Say 'Ello to My Li'l Friend

Now, when you read that title up there, you have to do it in your best Al Pacino as Scarface voice. 

Granted my "li'l friend" isn't as deadly as a machine gun, but it's going to be my weapon of choice in the attack against my kitchen chairs. 

With all the turns and grooves in these chairs brushing would have been a nightmare.  Surely I would have used at least four cans of spray paint per chair ~ and there's six of them.  

My dear, sweet Hubby bought this spray gun that can be used with our air compressor a few weeks ago upon my request . . . okay pleading. 

But the darn weather here, for what seems like almost two weeks, has been so lousy.  Not good painting weather at all.   It's been damp and rainy.  And when it's not been raining, the humidity's been like 300%.

Finally a break! Today is clear, and not near as humid.  This weekend, and into next week, are supposed to be much better than it's been.  So now I have no excuse.  I'll be spending some time this weekend deep cleaning the dirt and grime off these chairs, lightly sanding and priming in prep for the paint.  

Hopefully within a couple weeks I'll have fresh, newly painted chairs.  

Then I'll be tackling the table . . . hopefully . . .

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27 Years

Photo from Shuttershock

Twenty-seven years ago today I married my true love.

Amazing how these twenty-seven years have flown by.  

Sometimes I can't believe it's really been that many years.  

We plan to go out for a quiet, and hopefully romantic, dinner Saturday night.  

Happy Anniversary, Dear.  

I love you more and more with each passing year.

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Fall Burlap Banner

Perusing aimlessly on the computer one night . . . wasting waayyyy too much of my time . . . I stumbled upon some of the most gorgeous banners created from burlap.  Most of the ones I instantly fell in love with were created by a fabulous artist named Amanda.  She sells her creations out of her Etsy shop cleverly named Funkyshique.  She may not be new to many of you, but I'm totally gaga over her work.

She has currently closed up shop for some "renovations", but you can subscribe to her email list to be notified of her reopening.

After drooling all over my keyboard while visiting her store and blog, I was inspired to make one for myself.  Granted, it's certainly no where near the quality and craftsmanship sold at Funkyshique, but for my first try, I think it turned pretty okay!

I used a permanent ink to stamp the letters and swirly patterns, added a bit of glitter, and sealed and stiffened the pieces with Mod Podge.  Then I simply folded over a bit of the top, ironed flat, and glued over a line of jute.

Below are some of Amanda's beautiful banners.  Be sure to check out her Etsy shop for a sampling of the types of items she creates.  She also has a blog, Funkyshique, but it appears she's been a bit absent.  Her last post was in June, but it's still chock full of gorgeous eye candy.

Photo from Funkyshique

Photo from Funkyshique

Photo from Funkyshique

Photo from Funkyshique

Photo from Funkyshique

Photo from Funkyshique

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I'm A Winner!

A sweet and kind blogging friend, Kerin at Cottage On Main, held a giveaway offering some cute fallish items, and I was the winner!
WooHoo!!!!

Kerin wrapped each item carefully in yellow tissue, tying each bundle with brown ribbon.  

Perfect fall colors.

Kerin attached a handmade tag to one of the bundles.  Isn't it adorable?!

Just look at that great assortment of goodies!

A wonderful recipe journal book full of Paula's kitchen wisdom.  

Love Paula!

A gorgeous fall plaque.

Some much needed kitchen towels.  

Mine are getting ratty.

And little crocheted dish scrubbers.  I love these!  

I've had some in the past and just love how well they clean.

Thanks so much, Kerin, for such a nice and generous package of fall goodies!  I can assure you I will make good use out of all the items you sent.

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Autumn Greetings

I found this quote and liked it so much I decided to print it out and frame it.

I repainted and distressed an inexpensive frame found in my frame graveyard in the basement.  Mounted the quote to a scrap of burlap, and glued a rusty tin leaf the frame.

The first dat of Autumn for us here is turning out to be a dark, damp, dreary day.  As a matter of fact, this whole week's been pretty damp and rainy.  It's felt more like living in the Pacific Northwest than along the Eastern Seaboard.

Guess all this wet weather will at least help contribute to some blazing fall foliage when the leaves turn.

Have a great weekend!

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Ya Snooze, Ya Looze

Yep!

That's exactly what I did.  

Photo from Pottery Barn

I had been eyeballing this bathroom accessory set from Pottery Barn for months and months.  

Photo from Pottery Barn

The Blue Beach Glass Bath Accessories Set

This set would have worked perfectly in the little reno of our master bath  . . . the one that's taking foe-evah to finish.  The color palette for the room is going to be those beach glass colors of blues, greens, grays that you associate with a spa-like decor.  Casual and restful.

Photo from Pottery Barn

I don't know why I kept putting off ordering.  I guess seeing the set in the 2-3 monthly cattys I get in the mail had me thinking I had time to order. 

