The Krylon Colormaster Challenge

This is so cool - my mom is heading to Cleveland to participate in the Krylon Colormaster Challenge. She will be working with Jeff Devlin from the DIY Network and a few other bloggers to complete 24 projects in 24 hours - and you get to watch it live!


They'll be working their tushes off 10am-10pm on Friday and Saturday and you can watch it right here! (You can even sign up to get a reminder in case you forget!)

I am so proud of my mom and so excited for her as she gets to go experience this challenge! Read more about it on her blog here!

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Old School Ceramics: Christmas Tree Edition

Now that the Clauses are done, I'm working on a Christmas tree! I cleaned the greenware last week and Barbara fired it for me so that I had a nice piece of bisque to paint!

(I asked her the difference between greenware and bisque. Bisque is greenware that's been cleaned and fired and ready to paint! So that's the major difference between doing "old school ceramics" and going to a paint-your-own-pottery place. In ceramics, once the piece has been poured, you have to clean the seams by scraping them gently and sanding them down... paint-your-own places have already done that work for you and you just paint the bisque with glazes.)

The base of the Christmas tree had decorations on it and I expressed that I didn't particularly like them. Barbara told me just to sand them off the greenware, so I did! I thought it was cool that I could customize my piece! It had raised images along the base - like a wreath or rocking horse. I just sanded them down and have a nice, smooth base!


So here it is, after being fired. The first step was to paint it all over with paint (color: hemlock). It's a little difficult to get the paint in all the crevices and make sure it's completely covered.


Next time I go, I will dry brush it with a brighter color. Barbara has a bunch of different colors of lights for me to glue in and then we'll wire the base up with a light bulb. So fun!

See more ceramics posts!

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5

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Favorite Finds at the TN Antique Mall

Yesterday I mentioned there's a new booth at the TN Antique Mall. (I received an email from the booth-owner, Channy- I'm so glad to be connected now!)

Here are a few things I found and loved! (But didn't buy...yet!)

Of course I love crewel work and she has a few really cute pieces!

And does anyone know anything about the tree + animals wall hanging?


Very cute striped plates and napkins! Stacked on top of a picnic basket - great staging!

I zoomed around the rest of the mall to take photos of other favorite finds... I have been coveting this oil painting for quite awhile:


I could fill our walls with portraits...but I don't think Andy loves them as much as I do!

These chairs are sitting in a booth catty-corner to mine. LOVE THEM! Brown leather tufted MCM chairs? Yes, please!


It's fun to window-shop! The mall is full of fun things but these were definitely some of my favorites this weekend. Come shop if you're in middle TN!

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Thrift Reports: Flea Market & TN Antique Mall

Andy & I hit the flea market for a couple hours Saturday afternoon with our friends Bryan and Anna. It was HOT! It was almost too hot to really look at anything, you know? Like when you just kinda look around but can't really focus on anything? That's how I was feeling all afternoon!

We were on our way out when we spotted some booths outside that had some really fun industrial items. Bryan and Anna were on the lookout for something they could turn into a plantstand and they found a really cool old wire basket. I scoped out the rest of the booth and spied a table full of things that were actually priced! Hallelujah!

I picked up this tiered platter:


Cute, huh?

I also got these blocks that are below- they are pretty random! Anyone know what they're from?


Check out the green sewing box above! It matches the thread case that I found a couple weeks ago! Yesterday, I was organizing my thread in my new case and sorta wished, "I'd love to find the matching sewing box." And then I did!

I actually bought it at the TN Antique Mall (where my booth is). I hardly ever actually shop there, but there's a brand new booth in the mall that is GREAT. She and I have very similar taste and I'm really impressed with this new booth!


Tomorrow I will post my favorite items from this new booth (Booth #5) and a few other things I love at the TN Antique Mall!

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Shameless begging for votes...

Lucy goes to Camp Bow-Wow about once a week, on days when we know we'll be out at night and can't spend time with her. We LOVE Camp Bow-Wow and all the people there! They really love dogs and even if Lucy wears them out, we never know because they greet her enthusiastically each time I drop her off.

Our local Camp Bow-Wow is hosting a cute puppy contest and whichever photo gets the most "likes" wins 10 free days of daycare! If you're so inclined, please click over and like her photo to vote for our girl!

Thank you!!

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What a difference a year - make that 2 months - makes!

Last year, my mom brought me hens and chicks planted in a planter she made from reclaimed wood. The hens and chicks were from my great-aunt's garden in Michigan. After she passed away in November of 2011, her family dug up the hens and chicks from her yard before selling the house. I am so, so, so thankful they did that! The hens and chicks get to stay in the family which is very special since they originated from my great-grandmother's garden in Louisville.


