Kiwi in Texas

Christmas break

2011-12-21T09:17:00.000-06:00

I took some better pictures of the Christmas tree earlier this month - we were still counting down to Christmas break on the chalkboard, now the kids are counting down the days until Christmas, only 4 more days now!

newly arranged "gallery wall" with some family pictures and some little plates and art from thrift / antique stores.

We're having a good break from school so far. Last weekend we went to the zoo

The week before Christmas is definitely the best time of year for the zoo. It was calm and quiet, everyone must have been out at the malls.

Yesterday we made this fudge:

Christmas Fudge (recipe from Parent's Magazine)

Your child can stir in the dried fruit when the fudge is off the stove.

• 2 bags (12 oz. each) white-chocolate chips

• 1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated milk)

• 1 tsp. vanilla

• Pinch of salt

• 1/2 cup chopped dried apricots

• 1/2 cup dried cranberries

Line an 80-square pan with foil. In a saucepan over low heat, stir and melt chips, condensed milk, vanilla, and salt. Remove from heat and stir in fruit. Spread evenly in pan. Chill 2 hours or until firm. Remove from pan and cut into squares. Store covered in refrigerator for up to 1 week.

Very easy to make and yummy too, Merry Christmas!

Christmas events and decorating

2011-12-04T16:00:00.000-06:00

Breakfast with Santa yesterday at Chris' work. I don't know what he was telling them, but it looks like they're listening.

Thomas asked for Lego and Kate a microscope.

Then we headed out to Mill Hollow Christmas tree farm

and found the perfect tree.....

Last year at the Christmas tree farm - last year we got a Virginia pine tree, this year it is a Leyland Cypress.

Brought it home to decorate last night, and took some pictures today, it's a dark day so I need to take better pictures on a sunny day.

it is so pretty, the nicest tree we've had, these pictures don't do it justice.

Emmy checking everything out...

the chalkboard Kate decorated.....

the black and white picture is my Dad as a little boy, and his father going to see "Father Christmas" - he grew up in England.

this little picture was a thrift store find, as well as the silver owl and penguin. The little brass shoes is the ornament from Thomas' first Christmas

little silver sheep (from New Zealand antique store) and another thrift store find - fiestaware juice pitcher

the Santa stocking holders I've had a few years (from Marshalls)

Last year's Christmas tree and decor

Goodbye Oak tree

2011-11-23T09:24:00.000-06:00

We had a beautiful old oak tree, but this summer after our New Zealand trip we came back and the leaves were brown. We thought it was the drought that killed it, there are many many dead trees around the Houston area. We got it cut down last week. Sad to see it come down, even though we have more trees, that old one was special. Chris counted the rings (see picture below).

the tree guy climbing the tree, it had a huge trunk and then branched off into two bigger sections

it had already started shedding it's branches and bark, with the help of many woodpeckers and squirrels

the bare branches

not an easy job

afterwards..... Chris has a friend who wants this for firewood

the tree guy said the tree actually died from a fungus, not the drought as we thought

Citizenship Day

2011-11-09T19:56:00.000-06:00

Today I officially became a United States citizen. I registered to vote and need to apply for my passport too!

The United States is my home away from home, and I have come to love it here too. I have been here a third of my life now, over 12 years!

We had to be there at 7am, and the oath ceremony did not start until around 9. It was a moving experience though, that over 1000 people from over 110 countries were new citizens there too.

America the Beautiful

by Katharine Lee Bates

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet

Whose stern impassion'd stress

A thoroughfare for freedom beat

Across the wilderness.

America! America!

God mend thine ev'ry flaw,

Confirm thy soul in self-control,

Thy liberty in law.

O beautiful for heroes prov'd

In liberating strife,

Who more than self their country lov'd,

And mercy more than life.

America! America!

May God thy gold refine

Till all success be nobleness,

And ev'ry gain divine.

O beautiful for patriot dream

That sees beyond the years

Thine alabaster cities gleam

Undimmed by human tears.

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea.

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T15:29:00.000-05:00

Citizenship test day

2011-10-31T15:26:00.000-05:00

Today I got to take the day off work to go to my US citizenship test. It was pretty quick and easy (much better than the experience when I first got my green card 12 years ago), and my oath ceremony is next Wednesday November the 9th.

I had to study 100 questions, and you have to get 6 out of 10 correct.
My questions:

What is freedom of religion?

What is the ocean on the East Coast of the United States?

Name one state that borders Canada.

When must all men register for the Selective Service?

When was the Constitution written?

How many US senators are there?

I got all the questions right so I only had the 6 questions. Also I had to write a sentence in English, my sentence was "We pay taxes." And I had to read one sentence too.

The whole process takes a few months though, we sent all the paperwork in July I think, then last month I had an appointment for fingerprinting, this month the test, then the oath ceremony. We have to be there at 7 in the morning so I guess the kids will be coming along too and get to go into school late that day.

If anyone is interested in the Citizenship questions I think they are good for everyone to know. Kate is in 5th grade and she helped me study.

picture from our vacation summer 2010

New family pictures

2011-10-06T22:15:00.000-05:00

Very happy with how the new family pictures turned out! If you are looking for a great photographer in the Houston area check out:

Heartspun imagery

Round Top and the weekend

2011-10-02T22:16:00.000-05:00

Busy weekend around here. Yesterday we took the kids over to the Grandparent's house early morning and headed to Round Top, TX for the big antique fair weekend. At last the weather has cooled down just a bit here, so it was a pretty day, but sad to see how dry all of Texas is, not just here close to Houston, where millions of trees are dead and dying.

I didn't take many pictures, but just a few of things that caught my eye:

Pretty mirrors and light fixtures

Owl made of recycled materials

contrast of classical antiques and funky folk art?

