A Little Self-Indulgence Never Hurt Anyone...

Right? After I stopped crying about turning 35, I quickly got over it and went shopping! I decided that since there is nothing that I collect, I should probably start! I am so in love with the Halloween Villages that are all over! I did a bunch of research on them {Ebay and Google totally qualify as tons of research} and decided that I love the Lemax Spooky Town Collection! I am all over it. Especially since they have it at Michaels and those pesky 40% off coupons come every week! Plus, they are much more economical than the Dept. 56 Villages. I bought these 2 to start my collection. My husband thinks I am nuts. Mainly because I will drive 10 extra minutes to a store that has a sale to save $5 or to use double coupons- but I thought nothing of spending money on these. BUT- that is what he thinks! They were on sale!! And I have wanted them for a long time. I just broke down and got them, finally. Also, on my way home from Michaels, I stopped and got this:

I just love my lattes...


I started some very cute {I mean, terribly spooky} Halloween spiders and ran out of black glass, so I have to head to the glass store in the next day or 2 so that I can finish these up & get them on Etsy in a timely Halloween manner!



Lastly, if there are any of you mothers who were wondering about this book, I bought it just so that I could trick my kids into eating vegetables! Mainly Jake, Zoey will eat anything I put in front of her {for now}. I wanted to make the Sweet Potato Pancakes, my kids love to eat waffles and pancakes for breakfast everyday. I ended up making about 5 dozen pancakes and freezing them. They love them, we all do! And I know they are getting some veggies, at least for breakfast. I haven't had too much time to make any of the other recipes, but there are tons and they are very kid friendly meals. Gotta love the retro/vintage look of the book. It reminds me of my moms old Betty Crocker books from when I was little!


That's all for now, hopefully my next post will be full of Halloween creations!!


Have a great Tuesday~ Lisa

Clothes for the Princess...

I LOVE so much that I have a daughter to dress in pretty things! Now, for those of you that know me, you for sure know that I am not that girly. No lace, no ruffles, and not too much pink. I am totally a blue/green/purple kind of girl! But, my daughter just looks so darn cute in pink, how can I resist not putting her in it? I can't really sew well. I am going to learn. One of these days. Here she is in a dress I made. Notice how remedial it is with all the seams sewn so they fray. Good thing I like that look!! The buttons & ribbon were fun.

Trust me when I say that I inherited ALL of my creativeness from both of my lovely grandmas and my awesome mama! I have many, many memories growing up of each one of them making something. My mom has always knitted, crocheted and sewn as long as I can remember. She even used to make my sister and I identical outfits for special occasions {I'll find the Easter dress picture & post it later, mom!} But, here is a sweater that she knitted for Zoey. We found the pattern at a local knitting store, you can find it here.

Sorry, mom, that is the best picture I could get! She doesn't hold still very long, this girl!

And finally, I did a swap a few weeks ago with the sweet Nathalie of Kennedy & Friends Co., man, does she make the cutest darn tutu's I have ever seen! Zoey's room is lavender with black furniture, so I ordered a wrought iron dress form to display her tutu when she isn't playing with it. So, So adorable it is, check her out!! Nathalie also has a great blog, lots of great kids clothing ideas happening over there!

So, that's all for now, I am heading out for the weekend {again}. This time I have the kids in tow and hubby gets the weekend to work on my bathroom! Have a great day, Lisa

Another Great Weekend

Over the weekend we went to Akron to visit my family. I did manage to squeeze in a few hours with my sister to make it to the local flea market, and I found lots of great things! Lots of vintage costume jewelry to add to my creations, take a look!

I also feel like I hit the fairy jackpot! I found these little ceramic fairies there. They are about 5" tall, and oh so pretty!

I was originally going to hang them in Zoey's room on her fireplace mantel, but then I thought they would look great altered up a bit and used on my creations. Here are a couple I added to Magic Wands!

I like how they turned out. I won't use them all on the Magic Wands, I do have some more ideas running around in my head for them...oh goodness...

