splendidly and I leave the Curious Cat and am sitting at the light of a busy intersection when I spot the cutest long hair chihuahua dog RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD!! I am now in a panic....I see him run over to the car wash parking lot so I turn around and go back. I get out and see if he will come to me easy but of course, that wasn't gonna happen. He would get close then RUN LIKE CRAZY from me. I didn't have any food in the car BUT I did have a BANANA NUT BREAD VOTIVE CANDLE!! I was thinking that MAYBE...JUST MAYBE he would smell it and think it was food then I could catch him and help him out. SO picture this.....I am all bent over...rear end in the air with a Banana Nut Bread Votive candle in my hand going...Come on honey...come here..come on...ummm...yummmy...come on and he get's sooooo close THEN RUNS ACROSS THE STREET INTO THE GAS STATION PARKING LOT!! Unbelieveable!!! Now there are soooo many cars there and I am trying to remain calm and let people know to be careful. I called me friend Berita (who owns Curious Cat) and she comes right over with a can of dog food.....I open it up and put it on the plate and he COMES RUNNING TOWARD ME...YIPPEE ....BUT decides to stop just short of the plate. I could tell he wanted to eat pretty bad so I was VEEEEERRRRYYYY patient BUT determined! He went for the food the first time and I just let him get comfortable and about the third time I GOT HIM!!! OH LORD THANK YOU!!! I was sooo happy to be able to catch him. The owner of the gas station had been trying to catch him since Christmas with no luck! I can see why! The best part is , he (the gas station owner) said that he would be so glad to take him home! He has other chihuahuas and knew the people who had this one and didn't take care of it at all. This little dog was the poster dog of neglect...He was the stinkiest little mutt I ever saw and needed a bath, a hair trim , vet care and dinner! Looks like he is getting all that and more now. I am so glad that this story has a happy ending. Lesson learned....Dog food works way better than a Banana Nut Bread votive! All's well that ends well!

SHOP TOUR PART 2

ALOT OF YOU HAVE EMAILED ABOUT GETTING ONE OF OUR CHIPPY STARS!! Well I have great news!!! Mr. OTM (Russ) was a busy beaver this weekend and put some together for me so I could introduce this FABULOUS TV (or in this case BLOG) OFFER.....ORDER NOW AND YOU CAN RECEIVE ONE OF OUR SKILLFULLY HANDCRAFTED ~ MADE IN THE USA STARS FOR THE INCREDIBLE LOW PRICE OF JUST $16.95......BUT WAIT!!! CALL IN THE NEXT TEN MINUTES (or whenever you want) and YOU WILL RECEIVE THIS WONDERFUL PIECE OF WORKMANSHIP FOR THE INCREDIBLY UNHEARD OF PRICE OF JUST $12.95! Each star measures 17 X 17 and includes the rusty barbed wire hanger and no extra charge!
This offer is good for the blog world only and cannot be combined with any other discounts or sales promotions (basically because there aren't any ...LOL! ) AND shipping and handling charges ($ 6.35) apply! Just send me an email with your info and we can go from there!

I LOVE GETTING THE SHOP READY FOR SPRING!

I LOVE ALL THE COLORS AND TEXTURES!

SPRING MEANS FLOWERS AND GARDEN STUFF!

HOPE YOU ENJOYED PART 2 OF THE MINI SHOP TOUR. I WILL HAVE MORE PICS TO COME. HOPE YOUR DAY IS GREAT!!

HELP HELP HELP ME AVOID A MIGRANE!

I am at my wits end here! I have been trying all morning to add an ebay gadget to my blog and I have made progress BUT in order to see anything you have to click on the text not the ebay button!! UGH!! I have seen ebay buttons on many other blogs and I assumed it wasn't this hard. When I added this I used add a gadget and put in under text. If anyone has any tips I would be forever grateful. UPDATE!!! PROBLEM SOLVED...THANK YOU TO SOME SWEET BLOGGY FRIENDS I WAS ABLE TO AVOID THE DREADED MIGRANE!!! A BIG HUG TO ALL!!