I liked this shabby yellow cabinet

pretty vintage fiestaware

lots of old signs and letters

this caught my eye because it is the same as the one I bought for Kate's room for Goodwill for $14.99, I didn't see the price on this, but I'm sure it was at least 10 times that amount

pretty farmhouse table with unique pieces for display

a church pew - my mother in law wants one of these, so I am on the lookout for one. This one already had a sold tag on it.

subway sign art.....

very unique coffee table made out of an old tuba

This blue bed caught my eye, because it is pretty similar to the one I bought and painted for Kate's room. This was not priced too high ($150), but it is still fun for me to see things that I have found for a fraction of these prices (Kate's bed frame was $30).

This was at the La Bahia antique show. The other previous pictures were from the Marburger farm show. My only purchases of the day were a pair of Euro pillow shams ($10 each), and a $5 pair of earrings.

Looking forward to going back again in the future, it is an amazing experience to see all of this out in the Texas countryside.

Then today we had scheduled for family pictures to be taken, it has been many years since we had a professional family picture taken. The photographer who I have known several people to use was doing mini sessions in the Heights (near downtown Houston).

I'll get our pictures in 1-2 weeks, but I had to take a couple of pictures of the kids while they were dressed for the occasion (it took a little bribery to get Thomas to wear the button up shirt).

At home:

before pictures (I made them get out of the car to take this picture when I saw this antique store - Thomas was not impressed!):

out to eat at a restaurant named Lolas after our "photo shoot" (by this time they had more practice with striking a pose!)

Green yard sale chair and some fall decor

2011-09-24T21:18:00.002-05:00

This is my latest find, high back green chair, in great condition, it was only $20!

The pillow was from Homegoods a few weeks ago, as well as the green one on the sofa, which just happens to match perfectly to the new chair, must have been fate that I found the chair....

And some real little pumpkins on the coffee table.

I also found this owl to add to the collection at Homegoods a few weeks ago.

and put up the fall wreath that I made with the kids a few years ago. I need to re-attach some of the berries that are falling off and maybe add some more leaves too.

The white pumpkins on the mantel, I think I got these 3 years ago (or more) from Dollar tree. The little gold planter was $1 at an antique shop.

And one of my new favorite fiestaware colors, I think it is called "Persimmon".

Linking to:

and

Painted antique dresser

2011-09-04T15:01:00.001-05:00

A little project for the weekend, I picked up this dresser on Friday night, yesterday it got the first coat of paint, and today the second.
I picked this up from Mandie of Altar'd furniture, I follow her blog and facebook page. I saw she was selling some "as is" furniture, and although I did not NEED it, I really love the style of this dresser / chest of drawers, and thought it would be a pretty easy project to do a little work and paint it.
When I brought it home on Friday I found the little wheels in one of the drawers (3 of them I think were original to this piece of furniture - little wooden wheels).
It did not need too much work - the top veneer was peeling up so I glued it with wood glue and Chris helped me put some clamps on while the glue dried. Also one of the wood pieces that the drawers slide on had come unattached, so we glued and screwed that back on inside.

Here is a before picture of the dresser, you can see the top wood peeling up, but overall it is solid wood and a really beautiful piece of furniture:

I painted with what paint I already had on hand, "softer tan" paint that I have used in my kitchen and some other projects. I knew I wanted to put this in our master bedroom and while the rest of my bedroom furniture is painted black I didn't want too much black in there and for everything to match.

So here is the dresser "after" paint. I also spray painted the bottom handles oil rubbed bronze, and the glass knobs on the top two drawers and cabinet I got from Hobby Lobby (50% off).

The other chest (from IKEA) that the TV used to sit on now is on the wall to the left of the bed, with this cool "subway" style art from New Zealand (it is actually a tea towel from a souvenir shop, in an IKEA frame)

Here's the black painted bed in case you didn't see it before.

And one more look at the pretty antique white dresser, I love it!

Linking to Makeover Monday:

Hill country getaway

2011-08-14T17:18:00.000-05:00

On the last weekend of our summer break before I have to go back to work on Monday we took a little trip out to the TX hill country.

Lunch at the root cellar cafe in San Marcos.

Quick visit to the outlet mall, to this place:

a little antique shopping......

some icecream.......

a visit to Stonehenge II in Ingram TX. This has recently been re-located from the original location.

As well as a replica 2/3 the size of the original Stonehenge, there are 2 replicas of the Easter Island heads too. Both kids used to be terrified of these when we visited this place when they were toddlers.

Now:

and then:

Here we are in December 2005.....

Kate @ 4

Kate @ 10

some visits to state parks....

I saw this place on the highway and I "googled it" to find out it is called the Lighthouse hill ranch, and you can rent it out the "Lighthouse" for $590 a night.

Old courthouse in Blanco, TX.

swimming.....

Painted black chairs

2011-08-09T17:02:00.001-05:00

Painting 1 chair is easy, but painting 6 chairs takes a little more effort and leaves your painting hand sore at the end of the day.

I painted my chairs black a couple of years ago. (I did it the easy way - spray paint).

I offered to paint chairs for a friend and thought as it was so hot I didn't want to be in and out of the garage all day doing more coats of spray paint.

The chairs looked like this to begin with.

The living room painting studio - first I did the back spindles, frame and the seat...

Then I put them on a table to more easily do the legs and the spindles on the bottom.

Do you like my spiderman drop cloth?

I used this primer...

4 down, 2 to go

then on goes the black paint....

Now a day later, all dry and ready to go. I am going to put a coat of wax on to hopefully protect the finish, as my friend has 3 little kids so they will be well used.

This is the same paint I used on our bed. I like the shiny but not too glossy finish.

Sharing at Piece of Work Wednesday:

Foyer

2011-08-08T09:05:00.000-05:00

I wanted to join the party at Cottage and Vine. This little area is pretty plainly decorated.

