Valentine's Day decorating

Here's a bit more of my Valentine's Day decor.

 The Eiffel tower and some bling always add a bit of romance!

 I'm obsessed with paper straws for some reason. They are just so vintage-looking and colorful and fun! I also love the trophy cups I have displayed them in. They are faux silver with faux tarnish, but I think they are just as lovely and thankfully within my price range! I found them at Marshalls.

 I used my Christmas cash from my sweet in-laws to buy these super cute scalloped cake plates from Cost Plus. I love them stacked like this.

 I couldn't resist dressing up my vintage mustache men for Valentine's Day. Party hats and flowers for thier sweethearts. Aren't the vintage candy boxes so gorgeous? They are defintely one of my favorite things to collect.

A lovely vintage half doll with vintage keys and a glittered  heart.  

This  light blue heart is huge and so pretty!  It would hold a lot of chocolate! Some girl was probably very happy to recieve it way back when. I love the photo of the girl sitting in her pretty party dress and corsage. She looks like a lovely wallflower waiting to be asked to dance.  I see the little ones getting into trouble, I'd better say goodbye now. Linking up with http://www.thoughtsfromalice.com/ today!

Michelle xoxo

Happy New Year!

Hello and happy new year, bloggy friends! What do you mean, who am I? It's only been 6 months! haha! I've missed blogging, but babies take so much time. Like...all of it. I'm lucky to get my shower and the dishes and laundry done, let alone decorate, craft, and photograph it all. Our family had a lovely Christmas and my sweet boys gave me some really adorable red and white polka dot things!

I have manged to do a bit of Valentine decorating, but it's so overcast lately that it's hard to take good photos. I do have a couple of cute things to show you.  I found these adorable valentine mine clothespins at Target.

A couple of pretty vintage hankies, a gift from my sweet friend Paula.

A favorite vintage candy box and vintage valentine.

Gorgeous striped straws and flowers found at Michaels.

And last, a couple of dapper gentlemen I dressed up for Valentine's day. 

I adore vintage mustache man photos so much. I need to find more!

Hopefully we will get some sun soon so I can show you more of my Valentine's day decor. Linking up with http://www.thoughtsfromalice.com/ today!

Michelle xoxo

Hello Again! Do You Remeber Me?

Oh dear!  I cannot believe that I've been gone for so long, sweet friends! But I have a really good excuse... this little guy! 

 

Yes, I'm mama to 4 little men now!  And they keep me quite busy.  This little one's name is Finn.  He is 5 months old now and he is delightful and so very sweet!  

With this new little guy arriving,  I am reminded more than ever that I want to start recording our memories and keeping our photos with them , but scrapbooking can be so time consuming.  I love the type of artistic journals that the fabulous Corey Moortgat has created for her babies, but I know I'm probably not going to be able to fit that kind of time in anytime soon.  So I've decided to try Project Life, but my way.  I'm not going to try to record every single day or week like some people do, but I just want to use that simple and easy style of slipping journal cards and photos into sleeves so I have a chance of actually getting it done. 

 I'm trying to gather ideas on how to make it my own.  There is a lot of good inspiration on Pinterest, maybe too much. I love Pinterest, but it can also be overwhelming. I have been gathering the supplies I need and hopefully I can find a space to create in  this little house. Maybe I can squeeze in a spot somewhere between all the computers and toys. If only this baby would take longer naps. It's hard to nap when you have 3 loud older brothers!

Have any of you tried Project Life or something similar?  I would love to hear about your experiences and see your work.

Michelle xoxo

  Hello Sweet Friends!  I hope you all had a lovely Christmastime with your families.  We had a lovely time here.  I thought I would share a few of the beautiful Christmas presents I received. 

 

 My sweet mama sent me most of these lovely things, plus some candy and crafting supplies and lots of pretty doilies and things for creating Valentines!

My boys gave me a cupon for a free trip to my favorite antique stores, so of course I wasted no time!  I bought this vintage book with the gorgeous cover, some pink vintage flowers, the sweet vintage button card and an old version of The Three Bears. 

 I adore the sweet illustrations.  These two are my favorites.  Have you ever seen a cuter Goldilocks? I found a few more goodies that I will show you on our next visit.

Pastel Christmas Hutch

I have finally finished decorating my hutch for Christmas.  Sometimes I have red and green in the kitchen and pastels in the living room, but I'm just going with the pastels this year.  

 I'm just loving all the glitter and pastels!   They just make me feel happy!

 I really like all of my goodies, but I'd like to find more vintage goodies to mix in with all my newer things.  It is a lot harder to find vintage pastel Christmas than the traditional reds, though.

