Another awesome birthday gift!

I finally connected with a friend of mine that I hadn't seen for a couple weeks and she gave me an awesome belated birthday gift!! This amazing, huge cookie jar from an old bakery that went out of business... filled with these just as awesome homemade sugar cookies!! I LOVE IT!!!
It looks great on my new island!

They are delicious!
I keep catching my hubby with his hand in the cookie jar!!!

So thoughtful and unique!

She knows I used to collect cookie jars, most of which I have parted with, but this one is different and now so special to me as it came from my dear friend!

Now, the challenge is to keep it filled with something just as yummy!

Gotta love those birthday presents!!!

Etsy purchases and a discovery!

I must admit I am totally addicted to Etsy ~ both selling and buying!! I'm afraid any profits I make selling will be quickly reinvested in new Etsy finds! I recently purchased the keyholes in the picture above and I can't wait to receive them and start creating more jewelry!! I found these amazing little goodies at Vintage Supply Co. Her etsy shop is full of all types of fun what-nots for altered and mixed media projects!
I hope to soon be receiving this lovely little number too!! Another etsy purchase from a wonderful shop called Kimiko611. Her charms are so unique and look to be of amazing quality! I love it and wish it would get here already!! My ultimate dream sometime in this lifetime is to visit Paris and I love anything with the eiffel tower image!
My new discovery that I want to tell you about is another wonderful etsy shop called the French Circus. I was searching for some assemblage jewelry and Robyn's site came up and I was totally blown away!! Her creations are amazing and so unique. I asked her permission to share some of her jewelry pictures, and she obliged me! You can find her shop HERE.

Gorgeous!!!

Beautiful!!
Robyn also has a new blog and I told her I'd help her find some new friends and give her a much-deserved mention on my blog. You can find her lovely blog HERE.

I love this fun verison of her coin purse necklace. She uses such beautiful elements to create her pieces!

This is my coin purse necklace that I have currently listed in my Etsy shop.

Take a minute to go check out these wonderful and inspiring shops and blogs. I promise you'll be addicted too!!
Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a great weekend!

And the winner is.....

Before I announce the big winner of my Birthday/blogiversary giveaway, I want to thank everyone for their sweet comments, new and old follows and all the support and inspiration I get from you all everyday!! You truly do mean so much to me ~ each and everyone of you. I'm sorry if I don't always take the time to reply to comments or get around to visit, but I do try to eventually!
So without further ado.........
The winner is ~ Tammy from Art & Inspirations!!!

Congratulations Tammy! Email me your address and I will get your box of goodies out to you as soon as possible! Thanks for your participation and becoming a new follower!!

Last Chance for my Giveaway!

Just a quick reminder that today is your last chance to enter my giveaway!! I will be double checking the list tonight and picking my winner at 8 pm (central time) I will announce the winner shortly after that! So this is what I was doing yesterday...

My husband and I got together at my sister's house with all my brothers and sisters and their spouses and had a big ol' Packer party!!
And unless you live under a rock ~ our team is goin' to the SUPER BOWL!!! We almost took the roof of my sister's house when they won!! Oh, that Aaron Rogers is such a hottie!!

So today and tomorrow, I will be listing some more things on Etsy (like this beautiful Victorian greeting card that I scanned) and playing catch up around the house. Speaking of that scanning thing, I really need to get some good advice on scanning things and posting them to my blog, cuz they always turn out kinda funny when I try it! Any takers on giving me some help on this?

So, hurry up and get your name entered for my giveaway and I'll be picking your name later tonight!! Have a great day everyone!!

Just Opened ~ My new Etsy Shop!!!

After much trial and error, research, and by-guess and by-gosh, I have finally got my new Etsy shop opened!!! I only have a few items listed, but I think I have the hang of it finally, and will be listing more items daily!

I am so excited, but I know it may take awhile for this to take off, so I still need to keep my feet planted in the ground! You can visit my shop HERE and thanks for stopping by! I really do appreciate it!

Bartering ~ How did I do???

While working at the Red Rooster on Sunday, which I have to do a couple days a month, the lady from the antique store next door expressed a great interest in the gorgeous photo album I had for sale in my space. She asked what my best price was and I told her what I could do on it. She then told me she would think about it. We got to talking about some of the things I've been looking for and collect and I told her I would be interested in bartering. Well....after some discussion these are what she came up with.....
5 adorable little bitty oil cans!!

~ and this beautiful pincushion and 2 sweet little strawberry emeries, which I also collect! I was excited when she showed me these because after reading the post that Julian did from Tallulah's Antique Closet, which you can read about HERE I knew I wanted to find more!!

She then showed me these antique pin balls, which she claims are very old. Has anyone ever seen these or know anything about them? I find them very folk artsy and interesting?

She included these in the deal too!

