World's Longest Yard Sale

Vintageswampgirl.blogspot.com and I went to the World's Longest Yard Sale for the first time. We got lost several times despite having 2 GPS! We killed both rather quickly! Thank goodness for the old fashioned printed atlas and map! But the scenery was beautiful and the company was great, even getting lost was fun. Isn't there a country song called "Time Well Wasted"? We met lots of interesting people along the way. I did not have anything I had to have which was great because I only bought things I loved. I added to several collections I already have and started a few more!

I had a hard time deciding between 2 sleds. I had my pick of either for $15. One was smaller and more distressed and the other was bigger and in better condition. I finally decided on the bigger one - with 3 small kids I figure it will be well loved soon enough! I plan on using it on my porch as Christmas decoration and if it ever snows in Alabama letting the kids use it down the hill. The first thing I bought was this great old sign. The seller was a joy to meet. In addition to lots of great signs, he had roller skates with wooden wheels! I feel like he basically gave me the sign for $18! This will go over the door in my garage leading into to my kitchen.
I love old school things and have several chalkboards. I added to that collection with this one for $17. It is in great condition and much less than other ones we saw that were not in as good condition!

And this one for $2! It is hard to see the cute graphics in the picture.

I bought this old board game for $1! I have never heard of it. But I have a collection of framed board games and thought this would be a nice addition on the wall.
2 Printers trays at $8 each, a small fan for the porch that works, 2 new crocs for the kiddos ($10 each), An old Fisher Price house for $5, and a ruler that folds out for $2.
I also got 2 Wade blue elephant figures that I forgot to take a picture of. I think I bargained on everything I got - that was quite fun! And I got local honey and boiled peanuts! What is a country drive without boiled peanuts!?

I hope you enjoyed seeing my treasures. It was a wonderful weekend filled with lots of girl talk and laughter! This post might lead to future posts about my collection of school stuff (chairs, chalkboards, globes...), board games, printer trays, and old toys!

Cupcake Party

Thanks to http://www.betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/ for Tablescape Thursday and http://lbratina.blogspot.com/ for Thrifty Thursday and letting me play along. I love seeing everyones blogs and would love to hear your comments. This table is set for my daughter's birthday party and filled with all my Thrifty finds!

Lily had a tea party/cupcake decorating party for her 6th birthday. She invited a few of her friends to bring their favorite dolls to join the fun. Here we are setting up the dining room table. That is her Bitty Baby (American Girl) sitting in the center on a little wicker chair ($1.50) from the Thrift store in Valley that I spray painted white. The back of each chair is tied with an apron for each girl to take home as a party favor. The chandelier is decorated with pearl dress up necklaces. It is hard to see the tableclothes but they are layers of white and lace vintage tableclothes. The ice cream sundae glasses were from an estate sale a few years ago I think they were $2-3 for a box of them! It is amazing how often we find an excuse to eat ice cream now!
The napkin rings are necklaces for the girls to wear and take home. And a small wand for their dolls are tucked in. The place setting cards are filled with chocolates and shaped like little purses. White napkins are one of my newest collections and seem to dress up every meal. The tea cups and pitchers were collected from several flea market trips and mismatched. The girls loved using "real china" and were so careful that nothing got broken or spilled! One girl even told the others "You need to hold up your pinkie like this..."

The milkglass plates (using them as chargers here) were from an estate sale and a dollar each! The pink plate is paper and has a cute cupcake on it from Target.

This is a 3 layer chocolate cake shaped like a cupcake to match one of the cupcakes on the apron fabric! It was adorable and delicious.

Here is Lily waiting for her friends.

Here is the other cake.... don't you love the cherry on top? This one has stripes and the other one has dots. The cake stand was from an antique store in Valley and was $10 with a domed top that I loved put couldn't use because the cake was too tall! I really liked the scallopped edges.

Lily in her birthday outfit. My talented friend Lynn (check her out at vintageswampgirl.blogspot.com) put the cupcake applique ( a button is the cherry!) on a Target T-shirt and ruffled the jeans. I save all of Lily's older brother's jeans. He seems to always rip a hole at the knees but that makes it a perfect length to ruffle for Lily! And look at the cute apron Lynn made for her! Who wouldn't want to cook looking so cute! (The cupcake fabric is from Hobby Lobby)

Lily and her friends with their dolls and wearing their new aprons. Did you notice that only Lily's apron has ruffles and that her doll (The American Girl Rebecca) has a matching apron? Her friends noticed and were a little jealous!

This party was so much fun! The girls set up a doll picnic, decorated cupcakes, had a tea party, painted tea sets for their dolls, and ate lots of sweets! I will have to do another post about the chocolate fountain! Two hours was not enough time to do all the things I had planned! Oh, to be six again!