SHOP MINI TOUR PART 1

Today was a great day at the shop...we were busy and got alot of new displays put together! We sold a big shaker display cabinet so that meant a huge gaping hole was left and you know I can't leave it like that!! A GREAT excuse to stay and rearrange....(Russ was completly thrilled with this idea by the way as you can imagine........all was well because I told him I would take him to our new fav pizza place....food works EVERY time! He is going for EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH anyway so he was a trooper!) Thought you might enjoy a little mini tour of some of the things we got done today. Mr. OTM (Russ) made the star in this photo and the crocks just came in and I really like how they are lookin together! This coming week I will have more pics to share with you because we still have a bunch to finish. It is a snowball effect when you start moving it all around so ALOT was left undone. Hope you find a little time for yourself this weekend!

If these shoes could talk!

Just wanted to share with you a pic of these adorable shoes that I just got into the shop. I was out hunting one day (not deer but antiques) and I found a big bushel basket full of old crusty,hard, worn and battered little old antique shoes. I walked away from it and they stayed on my mind so that is usually the first sign to buy it. I am so glad I did! I got some leather cleaner and started to clean them up. While I was working on them at the counter two gals fell in love with a couple of them and bought them even before I was able to clean um up....my kind of gals...buyin a dirty old shoes! They each have so much character...all the soles have been repaired by a cobbler...you can see all the little tacks, some are just patches, others are the whole sole. I put a little sprig of thyme in each one and they look just adorable sitting out on a table in a vignette! Most of them are kids shoes so they are smaller and all have a great look with how worn they are and stuff. If these shoes could only talk, I bet they would have some great stories!

I GOT MAIL>>>I GOT MAIL!!!!

I am soo excited to show you all what I got in the mail yesterday!! I recently won a give away from Joy over at Savvy City Farmer! If you have never visited her, you are in for a treat! She is one fab lady who really knows what she's doin when it comes to decorating! Her home is beautiful and I just love all her projects she shares! Included in my package was a wonderful old chippy white sap bucket with an old botanical print decopaged on, a heart shape bottle with an another decopage design (both of which she did~plus she shows you how to do it on her blog!!) By the way the heart bottle was filled with dark chocolate chips that I am currently munching on as I type this!!! It was filled up and there are like only 4 chips left...delicious!!! Okay back to the goods....a wire coffee pot shape basket filled with greenery and a little birdnest with blue eggs, a Rachel Ashwell SHabby CHic book, four fabric napkins (they are so soft) with a gorgeous vintage brown silk flower attached and an adorable old key....OH OH OH>>>>speaking of keys.....all my gifts were wrapped in brown paper with twine and an OLD KEY !!! How dang cute is that??? Continuing on...and last but not least a plaster wall plaque with angels in an great ivory color! My note was written on a kraft lunchbag and she included my slip of paper she drew when I won!! What a great day!! Well , now all my chocolate chips are gone so it's time to wrap this up.........Thanks again JOY!!!

A SNEEK PEEK AND A NEW BLOG!

I AM SO EXCITED!! RECENTLY MY FRIEND JANNA (ArtsyFartsyFinds) and I were able to accquire a fantastic space in a great antique Mall in Charlotte called the Sleepy Poet. While we will each have our own booths they are joined together and that will allow us to fill it with the best in primitive , cottage, shabby, rusty, crusty , dusty junk! The booth name is JUNKIN ESCAPADES because that is basically how we get all the goods! In that spirit I started a new blog devoted to the booth! Please check out JUNKIN ESCAPADES to keep up on all the treasures that we will be selling , plus some great befores and afters, re-d0's , re-purposing and how to's!! Should be a wild ride!..hold on!

CURB SIDE FREEBIE MAKE OVER!

THIS IS HOW SHE LOOKED ON THE CURB!

