Finally.....

Sorry I've been away from blogging for quite awhile. I thought I'd share the vacation I went on last week. I gave up going to Disneyland for this trip, so I had high expectations. I'm happy to say it exceded them.

Last Sunday, I hooked up to my little T@b and hit the road,

and headed to an RV park north of Conroe.

I've always wanted to go to a painting convention and this was the year that I finally got my courage. The best thing I compare it to is a basketball player getting to take lessons from Michael Jordan, so it was a little intimidating .

Once I walked through the doors, I was in Heaven. I'm always getting teased about have paint on my hands, everyone had paint on their hands!!!! I got to take classes with Maxine Thomas, Prudy Vanier, Peggy, Harris, Shara Reiner, and more... Here are a few of my projects...

The work table

This is what we went to the auction last week to buy. We had no clue what it would bring, and really thought it would be out of my price range. Surprisingly there was only one other bidder , so we performed a little happy dance when I was the high bidder. Then we realized why, nobody wanted to have to load it. This sucker is heavy! Luckily I brought my muscle to help me, otherwise known as Mom and Dad. It turned out it's not nearly as heavy as we thought.

The former owner used it as a work table, but I'm going to use it as a checkout counter until it sells. I think it would make a beautiful bar. Usually I paint all the furniture I buy to refinish, but I think my Dad would have cried real tears if I had done that with this piece. The top is a solid slab of pine, 2 1/2 inches by 8 foot 4 inches. The ends are also slabs. I pulled out my favorite stain, Early American and went to town. While I was working, my Dad kept reenacting bar scenes from old Western movies. I think the fumes from the stain were getting to him. So if I can tear him away from it, this will eventually end up in the shop in Wimberley.

New Adventure

This post has been a work in progress for months. Way back in November I made a huge leap and bought a space/building at a trade days in Wimberly, Texas. It will be open one Saturday a month starting in March. I still don't have good pictures of it, here is one with the prior owners merchandise....

Inside is 16x16, and it has a cute little porch. Any ideas on what color to paint it? Right now I'm thinking red or a grey/blue...Help?

My parents and I love going to auctions. Have you ever been to one? We have a blast. Have you ever been to http://www.auctionzip.com/? It gives you a list of upcoming auctions in your area. I found an auction that I thought I could pick up some inventory and displays. It was an estate auction of a couple who had a wood working shop. I hit the jackpot. Midway through the auction, we were in a storage building. One wall was lined with shelves that were loaded with boxes and wood pieces. They wanted to sell everything but the shelves. I said I'd give them $15, and nobody raised my bid. It didn't look like much until we started loading it. I'll have more pictures later, but here is a start. This all was on that wall..

I bought the wall of junk because I could see some boards that I could use to make shelves. So it was fun opening up all the boxes and seeing what was inside. I like some of these house shapes (this is box 1 of 5 of these houses).

At this point I think only about a 1/4 of the trailer is emptied. I got overwhelmed and forgot to take picture of the rest.

I also got another trailer load of displays and lumber. I'm unloaded that one tonight. Just wait until you see my future checkout counter.....

Santa's workshop...

This time of year my house is refered to as Santa's workshop, or Santa's sweat shop. Couldn't be because I currently have 56 Santa's in various stages of completion laying all over my living room. Don't even ask what the craft room looks like. I think last year we decided that it looked like Hobby Lobby and my favorite thrift store threw up in there,lol. Sorry but that's the best way to describe it. I have three possibly four shows in a row that start this Saturday. If you're in the area come see me this weekend at Christmas in God's Country in Hondo, Tx. Thanksgiving weekend I will be on the square here in Uvalde, and the first weekend in December I'll be in Castroville, Tx at An Old Fashion Christmas. Sorry I haven't posted in months, I'm going to try and do better!

Little did I know...

Little did I know that when I picked up this box of old patterns at a garage sale last week,
I was really picking up a cat bed.
My crazy busy week has evolved into three crazy busy weeks. I had company last week, whom I had a blast with. Right before they got here one of my bottles was chosen to be on the etsy homepage. I totally missed it. One of my customers told me about it. It really boosted my sales, so this week I am trying to get those orders mailed. Here is a special order that is going to New Jersey. It says Live well, Laugh Often, Eat Well in Italian, or at least that's what they told me. I am clueless to any foreign language other than Spanish.

Crazy Week

I'm in the middle of my wild week. One shower and Bunko down, and a craft show and baby shower to go. So this is just going to be a short post to show off the new and improved candle holders. I tried a new spray paint for the two on the left, and I love it. I think its called gun metal by Rustoleum. The one on the right I did with ivory spray paint, and then dirtied it up with a damp rag and some burnt umber paint. Okay I'm off to do my real job for a bit.