Thursday Thrifty Tablescape

This is my first time posting to Tablescape Thursday http://www.betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/ & my second to Thrifty Thursday http://lbratina.blogspot.com/. I have been reading TT for months now and wanting to set my table. But I was at a loss as to how to even start! I am amazed and jealous of all of your beautiful dishes and glasses and silverware! SO I have been paying more attention to tablescape stuff when I am out shopping. It looks more like Fall than Summer but I had to work with the dishes I had and my Dining Room wall color is a terracotta color. I was trying for a gardening/outdoors look. The table is filled with all my thrifty finds! But I am posting a Before picture so you will see that while it is not yet perfect it is certainly better....

Those are my 8 year old's lego creations. He took moving his stuff pretty well. I won't post a picture of his room - covered in legos. And here is the After...
My three year old helped set the table so it is a little off, but how fun that he wanted to help, don't you agree? The small plates are our everyday dishes that we bought for ourselves when we got married (Didnt have the big wedding , so there were no registering for dishes) 13 years ago. The lettuce plates are from TJ Maxx. I bought them a year ago because I thought they were so cute but never used them. The silverware is a gift from my mom. (Thanks mom!) I bought the napkins (World Market) and tablecloth (TJ MAxx, $19.99) to match the wall color.

Here is the Thrifty centerpiece. The wire birdhouse was $1 at a yardsale (I loved it immediately!), the pitcher was in my kitchen (I bought it several years ago at Big Lots for cheap), the scale was off ebay several years ago and $10ish, the fake apples & candles were stuffed in a cabinet, the metal rabbit is from Angels Antiques and left from Easter decorations, the little spray bottle thing was from a yardsale for $2 & the garland of berries was in my closet for some reason. I spent $1 on the birdhouse and the rest of the stuff was stolen from some other part of my house! I love that I could use and display stuff that was in my closets.

Thanks for letting me play along. So, while it isn't perfect, don't you agree it is better than the lego table it once was?

Thrifty Thursday

This is my first time posting to Thrifty Thursday or any type of weekly event. Thrifty Thursday is hosted by Leigh at Tales from Bloggeritaville. I love Antique stores, Junk stores, Thrift stores and Yard sales! I love reading about everyones finds and collections.

I have been on the search for cloth napkins after seeing them on everyone's tablescapes. I want to keep a basket of napkins by our table to use daily. I am on the hunt for white ones that I can clean easily (With 3 kids they will get used and dirty!) I was very excited to find these 6 for $1 at a yardsale. They are square with dots in the corner.

And these, I bargained them down to 6 for $.25! They are not fancy but were a steal! They had some yellowing but after soaking in Oxyclean they looked perfect!

I am trying to get some plates and things for a tablescape. I found these plates that I thought would be wonderful for a tea party, Valentine's, Mother's Day, really any day! There were 6 of them and they say "Abingdon Fine Porcelain China Made in Japan" on the back. I dont know much about plates but they were $1 each which I thought was pretty good.

I started collecting pyrex this year. I only buy them if they are cheap - I see them all the time at antique stores but they can be expensive! I will have to post my collection another time but I found these 2 at the Thrift store for $1.99 each. they didnt have lids but at that price I couldn't pass them up!

And I had to have this painting for my daughter's room from the Thrift store for $1.99. Isnt she sweet? The colors are great and the frame was beautiful too. Those are my treasures this week. Thanks for stopping by, I'd love to hear your comments!

Miles' Room Re -do

I know it has been such a long time since I have posted. I got back from the beach and had lots of things I wanted to do and no time to blog. I also started reading everyone else's blogs and felt overwhelmed! I have started lots of home improvement projects but have not finished most of them! This one still needs some finishing touches but since that will be an ongoing process I thought I would share it now. I wish I had a before picture of this room but I didn't think of that until it was too late (new blogger!). But suffice it to say that the room was a very spec house beige. I wanted to brighten it up and make it fun but this wasn't really what I had in mind. Now let me warn you that the After picture is not for the faint of heart. I let my 3 year old pick his room color - so he picked Orange! Not decorator orange but bright, 3 year old orange! He calls it "Boo Bear Orange," Sherwin Williams calls it "Mandarin." What do you think?! The furniture and bedding is from IKEA. The window treatments are from there too. But they were cheap and cheaply made. So, my dear and talented friend, http://www.vintageswampgirl.blogspot.com/, shortened them from long panels and lined them. Aren't they cute now? Perfect for a little boy! I love the animals on the bedding and think they would be cute painted on canvas and framed - a project for another day... This room doesn't match anything else in the rest of my house. Luckily it is upstairs and I can close the door when company comes! While I realize that I will have to re-paint it if we ever decide to sell, I sure did make my 3 year old happy and that is what is is all about, right?

I Love Purses!

