Girl Stuff

Although I have a daughter, our house has never really been cluttered with baby dolls, play kitchen sets or Barbie. Oh, sure, there has been an occasional doll or pink stuffed pony; toys that sit in the corner of the living room for awhile until they are carried upstairs and deposited into the closet.

The lack of girly playthings is not because my Sweet Girl is a tomboy. Well, I guess with two brothers she very likely could be a tomboy, but that is not the case. She wasn't even a year old when we noticed she seemed to be losing interest in toys. Her legs couldn't bear weight to stand and play at an activity table. Her sweet little baby hands could no longer grasp a teething ring. She was almost two before she was diagnosed with Rett Syndrome and we finally knew why these things were happening.

I think for awhile we tried to carry on as usual as far as toys go; buying her things that other little girls her age would play with. But what is the point, really? Don't get me wrong. It is not as if we didn't try to engage her in meaningful play. We didn't stop putting baby dolls on her Christmas list. It's just that we gradually adjusted to a new normal that didn't involve play pots and pans mixed in with the boys' cars and Lego bricks.

I've said all that to get to this:

A couple months ago I saw this adorable, child-size hutch at the local consignment shop. The "mommy of a little girl" in me just had to buy it. I wasn't sure what I would do with it, but figured it would probably end up in my craft room to hold smalls.

Last week I was picking up and organizing all of the things we use on this beautiful head of hair - ponytail holders, flowers and bows, detangler, frizz control spray.......  We have plenty of this kind of girl clutter in our house!

I decided the little hutch would be the perfect storage solution. It is sitting right in the living room because that is where I always do Sweet Girl's hair.

I set about to find the perfect little containers to hold everything just right.

The toy pots hold barrettes. Don't you just love these vintage ones?

This tin lunch box (or is it a sewing box?) contains all the products I use to try to control all those curly blond locks.

Jelly jars hold flowers and other hair clips and mini bread pans corral pony tail holders.

Behind the bottom cabinet doors are her shoes, slippers and AFO's.

Not only does this child-size piece of furniture provide a great storage solution, it also provides a little comfort to this mommy's heart.

And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:3-4

Happy Mother's Day!

{Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her..... Proverbs 31:28}

Soda, Anyone?

Several weeks ago I found these soda bottles at the thrift store. The great graphics just drew me in. Someone obviously had quite a collection that they donated. I bought seven of them, but there were many more.
I hope you are thirsty. Would you like King Kist?
Or do you prefer Frostie Root Beer?

Pop Kola perhaps?

My favorite is Electric Beverages because you know it is "the current drink!"

{If you see your enemy hungry, go buy him lunch; if he's thirsty, bring him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness, and God will look after you. Proverbs 25:21}

From Blah to Blue....and Green!

We've had some beautiful spring days this week. I should have been spraying all the dirt and pollen off of my porch, but instead of was washing some "projects."

This beauty came from the Last Chance Thrift Store. I figured for a quarter I could give it another chance.

This large (19 inches), metal lazy susan was a bit more pricey - 50 cents at an estate sale. It was originally $1, but since it was still there on 1/2 price day, I decided to bring it home with me.

I washed, scrubbed, primed and painted.

Aren't these fun colors? Clearance spray paint from WalMart - gotta love it! I can't decide if I am going to keep the lazy susan or sell it. It would be nice on my dining room table. I need your help with the light fixture. I am thinking it should be a candle holder. Should I put something on the top (like a pretty china plate) so it could sit on a table or buffet? Should I attach chain or wire somehow so it could become a hanging "chandelier"? Should I live it just as it is? Opinions please.

Here are a couple other things I washed, but did not paint. Some things really are okay without spray paint!

One morning on the way to take the kids to school I saw this fan sitting on the curb with someone's trash. So, I stopped and picked it up. It felt a little strange. I've never "curb shopped" before. Have you?

These roller skates came from an estate sale. I cleaned them up and sprayed some sealer on them because they were a bit rusty. Then I reattached the leather straps and put them in the booth. I have a little sports & recreation section in my booth right now, so I thought these fit right in.

Okay, time to get off the computer. Trying to get some things caught up around the house today. No thrift stores, no garage sales..... Just staying home.

