The Next Van Gogh!

My favorite! Both of us love the northern hollyhocks! And Lake Michigan!
Just a few sitting on top of her armoire.
This is of one of her favorite houses on Mackinac Island.
This one is just breathtaking in person, it is huge!
This one really shows off the detail of the painting, you can see every stroke that she has made.

My little sister Melanie has once again found a new creative outlet. Painting gorgeous pictures. She has always been the artistic one, we always say that I am the organized one, she is the creative one. She used to paint here and there on furniture and walls, but not really ever any on canvas. She decided last month to give it a try. Of course she amazed all of us with her talent. Even she didn't know she could paint so beautifully. I am not kidding, I have been to the galleries and seen gorgeous artwork, her work is just as good. I went up north to her home last weekend for a night and I snapped a few shots of her latest pieces. They are so pretty, I love the colors she is using. And the scenes are from snapshots that she has taken of her favorite places in Northern Michigan and Lake Michigan. Her hope is to enter an art festival soon and maybe sell a few pieces. I have the first painting that she did in my dining room, I just love it, the colors are all sherberts and melons. I will post more about her later, she has some very exciting news for us that love to decorate, her home has been scouted by a person who works for Country Home and Better Home and Gardens magazines. The woman came and took tons of pictures of her home and called this past weekend to say they are very interested and wondered if she decorates for Christmas. OOOH Does she! I have some shots of her home that I will feature here in a few weeks. You will love it! We both love to decorate and be creative, we are always swapping "goods" and we always promise not to get rid of it, just give it back when you don't want it any longer. I am not giving my painting back any time soon Sis!!! If you would like to visit her stop on by and tell her that I sent you! She can be found by going to http://www.prettiesandposies.blogspot.com/. Update: Her blog is now private, please feel free to email her and ask for an invite. Her computer has crashed but will be up and running again very soon!

Our Office

Welcome to my office, the ceilings are 10 feet tall in here so I tried to draw your eye upward to see how I utilize all of the empty space that used to be there.

Love these frames, paid $3for all of them!
Here are my pretty window mistreatments, no sewing here! (Remember the fringe I bought for a few dollars at the great garage sale, this is where it ended up, I had just the right amount for both windows, and they puddle on the ground!)

These are definately not the best pictures but, well, you get the picture.
Love this new huge frame! I have had the topiaries since we moved into the new nest 8 years ago, I still see them at Homegoods, timeless! The red toile plates were a $3 Marshall's find. This display is actually quite large, the frame is at least 3 feet long!

Ahhh, my cozy chair! All of the pillows were purchased at my sister's garage sale last year!
This was given to me by my Grandmother years ago, it is a McCoy and was in her family. It is perched high on my bookshelf away from little hands.

My beloved photo albums, full of our life stories.

I have been slacking on this blog big time and I apologize. We have been so busy, if you read my other blog you would already know that :). So I decided to just take a few snapshots of our home office today to share with you all. We painted this room a few years ago, I had an idea in my head and hoped that my hubby could pull it off. I wanted the room to look like I had spent a fortune on custom molding/paneling. I cheated and painted the bottom 3/4 white and the top a rich dark taupe. He figured out a way to buy cheap pine strips of wood and we painted them white as well, a few cuts and wa-la, faux moldings. He also built a nice shelf all around the room so that I could display pictures (used to have pictures up there) or whatever I chose to do. I love how it turned out and we get many compliments on this room, probably because it is the first thing you see when you enter our nest. This furniture used to be in our basement but it was not convenient at all to run down there every time we needed to use the computer. So my hubs and another big strong man moved it upstairs to its new location and I fell in love again with this room. We also have a big stuffed chair and ottoman that is the most comfortable reading spot. This furniture was originally in our upstairs extra bedroom before a little Chinese darling entered our life and that room needed to become a nursery. I made the window mistreatments a few months ago and yes, the fringe is hot glued to the edges and there was no sewing involved at all! Yippee! I also have a bookshelf in there that holds our family photo albums. I love these albums from Kohls, they can hold some serious pictures let me tell you and they all match, it gives a more pleasing appearance. I have thousands of pictures in them. My newest addition to the room are the cool vintage frames. I have collected them from garage sales and was given a few also. Literally, I have paid around $12 for the all of them. My large frame I just bought from my neighbor's yard sale a few weeks ago. It had a huge picture of Jesus in it, I can't throw out a picture of Jesus so I just gently removed it from this frame and put it in a safe place. This frame is huge and it was $10. I am in love with the look of Nell Hill so I tried to achieve that look in this room with the gold accents, red toile, brown florals and rich colors. The pretty clock on the desk was Mark's service award from his department after being there for 15 years, it chimes and everything, Myah loves to remind me that my clock is going off. I have a few of my favorite decorating books at hand, some personalized stationary in a caddy, my crazy calendar, my favorite magazines and a few good books all close by in this room so I can stay organized and on top of things. This was once an unused room and now it is my favorite spot to spend a few hours. This is also the room that I sneak off to when I am on the phone, away from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the nest! I hope you enjoyed this litte tour of my office, I'd love to see yours!

