What's new? Thunderstorms this weekend that knocked down some branches, picked the youngest daughter up from college so she could look for summer work, then took her back today, (a 4 hour round trip) garage sales. Some of my finds are below. A pretty old ironstone tureen for $3......

And this cute cottage butter dish, made in England for $5. Much more than I would usually spend on something like this, but I have a small cottage teapot collection going and I couldn't resist this piece to go with it.

And then I found this cool old pitcher, 50 cents! I can see this filled with zinnias from the garden can't you? It says Ohio china company on the bottom, I can't find anything about them when I did a search. It was apparently based out of Monroe, MI (it says that on the bottom too!) Anyone know anything about this?Have you found any cute things at sales lately?

Check out this giveaway!

April showers here in Michigan this morning. A perfect morning to go blog hopping, and look what I found! This beautiful giveaway over at Catherine Holman Folk Art. I love her artwork, wouldn't this be great to win?

Sunshine and Blue Skies

It has been the kind of spring day that I have dreamed of for months! Sunshine and blue skies. 76 degrees and the day off work. *sigh* Wonderful:>) So I rolled out of bed this morning with a hankering to whip up something yummy. I took a look at what was available and decided on some fresh lemon ginger muffins. These and a cup of coffee and Earl and I were ready to hit a big church rummage sale that we had seen advertised.
And look what we found! My new dining room chairs! Yes really. I know they don't look like much now but these are solid oak, loaded with detail and we all know there isn't a thing in the world that can't be fixed with a can of spray paint and a yard of fabric right!? Earl will be making some very minor repairs and then I will spray paint and recover. No problem. I just hope it will be warm enough in the next week to get the spray painting done. It's supposed to drop to the 50's for the next few days at least.

I already have the seats off and two of the chairs started. Minor flaws don't bother me. When you pay $2 for a chair (!) you have all kinds of creative leeway. You can't hurt these babies! Now I'm off to get ready for a date night. Dinner out (courtesy of a gift card) and a night hanging out at borders with a cup of coffee and perusing the stacks. Not exciting to you maybe, but a night out on the cheap for us is fine:>) I hope you are all having wonderful spring sunshine days!

Chicks

I thought I would show you the chicks while they are still little. I have them labeled by breed. I will end up with a flock of 14 hens of several different colors. The Americaunas lay blue or green eggs, all the rest lay various shades of brown and cream. They are so cute at this age!

When the babies are little like this they fall asleep on their feet every few minutes. They tip right over on their little faces with their teeny bums in the air and sleep. Too cute. The 12 year old boy next door is in love. I put a little chair in the coop so he could sit inside and watch them. He is working on naming them all:>)
Aren't they just the sweetest things? Earl and I are planning some raised beds in front of the coop, with a picket fence around it. I plan to let the hens out to scratch every once in a while once the vegetables are big enough to not get picked or trampled. Good for the garden and I love to see the hens in the yard:>) It is a beautiful sunny 70 degree day and I have some weeding and garden beds to take care of while the sun shines. I hope you all have a wonderful spring weekend! I will be making the rounds and catching up with everyone over the next week. I can't wait:>)

Free

Yes, today I go back to working one job, hallelujia! And how did I celebrate? First, Earl and I hit a couple garage sales before work. I picked up a gorgeous book for $1 full of bright photos like the one above. Oh sweet spring! You can find copies of this book on Amazon for as little as 36 cents!
After work we went to a nearby small town and brought back our spring chicks. I am so excited. We got some really beautiful breeds and I'll have a small flock to give us big brown eggs (and some green and blue!) and scratch bugs in the cottage garden. It was a beautiful sunshiney day and tomorrow is slated to be even warmer:>) Ahhhh, it feels so good to be back home. I have lots of great things to share and I look forward to getting back to my sewing machine. Oh yes, spring makes me happy, no doubt about it. Being HOME makes me happy:>) What makes you happy?

Haiku...Bless you

Two days and I'm free. Yes, if any of you have put it off, tax season ends tomorrow (oh happy day!) I filed early and got my refund months ago. But there is a sense of panic at the office that always makes me wonder why anyone would walk into a tax prep office without so much as an appointment one or two days before the deadline! Is it the daring thrill of wondering if you will get in? The excitement of finding out you owe and have only hours to scrape up the money?

In honor of the tax season being over I have written a Haiku. What made me think of a Haiku you ask? Well, after Easter dinner our family whipped out various needlework projects and chatted and our college age niece mentioned that she had a professor who would accept term papers in any form as long as you got your point across, he even accepts Haikus! Well that got the English fanatic in our family going and Karen sat there and cranked out one hilarious haiku after another. I know, we are a bit weird, but we are all weird together so we enjoy it:>) So here it is, my haiku for the tax season:

Last day tax season

I must have an extension

Oh why did I wait?

The photo above is our Easter table before the dinner. The tablecloth is a vintage linen sent to me by my dear Aunt Sharon. I have so many white linens though, I decided to dye this one blue for a little something more springy. I love how it turned out. One box of rit dye in evening blue and the washer. Easy. Got to go. After the 15th I'm back!

A Blessed Easter to all:>)

Happy Easter!

A blessed Easter to all of you! See the chippy window? Earl snagged this pretty thing at an early spring yard sale last week. Oh I love that man! I have been cleaning and preparing for our Easter feast tomorrow. The whole family will be here, mom is bringing a ham, sis Karen is bringing her special sweet french bread, and sis Penny will bring a fruit salad. Earl and I will be making fresh green beans, creamed peas, mashed potatoes and of course the white chocolate/raspberry cheesecake for dessert. I can't wait:>) I have some serious catching up to do in blogland after the 15th. Until then I hope your Easter weekend is filled with the love of family, friends and, most of all, the love of Christ. He is risen!

Getting to know you....

I found this beautiful Ranunculus at Home Depot for $3.97, how could I not buy it? I'm pretty much desperately in love with the beautiful chartreusey spring green color in the center of these creamy flowers. What a combination. I'm glad I picked it up, it helps ease the pain of the forecast for snow tomorrow, the first day of spring break from my school job. *sigh* I may have to close the curtains for the day and not look outside. I just don't know if I can stand one more bitter flake!
Back to my ranunculus... I popped it into this cute little Peter rabbit pot that I picked up at a church sale. It is perfect for a little Easter decoration on the table and the bright sunshine streaming in the east window this morning was so beautiful!

Only 10 more days until job # 2 is over. Can I be thankful for the extra money and thankful that it is nearly over too? I am looking forward to blogging on a more regular basis again. Creating some fun things for etsy and moving forward. I plan to do a small series about me. Sounds a bit egocentric but one of the things I don't enjoy about blogging is the superficiality of it all. You know we leave little sound bites for each other, love this, great job, but I would love to know more about you. I know there is something much deeper to all of us. Without getting scarey personal (this is the internet!) I hope we can share a bit more of what makes us who we are. Think about it. I will announce a Mr. Linky party later in the month and I hope some of you will hop on board. Memories of yourselves as children, what you love besides the obvious and whatever you would like to share so you aren't just that lady who loves toile and decorating! Anyone interested?