My Dining Room,Before and Work in Progress....

I'd love to say this was a "before and after" but we're not 100% there just yet.The ugly carpet needs to be ripped up and hardwood floors put down and then new border and trim need to go up.The trim is obviously the cheaper thing to do but its pointless to do until the new floors go down.One of many of those home remodel conundrums.And artwork!I've yet to find any vintage art for the dining room so the walls are still bare.

Now I feel bad saying "Before" even as the true before is cheap paneling(Yes,my poor sweet little 1937 home was the victim of a 70's remodel!).But my husband had that ripped down before I showed up with the kids.And for almost 6 months it stayed like this.


Torn up water stained wallpaper ,not a great look.




Now growing up I lived in a house that was constantly under construction and I hated it.It was depressing because it was ugly and embarrassing to have friends over.Luckily my remodeling though slower than I want isn't going to take my kids whole childhood.The reality is these things cost money(which I don't have)and curses to you HGTV for making me think magic could happen in 30 minutes with a team of hot carpenters!Where are my hot carpenters?!But I'm not doing too bad for it only being me and the help of my husband here and there.The big projects are the kitchen and bathroom but we'll have to hire professionals for those areas.

So here is the "work in progress" after.And before anyone yells at me compared to the first picture the door looks like dark wood that I painted white,no that's not the case.I love real wood and I wouldn't have painted over it but...but....the person that lived here before had painted it a glossy dark brown!Oh my god why??It was bad.I'll have more glossy brown horror stories to share with you as I am able to show off more progress with the house.Oh and I'm sorry for the dark photos,I chose to do this post on a gray winter day.Hopefully when the time has come for the 100% after photos I'll have a nice sunny day to take photos.



The walls were in no shape to paint over and the funds weren't there to put up all new drywall so we went with paintable wallpaper.I chose this textured swirl pattern and then painted it Bermuda Blue.Now,if you don't have a good marriage don't even both trying to put up wallpaper together,I'm not even kidding.Hire a professional.If you and your spouse love each-other as much as my husband do you MAY get out alive with only minor tears,obscenities,and objects thrown involved.


And now for some more detail shots....Oh hey there is my sweet hi-fi!Yes,records at dinner time is the thing to do at my house.



My aqua and gray dinette has been retired down to the basement for now so that my Heywood Wakefield stuff could be brought into the dining room.I'm hoping with the kitchen remodel I MIGHT be able to put it in there if there is room.Sorry little Formica table,I just really,really love my Heywood.



As I've made mentioned before I lost most of my Vernonware Heavenly Days china when we moved.I decided to stop being so "matchy matchy" and go with "if you like it just buy it!" so in the little over a year that I've lived here I've nickle and dimed my china hutch full of lovely aqua colored vintage china!






This is the was the before light fixture in the dining room.Nice leaf pattern and  I am hanging onto it for now for another room to maybe use in.


But then I saw this guy for $1.00 at the thrift and had to pick him up.




So there you have it folks.Now exactly where I want it just yet but a heck of a lot better than before!

Thunderbird Theme

I love when you put a theme together when not even meaning to!Today's outfit was a thunderbird theme.I grabbed my Thunderbird Fashions dress I found at the thrift store for $4.00!Its a little loose at the waist but a belt comes in handy to fix that.






I'm a little stiff here  and in case you're wondering what my face is portraying its cause I was telling Sam to stay out of the photo.He responded my laying down and army crawling towards me,he listens SO well.



Here is a close up of the belt.I scored it for 50 cents at a consignment shop.It has some rust on it but I still love it.Does anyone have any good rust removal tips?I'm open to them!


Oddly out of the many,many shoes I have I do not own a pair of cowboy boots,something I will have to remedy in the near future.When I put on the dress  I was mad at this realization but the next obvious choice was my moccasins which yep,have thunderbirds on them.


As you've noticed I've been very bad about blogging lately so I'm sure its safe to assume this will be my last post of 2012!Let me wish you all a Merry Christmas,Happy Kwanza,Happy Hanukkah,a cool Yule,or Festivus,whatever your cup of tea may be and a very Happy New Year!