We used hens and chicks from her yard in our wedding. She was too ill to make it down to Nashville for our wedding, so it was very special to me to have her there in spirit. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to keep ANY of the plants from our wedding alive...so when my mom brought me this new batch, I knew it was a second chance. I decided to let them live outside. I knew they could survive Michigan winters (my cousin Mary Beth even had to wait for snow to thaw in order to dig them up for us to use in the wedding!) so I figured they could make it through mild Nashville winters. And boy, oh boy, have they!!

Just 2 months ago, I took this photo:


(Note all the weeds above--hilariously, shamrocks keep growing in my hens & chicks planter--I have potted shamrocks sitting on the porch... so the bees are doing their job which makes my job of keeping the planter weeded more difficult!)

Fast forward 2 months...NOW...they are HUGE.


Can you believe they've grown so much in just 2 months?? They live outside next to our porch in the original planter that my mom made and I let the rain take care of them for the most part, but I water them when it's especially dry and/or hot.

The are gorgeous and they mean the WORLD to me. They have such a rich history in my family and they are so special to me. Now that they're almost outgrowing the planter, should I re-plant some of them? Should they go in the ground? Or other planters? Any green thumbs out there have some advice? Oh and one note- they're not succulents - I killed the first batch by treating them like succulents, unfortunately!

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Are you watching Mad Men this season?

If so, you know what I'm thinking--WOWZERS, right? This season started off painfully slow but it has really ramped up! It's getting so intense and I am LOVING it!



This season, I discovered the genius of TomAndLorenzo.com. These guys write the most incredible Mad Men recaps every Monday and every Wednesday they publish an academic breakdown of what the characters are wearing and how it relates to the themes of the season. They have really cracked the code and it's fascinating to read.

If you haven't checked them out, head over here to read their Mad Men recaps and Mad Style posts! They even did an amazing analysis of Bob Benson (my new favorite!) last week!

Tom and Lorenzo have been referring to this season as a Muppet Babies version of Mad Men, and they couldn't be more right. From Roger declaring "This is MY funeral!" when his mother's funeral didn't go the way he wanted to Ted whining "I want MY juice" to... Don Draper whining like a baby.


And I leave you with that! One of the funniest moments of the season.

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A wedding and wedding flowers!

Saturday, I had the great honor of day-of-coordinating my friend Emily's wedding. Emily designed our invitations, RSVP cards, and programs and they were AMAZING. (She is an award-winning graphic designer and I'm always so impressed with her creativity.) When she did our design, we agreed to barter and I promised to someday coordinate her wedding. She met a very special guy 6 months later and the rest is history! (Very, very happy history! I have happy-cried so many times over their love story and wedding!)

image source: Beth Mathews (@bethmathews)

The ceremony itself was perfect (with a healthy dose of humor thanks to the tractor that zoomed by, fertilizing the field right behind the ceremony site) and so prayerful. They used the Book of Common Prayer for a lot of the ceremony so it was very beautiful. Spencer is a composer and even arranged the music for the string trio to play before, during, and after the ceremony. (These are some talented people, in case you haven't noticed!)

Every detail was so beautiful - her tables had reclaimed wood stretched down the center with candles, vintage cameras, and incredible flower arrangements (by Amanda Jerkins) placed in Emily's collection of vintage bottles and jars.

Since I was the last Nashville girl left at the end of the night after clean-up, I got to bring home some flowers. WOO!


This is one of the bridesmaid bouquets that I placed in one of Emily's vintage carafes to bring home. So beautiful!

I played around with some of the loose flowers I brought home and could only find an old pickle jar to put them in!


Amanda and Emily picked out gorgeous flowers! I love them.

I really enjoy playing around with flowers, but I wish I knew what I was doing for real. It was one of my goals to learn how to arrange flowers by 30 but I still haven't taken a class. I need to!

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Make Your Morning Amazing - Watch These Disneyland Videos!

I've only been to Disneyworld and in my experiences, guests are able to meet characters by standing in line to get a photo and an autograph. From what I have gathered by digging around on YouTube, it seems as though since Disneyland is smaller, the characters are more accessible and easier to have fun with.

If you want to smile for the rest of the day, check out some of these amazing videos of kids (and kids-at-heart!) meeting their favorite characters. I am especially impressed with the young men who play Peter Pan! They are so engaging and so fun!

Peter Pan sends a message to Ariel - but he doesn't know how to write, so he has to dictate it. "OK, Ariel, this is Peter Pan." Adorable.


In this video, some Peter Pan fans track him down and then he takes them on an adventure that includes startling Mary Poppins:


There are soooo many fun videos of Peter Pan - you can see them on the sidebar of youtube when watching these!

