More Finds!

Hi Everyone....

Just a short post to show you what "new" things I bought this weekend :)  While my hallway/laundry room was being worked on due to the terrible water leak we had, somehow the ceiling light fixture got broke :(  I haven't been in a big rush to replace it because I wanted to find something special.  On Friday I found it!  I found a 50's light fixture on craigslist for $20!

Blown glass with heart shapes.

Beautiful detail!  I love it!

This really pretty bowl for $3.

It looks cute in my dinning room hutch.

And this little side table for $5.  At first I thought I would paint it then distress it, but now I'm not sure.....I  kind of like the wood.

And an overview picture....never mind the dog fight that was occurring the same time.  Soon after this shot, I was literally taken down.  Those silly dogs sleep in the sun and rest  peacefully when they are outside, and when they are inside they horse around worse then my kids do!

Have a great day!

A little bit of this and that....

Hi Everyone!  Thought I would share a few things that I have been meaning to post.  I also have a hidden agenda for tonights post....I need your opinion on something.....But first off here are a couple of yard sale finds:

These really cool jars, I got four of them for $1.75

I tied twine around them and added a tea light candle and hung them in my back yard.

Bottles in a perfect brown glass one of which reads "Purex" and another that reads "Clorox".  A perfect addition to my downstairs bathroom.  All for $5!

Another jar filled with rusty goodies for $1.

A 7-UP Crate that I turned upside down and put a wired lantern on top, on my porch.  I'm not to happy with it here, I'm sure I will move it somewhere else when I find a better spot.  I got this for $4.

I have had this awesome vintage window.  I have it hanging in my hall/laundry room.  I bought this from the Rose Bowl Flea Market last year.

The blog world is full of pallet love!  I made this piece over the past weekend.  I found two very light pallets at work (my co-workers think I'm nuts) and dis-assembled planks from one pallet and added them to the other.  I roughed painted it white and hung it on my wall.  I added a "love" sign and a 3 dimensional star.  It made this space comfortable and welcoming.  I love it.  NOW....FOR YOUR HELP:

This is the wall that everyone sees on the way up and down my stair case.  I have started a collage of old and current black and white photos.  I like the randomness and the uneven spaces between each picture (my house is full of imperfections and that sort of makes it feel like home..) I sort of just add as I get a new picture.  Heres my problem,  towards the top is a light fixture, this ugly fixture came with the house when we bought it 3 years ago.  It was brass, I painted it black.  I never removed it or replaced it because it is odd shaped and I didn't have the paint color that the house was painted with to touch up.

Fast forward to today.  We had a leak in a major pipe in my laundry room and drywall was cut out.  This leaves me with....I MUST GET THE PAINT MATCHED....so if I must get the paint color for the laundry room, then I can take down the fixture, paint under it and add another.  YES!

What type of light fixture should I put in its place?  I would love something vintage rather then new.... I also need to keep the fixture there because it is our source of light to get down the stairs at 3am.

Any ideas?

Please help....

I'm desperate, I don't have any ideas whatsoever!

Thank You so much.....your the best!

Josie

Is it just me or does it feel like spring already?

This is a pic of me and my girls last spring at the San Diego Wild Animal Park.  Take note of the very un-happy flower.  Gabi was sooo mad, there was mud in front of each of the butterfly pictures and she was to little to step far enough over the mud to reach the butterfly holes.

Anyhow, I live in Southern California and we have not had much of a winter!  I guess that's the beauty of living in SoCal but it still should feel somewhat like winter.  We have had weather in the 70's and I'm still wearing sandals!  I haven't even dug out my closed toe shoes yet!  Rain Gods....if your reading this.....please let it pour!

How is the weather where you live?

Are you ready for winter to end, or are you like me and waiting for it to start?

Until next time.

Meet Gus and Ginger

Gus and Ginger are my "doogers".  They are very happy basset hounds, they enjoy a busy day that consist of eating, sleeping and eating.  Gus is 2 1/2 years old but has the personality of a 50 year old grumpy man.  Ginger is 2 years old and is the sweetest thing you will ever meet.  They both love to go bye-bye and 3 of their favorite places to go is Petsmart, the dog park and In-n-out to get a delicious hamburger patty.  Here are some pics of each of them.  Enjoy.

Gus.

Gus stole this Hello Kitty purse from my 11 year old daughter, and to this day it is one of his favorite things to carry around the house.

Ginger.

A blowfish for Halloween.

