There's no place like home....
I've been back home for a week now, but I am just now settling in. It was wonderful to visit my home state and live in my childhood home with my sweet parents for a few weeks, but now it is good to be home in Texas with Sweet Husband, who I missed dearly! My parents took us to Six Flags, we swam in their pool nearly every day and of course there was some antiquing to be done!! Here are a few of the goodies I came home with. The silver tray was my grandmother's, the millinery flower , lace and rhinestone buttons were antique store finds and the adorable little teapot is another one of my Goodwill finds. Apparently my Goodwill store luck isn't confined to Texas!These pretty pillowcases and the lovely vintage embroidered linens below are some my sweet mama gave me from her fabulous collection! Thanks Mama!!
Mama came back to Texas with us and stayed a week and we were lucky enough to visit my favorite antique stores and we found a few goodies. Here are Mama's finds and in the next photo
are mine. I could not resist the photo of this lovely young lady at a dance and the soft pink velvety millinery flower.
And lastly, a few photos of my mother's beautiful home and garden...
How lucky am I to have grown up in such a beautiful place?? You can see more photos of her lovely home and garden here.

I love the Goodwill: Part IIMy sweet Mama arrived on Saturday night!! Yay!! Sunday we went to one of our favorite antique stores. I didn't bring my camera because I shared photos of the same antique mall just a few posts ago. We didn't buy anything at the antique mall, but afterwards we stopped by the Goodwill and I found something I have been looking for for years- the cute wooden linen rack that is in the above photo. I have found many over the years, but they always were ridiculous prices but this one was only $2.99!!! My sweet Mama bought it for me! Thank you, Mama!! It is so nice to have a place to display my beautiful vintage embroidered linens so I can see them everyday, instead of having them stored in a box.
This pretty pillow is another favorite recent Goodwill find. It is a Rachel Ashwell "Simply Shabby Chic" pillow sham. It was only $4.99!! I just love the gorgeous print and colors on this fabric! I will be leaving for California tomorrow and will be gone for about a month, so don't forget about me!! I will be bringing my camera, so I should have lots to share when I return!
Michelle xoxo

Summer fun and I've got the blues
Here are my sweeties enjoying summertime. The little one above, is gardening with a plastic spoon. He digs for roley poley bugs and then brings them in the house to be his pet. He puts them in his Fischer-Price house and make them ride in his toy cars. It is SO cute. (I limit him to one roley poley in the house at a time, in case you were wondering if there were bugs all over my house!) Don't you love the fake smile he is giving me? My big guy, who is 6, is doing an rather interesting pose. To me it looks like he is posing for a hunky guy calendar!! (Not that I look at that sort of thing!LOL!!)
My sweet Mama will be coming soon and then the kids and I will be heading to California with her for a long visit. Since I will be gone I thought I would post my photos for next weeks Shades of Inspiration group a little early. This week the color is another of my faves, blue!!
My blue enamelware coffee pot which is my very favorite shade of blue!
Lots of pretty blue buttons.
Love my striped pillow and the embroidered one , too. I think they look so summery.A lovely blue transferware plate. I have SO many blue transferware pieces but they are stashed away in the garage because I have way to many dishes!!A blue basket full of seaside treasures.My dotted pitcher which I adore.Most of my blue goodies all piled together. Someday I would love to decorate my bedroom in a blue and white seaside theme.
And lastly, a fun little blue tag I made.
My mom will be arriving late Saturday and Sunday we will go have some fun at our favorite antique store, so I might do one more fun post before I leave if I remember to take my camera with me.
Michelle xoxo

Seeing green.... I adore green, especially Jadite green!! I have been collecting Jadite and other light green colored goodies for years, so I was so happy when I found out this week's theme for the "Shades of Inspiration" group on Flickr is green! I love the pretty pattern on these beautiful sheets my sweet Mama gave me for Christmas!Not a very good photo of it, but I love this lantern I found years ago at Restorations Hardware!
A vintage green pot holder. I will have to share my pot holder collection with you all soon!
A sweet greeting card I received long ago.
I adore my sweet Mary Englebreit dish towel.
A jadite green vintage cupbaord door.
Vintage green alarm clock and lots of buttons is all shades of green!Last, but not least this adorable potholder with a happy vintage style!!

