Show & Tell Sunday/I Saw Red

Today's theme at Show & Tell Sunday is Trash to Treasure. This is a favorite topic of mine and there are so many sources where you can find ideas on this subject. There are a ton of books available with lots of ideas. In fact my favorite JunkMarket gals, Ki and Sue, have written two books about turning trash into treasure. HGTV's Decorating Cents always ends the show with a Trash to Treasure segment. And the Junk Brothers (also on HGTV) have an entire show dedicated to making beautiful things from other people's discards. In this age of Reduce-Reuse-Recycle, it's great to see people breathe new life into things that would otherwise end up in the landfills.

The first item in my Trash to Treasure photo album is this secretary desk that sits in the front hall of my house. I wish I had a "before" picture to show you because it really was very ugly. The secretary was given to me by my best friend. She was moving and didn't have room for it in her new home, so she asked if I would like it. Since I always dreamed of having a desk like this, I jumped at the chance. When I got it, it was painted a putrid avocado green, with black antiquing glaze over it. Ugh! The doors were fitted with textured plexi-glass panels in a lovely shade of harvest gold. Well, none of that was going to work in this shabby chic girl's house, so I painted the entire piece blue, added some decorative painting to the front of it, replaced the knobs and had the doors refitted with plain glass. What a difference a little bit of TLC makes!

I found this old scrap piece of decorative wood, pictured below, at my husband's shop one day and brought it home knowing I could do something with it. I added 3 pink glass knobs I purchase from Anthropologie and it now hangs in my studio displaying a couple of my favorite swap pretties.

Some of you may have remembered seeing in previous posts the glass jars I use for storage in my studio. Well, this is what they started out looking like:

They held votive candles at the shop I used to manage. When the store closed, I took these jars home with me knowing I could use them for something. (I think this is the reason my garage is over-lowing with cast-offs that I "just know" I can transform someday!) I painted the lids shabby white and added some more of those pink Anthropologie knobs and voila!....a place to store trims and lace and millinery flowers.

I found this next idea in one of those special publication magazines put out by Better Homes & Gardens. To make the table/plant stand, I used 4 old dark brown stained shutters that we had taken off the windows in the spare bedroom. I painted them with one coat of white paint and then sanded down the edges to make them look shabby. Next I nailed the four shutters together to form the tables base. I topped it off with a 12x12 porcelain floor tile we had left over from an earlier home improvement project.It was the perfect fit for this corner of my diningroom.

Old windows seem to be all the rage these days. We found this old vintage window on the curb on garbage day. In fact there was a whole slew of them there because the homeowners just had their windows replaced. We asked if they minded us taking some and they said, "take them all if you want"...so we did! I found a vendor at a craft show who makes window clings and they had a line that turned a plain window into a stained glass looking window. The company is called Window Cling Designs and they have lots and lots of designs. If you're interested, you can find them here. I just have this one hanging, chippy paint and all, on the wall in my diningroom. And I love it! My final Trash to Treasure photo is this memo board in my kitchen. I wanted a to have a chalk board to write on and a magnetic board for notes and pretty postcards, etc. However, my kitchen is itty-bitty and wall space is at a premium, so I decided that I had to combine the two somehow. I found this old frame that wasn't being used and had the hardware store cut a piece of metal to fit inside. I painted the metal with 2-3 coats of chalkboard paint and added the decorative iron fence to the top of it. Now I can write on it and attach notes using magnets and it all fits on this skinny little wall.If you want to see other Trash to Treasure creations visit Analise's blog, Sugar-Sugar here for a list of participants and/or the Show & Tell Sunday Flickr site here.

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~ I Saw Red Challenge ~

These plants are sitting next to my driveway waiting for someone to plant them. And it is HOT here so then need to get planted soon! Who decided it was a good idea to buy and plant flowers during the hottest weekend so far this summer? These photos aren't the greatest because the geraniums below look orange. They are not. They are really red and so they qualify for this last day of the I Saw Red Challenge.
And then finally ~ I know this one's been done before by many of the I Saw Red participants, but I couldn't resist a plate of bing cherries sitting on a swatch of vintage dotted swiss fabric. Actually this was the first photo I took for the challenge, but it's the last one to be posted. I know what you are thinking and I have only one response ~ doesn't everyone serve their cherries with a little red gingham bow attached to them?
Thanks so much to Sara over at Sadie Olive. She dreamed up the I Saw Red Challenge and it's been so much fun searching for red things to photograph and even more fun to see what everyone else photographed. You can see them all for yourself by clicking here.