I could post millions of pictures of them, in fact I have as many pics of my dogs as I do my kids :)

Until next time.

The Battle I Won!

I found out through my mom that my brother was throwing away a hideous looking hutch.  So I decided to do what I do best....drag it home!  My husband HATED it!  The hutch was oak, with brass hardware, and had  lead design glass in the doors which were broken and a 70's type mirror glued to the inside of the cabinet.  It was ugly.  My husband and I argued about it and I thought for sure that we would definitely not be on speaking terms within no time.  I saw something in this piece of furniture that he couldn't.  I became stubborn and frankly didn't care if my husband hated it!  I didn't hate it, in fact I loved it :)

I was in such a hurry to start working on it, I didn't take any before pictures and I'm kicking myself for it.  I had to hurry and waste no time because for all I knew my husband was waiting for me to turn my back so that he could murder it with a sledge hammer.

I removed glass, sanded, painted, and stapled (without help from Victor) I did it all on my own.  Yep, it was all me!

After it was all said and done....Guess who LOVES it??????  That's right MY HUSBAND.  He said to me "looks great,  we really needed something in that space!"

Whatever!  All I know, is that I won the battle and that is all that counts!

Welcome Back......To ME!

Its been quite awhile since I posted anything.  Honestly I have no good excuse or reason.  I have just been plain lazy!  I have been doing nothing really with my spare time except stressing/fantasizing about my wood floors that I want to put in downstairs in April.  I have been stalking websites, stores, and other peoples blogs about how to install the flooring myself, the price ranges, and ohhhh the many colors and textures that they offer.   More on that later.

Before Christmas I promised to share with you two custom dolls that I ordered from Michelle at A Pinch of Prim, you can  find her here: http://apinchofprim.blogspot.com/

I ordered them for my 2 girls for Christmas gifts and they came out beautiful!  Michelle was super easy to work with and may I add that she never saw a picture of either girls.  With my descriptions only via email and Michelle's imagination the dolls look almost exactly like Alexis and Gabi.  Below are pics of the dolls and the girls so you can be the judge!  Lets start off with my youngest daughter Gabi.  Isn't she just beautiful?

There....I got your attention....This was Gabi on Halloween :)

Alexis is 19 years old and on the left, Gabi is 11 years old and on the right.

Gabi and Ginger.

Alexis.

Now here are the dolls:

Gabi is the princess/brat of the house and she loves all things sparkly!

Alexis is our personal "cat lady".  She wears cardigans, loves cats and anything floral.

SOOOOO....what do you think?  I know, I know, I'm totally right!  The girls LOVED them and so for that, I would like to say THANK YOU to Michelle!  The detail is outstanding and the dolls are beautiful, they were totally better then I imagined!

PS
My 15 year old son was never considered for one of these.  Actually he probably would kill me, in fact....he would kill me.  So since I could not find anything "special" for him for Christmas he got the usual video games and what not.  I felt bad at first...but my sister reminded me that since my son Joseph considers himself "a gamer", then at this point in his life the video games are "special" to him.  (sigh)  I guess shes right....... (sigh)

Until next time....
Josie

Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to drop in to say Merry Christmas to all of you!  This is the first time in several days that I have had  "down" time!  All of the gifts are opened, the kids are happy, everyone enjoyed a ham dinner and I get to relax for the evening.  Yay!

Here are a few pictures of some of my ornaments around the house.  I decided to  post tonight because I am "that" person that takes down all of my decorations the day after Christmas and declare my life back to normal :)

This is the baby tree in my kitchen.  I decorated it with vintage Christmas cookie cutters held on with twine, a set of vintage measuring spoons and a super cute star Christmas ornament that looks like a cookie.

This is our Christmas tree with a couple of close ups on some of our ornaments.

Here is the mantel in the video game room where I hung my kids stockings.

A gingerbread house that the kids made a few years ago.

A Santa door knob hanger.

I made the wooden coat hanger that is behind my front door.  It holds my baptism dress from when I was a baby all year long and during Christmas time I add some greenery.

Some Christmas garland randomly hung around the house.

Christmas decorations on the front porch.

A snow shovel (I will never need to use this thing being I live in Southern California, I guess its a good thing....I wouldn't know how to use it anyways)  hanging out with my grandfathers canes.  

And lastly....Meet Ellen.  My beautiful niece that is in high school always thinks of me while making things in her ceramics class.  Ellen was an amazing gift from her one year and I adore her.

Thanks for stopping by.....Enjoy the rest of your evening and have a Very Merry Christmas!