Giveaway!

Can you believe this is the gift for the giveaway? Go to this blog http://frenchcharming.blogspot.com/2009/06/french-limoges-giveaway.html?showComment=1245361948144#c7944162090532018642 and follow the instructions for getting your name in the drawing! I wish I could say good luck, but I WANTA WIN!!!!

Metamorphosis Monday/Today's Thrifty Treasures

Changing this to a double post, since it definitely fits the description!!!

Remember a few weeks back DH and I had been junking at a town nearby? Well, if you don't remember, let me refresh. We spent the evening driving around this small town picking up some items that we just couldn't live without. The table shown above is the Metamorphosis for this week. As you can see, it needed some TLC, but had good bones. The table has the cutest little drawer, and the way it's put together makes it an obvious antique. DH took it home, cleaned, it up and first took off the top. The top had been replaced before and was a piece of plywood, with wood-look contact paper on it. DH sent me to Home Depot the next week to find a piece of wood that could be used for the top. He measured and cut it to fit and it looked good. After that I knew we had a hit here. It was looking good, but DH wasn't done. DH decided the left over piece of board from the top could be added to make dress it up a little. He added the curved board on the back for decoration by using a 5 gallon bucket for the middle curve, and barrell for the outside curves. It certainly added a little attitude, don't you think? After several coats of white paint, it was ready for placement.

It has such neat detail with the carved legs and all.

I think it turned out pretty well, and it was certainly in my price range! It's hard to find a nice bedside table that is tall enough for this bed and I think we did well this time!!!

Thanks for joining me on this MetMonday post. It's been fun! Join in on the fun with us at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/ with Susan who's definitely the best hostess ever. Judging from the amount of people that are members of her blog I think quite a few others agree with me!

Also go see what the good deals are at Southern Hospitality http://southernhospitality-rhoda.blogspot.com/ !

What's On Your Wall Wednesday

What's on my wall this week is ALL about Wizard of Oz!!! This is only a sampling of what I have, but loved as much as any!!

This shelf holds figures and music boxes.

There are the beanie Wizard of Oz Characters on the shelf above the afghan.

There is the baby afghan I made to bring our DD#2 home from the hospital that is the afghan stitch, with the characters cross stitched on it, with a rainbow border.

This is a photo of a picture that is on my DD#2's wall. The cloud has the Wizard of Oz characters in the clouds, and the bottom of the photo is a wheat field and elevators, much like our landscape here where we live.

More What's on your Wall Wednesday fun is located at http://gritsglamourblogspot.com/ .

Flaunt Your Red!!!

When I was young I remember my Mom and Dad would go out dancing on Saturday nights. I remember so well how excited we used to get when Mom would come out of her room all dressed up and looking SO pretty. But there was one thing that always could get us stirred up and that was if she were wearing her RED SHOES. My sister and I used to argue about who was going to get to wear those shoes when they grew up. Now, I'm talking we were probably 7 and 10 years old when this conversation began, and continued on through our teenage years. I remember being so happy that my sisters feet outgrew mine, and eventually were too big for the shoes! I teased her about that at the time. Of course by the time our feet would fit them, they were out of date. Later on the joke was someday when Mom passed on, who would get the shoes?

One year for Mother's Day, I received a package in the mail. In the package was the right RED SHOE. My mom had a flower arrangement put in it and sent it to me, and the same for the left one - to my sister. To this day the red shoe sits on top of my dresser as a great reminder of fun times and how very much we loved our Mom. Sorry for the dust on the shoe, but here's what it looks like. I believe it might be in style again!!!

Thanks to Southern Lady for hosting "Flaunt You Red" today. This is my first time, and loved joining in the fun! To see more red go to http://southernlady-nancy.blogspot.com/ .

Metamophosis Monday and Blue Monday

Double Post! Blue Monday and Metamophosis Monday!

This is the strip quilt I made I believe in 1992 when we were snowed in for 5 days. We were lucky to not lose our electricity like so many did, so I was able to sew. I used fabrics that were important, such as cloth that I had made clothes for the kids out of when they were little. I actually made ALL of their clothes when there were only two of them, and I was a stay-at-home Mom.

The quilt is very simple to make. Cut fabric in strips 4 1/2 inches wide and sew together -length ways, using 1/4 inch seam allowance, making each strip 4" wide after sewn. Cut the strips in strips, 4 1/2 inches wide, the opposite way. Once again using 1/4 inch seam allowance, shift the pattern one square down and sew again, this time ending up with 4" squares. You then trim off the odd shaped ends, and sew them together, add to the quilt and you are done. It sounds kind weird, but if you actually get to this point, you will understand what I mean.

The reason this is a double post, is because the back of my quilt is a twin sized navy blue bed sheet AND it takes this

and turns it in to THIS!!!

