Some of my favorite things…

It’s apparent when you walk in the front door that I am a collector.  If it’s old & thrown out by someone else, chances are this girl digs it.

One of my favorite things – color!  I don’t do neutral well.  I like bold, bright, color.  It makes me happy.  It’s not for everyone, but it’s for me.

Chippy paint – if it’s old original paint I swoon.  See this pink dresser – killer right – $40 score!  You can’t afford not to buy at that price.  Ah-mazing!

Industrial items – if some old man used it on a farm or in a shop – I dig on it.  Rusty metal oooo la la baby!

*Oh and see those little glass boxes - perfect to hold keepsakes of your kids - Ev's old pacifier, Aubrie's first pair of glasses, and Ollie's medical bracelet & Lasix syringe.

When I find things I love, I collect them.  I can’t just have one – no I need an odd number – and at least 5.  Hoarder – kind of.

Metallic paint - well any kind of bling I'm a humming bird -  We call this dresser the tin man.  This is my bedroom dresser.  One coat of spray paint – and trust me it’s fabulous.  $85 at an auction – sturdy, old, solid – piece of American sweetness right here baby.

Original artwork by my sister Abbie.  Yes - my family as googly heads - Love!

A funny man - he's in our bedroom and he's giant - like 3' tall.

A giant framed plunger for the shitter room - pardon my french - I had to do it.

Matching paintings for above the toilet plus an old teeny tiny sink plunger - yep baby!  That's how we roll & no it's not a used plunger!

So if you run into a pile of junk and you are local - I'm the girl to call - between my sisters & my Mom we will most likely find a way to turn that trash into treasure!

Annie Reid

Oh Shoot Dang

I can't WAIT for tonight to arrive! 

I have a date with my best friend that includes dinner & shopping.  We're finding her a super cute outfit for our 10 year class reunion & me something to look smallish pregnant in.  Then, we're morphing back to our 16 year old selves so we can swoon over them...

Oh yes friends that's how we roll!

A Post for Elly

I have been blessed in life with two best friends.  Melissa lives in town & I met her when I was 7.  I "met" which is a silly word since we live in a tiny town, Elly when I was a bit older - I think 4th grade.

Anyway, I adore them both and any time with them is a guaranteed good time!

Here Melissa just had her 3rd beautiful baby, Brady & Elly is showing off her baby girl, Henley.

Melissa I apologize, but the post ends here for you.  This post is all for Elly!

Elly has moved away - or actually did 10 years ago when we graduated high school.  To Springfield, MO and Colorado Springs & back and forth she goes.  She now lives in Springfield, MO with her super buff, nearly male body builder Bret & their sweet one year old.  Elly too has a rocking body.  She's always been a runner, and darn her I'm jealous of her muscular physique!  She looks amazing!

(Oh Melissa - I heard Elly is working on a heel stretch to show us this summer - hilarious - heel stretch competition - bring it ladies!)

It's a five hour drive to Elly's hometown and I've made it there once since she was married.  We don't see each other nearly enough!  It's OK though, because when we do meet up, it's like we see each other every day!  I'm a little sad though, because now Elly is moving to Wyoming this summer.  Why the heck Wyoming by the way - well her hubby has a professorship at the University there - Go Bret!  So our once or twice a yearly visits will come less and less.  I will miss her very much!

This summer is our 10 year class reunion & she'll be gracing us with her presence when she rolls into town for nearly a week!  She's staying with me a bit and Melissa a bit too.  I can not wait!  Henley has grown up so much and I can't wait to kiss her chubby cheeks!  I also can't wait to see Elly because, I promise you - there isn't a girl out there like her.  She's funny, crazy, and unpredictable.  She's a great Mom and one heck of a friend.  I'm proud to say she's one of my best friends & I am more than blessed to know her for the person she is and mostly importantly, the heart that she has! 

Oh and Elly - you are on the list of my favorite things!

Basement Family Room

Our basement family room showcases some of my most favorite pieces in the house. At the same time, it’s a room I’m still shopping for.  I guess I'm always shopping, but this is a room that doesn't always get updated like the upstairs does.  It gets more of the left overs than the good stuff.

