~SPRAY PAINT MADNESS.....~

(Mele thinks all the picture taking MUST be about her!)

I save everything, almost, and had saved these old brackets.  Now I know why.

There were four of them and only three have turned up but I decided to spray them Colonial Red and add them to the porch.  Yep.  They match the trim..and the shutters..and I like them.

The fourth one will appear sooner or later..  :) 

This is what they looked like before I took spray paint to them..

Interesting how little things like this can give you a boost!  The funny thing must have been watching Patient Husband and I get those things attached.  I probably got in the way more than I helped.  Every time the man gets up on a ladder lately, I am right there with my hand on his butt or on his leg..

Over protective...probably! :) 

AND they match my newly painted flower pot..which used to be charcoal gray.

Now if the other bracket turns up... well...look at it like this.  It keeps us busy!  :) 

Heart on the front door...

I found this pretty glass bead at a second hand store yesterday and added it...

Now it looks like this!  :)

I LOVE doing this sort of thing..I really do!

Yesterday I went off alone to a second hand shop in an alley...and came home with more than just that glass bead.  I'll show you tomorrow! 

Garage sale Saturday with my daughter and husband was SO much fun...

I've been polishing THIS for the past two days...

I bought the entire box for $5.00.  There were a couple of sterling pieces in the box but the rest was silver plate, which I love.  My collection is growing and growing.  Today I began sorting...

Knives are scarce for some reason.  I wonder what people do with the dinner knives? 

 No complete sets, yet, but it's so much fun seeing so many pretty patterns...and watching go them from an ugly blackened mess to such beauty.   I like to mix and match anyway.  It's hard to believe that people get rid of such lovely things..instead of polishing them and enjoying their beauty.

Tell me...do you polish your silver?  It's a little work but so worth it...

Which way do you like or ...like many, not at all? 

Have a wonderful Wednesday and thank you for sticking with me.  I love you for it!!

Love'n hugs,

Mona

~GOOD GRIEF....

I just noticed the date that I last did a post and I am ..realizing that I am in a total funk.  I got nothing!

I try to visit a few blogs each day and sometimes get that done and sometimes not...

Burn out?  A bit, but I've been puttering...just wandering from project to project.

Spending time with family, chatting with friends, spray painting this and that..but the problem is..when I do something that is in the least creative...I forget to take pictures..throw up my hands in defeat and do nothing.

Write nothing. 

So..I ran around and tried to show you what I'm doing...

I decided to paint some things, my bench, scrolls for the front porch..etc. and while I was at Home Depot I came across these tiny little African Violets in two inch pots.  They were all dead except this one but it was dry and on it's way to dying too.  So..home it came.  It's home is now a tiny tea cup and saucer...(I should have taken a picture but I didn't.  Oh well...typical!

This one is silk and cost 25 cents at a garage sale!  I think the silks look so real now that it is sometimes difficult to tell.

I bought some lovely butter yellow for my bench ..and more Colonial Red for my porch trim. 

I love this yellow...but just as I began painting the winds came up with a vengence and that was the end of that.  The winds are still blowing! 

I have some sanding to do anyway..and I always get in a rush and don't sand like I should!

Don't look at our poor lawn!  We didn't overseed this year! 

..and look, it matches my big yellow frog!

Another project that I did while "not blogging" was to paper the back of the cabinets..shelves (?) with wall paper.  Remember the cabinet I found at a garage sale that matched the one I had at home.  Yep..put them side by side and now have LOTSA dish storage space!! 

Now it doesn't look so dark in the cupboards.  LOVE it!  The paper wouldn't have been my choice but it's easy enough to change..sort of!  It's the getting up and down off the floor!  I love the butter yellow that goes well with the walls of my family room, which are the pale gold I love. 

I changed my living room curtains to some with a valance so I can watch the birds at the feeder.  Nice!

The little quilt is where Mele likes to lay during the day "laying guard duty" and keeps the pillows mussed so the room looks comfy.  :) 

Here is the front of that heart..it's tea stained.. :)  not dirty..

You can see my step stool reflected in the window.  Wait until you see what I did! :)

So even though I haven't been blogging..I've been busy. 

I realized the other day how much in my home has been collected from garage sales.   Things other

 people don't want. 

Even that little quilt on the back of the loveseat was a wonderful garage sale find.  I paid very little for it and it is hand made.

My little home is a mish mash but I love it!

So you see :) ...it's all boring but I did get some things done.   

Love 'n hugs,

Mona

p.s.  My thoughts are with you, Desiree...

~ A FEW GARAGE SALE GOODIES..ETC.~

First let me say that I cannot get into my comments.  If anyone has asked me a question...I am so sorry...I am not sure what is wrong..but I am trying to get it figured out.  So far no luck.

Thank you, Joyce, for trying to help me.  Is anyone else having this problem??  NO comments?

I just get a blank page..with my post name at the top...nothing more.

**************

The garage sales have been sparse for quite awhile..but we go anyway.  It's our Saturday outing..

I always find things but haven't been posting them.  I thought perhaps it got old after awhile.

This Saturday was a little better..but still not what they have been.