Our "foyer" is decorated at the moment with some of my favorite thrift store plates, an old shutter, and some other little art pieces.

Eventually I would like to paint the walls, but as this is open to the stairs, and then the upstairs hallway and kids playroom, I have to find a neutral color I really love that I want to paint through the whole place.

These little cross stitch pieces - the one on the left is from Goodwill, and the orange flower one was $5 in an antique shop.

Not sure the story behind this little picture below, but it came from my parent's house and was in my room there. It is very heavy and old.

This plate I found at Goodwill, it is poppytrail by Metlox

I really like the pattern on this plate.

a favorite (candid) family picture taken at the farm in east Texas

The chair is a garage sale find. I like the natural wood right now, but it may get a paint job one day.

The foyer is open to our living room

Click the link below to check some more inspiring foyers and entry ways, I know I need some inspiration for mine!

Garage sale table makeover

2011-08-07T17:25:00.000-05:00

little garage sale table:

+ some spray primer

+spray paint (Krylon Ivy Leaf)

= fun new little lamp table

Linking to Southern Hospitality

The cool new couch

2011-07-30T16:25:00.001-05:00

This couch was really almost FREE (not really), because I sold a few little pieces of furniture and home decor and with the money I made from that I bought us a couch! The seller was asking $100 but I asked if they would take $80. It is made in the USA by Bernhardt. It is big and solid and very comfortable. So now the room we call the front living room actually has a place to sit.

linking to Southern Hospitality (click on picture)

Another painting project, before and after

2011-07-30T15:50:00.001-05:00

Before:

After:

(I know it is missing one handle. One of the original ones has been broken a while. When I was reading one of the blogs I follow a few days ago Twice Lovely, I saw they have a new online shop selling furniture hardware, I was able to find the match for Kate's dresser and it did arrive today so it is complete now!)

I painted with one coat of paint/ primer and one coat of paint - "spring cactus", the same green as my desk I just painted

Here is a before picture of the nightstand:

The nightstand was another Goodwill find and you can read more about it here

and after:

I am really happy with how they look in Kate's room

To read the story behind Kate's bed, read here

The colorful quilt at the end of her bed is from Land of Nod, but I got it at a garage sale for $10!

and her curtains are from IKEA

pretty clean green dresser, now like brand new furniture!

Linking to piece of work wednesday:

Painted book shelf

2011-07-29T21:29:00.002-05:00

Here is a "before" of my bookshelf. I had stained it this dark walnut a few years ago.

And after light and bright (painted light gray)

notice something else "new" in the picture. This is Emmy, she is a beautiful 3 year old cat, we adopted her from the SPCA.

My green chair is her favorite place.

the shelf is a good place to display some of my thrifty finds, all these (except the little cup on the left) are from garage sales or Goodwill

the milk glass pieces are all thrifty finds too

some of my owls and other little things collected

my office is also home to some of my other favorite painted pieces too. This white chest of drawers I use to store all my scrapbooking and craft supplies

this cabinet

the green desk and white chairs and table

Emmy approves of the room, it gets a lot of morning sun

I thought of one more thing in this room I've painted! The light fixture!

Here is a "before" picture of the whole space, the only thing I'd painted so far was the chairs.....

and "now" - the french door can only open a little on the left side now because the bookshelf is behind it now.

I got that heavy antique mirror that sits on the sewing machine table for $5 last weekend.

My family is very used to me in my "painting clothes" now. At least in a couple of weeks I will be back to my teaching job and not so much spare time to just paint!

linking to:

Light and bright change in the kitchen

2011-07-18T14:22:00.001-05:00

The kitchen has had a lot of changes since we moved into this house a little more than 2 years ago. One of the first things I did was paint the cabinets, and add hardware. We had 2 nice cabinets with glass front doors to display some pretty dishes.

Since I painted them, I have wanted to paint the insides of the cabinets too, especially since I started collecting some fiestaware and other vintage dishes. As a temporary fix I had the backs lined with scrapbook paper.

Last week when I finally had the motivation to paint the cabinets, I also took off the 2 middle cabinet doors so I would have even more open storage to display pretty things.

Here is an "in progress" shot

Here the cabinets are NOW:

And a look back to see where we started, a very nice big open kitchen, but very brown!

and now:

Linking here:

New desk

2011-07-17T19:47:00.001-05:00

I bought this desk at Goodwill for $24.99. It wasn't really quite this orange but the flash picture made it look that way. It was in good condition just a few scratches on the top. It is solid wood and very heavy.

I had seen a similar desk on the blog Centsational Girl here. And I remembered I had a small can of Glidden paint (from whenever there was the deal to have the free can of paint), the color was called "Spring Cactus", a pretty light green. For an undercoat I used the Zinsser permawhite paint I have used on my kitchen cabinets.

Here it is all painted:

And although I originally thought it would be great for the kids to share in the playroom, I liked it so much so I moved it into my office. It has a lot of storage. I lined the drawers with this wallpaper, I had brought a roll home from my parent's house in New Zealand.

And I added new fabric to this Goodwill chair that a bought a couple of months ago, I will probably paint the chair sometime too. One change leads to another, and so on......

the bookshelf I think is also on the list to be painted and de-cluttered too

my "old" desk which was a free find I still love and just got moved into the next room and looks pretty nice hanging out under the chalkboard. And with the matching white chairs.

Linking to Thrifty Treasures at Southern Hospitality.

and just added this to piece of work Wednesday, for my favorite project of 2011

Few more New Zealand pictures

2011-07-16T08:26:00.000-05:00

Visit to a really nice aquarium at Mapua.

Cold day at Tahunanui beach.

Snow clouds.

Bit of a sad goodbye at the airport. Thanks for everything Nana and Grandad!

