Pretty Bird

A couple of things I learned over the weekend:

1. The more you value something, the better it tastes to your puppy. The otttoman I painfully re-upholstered must have been delicious.

2. My Baker can argue, pretty convincingly, that Scooby-Doo was actually the bravest one in the gang.

3.Birds are sneaky. They can get into my house somehow without me knowing it.

4. Kids grow up waaay to fast.



Baker turned seven this Sunday. To add insult to injury, he also lost his first tooth.
No, I didn't skimp on a cake, he wanted donuts.
I'll tell you about the bird in a moment.

First, pictures of stuff that left here recently.



Burlap covered shade with handpainted monogram.




A couple expecting their first baby brought me a crib just like this one....



...and it went home like this.

A birthday plate. I did a wedding plate for this girl a while back. Waaay more than 9 months ago for those of you that like to whisper about that stuff.

A little girl baby plate.

Here's today's bird.

I posted about a different bird here.

Lilly was playing with her new babydoll.

As I walked across the room, and a bird swooped over my head.

Naturally, I screamed.

Lilly looked panic stricken, so I shooed her up the stairs empty handed.
She realizes she doesn't have her doll, and starts screaming, "My baby! Save my baby!", like the star of a Lifetime movie.

When the bird is gone, she tells me "I'm so glad the birdie didn't eat my baby's face."

Is she watching Hitchcock and Lifetime movies in the middle of the night?"

I'll never know for sure .

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From My Phone

Last year I took a little weekend trip to Cincinatti, OH. I wrote about it here.
This weekend we get to go back, and I'm super excited. I'm trying to finish up a lot of furniture before I leave, and hopefully I can post pictures when I get back.



I've had a bunch of baby gift orders come in this week. So many babies being born right now. What was going on last May/June???? Did I miss something?




Can you tell this is a bow hanger? Don't you love the nail hole in the picture I was too lazy to photoshop out?




I was going through my phone today, clearing out all the pictures. A lot of the pictures I take are to send to Todd. Just random, daily little stuff, especially when he is out of town.
I thought I would share a few.


I saw a couple of things at Lowe's I wanted to remember.


I think this galvanized light could be really cool in the right place. It could be painted, and even re-wired to plug-in, instead of being hard wired. The price is perfect too.



I thought this table lamp was really great too. I was thinking of it for Baker's new desk (pictures coming very soon), but I went with something I already had. I think this one was under $30 as well.


The dog wearing a t-shirt.


I think he's saying, "Get me out of here."

That t-shirt wearing puppy also likes paint. This is one of the legs of the table seen here. I was painting it, walked away for a moment, and he had licked off the paint.

He also stares at me. I thought this was cute, so I sent this picture to Todd saying so.

A short time later, I sent him this picture with a few choice words about HIS dog.

There is a story to this blurry house.



We pass this house every day going to and from school. The man that lives there is very regularly out on the porch smoking in a very fluffy, comfy robe.
But, the robes change.

He has a green one, and a blue one. We even saw him out once with his wife, and they had on matching white robes. (the short ones....eeewww)

I can understand wearing your robe at 7:30 am. But 2:30 in the afternoon? Weird.

The carpool kids have named him "Robe Man", and spotting him is like seeing an endangered species - very exciting.

We have attempted to take his picture so many times, I swear he knows my car and takes cover. He was out the other day, and the kids begged me to circle back around the block so they could get his picture. He slid inside the door just as Jackson took the picture.

I hope he's not a crafty blog reader.

Everybody Likes Fried Chicken

With another snow day, and a husband in Orlando this week, I haven't really gotten as much done as I would have liked. But, I got pictures of a thing or two.

I painted a family cookie jar.

With the name on the back. (Or front, I guess, depending on how you turn it.)

See Mom's cute pearl necklace and earrings?

I always sell these around Mother's Day.

Take the hint, plan ahead.

One Christmas, I made one for Jackson's teacher with all the students on it. She was able to save it from the flood that devastated the school last year.

Lilly fell in love with this lap tray when I painted it for a birthday gift. I have painted literally thousands of these, and my daughter uses a a gross old green one with nothing painted on it.

She requested a pink one as a valentines gift.

I painted this before Christmas, but posted a picture of it on my Facebook page to sell the other 3 I still have.

And, in the family way, my kids have been doing a little artwork themselves.

These pictures were hanging from the stairway ceiling this morning as I made my way to the garage.

Sorry, Jackson. Cute drawings from your siblings, clever placement, and even the fancy handwriting won't keep you home today.

You know an 11 year old boy really wants something when he busts out the semi-cursive handwriting.

Speaking of writing....

Lilly wrote some of her name in purple marker on Jackson's desk.( Luckily, I am planning on painting it soon anyway.)

I noticed this as I was putting away Jackson's laundry.

Could of been worse. I've never met anybody that doesn't like fried chicken.

Littlebits Designs

Farm Table Before and After

I recently found this table, and I loved the shape. This is the only before picture I have. It was about 5 below zero every time I worked on it, so picture taking was way low on my list. Somewhere below thawing out my toes and fingers.



I painted it in a black, distressed finish, and added a couple of coats of polyeurethane to the top. The new owner has 2 kids, so I'm assuming there will be lots of wiping in it's future.




This next photo was taken at a weird angle in the back of Todd's truck. Thus, the odd placement of the car in the bottom corner.

