Thrifty joy (or, seek and ye shall find)

After drooling over all the wonderfully creative tablescapes celebrating St. Patrick's day over at this past week's Tablescape Thursday, I was regretting that I didn't have anything that could be construed as shamrocky... or even "green"... to join the holiday fun. I decided that I would look for some thrift-store finds that would be fairly versatile and not overtly "holiday," because St. Patty's isn't a day we really celebrate around here (except for pinching those who forget to wear green!) and I need to be at least somewhat conscious of over-accumulation. (I know.)

I must've carried some of that fabled Irish luck today, because I found just what I was looking for: a set of four salad/luncheon plates with a green pattern that's reminiscent of shamrocks but doesn't scream "St. Patrick's Day." I really like these because I think they can be used for just about anything. They are marked "mse" (Martha Stewart Everyday) and I got a set of 4 for $2.99. Hooray for thrift stores!!

Lace tablecloth bargain

Just a couple quick photos to share one of my favorite bargains from this week. Stopped in at Dollar General because I'd found some cute vinyl tablecloths there last year for the porch and patio, and found this gem for $5. Surprise, it's vinyl!



The "lace detail" on the sides looks very summer-sheer...



...and the top detail is also lovely.



The brand is True Living - I believe this comes in round or oblong for your outdoor tables. (Or even indoor, for easy clean-up!)

Also, I encountered something really cool while taking these photos. I had set my phone down on the table to pull it out from the wall a bit, and discovered that the lens opening could actually peek through the holes in the lace. I snapped a couple photos of the view looking down toward the floor through the holes - in those pictures where the peep-hole was tiny, the lens picked up the edging around that hole and because it's out of focus it almost looks like a layer of "cloud cover" over an aerial photo. I liked the overall look and composition of these "accidental" pictures!





More soon!

My kitcheny mess: the official 'before'

I hereby declare this to be the official "before" post for my kitchen. Our home is a lovely ranch built in the late 1950's by a guy who, according to one of the garden stepping stones we found sunk into the lawn, referred to himself as "Irv the Great." In the weeks before we moved in, we did some major and minor repair and touching up, including painting every room. Sadly, although it had obviously not been updated since the 1970's (when Irv built some very sturdy-looking dark walnut cabinetry), we did not have the resources to re-do the kitchen.

Still, the kitchen is a good size and does have some very good features: an eat-in area, utility closet, lots of counter and cupboard space, and even a window over the sink - all things our prior home lacked.

And, having lived here now for a little over two years, I'm thinking seriously about how I can spruce up the kitchen for as little money as possible. And by that I mean, $300 or less. I think this is do-able, because even thought the cabinets, floor and countertops all need to be replaced, we just don't have the funds. I will be happy with refinished cabinets (new paint and hardware), and some kind of real fix for that soft spot in the floor where there was clearly a dishwasher leakage issue.

For now, here's the quick tour of my "before" kitchen, starting with the refrigerator area. One thing I absolutely hate is crap stuck all over the refrigerator. Now don't get me wrong, I love pictures of my kids and grandkids, but I really dislike having anything (even pictures) stuck to the fridge. It just looks cluttered and disorganized. This is my least favorite view of the room.


Turning to the left, here's the "pantry" section of the cabinetry...


...and a little more to the left, showing the sink area. Those windows have a really neat feature - glass shutters, which I imagine are original to the house. That is a new-ish dishwasher, but it was bottom-of-the-line when we bought it two years ago. It's the newest major appliance in the room.


Continuing on to the left, here's the main cooking area with Jurassic-era microwave and electric cooktop...


... and Tappan wall oven that's just barely large enough for a roast turkey.


Here's the eat-in area, with fab 50's paneled "planter box" colonade and shadow-box room divider.


And finally, a couple of details: the 70's hardware on the cabinets...


... and the wallpaper covering the bulkheads, which is actually not that bad but does not fit into my spruce-up plans.


So there we have it - the "heart" of this home is rather well-worn at this point, but hopefully will one day look lighter and refreshed.

More soon!

Almost alfresco

Ahhh it's a beautiful day here in Iowa today, heading up to 70 degrees and sunny! Also one of those rare days when I am home mid-day (unemployed) and my daughter is ALSO home (Spring Break) so I decided to fix a lunch that our little family could enjoy out on the screened porch.

On the menu were grilled hot dogs on toasted buns, and Kraft macaroni and cheese. We always get a laugh when we have this humble fare because we all remember the day a few years ago when we tried to enjoy it out on the un-covered patio... and had our experience ruined by a bird passing directly overhead. (Yes, it's exactly what you're thinking!)

Here were the table elements we enjoyed, in addition to each other's company, starting with our wrought-iron, chippy-white bistro table and a vintage tablecloth which consists of four panels just like the one showing. (I have actually thought of making pillows out of this cloth because the design lends itself very well.)



Vintage off-white plates with pretty aqua cornflowers (or are they bachelor buttons?) - my mother had a whole set of these when I was young. I didn't like them at the time, but I've come to appreciate them and now own three salad/luncheon plates in this pattern.



And my everyday stainless, Oneida's vintage "Chandelier" pattern. (Why yes, that IS a paper napkin hiding on the right!)


