A Very Merry Christmas!
It was a very Merry Christmas at our house. Lots and lots of toys and cute little smiling faces. Sadly, we were not able to go home for Christmas this year so that was hard. My sweet mama sent me the most wonderful package full of delights! Lots of pretty new and vintage ornaments for my tree, beautiful embroidered linens and a vintage hat, pretty floral plates and best of all, a jewelry chest full of goodies displayed beautifully!!
It included vintage and new jewelry, vintage millinery flowers, pretty buttons and much more! The day after Christmas I spent visiting my favorite places to shop- the Goodwill and the Salvation Army stores. Its' our family's favorite pastime now. The boys love finding great toys, sweet hubby loves finding music CDs and manly treasures, and I find lots of pretty goodies for my home. My latest finds are these two great cottage style chairs I found at the Goodwill for only 2.99 each!! I love the pretty spindles and carved details on these chairs!I also was delighted to find this Rachel Ashwell's Simply Shabby Chic lampshade which I bought and Target several years ago and returned only to regret it later. I paid only 2.50 for it at the Salvation Army!
Love, love, love thrift stores. Hoping all of you are having a wonderful and fun holiday season with your loved ones.
Michelle xoxo

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas.......
Eeeeee!!! I finally got my white tree!! I have always wished I lived somewhere where it snows at Christmas time, but I never have. So I bought myself a pretty white "snow covered" tree. I love the way my aqua, pink and silver ornaments look on it and happily, my homemade ornaments look right at home on it, too! Hope you are all having fun getting ready for the holidays like I am. Christmas decorating is one of my favorite things to do and this year I manged to show great restraint by waiting until the end of November to decorate. Usually I am decorating the day after Halloween, but I know that is a bit extreme and kind of confusing to my little guys, so I waited this year. I think I need to get busy making some more fun little ornaments like these.

15 Happy Years!!
So happy to celebrate being married to Sweet Husband for 15 years!! Thank you, my dear sweet husband, for all the happy years and for putting up with this crazy girl, for claiming you love all my girly shabby chic decor, for ignoring my artistic messes, and for understanding me and loving me for who I am. XOXOAs you can see, I have been having a bit of fun making Christmas ornaments for that white Christmas tree I'm hoping to buy this year. I can't wait to make some more!

The time flew by.....
My sweet mama just left and I miss her already. We had so much fun together while she was here! Below is a photo of my pretty new mirror I found at the antique store. I bought it with my birthday money. Just what I needed in my studio. My studio is my favorite room in the house. So full of bright, happy sparkling goodies and lots of art!!And here is one more fun thing I found at the antique store- some vintage Christmas ornaments. I have really been wanting some of these for a while now and it was only $4 for the box, so I could not resist! They would look so pretty on the white Christmas tree I am hoping to buy this Christmas!! Once I saw Jenny's white tree, I knew I had to have one!! Maybe since I had to clean up the studio for my sweet mama to stay in I will get some art done now! I'm itching to create some cute ornaments for that white tree I'm hoping for!
Michelle xoxo

Birthday week fun!!
What a fun week it has been with my parents visiting!! We celebrated my birthday by eating at Pasados (I adore Mexican food!) and we had a yummy white cake with buttercream frosting, which is my favorite! Then I got to open my wonderful presents!! Here are a few of the goodies my sweet mama gave me..... two adorable vintage embroidered linens with scottie dogs, some pretty trims and buttons,
this gorgeous vintage dishtowel (faded just perfectly!),soft pretty sheet music and perfectly coordinating vintage wallpaper,this amazing vintage tablecloth- also faded to perfection,sparkling goodies for making art and a necklace pendant I can personalize with my own artwork or photo,
this pretty crazed plate, more vintage trims,lots of my favorite candy,and this amazing vintage hat!! I had some fun creating a vignette inspired my fabulous new hat and sheet music.
And of course, whenever my sweet mama visits we always must go antiquing!! These photos are from my favorite antique store called "Gatherings" in Georgetown.
The serenity of white.
Cute, cute stuff!!! Love the vintage toys and dolls!!


Here is my dad with my littlest guy. My dad is so sweet to always keep the kids busy so mama and I can have some kid free fun.Here is my cutie in front of one of my favorite antique stores called "Rough and Ready" in Georgetown.
I had such a fun week! Sadly, my dad had to go home after a week, but my mama gets to stay for another week!! So there is more fun to be had!

Happy Birthday to....... me!!!It is my 35th birthday and I am getting the best present- my sweet parents are coming to visit!! That means some fun antique and thrift shopping with my mama! I will bring along my camera because I know you girlies love to see those photos of all the gorgeous antique stores as much as I do!! This lovely little aqua vase is my latest Goodwill find. It was only 99 cents!!I have not been creating much lately, but I did make this sweet scrapbook page. I also had some fun painting and adding glitter to these vintage bluebirds. Can't wait to use them in a project!!Well, I must go do some last minute cleaning before my parents arrive. Will be back with some yummy photos in a day or two.

Shabby Chic Blog!!!
Just had to pop in today to let all you Shabby Chic fans that Rachel Ashwell has a blog now!! Just click here to visit!!I know I haven't posted much lately~ will be back soon!!Here is a little eye candy till I return.Michelle xoxo

My little guy's first day of school....My oldest son started 1st grade yesterday. He's never been apart from me for more than about 2 hours, so I hope he has fun at school and makes lots of friends. He was exited to go to school for the first time, but the night before he got scared and he kept saying, "Mama, I don't think I can be without you for 7 hours!!" Poor sweetie. When I picked him up he said "I don't like school!" His main complaint is that they don't let him talk!I think it's just going to take a little getting used to! LOL! He didn't complain about going to school today, so I think it's going to be o.k.