Blog book

I had been meaning to turn the first year of this blog into a book since the first of this year-but I had never gotten around to doing it.  Last week I bit the bullet and did it.  It was quite easy and straight forward.  I chose the option to let it be automatically formatted in the least amount of space possible.  Even so, I had nearly 350 posts in 2009.  The book is 218 pages long.  Yikes!  Which made it pretty darn pricey-approximately $95.00.  Yikes again!

It had a dedication page-which was fun!  I dedicated it to my daughter, of course.  (I even snuck Rocco in there.)  When and if I show this to her-I can just see the ol' eyes a rollin'.  She thinks I'm a silly, old, fuddy duddy.  (I kind of am.)

When you choose the auto-format feature, sometimes the whole post is not on the same page.  I can live with that because formatting it myself would have been a big pain!



Here's the back.  I had to sneak a cup o' tea in too.  (You know-because of hot tea-get it?) The look of this book reminds me of my old yearbooks.  I suppose that's what it (sort of) is.

Now my computer-free mommy (silly lady) can read my blog!

I ordered this book from Sharedbook.  It's $24.95 for a 20 page hardback book and 35 cents per page after that-hence my very,very expensive scrapbook.  I'm not quite as long winded this year-so 2010 will be easier on the ol' pocketbook.

Rainbow excitement!

::I see rain.
::I see sun.
::I run outside because I know there MUST be a rainbow.
::I squeal with delight because I see the rainbow.
::I take picture of said rainbow.
::I am happy.
:: I love rainbows!!!

From calendar to paper banner

Last year I made some calendars from vintage sheet scans.  I ordered them from Artscow.com.  (They were cheap.)  They sent me two extra because they said they messed up a batch.  So on two of my calendars the scans were upside down.  I have one messed up one hanging up and I found a messed up one in a cupboard. I didn't want that nice heavy paper to go to waste, so I decided to make a paper banner for my bedroom.

Cutting down in my dark, dark basement.

Sewing the paper onto seam binding in my dark, dark basement.  I like to sew paper.

Tada!-all finished.

I can never add too much color to my very orangey, woody bedroom. I love you, bedroom! 

Making the bed

My new old sheets.

From Goodwill, of course-every sheet and pillowcase here is from there.

I was trying to come up with a name for this style.

I'm thinking-'shabby eclectic' or 'Goodwill chic'.  What I know for sure is that I love all these crazy prints.  And I love percale.  (I thought percale was 50 percent cotton/50 percent polyester-but it's not-it's the weave and can be any blend of fabric.)  And I love my bed! :)

Boys and their toys

Shhhhhhhhhh...
Don't tell Sissy-

but we raided

the ol' toy box!

Misc.

Who in the world would want this goldenrod yellow, plastic, 70ish style file box??? That would be me! Especially since it was only 15 cents (from Goodwill) and also because it reminds me of the sewing box I got for Christmas one year when I was a kid.
Also, I thought I could keep all my cards in one spot, instead of in every different drawer in this house.

I like it!

See these giant clothespin/pen holders?-I found one a long time ago at Goodwill. (I took the pen holder off it and now I can't find it.) Sunday, I found another one-for 15 cents. It goes to my niece, Jessica, for her desk. She loves office supplies and I think this might be right up her alley.

Finally-I had a bunch of colorful bottle caps that were given to me, in my junk drawer. So I decided to make my girl some magnets for her fridge. (I always cut the magnets out of plastic shower curtains. The magnets are kind of thin-so I either hot glue two magnets together or build up the hot glue on the back of the cap and then hot glue the magnet to the cap.)

Have a bright, bright, sunshiny day!!!

Wednesday's finds

On Wednesday-I took my husband's aunt to lunch. (She doesn't drive and I had promised her that I would take her for lunch for her birthday in June!) She loves to shop and one of the places she wanted to stop was Goodwill! Needless to say-I was quite happy to stop there. :)

My finds were a lovely sheet (I love this print) and three glass jars with glass lids. I love these things-they make anything you put in them even prettier and anything you put in them makes them look even prettier. (You got that?)