A little glimpse of the top of the South Island.

And close to landing in Auckland.

love the clouds from an aiplane.

As much as we enjoyed our trip and spending time with family, it is great to be home, even if it is so hot here in Texas.

Few more vacation pictures

2011-06-30T13:55:00.000-05:00

Shortest day of the year

2011-06-22T22:34:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was a beautiful calm and sunny day, perfect for the beach.........

And some cold water is not enough to keep this boy out of the ocean. This is Rabbit Island, the same beach where the kite pictures in the blog header above were taken.

Thomas tried to fly the kite again, not much luck, but he tried!

found some interesting things the tide brought in, like this part of an old cassette player

sea sponge and shell collecting......

Antique store fix

2011-06-21T23:59:00.001-05:00

My sister and I went to a couple of antique shops in town yesterday. I took some pictures at my favorite one. So sad I can not buy anything big, the suitcase can only fit so much to bring home, but I did buy a couple of plates and a vase.

we found a couple of items that my parents have at their house too, like this Christmas tin

and this barometer

there was some fun vintage furniture re-upholstered.....

lots of colorful dishes and kitchen things....

flower power

2011-06-21T23:37:00.000-05:00

Kate took over the camera when we went to the park a few days ago......

Random pictures

2011-06-18T20:50:00.000-05:00

Kate took this picture.....

Who needs Wal-mart when you can go to "woolmart"

Morning sunrise - unusual clouds caused by the ash from the Chilean volcano.

lunch at a cafe

the original "mini" car, still plenty of these driving around in New Zealand

Nelson's Christ Church cathedral

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-18T20:00:00.000-05:00

Dear Chris / Dad / Daddy,

We miss you but are glad you got home safe.

We hope you have a calm and happy Sunday at home and have some Tex-Mex food and think of us.

Happy Father's Day! You are the best Dad in the world.

See you in 3 weeks.

Love Anna, Kate and Thomas

Chris had to get back home this weekend. His flight out of New Zealand was cancelled due to volcanic ash from the volcano eruption in South America. They put him on another airline to fly to Hong Kong (10 hour flight) and then to Los Angeles (14 hour flight). So a trip that usually takes 24 hours took 48 hours.

I hope the ash clears away and we don't have any problems when me and the kids head home to Texas.

Founder's Park

2011-06-11T17:55:00.000-05:00

Give Pizza a Chance

2011-06-11T17:24:00.000-05:00

Thomas has this cool shirt with a pizza on it in the shape of a peace sign and it says "give pizza a chance". My sister Victoria gave it to him, so it was fitting he got to wear it yesterday to eat homemade pizza at her house.

Confused weather

2011-06-09T03:05:00.000-05:00

It is supposed to be the beginning of winter here but they've had a lot of warm weather and rain, so lots of spring flowers around, just 2 months early.......

Here we are in NZ

2011-06-07T16:38:00.002-05:00

Summer holidays for the kids and me and we are spending 5 weeks of it here in New Zealand.

Kate decorated the chalkboard at home before we left.

On our way we went to Dallas and spent a night and took the kids to this Lego place at the Grapevine mall. Kids had lots of fun.

24 hours later we arrived to nice temperatures and still a lot of Autumn colors (going into winter here).

Kate is standing under a Ginkgo tree at the park across from my parents' house.

More updates to come!

Coffee Table

2011-05-30T09:27:00.001-05:00

My Goodwill coffee table that I got for $9.99 got a little makeover last night. I didn't take a good "before" picture that really showed any imperfections, but it had a lot of scratches on the top and a mark where someone had set an iron down on it. I had tried all kinds of polishes and refinishing waxes, but nothing really worked as I wanted. So yesterday I decided to go for it and paint.

Here is one "before", this is one Chris had taken for a safety presentation at work (using 2 people to lift something heavy).

And an after as you'll see below nothing really stays in the same place for too long here.

I just painted the top and lightly distressed the edges with sandpaper, because this table is the perfect height to put your feet up.

I left the base and legs as is because I love this dark wood tone and I think it is a good contrast to the light rug.

The table has these brass daisy flowers in the corners and brass caps on the ends, and I didn't want to paint over those.

Linking again to the Thrifty Treasures party.

Thrifty Treasures

2011-05-15T19:30:00.001-05:00

Hi there, life is busy around here right now. The kids and I have 2.5 weeks more of school, it's a busy time of year.

I've had some good luck with garage sales the last few weeks.

This was my favorite find from yesterday. It is hard to tell from this before picture, but the top was pretty scratched up and the little decorative finial had been chewed by a dog or something.

After priming and painting my favorite soft gray.......

I found this chair at Goodwill a few weeks ago for $6.99. I was going to paint it yesterday, but I don't have any fabric to re-do the seat, so I'm going to wait until I can finish the whole project.

I really love this green pot - it is marked California pottery, and it was only 25c!

It's hanging out on my mantel with my owl cookie jar and my little white milk glass vase collection.

And I got this milk glass candy holder yesterday for $1. When Chris and I were antique shopping later in the afternoon I saw one almost just the same for $16!

One more thing (sorry bad light in this picture) - this little cabinet was only $5.99 at Goodwill, it was pretty messed up with the veneer peeled off the top and ugly knobs. I painted it and found some extra vintage hardware leftover from other projects.

It makes a great little cabinet for the kids' VCR and DVD player and with space for movies below.

What great treasures have you found lately?

Click here to find more blogs sharing their thrifty finds.

Bluebonnets and Strawberries

2011-04-10T21:09:00.000-05:00

Finding some bluebonnets is a yearly tradition for us.

