Tea Cart and other Goodies!

I finally got the tea cart painted. It still needs some touching up in a few areas, but I wanted to get a picture up. Here is what it looked like before.

And here is how it looks with white paint. I started with kilz primer and then used an exterior white paint. It took a few coats because the exterior paint seemed a little thinner. I've been painting for years, but I haven't used exterior that much.

You may remember that fabulous garage sale that I went to a couple of weeks ago. Well my inlaws were kind enough to bring down the items I left in their garage. So here are a few more finds.....and yes, there is still more that I will share another time.

I love this ice cream chair. I plan to put it outside with a plant on it.

I am so in love with this table and can't wait to paint it white! I have been looking for a side table like this for a long time.

This vanity chair was only $1. I plan to paint it and recover the seat.

We only have 4 dining chairs and so when we have company, we have to sit on stools. I bought 2 of these chairs so that we don't have to use the stools again. I'm going to paint them white and recover the seat in something fabulous.

This iron chandelier was only $1 as well. It is going to look so cool with a paint job. I'm still debating whether to keep it or sell it on craigslist. I guess we'll just have to see.

So I've really added to my already very long project list. At this rate, it's going to be a couple of years before I get stuff finished. I love doing it though and doubt I'll ever change...lol.

On wed I am leaving for Canada to visit my sister. So for the next 2 weeks, I will be blogging from her house and will share pictures of her fabulous cottage!

Roses & Hydrangeas

My teacart is almost finished and I should have before and after pictures soon. I hope I'm not boring you with all my rose pictures. I'm just so thrilled with how they are doing, can you tell I'm new at growing roses??

My plan was to dry the hydrangea blooms on the bush, but the japanese beetles showed up and started munching on them. So, I decided to bring them in and dry them that way.

Parasol and Paper Swap!

I received my swap package from Kerryanne English today. Make sure and check out her blog! The swap hostess is Shannon at Paint Mine Pink!

What a treat!! She sent me a copy of her book Shabby Doodles, music paper that she painted roses on, and beautiful tag with a parasol painted on it, purple blank notecards, chocolate, A gorgeous hand painted hanging of a girl holding a parasol, and some gorgeous faux cupcakes.

Here's a closeup of one of the cupcakes....yummy! Kerryanne is definitely talented!

Thank you so much Kerryanne!! I hope you get my package soon and I hope you love it as much as I love yours!!

I am trying to pick a fabric to recover the stool I got at the garage sale. Please help me! Which option do you like best??

Option 1 - This fabric is quite stiff, so I don't know how easy it would be to work with.

Option 2 - This fabric has a light green background. I hope you can see it in the pic.

Option 3 - This fabric is gorgeous...but I was just wondering if it was "too white" when you compare the color of the legs.

Since I don't know how to do a poll, please leave a comment and tell me which one you like best. Remember you can click on the pictures to make them bigger.

Thanks!!

Thursday Tips!

The first tip for day is an easy way to clean your glass or hard to clean bottles. Just fill with water and drop a denture cleaning tablet down. Let it sit for awhile and then rinse out. Your glass will sparkle. You can also use this to clean your coffee pot, it gets rid of those hard to clean coffee stains.




The next tip has to do with these...

A tip that I heard years ago and my sister recently reminded me of is when planting your roses (or tomatoes), plant a whole ripe banana right in the soil with them. You can also just use the peels if you want to. This will provide the rose with potassium and I also heard it helps keep the bugs and disease away. Here's how my roses are doing with the bananas. Keep in mind, these have just been planted a few weeks ago.

This is the picture I showed you from Monday....when I came back from our weekend trip.



Here is how they looked on Tuesday...



This is Wednesday...



And today!



I have not used any fertilizer, rose food, or insect repellent since I planted them. They are doing just great and I couldn't be happier!

Score!

It's been another rough week with my back, but I finally feel like I'm on the mend. I just need to make sure I don't get over confident and do more damage.