I love the Goodwill storeI found this amazing "Simply Shabby Chic" bookcase that I have been wanting from Target for years at the Goodwill store this weekend!! It is $200 new at Target. I got it for $29 at the Goodwill and there is only one minor and fixable flaw- nothing a little spackel and cream paint won't fix! Yay!! I'm just so giddy about this wonderful find!! As you can see I have already started loading it up with my art supplies!
Here is a photo of my sweet baby boy. It is so hard to get him to look at the camera for long enough for me to get a shot. It took about 40 tries to get this cute one.
And here I am with my big boy. Also one that won't look at the camera for more than a split second!
I haven't been keeping up with "Show and Tell Sunday" even though they the themes are ones I could be taking some great photos for. I just haven't felt like decorating and taking photos lately- someone call the doctor, I must be sick! LOL! Anyway, hopefully I will crawl out of this funk and do one big catch up post soon. Also, I have been tagged by a couple of you lovely ladies and I promise to get to that soon!
Michelle xoxo

Smile Like You Mean It
I just HAD to create something with some different colors and I really like how this one turned out! I so love this photo I used courtesy of SassyArts from Flickr. She has some really wonderful photos that she shares in the Collage Images group on Flickr. Don't you just love that wonderful smile on her face? When I saw her I knew she would be perfect for the phrase "There 's a Silver Lining to Every Cloud" . This piece has such a happy feeling- it makes me smile every time I look at it!This is a little banner I created. I just love the little girl's face! I have been feeling so inspired lately- my muse has been keeping me quite busy! I hope she is here for an extended visit this time! I'm off to visit all of your blogs, ladies, because really YOU are all are my muse and you never fail to inspire me!! Thank you!!
Michelle xoxoxo

Happy Mother's Day!!
I wish I could be with my sweet Mama this Mother's Day. She said they will be having my favorite meal and dessert at her house this year. Tostadas for lunch and her homemade chocolate cream pie with real whipped cream for dessert!! Mmmm!!! Here are the presents that are on their way to her....... (no peeking, Mama!!) I made her this photo frame and added a photo of her at the beach. It was an awful ugly frame from Big Lots. I painted it white, then covered it with vintage wallpaper and new scrapbook papers and added a vintage millinery flower and some pretty trims! I love it so much I wanted to keep it, so I will just have to make myself another one.
This adorable carnival doll is just like mine (seen in my blog banner). When Mama was visiting we found two of these cute dolls. She bought me one but didn't buy herself one and wished later that she had one. So I went back to the shop and that cute little dolly was still there!! I was so happy I could find her! It was two weeks after we first found them and I was sure someone would have snatched her up because she is SO cute and such a good price, too!! I added a little lace dress (more of a slip I guess, it's scandelously transparent and short!!) and gave her a little pink feather for her hair. I also found some pretty laces and trims and glass buttons to add to her gift!
I also added in some fun ephemera like sheet music and photos and pretty papers.
I added a photo of her to this sparkly letter "C" for Carol.Oh, and of course here she is dressed as the garden fairy. She really IS the garden fairy, too!! If you ever have a chance to see her amazing gardens you would see why!!
Happy Mother's Day to all my sweet blog friends and to my wonderful, talented, loving Sweet Mama!!!

I've been busy.......creating two new pieces!! "Far Away in Fairyland" is the first 3D box I have used and it was such fun! I need some more boxes to play with!! I found this one at Hobby Lobby and it was so cheap, but it was a seasonal Christmas item.
This collage includes a photo of my favorite subject- my sweet Mama! I love using old black and white photos of her! Here she is having her foot buried in the sand buy a guy she has a MAJOR crush on!! She was only about 5 or 6 years old. She looks like she is having the BEST time!! I love that photo!
This beautiful enamelware plate is my Mother's Day gift. (I was lucky enough to get it a bit early!!) I just LOVE it!!! It has a pink rose, my favorite aqua blue, it's enamelware and just a bit chippy- just perfect!! Thank you to Sweet Husband and my adorable little guys!!