At our house last night...

Abi was in seventh heaven with Tucker here to wallow on the floor with her. The picture is kind of dark, but can you see her smile? Tucker can come over any time! Abi loves him. Can you see the old man in the background? He's another story.

This old man isn't doing well. It's a daily discussion between The Peddler and I if today is the day. We keep saying, well as long as he can get outside to potty and he's not in pain we'll hang on. But tonight he's not acting right. He will not let me out of his sight. Even though it's so hard for him to get up and down he goes everywhere I go. So I decided to sit at the computer, and he is right under my chair. Not like him. He's almost 14 years old and I have had him since I found him and all of his litter mates in a dumpster. He's the one that my daughter said no one wanted. Truth be told, she was the one that wanted him. He has cost me more money than any dog I have ever known and he has been worth every penny. So, we'll see what tonight brings and hope that I don't have to make any tough decisions tomorrow. Love you Maverick.

Turtle update ~

Here's the new turtle pond. It's not finished and very temporary. Those guys were just getting to big to live in an aquarium and I was getting tired of cleaning said aquarium. Now they're out in the fresh air, sunshine, and heat, just like turtles are supposed to be.

Here's one checking out who is out here taking pictures!

And here's the other one sneaking up from behind the rock.

It's funny to watch my Golden Retreiver watch them. She just lays on the deck and looks at them like "I wish I could go swimming with you guys".

Now we'll have to get something new in the store to occupy all the little kids. The turtles were great babysitters.

Is there a blogging funk going on?

I know there is in my house. Having a tough time finding the motivation to sit down and type. I've been trying to think of some more stories that I can (hopefully) entertain you with. Right now I really can't think of a thing about my life that would entertain you! Well, except for maybe this...Jennifer and I had a meeting at my house last night with Mr. Mike P. Together we are all coming up with some fantastic new ideas for Mystic Paper. And, if you click on their links and look at their blogs you will see that yes, I am right, there is definitely a blogging funk going on! So there, I have busted the three of us and we need to step it up and keep our readers entertained. Mike, the Cat will be home tonight and life will be back to normal for you. And, the animals will be happy again! Jennifer, well what can I say, YOU NEED TO BLOG! You've taken a little side trip out of AZ. You're in a new house. Come on, surely you have lots of stories. Oh, that's right it takes time to blog. There's one more person that I need to pull out of the funk. Joy, we talked about the funk that's following us. We need to say "goodbye funk" o.k.? And Tanya, it's o.k. for you to be in a funk, and you're the most recent blogger! Good for you. So, Goodbye funk. Let the blogging commence! Maybe I'll get to it on Sunday! If you read this and you get the Mystic Paper e-mails, read it, print it out, and get into the store tomorrow. You know what I'm talking about. Then, I'll have my camera ready and I'll have some stories to tell. Doesn't that sound like great blogging material! I'm counting on you. I need stories.

More vintage linens!

Love this quilt. It's a Grandma's Flower Garden quilt. I am guessing from the materials that it was made in the 30's. It's big too. This picture was taken on my king size bed!

I think this is my favorite square. I love the dainty little flowers!

And I love this set of Days Of The Week Kitchen Towels. All hand embroidered. Cute kittens!

My favorite is the sleeping kitty on Sunday. That's what I feel like doing right now!

Sadly I am going to part with all of the linens and other antique things that I show on this blog. I did some investigating and found out more about the doll from this post. She is from the early 1900's and is a Minerva #5. They will be coming in to Mystic Paper if you are local and would like to see them in person. If you're not local just leave a comment and an e-mail and I can send you more pictures.

Have a great day!

Blogger is not cooperating for this post!
It won't let me put my text where I want it so this will probably look very strange.
We took a little vacation and went to California to visit 2 of our grand kids. They were camping at Mohave Narrows, which is an oasis in the middle of the desert. The photo above is Grandpa and Dean getting ready to fish.

Taylor was more interested in the fish food than fishing!

Dean is all boy and had a great time playing with the worms.

I think they spent more time untangling the fishing line than they did fishing. They only caught one little blue gill and a shoe!

I know that camels belong in the desert but have you ever seen camels with a bunch of horses?
They seemed pretty happy with their living situation.

We had a great weekend and Grandpa got to do alot of this!

We're home!

And while I haven't loaded pictures off of the camera of our trip, I have had time to look at You Tube to see what everyone on country radio has been talking about. I had six hours of drive time to listen. Gabe knocked it out of the park while the two teens (who deserved it along time ago) were voted off. While I do think the judges were just a little hard on them, they did deserve to go. And, YES, I still think Gabe is the winner, hands down! And, by the way, I am not opinionated about my music at all!

I'm not gone...

We are on a quick trip to California to visit the other two grandkids Dean and Taylor. Taking lots of pictures of these two and will be back on Tuesday to post!

Vintage loveliness...
Being married to DH really has some advantages. I have alot of nicnames for him, but the one that he is best known as is "the peddler". He still gets phone calls from people asking him to come to their homes and buy their unwanted "stuff". Sometimes he lets me tag along and boy I'm glad I did this time! I love vintage linens. Especially the ones that are found in this kind of condition. These sets of pillow cases are hand embroidered and crocheted. Aren't they pretty?

The colors aren't really showing up as bright and beautiful as they really are. Love the umbrellas!

Doesn't the dresser scarf look great on my vanity!

This doll is definitely well loved! The woman said it belonged to her mother who passed away at the age of 102. She has a metal head which I haven't seen before and a handmade cloth body and clothing.

Here's a closeup of her head. Kinda scary but cute in a vintage way!

