It's Time! Time to Reveal Your Ornaments!

Well, the time has come! It's time to share our ornaments we received from the ornament exchange! I can't tell you how touched and blessed I was by each of you who signed up and participated. It was so much fun thinking about all of you being surprised about who was sending you an ornament. Some of you may have already been blog friends and some of you probably met some new friends. I do hope each of you enjoyed it as much as I did. I definitely plan to do it again next year and I do hope you will come back and join me. For those of you stopping by who did not get to participate this year, I would love for you to do so next year. Thank you again sweet friends. 

I will start with a couple of sweet ladies who do not have blogs of their own, but wanted to join when they heard about it through their precious daughter/granddaughter Stephanie from The Enchanting Rose. Stephanie's mom, Debbie is a dear lady who drops by to visit me from time to time. She stopped by and introduced herself after I joined a teacup/mug exchange party that Stephanie hosted a couple of months ago. I just love hearing from her. Thanks Debbie for joining the exchange! Debbie received some lovely things from Geneva at My Heart's Song. Here is what she wrote and received.....

What a delight it was to receive my package in the mail from Geneva at My-hearts-song. Each item I took out of the box was beautiful and matched perfectly. You could tell she took the time to put this gift together. My heart was blessed as I read her letter when she mentioned that she prayed for myself and my family as she packaged the box up. Such love. I look forward to getting to know Geneva, as well as the other sweet ladies through this ornament exchange.

Stephanie's grandmother, Dee Ann also wanted to join in the fun and she received a package from Di at Cottage Wishes. Dee Ann was amazed at the generosity that Di showed her and was blessed to receive the wonderful gifts. Thanks Dee Ann for joining in the fun...:)

Look what she received...

Such lovely gifts from sweet and generous ladies!

Now, for what I received! I, of course, was not surprised to find out who sent my gift since I already knew who it was going to be, but was I ever thrilled to open up my package from Cecilia from The B Farm.  I literally had tears in my eyes as I read the sweet words Cecilia wrote me and to top it off, it was written on a card depicting one of her many beautiful paintings. Yes, Cecilia is an artist!

Look at the sweet card....

I just love that Texas snowman! Look at his wreath made of peppers, his cowboy hat and his belt buckle. Too cute!

Such thoughtfulness went into the gifts Cecilia sent me. She knew from the answers to the questions I had asked everyone that I love snowmen and gingerbread. She hand-painted the most adorable little snowman you have ever seen on two tiny canvases and put them together so it is double-sided. She then put rick-rack around the edges to cover the seams and it is just perfection. Have a look.....

Here it is on the tree.....

He just makes me smile! 

Cecilia also sent me a gingerbread man! A hand-painted watercolor gingerbread to be precise and he is equally as adorable as the snowman! See for yourself.....

His little cupcake has a textured paint of some sort and is slightly raised to give it dimension. Isn't he the cutest little guy? She even framed it in this pretty red frame! Here it is surrounded by some of my gingerbread collection (which I will be sharing soon).

And, as if those two things weren't enough, she sent me several note cards depicting her paintings! Just look at them....she is one talented lady! 

You can check out some of Cecilia's work by clicking here. I really hope to be able to purchase a print of the bicycle some day. It is so lovely! The kitty is her pet which I just love! Thank you again Cecilia for the amazing gifts. I will treasure them always...:) You kindness and generosity are much appreciated my friend. 

On last thing before I go....

I wanted to share a couple of lovely ornaments I received from my good friend Donna from Distressed Donna Down Home. Donna sent these as a thank you for my hosting the exchange (not necessary, but much appreciated). I was so surprised to receive them and in fact they arrived on the same day as Cecilia's and another package I had ordered from Amazon, so talk about thrilled....3 packages in one day! I was seriously like a kid at Christmas as I opened each box and the treasures they contained. Of course the Amazon package got kicked to the curb because I knew what was in it...lol! Well, Donna asked me not to post hers since they were the same as some that she sent her partner and she wanted her to be surprised. So, now that I am certain her partner has received hers, I want to share mine! I have admired Donna's Frozen Charlotte's for quite some time and was tickled pink to receive my very own in an ornament. Isn't is beautiful?

Donna is so creative...I admire her so much! She sent me another adorable little ornament as well....which contains one of her bleached and dyed bottle brush trees on a wine bottle cork.

 So pretty....

Be sure to go visit Cecilia and Donna's blogs. They are such beautiful, creative ladies and I am so blessed to have gotten to know them through my blog. I feel that same way about each of you too. I never dreamed when I started this little blog almost a year ago (stay tuned for a 1 year giveaway coming up soon) that I would be blessed to meet so many wonderful ladies. I feel like I have known most of you for years! You are each a blessing to me and I thank you for following and visiting often. Oh...if you don't have a blog to be able to share your pictures, please reply to the e-mail I sent and I will edit this post and add your pictures and sentiments. May your weekend be beautiful....until next time......