We went to several and at one I found some pieces of silverplate flatware that I really like and have been wanting more of...well...I FOUND it!  But..not a single knife so far.  I wonder what in the world happened to all the knives of this pattern??

The cut glass milk pitcher is lovely but I forgot to take a photo of it up close...

What is really interesting about this pattern is the little leaf on the lower backs of some of the spoons and forks.  SO pretty.  I paid 25 cents for each piece.  They are very heavy.  There is no pattern name on the back but they are triple platted and are 1847 Rogers Brothers...

A PERFECT set of nice heavy Westmoreland Milkglass.  Not a chip...not a flea bite.

I paid 25 cents for the pair...last garage sale of the day...and also..

Same garage sale was this beautiful plate...25 cents.  It is marked SILESIA on the back with an interesting mark above it. 

I bought this crocheted doily many years ago and it had tassels on the longest points on all four sides...but they tangled in the washer...(I'm an idiot and didn't hand wash it!)   I cut them all of and stopped using the piece because I didn't like how it looked..

...and then I saw those little hankies that people put buttons on to put over drinks on the patio...and I though...WHY NOT??  and ..I love it again, and while I chatted on the phone the other night I added some of the buttons I bought at a yard sale.  A baggie of them...I LOVE buttons! 

Now I love it again!  :)

Back to the garge sales on Saturday...

This little demitasse cup and saucer was 50 cents!  Made in occupied Japan.  Pale butter yellow on white with tiny roses...so sweet!  

 This little baby sweater was 50 cents...

What if it's a boy?  Well there will be more born...I'm sure a little girl will wear it one day.

I couldn't resist.  I assured the rather sad Mom that sold it that it would be loved and cared for always.  She just smiled and said "I believe you..."

And that was our Saturday adventure. 

We've been taking my daughter, Mary and her husband ...wish there was a camera following us.

What a hoot they are!!  

We have the best time on Saturday mornings...topped off by a pancake breakfast at our favorite restaurant where everybody knows our name!  :)   Well...almost everybody!!

Love and hugs,

Mona

~HEART'S...ALREADY??~

Yes, I know it's early..but if you don't get out there right after Christmas..you get nothing!  NOTHING!

There were only two of these.  I mean..what the heck???

Daughter's and I.  (Sandy, we miss you honey!)

I've been blog hopping and there is just so much to see...lots of idea's out there...but mostly we all seem to really be enjoying that "clean" uncluttered look.  That's great...it really is but I am already into digging around for  sweet little hearts for Valentines Day.  Yep...and headed off to Michael's to just...you know...LOOK!   As you can see...

I did NOT come home empty handed!  No siree!!

 Isn't this just so cute??    Well, anyway, I thought so.

This cup cake decoration was ..interesting.  The base of the cupcake stand has four spaces to sit cupcakes in..and of course the bottom layer.  The glass cake stand is by Mosser Glass.  We like to  have a little Valentine luncheon for us girls. 

By now I decided it was time to get out of that store!  Quickly...but...

...a couple of little felt heart place mats...and I was  OUT OF THERE!

Every year I add some little thing.  (or two) ;

 I hope there is no hidden meaning to this passion I have for cute things for the house.  There isn't...is there?  :):)

THAT'S it for me.   No more buying for Valentines Day!

Done, done, done!!!

:)

You DO believe me, don't you?

Love,

Mona

(good grief!  I'm beginning to clutter things up again!)



~WHAT A GREAT START...~

This is going to be a good year.  If I write this one hundred times do you think it will come to pass?  If I visualize a wonderful year, will that work?  I do that a lot you know..use visualization.  Been doing that for years.  From that I have learned NOT to visualize bad things..because as surely as you do..they will come to pass.

So...to start out the new year..an outing to L.A. for grandson Alex's (Brock) 25th birthday.  What a fun bunch of people my children are.  The birthday boy is on the far left of the photo...the one with the huge dimples.  His lovely wife Natalia is holding my little great granddaughter, Emily.  The chubby gray haired woman in the center is me...and their wonderful step grandfather is standing in the top row next to my grandson Adam.  Adam is Emily's father and the son of my eldest son, Patrick.  His wife, Cristina (Emily's mother) is standing to the right just behind my shoulder.

You really don't want me to go into further detail now do you??  Of course you don't.  ;)

My two granddaughters in law and their sweet mother.

My Columbian relatives! :) 

That bright sunlight is not too flattering....Ug!

Natalia and Grandma Mona.. (that's what they call me..) 

My own grandchildren all call me Grandma Duffy.  If you have grands...what do they call you?  Of course when there are lots of Grandma's...one has to be identified.  :)

Sweet, patient husband always has such a good time when we all get together and laughs constantly.  What a great sound that is! 

The serious business of getting down to eating great food, lovely afternoon, great company.

What a great start to this New Year of ours.  The house is nearly back to normal..except for a bit of window washing..putting Christmas cartons back up in the garage...checking for pine needles under the cushions of the couch..and for the next month I will find little things forgotten in corners that didn't get packed.  It happens every year. 

Family.  That's what it's all about isn't it?

Love and hugs,

Mona