I was driving home from Wal -Mart the other day and as I was coming to a stop light I looked to my left and there was little wagon just sitting there waiting to take up space in a land fill! I got all flustered and had to figure out where to turn around the quickest while still obeying traffic laws and all that! She was painted all sorts of colors...purple, red, yellow, green you name it and she was filled with trash. PATHETIC to say the least! So here I am on the side of the road hoisting the wagon over one of the other garbage cans there and dumping out all the trash while the neighbors across the street are taking it all in. Well it was a quick trip home after that and I got into make over mode right away because I was so excited! She got a coat of ivory paint and then got sanded and stained! I left the handle the green color and thought it would look awesome on someones porch filled with flowers this summer! I think she looks alot better and am so glad I saved her from imminent doom! Hope you get some great "finds" this week too!

DO YOU REMEMBER CAPTAIN KANGAROO??

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY EVERYONE!!! SURE HOPE YOU ALL HAVE LITTLE HEARTS POPPING AROUND YOU TODAY!! So what's the deal with Captain Kangaroo you ask??? Well when I was a little girl my mom would take me and my brother to the library for Story Hour. After the story was finished , mom would let us go check out a book. I would ALWAYS look for the littlest book I could. To this day I still love little books.....(who knows where that one came from...anyway.....) and find myself hunting for them when out thrifting. Well this little book SHE LOVES ME SHE LOVES ME NOT was one of my all time favorites and I would check it out often and be totally upset when it was gone to someone else. The author is Robert Keeshan aka CAPTAIN KANGAROO which I thought was super cool when my mom told me who it was. We watched him all the time and Rick (my bro) and I thought it was hilarious to call him Robert Kangaroo...I mean we would be rolling on the floor laughing thinking we were so funny. So fast forward to the Annual Library Book Sale. It was held in the basement and we went down there after story hour. GOOD GRACIOUS....there was MY BOOK!! I remember grabbing it in disbelief, hoping and praying mom would let me have it. Well as you can she I have a very nice mommy and she bought it for me that day!! Every Valentines Day it comes out to decorate and I smile whenever I think about how excited I was to be able to have it forever! Hope your day is filled with LOVE!!

THRIFT STORE FINDS!!!

Yesterday was really a rare day for me at the thrift store....WHY you ask??? Well typically whenever I find stuff, I need to re-do it or add something to it or clean it up. Sometimes it can get put on the back burner for those reasons BUT not yesterday!!...I about flipped my lid when I came across all these tresures yesterday.........AND I don't have to do a thing to them...(unless I want too!!!) The old galvanized bucket was a shocker and it was 1.00......I practically had tears in my eyes...the old cutlery tray is precious. I gave you a close up to see the little blue flowers on it. All the wooden spoons were in a bin right next to it ..... The plaid fabric in the bucket is a table runner, the little rooster holds cards, the collander will be used as a planter and the star is metal! I felt like I was in " thrifty primitive heaven "! Usually it is not this good. I have thrifted for years and rarely do you find so many treasures all at once. I know it will be awhile before it happens again! The best part is......it is recycling in disguise! How great is that? Okay....are you ready to hear the total for all this loot???? Are you guessing yet????? Drum roll please..............................$9.89 plus tax!!!!
(as promised...there was NO GOOSE in this post!!....I WAS out lookin for one though!!;0)

ANYTHING LOOK FAMILIAR?????

This is a really neat cupboard re-do that I did last week BUT guess who forgot to take the before picture! Just to give you an idea of the before......super high gloss white paint...think sunglare on a snowbank...it was that bright!! Major gross...so it went through alot of primitive distressing before it turned out. I was really happy with the end result. It is the perfect size for someone to use as an island in the kitchen, behind the couch as a sofa table, in the foyer...wherever! It is now inside my booth at the Curious Cat. What else do you see in this pic??? Anything look familiar??? Hummm>>>>>> think ...think...think....YEP the canisters landed here too! It's my hope that someone will love how this all looks together and want them too! This is just another shot of my booth with yet another goose re-do! This time a wooden one. I am seriuosly not obsessed with geese. I do like them BUT this has been over kill almost! To give you a visual...he was williamsburg blue before his Extreme Makeover! I promise my next post will have nothing to do with geese....I swear! Hope you enjoyed the mini tour! Later.......................