Have you had any good thrifty finds lately?

Mail from Australia!

Today the mail lady dropped off a package all the way from Australia!

A little while back I won a fabulous giveaway from Melissa. Vintage books, brooch, gloves, and trims-not to mention (eeekkk!!!) doilies-lots and lots of doilies-were in this wonderful package.

Thank you, Melissa, for your generous giveaway and for brightening my day. I love everything!

Halloween decor

Gather embroidery hoop, doily, & spider button. Wet doily and and strrreeettccchhh it over hoop. Stitch on spider button. Now you're ready for Halloween. Six weeks early.

Saw this idea here.

Sampler

My goodness it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood!

I cleaned out my closet yesterday and came across this wall quilt I had made-I think-about seven years or so ago. The local quilt shop had this thing called 'Freebie Friday'. On one Friday a month they would hand out kits for a quilt block, and if you had it completed the next month you got the next kit free. If not-you had to pay five dollars. I had to pay a time or two.
I remember these were hard for me to do and I let myself get stressed out about it!
Also, I remember thinking I did a lousy job with these blocks, but looking at them now-
they seem just fine to me!

In fact, I think this little sampler quilt deserves to come out of the closet

and have a little couch time. It's too cute to be hiding in a closet!

Sunday thrifting

Today's finds-very springy!-this beautiful sheet and these little glass bunny taper candle holders. (They hopped right into my cart!) I think they're adorable. :)

I think we're gonna need a bigger crate!

No-actually he's quite comfortable in his crate, because he voluntarily rests in it quite often. The only time he is 'shut' in his crate is when he is home alone-and that's not often.
Rocco has maintained his good temperament and Hubby and I are still smitten! That's what happens when you have an empty nest, I guess!!!

I don't know why-but I am still amazed at the rate this pup has grown! Let's compare-shall we?
Now-6 months
Then-8 weeks
Now-6 months
Then-8 weeks

"Does this photo make my nose look big???"

"What are you lookin' at???"

Looking up

The other night I was sitting on the floor with the pup and I looked up at this wall and thought to myself-I like how that looks from down here-I need to take a photo and put it on the blog!

I was wondering why I thought this view was pretty-I'm thinking it's because you can't see the layer of dust on everything. This is an excuse-but, my parakeets stir up the dust like nobody's business!

I have tons of notes on the above photo on Flickr. If you want to see them go here. So I sat on the floor and took this pic too! Please don't judge me for my weird ways. :)
And another! Okay I'm done photographing from the floor-but I do kind of like this perspective!

Dad made chili

Dad made chili (and canned it) and I'm so glad he did, because that means all I have to do is make grilled cheese and open up and heat up a jar of chili and supper (or dinner-but we say supper here) is done. Not that I do much more than that any other time. :)

Thanks, Dad (and Mom)!

***Disclaimer-Mom helped***

My new free Martha Stewart au gratin soap dish

My cousin Michelle (aka-Melsie) and I stopped at a wonderful thrift shop yesterday. The prices there are dirt cheap and if you dig you can find some treasures. I walked out of the store yesterday with two items, but this one was free. Why?-the owner said because it's chipped. I happen to not mind chips-so I was quite happy!

I knew it was enameled coated cast iron-it's so heavy! The botton said MSE-so I googled it and here-it's Martha Stewart. I couldn't for the life of me think of what this type of dish was called-so I googled something like-shallow individual baking dishes-and saw that this type of dish is called 'au gratin'.

Some might cook in this type of dish-but not me. I'm making mine into a 'soap dish'. I love this color. Very pretty, don't you think?

PS-That's what 23 year old wallpaper looks like!

And I made the commode cover (that's the back of the commode, by the way) in a few minutes this afternoon from sheeting. It matches my towel rug and my curtain. I sewed two rows of five-five inch squares wrong sides together-that's it-no finishing the raw edges. That's how I make my shower curtains too.

Have a lovely rest of the day!