Filed under: Home and Garden
I love vintage linens and thrifting allows me to find some amazing pieces at prices I can actually afford. These two finds are completely different but were found on the same trip!
Filed under: Home and Garden
These crazy quilt pillow shams were a steal on ebay, ten dollars for both! They are 24 inch square so they are a great size too. Probably too big for the sofa I currently have them on but they are so gorgeous I haven’t yet moved them anywhere else!
Filed under: Home and Garden
The chenille bedspread was a rare find, king sized and in perfect shape. The sage color was also PERFECT for the colors in my bedspread. The quilt is not vintage and one of the few quilts I’ve picked up thrifting that wasn’t homemade but it is gorgeous, also in perfect shape and looks great in the room. The chenille bedspread was $12.00 dollars and the quilt? $2.50!
According to this (pretty damn accurate) Sproost quiz, I am a mix of the following:
Mountain Lodge
You love nature! And really, how could you not? The more exposed wood (be it in log form or paneling) the better. And having natural stone in your home is a must! Especially at the fireplace, but stone top tables work too.
If you could clad all the furniture in wood and stone you would, but splinters aren’t fun and stone is cold! So when you need a place to sit (or recline in!), it should be comfortable and warm. Bigger is better when it comes to your favorite chair for watching TV or reading the newspaper. Leather is great (go natural!), but soft fabrics in warm tones also suit you well.
Southwestern Style
Though the new frontier may no longer be so new, the styles design that evolved in those regions are making a comeback. The Southwestern home has Spanish and Mexican as well as Native American influences. Earthy textures and tones and vibrant colors create warm and inviting spaces.
When you hear Southwestern you most likely think of desert landscapes and hot, dry environments. The rugged nature of the exterior translates literally and the pieces in the home have a similar sturdy and rustic feel. Neutral backgrounds mimicking sand and earth are livened up with handmade pottery in bright colors and woven rugs and baskets.
Wine Country Style
Tuscan sun, here we come! The Wine Country style reflects the feelings evoked by the seaside regions of Europe such as the South of France, Spain, Italy and Greece. The style manages to be both refined and casual, such that you can mix beautiful antiques with more rustic wrought iron or wood and the result is both sophisticated and cozy.
Furniture is large and comfortable, colors are bright and cheery, and regardless of the color palette the spaces almost always feel warm. You can easily translate the style into the perfect family environment but you can just as easily emphasize the more formal pieces and make your room the perfect adult getaway.
So what do you think, are they right?
Other than the fact that I am working with a tile floor color I wouldn’t have picked for myself (came with the house, the rest of the rooms I redid in a warm, reddish pergo) I think they nailed it!
Filed under: Home and Garden
Drunken thrifting should be a new sport, or at least a new reality show. How does your taste change after a few glasses of sangria?
Fortunately, I like the lamp I bought and may have passed it up under more sober circumstances.
I also had a wingman (and driver) who kept me from getting TOO out there (the vintage pyrex I found was gorgeous, but way too overpriced), even though I convinced HER to purchase THREE jackets when we live in South Texas!
(The story of the table the lamp is sitting on is here.)
Filed under: Art Of Jewelry Design, Metal Work, Mixed Media, Non-Traditional Jewelry
My mom saw one in a store recently and fell in love with it, so I made her her own, personalized version (modeled in the picture by my daughter) for her birthday this year. The charms are bits and pieces I have collected over the years and couldn’t seem to get rid of, including ones I made myself, like the resin filled bottlecap. The links are prebab, but when I soldered them shut I used extra solder to texturize the surface of each link. This gave it a one-of-a-kind hand-hammered appearance. Super easy!
Filed under: Home and Garden
For those of you who actually get MLK day off and don’t have other plans, this “bonus” post-holidays holiday is a great day to get stuff done around the house. And bringing in the new year is always a great time to move stuff around in your house. I have been moving around my art and my tchotke’s and creating new vignettes and creating whole new looks with things I already own. Carry two things with you, a clean dry dish towel for dusting things off (if I didn’t move things around they would probably NEVER get dusted) and a digital camera so you can snap pictures as you go and compare different arrangements of items face to face. I don’t even download the pictures, I just review them on the LCD screen to see which arrangements I like best!
Filed under: Kitchen Magic
No one likes to mess with a classic! But you can improve upon one by toasting your pecans for a richer, nuttier flavor!
1 cup corn syrup (light or dark)
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
2 tbs flour
1 cube (1/2 cup) butter
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
3 beaten eggs
2 cups pecan halves (not pecan pieces or chopped pecans)
1 prepared pie shell, in glass pie pan
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat the pecans lightly with melted butter. Spread pecans out in a single layer on a baking sheet or in a shallow pan. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring or shaking the pan often until pecans are lightly browned and fragrant. Remove from oven and let cool. Put pecans in the bottom of your pre-prepared pie shell.
Stir first 5 ingredients together over low heat until butter is melted. After you remove the liquid from the heat, stir in the vanilla. Cool to room temperature. Add beaten eggs, after the mixture had cooled (otherwise you will cook the eggs!) and pour on top of nuts in pan.
Bake on bottom shelf of oven at 375 for 30 minutes. Turn down the oven temperature to 325, bake 20 minutes more, or until the filling is cooked thru and begins to crack a little on top. Cool to room temp on a rack before serving.
You can pre-bake your pecan pies and freeze them several weeks ahead of time. After the cooked pie has cooled, seal the whole pie (still in the pan) in a large zip lock freezer bag. Make sure the pan lies flat in the freezer!
Filed under: Kitchen Magic
I usually make a batch of this with a batch of regular chocolate fudge and layer one on top of the other!
1 lb box of powdered sugar
1/2 cup milk
1 C Peanut Butter (not crunchy)
1 jar marshmellow cream
Combine sugar with milk in saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Boil for just under 3 minutes, while stirring constantly. Remove from heat.
Add peanut butter and marshmellow cream. Stir until mixed thoroughly and pour into an 8×8 dish. Chill in refrigerator until set.
1) Make a throw pillow out of a silk scarf!
2) One dollar design finds from Domino. Some good ideas, just like their one dollar gift ideas in the last post.
3) Embroidered menorah (very easy and chic looking!)
4) WalletPop’s gifts you wouldn’t know are from the dollar store.
5) Sour Cream Pumpkin Bundt Cake. Doesn’t this look delicious? I would love for someone to give me a delicious cake!
6) Cute bears to sew from felt. A fairly easy hand sewing project. Come to think of it, I would love someone to give me some felt bears, too!
7) Marshmallow guns! No need to buy them, they are simple and inexpensive to make!
8) Homemade felt stockings. Another fairly simple hand sewing project, and one you can fill with goodies!
9) Free printable 2009 calender. Gorgeous graphics. Print it off at work for no cost at all!!
10) Ok, so I don’t have a number ten. What is your favorite inexpensive idea?
Arte Es Vida 