I honestly don't know much about Peter Pan or Alice in Wonderland - they are two Disney movies that I'm not super familiar with. BUT, I have watched so many of these videos now that I want to go back and re-watch their movies!

I actually laughed out loud at the following video. Skip ahead a little bit to the part where Alice and the Mad Hatter are knocking on the door of a candy shop and trying to blame it on a little girl. Hilarious.


The Mad Hatter is so cute. He and Alice are so great together! Make sure you make it to 4:47 (or skip ahead). This little girl and their reactions to her are HILARIOUS.


Let me know if you find any other really fun Disneyland videos - I am loving these!

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Owl Really Featured on Thrift Core

I am so excited to announce that my little booth was featured on Thrift Core! I have been faithfully reading Thrift Core for over a year - Van is such a great communicator and she has so many helpful tips on selling vintage! She is very inspirational and I was so honored when she asked if she could feature my booth and some tips from ME!


You can read the post here - be sure to add Thrift Core to your daily reads. It is GREAT!

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Old School Ceramics: What Next?

Since I finished my Clauses last weekend, I had to decide what to do next.

I'm totally obsessed with vintage Christmas trees (see here and here and here and here), so I've known that I wanted to paint my own. Saturday, I started cleaning up a medium size Christmas tree, but I am trying to figure out what else I want to do next...

I am amazed at Barbara's selection. Check out these Sesame Street cookie jars:


AND, Santa's BAND! Oh my gosh. I love them.


I have no idea what I will do after my Christmas tree, but I have enough I'm interested in doing to keep me busy through NEXT Christmas! :)

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Things I Love: Buying Secondhand Plants

I love plants! I have been doing pretty well keeping them alive lately, which means I want to buy more and more and more.

I found a really cheap way to get plants is to buy them secondhand! Lots of times, you can find plants at yard sales and estate sales if you keep your eyes peeled for them! 

Last year, I bought this tree at a yard sale of a guy who was moving away. He had it for 10 years! I kept it inside this whole past year but it didn't seem very happy, so I moved it outside this spring. I re-potted it a few weeks ago and I'm keeping an eye on it and hoping it flourishes!!


A few weeks ago, I was at a Family Tree Estate Sale and discovered a little plant outside on the covered porch. I brought it in and asked if plants were for sale and Melissa said, "Sure!" I bought it for $2 and she pointed out that it had a tag on it that labeled it as "easy care." Then she said, "It must be easy care because no one has lived here for 2 years!" WOW! It's doing really well after I re-potted it--I'm still looking for a nice vintage planter for it.


Plants are normally out in the yard or on porches at sales, so be sure to look around if you are interested in buying them!

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Old School Ceramics: Part 5

AHHHH!!!!!

I'm done with my Clauses!!! I even did their eyes all on my own!!!


I've learned so much (like make sure the eyeshadow is subtle - mine is not! woops!) and I LOVE doing ceramics with Andy's grandma. It's such a fun Saturday ritual!

Here is what they have looked like throughout the process:


To read more about each step, check out the earlier posts:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4

I love my new hobby!

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The Thrift Report: Hendersonville Estate Sales Edition

I made it back to ceramics Saturday morning (stay tuned tomorrow to see my finished Clauses!) and squeezed in an estate sale before and two after our time at Barbara's. The selection was not fantastic but the prices were! I managed to stock up on some really fun things for my booth!


Check out this yellow lamp! At first, I thought it was a work lamp but when I got it home and was cleaning it up, I discovered that it's a SUN lamp! It has instructions on the bottom for how long you should expose yourself to it based on your skin type. The dial on the front sets the time that the bulb stays on. Fascinating! It came with a bulb but photographed so much cooler without it. :)

I found this little Imperial camera at the same sale. I loved the font and design!

This owl wall bracket features a swiveled arm with a hook - perfect for hanging a plant!

And then check out these adorable, never-worn baby shoes!!


Another camera - this one a Kodak instamatic! And then I found 3 of the Harlequin Eden prints. Fun!


I am trying to find some "back to school" type things to make an end-of-summer vignette in my booth. Couldn't resist this fabric and these old crayons! Crayola packaging is still deceptively retro, but this pack doesn't have a UPC, so I know it's truly vintage. I keep finding awesome vintage stationery but it never sells in my booth. If I re-open my Etsy shop, it will probably be mostly stationery and cool paper.

This jam jar was filled with metal letters and numbers. They might make pretty cool craft supplies for someone!

But the winner of my Saturday excursion...the cutest thing I've found in awhile...what I put in my booth but secretly hope doesn't sell....