I found this version on Ebay and thought it looked a little similar. If anyone has anymore information about these, let me know. I am very curious to learn more.

I hope I did well on my bartering trade! I feel satisfied with what I came away with and I guess that's really all that matters! :)


A little while later, my friend Katherine came over to the shop from her shop across the street (Fibber McGees) and brought me my belated birthday gift!! When I opened the little wooden box ~ I nearly squeeled with delight!

Isn't it darling?!? She bought it from my friend Jeanine of Chippy Shabby at one of her sales and said Jeanine told her I would love it! Well, Jeanine, you were so right ~ I DO!!!!!!!!!!!

I love little surprises like this!


Hope you have a great week and there's still time to enter my giveaway!!!

Vintage Inspiration - Baby Shoes!

I have always been drawn to sweet little children's things ~ toys, clothes, and darling little shoes! Especially the scuffed and softly worn variety! They are so fun to decorate with and tuck into vignettes!

This shelf is in my computer room and I love looking at it! I've filled it with my ironstone creamer collection and tucked my favorite pair of vintage baby shoes in as well!!

Well worn and well loved!!

Aged to perfection! Aren't they the sweetest thing??


I have done other fun things with them too!

Like pincushions...

and snuck them into little cubbies!

Laceless varieties in front of a picture of my "baby"!!

I'm sharing my baby shoe collection today for Vintage Inspiration Friday with Debra at Common Ground! Hop on over and enjoy all the other inspiration being shared!
Thanks for stopping by and don't forget about my giveaway!

Winter White Mantel

After putting all my Christmas decor away, I was trying to come up with something still wintery to adorn my mantel with. I brought back out some architectural pieces that I had put away while I had my Christmas village and bottle brush trees up. Then I added some lovely vintage post cards featuring snowy scenes and a frosty tree and snowman. I love this old post ~ so versatile!

I bought this frosty tree at a Christmas craft sale of a friend of mine and I bring it out every year and can leave it up for several weeks!

Pine cone candle under glass.

Serene winter scene.

My sheep painting isn't very wintery, but the colors were right for the look I was going for!

I'm linking up for the first time in quite awhile to the White Wednesday celebration over at Faded Charm.
Don't forget about my giveaway too!! Plenty of time to get your name in the hat!!!

Blogiversary/Birthday Giveaway!!!!!!

Even though I celebrated my actual blog anniversary on Dec. 22nd and my birthday last Thursday, I thought I would have a giveaway anyway!!! Even though it's a little belated, I wanted to share my good fortune of celebrating another year with you my wonderful new-found friends!! So to honor the occasion, I made a bracelet using all vintage buttons!

And I will be wrapping it up inside this sweet little vintage wallpaper box!

I will also be adding a wonderful and whimsical vintage photo of two lovely ladies on a ladder, a brown transferware soap dish and 5 pretty, little mother-of-pearl buckles!

I wanted this giveaway to be sweet and romantic and I think I came up with a mix of vintage goodies that exemplify just that!!

I love this photo--such a hoot!!

These buckles would be great in a craft or jewelry project or just let them sit in this pretty little dish too!!

So...here's the deal!
You'll have 3 chances to win...
Leave me a comment... become a new follower or remind me that you already are... share the news about my giveaway on your blog and let me know you did so!!! I will be choosing the winner on Monday, Jan. 24th at 8 p.m. central time.

Simple enough, right!?! So, good luck and thanks so much for your love and support this past year!! You all mean so much to me!!

Fun with Magnets!

This time of year I always look for ideas for simple projects to while away the hours on these long, cold winter days. While leafing through one of the more current issues of Somerset Home magazine, an article caught my eye that showed something that fit the bill! Using vintage elements such as buttons and jewelry to make magnets! These examples above are some of the ones I came up with!

This is the page I ripped out and hung on my inspiration and idea door!
So simple and pretty. The magnet I hung it with was an old pin that I took the back off of.

More examples I made using earrings and old buttons.

Perfect for displaying the business cards of blogging friends!!

...and my own too! I decided to branch out a little and dug through my stashes of junk, looking for anything I could glue a magnet to. Found this little tart tin and added a clock image from an old book and then glued a glass "bubble" over it!

How about a lone butter pat with a little bling in the middle?



This cabinet in my craft room stores supplies and makes a great spot to hang my clippings and inspiration pictures!

Of course you can use them to hang stuff on your frig too! Like pictures of your adorable grandbabies!!

A pair of old clip earrings now hold a picture of my favorite little cutie!

These little pieces of architectural adornments are the perfect size for magnets!


Funny how one picture in a magazine can start an idea in your head...I guess that's what inspiration is all about!

So I'm joining Debra for her Vintage Inspiration Friday party at her blog Common Ground!
Now I'm heading over to get some more inspiration!

Thanks for stopping by!