Friday Fun Day: Surprise for our Readers

As promised, we have a surprise just for you, our loyal blog readers!

Tomorrow we'll be participating in the Paris Street Market for the very first time. We are so excited to be a part of this popular event and we're sharing the excitement with you...

If you stop by our booth and mention that you read the blog, you'll get 10% off any item we have for sale that day!

It's just our little way of thanking you for following along our journey and supporting our venture. The show opens at 8:00 am at Aspen Grove Shopping Center.

We hope to see you there!

Kandy and Karli

Fall Porch Decorations

I'm really happy with how my front porch turned out this fall. It's my favorite season, so this is the perfect way to celebrate! Mom's post about the fall decor in her house inspired me to finally get this done...better late than never, right?!

I bought two real pumpkins and two fake black pumpkins from Target.

 

I also purchased two orange mums from the garden center down the street. I replaced the pink geraniums that had been in those black planters all summer.

I LOVE the chalkboard panel. I'm happy with how my chalk art turned out. Who knows what it will be come Christmas?!

I simply painted a piece of shelving. You can buy a piece for about $1 from Home Depot if you don't have any scrapes.

These little lanterns came from Ikea. Eventually I'll load them up with pine cones for Christmas!

And the mums!! I love orange mums this time of year!

I hope you're enjoying the fall weather.
~Karli

The Power of White Paint

We were just having a conversation this afternoon about how many white interior paint schemes we've been seeing. The perfect crisp white paint looks clean and serene. And the immediate bonus: any color you choose to use in that room will automatically pop.

Here are some of the examples we've found on Pinterest lately. (Consider following Karli or Kandy on Pinterest to see what's inspiring us.)



Because the wall is white, the headboard almost creates a "frame" for the bedding. Even though the rug, furniture and bedding are dark colors, the room still feels bright! Source



This living room feels comfortable and cozy, yet fresh and clean. Those windows are amazing, right? Source

Sensing a common denominator here? Blue seems to go so well with crisp white. Colors in nature! Also notice how the artwork and frames just bounce off the wall. What a great way to make the pictures and artwork you've chosen really shine!  Source

This is actually from a blog Karli started following for hair inspiration. The jewelry display draws the eye in. You notice every detail like its in high def. Look at the sequins on that pillow. Source

Wow. So simple, yet so impactful. There is actually very little going on here, but each item is bold against the white background. (Those black doors keep showing up!) Source

Hopefully this has inspired you to consider a bright, clean white as one of your next "colors" in a room.

~Kandy and Karli

Quick Change Artist: Master Bedroom Refresh

Our house has a lot of gray, black, white and green. Brent has voiced this to me on several occasions. So after giving it some thought, I realized one of the easiest rooms to update would be our master bedroom. It had green pillows and a green candle. That's really all the green. Here's a glimpse of what it looked like.

Two green pillows and a black and white damask pillow.

 

I've been thinking about adding more white to the bedding.

 

Even Porter's bed is green. (Cutest doggie ever, right?!)

 

The wall opposite the bed. I happen to really love this arrangement.

In an ideal world, we'd have a nice sitting chair over in that corner with a side table and a floor lamp. And you probably can't tell from the pic above but there is a painting hanging in the mix that I've always loved. I bought it from an artist outside the Guggenheim about five years ago. So it became my inspiration.

What do you see in the painting? I see a street view of a New York with a taxi on the left.

I had a glorious Friday off and I headed to TJ Maxx for some stress relief. I hit the jackpot in the clothing department (scored black shorts and two versatile tanks) and the home goods (pillows, a basket and a white ceramic garden stool I've been hunting for a year!)

I got these two pillows as a starting point. Love that they pull in the yellow from the painting.

 


I had the rug in the guest room and pulled it in for fun. I think I like it!

 

Also found a yellow candle that smells like apricots (yum!) and the basket that fits perfectly in Brent's night stand.

I think I can amp up the yellow just a little bit more, so I'll be on the search for a new throw for the bench/bottom of the bed.

I remembered that I had two shams that came with the duvet cover so I put two extra pillows in them.

 

I also found that cool ceramic white light that I added to the dresser.