The Center of Attention

My 10.00 garage sale goose all decked out!

the entire tablescape

the favors and place-cards

Okay...here's the scoop.....There is a new events center opening up in one of the buildings in an antique mall that I am in. They held a get-together of local caterers, florists, photographers, and wineries to help promote the place and they asked me if I would like to take part and put together a table display. Now, I should say that I have done a few weddings in my day, not a ton of them because I tend to lean toward a more rustic elegant approach to the decor and not everyone goes for that style. While I love the primitive look...that's not always the big hit with a bride. Well I didn't want to do a grand floral display as the centerpiece because that is expected so I went for something else. In comes the 10.00 goose.( This must be the week for goose stories.) I was out yard saling last summer and I pulled onto this street that was having a street sale. Well I saw that goose from a mile away but the problem was I couldn't park close enough to get to the sale fast enough and there were swarms of other women with that "I am gonna get that goose look in their eyes"...SOOOOOO you know I rolled the dang window down in the middle of the street, blocking traffic and yelled out to the lady..."excuse me?????? How much is that big ole goose??????"Well she said 10 bucks so I told her to hold it for me and as soon as I could park I would get him! I was so excited and the rest is history. He sits on my dining room table usually but today he was the center of attention. He got lots of compliments and even a few ladies wanted to order one but I didn't lie when I said "he is one of a kind!" If they only knew.........................................

Another Before & After

Before..yucky faded gray/brown paint!

After...black paint..sanded and distressed!

This great display case is now at the shop. Love how it turned out! I really like this piece because the top shelf sits back a little creating a different style than what your normal bookcase looks like. It gives it a more primitive look I think. This is gonna have to be just a quickie post today....off to a meeting! I have been asked to take a seat on the board for our local Chamber of Commerce. Tonight they announce the new members. I am nervous because I don't know alot of people but I want to help our little town as much as I can. I've never done anything like this before so I hope I am doing the right thing! Time will tell!! Hope you have a great weekend!

SOME BEFORES AND AFTERS!!

GARAGE SALE CANISTER SET FIND!!

YEP, I jumped on the label bandwagon! Had too....I love how these turned out!!

You know him (or her) ...the goose that is sitting on the thrift store shelf...made in 1984 to match the kitchen wallpaper. You always see one there, lonely, yearning, perhaps begging for another chance to decorate your home with all the enthusiasm a goose can muster! Well , this one is going to be the poster boy for second chances! Next time you see one, grab it with joy and run to the check out and take it home and get to grungin...cuz it can turn out like this!!

TA-DA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had a great time with this! I couldn't believe how great it turned out! I can't wait to find another one!!! So ladies...give a goose a chance ! You'll be glad you did. This baby is going to be sitting in my big dough treacher on the dining room table with some berries. Well enough for today...two posts is rare but I had to share!!LOL Til then.........................

GOT MY GOODIES AND AN AWARD!!

A sincere THANK YOU to Jena from Not So Shabby Interiors for the LUV AWARD! How sweet!

LOOKIE HERE!!! I got my goodies today from Black Sheep Prims. I won her recent give away and I couldn't be happier. I just LOVE LOVE LOVE everything. Thank you so much Lisa...you put together such a great package. I am going to be walking around the house figuring out where it's all gonna go!!

Can I please play too?????