But the reason we really went to Ohio was because my youngest brother pays high school soccer and they were having a Reverse Raffle fundraiser for the team. I adore all of my brothers and sisters more than anything {there are 6 of us} and I can't resist helping out his team when I can. He is the baby of us all, at 17. A junior in high school. I was a junior in high school when I started working at my first job, then he was born a year later. Now, he works at the same place for his first job. Ugh. I hate so much that he is growing up, but couldn't be more proud of the young man he has become. He loves my children so much and is Jake's hero {along side his dad, of course!} So, here is Kyle in action. He is such a great player, we all love to go to see him dominate the field! He had a game yesterday that we missed because we were driving home {and the weather was like winter} but we will make it there for more, since he is on like 3 different teams and it's just a few hours away. Jake LOVES to go to his games, and I will admit I do love to see him play, too!

So, hopefully you all had wonderful fun filled, family filled, great weekends as well! Back home & back to work! But that also means back to our regular sleep schedules, too!! YIPPEE!

I LOVE Craigslist...

Let me start off by explaining... We live in a 100+ year home. Apparently, when these homes were built, they didn't feel the need to add closets on the main floor. We also have a huge space, everyone here calls them 'parlors' that is basically useless right inside the front door. It's a good home for the Christmas tree, but for the other 10 months of the year, the dog uses it to watch {I mean bark at} other dogs. Big waste of space.


So, we have no closets on the first floor. This has created mass confusion over the winter in our parlor with 4 sets of coats, hats, scarfs, gloves, boots, etc... {and the dog} you get the picture. We thought that we had the problem solved with a coat tree and a basket for gloves. No. AND, my 9 month old LOVES to eat shoes, and they are too readily accessible to her. My sister-in-law has a giant dresser in her entry way that houses various things for them, and I thought that might solve our problems. So, onto Craigslist I go!!


I know I have raved about it before, but man, I love Craigslist!!! I have never had a bad experience and I honestly feel like I always get a bargain. And what woman doesn't like to get a bargain!?! So, here's my latest find, a Drexel 'La Fleur' Dresser and Nightstand:

A Few scratches & dents, but nothing a little touch up paint won't fix!
And, the nightstand!! Goodbye old ugly end table in the living room!!Here it is re-painted and in it's new home.And finally, our new 'closet'! I didn't repaint this one, too pretty. All Jake's shoes in one drawer, his gloves, hats & scarfs in another. All Zoey's shoes in one drawer, her gloves, hats & scarfs in another. Scott's shoes are in the middle, and we still have 2 more drawers for whatever I want. The coats are still on the coat tree for now...Picked up the mirror for $19.99 at a local discount store, and I LOVE how it turned out!!And I saved the best for last- they only wanted $20 for both the nightstand and the dresser!!!

So, what's your best Craigslist buy?

Grandma's and More

Over the weekend I went home to Ohio to visit and made a trip over to my Grandma's house. My grandma is the Queen of Craftiness, and her craft room, I mean her whole house, proves it. She has so much stuff in her craft room, she can't even work in there, she has turned the dining room into her workspace. So, she has finally (after many years of trying) let me get my hands on her craft room. I guess now that she is 91, she is ready to part with some of her stuff. Well, her room is so packed full, stuff hanging across the room- boxes stacked higher than you can imagine, that we didn't even make a dent, but here are some of my great finds:
And speaking of Grandma's, I made this banner with old pictures of my grandma's and great-grandmas on it. I made this more for me, but it seemed more appropriate to hang in my daughters room. Someday I will get around to making one with her grandmothers for her. Hope you had a wonderful weekend...

Look What I Found!

This past weekend my sister was visiting and we went to some antique stores. There were several stores in a 5 mile strip not too far from my house, but we only made it to three of them! Time got the best of us, I guess. I have been on a mad search for old vintage jewelry. For what, you ask? For Party Hats, I say. But not the same old paper mache party hats, I tell you...Glass ones! Yep, you heard right- glass! Now, try hard to imagine a 2D party hat (to hang on the wall) leaded and decorated with trims, jewels and other pretties. What a fun, fun different gift. These will be in my Etsy store, along with other fun things. I am hoping that I can have enough pretties made to open the shop on April 1st. That is my target date right now. So, until next time, here's some jewels I got on my outing and a sneek peek to the Glass Party Hats!!