Guest Room Reveal...:)

I finally have a chance to share my new spare room with you. If you have visited me over the past couple weeks, I am sure you have heard mention of this. The hubby and I have been working hard to get this room ready for our daughter's visit over Thanksgiving break.  This room is tiny...seriously tiny. It is approximately 100 square feet counting the closet! It is our fourth bedroom and has served many purposes over the years, from playroom to closet to bedroom. We had some major water damage to the ceiling, floor and one wall some time back so the back wall and part of the ceiling and floor had to be torn  out and rebuilt. This room has been serving as a junk room while we were saving money to remodel it. We have been wanting to replace our old carpeting for some time now and found an awesome deal on laminate flooring with Lumber Liquidators that we couldn't pass up, so we bought enough flooring to do our entire house minus the two bathrooms, my craft room, and my son's room. Our plan is to work on one room at a time until we get it like we want it and then start another one.

With all that said.....I want to share the room we just finished. We have one more project left to do in here,  but we ran out of time to do it, so I will share that soon!

I am very pleased with how the room turned out. We painted it all white to brighten it up and make it appear larger. I painted the chest of drawers and headboard black. I love the black against the white walls. The old chest was belonged to my Granny Valentine and was in pretty bad shape before I redid it. I ordered glass knobs for the top drawer and am waiting on them to come in. 

I still have something to do to the headboard and I will share it when I finish. It was one of my thrifty finds for $7 earlier in the year. The wall pocket on the left was thrifted a couple years ago. It holds silk hydrangeas and an old hankie. The bird canvases were a gift from my sister a few years ago. There are four of them....two on each side of the room. 

The prints above the headboard were purchased at Beall's Outlet last weekend. I fell in love with them and knew they would look great in this room. By the way, these pictures show the room being lived in. That's Miranda's leather messenger bag I bought her for her graduation from Florida State University last year. Her laptop bag is sitting beside it....she's a blogger too..:)

I love the way the sun is streaming in the window in the photo below. This little room gets the best morning light! See it in the glass knob on the wall rack and on the curtain covering the closet in the left. This picture shows the luggage rack which was thrifted a few years ago for $2 and has been painted red, pink, and now aqua. It used to hold my printer in the craft room. Makes a great luggage stand doesn't it? The rack above was a gift from mama a couple years ago. The little afghan hanging from it was crocheted by my husband's aunt for Miranda years ago. A thrifted tassel and a bird hang from two of the hooks.

I love the window ledge my hubby built. He built me one in my craft room too and I love the extra display space. You can see the gazebo out the window that my dad built for Joey and I to get married in over 25 years ago...:) It needs a little TLC too.

These two pieces hang on the tiny wall to the left of the closet.....they were both thrifted. The closet holds lots of stuff and I will share it one day soon.

Here is the closet wall. For now I have a vintage sheet hanging here. I am on the lookout for something different though. The arrow points to the area where we have a project to finish.

Here is a close up of the floor. I love the color...it has an aged, weathered look to it. 

This little thrifted vanity tray sits on the chest of drawers and holds a small devotion book, the hand I thrifted a while back, a cute little bird, and a thrifted crystal clock. 

It is such a pretty tray. I paid a little more for this than I typically do, $10 I think, but I just loved it. After I bought it home and did the research, I found I got a great deal on it as they go for $50-$100 on ETSY and ebay.

This aqua blue mirror was a gift from my mother-in-law several years ago. It came with lotions and perfumes and was originally unpainted wood. I painted it a couple years ago and like it so much better now. I think it looks good on the chest of drawers. I just noticed I need to clean it...I left streaks everywhere! My mom gave me the lamp a while back. She was tired of using it and passed it on to me. It looks perfect in this room.

Here's another window shot and you can see the ceiling in this picture. 

Here is another shot with more of the ceiling in it.

LOVE...:)

Here is a close up of the valances. They are black and white sheer toile called Country Life by Waverly. I bought them at a yard sale for $2. There were four of them. The other two hang over my kitchen window. I really like them in this room.

Last photo for now...a close up of the cover on the bed. I wanted a white chenille cover, but my mother-in-law had this one she was putting in her yard sale and I love it. It has a very pale yellow background. It is perfect in the room. 

Well, I am off to get ready to head up to my mother-in-law's house for lunch and to help decorate for Christmas. We are having a huge family get together there before Christmas and there is lots to do! 

I am linking up with Marty from A Stroll Through Life for Inspire Me Tuesday and Kathe from Kathe With an E for You're Gonna Love It Tuesday. Hop on over and check out the awesome link-ups!

Have a blessed day everyone and until next time.....

From Not Too Terrific Tan to Awesome Aqua!

