This summer, I have pledged to get my backyard in shape. I was surprised how many beautiful garden things I found on Etsy, especially the plants. I didn’t expect to find so many live plants and seeds. I think I will be buying several of these items to help pretty up my yard. You can see the rest of the treasury here.
I’ve been looking for pillows for my bedroom and living room. Whether you’re looking for designer fabric or an original, Etsy is the best place to find pillows!
Do you ever have one of those moments where you discover a product that you don’t know how you’ve been living without? I felt that way this week when I saw these picture frame medicine cabinets at 4 Men 1 Lady. My bathroom has no built in storage. I have been using two cubes that I bought at Target years ago for some storage. I currently have two framed pictures in my bathroom and would love to replace the frames with these, but unfortunately at $300 a piece, they are WAY out of my price range.
I’m more of a TV watcher than a movie watcher. When summer begins, I find a good TV show that I haven’t watched and watch it on Netflix, Hulu or DVD. This summer, I will probably begin with latest seasons of The Big C and Damages. If you like to do this and haven’t watched Ringer, I recommend it. It’s kind of a mix between Double Trouble and Lost. It doesn’t have the sci-fi elements of Lost but it’s like Lost in that the story is in constant motion and if you don’t pay close attention, you’ll miss something. It’s not the most smartly written show but I loved that I never knew what was going to happen. I knew when I sat down to watch it that there wouldn’t be a boring episode. It still hasn’t been renewed for next season but this season stands well by itself. In fact, if it were renewed, I’m not sure what they could do with it.
If you live in Oklahoma, you’ve probably heard about Sweet Brown. If you haven’t, you can check out her awesome video above. Did you know that there is a website with T-shirts of some of her famous catch phrases? I might have to get the “Ain’t nobody got time for dat” shirt.
I have a new favorite iPhone app, Viggle. It pays me to watch TV. Since that’s something I’ve been doing for free, I’m thrilled to get paid to do it. When you watch a TV show, you check in with the app and you’re rewarded points. Some shows have trivia games available when the show airs about the last week’s episode. You can earn points for getting the right answers. My goal is to watch my way to a Kindle Fire. Another great thing about the app is that once you’ve check in to a television series, there are links to the show’s Facebook page, IMDB page and more. This is super convenient since I frequently like to look up stuff when watching TV.
The Thunder are on their way to sweep the Mavs! One more game to go and we advance. Yay! Game four is Saturday night. Go Thunder! Have a great weekend!
As I’ve mentioned before, my parents are downsizing. I’ve spent several weekends going through my stuff that was still at their house. While going through my stuff, I came across a book of matchbooks that my dad has collected over the years. He no longer wanted them and offered them to me. I thought of Erika’s matchbooks at Urban Grace. Since I’m always looking for original art, I knew these would be perfect on my walls, so I snatched them up.
Having them professionally framed isn’t in the budget, so I headed to Michaels with a coupon and a sale ad. The frames I chose were substantial and with a 40% sale plus 20% off purchase coupon, I got a decent deal on three frames. Unfortunately, the mats wouldn’t work so I had to go with plan b. The frames came wrapped in cardboard which was perfect for my purpose. I cut down the cardboard to fit inside the frame and wrapped the cardboard in linen.
I have hung them in the dining room. I still have two pages to frame. Once I’ve framed them all, I think I will group four of them (instead of three) and one hang one across the room in a smaller space. I think they turned out nice and I love that it’s a collection curated by my Dad.
Today’s Treasury includes flowers, perfect for Mom for Mother’s Day. And these flowers will look just as good a week later. You can see more of these beautiful Etsy floral products here.
I spent this weekend with my parents. They are selling their house, my childhood home, and moving into a smaller place. I’ve been going crazy taking pictures of everything. It’s weird to think that someone else will be living there soon. It was a great house to grow up in. I won’t bore you with all the pictures of random things at the house. Here are a few of the more interesting ones. My mom has a beautiful flower garden. I always get some good pictures there.
Peony in Mom’s Flower Garden
The wind whips through Olive’s fur as she races to the garden
Mom’s Flower Garden
Rose in Mom’s Flower Garden
Daisy smells the flowers
When I looked over and saw Daisy smelling the flowers, I had to get a picture. It wasn’t until I started taking the picture that I noticed these particular flowers were covered in bees and Daisy was checking out the bees. Fortunately, nobody was stung. The weather was perfect for being outside. I hope you got to spend some time outside this weekend.
I have been working on several small projects around the house. When the policeman came to my house after the burglary, I was embarrassed to tell him that a lot of the mess he saw had nothing to do with the break in. It was just all the projects I’m working on. Gradually I’m whittling away at lots of them and the house is gradually returning to normal. Today’s project is the makeover of a wood bowl that I bought at Target several years ago. At the time, I needed something to put on a small table in the dining room and thought some potpourri in this uniquely shaped bowl would be perfect. You probably have a pretty good idea what the potpourri was like after a few years, dusty and without the nice aroma. I recently decided to pitch the potpourri and thought the bowl would make a nice bread bowl, which come to think of it may have been its intended purpose. But there was a problem; when I removed the potpourri, I discovered that the oil had seeped into the bowl and ruined the finish. After washing it out, I was left with a mess.
Some of the “dipped” projects I’ve seen on the net have been bowls and plates, so I decided to use my favorite spray paint to cover up the mess and leave the rest untouched. Yes, Mom and Dad, I turned to the spray paint. They find my love of painting everything a bit odd. I, on the other hand, think painting is probably the cheapest way to make a huge impact on something that has good bones but needs an update. After sanding the inside, I carefully taped the bowl using some baseboard tape, the kind that has a small strip of plastic sheeting attached to the masking tape. The plastic sheet worked perfectly to cover and protect the rest of the bowl. Then I went to town with the spray paint.There were a few flaws in the wood that made the smooth spray paint finish look less then smooth, so I used some Rub ‘n Buff left over from this project to make it look like those changes in texture were intentional.
I love how it turned out! I wouldn’t put bread in it without a couple of cloth napkins, but I wouldn’t have anyway. It will be perfect as a bread bowl. Do you turn to paint when you want to update something? What’s your latest project?
Sorry for the spotty posting this week. The little guy has been under the weather and I’ve found it a little hard to concentrate. When a bird gets sick, things can go south pretty quickly, especially with a bird Diego’s size. I haven’t done myself any favors by reading horror stories on the internet. But things are looking up; he started talking again this afternoon and has been eating more. Hopefully the antibiotics have finally kicked in and he will make a full recovery. It’s nice to have his little chirps and chatter return.
This week’s Treasury is an Ode to Orange. I was excited to find a lot of great orange items on Etsy. I’ve been especially pleased with all the clothing items I’ve been discovery lately. I think a lot of my future clothes purchases will be handmade.
