Liberty Antiques Festival

Yesterday, (after watching the Royal Wedding, of course) my friend Crystal and I went to the Liberty Antiques Festival.  They hold it twice a year in a small town outside of Greensboro, NC.  It's supposedly the largest in the southeast with 400+ dealers.  There was SO much to look at.  I think I'll definitely be going to the next one in September.

These little patio sets were apparently very common because I think we saw 3 or 4 of them, all at different vendors.  If that's what you came for, you were in luck!

Oh, the lanterns.  I loved them oh so much but I loved my money more.  Sad.

This was probably the coolest thing I saw - a rotating card catalog!  For $2,000 it could've been mine!

These were just weird, but cool.

There were probably 10 aisles that all looked like this.

Before we left, we stopped for a photo op.

So, I'm sure you're just dying to know what I brought home.

First up, a Coke crate!  It's old and chippy and will look perfect in our game room downstairs.  The dealer had a bunch of old bottles sitting in it and had it marked for $12.  I asked him if he would take $10 and he said "No, I think I'll keep it at $12 because I don't have anywhere else to put these bottles."  Um, how is that MY problem?  Sheesh!  Obviously, I gave him the $12.  I liked it too much to quibble over $2.

Next up, something I've wanted for quite a while now.  A vintage fan!  This one's made by Koldair (clever name, huh?)  It was marked for $30 and I asked the guy how much he would take for it.  He had a much larger Kenmore fan sitting beside it and asked me if I would take both.  I asked him what he was thinking for both and he said $40.  I really didn't like the large Kenmore fan.  It just looked old, not cool and vintage.  So he reluctantly parted with just the small one for $25.  I lugged this heavy cast iron fan around all.day.long and boy were my shoulders sore by the end of the day!  Next time, I know to bring my little SmartCart to lug things around in.  I wasn't even thinking that I would have to carry whatever I bought for the rest of the day.  D'oh!  Anywho, I just love this little guy.

Oh, and of course I looked at similarly sized fans the rest of the day and I definitely got the best deal - go me!

Do you know of any other awesome antiques festivals?  I think I'm hooked!

Color Blocked Rick Rack Wreaths

I've been stumped about how to decorate our front porch for spring this year.  I've never done springy wreaths before, but after taking down our Christmas wreaths, our doors just looked naked.

I bought two straw wreaths half off at HobLob a few months ago.  They sat barren for a long time until I finally just decided to do something.  I raided my stash to see what I had, and voila - color blocked rick rack wreaths (say that five times fast)!

I had leftover burlap and jute (the starting point for these beauts), bought two skeins of yarn, some rick rack and burlap garland (I didn't even know they had such a thing until I stumbled across it at Michaels!) and just wrapped it all around until it suited me.  I added a P that's been in my stash forever but has never had a proper home.

I'm usually all about symmetry, and to tell you the truth, it still kinda bugs me that there's a P on one side and nothing on the other, but I'm trying to live with it for a few weeks and see what I think.  I'm just telling myself that the P signifies to people that that's the door that opens (as if the door handle isn't enough of a clue - ha!).  Anywho, I love the yellow, teal and red together.  Those colors are just speaking to me right now.

Also, don't you just love our front doors?  I just love them.  But when it comes to decorating our front porch, stoop, whatever you want to call it, it's twice the work!  But moving furniture in and out sho' is easy!

Beautiful red ceramic planters at Home Depot - I have my eye on you next!

Linking Up:

Office Rearranging

A couple weeks ago, I got a crazy hair to change our office around.  I just walked in there and could.not.take.it.any.more!  Does that ever happen to you?

Here it was before.

See those cords?  There was really no getting around them and no hiding them.  I loved the desk in the middle of the room because the front of it is b-e-a-utiful!  But I seriously couldn't handle the cords anymore.  Plus I store all my decorative items and gift wrapping supplies in the closet in there and getting to the closet meant walking between the desk and the chairs and it was a tight fit.

So I took all the drawers out of this soild wood, very expensive desk, cleaned it all out (seriously, we had some junk in there), and started pushing and maneuvering until I got it where I wanted it.*

And here ya go.

Ahh, no cords.

The room looks 10 times bigger and getting to the closet is easy-peasy now.  The two chairs in the room are actually our extra dining room chairs.  I don't put the leaf in unless we're having company, so this room is the perfect spot for them.  I picked up some paint chips at Lowes last week, and I'm thinking this room will end up some shade of dark blue.  This room gets tons of natural light from the big window, so even though it's a small room, I think it can handle a darker color on the walls.  Now I just need some bookshelves (all our books currently reside in two or three bankers boxes) and some curtains and this room will look fabulous!  I've actually put off doing anything to this room thinking it would *eventually* (don't be getting any crazy ideas Aunt Missa!) be a kid's room, but our guest room will turn into a kid's room first so this room has a few years left as an office.

