Sweet Little Treasures

Thought I would share a few of the teeny sweet goodies I’ve picked up here and there in the last few months.

Acorny Bird
This little birdy came from Bazaar Del Mundo in Old Town.

He is cast in resin or ceramic or something – not the carved wood I usually prefer, but the hat!  I love his little acorn hat!  So sweet.  He makes me happy.

Hammered Heart
Continuing the bird theme, this two-sided hammered brass and decoupaged heart is also from Bazaar Del Mundo.  It was part of an after Christmas sale, but it’s really rather perfect for Valentine’s Day.

Cigar Box
I bought this cigar box at a Salvation Army thrift store.

When I first saw it, I picked it up and examined it for a long time.  There was nothing wrong with it and the price was right, but what would I do with it?  I put it back on the shelf.  Such a mistake.  When I spied it in someone else’s basket a few minutes later, I felt really disappointed.  😦

I even briefly stalked watched the other shopper browsing ahead of me and I thought about the Mary Randolph Carter book I recently received from my mom-in-law:

I had stopped to think about the cigar box.  Shopping fail.  Fortunately, the other guy changed his mind and plopped it onto a shelf near the registers.  I scooped it up and felt lucky for the second chance.  After the 50%-off-day discount, I paid a meager $0.75!  Ha!

That Book
And speaking of that book above, it’s great.  It’s really fun to learn about other people’s collections and obsessions.  The pictures are true eye candy and the writing is very engaging and thoughtful.  Over all, it’s a delight to read or just browse through.  It’s a large, thick, heavy, well constructed coffee table volume that I am eager to share, but will likely never give away.  I am enjoying it so much!  It’s a keeper.  Thank you, Jenifer!

Bundting Baby
I also added another fabulous large Nordic Ware specialty bundt pan to my collection.

These things are generally $20 to $40 in stores or online, so I always snap them up when I find them.  This one was pristine and only cost me about $5 at the local Goodwill bookstore.  It’s called the Fairytale Cottage Bundt Pan.  It holds 10 cups of batter.

I actually put this one to use right away with a cream cheese pound cake recipe.  The cake was good and it helped me to learn a few things about using the pan.  That said, I’m not as concerned with function, as I am with form, when I buy these bundt babies.  I just like the way they look and feel and I enjoy putting them on the wall or stacking them in my kitchen as decoration.  I have a lot of them…you know?  A lot of them.  🙂

Kokeshi Dolls
And last, but not least, here are pictures of something I’ve been hiding away for over a year.

I got this collection of kokeshi dolls from my sweet friend, Leighann.  As part of a spontaneous cross country move, Leighann and her family shed half their belongings a year and a half ago.

They uprooted their entire lives and trekked thousands of miles with two kids, two dogs and a u-haul in less time than it has taken me to display these kokeshis!  And really, I’m not done with this.  The wall will eventually be painted and the shelves rearranged with a few more items, but you get the idea.

The real reason I think of this as a recently discovered treasure, is the fact that those two little minis in front were a surprise to me this week.  They were stored inside the two mamas on the right and left and I didn’t even know!  Such a sweet discovery, from a sweet friend.  Thank you, Leighann!

♥

That’s all for now.

Happy Sunday!

♥

P.S. What little treasures have you added to your collections this season?

♥♥

 

Santas and Soldiers

Haven’t had a lot of time to write in the past few months.

Until I can actually scratch out a few sentences about something real,

I thought I’d just post a few pix of some recent thrift store and flea market finds.

Enjoy.

♥

Carved wooden fish.

A teeny soapstone hippo.

A row of little painted soldiers and a matching egg to store them in.

And a row of little painted Santas too!

A great little stitched piece – likely Guatemalan, though can’t be sure.

Found a perfect frame for it at a new thrift store the very next day.  (Hooray for new thrift stores!!)

And just today, I finally made it up the freeway to collect this vintage window cabinet from a craigslister.

I saw the ad weeks ago, but just never found myself in the seller’s neighborhood.

So glad he still had it when I called this morning!

I slapped that coat of blue paint on the inside the minute I got it home.