I'm loving the results for only about $45! Thank you, TJ Maxx!

~Karli

Displaying Found Junk On A Patio Wall

You may remember in an earlier post the damage that was done to the roof of our garden shed when Dwight and I took down part of an aspen tree......well the weather has now improved so we decided to repair the damage that we caused.  We replaced a board and the roof shingles.  Fixing all of that meant that we needed to get to the inside walls of the shed, locating nails.  Needless to say, we found it necessary to empty the shed to get to those walls.

As we sorted through 30 years of stuff, I found some "junk" I had forgotten that I had.
It is all "family stuff" that I had hauled back from Oklahoma, knowing some day I would find a place for it.  Here is the saved stuff we uncovered in the shed.....


These are old cistern cups, used to bring water up out of a cistern or well. These were my Grandpa Ray's and had been used on the farm in Okla.

 

A rusty old saw blade and a gear.

                                     

These are a pair of rusty old hames, part of a harness which would have been used with horse drawn farm implements. These were Grandpa's too.

           

This is an old drawer front I found who knows where....... You can not see it but it has the letter "F" stamped on the front.
It will be great to hang BBQ stuff off of the handles, or not!!!

I hung all of this assorted "found junk" on the wall outside on the deck.  I already had the grapevine wreath hanging there, so I just incorporated it all for a unique display.

I bet I can truly say that no one else has a wall quite like ours!

           
I would love to add a pillow to the chair, but the squirrels have been known to destroy things on our deck.  I also need to re-stain the deck later when it gets a little warmer, but decorating this wall inspired me to look forward to spending time out here this summer. 

I want to try planting in the cistern cups, too......I think they would be great for succulent plants, like hens and chicks.  I have one more set of these that I'm saving for Karli.....she might want to do the same thing.  If nothing else, they are great conversation pieces!  Did you know what they were?

Happy Deck Time, Kandy

A Spring Antique Sale

As some of you may recall, in my former life, I was an Antique Dealer. When the store closed I took my inventory home. I have had one big sale here at home, but, for the most part, I have just been sitting on all that stuff.

I keep my "stuff" in my barn, where I have a showroom set up.

I did a show last weekend, a money-maker for a ladies organization raising funds to offer scholarships. I paid for an 8' space, set up my booth area, sold my antiques and vintage items, and then I donated 10% of my proceeds to the ladies club. It was for a good cause and a fun outing since I haven't been playing with "my antique stuff" for quite a while.

A good friend of mine, who is also an antique dealer, joined me in the venture. She brought her items to add to mine. Then another friend, also a dealer, gave us some of her items to sell as well. It was a joint effort!

We started setting up by creating walls with two sets of shutters.

Love using these to divide areas as well as hanging on.

  
The "girly" side of our booth was the perfect spot for hats and frilly feminine items just right for Mother's Day giftgiving.

Love the black and white

 This is a close-up of an old cabinet door. I painted the center with Chalkboard paint and added vintage hooks.

                        

 A broader view of the "girly" black and white side. You may recognize the chair from an earlier post.

           
The old metal display unit is perfect for hankies and gloves. I used this at the store for several years and people always wanted to buy it.

This metal rack was originally used for candy in General Stores.
You can see more white ironstone on this earlier post.

A closer look at one shelf. We even sold some of the burlap flower magnets. See our post on how to make these.

               
This part of our booth was dedicated to vintage gardening.

A potty chair from the 1950's holds a potted rose plant.

             
Layering on top of the enamel top table with an old wood box allows for more garden items.

Love the pink and green for Spring!

                              

The garden items even filled the floor.

                
It is still early for "real" plants in our area, however the silk ones made everyone think of Spring.

The little potted flowers were just too sweet!

                    

 The little watercan holds my business cards.

              

Would you believe we did not plan to wear similar jackets!

             
The sale was not quite the sucessful day of selling that we were anticipating, but we did have fun planning, hauling, setting up, visiting with customers, tearing down, boxing our stuff back up, and then hauling it all back home. (Really!!!)

That is the way it goes sometimes!     CARRY ON!!!

Happy Spring,
Kandy