Having lots of fun today....
I have been busy making pretty Valentines with my stash of vintage goodies!!
I can't decide which one of these I love more. One is for my sweet mama, so I will let her pick which one she likes the best. I love the checked paper I used on the sides.I started out just planning to cover one vintage cardboard candy box, but I was liking it so much, I just used the top of the box for one of these Valentines and the bottom for the other one.I was lucky enough to go to my favorite antique malls in town this weekend. (All 5 of them!!) My excuse was looking for presents for my sweet mama's upcoming birthday. I had so much fun and found lots of little goodies. These are a few of my favorite finds. (Look away, Mama! Some of these things may find their way into your present!)

Dreaming of Paris.....
I love this new vignette I created! It is my ode to Paris, one of the many places I dream of visiting someday. My Wendy Addison "dream" banner and some vintage lace over my favorite mirror. I so wish I had bought two of these gorgeous mirrors when I found them years ago at Marshalls!A basket full of vintage lace, a vintage glass doorknob and my little Eiffel tower up on a pedestal. I love this palette of silver, tan, black and every shade of white. I would love to do an entire room in these colors.
An old rusty alarm clock, and lots of pretty laces. Some in an old jar with a rusty key and the rest in my wire basket. I had been looking for a wire basket just like this for years before I found one at guess where? The Goodwill, of course!
This silver tray, (tarnished to perfection!) was my grandmothers. Upon it sits a (copy of) and old French hotel receipt, a chandelier crystal, another rusty key, an old watch face, some vintage millinery, lace. and vintage rhinestone jewelry and another cute Eiffel Tower from one of my very favorite stores, "Fleuri". If you live in the Sacramento area you should stop by the store. It is amazing!
I also had a little fun taking some photos of a few of my favorite vintage goodies.
I love to collect these vintage button cards. The "Blue Bird Pearls" one is my all time favorite.
My prettiest teacup with a few sparkling rhinestones inside.
Lots of pretty laces, more rhinestons, vintage sheet music tied up in seam binding, vintage millinery, my very own baby shoes and my sweet husband's grandfather's baby spoon.And last, a little Valentine I created. Now I need to go do something a lot less fun than decorating. Time to clean the cottage. It might be a little more fun if mine looked like this...or if I had this adorable polka dot dress to wear while cleaning.....or these cute aprons to wear.....or maybe if I tied up all my towels with pretty pink bows like the lovely lady below it would be more fun? What do you do to make your household tasks a little more pleasant? I would love to hear your thoughts. Have a lovely day!

My favorite pastime.....(aside from shopping at my favorite antique stores!) is to put on some classical music and decorate my home, rearranging the furnishings, moving things from one room to another.After I moved things around to make room for the Christmas tree I like where everything was placed, but still had a big blank corner where the tree had been. So I stole the pretty pink dresser from my studio and brought it to the living room.I brought out a few of my favorite vintage goodies to decorate the dresser top. This is my new favorite corner. It has made my living room so much more cozy and I really needed the extra lamplight.
Next I took an old wire basket that I had spray painted a soft pink and used it to store some of my favorite vintage linens.And do you remember that pretty white oval frame my sweet father sneakily (is that a word?) bought me while I was busy shopping in an antique store a last summer? I finally found the perfect place to hang it. I used it to frame some of my pretty vintage treasures.Here is my jadite green enamelware teapot. I think it looks so pretty with the this vintage pillow that is made from a piece of vintage quilt.
And I have been busy making some valentines, but this is the only one that is ready to be seen.

Happy New Year!!
Oh my! I am still trying to recover my home from the toy tornado that hit on Christmas morning! Packaging and toys spread all over the house! Here are a couple more of my Christmas presents. My sweet boys gave me a homemade gift certificate to buy what I wanted and I found these beautiful mercury glass candlesticks, which is something I have been wanting for years now. I just love them! Also, my sweet husband and I did not exchange gifts on Christmas because we just were not sure what we wanted. (We are the kind who would love if it were possible to surprise the other and buy something we know the other would love, but are completely incapable of doing so, so we have always pretty much picked out our own presents!) So when I fell in love with this adorable cottage style table in the perfect shade of jadite green at T.J. Maxx, sweet husband bought it for my Christmas present!!Just what my living room needed to look more cozy and homey and I can always use more tabletop space to display all my treasures! Thank you so much, sweetheart!! Here is a close up of some of the gorgeous vintage goodies my sweet mama sent me and next a few of my favorite vintage buttons.My latest Goodwill find is the sweet little lamp for only 3.99! It just need a nice simple shade.And here is something I forgot to share. This summer, when I was visiting California, my dear mother in law gave me this beautiful rose plate that once belonged to her beloved mother, Jewel. Isn't Jewel such a sweet, old fashioned name? I love those kinds of names and I have been thinking a lot about names lately because sweet husband and I will be needing to pick one out by the end of April. We are expecting a new little bundle of joy this Spring! We are so exited and so are our two little guys. Our 7 year old even wished on a star that he could have a baby sister or brother not long before we told him the news! Isn't that so sweet?