Still have to clean up the outside a bit.

Can’t wait to hang it up and tuck in some tiny treasures in the next day or two.

 

Also picked up some Christmas bows, some wrapping paper, a few small Halloween decorations, a short stack of magazines, a couple of books, and another vintage biscuit cutter.

Oh yeah, did I mention I’ve started collecting vintage biscuit cutters?

I love their chippy chunky painted handles and all their little love dents.

Plus, I actually make biscuits.  And sometimes they’re even good.  Ha!

That’s all for now!

♥

What treasures have you collected lately?

♥♥

 

Help Me Save This Art

A few weeks ago, I bought a painting at one of my local thrift stores.  Or rather, I bought the remains of a painting at one of my local thrift stores.  It’s pretty beat up.  😦

It was leaning against the wall of the store, outside, near the donation bin.  It looked like trash.  Or at least, it looked like what someone else had decided was trash.

To me, it was a charming treasure and I wanted it.  I decided I would go inside and ask.  If I could get it for $3 or less, I would take it home.

The cashier came outside with me to survey the scene.  It wasn’t pretty.

The painting is separated from its wooden stretcher in several places.  The canvas has holes where the nails have ripped through.

There are bare spots where the paint is completely gone and several more areas where it is flaking away.

The decorative outer frame was sitting ten or twelve yards down the sidewalk.  It’s in pretty poor shape too – structurally sound, but badly scuffed and really chipped.

Ignore our dusty piano in this picture.

 

The cashier stared at all this for a minute before looking at me quizzically, but then she just scooped it all up and carried it into the store.

I followed as she wound down the aisle and into the back room where another woman was pricing merchandise.  The two of them spoke quietly for a moment, then the first woman turned back to me and said “$2.99?”

Five minutes later, I was in my car with a severely damaged painting and a head full of “what am I doing?”

So, now I ask you.  What am I doing?

I love the scene.  The cows charm me and the colors are serene and comforting.

But this painting is coming apart.  Really coming apart.

Can I save it somehow?

And can you make out the artist’s name any better than I can?  Cyril something.

What would you do with this?  Please don’t say “use it to wipe my boots, then chuck it.”  I’m serious.

I considered taking it to a restoration specialist, but I flat out don’t have the money for that, and honestly, it may be too far gone for them to mess with it anyway.

I also thought about adding a coat of polycrylic to preserve what is left, but I am not a fan of that shiny finish.

I saw a DIY project online for recycling damaged paintings.  It suggested cutting out the good parts and tossing the rest.  But re-stretching the newly cropped pieces or mounting them onto wood or plates or whatever doesn’t really appeal to me.  The parts I like best are the most damaged sections.  I don’t want to just cut them out and throw them away.

I also wondered about the simplicity of just flattening the painting behind glass in hope it doesn’t flake any more, but the flakes might stick to the glass and it would be in worse shape than before.  And really, I don’t love this kind of art behind glass anyway.  I think part of the experience of appreciating it is in seeing the texture as much as the entirety of the scene.

All that said, I did only spend three bucks, so whatever happens won’t be a tragedy if it’s not successful.

Any ideas?

What would you do?

Leave me a comment and tell me.  Please.

♥♥

 

 

 

Spice Storage

If the cute vintage spice cupboard holds fewer bottles than the ugly wire racks from Home Depot, then you get rid of some spices.

That’s what I think!

I was more than happy to sort and toss when I found this cheery yellow cabinet at a thrift store a few days ago.

I cleaned it up with Murphy’s Oil Soap, but I left the paint as-is.

It was already chippy happy.

I love its curvy profile too.

I tucked things like yeast packets and bouillon cubes into the little drawers.

Now, I just need to find another one!

I still have one last ugly Home Depot rack on the wall below it.  😦

♥

What are you up to this week?

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Jelly Bean Eggs

We made our construction paper Easter eggs this week.

I think we did more this time than ever before.

The first year, we mostly just decorated the eggs.

Now, our tradition is to write on them.

The boy does most of it.

Here are a few of my favorites:

He also made a couple of really LARGE eggs:

I wrote on a few of them too:

We also played with balloons this week.

