NumberNineteen

How Many Ways Can You Re-arrange That Mantel?

Yeah, I know, I've already re-decorated this mantel about five times since starting the blog.  But, I had taken down the Christmas stuff and gotten some new stuff and was feeling bored and well, you know the deal.

Just a couple of photos of my latest project :)

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Other than my yearly post Christmas re-arranging, its been pretty much same ole', same ole' around here.  Hope was sick with some kind of nasty bronchial thing that she promptly gave to Glenn, but they both seem to be over it. 

Hope has taken a strong interest in airplanes recently, so I think that we are going to take her to the Udvar-Hazey building of the Air & Space Museum, out near Dulles airport, this weekend. They have loads of planes & even one of the space shuttles.  It will be interesting to see her reaction.

I hope that you are having a great week!

Birthday Bounty

Thank you so much for your birthday wishes!  I had a great birthday on Saturday.  In the morning, Hope & I went to one of the first estate sales I've been to in a long time. And, I came away with goodies (more on that later)!  In the evening, Glenn & I went out for Mexican food (margaritas!) and a movie (Juno--LOVED it!).  And, then, of course, I had two more days off after that.  Talk about a great birthday present--time at home!

Here are some of my find from the sale.  Strangely enough, I only took photos of the items that I plan to sell, not the two other items that I kept for myself.  I'm not sure what I was thinking. I also got a very cool old camera & a sage green urn that I'm keeping that I'll post about soon.

These pink shoe stretchers & a plate with roses, just because they are pretty....

My favorite finds were these aprons...I really think that they are the prettiest, most stunning vintage aprons that I've ever seen in person....

Look at those roses! 

This one is my favorite!  That is my favorite color combination -- seafoam green & pink.  I love that white leafy trim.  And, you'll notice that the tie is of the same fabric as the skirt in the front & at the sides, it is white fabric edged in seafoam satin ribbon.  Wouldn't that be the most darling thing with a big white starched bow in back?  All ready to serve at your dinner party, doncha know.

I always look for vintage aprons just because I love the nostalgia of them & the amazing care that went into making these workday pieces.  My mother has revived my interest in them as she received this book for Christmas:

She has become very interested in the subject & I'm trying to convince her to sew up new aprons from vintage patterns, possibly made of vintage fabric...wouldn't those go well in my vintage booth? (whenever I actually have a booth again, but that's another story....)  I'll use your enthusiastic agreement (which I'm sure that you will provide, hint, hint) to further encourage her :)

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I'm sorry about the sparseness of posts this week.  I can't download photos from my new camera on our home computer, because it is apparently too old.  So, I have to remember to take my camera into work to download photos.  We are planning on using a portion of our tax refund on a new computer, so that should be very helpful on that front.

The Shabby Cabinet, The Kitchen is Coming Along & Other Stuff

Do you recognize that cabinet?  Does this link bring it back to you?  Yep, that is the cabinet that I got at the Big Flea, almost a year ago.  Our kitchen project is wrapping up (sort of) and we've reached the part in which I get to pull out my vintage goodies & have fun.  I'm sure that you recognize those suitcases from other posts & you can see one of the panels of the new curtains.  I love the curtains!  The old window treatment was a set of horizontal, cloth covered blinds that couldn't be cleaned...they were pretty awful by the time that I took them down.

Here is a close up of my cabinet...I'm so pleased with how it turned out....

All of the items in the cabinet are Big Flea finds, aside from the silver spoons that a friend got for me in Scotland.  They are very old--probably from the mid 1800s and lovely, but I never knew what to do with them until now.

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Yipppeee! Its a 3 day weekend! And, its my birthday weekend!  How great is that?  I've been excited for this mini-break since we returned from Christmas at my parents.  Mostly I'm going to stay around the house, which has become a  a real luxury for me in recent years.  Also, Glenn is taking me out for dinner & a movie tomorrow night to celebrate my birthday and I may stop by an estate sale or two.

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For any of you who may have been interested in my sister's postcard collection that I mentioned in this  post, you should check out her recent post  on her blog, in which she show examples and mentions where she got some of them.  Oh, and if you read further on the blog, you can hear about how she just returned from a trip to the Christmas markets in Germany & then the south of France...if you weren't my sister, Terri, I'd be mighty jealous of you! 