I mean, can you even handle the cuteness???? Yellow corduroy overalls!!! ADORABLE.

When we have a kid, he/she will not understand what decade they're growing up in... and I'm totally ok with that. :)

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Google Reader Replacement: The Old Reader

Probably by now you've heard that Google Reader is going away this summer. A lot of people have been scrambling to find a replacement that works similarly - have you found your replacement yet?


I have! I have been using The Old Reader for a month or two and I really like it. It looks almost exactly like Google Reader and functions the same way too - you can use j, k, and the spacebar to navigate through your posts just like in Google Reader. You can group subscriptions, save them, and even share them. The Old Reader has a social media aspect to it in which you can add friends and share posts with them.

A lot of people are switching to BlogLovin, which is great, but it doesn't allow you to import Craigslist subscriptions, which I would have a hard time not following!

If you haven't found your replacement yet, I hope this helps! There are some very visual options out there,but I just wanted a very straightforward text-based RSS reader and found what I was looking for in The Old Reader!

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The Ink Nest: Clip Art and Illustrations

I love The Ink Nest. I bookmarked it in my browser as "Hipster Clip Art Makes Me Happy."

For about $8, you can download amazing clip art that you can use on your blog or in other graphic design endeavors. It's so fun to look through them and dream about various projects!

The cool thing is that they're giving away a set right now! For an FB post or a tweet, you can download the "Bloom" set.

Find out more here!

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Textile Fabrics - 50% Off Sale

January and June are the best months of the year if you live in Nashville and love fabric! Textile's semiannual 50% off sale is happening now through June 29! Above are the two fabrics I bought myself this weekend... I will probably go back a few times!!

If you're in town, be sure to check it out!

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The Thrift Report: Whoa! I bought a lot for myself!

We have a new Thrift Report! I haven't had one in several weeks - I have been trying not to buy anything since my booth wasn't doing well in April and May. (I cleared $5 for both months combined. Yikes!)

However, I'm a scrounger at heart and so I ventured out to a Family Tree Estate Sale and some thrift stores and antique malls with my parents over the weekend. Here's what I found! (I'm even keeping some of it!)


I am always drawn to vintage photos but had never found a great deal on them before. I picked up this pile from an estate sale off West End Avenue and I love them! They will be headed to my booth once I figure out how best to sell/organize them.


I bought all of these vintage postcard sets together - they were all packaged up. Many of them are from places we went on our honeymoon, so I'm saving out a Chattanooga and Atlanta set to keep!


Cute little ceramic bunnies that will hopefully look better once I clean them up! I'll add them to the booth next spring for Easter. The little notecards are bookplates that feature three owls. I bought them for a friend who is a professor (and has tons of books), loves owls, and is moving away soon. :(

I will keep some of the vintage greeting cards to add to my greeting card stash. I haven't tucked away any vintage cards yet, so I'm excited about those! And, a children's book that explains the opera Aida. The Broadway musical is very dear to my heart, so I wanted to get this to save!


Oil pastels were pretty much my favorite medium when I was in elementary school art classes and when I found this vintage set, I had to have them! I am not certain if I'll keep them or sell them, but looking at the beautiful colors makes me happy!

I am always on the hunt for cheap and functional planters, so I picked this one up for $3.50 at Grandma's Attic in Bowling Green, KY. It's not vintage, but I like the color!

And I got this cake taker without knowing if I'd keep it or not. I needed one on Friday and didn't have one, then found this on Saturday and I really like it. However, we have NO storage in our kitchen so I'm wary of buying something I won't need very often. Buuuut, we'll see. :)


Man, I bought a lot for myself it seems! I also got this sewing box for myself. My thread and bobbin situation is out of control, so I picked this up to try to get better organized.

And finally...


Sooo, I saw this big set of china at Grandma's Attic. It wasn't complete by any means (no dinner plates) but a platter, tons of bowls, small plates, and lots of teacups and saucers. Some pieces had price stickers and others didn't. Some pieces said "$25" and some had both a "$25" and a "$7.50" sticker on them. I asked and the woman said "Oh, it's 750." I clarified, "Seven dollars and fifty cents for ALL of it?" and she said "Yup. Been here since January, it's time for it to go."

WHAAAA!!!!

So yeah, the last thing we need is more dishes but I love them a lot and the price is unbeatable. I think I got over 20 pieces for $7.50!! Amazing!

I don't normally buy this much for myself! Kinda crazy. Hope you guys found great stuff, too!!

(Oh P.S. I also bought the foam board that I took my photos on at an estate sale. I'm trying to improve my photos - this was the first step toward that! I am considering re-opening my Etsy shop since the booth is doing so poorly!)

Linking to: Apron Thrift Girl!

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