weekend fun and wall decorating dilemma

Remember my friend that moved away a couple of weekends ago? We met up for

breakfast on Saturday morning. These zinnias in front of the restaurant caught my

attention. They're one of my favorite flowers.To me, they are the epitome of cheer 

 and summer and I smile whenever I see them.

On Sunday, me and my aunt spent the day in the city of Elgin, which is about 35 miles

northwest of Chicago, on the Fox River. We walked around the downtown area, going

into different shops (spent a lot of time in a bookstore!) and having lunch in one of

those American pub-type restaurants.

 One of the shops we went into was Retro A Go-Go, which carries cool things from the 

1940's - 1970's. It was a lot of fun to look around.

The only thing I bought was this Snoopy jelly glass for Brian ~ he loves the

Peanuts, especially Snoopy.

Moving on to household stuff...I had showed you all how I put a shadow box on

the wall space beside the front door. I decided after I hung the shadow box

up, that I didn't like it in that space after all.

So, I played around and here's the new look I decided on. I'm not 100% satisfied

with this arrangement either, but it'll do for now. I at least like it better than the shadow

box. My "Big Plan" for this area anyway is to get rid of the console table and utilize

a storage bench instead - the kind you can sit on to take your shoes on and off.

 Then, I'd like to hang a long piece of reclaimed wood on the wall and add different 

kinds of hooks and knobs on it to make a coat rack.

All items were things I had on-hand and all were thrifted.

The fireplace wall is driving me crazy. I've had two black and white pictures hanging

there for over a year. I never did like them. They're not my taste. My cousin had 

purchased them for me, thinking I'd like them and that they'd be perfect for the

fireplace wall. Well, I guess they are in regards to size and fit. But they're too stark

and modern for my taste and decor; plus the photos don't mean anything to me.

I don't have any connection to New York.

In my last post, I had showed you the picture of the mirror that I thought might look

nice over the fireplace, but I wasn't sure if it'd be big enough. I had Brian hold it

up while I took a couple of pictures.

Poor guy, lol.

 

Whaddya think? Too small, isn't it?

But I don't want to hang those black and white pictures back up! And Brian

wants to keep the mirror because he really likes it. He said, "Surely we can

use it somewhere!" Ever feel like ripping an entire room apart and starting

all over again?!

the cutest home decor in an unlikely place

I was picking up some groceries at Meijer (grocery chain here in northern IL) the other

day and walked past their home goods section. Bright yellow markdown tags

 and orange clearance tags caught my eye, so I decided to see what they had.

 Who knew they had all kinds of cute stuff, such as these chalkboard label canisters

 with pretty aqua tops? 

I'm totally crushing on these owl bookends, but holding out. Maybe if they mark

them down a little more?

I've seen similar vases on the Anthropology web site - for a lot more money.

Pretty yellow pitcher and bowl.

 

Great assortment of cool clocks.

 

Owls, pigs, and birds!

 

 Even demijohn bottles.

 And then there's this mirror. I've had my eye on this mirror for over a year. The colors

are perfect for my living room and I could picture it on my fireplace wall. But the 

$110 price tag always kept me from buying it. Now it's marked down to $70. Still

too much money for my budget. Wheeelll...the other day I was at a friend's house

and I was telling her about this mirror. She said she had a 15% off coupon (through

a Meijer credit card - which I don't have), plus she gets a 10% discount through her

daughter who works at Meijer. She asked me if I wanted her to pick up this mirror for

me, using the discounts...hello! So now the mirror is sitting at her house and I have

to go pick it up tonight.

I'm just hoping that the mirror is the right size. It might actually be too small.

Time shall tell! 

inspiration from friends: a shadow box and glass bottles

 Inspired by a shadow box display next to a door at a friend's house, I decided to try

somewhat of the same thing at my house. My friend had several shadow boxes, but I only

 have one. I took down the piece of artwork I had by the door and put up the shadow

box. Turns out I like the display itself, but not the location. Good thing I used 3M 

Command strips and not nails!

 The piece of artwork that I had taken down was this metal bird piece on the left. Again, 

not crazy about the new location, but that's OK...you can play around with moving artwork 

on the walls when nail holes aren't involved. 

Notice anything different on the top shelf of the bookcase?

 I'm always inspired by the fun decor at Art and Sand. I love her collection of glass

bottles and how she hangs tags and charms from them. I found wire-wrapped flowers

and vintage keys in my stash of home decor and used those to decorate my bottles.

I used a lone glass bottle as a bookend on the second shelf. 

 

I love the cover of this Birdsong book. I found the book at Savers and bought it

for the beautiful artwork on the cover. 

I hope you find joy and inspiration all around you and carry it home with you, too. 

Partying with Green Willow Pond ~ What We Accomplished Wednesday. 

 

a cottage, farms, and a baby

 So there's been a lot going on since I've last talked to you all. Don't worry, it's all good.

 Just a long, busy extended weekend. I'll warn you ahead of time - this post will probably
 be quite lengthy and photo heavy, so grab your favorite drink and make yourself
 comfortable. 