I wish distressed furniture had been the style when I was little. I remember my mom fussing at us for scratching up the kitchen chairs with the buckles on our shoes.

That sounds really old fashioned doesn't it?

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Pillows on your bed or your head.

I'm smack in the middle of a big ole mess. Baker is moving into Lilly's old room, Lillyis moving into Baker's old room, and all of the 'decor' (I hate that word), from Jackson's room is being moved to Baker's new room.

Confused??
Me too.

I do know that I'm painting Jackson's room gray. He wants it to be "cool", so that seemed like a good place to start.


I'm thinking grays, some brown, creamy white, and pops of color in the pillows, etc.




I'm leaning toward some orange, and maybe a little bit of blue.



I'm in love with pillows from Jonathan Adler.

I'm hoping to mimic them, not pay $98 - $165 a pillow.



They're graphic and simple. Jackson even gave me his approval.
This one was his favorite.


We both liked the peace pillow too.



While looking through the images brought up in my google search for "Jonathan Adler Pillows", I noticed this lady with her pillow on her head. I thought it was odd, but I moved along.





Then I saw these.

Ummm, Did I miss some sort of running joke?
Is putting a Jonathan Adler pillow on your head sort of like taking your picture in front of the Eiffel Tower so that it looks like a hat?



But, brace yourself, this last one was the worst.


This photo was titled "Meditation" . Not what I would have named it....

Yes. That guy is totally nekkid.
(I threw up in my mouth a little while photo shopping over his "personal space"...)

Yes. He has a big fat guy in suspenders and an untied shoes as his spotter.

Yes. That's a Jonathan Adler pillow under his head.

Google Search with care my friends...




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How much can I cram into one post?

Since I haven't put up a blog post since October, I'm going to try to cram in a couple of months at once.

I had a space at the flea market in October. It was sooooo crowded. Crowded with shoppers and vendors. I've never seen anything like it.



I think I got stumped, and just painted everything pink.

If you look closely,to the right, you can see one of the school desks from my trip with Beth to the mile long yard sale.

I sold lots of furniture. And, thankfully, everything that didn't sell, I sold once I brought it home.

I couldn't skip the flea critters...




As usual, my photography is horrible. But, as usual, I was trying to be sly. This lady had an interesting hair style.

All I could think about was Pepe Le Pew.

Okay, you have to look really closely at the next one. I was literally hiding while I took it.

Brave I am not.

Where else, besides the flea market, could you see a the mad hatter and a biker style santa playing checkers under a huge propeller.

I'm just sayin.

Next was Halloween.

I love Halloween, and I'm disappointed every year at how rushed I feel. It's such a busy time of year for me. I would love to have the spookiest house on the block. My sister and I alternate neighborhoods each year for trick or treating. This year was our neighborhood.

The werewolf, soldier, and cowgirl belong to me.

Our kids like spooky movies, ghost stories, etc. (NOT gory or violent stuff, just spooky).

They asked us to take them ghost hunting, so we did. (Making us either really awesome parents or really bad ones.)

Here they are, all ready to go.

Todd took his amp meter (used to test voltage, etc.), telling the children it could detect ghosts.

There is a very old, very spooky, huge cemetary not far from us. We drove in the gates, and as soon as we started up the pitch black hill, Lilly wanted to go home. The boys, however, were still into it.

Todd would slow down, and roll all the windows down. A few times, he and Jackson got out and took pictures.

Baker stayed in the car, but played it cool.

Lilly had long since lost her cool, and stayed in my lap.

Once we were deep into the cemetary, Todd decided to pretend he was lost while the "ghost detector" went wild.

The boys were officially no longer into it.

Once we were on the road home , they were instantly super brave ghost hunters again. They're already asking to go back. Even Lilly.

A few days after Halloween, I travelled to Knoxville for a sale.

Melia, my neighbor that makes adorable clothes, went too.

She had a 3 week old baby with her.

She was a trooper . I was tired, and I only had Todd to look after.

This was a Jr. League of Knoxville sale, and they were the nicest group of women I've ever worked with.

They helped us load and unload. They brought us food and drinks.

They even helped us set up our space. (That could have been because they felt sorry for us--we were a little slow and confused looking during set up)

We sold lots of frames, memo boards, and clothes.



How can you go wrong when you are just a few booths away from The LAST Glue You Will Ever Need??

The following week was Christmas Village.

I don't have any pictures. I don't even remember why I didn't take pictures. It might have something to do with forgetting my camera due to lack of sleep and not really caring anymore.

I have pictures of last year here. That'll have to do.

Christmas came quickly. Not sure why I took a picture of the room before I finished decorating ....



My kids got all kinds of stuff they didn't need, and I enjoyed every minute of giving it to them.

(notice it's still dark outside....)

We had a white Christmas! I don't remeber having one before...

That handsome man is Todd grilling the Christmas steaks in the snow.

We had a special visit from Todd's parents, and for the first time in 16 years, we didn't travel to Ohio.

Why??

We got a puppy.

A sweet, little cuddly brown puppy named Barnaby.

A sweet, little cuddly brown puppy named Barnaby that had no control of his bladder.

At least when you potty train a child you can do it in the comfort of your own home.

I'm pretty tired of standing out in the yard in my pajama pants and coat begging him to pee.

But, I love him anyway, and every boy should have a dog, right?

Just like every little girl should have a pink cap gun and holster of her very own.

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