{Oh, visit the earth, ask her to join the dance! Deck her out in spring showers, fill the God-River with living water. Paint the wheat fields golden. Creation was made for this! Drench the plowed fields, soak the dirt clods With rainfall as harrow and rake bring her to blossom and fruit. Snow-crown the peaks with splendor, scatter rose petals down your paths, All through the wild meadows, rose petals. Set the hills to dancing, Dress the canyon walls with live sheep, a drape of flax across the valleys. Let them shout, and shout, and shout! Oh, oh, let them sing! Psalm 65:9}

Let There Be Light

My parents visited from Colorado this past weekend. Time always goes way too fast when they are here. Mom and I try to hit as many garage sales, thrift stores and antique stores as possible. We didn't make any fantastic purchases, but did find a few good garage sales. Mom also helped me spiff up the antique booth just a bit for spring. That reminds me, I need to share some pictures of the booth. I haven't done that in a while. I will take my camera next time I go in.

I always seem to have a list of projects for my dad. He could stay for two weeks and I would still probably have things on the list. It seems to be never-ending. Dad got several things done for me. My favorite is my new light above the kitchen sink. I handed him an old flour sifter I had picked up at the thrift store and said, "I need this to be a light fixture."

He did it and I love it! The light that was here before was just too modern for my taste. I wanted something unique. It also needed to be inexpensive.
For less than $5 I think I got a pretty great light. Now I can really see all those dirty dishes in my kitchen sink.

Yesterday (and the past several days) it was around 80° here. Beautiful! Today the high is supposed to be 53° and rainy. We need the rain, so I really can't complain. We just got spoiled with such warm weather for a few days.

I took Sweet Girl to the dentist last week. She has a baby tooth that isn't coming out even though the permanent teeth are coming in. It is causing some problems. I should have taken her in quite some time ago. Getting her to stop throwing up just seemed a bit more important. Anyway, when I finally did call to make an appointment it was almost a month before she could get in. That was last week. The dentist was very nice but said there wasn't much she could do. No surprise, really, that we need to take her to Children's to get the tooth pulled. Guess what? They can see her on May 20th! That is more than two months away. Now what am I supposed to do? It is still better than when I called Children's to get her in for an eye exam. The nice lady on the other end of the line said, "We are booked up until the middle of next YEAR." Yikes!

Sorry about that rambling. That is just where my mind is this morning. Now I need to get my mind back to laundry and housecleaning. (How many times have I ended my posts this way? Way too many......)

{And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. Genesis 1:3-4}

Seeing Red

We live in a fairly small town. So, when I needed some red spray shortly after we moved here I had two choices - WalMart and Ace Hardware. I didn't want bright red and I didn't want burgandy. I was having trouble finding just the right shade of red.

Then I found "International Red" (as in International tractors). Yes, this paint is meant for farm implements, but it has become my favorite spray paint. I've been through three cans now.

Last weekend I spent some time doing some "trash to treasure" projects for my antique booth. This little chalkboard was my favorite project. It was actually a mirror (in fact I just turned the mirror around and painted the chalkboard paint on the back). The wood basically had no finish left. I just got my spray paint and painted away. I love how it turned out and wish I would have kept it. Too late. It sold a couple days after I put it in the booth.

Here are some other projects. Sorry about the bad lighting. There is a very large picture-turned bulletin board, a picture-turned chalkboard, a metal tray-turned chalkboard....

....a little red camp stool and this mini message board with cute little red clothespins. I don't know what it is supposed to be. I just thought it would be fun to clip pictures, recipe cards, etc. to. When I bought the camp stool it was dirty and the seat was torn. I painted it and then used this fun webbing from WalMart for the seat. Love that webbing! It is like 62 cents/yard and I have seen some really fun projects with it here in blogland.

Garage sale season is starting to pick back up here. Yeah! On Friday afternoon I stopped by one and found some great (and much needed) clothes for the boys. Like-new Levi Silvertabs for the 11 yr old - $1, American Eagle cargo shorts - $1, like-new Old Navy dress pants for the 8 yr. old - 50 cents! I was excited about those purchases, but this is what really made my heart skip a beat....

Seven sheets of vintage valentines! Aren't they incredible?! I will keep some and sell some. Love 'em!

Well, I've got to get off the computer. Laundry to do. House to clean. Soup to get in the crockpot. Busy, busy!

{"Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool." Isaiah 1:18}

Baby Be Blessed

We got home from the hospital about 6:00 last night. Sweet Girl was very happy to be home. It was so good to see her smile. Other than being tired, she has had a good day. We are just praying that she continues to feel good.

I mentioned the other day about God's perfect timing. That is what I want to share with you today. I've been thinking about how I can make this a short story, but I'm not sure I can do that. Bear with me....