I Saw - New Red Shoes

We're nearing the end of the I Saw Red challenge week and I couldn't forget to show you my new red gingham shoes from Target. Are they the greatest? I plan to wear them to the fireworks on July 4th, but on other occasions as well. I just think having a pair of red shoes in your wardrobe is fun and adds a little zip to your step when you wear them. You can wear an entire outfit of neutral colors and then add a punch of red on your feet and WOW ~ instant happiness!! I think I will wear mine with jeans or denim capris! Oh and my friend Holly went on a similar shoe shopping trip ~ you can see the kind she bought by clicking here.
And while I am thinking about the 4th of July (a month away from now), what is more American than a case of Coca-Cola? I actually prefer Diet Coke with Lime, but those cases weren't red, so I couldn't use them on this post!

I Saw Red - Inchies!

If you haven't already discovered the inchie trend just know, they are a blast to make! You can churn out a bunch of these teensie-weensie pieces of art in no time at all. I first heard about inchies on Lia's blog, Art Junk Girl. She challenged herself to make 1000 of these little squares during 2007 and sure enough she did it! I found making inchies to be a rather addictive activity once I got started. Lia is so organized, she made herself an inchie kit so she would have everything handy in one place whenever the inchie-making-mood strikes. That sounded pretty dandy to me, so of course I had to put together one for myself too. I put all my supplies into this little tote I got at Michaels last summer. Now I can take the kit with me and create inchies wherever I go!

Don't forget to check out the list of other I SAW RED pics and posts on Sara's Sadie Olive blog here.

I Saw Red - In The Morning

As I was eating breakfast this morning and thinking about what I was going to do today, I looked over at the counter and found my coffee mug sitting atop a fresh supply of new Somerset magazines. Pure bliss! Everything was set up serendipitously for an I Saw Red photo. Don't you just love having a new stack of inspiration to peruse through? Sometimes the most challenging part of the day is finding a quiet moment to actually sit down and look at the magazines. But believe me, I will find the time...eventually. Just knowing they are there waiting for me is incentive enough to work a little faster on the daily chores and duties.
While I am on the subject of magazines, this is the cover picture on the latest issue of Oprah At Home magazine. Isn't this sleeping porch absolutely heavenly? I so want to curl up on that daybed with a good book. . .or magazine perhaps!

I Saw Red - Tomatoes

Don't you love summer when the vine-ripened tomatoes are plentiful? These plum tomatoes make me hungry for marinara sauce, pasta and a loaf of garlic bread. Here's one of my favorite recipes:

MARINARA SAUCE {from the Everyday Italian}

2 - 28 oz cans whole tomatoes, undrained

1 bunch fresh basil, stems removed

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 small onions, finely chopped

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp sugar

Salt and Pepper, to taste

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

Puree tomatoes with juice and basil in blender until almost smooth. Heat oil in large heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add onions and garlic. Saute until tender, about 12 minutes. Stir in tomato puree, oregano, and sugar. Decrease the heat to medium and continue simmering until thickened, stirring occasionally for about 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

There are tons of people participating in the I Saw Red event hosted by Sadie Olive. You can see the entire list by clicking here.

Just a little update on the previous post....I found out who made the mystery panel I wrote about in the previous post. It was Samantha! I'm so happy to know who the artist is ~ thanks, Samantha for getting in contact with me!

I Saw Red - Strawberries

Today I See Red strawberries in a bowl all juicy and ready to eat....Yum! These are my favorite kind fruit. When I was a little girl I would eat them with cream poured on top. I love strawberry milk shakes, strawberry yogurt, strawberry preserves, strawberry shortcake....ooooh, I'm getting hungry now.
Yesterday Mr. Postman delivered my Birds and Bonnets Vintage Workshop panels from the swap that Karla and Beth held last month. Aren't they beautiful? What fun it was to see how everyone used the same images, but created totally different pieces of art. The panels above (left to right) are from (1) Karen Young, (2) Kim Morris and (4) Karen Payne.
This is the back side of the panels, again from left to right (1) Karen Payne, (3) Kim Morris, and (4) Karen Young.
The panel above didn't have a tag or name attached to it, so if anyone knows who this one was created by I would love to know so I can thank them.