Thrifty Treasures

I skipped blogging last week because nothing happened here. It's too hot for anything to happen. Yesterday it was 111 degrees at 7:30 pm! It has been over 100 for three straight weeks, or maybe even a month now, I've lost count. Last week I did nothing, but this coming week is going to be crazy. I am a hostess at a baby shower, have a wedding shower ( no it's not a shotgun wedding, it's two different girls), playing Bunco one night, and if that wasn't enough, last week I decided to sign up to do a craft/art show.

Here is my loot from my thrift store excursion from last week that will be getting quick makeovers for the show...

I picked up the candle holders at a goodwill store, and had the bowls in my stash. I'll hopefully get these done tonight so I can show you pics....

This little folding chair I rescued from the trash. At one time it had a back rest, but it was broken off. Other than that it was in good shape. Nothing against Dora the Explorer, but I like polka dots better....

Check out Southern Hospitality to see lots of other Thrifty Treasures....

A little Etsy love...

I don't know where I first heard about etsy.com, but I love it. It's a one stop shopping place for me. I've ordered lots of gifts, patterns, artwork, and supplies from various artists. The quality, creativity and range of artists that are on etsy is mind boggling. I thought I'd share a few of my favorites. Click on the pictures and go check out these artist's etsy stores.


My favorite gift to give at the moment is this awesome cap from BabyPop. The come in all different colors....

Martha at Apple Tree Cottage

Paper Prayers

Sara's Art Shop

Cyndi Mac's Nick Knacks

Chrissie Grace Designs

I've really enjoyed selling a few things on etsy. I just got a big order, big for me, for some of my engraved wine bottles. I've been in a kinda slump so this was the kick I needed to get into gear and get some new stuff in there. Here are the designs we came up with for the order. I will be getting them into my shop soon...

Progress on the Bench.

Well I started working on the bench I found last weekend. I was going to try and recover it, but found that someone had glued everything together. So I tried dyeing the velvet. I put some fabric dye and water in to a spray bottle and went to town. I'm pretty happy with it so far, at least now it won't clash with the room where I want to put it. Now I need your opinion. I started drybrushing the metal pieces. Do you like this finish? Or do you think it needs a solid coat of paint?
I didn't get my cloche finished to my liking, but check out Marty's Awesome Cloche Party for some real beauties....

Junk Party

Me & My House is hosting a cool junk party so that everyone can share their junk. Here are a few of my favorite pieces.

The lady I bought this from won a bet with her husband. He bet her $20, which is more than I paid for it, that no one would buy it. He said and I quote, "That is pure junk." Little did he know, that's exactly what I was looking for. Here is my chicken coop that I use to hold my cookbooks.

I can't tell you how many times my dad has offered to throw this piece of junk away for me. I moved several times withing a few years, and every single time he'd offer to haul this to the trash for me. Little does he know. It's my favorite piece of furniture that I own. I've managed to keep him from throwing it away for about nine years now.

I have several pieces of "junk" in my bathroom. My bathtub was originally in my grandparents yard with cactus growing in and around it. I found chair at a yardsale. The shutters I found somewhere.

And last but not least,meet Miyagi, my authentic junkyard cat. I work at a "junkyard," or used auto parts shop, and we have lots of junkyard cats. They are always very very wild. When Miyagi was a kitten he came up to the backdoor of our shop and just stayed there. Being a softy, I took him home, and he's ruled the house ever since.

Jungle Garden

I discovered this tiny nest in the middle of one of my tomato plants. It's kinda hard to see in this pic. My tomato plants have all intertwined so I was looking at a pretty green tomato. Just to the right and farther back and sitting on top of a cluster of red cherry tomaoes is this nest.So what does it mean when a nest has one speckled egg and four plane jane ones? Momma been messin around?

After a run in with a rattle snake I gave up gardening for about 5 years. I reached in to pick a tomato that was close to the ground and WHAP I felt something slap my hand. I yanked it back and then I heard the rattle. If you've ever heard that eerie sound, you'll never forget it. I was lucky and didn't get bit, but it scared me enough to not have any interest in a garden for a long time.

This year I decided it was time for another garden, so I fenced it in planted everything in slightly raised beds. I was getting worried because it looked so skimpy when I planted it. And then it seemed like overnight, WHAM, I had a jungle. I take a cane with me to poke and shake the plants to scare off any snakes. I have learned my lesson. I've really enjoyed it, especially eating the fresh veggies.

I planted some of those giant sunflower from a packet of seeds. Man they are tall, at least 8 feet or so. Sadly they are about done blooming, but I have enjoyed them. I haven't measured them but the flowers are huge!