I'll show the rest of my finds later. Parting with these is going to be tough. Have a great day!

Next project...

We should be on our way to California right now but mother nature had other plans for the handyman. We had quite the down pour last night which resulted in huge leaks in DAM's living room. And handyman is really happy that he never patched the drywall from the air conditioner install. This is the second time the AC company has been out to attempt to patch their leaks. They better have gotten it right this time! So vacation is being postponed until tomorrow unless mother nature lets loose again tonight.

Someone's watching out for me though. I really wanted to be around tonight for the Night Out In Downtown Mesa. If you don't get the Arizona Republic you have to read this. Man, that Mesa City Council needs to get a sense of humor. Perhaps they would have been happy if the slogan was "Dunk A Hunk". How about "Dunk A Chunk"? I think we're getting closer. What else rhymes with dunk? Oh, how about "Dunk A Skunk"? Well, I better quit before I get myself in trouble. But I'll end with the fact that I even call my Grandsons little punks! I wonder if that offends my daughter? I'll have to get back to you on that one! And one more thing...this very well known (and one of my personal fav's) blogger always refers to her four children as punks. So, there Mesa City Council, get over yourselves!

Another project completed!

And I love it...who can resist Fleur de Lis?

He painted and distressed the top 2 x 4 to finish it off.

And added the chair leg (which was cut in half) to both sides for added decoration. He's quite the handyman.

Here's the vanity with the mirror. Uh, please excuse the cricket crawling up the wall and the ever so lovely bunch of cords on the floor, hehe.

I love the detail on the top of the mirror.

I just love finished projects. I think the rest is up to me. Curtains, lampshade covers, and some big ruffled pillows! I think I really need to sign up for Kristin's Cottage Design class at Blissful Living on July 15th. They're even having a 2 fer 1 on classes for the month of July. That's two people taking the same class for the price of one! What a deal! Anyone interested?

Now, for a little shameless self promotion ~ If anyone is interested Rick has enough ceiling tiles left to make one king or queen size headboard, or maybe two doubles. There's also a headboard, footboard, and rails that match the dresser and vanity. They're not painted yet. You pick the color and I'll put you in touch with him for pricing!

The painted wall...

Ellen requested a picture of the finished wall, so here it is. The picture doesn't show the green very well at all. Still need to get curtains, make new lampshades, and I think some new linens are in order. The lamps were another great garage sale find. $5.00 for both, brand new! Love those kind of finds. A little spray paint and some new shades and their done! I need to find some good pictures for the frames that we have, they'll go up, the furniture will be moved in and voila, a finished room! No, the picture that is hanging is definitely staying. Rick thought it was, but it's not. We have three antique frames that will be shabbied up and with the right pictures in them they'll look great!

Here's the shelf that was put in the closet of the guest room. Didn't take long to fill that baby up!
I love that I can just close the doors and poof, the mess is gone.



Here's a peak at the aftermath of creating the bird blocks. My craft desk site right under a huge bay window that looks out over the neighborhood. I've got plans for that next!

How would you describe your weekend?

I would call mine perfect! It started with decisions. Which color to pick for the bedroom wall? Four choices, that's way too many. But we finally decided on one (it's the third from the left).


And Rick got busy.

And when he was done with that, he got busy outside. His man shed is done, tools are in place, and projects are waiting. This is an antique ceiling tin that we found in Colorado on our last trip. It doesn't look like it now, but this baby is going to be our headboard! DH attached the tin to an old door, built a frame for it, and painted it. After the trim is on it's going to be gorgeous! Just you wait and see!

We've always had dark, antique furniture in our house. We've decided to lighten things up a bit. We picked this furniture up at an estate sale cheap, cheap, cheap! That's why it didn't break Rick's heart to paint it. Painting antique furniture has been a huge no no for him. But here it is! It's painted and scuffed and perfectly shabby for me. The rest of the hardware needs to be put on and inside it's going!

This is the matching vanity minus the mirror. I couldn't get a picture of the mirror without being in it so it will have to wait until it's inside and mounted to the vanity.

This is my project for the day. Joy and Tanya both made the most amazing Bird Blocks! I loved them and made it no secret. Joy was so sweet and brought me blocks to make my own! I am in heaven. I spent the better part of the day working on these and this project is finished. That's so not me. Maybe it's because another project was accomplished this weekend. A shelf was installed in the closet of the guest bedroom/office/scrapbook room. The closet previously held lots of stuff. Stuff that hasn't been touched since we moved here. The clothes were half ours and half Myrna's. If you don't know who Myrna is (aka DAM) read this post. Anyway, DAM is certain that she may, some day, need her puffy, quilted, fur lined, hooded jacket again. That's fine. She just has to find a place to keep it in her part of the house. Needless to say, that created another project for DH. A new closet was created. A shelf was installed and all of my scrapbook stuff is where I can find it. Hallelujah! I can finally create something! Enough about that, here are my BIRD blocks!

I love them! And that's part of why my weekend was perfect! Thank you Joy for the blocks! And thank you to Joy and Tanya for the inspiration!

Here's a few pictures of the different sides of the blocks.

So, that's my perfect weekend! How was yours?

Need to step it up...

Went to the doc and haven't lost one ounce this week. Yuk! My neighbors have started a program and both have lost 8 pounds in one week. No fair! Doc says more cardio so on my walk this morning it was walk one block, jog one block. I plan on increasing the jogging a little every day. And, I think I should post a picture like Jen did. I was told yesterday by The Cat that my body shape had changed. I'll take that! Thanks Lezley. So, this starts week 3 and I'm still motivated. I feel great and my house is definitely cleaner! The energy level is amazing!