For beverages, we just used a set of color-coordinated plastic cups. Altogether a very pretty and practical table, and a yummy lunch on a beautiful day.


More soon!

Comfy reading chair: a thrifty mini-splurge

Although I was recently laid off from my job, I am still enjoying the rewards of having worked for my now-former employer. Apparently, I received at least five "five-star" ratings on customer surveys in February, because I recently received via FedEx the normal company reward for having done so: a $25 Visa gift card!

Now certainly there are plenty of bills this could have been put toward, but my dear hubby told me, "you earned it, you should spend it on whatever you want." And then he added, in our usual Cousin-Eddie-From-Christmas-Vacation" fashion, "And make it somethin'... real nice."

So I decided to make the thrift store rounds and see if I could find the "comfy reading chair" I had originally envisioned for my office/dressing room and, voila! I found just what I was looking for: a small-scale club chair in decent condition, and this one even had a pretty slip-cover already made for it. (This chair is actually a recliner, but I don't have room for it to lay back.)

Even better, the price was right for using my gift card!

Now granted, the slip cover is not quite what I had in mind (I was thinking roses or toile... or maybe toile roses!), but it does have some advantages: the colors in this print go with BOTH the current color of the walls in this room AND the greens and blues I've been considering painting it. Plus, the chair looks lovely with the dark wood antique table and barrister's bookcase already in the room, as well as the softly-hued hooked rug that lays at its feet.

This little chair is a BIG winner. Or, as Cousin Eddie might say, "This-here chair's a quality item. Mind if I ask ya, how much did it set ya back?" Not at all, Eddie, not at all!

More soon!

Beauty is in the eye of the... well, you know

Please take a moment to carefully study the photo below. Be sure you take enough time to fully appreciate the goofy goodness. Go ahead, I'll wait.



Okay. Now your first reaction might well have been: "Wow, that is UGLY!" And I would agree with you, except that it PERFECTLY captures my personal sense of humor and the degree of "quirk" I like to have in my life. Here's how this item came to be:

When I was a bride-to-be in 1991 (hey that's 20 years ago - vintage, right?) my groom-to-be and I were preparing to purchase and move into his childhood home. His parents were preparing to move out, having lived there for about 45 years. Ultimately, there were two areas of the house from which they never moved a single item, leaving it all for us: the basement workshop, and the laundry/sewing room.

Around this same time, my mother-in-law-to-be took some time to show me how to make wall-hangings similar to this one out of fabric, an embroidery hoop, and eyelet or lace trim. Simple enough, and I made a bunch of them using various fabrics to give as gifts to the women in my family. But I didn't find suitable fabric to make one for myself until I took time to go through the stash in the old sewing room.

After wading through the piles of 1970's double-knits, I was delighted to find a cotton craft scrap that included one perfect imprint of this flower-bedecked girl who reminds me so much of "Elsie," the friendly representative of Borden's Dairy. I immediately capitalized on my new-found thingie-making skills and whipped this up. I still get a smile, every time I see it.

More soon!

Almost Spring!

After being unemployed for 8 months in 2010, I was certainly glad and grateful to finally begin a new job in late November. Sadly, it turned out to last for only 60 days before a bunch of us newbies were all laid off en masse. So I'm once again job-hunting. I hope it won't take as long to find something this time around!

One of the past-times I was really missing after returning to work was keeping up on a lot of the really lovely home decor blogs I had come to know and love! So this past weekend I took some time to get caught up on my blog reading, while waiting for our Sunday night supper to finish up in the oven. Because I was knee-deep in oggling the tablesettings courtesy of Tablescape Thursday, I decided to arrange a cheery little setting for my dinner. (My dear husband, who was watching television during all this, had planned to eat his dinner on a TV tray.)

I wanted something brightly colored for Spring, but "hardy" to go with the very simple dinner fare. Here's my mix of Frenchy frou-frou and sturdy dinner pottery:



My unidentified white scrolly pasta bowl serves as a charger for the sunny yellow Fiesta bowl:



My Oneida Stainless in the Chandelier pattern remains our daily flatware - a gift from my dear Aunt Hazel before she passed away in 1991.



One my many collections consists of paintings by unknown amateur artists ("Sunday painters," they used to be called). This diminuitive little example has some pretty Spring colors, and the silver frame balances a bit with the flatware opposite.



The painting sits next to my only piece of Fenton glass - I decided long ago I was only going to splurge on one piece, so I made sure it was a form (the ruffled vase in cased glass) in the colors I wanted. It's only about six inches high.



A bit better view of the Fenton vase:



Well as it turned out, when Hubby came into the kitchen to wash his hands, he saw my little tablescape and wanted to eat with me in the kitchen rather than at the television. I gave him the seat of honor in front of the vase and painting, and set a second spot for myself with a coordinating blue placemat. We also each had a nice view of the Charming Farm cloche, which still sits on the kitchen table and delights me every time I see it. And our simple/hardy dinner fare? Marie Callender Chicken Pot Pies. They were delicious, and I thought the whole experience was a nice combination of comfort food on a rather dreary late-winter day, paired with a cheerful, Spring-beckoning setting.

More soon!