Killing Time...

My daughter was invited to one of her friends birthday parties today.While she celebrated her friends day of birth my son,a gal pal,and her son killed time around town thrifting.Today was a true test of thriftiness as once again  I found myself shopping with pocket change.But hey,I'm really good at that and even I amaze myself with what  I can get with next to nothing.Before I show you what I got let me show you what I couldn't have that was teasing me.

Like this couch!Do I need one?No,that doesn't stop be from wanting it though!




This shadow box has haunted me for months,its $45 so I could probably talk him down but I want to actually have $45 to blow before I get up the nerve to ask.




This set needed a good cleaning but was still pretty cool.



Love the glitter fleck in the chairs.


I didn't see a tag on this one and I didn't want to ask because if it was cheap it would just make me that much more depressed that I couldn't snatch it up.I have to tell you as a vintage loving mama these things are great as toy boxes or if you want an ottoman that will store the kids toys they drag into the living room throughout the day that don't ever make themselves back into the room...like sure,you picked it up and put it away but the next day there it is again.



So what did I get with my pocket change?If you follow me on Instagram you already say the sweet Jo Ann Campbell record I scored for 15 cents.My other sweet score?A set of 4 dessert plates,4 saucers,and 4 cups in the blue heaven pattern.You know what my favorite thing is when I see this pattern in thrift stores?Besides that fact that I actually like the pattern I like that Fats Domino "My Blue Heaven" automatically starts playing in my head!So with that playing in my head I wasn't even embarrassed about counting out $6.00 in change (in my defense they're were quarters) to pay for my blue heaven pieces.


That is how it goes in the thrift world.When you don't have a lot to work with you always see a lot of cool things and watch when I go back with money to blow I won't find a thing.Vintage gods are cruel like that sometimes,haha!3pm rolled around and it was time to go back to pick my daughter up from her friends house.Happy to report she had a good time and so did I while I was killing time.

Happy Halloween...

This is the first year I didn't get dressed up or do anything fun with my makeup for Halloween.It was very much a "for the kids" event.They were brave candy hunters this year as it was only in the low 30's when we went out.Our pumpkin we had carved a few weeks prior did not survive the squirrels and I felt bad for our neighbors that the deer had gotten brave enough to knock their pumpkins down from their porch and onto the lawn to devour.





My son knew from the moment we stepped outside that he wanted his hoody on.I was proud of him for staying dedicated to the outfit.Even though the eye patch elastic kept sliding down over his uncovered eye and his hat he kept pushing down till it bent his ears he kept saying it was fine and he didn't need to stop and fix it.




My daughter was a little TOO dedicated to her princess role and refused to wear a coat.Even though I had a fancy vintage one for her.By 5:30pm the cold was too much though and we called it a night.My street didn't have too many trick or treaters so there was still a handful of candy in the bowl I had put out for kids that stopped by our house while we were out.


Can you all believe its November now?This year went by too fast!Hope you all had a safe and Happy Halloween!

Weight Loss and HTML Ineptness ...

Long time no blog.I say that often but this time it wasn't because I just didn't feel like it but because I screwed up my blog pretty bad because I don't understand HTML even a little bit.I was trying to find a template that would allow for wider photos and yeah...I ended up going on a fantastic journey of trial and error.I'm not even sure if this will work as intended so this will be short and sweet.If you follow me on instagram then you've already seen this but like I said due to messing up my blog I haven't been taking a lot of blog intended photos.


Happy to report that even though I'm not quite where I want to be I'm really close this time!I can wear my fancy painted peacock blouse without the buttons pulling and wear a modern size 4 pants!




Here is a close up shot of the blouse.I picked it up at an antique mall when I still lived in Indiana for $3!So happy to be able to wear it again.

First Day of School,Permits,and Sales....

Today was a busy day to say the least.To start the day off it was my daughters first day of kindergarten.I hadn't done preschool so this was literally a first for me letting her out of my sight with anyone other than my mom!She was SO excited though that it made it easier on me.I was brave and didn't start bawling until the bus pulled away with a piece of my heart on it.