These pictures were taken 6 years ago:

And this year:

And another flashback - berry picking 2004:

And all grown up:

10th birthday party

2011-04-03T17:09:00.000-05:00

I'm finally getting to blog pictures from Kate's birthday party over a week ago. Kate invited 15! of her closest friends, she wanted a sleepover, but I could not stay sane with that many girls for a whole night. The party was from 6-10 at night instead, so they still had a good long time to play.

birthday flowers

some of the birthday cards

I made these cupcakes and Chris made a chocolate cake, and we had pizza to eat, so overall it was a pretty simple party, but I did have that day off work to organize and get ready for it and I took these pictures before the kids even came home from school that day.

I found this little lantern at Dollar tree, most of the other decorations I got from Hobby Lobby.

A poem Chris wrote for Kate and we had in a little frame, sorry the picture is blurry.

The birthday girl. The main activity of the party was karaoke outside, with a microphone and small amplifier - sorry neighbors! I also put bubbles and sidewalk chalk out there, so I was happy to see 10 year olds are not too old for that still! Our little playhouse got played in the most it ever has too.

A good picture of Kate with her friends.

And sweet little brother who did well for having all of those bossy girls around, he only got his feelings hurt once. We had one little incident were a girl fell in the pond too, but otherwise a good success of a party.

Thomas' birthday is in May and I will convince him to a simple little family party I think!

And just for my sister, the birthday video:

Spring break - fun with friends

2011-03-20T13:54:00.000-05:00

Last weekend we went to Robbers Cave State Park - in SE Oklahoma. We met up with our friends and stayed in an adjoining cabin. It was a great time for the kids to play with friends and enjoy a lot of time outside.

The last day was cold so the boys brought out the DS games. Love our friend Marshall's hat!

Spring blossoms.

More painting and spring decor

2011-03-20T11:27:00.001-05:00

Another small painting project this week, I started painting our downstairs hallway. It is hard to tell the difference in the pictures, but the new color makes the white woodwork of the stairs stand out.

Before (taped and ready to paint):

After - eventually I need to paint that other wall going up the stairs, but that leads to the upstairs hallway / playroom area, which = a lot more work so I will wait a couple of months to make sure I want this color or something a little different.

The color is similar to the color my kitchen is painted.

Kitchen and cabinets is Sherwin williams softer tan, wall under the counter is Seashell gray (Lowes) and wall to the right is Chatham Green (Home depot).

Fiestaware and other vintage dishes. in my kitchen cabinet. I have a combination of the newer and old fiestaware.

This yellow bud vase (below), Chris found at an antique shop for me on one of his little trips for work.

My little collection of milk glass vases. The one on the left I just picked up yesterday for $4 at an antique shop in La Porte, TX. They have some nice shops there.

My owl cookie jar and some bird friends also moved to the mantel.

The coffee table I bought a couple of weeks ago from Goodwill also moved back here to the family room. That ladder shelf to the left was also from Goodwill and the vintage side table on the right from a garage sale.

The coffee table has matching "legs" to the dresser we use for a TV stand.

Quick little makeover

2011-03-16T20:39:00.002-05:00

We started off with this little stool with fuzzy blue fabric on top, it was maybe one of the ugliest things I have bought, but Chris was at the Goodwill with me when I bought it, and he said "Anna, go ahead and buy it, it will be a good project for you."

Step 1 - last night I took off 3 layers of fabric - blue fuzzy, red velvet, and an orange one too, as well as the old yellow foam. Yuck, lots of dust in all those layers.

Step 2 - this morning I was left with just the wooden board, I used a nice clean white foam and a layer of cotton batting (from Hobby Lobby) and stapled them on and trimmed to size.

Step 3 - staple around evenly and make sure corners are nice and tight.

Step 4 - turn over and make sure everything is nice and smooth.

Step 5 - fabric of choice - staple around well

Looks good!

The AFTER - I painted it the same color as I used in Kate's room - Watery (Sherwin Williams color)

So much better now. I took a picture here in the den - but this is going upstairs to the playroom. Another chair I have up there at Kate's desk I re-upholstered with the same fabric.

Junk store find - gray pitcher, and a Goodwill table

2011-03-16T09:14:00.001-05:00

On our little spring break weekend away I found this in an old store in SE Oklahoma. It is marked Russel Wright. My online research shows this piece is part of the collection at the Museum of Modern Art.

"The American Modern line of dinnerware was designed by famed mid-century designer Russel Wright and manufactured by the Steubenville Pottery Company in Steubenville, Ohio, between 1939 and 1959. "

I paid $10 for it. They make a reproduction which sells for $40. On ebay and some other sites I saw them for sale for up to $90.

I love the style, shape and color of it.

What do you think of this coffee table I got at Goodwill last week? It was only $9.99. It is long and low. It is in great condition apart from one place on the top where it looks like someone put a hot iron on it. I don't think I will paint this, but I might refinish the top at some point.

I hope to also post this week a couple of painting projects I have going on around here, and pictures from our Oklahoma trip.

I LOVE spring break!

Owl Cookie Jar

2011-02-27T20:31:00.001-06:00

I saw this cookie jar in an antique shop a few weeks ago. I love owls and I have collected them since I was a young girl. At the time I saw it I was just not looking to buy something big. But I had been thinking about going back to see if it was still there, so I dragged the family back with me on Saturday.

Here it is - matches perfectly with my corner cabinet that I painted last year.

with some thrift store dishes and fiestaware I've bought over the last few months......

It does have a small chip near where the lid fits on the jar, but it just adds to the character of it I think :)

This cookie jar is marked "Poppytrail, California". Most of the ones like it I've found online are selling for about $100 like this one and this.

I paid $25 for mine.

I never knew that cookie jars were so "collectable", but it seems like they really are:

Vintage Metlox Cookie Jar Prices

As is true of all collectibles the "law of supply and demand" controls prices, and Metlox cookie jars are no exception. Some of the more common jars, such as "Wise Owl" and "Puddles the Duck" can readily be found for under $50, while the harder to find jars like "Pinocchio" or "Drummer Boy" have been known to command prices in the $400 to $600 price range.
see here for more info.

