Been Thriftin', Creatin', and Gardenin'

The hanging basket by the front door!

Okay, I have been gone way too long! The summer,

it still hasn't felt like summer....brrrrrrrr,

has been busy.

With my daughter home from college,

the whole house

takes on a new energy level.....

oh scratch that, I mean.....

Spoiled Sarah with spoiled Sophie dog!

I take on a whole new energy level...."mommy

( I fast become"mommy" again

when she's schmoozin')

can you make that sandwich I love so much?...

can you get me snuggly in the chair

with my fave blanket?...

can you hand me the controls?..........."

I have to admit, I love having her back home.

And I love doing all those things that I miss doing

for her when she's away at college. She's working

almost full time this summer at an Orthopedic Clinic

and I can't complain!

Let's see what else......

Okay!

 I found this deliciously shabby chic vintage quilt

while thriftin' the other day! Oh my gosh if you could

have seen the condition it was in, you would have

probably passed it up! I brought it home, washed it in

my special lavender, vanilla washes several times

along with some heavy duty Oxyclean

and it came out

GORGEOUS!

I hugged it and smelled it over and over, displayed it in my studio

and then listed it on my http://www.therobinandsparrow.etsy.com/ website.

I secretly hope it doesn't sell, I might change my mind

and KEEP it!!

I also found this sweet vintage alarm clock and this

gorgeous pearl detatched collar...........

Today I created a sweet new pillow using a vintage linen shirt I found thriftin'.

It is listed in my etsy shop as well.

It's good to be back to blogging! Now I need to go visit all my

blogging peeps and see what everyone else has been doing!

Have a great day today!

xo

xo

clare

Our Son's Rehearsal Dinner

My son and his sweet bride married December 18. I thought I was never going to survive this month. My parents came for Thanksgiving and thankfully stayed until after the wedding. They were the biggest help, ever!


Dad and Mom

  So with a house full of people, including our daughter home for Christmas break, we marched through all the incredible details of pulling off a wedding. Since my husband and I were in charge of the rehearsal dinner I rolled up my sleeves and came up with the decorating plan. We rented this wonderful old historical house here in Lake Oswego called "The Heritage House".

The Heritage House

I decorated in the wedding colors of gold and brown using brown burlap runners and gold tablecloths. I made centerpieces using mercury gold glass buckets filled with brown branches that light up by battery, gold holly sprays, tiny gold ornaments and a twig star in the center. Then I tied a sparkly gold bow on each handle. I have yet to find those pics of the details, sorry. Around each centerpiece I displayed vintage bride and groom cake toppers under various glass domes, and on various cake plates.

My son, Susie his bride, and Chris and Ali Nye the best man and maid of honor

It made a beautiful statement. Then I sprinkled tiny glass gold ornaments down the runners. The night was a success and I came home exhausted. Since then I have posted the vintage bride and groom collection on my website because I have absolutely no storage for it. It's a beautiful collection.

This collection is for sale in my vintage shop http://www.intodumpsters.etsy.com/

Here are a few more pictures of the wedding.....



Susie and John



Our daughter Sarah and son John.



The bridesmaids

 The wedding party

First Dance

The Bride



Just Now Getting My Head Above Water

Whew! What happened to the time? Here I was kinda leisurely creeping up to the holidays, all the while posting things on my website; http://www.therobinandsparrow.etsy.com/ , and all of a sudden the Christmas crunch hit! Etsy had featured my spoon ornaments in one of their gift guides and I was swamped with order requests. The problem? I really didn't have the supplies gathered from my vintage sources to meet the demand, so I made the few sets I could, and decided to be better prepared for the next Christmas season, way ahead of time, like "summer" way ahead! Here are a few pics of some of the items I sold. Peruse and enjoy and then ...

scroll down to the bottom to see the very best part of Christmas this year...

The above crystals were from a vintage store here in Portland called Hippo Hardware .  I searched through bins for hours and found just the right ones that were not chipped and had flat backs so I could adhere vintage ephemera to the back.

So the best part of Christmas this year was having my two college kids home from school, waking up and taking the "Christmas Morning Bedhead" picture, getting new socks, snuggies, etc, kissing my husband of 23 years and going to church to celebrate...now that was a truly blessed Christmas.