Last Thursday, my former yoga-teacher- turned-friend invited me out to her new house for

 a visit. She and her husband recently downsized into an old cottage that they're
 completely rehabbing. I have a pretty good feel for what someone's house is going to
 be like, just from knowing the person. My friend is beautiful, charming, artsy, and mindful
 - and her house reflects the same. I was so busy taking in every detail of her gorgeous
 cottage, that I didn't even think to ask her if I could take pictures. So I took a few of hers
 from her online album. This is the cottage's one and only bathroom...

This huge upstairs loft became their bedroom. I wish I had a picture of it with all

her furnishings and decorations in it. The room is so beautiful that I told my friend,

"I would never leave this room!"

 

This is her kitchen before everything was moved in, too. She painted all the cabinets

a light creamy brown (has a tint of green), then painted the insides of the top cabinets

and left them open.

 

 

The kitchen boasts the 1960's stove which still works just fine! There's a vintage

fridge, too, but I don't have a photo of that.

 

 

On Friday, we were 2-1/2 hours north in Wisconsin at our church's annual Bible

Camp. We don't go anymore, but we like to head up there on the last day to visit

with some people - most especially, one of my dearest friends who lives in Canada

but yet makes the trek to Wisconsin every year to attend this camp. It's really the only

time I ever see her. And did I take any photos of her? Or have someone else take a

photo of the two of us? Of course not. 

Tim came home for the long weekend and on Sunday, the two of us went on a

photography adventure. The weekend before when I had driven out to my best

friend's new house to help her unpack from her move, I passed an abandoned

barn "out in the middle of nowhere". I made a mental note when I passed it, that

I would love to go back and photograph it one day. And I knew Tim would love

to take pictures, too. I still only have my point-and-shoot, but I do the best I can with

 what I have. We started off by taking pictures of the outside of the barn and
 surrounding property. I wish I knew the story behind this barn and land...it looks like
 there might've been a tornado or a fire.

 There was obviously once a house on the property, too. We found the crumbling

remains filled with water.

 The inside of the barn was really creepy. There were a lot of stuffed animals and

dolls lying around in piles of garbage.

 There were old license plates hung on the walls...

and even a Christmas wreath still in place.

 

 On the drive back home, we stopped at another farm to take photos. Look at

all this beautiful, wide-open farm land. It's so beautiful in the summer. You can tell

how hazy and humid it was that day though.

 And then my wonderful, long weekend was completed today by a visit from this

cutie patootie. His mom, Rachel is like my niece. Rachel's mom and I were best

friends from our last year in high school until our late 30's. Rachel and my oldest

son, Phil (who passed away almost five years ago, for those of you who don't know)

were born only two weeks apart. Me and Rachel's mom spent a lot of time together 

back in those days, plus I babysat Rachel while her mom worked. Anyway, Rachel

got married five years ago and moved to Canada, so I hardly get to see her anymore.

And now she has a baby! Rachel, her husband and the baby are in town right now,

so I finally got to hold and kiss this little guy. I wonder how Phil would've felt that his

best childhood friend was already a mom. I think he would've gotten a kick out of 

being "Uncle Phil".

i'm on a mission

I have been on a real getting-rid-of-stuff binge. I think I was inspired by a friend

of mine who just moved...she threw a lot of stuff out while she was packing up

her house. Nothing like moving to make you realize you've accumulated and held

 on to far too many things. So far, I've gone through my bins of household decor 

and have six bags of stuff for donation - and that doesn't include the two bags

 I've already taken to Goodwill! 

Today I moved on to the freezer. This upright freezer has been in our basement

for nine years. With it just being Brian and I living here now, this freezer hardly

had anything in it. Just a waste of space and electricity. So I cleaned it out and

it's going up for sale on a local Facebook page.

 I took the few things from the upright freezer and everything out of the small

kitchen freezer and laid it all out on the kitchen table according to meat, bread,

veggies, nuts, grains, etc. so that I could put like items together in the freezer.

 Side note: see that 3 Musketeers bar near the back, left? That's not for me or Brian

 (neither one of us eat those)...it's for mice! We sometimes get mice in our basement 

and I read that mice love chocolate, especially 3 Musketeers candy.  Go figure, right?

 It's certainly worth a try next time we set traps.

 At first I didn't think everything would fit in the small freezer...

but it did. Good thing we aren't big meat eaters.

Speaking of my friend who moved, this is one of my best friends...and she's lived

only a few blocks away from me for many years. She's now over an hour drive

due to a new job. While I'm very happy for her (new job - and a great one!, new

house, new car, dumped the boyfriend, lol), I'm really going to miss seeing her often.

I helped her move into her new townhouse this past weekend and was really impressed

by her new digs. This is the open living and dining room space. You can't see it

in the photo, but there's a beautiful bay window in front of her table and chairs. I love

the two small windows flanking the fireplace. I told her she needs some little plants

in those windows. Her cat, Vieve made himself right at home. The other cat, Barnaby

was terrified and hid under the nightstand in my friend's bedroom all day. Oh - her

bedroom is bigger than my master bedroom and has a walk-in closet the size

of a small bedroom! Her place also has a basement, garage, and a community

workout room and pool. I think she's going to be very happy here.

I'm now back to the basement and back to work. Next order of business is

going through more household decor (tchotchkes, glassware, dishes) lining

the shelving units. Have a beautiful day! 

Sharing with Cozy Little House - Tweak it Tuesday.