 I got these houses at Hobby Lobby a few years ago. I painted and glittered them up and gave them colored rhinestone doorknobs.  I would love to live in this cute little Christmas village!

 See that pretty silver tinsel garland at the top?  It is wonderful. Not sure if you can tell in this photos, but it looks old because it has a tarnished look. Parts of it look like it is turning darker or kind of golden.  I got that from Target for the last two years and they have it again this year if any of you want to get some for yourself.

 And can you see that adorable green and white stripe bowl on the bottom shelf?  It looks fabulous with my vintage jadite! I found it at Cost Plus World Market.  It is so cute and plastic so I don't have to worry about it breaking in a house full of boys.  Well, who am I kidding... I'm often the one who breaks things around here!

The two larger houses on the top shelf are from Target also.  I must admit I was so exited when I saw them I ran to them and let out a  gasp. 

 The lady next to me started to laugh and as she walked away I heard her say to her little boy, "I guess she found something she really likes!"  I tend to embarrass myself sometimes with my untethered excitement while shopping. 

 I think I need to go get some more trees to bleach and glitter.  You just can't have too many little trees!  I may even try dying some pink this time.

Thank for visiting with me today, sweet friends.  Now I'm off to clean up and vacuum so I can get my tree up! 

 Glittery Pastel Christmas

Oh my goodness, have I been having fun decorating for Christmas!  I have been dying and glittering trees. Am I the only one who finds that addicting?  I need to buy some more because I love how they look!  I'm still working on decorating, but I will show you what I have done so far. 

 This is a shelf in my kitchen. I love these adorable little glitter houses I found at Target this year! 

  They even have a white led light inside, but I forgot to turn them on for the photo.

 

 I bleached the trees, then painted white paint on them and then added some glitter. The glitter is not showing up in the photo, but in person they look so sparkly!

 I have shown you all this collage I made before, but it's my favorite so here it is again.  It is made with some favorite papers and a photo of my mama and her little brother in front of an igloo her daddy made her.

 And here are a few goodies I strung up on my old white door.  The adorable striped mittens and the aqua tinsel are from Target's dollar section.  I made the tag and the stars are paper mache ones that I painted and glittered.

Thank you for visiting today.  I'm off to do some more decorating and if I'm lucky, maybe some crafting, too!
Michelle xoxo

  Homespun Advent Calendar

I'm still not done with my Christmas decorating, but I did finish a fun little project for my boys. Inspired by Pinterest, I decided to make them a homemade Advent calendar.  I stayed up almost all night working on it so I could surprise them today.  I listened to vintage Christmas music while I was creating which made it even more fun!

I love the papers I used from October Afternoon's "Make It Merry" collection! 

Cute vintage images and such happy colors! 

 I started with plain white treat bags from Hobby Lobby and just added the cute papers and sparkly stars and tinsel.

I think I still may add some buttons and rick rack, but I love how it turned out!  I found the adorable teeny tiny red and white clothespins at Hobby Lobby, also.

 

Then I just strung them on some pink and white string from Michaels.   I think I found it in the knitting yarn section.  I love it because it looks just like bakers twine but it's even cheaper.

I put in a little sweet treats and a Christmas joke in for each day.  I'm hoping to get my Christmas decorating done soon so I can share it with you!
Michelle xoxo

Sweet Vintage Finds

Hello, sweet friends!  Guess I haven't blogged much lately, have I?  But I have been trying to keep up with all of your fabulous blogs. My birthday was earlier this month so I have a few fun finds to share with you!  I found this lovely vintage ticking pillow.

I just love it!  I think it looks really nice with this great blue frame from T.J. Maxx.  The photo in it is my great Aunt Virginia.  She was a cutie pie!  I also found these pretty vintage ornaments.  One can't ever have too many of those...ever!  The ones with indents are my favorite and I was lucky to find quite a few!

 And the lovely vintage tablecloth under them was a steal because it has a few little holes and stains, but it's still so pretty!  The colors are just perfect!

I've had some really good luck at the Goodwill lately, also.  My finds include a vintage pink planter and sweet birdies in the prettiest spring colors!  I also found a wood cubby, but I will wait to show you till I paint it.

I will show you more of what I found at T.J. Maxx and Marshalls and a few goodies my mama gave my for my birthday at our next visit! Please excuse my blog looking a bit wonky today.  I am trying to make some changes, but obviously have no idea what I am doing.  Hopefully, I will figure it all out eventually.
Michelle xoxo