With all my google searches for owl cookie jars, I found a blog dedicated to everything owl related, and one of the topics was owl cookie jars.

this one sells for $128

and this one for $98 from Anthropologie

Anyway, these are pretty, but I still like mine better!

Original Art from Goodwill

2011-02-20T13:18:00.001-06:00

Some of my favorite "art" I have found in the last few years from unexpected places - Goodwill and other antique shops.

This latest painting was only $2.99.

We have a dream of having a little cabin on our family farm sometime in the next few years, so this painting had a sentimental reason for the purchase.

This print I loved the frame and primed and painted over the print...... (it was only $5 from an antique shop), and is BIG - about 3.5 feet wide. Not all "antique" shops are expensive, especially in small towns.

and now we have this framed chalkboard:

this is another original painting, I have no idea of the history behind it. The detail is amazing.

These other ones below were from Goodwill too.

These pieces may not be the BEST art in the world, or have any monetary value at all, but I wonder what the story behind them all are, someone created these and they may have been many hours of work. For whatever reason they were not wanted anymore, but they are appreciated in my house now.

Have you found any art at Goodwill lately?

New Antique store find

2011-02-20T12:04:00.001-06:00

We found this trunk at an antique store, the booth was closing and everything was 40% off. It was already painted this great color.

It's now a new home to our games. This box lifts out and there is a lot more storage below

Cookie Time

2011-02-19T20:06:00.000-06:00

Not much blogging going on around here lately, between work, school and other activities. Kate has started softball season and Thomas karate.
The last couple of weeks involved picking up and distributing these Girl Scout cookies:

Now my living room is empty and clean again.

I do have some recent thrift store and antique finds to share soon. The weather is getting warmer so that means more garage sales around here too on the weekends.

Kate's pretty blue room

2011-01-16T21:20:00.000-06:00

I painted Kate's room before Christmas but I finally got around to taking a picture. Some other new things she got in her room - curtains and lamp shades from IKEA, the "K" letter from Hobby Lobby. The owl pillow and pink rug (Target), and the "Keep Calm and Carry On" pillow (Home Goods).

We got this full length mirror at Goodwill and I painted it to match her bed.

Kate came in 2nd place in the Spelling bee at her school. Way to go Kate!

I had painted her room (white) less than a year ago, but she was ready for some color.

Kate and friend singing Silent Night

2010-12-21T07:12:00.002-06:00

ps. sorry it's sideways, I will try to figure out how to rotate it.....

The Christmas tree

2010-12-06T18:12:00.001-06:00

Here is our tree all decorated in the house. It is a Virginia pine. Hopefully it will still be green in 3 weeks for Christmas day. It has been soaking up a lot of water every day. We have no theme for decorating. The last couple of years I did 2 trees - one for me to decorate and one for the kids. This year we have a mix match

of everything on one family tree.

I had to add some extra pictures of our family room and kitchen because I took the day off work today and the kids were at school and the opportunity to have the counter totally clean and free of clutter needed to be documented!

One last Christmas project was these wreaths I made and hung on our front windows. I used plain grapevine wreaths, wrapped with garland from Dollar tree, and I added silver poinsettia ornaments (from Dollar tree too.)

I have wanted to do wreaths like this since I saw these at the Guenther House in San Antonio last year

Day of painting

2010-12-05T17:41:00.003-06:00

I have been thinking of painting my bedroom furniture for a while, since before I wrote this post. Last night I bought a quart $8 can of black paint and got started.

Here is what the bed looked like BEFORE:

The bedroom was green when we first moved in last year, then I painted it gray this year.

Here is the AFTER picture:

As well as painting the bed and tables I painted this chest we have the TV on.

It is a change from my usual paint everything white, but I love it, it is like having brand new furniture.

The paint I used was Valspar latex enamel satin from Lowes

Linking to piece of work Wednesday

and the power of paint party

Fresh Christmas tree

2010-12-05T16:53:00.000-06:00

We had fun last weekend going to a Christmas tree fun and getting our tree. You get to pick your own and cut it yourself. This place was a lot of fun. They also had a hay ride and other activities.

New chalkboard

2010-12-05T16:38:00.001-06:00

I started with this big vintage framed print (bought for $5 at an antique store)

I just taped off the frame, painted one coat of primer, then 2 coats of chalkboard paint,

now it is a big chalkboard - perfect for the kids' artwork to add to our Christmas decor.

Christmas mantel

2010-11-30T07:14:00.001-06:00

Here's my easy decorating Christmas mantel. I mostly used what I already had, the only new things are the green star ($5 from Big Lots) and the garland and green berries (Dollar tree).

We have a tree and some more Christmas decorating around here too, but I haven't taken pictures yet of the tree all decorated yet.

We went to a Christmas tree farm and cut our own tree for the first time:

Linking to the mantel party at the Lettered Cottage

San Antonio 1/2 marathon

2010-11-20T07:35:00.000-06:00

We were in San Antonio again last weekend, this time Chris ran the 1/2 marathon instead of the full like last year. The weather was cooler and running 13.1 miles was a lot more enjoyable for him than 26.2.

We even got to do some antique shopping here:

Mirror mirror on the wall

2010-11-07T17:29:00.001-06:00

I found this mirror a few weeks ago at an antique store, I don't think it is any kind of "antique" but I liked the look of it, and it was only $10. The outer frame is plastic but it looks like metal from a distance.

I like the way it looks in here, now our "formal dining room", with some other white and cream things.

I got this little lamp (below) for $2.99 from Goodwill and the burlap shade from Target.

I'm looking forward to decorating this room for Christmas! I did not decorate much for fall, only some white pumpkins here and there and some Halloween decor on my sewing table.

