Pink Saturday!

Hello Everyone,

Here is my second PS post.  Sorry about the blurriness of these photos.  I have to work on my camera settings.  I quickly shot these this morning before I left for work and I didn't realize until I got there how poor the quality is.

This is a collection (that I never intended to start) of vintage pottery vases and planters. I found the first two at a garage sale last summer and from then on I was hooked.  They were the perfect compliment to the book shelves in my family room. I have no idea which (if any) are considered to have any value in the world of collectibles.  They were all under $30, and really their value doesn't matter, because I love the way they look! I will do my best to stop my collecting obsession...ummm, no guarantees!

I'm off to a local antique festival, the last for the season, and I WON'T look at vintage pottery.  No my fingers aren't crossed, really they're not!! hehehe ;-)

Have a great day and blessings to all!

Pink Saturday Rookie!

Hi Everyone,

This is my first ever Pink Saturday post! Beverly from How Sweet the Sound hosts this wonderful event each week. I've been following the posts for some time and finally got in ahead of the deadline (I remembered)!

I have many, many pink treasures to contribute in the coming weeks, but this week I decided to add a final glimpse of summer from a photo I took last month of my bucket of pink petunias.

Bask in the memories of the warm sunshine, the chirping birds, the laughter of neighborhood children, the warm breeze gently blowing the curtains, the aroma of freshly cut grass, leisurely evening walks, the smell of a BBQ wafting from a neighbors yard, a glass of wine on the patio, the sound of crickets in the still night, fireflies blinking so sweetly and...

Goodbye summer, you will be missed.

Before & Afters

I'm finally posting the before and after photos of some of the projects I have completed this summer. Earlier in the summer my neighbors had an estate sale. Their Mother had passed away in November and they had a LOT of stuff to unload. The family had lived in the house for over 50 years. I purchased a few treasures, one of which is this dressing table.

This is how it looked after a good scrubbing! It was painted to look "antiqued" over a dark wood veneer. It was very dingy and dirty looking! The pictures don't do its poor appearance justice.

After the first coat of paint. It took two more coats!

The finished product, complete with new crystal knobs, I love the wooden wheels. The drawers are really really hard to open, I even bought wax to run along the edges but their still tough to open. Any ideas? I think I may need to do a little sanding.

I now have the perfect place for the old dresser set I purchased in Raleigh last spring while visiting my daughter. We love to junk around together! I really miss her! :-(

The next project was painting the porch...ummm, do you think it needed it???

A couple of closeups of how bad it really was!

I didn't want a midnight black, I wanted more of a charcoal color. Do you think I could get it right the first time? Of course not...it took one coat of the dark grey that had a bluish tint. I thought for certain it would dry darker, um NO, it still looked blue! I took the paint back and asked the paint person if she could darken it. I told her about my blue concern, she said "hmmm I don't know why it's showing blue" she read off the colors and in no way did any of them seem BLUE. After a couple attempts we got it darkened up and I must say I'm about 90% happy with the finished product...maybe just a little darker/blacker would have been nice, but I'm not going to add a third coat (not this year anyway)! ;-)















These photos look much lighter than it really is...I think another coat next year may be on the agenda!

Anniversary Blog Give-away

These are my babies - Toby and Josie

Hi Everyone,

Check out Sandi's blog at Wayside Treasures. She's celebrating her one year blogging anniversary and she's giving away a great gift! You can enter to win and find her blog here:
http://waysidetreasures-sandi.blogspot.com/2009/09/blogiversary-giveaway.html

Happy Reading...

Tammi

Timeless Treasure

Patty and me August 25, 2009

I recently had dinner with a very dear friend of mine, Patty. She and I have been friends since we were 5 years old. Our friendship started when my parents moved from a family farm house to a country setting where finding playmates was a little difficult. Once Patty and I discovered each other, we became inseparable.

Patty lived down a very long driveway back in the woods and I lived down a quiet country road about a block away. I remember thinking it took forever to get to her house while my Mom and I walked down her driveway. Patty and I had completely different lifestyles, her father was an orthopedic surgeon and my dad was a farmer. Her mom was a doctors wife, with an active social life, my mom was farmers wife, cooking, canning, cleaning and working part-time outside the home. We both learned so much about life from each others family. We shared some of the greatest times of our lives as best friends, growing up together. We started as little girls in kindergarten and grew into women with families of our own.

Our friendship continued on into young adulthood. We planned our weddings together and had our babies together. In time we grew apart as our families took priority in our lives. We continued to stay in touch occasionally over the years, however, we didn't spend time together sharing our lives and nurturing our friendship. All that changed a few months ago when Patty and I ran into one another at a restaurant during her daughters wedding rehearsal dinner. A few weeks later we met for dinner and talked for hours! This past Tuesday evening was our second dinner date, this time we included her wonderful husband Dennis. Again we talked for hours, sharing, laughing and enjoying each others company.

Friendship is a true blessing and friends are a gift from God. I marvel at the fact that friends can lose touch for several years and pick up exactly where they left off , as if they had never been apart. Patty is dear friend and a timeless treasure! I love you Patty!

Michigan's Beauty!

Hello again, I just returned from an amazing weekend with the man in my life and had a wonderful time!! We live in the lower peninsula of Michigan and made the lengthy trek to the Upper Peninsula crossing the Mackinaw bridge. Our destination was Sault Saint Marie, Michigan, the home of the Soo locks just across the water from Sault Saint Marie, Ontario.

The weather was phenomenal, we were so lucky! It was in the upper 80's and sunny Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I must admit I was a little apprehensive to leave what little nice summer weather we've had this year in Michigan to travel nearly 4 hours north to a much colder climate. I was pleasantly surprised, the weather perfect!

Saturday we headed an hour northwest to Whitefish Point on the shoreline of Lake Superior. These beautiful rocks were everywhere; I collected a few to bring home for a lasting memory.

On our way back from Whitefish Point we stopped by Tahquamenon Falls and viewed the upper falls. These are a few images of the beautiful nature we experienced during our visit.

This was at the top of the falls. See all the pennies in the water? I hope all their wishes come true!

The falls...also referred to the Root Beer falls due to the brown water from the tannis leached from the cedar swamps.

What beauty God has given us to experience and enjoy! I feel so blessed!!

Have a wonderful day!

Blogging for Bliss...why?

Good Morning,

I recently purchased a book called Blogging for Bliss written by Tara Frey. Today http://www.artsymama.com/ hosted a blog party to celebrate the release of Tara's book. She asked those of us who attended the party to write a post about why we blog and how we got started. So, here goes...

I started my first blog named from House to Home last summer as a digital diary for a house renovation I was working on. So many friends and family regularly asked for updates and were curious about the progress. I decided a blog would be the perfect solution to keep everyone up-to-date. They enjoyed watching the changes (as slow as they seemed at times) and were eager to offer their suggestions and compliments.

As time went on, I began following other blogs that peaked my interest in decorating and collecting. Before I knew it, I had been consumed with daily surfing to satisfy my hunger for wanting more inspiration and enlightenment. I was so impressed with what I saw and what I was learning, I decided it was time for me to create a blog to share what I was doing. It doesn't matter if anyone finds my interests and inspirations meaningful, for me it has become a hobby and a journal to give others a glimpse of who I am and what I love - my life, my home, my family, my beloved pets and my friends! I share bits and pieces of all of these things in my blog.

My House to Home blog has now been converted to Visions Of Vintage at http://visionsofvintage.blogspot.com/. I hope you enjoy what you see and feel free to leave a comment!

Happy blogging...