My first favorite, our TV cabinet. It’s an old feed bunker of some sort. My Dad slapped a top on it and I painted it a bright blue to mimic an antique cupboard I fell in love with, but could’t quite afford at $850.  I still dream of that cupboard though!  The inside has a big shelf that holds all my photo albums & then more blankets - ridiculous I know.

 I still need to distress this piece, but it’s bold blue makes me very happy.  Which is funny - I'm not typically a blue gal - turquoise blue - yes, but blue blue not so much.  However - love this peacock blue!

This red couch came from my Mom as a gift when we got married. I love red and have always adored this couch.

The map was also a gift from my Mom for my birthday. It truly doesn't get any better than this baby!

 It’s very aged & has multiple maps you can flip between. To top it off - it has the perfect colors for my basement room.  Turquoises, greens, reds, and yellows - hooray!

I just got this little table from my Mom recently and I adore the finish on it, the Kelly green mixed with the brown and white is just right. It features a chalk ship I scored. I don’t know why, but I adore ships & have quite the ship print collection down here.  Why I didn't take a picture - I do not know.

I also love the paint color of the room. It’s very bold (not that you are surprised), but it really doesn’t feel like a basement space at all. The fact that it’s a walkout with a window and door helps!  It's always very light and bright down here.

Cabinets & Tables

So I didn't have one massive Living Room post, I thought I'd break out a few of the other cabinets & side tables that I adore for you separately.

This is another true antique piece.  Again, it's from my Mother's stash. On top of it are two chairs again from my Mom.  Every bit of this I love.  It's really not in the living room, but the small hall between the kitchen area and our master bedroom.  You kind of see this wall when you come in the front door to the right.

Here is the finish on it - isn't it great!  I never realized I had so much gray until I started taking photos.  This baby holds all candles - aren't I ridiculous!  Who truly needs a cabinet just to hold candles?  Apparently this girl - I need varying scents and colors by season you see!

This stool was a $15 find at 3rd Sunday market.  I love it.  The old orange paint is fabulous & it works perfectly beside the couch as an end table. 

This adorable end table is actually Maggie's.  You see, I'm "storing" it for her.  If you store something at my house - I use it!  It's fair game!

I love the finish of it with the turquoise popping through & of course the huge knobs are the best part!  Maggie got this cheap - I want to say $10 - it's funny I remember, but she saw it first so it was hers - but I always wanted it!  Again, glorious 3rd Sunday Market!  (After photographing the room I couldn't stand the orange color with the green chair so this is now an end table to the couch & the orange stool is here in stead - MUCH BETTER!)

Living Room Edition - Part 1

Apologies in advance for the huge post...and the weird coloring of my walls - I am forced to take pictures at night - it's not pretty friends!

My living room is where we constantly hang out.  My kids have their most favorite recliners in the center of the room & it's where I spend a majority of my time when I'm not in the kitchen.

My TV cabinet was given to me from my Mom.  Isn't it amazing!  It's again very old - 1800's I believe.  My Mom will leave details in the comments because she's the one who originally scored it.  The left side has a shelf behind the door so it hides a bunch of toys & the right side keeps all the blankets - we're blanket people.  On the wall to the left are vintage eye charts I bought on Ebay long before I had kids.  I love them!  Now that we know about Aubrie's vision - they are even more perfect for my family.  There is my really expensive leather chair - it's the color I said I'd always love, and as you can see something about the color is just not right - or maybe it's just me.  Maybe it's the orange of the table, but somethings off for me.  Perhaps it's just not bright enough - a limey green would be more my style now!  (After taking this photo I couldn't stand the dreamsicle orange with the olive green so I moved it to be an end table by the very dark chocolate couch & put a brighter orange stool here instead - much better!)

Look at that finish!  Did you pass out over it?  It's fabulous I know.  It also perfectly hides my two babies when they take out all the toys!

The top of it has some eclectic finds.  My favorite are these big headlights made into lamps.  I believe they all still work.  They are from 3rd Sunday Market.  I also have a little tripod up there for Jade - it's meant to hold a candle, but I'm not doing that - I like it as a tripod for the surveyor in my life. 