Happy Halloween

2010-10-31T18:02:00.000-05:00

Long time, no blog.....

2010-10-24T17:59:00.003-05:00

Hi there, life has been crazy busy lately, school and kids and homework and fall softball season. I didn't forget about my little blog here, hopefully I will get back to posting a little more regularly again soon.

Here is a couple of yard sale purchases / finds I have come up with in the last couple of weeks.

Number 1 - I got this FREE Pottery Barn corner chair. One night I told Chris I was going to Starbucks but really I went to pick up this chair. I guess it is really meant to be part of a sectional sofa but it works fine on it's own and is very comfy.
Kate (9) said "I wonder why someone would give it away for free, maybe they put all their dandruff on it!" Oh well it seems very clean to me and the lady giving it away said she was just clearing out space for her grandmother moving in, and she was giving it for free because it was missing one of the side pillows. I have plenty of pillows so no problem there.

The little ladder you can slightly see in the side of the picture I got at a garage sale for $2 and painted light blue. The pillows on the corner chair I've had a long time from IKEA.

The lemon pillows on the couch are from Pottery barn (the covers on sale, the down inserts from IKEA), and the other long lumber pillows are from Marshalls. I got some birthday money and a Marshalls gift card and I spent it all on pillows! Anyway this is where I sit at the end of the day when I come home from work and the kids do their homework at the coffee table most of the time, so we have lots of comfort and pillows :)

The other project just completed today was a full size bed I bought for Kate's room. I got the head board and footboard for $30 at a yard sale. It looked like this to begin with:

And now it looks like this:

She wants new bedding which will come eventually, but for now what we had looks fine.

The bed I primed and then painted light gray, so it is a little contrast to the white walls in her room.

I love how this bed turned out. To buy something new like this would be very expensive so I love turning something vintage into something fresh and new.

Here is one for comparison price:

Jenny lind white twin bed:

$499 from The Land of Nod

Ok, I think I have a few more things to blog about soon, so there is a little update for now.

Sharing the bed makeover at Met Monday

And Domestically Speaking's power of paint party

New painted furniture

2010-09-05T10:31:00.004-05:00

This new piece was picked up for free! Chris came home on Friday after visiting a friend and said he saw a piece of furniture in his garage that he thought I would like, and he would help me fix it up and did I want to go get it? I am not one to pass up FREE and old furniture, so off we go yesterday and this is what we came home with.......

This came from a set of two built in cabinets. One was fine with me because our house is newer and there are not many corners anyway that this would work in. Just like the chest of drawers I painted a few weeks ago, this was very rustic and dirty, but I thought it would look fine cleaned up and painted. Chris went off to Lowes and bought a piece of panelling to cut and add some boards where some were missing on the back, and I finished cleaning it up and getting it ready to paint.

For the under coat I used the Zinsser paint and primer I've used on many projects now, and for the top coat I used Stonington gray that I've used on painting a couple of our bedrooms. I'm very happy with how it turned out! Right now I have Chris' grandmother's fransiscan china in the cabinet.

the knobs (they are a galvanized metal) came off that old chest of drawers.

The doors are missing their glass panels, which we might replace one day, but I like the way it looks open just fine too.

The new cabinet, led to more furniture switching, I brought this table in here from the kitchen and paired it up with my white painted chairs.

I'm thinking this table and the ladder type shelf behind would also look nice painted the gray color.....

So for now we have a "formal dining room". Which we may eat in here some, but it will also make a good homework place in a room with no TV for distraction, or a good monopoly game zone too

And the smaller white circle table ended up back in the kitchen with the black painted chairs.

I do have a little surplus of "stuff" from all my bargain hunting, collecting of late so I'm going to have a garage sale next weekend when my neighborhood has it (we can only do it twice a year).

posting at Southern Hospitality

And Thrifty Decor Chick's Before and After Party

New finds

2010-08-29T09:43:00.000-05:00

I like this simple little lamp, got a new shade for it though (from Target)

I had one of these blue mason jars, now I have 4. These are more pretty in reality, they are all slightly different tones of blue and will be nice to store things or just on their own.

These bowls were marked "fiesta bowls from oatmeal boxes". But after doing a little google research I found this. They are "Carnival" dishes, and were made in the 1940s and 50s. They were only $1.50 each.

In the last couple of months I started collecting a few of the fiestaware pieces. I like the turquoise and the old ivory colors, so the bowls above do match perfectly even though they don't have the "fiesta" mark.

Back to school week

2010-08-29T09:20:00.000-05:00

Ready for the bus the first day.

We had a good back to school week. Kate started 4th grade and Thomas 2nd. I had a great week with my class too. I am a teacher in a Montessori school and have a class of 18 3-6 year olds. It is my 3rd year with this class, so most of my oldest students have been in my class since they were 3.

After a busy week with school, yesterday we had a big day with Chris running a local 10K run, then Kate had softball tryouts for fall softball, then we did some antique shopping too. I'll share some of my "finds" in another post.

Here are some pictures watching Chris run.

The PEZ collection

2010-08-15T18:55:00.000-05:00

Thomas has quite the pez collection going on. Most collectors probably keep them in their package to keep their value, but he really plays with them. Thanks to Uncle Greg sending him a couple of new ones that he got at Movie World on a trip to Australia so now his collection is up to 100.

I had some shelves that I wasn't using in my office anymore so I put them up in Thomas' room. I need more shelves to really display them so they can all be seen, and what couldn't fit on the new shelves we put on the book shelf. It was his idea to sort them by color.

The hulk doesn't look to happy to be in the back row behind Woody and Dorothy.

One day maybe we can go here.