I love this big blog world. One of the blogs I read regulary is Bring the Rain . What an inspiration! A few weeks ago Angie posted about some sweet little dolls that her daughters had received. That led me to Baby be Blessed and I quickly added the blog to my Google Reader. You've just got to look at these precious dolls! Laura and Tina,the fabulous women who create the dolls do a "Yay Free Friday" giveaway each week. On January 16 I entered with this comment: "Ahhhh, how sweet! My sweet girl would love her - and she could certainly use a blessing right now. Rett Syndrome is not being kind to her little body." We were in the midst of the horrible vomiting and it was taking its toll.

Well, I didn't win, but another comment caught the attention of the gals at Baby be Blessed. Betty of Simply Southern said, "just beautiful! if you pull my name please send it to the commenter who wrote this ...commenter # 15 i believe...sounds like she needs a sweet blessing!" I don't know Betty and I knew nothing about this comment until January 25.

On that night I was tired and discouraged. Sweet Girl had started vomiting again that evening after having been in the hospital the previous weekend and supposedly on the mend. (Remember, I told you I couldn't make this short.) Before going to bed I sat down to read my email. An email from Laura at Baby be Blessed caught my attention. Next thing I knew I had tears streaming down my face.

Laura had visited my blog after reading my comment and Betty's comment on her blog. She emailed me to see if Sweet Girl could be a part of their Give a Blessing program. God is so good! When Laura sat down to email me she didn't know Sweet Girl was sick again. She didn't know how weary I was. God knew!

As we headed to the hospital on Tuesday I was comforted by the knowledge that there would soon be many people praying for my Sweet Girl. A blessing, indeed! I would love for you to visit Give a Blessing to learn more about this wonderful ministry. Thank you, Laura and Tina. May you be blessed abundantly in return. Also, blessings to you, Betty!

{From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. John 1:16}

Hang It Up!

Man, I've been struggling with what to blog about lately. I haven't been creating much, so nothing to show you there. I haven't been buying much, so nothing there either. Hmmmm.... I guess I will show you some of the unique towel hooks/hangers I have in my house. You will see that I obviously like to repurpose unusual items.

This is supposed to be used to measure/mark skirt hems. But I needed something to hold a towel next to my kitchen sink.
It works great! Please excuse the stains on the towel. It is "vintage" and I did not succeed in getting the stains out after I bought it from a garage sale. I still like it.

The next one is in our master bathroom. There was a boring brass hook for the hand towel. It wasn't working for me. This "hook" came from a box of junk from an estate sale. I'm not sure of its original purpose, but I just couldn't toss it. I knew I would think of something to use it for.

Again, I don't know what this is supposed to be. I picked up a bag of them at the thrift store thinking they were interesting.

I nailed it to the side of the cabinet and it "grasps" the towel perfectly.
This one isn't quite as unique, but it is one of my favorites. I had this great piece of trim and I am always looking out for these old hooks. Put them together and it makes a great accent (and towel holder) in the kids' bathroom.

Remember to always think outside the box when you come across a unique item. You just never know what you might be able to do with it!

An award! I got an award! Cindy at Tinta's Treasures gave me "The Lemonade Award." It is awarded to bloggers who show great attitude/gratitude. Wow! How sweet that she thought of me. Thank you, Cindy!

Now I am supposed to pass this along to 10 more bloggers. Yikes! How do I do that? I read a lot of blogs. I think they are all great. My brain is still sort of mush after my crazy week, so I am going to hold off on this one. That is bad, isn't it? Sorry. I'll do some thinking on this and try to get back to it next week.

Again, I want to thank everyone for their kind words and prayers for Sweet Girl. She had a great day at school today. So nice to see her smiles again!

{Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. Colossions 3:16}

Eight Years Ago...

Very early in the morning, eight years ago today I went into labor with baby #2. No big deal except that I was at home in KS and hubby was at a conference in WY. I wasn't due for three more weeks, but I guess the baby had his own opinion on that. So, I got my three year old son out of bed, drove him across town to my dear friend's house and then drove myself to the hospital. A while later another sweet friend came to the hospital to be with me. She stayed by my side and was right there....

...when this guy entered the world. He was healthy and strong. That was definitely a day to give thanks. I had a healthy baby and I had wonderful friends who were there for me. In case you were wondering, hubby got home a couple hours after delivery.