I hope that you all have a great weekend!

Va Va VaVoom!

Have y'all seen this new book? (I live south of the Mason-Dixon line now, so I can freely use y'all, even if I was really born a Yankee...can you be both?  A subject for another post....)

I think that I'm in love! I haven't even started to read it, but by the photos alone, I know that this one is a keeper.

Ooooo, look at that delicious mint green & pink vintage loveliness in the photo above...I just want to eat it like a sundae :)

If anyone is looking for me tonight, I'll be neck-deep in my new bubble bath, sighing over these pictures....

Sunday Time With Hopie

I'm sure that you've had a few of these sitting around once in awhile in your house...before you know it, those bananas that were once so tasty are now not much more than mush.  A perfect excuse to make banana bread!  And, a perfect excuse to bake with Hope!

Here she is, getting things ready:

First, we mixed the dry ingredients...

Hope *LOVES* to help me bake.  She stands on a chair beside me & watches the mixer go 'round & 'round.  She particularly always wants to put in the flour.  She says "Fower! Fower! Peas! (please)"...

Then, we put it in the pan...

And, now, we had a sweet treat to finish off our Sunday afternoon.  Or, was the treat to hang out with Hope?  I think that you know the answer....

Can't Pass Up a Chance to Go Antiquing!

Ahh yes, give me a few free hours and a couple of dollars & you know where you'll find me...in an antique store, of course! While we were home in PA. over Christmas, I took the chance to go to one of my favorite antique sources, Big Valley Antiques, in Milroy, PA.  Its a relatively newer antique "mall" and it is filled to the brim with great, great stuff.  Terri & I went crazy there and came home with a big bag full of goodies.

In the photo above, you can see that I found a cottage print in a nice frame, several vintage houses for my Christmas village and some skeleton keys.  I'm very into the idea of using skeleton keys in a little vignette....once I pull that together, I'll be sure to post pics.

Here is a closer look at the houses & the print:

Here are some more goodies that I found....

The green stripe on the bowl is going to go perfectly with our re-vamped kitchen.  I bought the postcards to tuck in here & there in my holiday decorations next year.  As a side note, my always interesting sister , has an AMAZING collection of antique Christmas postcards.  She's been collecting them for years & probably has over 100, at least.  She & her husband live in a Victorian duplex that has wonderful moldings over the windows & entryways into each room, on which she displays the postcards every year. I think that she posted a picture of them on her blog (link above).  At the rate she is going, she is going to need to find another place to display the cards or move into a bigger house!

Alrighty, I'm off to prep for the beginning of another week.  I hope that you all had a wonderful weekend!

Its the Little Things

I know, you are thinking, "Why is Kim posting a picture of her toilet paper???  She is really digging for blog topics!".  But, this is actually a photo of how something small can make you feel so much better about a room.  I found this wonderful wire basket & thought that it would be an original & vintage-y place for my toilet paper.  A pretty thing for a very utilitarian item! Every time that I go into the room, I'm so pleased that I've been able to find a way to bring a little vintage into my powder room :)

Happy Birthday Hunny!

Happy Birthday Hunny!  I hope that you have the best day ever!

XXOO Kim

(photo taken in Florence Sept. 2007)

Starting it Off Right

Happy New Year to all of you!  I hope that 2008 is starting off well for each of you.

We had a very low key New Year's Eve here at home.  Babysitters are at a premium, as you probably know, so we snuggled in for the night.  I made a de-licious meal of beef filet with an almond pesto, garlic romano mashed potatoes, & garlic sauteed spinach.  SOOO good!  We had a fire in the fireplace and (don't laugh---ok, you can laugh) watched 'Animal House', which is one of my favorite movies.  Its true.  We had a fabulous time.

Today has been a great start to the new year.  I got to sleep in, went to the park with Hope & then Glenn hung out with Hope this afternoon so that I could have some time to myself.  I puttered around my little craft area in the spare room & just, well, puttered.  Heaven. 

One of my New Year's resolutions is to post on my blog more often.  So, I'll be "talking" with you again soon!