Thanks again for Met Monday and Blue Monday! Join everyone at the below sites to see much, much more!!! Met Monday at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/ ; Blue Monday at http://smilingsally.blogspot.com/ Thanks for all the fun and great ideas!

Master Bedroom

Below you can see the story of us in our bedroom. I tried to make it comfortable, yet to my liking - taking into consideration that DH isn't really too "into" the really feminine look like I am.

My Princess Diana teddy bear collectible, given to me by my BFF, Yvonne.

They gloves I wore to my Sr. Prom in 1972!

The red rose doiley on the right was made for a wedding gift by my Mom's best friend. The lace above left, was made by my Grandma Alley. She gave it to me on a pillow, but I thought it needed to be on the back of this chair that was recovered by a friend.

A birthday gift from my husband is the beautiful paper cut "The Rose". The tea cup was sent to me when my Step Dad died and is a very special treasure.

This old child's wardrobe was purchased at an auction and was in DH's family. It has an small hanging rod that belongs where the TV is, and it was painted green, with green toile fabric inserts in the doors and sides. I was unable to find toile that was what I wanted, so found the leaf-print in tones of cream, painted it cream, and there it was. The metal drawer pulls are original, but there was only one glass knob on the lower drawers. I looked for quite awhile before finding matching knobs in an antique store. I had to buy a bag of 6 drawer pulls to get the three I need!

Grandma Alley's Secretary

Look at these darling little shoes!

I did write a little blog on how important my bed is to me, but wanted to show you the "rest of the story". When we built our home, we started out with what we thought was a big bedroom, 17 x 14. We had a king sized water bed in the dark, almost black finish, and matching large dresser. The dresser and bed both had large mirrors in them, which is like my most unfavorite (?) thing in the world. Of course the whole house was painted in the normal for those days - white. I had an orange bedspread and curtains. Oops, starting to have a flash-back there for a minute! Ha! When we built our home in 1982, we intended to build on some day. That day occurred in 1996. We added a 12' addition to the entire length of our house, adding a sunroom onto the kitchen/dining room, and made our bedroom 26 x 17. It includes a stairway that leads to the basement where we have a large hot tub. Wow! Now I know what it's like to have a large bedroom. It still is in the 80's though, with wallpaper. I still love it, but know it's terribly out of date. The biggest problem is the walls on 1/2 the room are textured like when we built the house, I believe they call it egg shell texture. The other 1/2 is flat finished. I want to tear off all the wallpaper (sorry Mom - you worked so hard getting it up there)! And sand off the texture, then paint the walls. I want to keep the white carpet and we have recently gotten a new bed, so of course it stays. The repurposed furniture in the room still works, so want to keep it too. If you get a chance, look it over and tell me what you would do. I'm open to suggestions, especially low-cost ones! Thanks for helping me out!!!!!

Love seat recovered by a friend.

Everyone loves a bed

Did you ever think about your bed? Or should I say, do you ever STOP thinking about your bed? Everyone talks about their bed, several times a day. You hear people say they wish they were in bed, or they had trouble getting out of bed. When we are on vacation, we miss our bed. When we are in the hospital all we can think about is getting home to our bed. When you stay at someone else's house you always compare the bed you are in to YOUR bed. Someone is always trying to get you into bed (or out). You must always make your bed before you leave in the morning. It's important that your motel room maybe has double beds, or a king size bed. If you are having a bad day, it's because you woke up on the wrong side of the bed, or maybe got out of bed late. My bed seems to call my name some days......

The bed you sleep in says a lot about you as a person, or as a couple. We had a water bed for 30 years of our marriage. Now back in the day when we bought it, it was the popular thing to do, so it said we were up-to-date, "with it". We loved the water bed and for a long time it was us. It was not only "with it" but comfortable. All of our friends had water beds. Sleeping in a different bed when you have a water bed at home can wreak havoc with your back, believe me. A water bed could be difficult to get out of after you've had surgery, or was so good for your back that you didn't need surgery. (Depending on who you talk to.) There were water beds with baffles, and water beds that had waves so big that when one person got in, it threw the other person out the other side. The sheets were funky and when you tucked in one side, the other side came untucked.

Two years ago we got a new bed. It's a California King metal bed that is very pretty and was reasonably priced. The mattress is one with a pillow top, that literally swallows you when you lay down. What it says about us, is that we are more concerned about comfort and getting a good nights' rest than anything else. It says that we have changed our priorities, that maybe that we are getting older(?).

I personally LOVE my bed. It's where I do a lot of things. I talk to God every night before I go to sleep, snuggle Pa, (no kids, I won't say any more....), I read or watch TV once in awhile, I rest very well in my bed. I do always make my bed before I leave in the morning, and actually have heard it calling my name sometimes. Some people eat in bed, and spend more time there than they should. Some people even make a living in their bed. The bed is a very important part of our lives, and taken for granted. I took a picture of my bed the other morning. I believe if you listen real hard, you might even hear it calling my name.