Before children, I used to change purses to match my outfit. Now I use the same purse until it falls apart. (A slight exaggeration.) So, I prefer to have a black or brown purse that pretty much goes with anything. However, my current purse is purple! Did I have a break down or lapse in fashion sense you ask. No, my sweet husband took my children shopping for my birthday and my oldest son insisted that this was the purse "because Mommy likes Purple!" My husband of 13 years who knows me so well tried to sway the children towards a more appropriate purse to no avail. They are more stubborn than he! So, imagine my surprise when I opened my gift. But with 3 darling faces watching me so closely what could I do but exclaim with delight!? I have used this purse every day since. http://www.vintageswampgirl.blogspot.com/ tagged me to show off my current bag.

1. Take a picture. (My friend calls it the "purple people eater"!) Check out all the pockets and dividers. I LOVE that! I carry so much junk it is nice to be able to separate things.

2. Tell how much it cost. It was a gift so I don't know but my husband swore it didn't cost much. I believe him.

3. What is in it? What isn't?! Chap stick, lip gloss, lipstick, face powder, digital camera, video camera, notepad & pen, set of contacts (I am blind as bat), Neosporin spray, Kindle 2 (Amazons eReader), Sugerfree gum (child with braces), mints (coffee breath), keys, wallet, checkbook, pink blackberry phone which my kids call a "Pinkberry", pink iPod, headache meds (I did say I had three kid, didn't I?), & a barrette.

4. Tag others- Being new to blogging, I have no idea how to do this, so consider this your invitation and please let me know so I can be sure to check out your post!

alphabet magnets

Look what I found in a cute little kitchen store. These are the cutest magnets that I have ever seen.

You can get them on Amazon for $10. They are called "alphabet magnutz" and are not only cute but super strong. Wouldn't it be cute to give to a friend? You get 43 letters in all. These are for the kids...really.

in the water

Are you tired of seeing my kids on the beach? While we are here there is not much else to do so you will have to wait to see my other interests until I get home. The weather has been beautiful and we are enjoying lazy days relaxing together. As you can see Lily is in the pool - and it is not heated!

simple pleasures

We spent the whole day at the beach today. I mean 8 hours straight! We totally missed lunch unless you count the grapes, pretzels and cookies we snacked on. As you can see the kids are getting darker and darker (and "Yes, Mom" I did cover them with SPF 50 sunscreen! ha ha) Can you believe how high Christopher is jumping in that top picture? I was taking some cute shots of them looking at the water when he leaped up! The bottom picture is of the sand cake that they made me. They happily played all day together with only their imagination and a few sand toys. I LOVE homeschooling on days like this!

beach routine

Our days here have taken on a lazy routine. We wake up and eat breakfast then head out. I walk and the kids ride their bikes down the bike path about a mile and a half to the lighthouse/playground. It is a wonderful new playground with swings, slides, playhouses, see saws and all kinds of neat things- not the metal structures back in my day! I sit and alternate watching them and reading on my Kindle 2 (Amazon's ereader). They play until I am starving and we ride back, picking up fresh seafood for dinner. We eat lunch then head out to the beach. They have dug in the sand and built elaborate structures and racetracks. They jump in the waves and play until dinner. After dinner they play and color while I read aloud to them. Other days we go to the beach first and then the park. It has been such a blessing to be able to spend time with the kids without having to do anything else. I am wondering why we have so many toys at home when they are so content with so much less. Is it because we as parents find it easier to give them toys than our undivided time? Hmmmm......

Raw Oysters

It has been beautiful here at the beach. Todd and I are sun burnt - are we the only parents who religiously slather our children from head to toe in sunscreen and then go out without any on? We went to the Annual Chili Cook off today and then headed to the beach. Christopher & Lily surfed the waves while Miles played with his trains in the sand. The water was freezing to Todd and I but the kids thought it was perfect. There is nothing more relaxing than a lazy day at the beach watching your kids splash in the water then crash at night. All our kids also tried raw oysters last night! They loved it! Crazy.

first day at the beach

We decided to home school our 3 children this year. To take advantage of this schedule, we are spending the month at the beach. I figure why not "do school" at the beach when rates and crowds are low! (I am going for the learning opportunity not because I love the beach- obviously) So, yesterday we loaded up - I mean we really loaded down the car with everything for one adult, 3 kids, and a dog for a month! And today we went for a walk and played at the beach. It is a little cool for me but the kids didn't seem to notice. I have already collected lots of shells. Anyone have any craft ideas for shells? The two older kids buried themselves in the sand! Our first day has been fun and relaxing - I mean- filled with educational experiments!

Not all who wander are lost.
_jrr Tolkien

my first post

I am totally overwhelmed by blogging. I have no idea how you all have such cute pages and witty insights. But I am going to try to figure this thing out because I can't stand to be 38 years old and already out of touch. I would appreciate any helpful tips anyone has to offer to make my page cuter! I thought my first post would be on the last craft I completed. I love to do crafts. They often don't turn out as well as I imagined they would but there is something very theraputic about getting out the glues and scissors. I have 3 little kids but this craft was for the Mom's only! My friend (who is a talented crafter) and I made scrabble necklaces. I thought they turned out really cute!