And we made a bed on the stairs.

What did you do?

♥♥

Rose Bowl Flea Market & Thrift Store Treasures

I met some friends in Pasadena last weekend.

I spent Saturday night by myself at the Courtyard Marriott in Monrovia.  This hotel is right on the 210 Freeway – convenient, but kind of loud.  If you’re a light sleeper, this may not be the place for you.

On the upside, the room was super clean, the hotel was nicely decorated, the service was excellent, and this was the view from my room:

I didn’t mind the traffic noise at all and I felt very safe in the area too.  There are a ton of large chain restaurants and stores nearby and parking is free and plentiful, even at the hotel.

I thoroughly enjoyed moving at my own pace, wandering around a couple of stores, then going solo to a late evening soup and salad dinner at Mimi’s before heading back to the hotel for the night.

I found these four huge, sparkly ornaments on clearance at Kirkland’s for $1.24 each:

On Sunday, I met my friends at the Rose Bowl Flea Market.  Have I told you how much I love that place and wish, with all my heart, that I could go to it every month?  Sigh.

I picked up an odd assortment of things this time.

First, there’s this:

He is missing a foot (fin?) and has been wrapped in the middle with fishing line to keep from coming apart, but I love him.

He’s made from a gourd or some kind of seed pod and he is filled with little stones that make a very pleasant rain stick kind of sound when you move him.

Um…yeah…if you know me, then you know it was not possible for me to leave without this guy.

I’m not sure what to make of the mermaid and her friend on his back:

I also found my favorite ribbon vendor and picked up a few things in her 3/$5 bin:

I found two more Delft-style milk maids too.  I don’t know if I really love these ladies though.  Their faces aren’t as sweet and well painted as the other two I have, so I’m not sure I will keep them.  For the moment, they are in the china hutch with the others.

I love these little Matryoshka egg dolls:

I’m not sure how exactly to display them, since they won’t stand up on their own, but they amuse me!

I picked up the sweetest little wooden duckling too, but the ten-year-old promptly claimed it on my return.  I haven’t seen it since.  😦

My favorite find of the day was this wire cake stand:

The seller wanted $15.

I offered $10 and hoped she would take $12.50.

She took the $10!  Yea!  The silver stand below it is another of my favorites from long ago.  Just one more and it’s a collection, right?  Uh oh.

♥

When hunger hit us, I wasn’t in the mood for our usual Italian place, so we ate at the Cheesecake Factory.  I rarely go there, so I never know quite what to order.  This time, I copied my friend – faro salad and fried avocado egg rolls.  Oh my, was that ever a tasty lunch!

We wandered the shops for a while and then went to Goodwill and an unexpectedly large and interesting antique store in South Pasadena before parting company.  It was a disappointment to find the Out of the Closet thrift store closed for the day, but we all felt pretty good about our other adventures.

What a great weekend!  Good friends, good food, good finds, good fun.  Thank you, Leighann and Corina!!

♥

Back on my home turf and apart from my son after three and a half long weeks of winter break, I wandered through the Goodwill and Salvation Army stores near my home yesterday.

I picked up a little wooden candle holder:

and I found this amazing little wooden stool:

At first glance, I thought it was painted.  It’s actually decorated with beads.  They are hammered into the wood.

I would love to know how the artist did this.

The wood seems soft, but surely there’s a secret.  The whole thing makes me swoon.  It’s clearly hand crafted, an interesting shape, probably Mexican or central American, colorful, detailed and lovingly made – just my taste!

♥

And that’s it!

What did you do this week?

♥♥

Christmas 2012 Pictures

Fa La La La La, La La La La!

In case you were wondering, stickers go on your face.  🙂

The 400-piece Straws and Connectors set is a favorite this year.

♥

Valentine’s Day decorations are in the works.
(Shh, don’t tell anyone that we haven’t taken down Christmas yet.)

♥

Happy New Year!

♥♥

Meatballs, Sniffles & Christmas

My son just ate a meatball.  It wasn’t a homemade masterpiece, but I don’t care about that.  It was this…

and that is good enough!