After I composed myself it was time to move on with the day.My son woke up with a million "where's sissy?" questions.My husband had taken the day off work to be here for our daughters first day.We got ready and he took me over to the DMV so I could get my permit.I'm 30 and have never had my license.My anxiety gets in the way.I've had my permit half a dozen times but never follow through with getting to the licensed part.Sounds silly to probably most of you but its pretty bad...but I also know I need to conquer my fear so here's hoping I get it done this time around.

I will say it is totally nuts to me to walk into a DMV and have no one in there(definitely not in California anymore)!Unfortunately I showed up 30 minutes before they closed for lunch and they require an hour to take the test.I filled out the paperwork I needed and then went back out to tell my son and husband we had an hour to kill before I could test.



Luckily for me there are a few thrifts in the town next to me where the DMV is located.One was total garbage with a clerk that barely looks up from what she's doing to say "hello" to you.The next was was gold!Unfortunately I only had change on me and wasn't able to do as much damages as I could have easily done.I did with my $4.00 in change manage to score this lovely lamp shade:



And this set of 2 dinner plates,2 bowls,and 2 salad plates:


I had to leave this kitsch-tastic Elvis bust behind...I told myself it was okay cause he was chipped BUT if he is there when I actually have money to spend he will be mine.



Well,I went back to the DMV,took my test,passed.Husband made me drive half way home which was TERRIBLE!My palms were sweating so bad and I wanted to throw up.I kept driving 5-10 miles below the speed limit which royally pissed off the poor bastard behind me.He has plenty of chances to pass me and didn't.When he finally did decide to pass me he made his anger well known is a series of hand gestures and I just smiled cause I wanted to yell "I JUST got my permit,literally JUST got it" so hopefully I didn't ruin his day,he definitely wasn't going to ruin mine.But that is where my anxiety comes from.Not so much myself driving but not being in control of others around me but practice makes perfect...or at least not so  an anxiety riddled weirdo when driving person which is what I am in hopes of becoming.

Okay,well getting back to the plates I scored...when I first saw them I was like "oh Taylor,Smith, & Taylor Cathay pattern,sweet!" but something seemed off and I couldn't pin point it till I got home and went to put them in my Heywood china cabinet next to the already existing few pieces of that pattern when I realized its NOT Cathay!Turned it over and yep,it was Harmony House in the Marimba Bay pattern.Nearly identical pattern just different color combos.




Finally the time came for the bus to bring my baby girl home to me.My son and I waited outside.He kept shouting "Sissy!Where are you?!" As much as his eagerness for his big sister to come home was adorable it was unfortunately short lived as it started POURING rain.I had to run him back inside and grab an umbrella!


Luckily as her bus pulled up the sun popped back out.I don't think I've ever been so excited to see a school bus in my whole life.The only thing better was seeing her face beaming with joy from her first day.Awe,my little gal is growing up too fast.



And now that the excitement of school supplies and clothes is behind me it is time to start back to less than thrilling things like bills so my etsy shop now through next Monday is having a 30% sale!

Dillinger Date Night...

Not this last Saturday but the Saturday before that (let it be said now I fully admit I am a procrastinator) my husband and I had a very rare occurrence happen,we went on a date!We live about 45 minutes away from Little Bohemia so he decided to take me there!Now if you're not a history nerd like me or a John Dillinger fan Little Bohemia is where Dillinger and his gang had their infamous shootout with the FBI.

I wasn't sure what to wear but Bakelite was definitely in order.




We arrived as the sun was setting so it unfortunately didn't leave me much time for photos but I was thrilled when we pulled into the long driveway.


You can't tell in my photos but most of the building is riddled in bullets!







Inside has a small area of things Dillinger left behind.Though it was very busy when we arrived it didn't take too long to be seated.





The food was delicious and the scenery is beautiful.We were right next to the window that views the lake and really nothing says "Romance" like dining next to windows that have been victims of gunshots!





I look forward to going back in the daylight sometime.If you ever find yourself in Wisconsin do make a trip of it!