Now this was fun!!! Tammy at Country Girl at Heart had a great idea going with assigning you a letter and you had to think up 10 things you liked beginning with that letter! I love a challenge and things that make you really have to put your thinking cap on so I asked her if I could please play too!! LOL! She still had some letters left that she hadn't handed out yet and I was lucky to get the letter "F"! So here goes.......
1. FAMILY.....I am the oldest and I have a younger brother Rick by three years. I can still remember bringing him home from the hospital. I was sitting in the back seat with my grandma and we held him all the way home......WAYYYYY before the days of the seat belt laws. We got along like your typical brother and sister and remain close to this day. I used to make him dress up in my tap dance skirt if I wanted to play "dance class' and if he wouldn't do I would threathen him that I would tell mom I saw him take a piece of Brachs candy from the grocery store! It would usually work great, til one day he just cracked and went and told mom himself he took the candy!! That ended my blackmail streak and playing dance class forever!!! LOL! We are both so lucky to have parents that been happily married over 40 years. They always have let us try what it is we want to do and if we failed they would be there to help us pick up the pieces, if we succeed they are there to rejoice with us. Mom and Dad both have retired in the last few weeks and look forward to traveling around.
2.FRIENDS.........I could go on and on here but I would not be anywhere if it were not for the love, help, support, laughs, honesty, joy, strength, inspiration, trust, and encouragement that all my dear friends give me everyday. I read a great quote one time" I could fill a stadium with aqqaitences, but I could count all my true friends on my two hands" sooooo true. I love you all!
3. FREE......I love a freebie!! This could be at the grocery store, in the mail, on the side of the road, in a dumpster, at a yard sale, from a friend, at a restaurant, you name it.....IF IT'S FREE, IT'S ME!!!!!!!
4. FINDS........The THRILL OF THE HUNT is addicting and I love finding a wonderful treasure espicially if it's cheap. I have come across some wonderful finds in my day and never get tired of it. I know I get it from my grandfather...he would always come home with the best stuff....he would always gather up discarded lawn chairs from the curb and re-do the webbing and then resell the chairs at out annual yard sale every year. Another thing he'd do that would drive my grandmother nuts was pick up brushes and combs he's find laying around...gross right??? Welllllll, after he'd gather up a ton of them he would put them all in the WASHING MACHINE and run them through a cycle with HOT water and bleach and sterilize the heck out of them...bundle them into bundles of 6 and sell them at the yard sale too......he would ALWAYS SELL OUT! At least I come by this honest and can't help the influence that I was surrounded by! LOL ...I miss him like crazy............
5. FLOWERS.......Peonies are my favorite but I just can't get enough of any flower really! I love container gardens, hanging baskets, all my flower beds and look forward to being able to get to nurseries in the spring. I love the "junk" flower section at Lowes when they discard the stressed out plants.You can come home with some great stuff...just a little deadheading and voila....a great looking plant!
6. FREEDOM......how lucky are we to live in such a great country to have the freedom we do?? When I count my blessings, this is always at the top.
7. FLEA MARKETS......You know I had to put this in here!! I have been going to flea markets since the beginning of time and I love them!! You never know what treasure awaits......
8. FOOD.......LOL!! Goodness knows I couldn't leave this one out! I think I am probably the only 40 year old out there who still loves FRUIT LOOPS!! I think this comes from having to eat puffed rice, puffed wheat, Cheerios, corn flakes, oatmeal all the time as a kid (what was my mother thinking making us eat all the healthy stuff>>...lol!) . I think Italian food is my fav but Mexican is a close second. I could be on this one forever...........chicken wings, cabbage rolls, stuffed pork chops, homemade bread.......okay I'll stop.....
9. FARMS...... I grew up on a farm but not the livestock kind....we grew grapes! Yep I grew up on a vineyard and my dad sells all his concord grapes to Welch's....still does! So next time you are in the grocery store, pick up a bottle of WELCH'S grape juice (the purple one)! You could just possibly having some of dad grapes!
10. FIXER UPPERS......I love to find something that might need a little help and turn it into a great piece someone would love to buy and have in their home. It is recycling in disguise and I get a kick out of it everytime!
Well I know this was a long post but I really enjoyed it and you may have all learned a little bit more about me and when I am the way I am!! LOL! Hope your day is great!! Don't forget to count your blessings!!
UPDATE!!!!! After telling Russ about my 10 things he said I can't believe you forgot.......FEEDING THE BIRDS!!! So I had to add number 11!!!! We may not have enough groceries in the house but my birdies will be fed!! I espicially love the Cardinals....... I once had 27 of them out there at once!! I was speechless! All the birds just bring a smile to a my face everyday!!