When I put the bowl in front of him, he did his usual visual inspection and sniff test, but then he just popped the spoon into his mouth with a meatball on it!  Then he did it again.  And again!

He ate three meatballs and several bites of the pasta and sauce along with them.  For a child who exists primarily on crackers and chocolate milk, this is progress!

Sniffles

We needed some progress today because the morning hasn’t gone well.

The boy is home again with his constantly sniffling nose.  That nose drives all three of us absolutely batty.  I’ve written post after post about that nose.

It keeps us up at night and makes us nervous all day.  I swear, it sometimes seems that nose is just as responsible for my son’s challenges as any cognitive issue ever has been.

This morning, he was so annoyed by it that he started slamming his bedroom door to show his frustration.  Since we have such a tight, pressured schedule in the morning, I have no patience with that behavior.  Whatever the cause, I simply don’t have time to indulge it.  Unfortunately, I let stress get the best of me and I went overboard in response.

First, I yelled up the stairs and asked him to stop.  He slammed the door again. Then I heard myself asking him if I should call Santa and cancel Christmas.

Cancel Christmas!  Can you imagine?  I am horrible and I regret it.  It made him cry.  My lecturing loudly to him didn’t help.

What the hell is wrong with me?  After the events in Connecticut last week, what business have I to do anything other than hug my child and not let go?  I am weepy over my failure.

Cancel Christmas…sheesh!  Christmas pretty much got cancelled last year.  Remember?

There is no way I would take the joy of this season away from my son (or myself!).  So why did I say it?  Why?  Because I am an ogre.  I am a very stressed-out, over-tired ogre.

Back to the sniffles.

My son doesn’t like the doctor and he has a horrible time getting any medicine down his throat, so he just keeps sniffling.  It’s an impossible situation.

Yesterday, the school called me to come get him an hour early.  He was hitting himself, losing focus, disrupting class, all in frustration over that nose.  I didn’t get the message until it was time for him to get on the bus.

When I finally spoke to the teacher, I felt the need to promise her something.  I said I would take him to the doctor.  Honestly though, I don’t really want to.

His pediatrician doesn’t have anything new to say about this, so going to her feels like a huge waste of time for all of us.  I requested a referral to a specialist instead.  The specialist can’t see us until January 7th.  Right.  Of course.  It’s a week before Christmas.  😐

Speaking of Christmas

On a lighter note, I had lunch with an old friend this week.  It was very nice to relax and chat without having to worry about my son for a few hours.  (Thanks for playing single parent all day, husband.  🙂 )

After lunch, my friend and I went to a new Goodwill store in my mom’s neighborhood.  Shopping the thrifters at Christmas is so fun.  You find the weirdest, best stuff ever during the holidays, and it’s usually marked way down so they can clear it out.  I went to the Spring Valley AMVETS store this week too – one of my favorites.

Here are my latest treasures:

seven sugared fruit
(They’re not strung for hanging, but I love them!)

a painted alphabet sign
(This is kind of hard to photograph since it’s already on my wall.)

When I mused out loud to my friend about why I was drawn to the sign,
she  immediately said “because it has cute sheep.”

So true.  So very true!  Baaa.

and a big purple ornament

Ornaments are a problem for me.  I can’t resist them.  They bring such excitement to my son, I find myself buying them all year.

Mostly I pick them up at thrift stores, so they’re not pricey, but they do take up space.  I try to weed out the broken, worn, or uninteresting ornaments every year, but I’d rather just add more trees, if you want know the truth.

I love ornaments, even the cheap kind that impress with only their immenseness.  Please note giant green, gold, and blue orbs personally selected by the ten-year-old:

I also have a thing for the painted tin ornaments from Bazaar Del Mundo.  Someday, I will have a tree just for them.  For now, there are a few on the big tree and a few hanging from the chandelier:

That’s All, Folks.

The child has discovered a long forgotten disposable camera.  He has decided that taking the entire roll of me is the thing to do.  Unfortunately, the flash is blinding me something serious.  Gotta go!

What are you up to?