To the right of my massive TV cabinet was an awkward space.  It wouldn't fit a chair that was of the right scale so I found a different solution.  This little cabinet was just hanging out all alone in my Mom's storage shed & I thought PERFECT!  What you don't see is all the shelves inside of this thing.  They hold a majority of the children's books & puzzles.  We have gobs and gobs of books - we're a big book family - so this thing was just ideal.  Everett also likes to swing the door open to the left & he can perfectly hide between it and the TV cabinet.  The hanging lamp was on clearance from Pier 1 - cheap cheap!  I got the For Sale sign for $5 at 3rd Sunday Market.  The metal bin was also in Mom's storage shed & I fell in love with it.  Something about industrial items always gets me.  I dig rust!

Isn't the age of this baby great!  The hardware is pretty cool too!

This is another awkward space in my house.  Between a couch and a love seat - a fat chair just looked ridiculous.  So I found this saw horse type thing for $75 at 3rd Sunday Market.  I loved it.  Then I left it and shopped on, thinking I'd love something more, but I kept thinking of it the entire day.  Thank the good lord it didn't sell & I went back - and it came home with me.  The cow print was painted by Maggie & Kylie - it's a copy of CB2 and I love it.  I also love the rusty old tool boxes on top of this thing.  It's amazing I haven't had tetanus yet with all the rust!

Aren't the legs & aged top of this thing cool.  I'm so glad it's mine!

This little cabinet was a gift.  It was made out of old crates.  It's very cool the middle piece flips down & it's like a mini desk with all kinds of cubbies inside.  It's pretty fabulous too!

More old paint and a crystal knob- LOVE it!

More favorite things will be shown tomorrow!

My Kitchen - Island Feature - Part 2

My kitchen island deserved it's own post.  It's seriously the best thing in my house.  It's very special to me.  We found it for $325 at a juried antique show in Arthur, IL.  Jade & I were just ecstatic about this piece.  This is exciting because Jade never goes junking with me, nor is he ever overly excited about the random things I bring home.  But this baby - he prized it alongside me!

Don't you just love the front of this thing!!  Yes - that's the business right there!

It really sets off the tone for our entire house.  The top of it is just to die for - I really swoon over this piece!  It was just the perfect size for my kitchen!

It has amazing kelly greenish paint that is mixed with a celery green and white - chippy paint I adore! 

It used to be an old store counter in the late 1800's.  The entire left side is rebuilt, and you can tell it if you look really closely, but the man who rebuilt was a genious - you'd never know it unless I told you first.  The back is open so it perfectly stores the garbage can and other things like potatoes and onions.  We put up a small curtain to hide the ugliness, but it's still convenient.

I hope you adore it like I do!  So remember - if you ever go to a juried antique show - yes things are pricey, but it's worth the money to have a few pieces in your home that are just awesome finds!

My Kitchen - Part 1

I thought I'd do a little segment on here - A Few of My Favorite Things - and go through some of the bigger rooms in my house.  Since my house is constantly evolving - things are different than the last time I posted.  Please enjoy my kitchen.

It's eclectic to say the least.  I have a lot of fun finds in here all mixed and matched together.  I have collections of old bowls, chickens, and old signs.  I love my kitchen.

My collection of hands - one is an old glove form & the other is giving an OK sign.  The chicken was drawn by Abbie - it's fabulous isn't it!

These are above my pantry.  They came from my Mom - and I believe from my Grandma.  I love them - they are little chalk figurines with hooks on them.  They are great!

This is above the fridge.  I found the giant fork & spoon & spray painted them a textured silver.  They are fabulous & so is that old chicken cookie jar & those orange tins!

Here are some old signs I have collected.  The fifth street carries on my collection of 5s - I don't know why I collect 5s, but I do.  The R is an old movie sign letter & the Small Change came from TJ Maxx.  The old jars are really cool up close & personal.

I just got this Oleo sign from my Mom.  It cracks me up.  I also am a big fan of small lights around my house so this beauty adorns my counter top.

My island post will come as Part 2 - it deserved it's own post!