I Saw Red - Tulips

Starting today Sara over at Sadie Olive is hosting an I Saw Red blog event and it is going on for the entire week. What fun! I have always adored the color red. It is cheery and fun and crisp and passionate and reminds me of all sorts of things - Christmas, Valentine's Day and love, cherries, apples, cardinals, nail polish (if you're the daring type) dresses, the flag, sexy shoes, crayons, ruby slippers, sports cars ~ my list is literally endless.
So for the first day of the I Saw Red challenge, I am choosing this lovely bed of red tulips from my garden. Enjoy!

Flowers in My Garden

1. Allium 2. Vinca ground cover 3. Columbine

4. Pansies 5. Miss Kim Lilac

6. Sweet Woodruff 7. Virginia Bluebells 8. Bleeding Hearts

If you stopped by my garden for a visit today, this is what you would find blooming. It is so much fun to walk around the yard and discover what flowers are bursting open with color. Each day I find something new has opened up. It truly is a miracle that these plants stay under the earth all winter long and come back year after year with new blossoms for us to enjoy. So what's blooming in your garden today?

Potting Shed, Revisited - Part Two

Here I am again with the rest of my potting shed pics. Check out the previous post for more photos if you missed them yesterday. "The Secret Garden" by Frances Hodgson Burnett has always been my favorite book. My 6th grade teacher, Mrs. Kissel read it to the class on Friday afternoons. I just loved sitting there at my desk imagining what everything looked like in that fictional world. I attribute my love of reading to those Friday afternoon readings. A friend who knows how much I adore that book gave me this little plaque to hang in my potting shed/garden house.
Another thing I like to collect is bird houses. These sit on a shelf above one of the windows.
And my watering cans are displayed above the other window.

My daughter and I lugged this piece home from a shopping trip one day. It was a display piece from a favorite shop that was going out of business. The shop was appropriately called, "The Potting Shed." (Coincidence or karma?)
The shelves get rearranged periodically as I acquire new items or just want a little change. This shelf above has some of my frog themed goodies, including some vintage glass flower frogs.
My daughter made the square pottery box when she was in elementary school and I decoupaged the white box that my frog prince sits on.
Garden cloches and urns are two of my favorite things to collect. Cloches are fun to cover little treasures with to make them seem more special, like a bird nest or fragile quail egg. Sometimes I make a little vignette on a vintage plate and cover the whole thing with a glass cloche like I did here. At Christmas time I do the same thing with a grouping of tiny pine trees and a dusting of salt to look like snow. More cloches, nests, urns and some terracotta pots which nature has aged to perfection. The large pots began as new clay pots which I painted with antique white acrylic paint. I learned later that I should have sprayed some sealer on the pots before painting them, so as a result the paint started chipping and peeling off half way through the summer. However I ended up liking the chippy paint better and put them in the potting shed before they "aged" any further. What potting shed would be complete without a tool caddy full of gardening tools? Of course these vintage tools have long since been retired and don't see much pruning and cultivating these days.Of course there's a candlelier hanging for a little touch of romance. It's fun to sneak back to the potting shed after dark to listen to music and sip a glass of wine. It looks so warm and inviting from the house when it is all lit up at night. It's like having a mini vacation in my own back yard.Another pillow from the collection. This one says, "Welcome Spring" on it and is handpainted by another artist from the shop. I hope you enjoyed the tour of my little piece of backyard paradise. Thanks so much for visiting.

Potting Shed, Revisited

Some of you may remember a post that I wrote a long time ago about the cute little potting shed/garden house that my DH designed and built for me. Yes, this is the same wonderful hubby that is building a shed up at our cottage, but that one will be strictly for him. I told him he should start up a side business making these, because I am certain there must be other ladies like me who would love a little getaway like this.

We opened it up this past weekend. (We use it to store our patio furniture during the winter since it is not heated.) We scrubbed and swept and gave it a thorough spring cleaning. So I thought I would take some more pictures to share with you.