♥♥

Some Christmas Stuff

The little boy and I made some of those glass “marble” ornaments last night.  I’ve made them every few years or so, but never been pleased with them enough to post photos or really even to keep them.  This year’s batch is making it to the tree!

Here they are:

It’s hard to get a picture of them actually hanging on a branch.  I think my camera is dying.  😦

To make then, you need some clear glass ornaments and a bunch of acrylic paints.

You just put some paint inside the ornament and swirl until it looks right and everything is covered.

On a few of them, I swirled in one color, let it set for a few seconds, then used a straw to scrape stripes in the first color before I poured in the second color.

You will waste some paint.  It takes more than a tablespoon to get the insides really coated.  I dump out most of the excess then put the ornaments upside-down on an empty egg carton to drain/dry completely.  We waited overnight before replacing the caps and hanging them on the tree.

I think they look like giant Italian marbles.  🙂

♥

There are a few other decorations new to our house this year too.

– a huge glass strawberry that I picked up in one of my favorite Poway thrift stores:

– a fun felt garland from Michael’s:

– a paper garland, carefully handcrafted by the little boy:

– the usual menagerie of sticker-covered wrapping paper trees in the stairwell:

I’ve had that wire birdcage house on the shelf for a few years.  It came from one of my all-time favorite stores – The Vintage House in downtown Brentwood, California.  This year I filled the cage with a bag of those fragrant cinnamon pinecones from the grocery store floral department.  They smell so good when you walk by them to climb the stairs.  Ahh.

And last, but not least, I finally found a frame at Goodwill that was interesting and big enough to fit the little Mexican tapestry I bought a few months ago.  I did a really bad job of spray painting the frame – my Facebook friends already read my note to self about avoiding windy days and swarms of gnats next time.  😦  Ha!  But it will do.  I just wanted to get the cloth protected a.s.a.p. and onto the wall while I put more thought into the bigger picture redo of my bedroom.

So there you have it.  Christmas stuff.

How are you decorating this year?

♥♥

Kitty Cat Memorial Cactus Garden

My dear friend, Leighann, was in town for a few hours last Wednesday.

We met for lunch and some thrift store browsing in Poway before she headed to the coast for a meeting.

Whenever we get together, Leighann brings me the most amazing, thoughtful gifts.  This time was no exception.

Behold the beautiful Kitty Cat Memorial Cactus Garden:

She assembled it in a gorgeous glazed blue pot.

She tucked some sea glass and a tiny kitty between the plants.  (Sorry so blurry – hard to get a clear pic of the kitty’s little face.)

I love this little garden so much.  It’s a perfect addition to our backyard.

More importantly, it’s a fitting tribute to Rusty and Poupon who spent so much time where this pot now sits.

Thank you, my lovely friend!  You always know exactly what to do.

♥

Just outside our front door, there is small patch of dirt that makes my eye twitch.

This tiny patch was once home to a beautiful, licorice-scented heliotrope plant, but ultimately it proved too small to adequately contain such an aggressive shrub.  The heliotrope had zoomed to dishwasher size, was dropping its little purple flowers all over the path, and was mercilessly grabbing our clothes when we walked to the door.  We had to tear it out.  😦

For the last few years, the dirt patch has been basically empty, save for a handful of river rocks.  It never used to bother me, but now I stand in my driveway every afternoon as I wait for my son to come home on the bus and I just can’t help but stare at that stupid, unfinished, neglected chunk of yard.  😦

It’s a problematic spot – not very deep, limited water, and anything we plant there must be trimmed back from the walkway.  There aren’t many plants that can handle such routine and vigorous pruning.

A few weeks ago, I accidentally broke off a piece from a succulent in the backyard.  Impulsively, I shoved it into the dirt in the patch out front.  I wasn’t expecting any miracles, but the succulent survived and even started to grow.  Encouraged, I did it again with another plant.  That one made it too.

Today, I bought a few more succulents and tucked them next to the others.  I also added a bag of rocks we had sitting on the side yard.

Here is the (almost) finished patch:

This may not seem like much to accomplish, but my eye has stopped twitching.

What have you been up to?

♥♥