Garage sale chest of drawers

2010-08-08T12:41:00.004-05:00

Each time I paint a piece of furniture it becomes my new favorite thing. Here is my current new favorite:

The new knobs (from Hobby Lobby) cost more than the dresser did. I did get them for less than $2 each though (50% off).

Here is why it was so cheap, it was old, rustic, and had probably been in someone's barn judging by how dirty and how many cobwebs I had to clean off it. And it was painted a barn red too.

I'd already taken the old knobs off and started cleaning it by this point.

After a coat of my favorite paint / primer in one (that I also used on my kitchen cabinets).

This new piece of furniture goes in place of this old shelf which had all my craft and scrapbooking supplies, and while it was kind of organized, it was cluttered and didn't look so great.

and NOW. I still have the blue filing cabinet, but I managed to hide it in the picture by putting my desk chair in front of it. It is painted "china white" (Benjamin moore paint)

and I moved the futon in here too, so now we have a comfortable place to read

how it looks from the front living room. Love this light fixture since I painted it.

my shelf even got organized with some of my owl collection and other favorite things

my other white chairs and table are now here:

I go back to work on August 16th so my summer adventures of painting furniture, garage sale and antique shopping are almost over.

But at least my house is pretty organized for now.

Linking again to Thrifty Treasures at Southern Hospitality.

And the Power of Paint party at Domestically Speaking.

Dr Pepper decor

2010-08-02T15:07:00.001-05:00

To go along with one of my favorite pictures of the kids.

We found a great local junk / antique shop and I bought one of these old soda crates. Pottery barn has something similar here, but I like mine better because we found it and it cost a lot less than their ones.

Here it is on our sewing machine table.

even though it's from Oklahoma and not Texas, I still love this old weathered wood, and a place to out other found treasures

Have you seen the new TV series on the History channel - called American Pickers.

"Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz are just two ordinary guys looking for extraordinary things. American Pickers follows them as they scour the country's junkyards, basements and barns for hidden gems."

I am not interested in a lot of the things they are looking for on the show, motorcycles etc, but I love the concept that there is a lot out there hidden in barns and houses waiting to be re-discovered. One man's trash is another's treasure?

Linking to Thrifty Treasures at Southern Hospitality

Favorite IKEA finds

2010-07-15T10:05:00.000-05:00

Holly from the blog Homebody is having an IKEA party today. This is an easy one for me to join, I love IKEA and can go around my house and find things to take pictures of in almost every room.

I have a couple of these little galvanized pots. Right now I have little ferns in them, but I've also used them on my desk for markers and supplies for the kids.

I love the lamps from IKEA - this shade is from there (the cute base I actually found at Goodwill this week)

Pillows and pillow covers. I have had these ones for a long time. I love that they have washable covers and the down pillow inserts keep their shape.

This table is solid and we're using it in the kids' playroom right now but I've used it as a side table in my dining room at my old house, and also in my living room as a sofa table. I like to move things around a lot!

this chair at Kate's desk was originally black, then pink, now white. And there is another lamp (the base) from IKEA.

this doll bed was natural wood, I painted it pink.

IKEA photo canvas in our bedroom

CD cabinet (we don't actually store many CDs in it anymore, Chris has all his music digital now)

IKEA bedoom side tables

this was my most recent IKEA purchase - long drapes for the bedroom $14.99 a pair.

Check out Holly's blog for more.

vacation 2010 - Part 4

2010-07-15T08:44:00.000-05:00

Our last day in Maryland we drove down to Mt Vernon (George Washington's home).

I took a picture of this cabinet to remind me I need to paint something this color.

This was in the rooms that was the servants quarters.

You're not allowed to take pictures inside the house, but it is restored to how it looked when Washington lived there, a lot of the furniture and things are original to the house. I really enjoyed it, but it was a bit boring for the kids!

It is a really pretty location right on the Potomac river.

The next day we packed up and headed for one of our stopovers on the way home (Knoxville, Tennessee). We made a detour through the Shendandoah National Park.

It was a change in scenery and temperature.

After a night in Tennessee we made it back down to the Gulf Coast.

Spent a little time on Biloxi beach. Sad to see that there was no one there. We did not see any signs of the oil spill, the beach itself was clean, probably whatever has washed ashore there is cleaned up each day. It is very eerie to go to a beach like this there be no one there.

Sunset over Louisiana.

And our last night on vacation in New Orleans.

Went to the Cafe Du Monde for some beignets.

mmmmm, sugar!

vacation 2010 - Part 3

2010-07-15T08:04:00.001-05:00

Day 2 in Washington DC started out early. We rode the train into the city and got tickets for the Ford Theatre. This is where Lincoln was shot. There is a museum and then you get to go sit in the theater and a park ranger gives a talk for about 30 minutes. The theater has been restored and it is actually used for plays again too.

We saw a lot of these "segway tours" going on around the city -

Next up the National Archives. We were going to see this, but there was a waiting line, so we decided to move on.

On to the National Gallery of Art

this building is beautiful, my pictures do not do it justice

taking the pathway to the modern art museum

this painting above was done entirely with fingerprints, it is really amazing

Back out into the heat now to the Capitol building

Chris decided it was time to take a run. He ran around this reflection pool, (which is much bigger than it looks in this picture).

The kids and I sat under a shade tree while Chris went back to the Library of Congress. We had a close encounter with a much too tame squirrel until Thomas chased him off.

Chris got back with his book purchase so on to the Botanical Gardens -

A short stop at the American Indian museum

Then another train ride to Arlington National cemetery

Back to the city, what else can we squeeze into one day?

saw some softball games being played under the Washington monument

World war II memorial

Thomas needed a ride by

this point.

(Kate and I got in on Chris' self portrait)

one last look at the White House

and a last train ride back to the hotel

If you made it this far thanks for looking at our pictures!

Coming up Part 4 - some more sights in Virginia and our trip back to Texas......