Photo from Pottery Barn

Well, my time ran out.  The set is no longer available.  Booooooo :o(

Photo from Pottery Barn

 From here on in, when I see something I want for that room, or any room for that matter, I'm grabbin' that sucker up.  No more loozin' for me!

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Peppermint Crunch Chocolate Chip Cookies

Boy, that's a mouthful, huh?!

I was in the mood to bake something Sunday.  And I've had a bag of Andes Peppermint Crunch chips in the pantry for a while now.  I picked them up at the grocery one time thinking they were neat.  Something different.

I got busy following the recipe on the back of the bag.  You can find the recipe  here.  The only things I did differently to the recipe was omit the coconut.  Not a fan of flake coconut.  And added some semi-sweet chocolate chips and an extra egg.

Think peppermint patty.  

Mmmmm

I will say, the cookies were met with pretty ho-hum reviews.  "Why couldn't you have just made regular ole chocolate chips?"  Well, cause I wanted to try something different, that's why!

I like 'em.  I like the combination of the peppermint and chocolate together.  I would make them again, except I'd probably eat most of them, and that would not be a good thing.  So, they may not make it to the all-time-favorite cookie list for our family! 

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A Little Fallishness

I finally started to get my fall groove on.  Let me tell ya, it was hard for me to give up summer.  Although, it is still officially summer until this Friday, it's finally started feeling like fall 'round here lately with the cool temps.

Love these "frosty" acorn fillers I grabbed up at JoAnn's.

I guess I just wasn't ready to give up the lazy days of summer.  Or at least the idea of the lazy days of summer.  Which is odd for me, because fall is one of my favorite seasons.  And with fallish accents popping up all over . . . the blogisphere, department stores, magazine covers, etc., I realized I'd better get busy, or before I knew it I'd be digging through the Christmas bins!

Last week I drug down from the attic a plethora of boxes and containers housing all the fall and Halloween decor.  And they sat in the spare bedroom for days.  Well, I finally dug in and drug out the fallish stuff, leaving the Halloweeny for the first of October.  

What a process!  It takes me days to change the seasonal decor around the house.  Is it like that for you?  Am I too picky on creating vignettes?  Am I simply lacking a certain amount of creativity?  Or do I just have too much stuff to work with?  I dunno.  Whatever is my problem, I did finally manage to fallify the decor a bit.  

So, I started in the kitchen.  In the "dead area" of the kitchen peninsula where I usually create my seasonal vignettes, I added some fall color.

 A little mini log cabin quilt I made years ago is a good anchor with it's fall colors.  The wood ~ I think? ~ chargers are from Walmart and the vase was clearance item from JoAnn's ~ $2.97.   A little burlap, jute twine and rusty metal leaves hides an ugly candle label.

I bet some of you recognize the glass hurricane and candle inside below.  Yup.  They're treasures from the Dollar Tree.

 The kitchen table got a new look too.  It was time to change out the sand and shells centerpiece.

The tray matches those charger plates from Walmart.  Another itty bitty quilt, called a "candle pad" was created a long time ago from scraps from another quilt.  Those yellow, bakelight steak knives were given to me by my mother.  I remember using them at dinner time when I was kid.  I love having stuff like that around . . . things that were around the house when I was growing up and were used daily.

A close up of the cute little quilt.  I should make a few more.  It's so darn cute!

More of the frosty acorns.

 Over on the hutch, I have my harvest girl.  She's really the only "Thanksgivingly" accents I have.  I guess that's probably because by the time Halloween's over, I'm gearing up into Christmas mode.

The serving piece below is one I just love.  It was an Ebay find, and it's part of my Stangl Pottery collection {I posted more of my collection here.}.  The colors are perfect for fall.

So sorry for some of the blur, my batteries were wearing down in the camera.

My Pottery Barn knockoff felt leaf garland.  Mmmm, maybe I'll make another one of them too.

Some fall fell into the family room too.  Say that five times fast! LOL

As you can see, I'm really getting good use out of those frosty acorns!

One of my mushy velvet pumpkins from a couple years ago.

And there's a couple more.

One of my favorite little Autumn wall quilts.  I like to use quilting straight pins to hang seasonal quilts on the wall.  They hold the quilts up securely, and know one ever notices those teeny, tiny holes lift by the pins when they come down.

Sadly, we don't have a fireplace, so I try to treat my fabulous, rustic bookcase in the family like a "mantel".

Inexpensive pumpkins from JoAnn's on spray painted Dollar Tree pedestal thingys.  And that clock face back there?  Well, somehow the hands got all bent up and the clock wouldn't work, but I couldn't bare to through it away.  There was something about the face of it I just loved.  It makes a nice backdrop.

Hopefully I'll get some Autumn accents in the living room before it's time for Christmas.  That'll probably take me until the end of the week to accomplish!  How much have y'all done to fallify your homes?

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