Anyways, this weekend we went to Warsaw where my inlaws live and they had a village wide garage sale that they do every year. Well this year it was fantastic!! It's becoming a tradition to do this with my sister in law Karri and I hope we keep doing it every year. Plus there are a ton of flea markets in this area along with my favorite one because their prices are wonderful.

So here are some goodies that I picked up this weekend!

This is a grouping of the pillows and lace runners and doilies that I bought.

I just fell in love with this vintage apron. Aren't the colors beautiful??

This step stool is going to be just perfect in my outdoor room or garden with some potted plants on it. I don't even have to paint it!

I just love the patina on this small cart. Another great addition to the outdoors.

This stool is just gorgeous. I can't wait to recover the seat!

I have always wanted one of these magazine racks...but they go for quite a bit of money on ebay. I was so happy to find this at the flea market.

I've been saying that I need more clocks and even though it's plastic, I just love the green color!

This is just a fraction of what I got this weekend. I will post more a little later. However, I had to leave quite a few items at my inlaws. Yes, I endured quite a bit of mocking for all my purchases, but ya know what?? It was worth it!!! I got such great deals! The downside is that I really added to my already long list of projects. I am going to be Sherwin William's best friend!

When I got home, I looked at my roses and couldn't believe what happened over the weekend. Take a look!

Look at all the buds! I counted 30 and over 25 on my other rose bush. I am soooo excited!!

I was also tagged last week by Tales from an OC Cottage. So here we go...

Here are the rules:
1. link back to the person who tagged you. `
2. post these rules on your blog.
3. share six unimportant things about yourself.
4. tag people at the end of your entry.

Here are 6 unimportant things about me...

1. I don't like my food to touch
2. I can't move my pinky toe
3. I actually can believe it's not butter
4. I can now actually hear the Canadian accent
5. I love game shows
6. I've never seen It's a Wonderful Life

I'm not going to tag anyone, but if anyone wants to share 6 unimportant things about themselves, I'd love to hear it!

Patio Room - Phase 1

I can't even put into words how exciting it was to finally get the bed put together and get the furniture outside. I sewed the mattress cover and all the pillow covers except the solid pink one. I haven't sewn in 10 years and this was the first time I've never used a pattern. All in all, it went quite well. So this is just a pic of the corner. I still have more decorating and tweaking to do, but that will be in phase 2....which will be in the next couple of days.

Getting Closer!

I'm sorry I've been so quiet....I put my back out last Sunday and was on restriction all week. Man, did that hurt. It's still sore, but at least I can walk on my own now. Ok, on to better stuff.

A big thank you to Carolyn at Mountain Meadows. I won her Cottage Charm Giveaway and received the package on friday. In it was a beautiful pillow, some yummy chocolate covered toffee, a gorgeous mug with notepads, and some beachy wallpaper border.

Here's a close up of the pillow.

After all the rain and storms we have had, plus the factor of my back and not being able to move, we finally were able to paint the patio floor of the outdoor room. I just love the color! Now I can start putting things together.....wahoo. Of course we are expecting all kinds of rain and storms tomorrow...sigh.

Here is what the metal daybed looks like after I painted it. Don't ya just love our field of clover??

My newest acquisition...a wood teacart. I found this at a flea market a few weeks ago and while it was marked at a good price, I still couldn't afford it. Well, it was one of those items that I kept thinking about and called to see if it was still there. Not only was it there, but they had marked down the price by quite a bit....what a steal! Oh boy...more painting to do!

Cottage Charm Giveaway Winner!

I used a random number generator and out of 147 entries, it picked #2....which means the winner is Cindy from My Romantic Home! Congratulations Cindy!

If you haven't had a chance to check out Cindy's blog, you must visit it soon. It's full of decorating ideas and refurbishing techniques.

Thank you to all who entered the giveaway. This was my first and I had so much fun. I will definitely be having another one soon.

Also, a big thanks to Kim at Twice Remembered Cottage for hosting this Giveaway. It was such an opportunity to find other blogs and meet other women who love the cottage lifestyle.