Come on in and sit a while ~ Perhaps you would like light refreshment like a cup of tea or glass of lemonade?
I got this angel fountain from the shop I used to manage. It was an extra one sent in error by the manufacturer, who told us to keep it instead of sending it back. Who am I to argue with that decision? The water creates such a soothing sound and is great to have running when the neighbor decides to mow his lawn at the exact time I am spending a relaxing moment in the retreat.
These are a few of the pillows in my collection. They make the wicker loveseat all comfy and cozy ~ perfect for curling up and reading a good book.
This chair is my all-time favorite and was made by an artist who sold her things through our shop. My favorite part is the little hand-carved chickadee sitting atop the back of the chair.
I had this basket of flowers personalized specifically for the potting shed after reading that the word FOLLY means, "a building constructed strictly as a decoration, having none of the usual purposes of housing associated with a conventional structure. A folly originated as decorative accent in parks and estates and is used in the sense of fun or light-heartedness, not in the sense of something ill-advised."

We used recycled vintage windows (and french doors) in the construction and the view is as pretty as a picture. Not much is blooming at the moment except for the bleeding hearts on this side and. . .
. . .blue columbine and a fragrant Miss Kim lilac out the window on the other side.
I found this sconce at a flea market, rewired it myself and added the beaded shade for a touch of shabby chic elegance.
An inspiration board for garden dreams. . .
And a cute little desk for writing or drawing. I bought the nest lamp and hand-painted the shade.

Two little love birds sit in a flea market find cage. The color was perfect. . .I couldn't resist!

That's all for today....stop back tomorrow for more photos!

We Remember. . .

Freedom Isn't Free

by Kelly Strong

I watched the flag pass by one day.

It fluttered in the breeze.

A young Marine saluted it,

And then he stood at ease.

I looked at him in uniform

So young, so tall, so proud,

He'd stand out in any crowd.

I thought how many men like him

Had fallen through the years.

How many died on foreign soil?

How many mothers' tears?

How many pilots' planes shot down?

How many died at sea?

How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?

No, freedom isn't free.

I heard the sound of TAPS one night,

When everything was stillI

Listened to the bugler play

And felt a sudden chill.

I wondered just how many times

That TAPS had meant "Amen,"

When a flag had draped a coffin

Of a brother or a friend.

I thought of all the children,

Of the mothers and the wives,

Of fathers, sons and husbands

With interrupted lives.

I thought about a graveyard

At the bottom of the sea

Of unmarked graves in Arlington.

No, freedom isn't free.

The Challenge and The New Book

It's here! It arrived in today's mail.....wow, was that fast! Of course I'm talking about my copy of Postmark:LA. And it is every bit as beautiful as I thought it would be. Those 6 gals are super talented.

Dawn over at 4:53 am blog posted the ABC's of Me Challenge and it looked kind of fun, so I decided to give it a try myself. If you want to join in, leave me a link to your post in the comment section of this post.

Accent: None that I know of.
Breakfast or no breakfast: I love, love, love breakfast….my favorite meal of the day.
Chore I don’t care for: Vacuuming and scrubbing toilets - ick!
Dog or Cat: I have one black cat named Midnight and a "grand-dog" beagle named Shooter.
Essential Electronics: Computer and Printer
Favorite Cologne: Romance by Ralph Lauren
Gold or Silver: Silver
Handbag I carry most often: Vera Bradley “Betsy” bag….it has tons of pockets!
Insomnia: Sometimes – like right now….it’s 2:06 am
Job Title: Artist, mother, wife, bookkeeper, cook, maid, caregiver, etc., etc.
Kids: Only one ~ a lovely daughter.
Living Arrangements: I live in a 3 bedroom house in the suburbs with my DH
Most Admirable Trait: Honesty.
Naughtiest Childhood Behavior: Unscrewing the finales on the lamps and hiding them.
Overnight hospital stays: Four and I hated them all….with the exception of giving birth.
Phobias: Claustrophobia
Quote: “Life is a gift; live each day as a thank you note.” ~ author unknown
Reason to smile: A sunny day, a good book, and a cup of joe.
Siblings: One older brother.
Time I wake up: 6:00 am
Unusual Talent or Skill: I can read coffee grounds ~ like a gypsy reads tea leaves.
Vegetable I Refuse to Eat: Brussels sprouts ~ I was traumatized by them as a child.
Worst Habit: Biting my nails
X-rays: What about them?
Yummy Stuff: Tiramisu....mmmmm!
Zoo Animal I Like Most: Tigers......here kitty-kitty.

Etsy Treasuries

I just discovered Etsy Treasuries and in doing so, found out that I am featured in two of them! How exciting is that? My Wire Bird Nest made the Cottage Style Street Team's Treasury here, and then my NEST Sign is featured on the ABC, 123 Treasury here. You can check out both these treasuries through Saturday evening.