Wedding Silver

I somehow inherited my Grandparents wedding silverware. That sounds pretty impressive I know, but actually it has more sentimental value than function, it is not a full set (not even close) and some of the knives tips are cut off, but nonetheless, it is beautiful and it really likes the camera. This is our anniversary week and I get all giddy remembering the fuss and craziness that was going on at my parents house 15 years ago. I was the first grandchild to have a big wedding on both sides of my family, so it really became a family affair. I am sure that whomever bought this silverware 60 some years ago never imagined that it would be uploaded to the internet via a blog! It sure makes you wonder what life will be like when we celebrate 60 years!

Father's Day Ideas

I struggle with finding the perfect Father's Day gifts for the men in my life. I always have 3 major occasions in a row that I need to find gifts for Mark, his birthday, Father's Day and our anniversary are all within a few weeks of each other. He is easy to please but I never feel like I get just the perfect gift for him. I have done pretty good this year though and I thought I would share my good finds in case you were struggling to find a good gift as well.




The first great gift is Mark's new GPS unit. We just bought it last night and we are already in love with it! He actually was smiling while he was driving on a busy highway in a rainstorm! Good gift! He doesn't even mind that another woman's voice is telling him where to go and giving him directions! Bonus! We purchased a Garmin wide screen Nuvi 250 from Dick's Sporting Goods. They are on sale this week. We ended up finding this one to be about $50 cheaper than the same exact model at Target, plus I have a Dick's score card (not a credit card, just a rewards card) so I had a $20 off coupon! They can be a bit pricey but if you shop around you can find a good deal. This was Mark's 40th Birtday "big gift". You can find it here.




I love my man to smell nice, so I am always excited to find a scent that I like. Besides, he is wearing it for my benefit to begin with right?! I was in Bath and Body Works the other day and they have a really nice line of men's products right now. I bought Mark this one and he loves it too. I even got him the body wash and he has been using it. It is the C.O. Bigelow Blue Elixir cologone, it smells very nice! They also have many great mens products right now.









Another special gift is this book that we have had in our house for a few years, Mark's older brother Scott used it and passed it on to Mark. It is called Letters From Dad and it is by Greg Vaughn. It encourages men to write special letters to their family members as a keepsake. It is a wonderful idea and I know that Scott's family appreciated the heartfelt letters that they received, I am working on gettting mine!! There is a whole curriculum that men can follow to help them create this beautiful gift for their family. Here is a description taken from the website: "Learn to write the things you have always wanted to say but just didn't know how.Leave treasured letters of love that will be read long after you are gone.Learn to speak and write these Blessings to your family.Build deep and lasting relationships with other men in your Legacy Group.Store, in letter form, the only 3 things that remain: Faith, Hope and Love.Finally, you will deliver your letters in our personally engraved, mahoganyTreasure Boxes (purchased seperately). Here the treasured letters you leave will be stored for your children and your children's children.
Our Heavenly father left us a book of love letters called the Bible. We invite you to leave your book of love letters called... Letters from Dad. "



Wouldn't you love to receive such a gift? You can find it by going here.


We love playing board games together as a family. Mark and Dayton love to play Clue. We used to have Clue Jr. as well and we played it over and over until he was old enough to play the older version. A few other favorites are Scrabble, Boggle, Yahtzee, Taboo, Uno, and Skip Bo. A great game for older kids is Balderdash. We love to eat popcorn and sit around playing any of these fun games. There are some really nice book editions that are out right now that I saw at Target, they would look nice on a book shelf.









We bought the Planet Earth series for Dayton as a Christmas gift and we all have enjoyed it. Any man in your life would love this! You can buy it most anywhere these days. It is put out by the Discovery Channel.





Our house would not be complete without sporting equipment. We have footballs, baseballs (and gloves), basketballs, volleyball net and balls, horseshoes, golf clubs, air soft guns, and fishing poles. All great ways for Dad's to spend quality time with the family. I know Mark loves staying active and being outdoors is something he really enjoys. It is also a great way to relieve stress after a long day! They even have a huge line of pink equipment now so that the little ladies in your family can join in! Myah has a pink baseball glove that lights up when she catches it. Mark is hoping this will encourage her to play softball and not ballet, hmmmm, we'll see about that one!










Lastly, I love this new cd from Steven Curtis Chapman, it features the hit "Dance With Cinderella". I think this is a perfect daddy/daughter song, surely will bring tears to any Daddy. The Chapman family has just lost their youngest daughter in a tragic accident and I will pray for his family this Father's Day, I am sure that this song has a whole new meaning to them.




I hope this helps jog your mind a little bit when it comes to finding something for that special man in your life.

Dining Room Makeover

My vintage tulip print from a garage sale
This rooster weather vane was my gift for playing nurse for 2 months to my family! Roosters have a special place in my heart now that Myah was born in the year of the rooster.
My angel vine loves its new home atop the buffett
I just love this old dresser, I scrubbed it up pretty good and filled it with my candle stash

This picture isn't really good of my pretty curtains but I love them still!
My sister has found yet another thing that she is great at! This is a picture of a barn on Lake Michigan with hollyhocks of course!
Remember my garage sale plates, they bring a punch of color to the buffett
My Grandmothers cruet set, I need to polish it but I kind of like it like this too!