Here is a quick little project I did a couple of weeks ago. I've had this old screen window (minus the screen) for several years. In this house I decided to hang it in the dining room, but it was looking pretty bare.

I found these chippy old plates at the thrift store. I'd never seen them do this. The white "paint" has come off around the edges and the underneath is black. Most people would probably look at them and think "trash", but not me.

I turned them into "treasure" with a few simple steps. I took a couple old dictionary pages and printed "Give thanks" on them. Then I just cut them out in a circle and glued them onto the plates, added plate hangers and ribbon and hung them in the windows. I do think I still need a punch of color somewhere, but at least I have more than a bare wall now. Not bad for a quarter! I think that is what I paid for the two plates. Everything else I already had.
This old scale came from the antique store. Yes, sometimes I do a little shopping of my own when I stop by to check on my booth. It was half price and I just thought it would be fun in my kitchen. It looks good outside with the pumpkins and gourds, too!



Just in case you think all I ever buy is things for the house or to resell in my booth, I thought I would tell you what I got for $20 at a garage sale on Friday. For boy #1: 1 hoodie, 1 jacket, 4 shirts and 2 pair of pants (all Aeropostle or American Eagle). For boy #2: 1 hoodie. For Sweet Girl: 1 skirt, 1 shirt, 1 pair of shorts and 4 pair of pants (all Children's Place). I have no idea how I would afford to clothe three kids without garage sales, thrift stores and hand-me-downs. I promise you they wouldn't be wearing Aeropostle and American Eagle!


I hope each of you has a wonderful week. Hubby is out of town all week, so it is going to be a long one for me!

{"She has no fear of winter for her household, for everyone has warm clothes." Proverbs 31:21}

BINGO

I hope you are not completely bored with reading about my garage sale, tag sale, thrift store finds. It's just who I am. Very few things in my house actually came new from a store. It has been interesting decorating this house. There are things I've just had stashed away in a closet that now I am using. They didn't "work" in the old house and they are perfect here. I guess that is why I don't feel bad about buying something (super cheap) and putting it away for awhile. There is always "someday."

In my last post I told you I would share more of my bargains from the weekend. On Sunday I went back to the estate sale for 1/2 price day. I went after church and got a bit dirty digging around in the junk with my church clothes on.

I found this big stack of BINGO cards. You can't really tell in the picture, but there are probably at least 80 of them. I will keep some to use on cards, journals, etc and also may sell some.

Remember my big basket with the old toys and puzzle pieces in it? Well, guess what I found on Sunday?

The puzzle box with the rest of the pieces! Can you believe that? My 7 year old son put it together. I kept telling him that I was sure there would be pieces missing. He was so excited when he got done. There were even a couple pieces where the little "tabs" were broken off, but they were still there. Amazing! The copyright on this puzzle? 1915.

There were these piles of junk outside. Old tools. Broken things. Dirt! Nevertheless, I decided to dig a little. This is where I got my church clothes dirty. Down underneath a bunch of stuff I found this old scrapbook and the pretty little blue composition book. I also got another big scrapbook that I will have to share later.
I think I paid 50 cents for this blanket. My favorite color combo - blue and brown. I actually looked at it the first day but it was so crowded and crazy that I couldn't open it up and really examine it. There are a few small spots and a little tear. Not bad.

Are you really bored now? Sorry. I'm not quite done.

Check out this vintage dress! Sorry for the bad picture. Hopefully if you click on it you can see the details better. The picture also looks funny because the dress is hanging in front of my metal star. Anyway, it is a navy blue dress with white stars and red stitching along the bottom. It also has a white belt (not pictured). No idea what I am going to do with it. Again, for 50 cents I couldn't resist!

Had to sneak in a picture of my Sweet Girl! Notice that she is actually almost looking at me? I bought this pillowcase "shirt" at a garage sale on Saturday. I know, it is probably supposed to be a dress for a toddler. I decided it made a nice little summer shirt. Has anyone ever made these pillowcase dresses? I have some pretty pillowcases. Guess I should give it a try sometime.

Okay, okay. Just a few more things. I promise.

A Big Ben clock. Thought I had it working for a while, but it quit. Still looks cool.
A little wooden table. It is really a bit low for my entry way but that is where I have it for now.
And a couple more aprons (above and below). Did you know that you can never have too many vintage aprons? Just checking.
That's it! Until next time....

{"The servants who are ready and waiting for his return will be rewarded. I tell you the truth, he himself will seat them, put on an apron, and serve them as they sit and eat!" Luke 12:37}