Do you love vintage office supplies as much as me? If you are a regular reader, you may remember these card file drawers I found at the Goodwill a few weeks ago. I had been wanting some of these for a long time and was thrilled when I found not one, but two of them! And....they were only $2.99 each!!! 

Here is a before pic.....

With school starting back and trying to get settled in kindergarten, I didn't have much time for any home projects, but over the three day weekend, I decided to take some time to spray paint these little beauties. Here is what they look like now!

I love how they turned out! They are perfect...:)

I decided not to paint the handles for now. You can see they area  little rusty where the handle attaches to the backplate, but it really isn't noticeable unless you are looking really closely.

I love that they still had two original sets of dividers left in the drawers. These are so cool....the tabs are metal! They just don't make things like this anymore!

A couple shots of the top. The frosted glass containers hold chalk since I have a chalkboard on the wall over the drawers. And, there's the little hand I bought last weekend during my flea market outing!

Here's a photo of the entire space! I just love these drawers and am thinking I will store tags in them for now. I do have different plans for them in the future though. You may remember me saying that I eventually plan to build my own library space in my home.. Well, when I get it finished, I want to use the card files to keep up with all my books....just like it used to be done (before the age of technology) in a real library. I think that would be so cool. I can list each title and author on a card and have my shelves labeled so I can find the book quickly if I am looking for it. I have several hundred books of my own as well as a couple hundred or more children's books...most of which belonged to my children when they were little. I have always loved the look, feel, and smell of a library and I think having my own library and card catalog system will be awesome! For now though, I am happy with using them in my craft room!

I'm linking up with Diann for

Kelley for

and Gina for 

Well folks....that's it for today. I have papers to grade, so I better get off here and get busy!

Until next time.....

Lady in Red.....& Aqua!

Hello! I am excited to be sharing a sweet little project I finished yesterday. I ended up painting this one in my kitchen just so I could finish it. I have so many little projects I am working on for my home as well as my classroom and I am quickly running out of summer days! So....here goes! This homely lovely little poop chocolate brown colored shelf jumped out in my path while I was walking at the flea market last Saturday. I asked the seller what they wanted for it and she said $3, so I said....I'll take it! I know you're probably wondering why, but it is a solid wood shelf and the size is just perfect to hold lots of  read aloud books and a few other items in my reading corner at school. I knew I could fix her right up and have her looking good in no time! Here she is, scratches, scrapes, seam filler, new feet, and all! 

Ain't she purty y'all? LOL

Don't forget you can click on the photos to enlarge them.

Ok....phase two! I painted her with a homemade chalk paint concoction. She is a very pale aqua which is not showing up too well in these photos. I had a terrible time trying to get good photos in the dreary light from all the rain! I left the back unpainted for a reason. My hubby added these little feet for me. I had a basket full of wood shapes that I rescued from the trash pile at my old school. These little cubes worked well for her feet....at least I think they do. I would have preferred something a little taller and maybe a little curvy, but I'm working with what I have! The feet got a snazzy red paint job!

Ok....I didn't take any more pictures until I was finished, so.....Ta Da! Here's the little lady, all dressed up and looking quite snazzy! I added the red and white polka dot gift wrap to the back for a pop of color and the red rick rack trip to the front for cuteness (is that a word). I also added buttons to the corners to cover the uneven edges of the rick rack. I already had all this in my craft room stash...:) So far....I still only have $3 in it. 

While I was shopping for a few necessities at Wal Mart after the trip to the flea, I spotted these sweet little decals. I was looking for something else when I saw these and thought they were too cute. I love dandelions and this whole set was only $2.47. I thought they would be sweet on the sides of my little shelf, so into the cart they went! Now I am up to just under $6.00 if you include sales tax. Not too shabby in my opinion.....especially for a little darling like this! Here she is showing off her dandelions and dragonflies...:)

And here she is sitting by her reading corner partner....the chair I recently recovered. You can also see the buntings I have been working on hanging on my china cabinet. I love how it all works together! 

Makes me smile...:)

A little closer up....and yes, that would be Farah on the arm of the chair. She is such a curious little thing!

And, just for kicks....here she is before, during, and all complete! What do you think?

 I would love to hear your opinion. 

Well, that's it for today folks! I am pooped.....my son and I moved all my school stuff today. I had to go to my old classroom and haul it to my new one. It took two trips and the schools are 10-12 miles apart. We had to work around the rain as well. We have flood warnings out now. The river is steadily rising and there is water standing in the ditches everywhere. It amazes me that we can be drenched here and people across the nation are desperate for rain. I wish we could send some their way. Oh...one more thing, I noticed I have 45 followers on Google Friend Connect now, so I am starting to think about what to do for a 50 follower giveaway, so stay tuned! 

I'm linking up with Gina for

 

Thanks for stopping by & until next time.....