Ever since we moved into our home almost 8 years ago we have been searching for dining room furniture. We have a breakfast nook that we eat in all of the time and I really wanted to make our dining room more inviting. I love having nice dinners in the dining room but there was never anything really special about it. Some of my fondest memories are from when we were gathered around a dining room table with good friends and family, whether we were sharing a beautiful Christmas spread, playing a game of euchre with grandparents, falling off the chair in laughter, catching up with the day to day,or pulling a high chair up to the table for the first time. If our table could talk, oh the stories it would tell!

Last fall we became serious about looking for a table, we looked everywhere, I didn't want to settle for something that wasn't "us". We had done that in the past with other items and we never were satisified. Our room is not very large and all of the newer furniture pieces were enormous, I began to get frustrated. One day I came across this antique set at my favorite antique mall, a booth had been rented just for this piece and it caught my eye immediately, a bonus was the beautiful buffett that accompanied the table. I came home and told Mark all about it, the price was incredible $600 for all it was a Duncan Phyfe style, six chairs, two leafs and a custom table pad, in mint condition. Plus a buffet! I knew it was perfect. I love everything old, but I didn't want something old that was rickety, this was very sturdy. Mark went the next day to "look" at it and then called me and told me to be ready to unload it when he got home! What a guy! It fits perfectly in the room because it is a bit "petite" as compared to the more modern larger styles.

I love the Nester and her window mistreatments were my inspiration for the new look in our room. I came across this fabric at Calico Corners a few weeks ago and fell in love with the fresh look. I have a special place in my heart for tulips so that became my inspiration piece. My sister Melanie has begun painting beautiful pieces of art so I begged her to make me a large picture for my new room. I still need to frame it but it is gorgeous. The large window is something that I got out of the garbage from a favorite store that was going out of business (she let me drag it out of her pile). I have wanted to place it above the buffett but wasn't sure how it would tie in. I LOVE it in here! My $10 old dresser just had to be included in this room after it sat in my hallway for a few days and I realized it was a perfect color match. Notice my garage sale plates and bowl! My makeover cost me next to nothing. I also took a pretty watermelon check and redid the chairs with my staple gun. The best part is that my curtains were hot glued together! Yes I said hot glued! The Nester convinced me that just because I cannot sew does not mean I cannot have gorgeous window treatments! This room is now my favorite, it is fresh, clean but vintage and classy all at the same time. Now who wants to come for dinner?

I Went Back!

I went back to that super cool garage sale and I told Mark not to worry about getting me anything for Mother's Day, I just want money to pick up a few things. I pulled into the driveway and they were happy to see me again. I am going to sign up for their fairy garden workshop with Myah. These ladies are so awesome! They said that they sell their treasures to the stores that I frequent, selling antiques and cool stuff to them. I really hit the motherload!
Here are the fun items that I picked up. My house looks like a bomb went off after being at ball tournaments all weekend and my new treasures are scattered around until they find their permanant home. I am glad today is a rainy day and I can fuss! I am in the process of a doing a really exciting project that I will share with you soon! I am really having fun!
FYI: The cool dresser was $10, the pretty chair was $20 (love this chair, in perfect condition!) Myah calls it her Cinderella chair, wagon $10, flag $3,croquet set $6, plate $3, pretty white bowl $4,fabric $3, books were 25 cents a piece at church rummage sale and Seasons of Cannon Falls snowman was unpriced, I asked the lady how much for it and she said "oh, a quarter!" what a steal!!!

Garage Sale Season Opener

My treasures from the sale, I am making new curtains out of this gorgeous fabric for my office! The table was $3, fabric $3 , plate $1 and trim was $3.
I found this rocking horse at Salvation Army last week, she is getting a pretty makeover! She cost me $19
I picked these up at my favorite second hand store for Myah, I love the Gymboree jeans and suit! Total of $15.00

I went to my first sale of the year yesterday and what a goodie! I followed one little sign for a couple of blocks to find this sale, right on a super busy street! I had seen this sweet little house for many years and there was always cute stuff on her front porch so I figured we must have similar taste. I circled the block 2 times trying to find a spot in her driveway to park, she is right at the corner of an intersection, after the 3rd time I told myself that I would move on if I couldn't fit. Luckily someone had just pulled out and I plowed in! I hit the motherload! As I walked up I knew that this was no ordinary garage sale. It was set up like a little shop inside and it was full of stuff that I love! You would be proud of the self control that I exhibited! I did come away with these perfect treasures. It was 4 sisters who sell cool stuff to the cool stores in the area, they also do draperies, ottomans, etc. So much fun! I want to sign up for one of their classes to make a fairy garden. I am going back today, Mark has me running an errand in that area, poor me!!! They said that not even half of the stuff was out yet!! Yippee! I love finding treasures! I think if I was a millionaire I would still shop this way!

Here are a few treasures that I picked up plus a few other thrifting things that I picked up in my travels.