*Note to self:  Don't try this again because your back hurt for two days and you had matching bruises on the outside of both of your knees from where you'd leaned up against it and pushed with all your might.  Remember, this desk is a BEAST.

Sink Area

Ahhh, sorry I've been so MIA lately, but an extreme case of laziness set in and I'm just now getting over it.  I have approximately 10 half-finished projects and 10 half-started projects and I haven't felt motivated to do much of anything.  Plus I can't find my camera charger.  But I did snap a few pics before my camera died, so here ya go.

For the last few weeks, my sink area has been an source of frustration.  I just felt like it looked a mess all the time, plus I still had a Christmas snowman soap dispenser out.  It's spring people!

I found the milk glass soap dispenser at Target for $12.99 which I loooove.  It made a huge difference because I put my dish soap in it so the ugly soap bottle is banished beneath the sink only to resurfaced for refills.  That was as far as I'd gotten.  It was better but I still didn't love it.

Then I found two of these little crates at Goodwill.

Yes, only $1!

I spray painted one of them black, and voila!

I found the glass soap dispenser at Target as well for $17.99 (a bit of a splurge but I just loved it).  I switched the dish soap to it and put the hand soap in the milk glass one.  The ceramic dish to the right corrals my rings while I'm washing dishes.

I think it looks much neater and I love doing dishes now!  (Ha, if only a little black crate could make me love doing dishes.)

P.S. The other crate is in its natural state in my laundry closet holding dryer sheets.  Love!

Freshened up for Spring

It was time for some new springy decor around here. 

First up, a CSN Stores bowl filled with faux green apples. (Small ones: Target - $5, large ones: Walmart - $1 each) I saw a Houzz ideabook on green apples and just had to incorporate the look! I know apple season is fall and not spring, but I think the green apples make it springy.

Vintage Reader's Digest books picked up at the Habitat Restore (50 cents each!). Tray was a Goodwill find for $1.50. Got the a-freakin'-dorable cast iron owl at Urban Outfitters for half off (came to about $7). 

Isn't the little tealight birdcage sooo cute?  I got it and the faux flower and sparkly greenery at Michaels.

Okay, this isn't really springy, but two of the three pieces are new so I had to share!  My new blue vase from CSN Stores and a piece of funky pottery I picked up at my favorite pottery store in Pigeon Forge.  I got it to replace the piece my kitties broke, but I still don't love it as much as I did that pitcher.  They didn't have anything even remotely similar to it, but I still like this piece with all its quirky curves.

I got this table runner and the napkin rings (those things around the votive holders) at the same pottery store in PF a few years ago.  This picture kinda stinks and doesn't do this display justice, but I just love it.

So that's my springy decor around here.  I can't wait until it's shorts and flip flops weather!

Woo hoooo: New Curtains!

Eeeee, something exciting for you today!  Okay, maybe you're not that excited, but just humor me, mmkay?

I got curtains for my naked dining room windows!  Wahoooo.

Here they were in all their sad "before" glory.  (Although don't you just love that bunting? hehe)

And here they are now with simple white sheers ordered from Target.com with a birthday giftcard.

Rods from Lowes.

I think this area looks so much more "done" now.  I really wanted to stay light and simple with the draperies because this is such a small area.  I didn't want the curtains to compete with any of the decor in the living room since this is essentially part of a great room.

Sidenote:  See the holes above the rod on the right?  Yeah, a few miscalculations occured, but it was smooth sailing on the left window!  I just need to sand and paint and you'll never know!

While we're in the dining room, I thought I'd show you my spring tablescape!

I am loving the monochromatic look this spring.  I used some of the same elements as my winter tablescape, but switched the focal point to this cute little white pitcher I got at Michaels (50% off!), with a fake hydrangea in it.  I noticed while I was at Michael's that day that I really don't like any other fake flowers, and really, hydrangeas are my favorite real flower.  I just love the fullness of hydrangeas because it really only takes one to make a statement.  What I wouldn't give to have a hydrangea bush... too bad I have a black thumb.  Feel free to pity me (or gift me with fresh hydrangeas!)

Burlap, Book Page and Jute Bunting

I had a crafty urge one day and I thought, what better than to combine four of the most popular trends in the blogosphere now: burlap, book pages, jute, and bunting!  I had some leftover burlap from my table runner, an old book I was willing to rip up and some jute, so cost for this project = free!  I used my Cricut to cut the bookpages into pennant shapes, then I freehanded triangles out of burlap, hot glued it all together, and voila!

Okay, so I did this project a while back (note the Valentine's decor on the table), but I've been a really bad blogger lately!  Mostly it comes down to laziness.  I wish they had some kind of medication for it.  It's really a very debilitating disease.

Steven came home after I put this up and asked if we were having a party, but he just doesn't understand.  I forgive him.  I think it's cute and only took an hour or so, and most of that was spent loading book pages into the Cricut!

Love.