Sketch Effects Christmas Decor

Sketch Effects is one of my favorite photo options on my camera.
Sadly, I dropped my camera and shattered the viewing lens.
The body of the camera still works great, but I cannot see any of the settings, nor the picture after it is taken. 
We brought it in to a local camera shop, but it cannot be fixed.
Or, better said, it cannot be fixed for less than what a new camera would cost.
That, sadly, won't happen for a while.

 Anyway..,
Will that stop me from taking pictures and hoping for good results?
No.
It will not.

The living room as seen from the dining room.

Mr. Willowby's Christmas Tree.

Dining room cabinet.

One would think that St. Nicholas has already been here!

Plantation desk full of green books.

Entryway with bird tree.

Everyone should have a bird tree, don't you think?

Did I mention I have blocks in every size and color?
If not, I have blocks in every size and color.

And here is Broeder, who recently has been fascinated with an abacus.

Favorite Things

For years now I've been collecting antique glass baby bottles.  I don't know why, exactly. It's  just something I've enjoyed.
I even had two antique baby bottles for dolls.
Just two, not a lot.
While antique shopping in Wisconsin last month I found this lovely blue Amsco doll bottle sterilizer.

It had FOUR bottles.
Room for six, but there were only four.
Somehow, I had a deep desire to own this and complete the set with my two doll bottles!
Wouldn't you have wanted to do the same?
(please say yes.)
I'll wait........................................................

Shh.  Don't tell ANYONE, but this is what my American Girl Doll shall be getting for Christmas! 
There truly is no accounting for taste, and I do not pretend to have any.
But every once in awhile it's just plain FUN to buy something for no other reason than it gives one a little thrill to do so.
Well, at least I think so.

Just A Bunch of Pictures

Really truly I have been trying to bring a bit of spring into my house.

I saw something like this in an issue of Flea Market Find magazine and knew I needed to do this. 

It does help to have a lot of stuff on hand.

I took this picture last week, and already I've changed things around several times.

For this year, I stuck the bunny under glass with fake greens that I broke off from other arrangements.

That's already been changed up to.

I can't seem to leave stuff alone. 

Then I went searching for other things to put under glass, and came up with this.

It's much harder to do than one would think!

Anyway, I wanted something that could show from three sides.

For some reason, I have an aversion for making anything permanent. 

So I would get things looking how I wanted them, but as soon as I stood it up things would start sliding around.

This will need a bit more work, but by the time I get around to doing it, I might just put it all back where it came from.

Why can't anything be as easy as I think it should be?

Then Sunday happened, and spring flew right out the window. 

Even though I am sooo over snow, I have to admit that Sunday was a beautiful day, for those of us who got to stay in and just observe Mother Nature's flipping mood changes.

How could I say no to Steenstra's Santa Claus Cookies, coffee, and a fire?

I could not!

It didn't take long after the sun came up Monday morning for the thawing to begin.

My Monday morning consisted of watching the snow melt off the buds on the tree out my window. 

The sun brought back the birds.

It seemed like this robin was posing for me! 

Cheeky Robin!

Hopefully we are now on a roll into spring like weather, and just in time for Easter! 

Getting Things Done

This cabinet, which has stood in the same spot for more than ten years, needed to be moved so THGGM could paint behind it and remove the carpet

That required emptying out EVERYTHING from it to take it apart.

Ugh.

It was WORK.

What a mess!

Of course, THEN everything had to be moved back!

I proved to myself that I CAN hoist heavy objects.

The best part was I managed to fill two large boxes with things to donate

More of My Favorite Finds

This is another of my fun finds from Saturday's second thrift store stop.  An eight inch figure of Bartje.  I had the smaller one already, but really, could one ever have too many figures of Bartje?  I think not.  As I was washing it up a bit, I noticed something inside.  That someone was kind enough to keep the little "write-up" right up inside of the figure is great.  Because I learned something.  I knew a bit about the original Bartje statue, but I did not know that he exists because of a book.  Or maybe I did know, but forgot.  But for sure I did not know that it was written by Anne de Vries the author of a four volume set of history books that were commissioned by the queen to tell the story of the Dutch during WWII.  I loved those volumes and used to read them every few years.  So now I shall be looking for a copy of Bartje, which I hope I shall find.

February Favorites

Another of my favorite things is when something just happens to work out.

Awhile ago I used thrifted remnants of fabrics to make cute pin cushions.

Last month I used thrifted pins and pages from an old French dictionary plus some scrapbook paper to make these cute pins which I then stuck into this pin cushion.

And since my thrifted spool holder is full, my recently purchased thread had nowhere fun to go.

Until I remembered this cute little lined wicker basket I found at the thrift store just before Christmas to plop a small fake tree into.

I just plopped the thread into the basket instead.
Upon further inspection, it looked to be just about the size to cover with the pin cushion.

And it was!

So Judy and her NEW thread basket with pin cushion lid are living happily ever after in Judy's house of many favorite things.

So many favorite things. So very many favorite things.

February Favorites

Even I think that THIS is kind of a strange 'favorite' thing, but I do REALLY like old wooden spoons.

Yesterday THGGM and I went to one of our favorite antique malls where all I found was a tall wooden spoon with a green handle. I do not use these, but just enjoy how expectant and happy they look gathered up in a glass vase filled with beads. So I posed them for this picture. They really don't quite fit in with living room decor, but placed in front of this mirrored door it does look kind of nice!

February Favorites

Look what I found! Six more pieces to my very most favorite dish set! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!?!

Two more plates, two cups, and another tea pot - and this one has a lid.

I just got these today. They make me happy, in that temporal shallow sort of way.

I'm up to ten pieces now.

Oh, how I do like to collect things.

February Favorites

I do love hand mirrors.

I found this one last weekend for an unbelievably low price. I cannot begin to tell you just how difficult it is for me NOT to decorate it like a fish. Doesn't it just LOOK like a fish? Anyway...

Soon I plan to have it join these three mirrors on the wall in my bathroom. I already have the necessary 'plate hanger' on the ready.

This one I've chosen to keep as a dresser set. Although it really isn't the whole set. The actual mirror from the set is hanging on the wall. But I liked that this one had a design on it, so I switched them out. Who'd know? Except you, because I told you.

Then there is this one, hanging all alone. Maybe I should put it there?

I also have this small wooden hand mirror, and another larger wooden one.

That brings my total up to eight.

You will be happy to know that I recently considered buying another one at an antique mall. The price was also very reasonable. But I did not buy it.

Because.., well.., we all KNOW that eight is enough.

February Favorites

EVERYTHING looks better under glass! I found this candle holder for 50 cents. I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do with it, but I knew I'd find something. And look! This little vintage chalkware cake topper looks even more fabulous under it!
Yes. It's true. Glass domes are one of my favorite things.

February Favorites

Oh, how I LOVE the humble postcard!

Extremely affordable art, in my opinion.

This one is sitting in a flower frog on my mantel. I added the little bunch of flowers at the top to give it a bit of dimension.

February is getting to me. I have the winter blahs. Bad. So glad I'm doing this 'February Favorite' thing. It helps.

February Favorites

My dad was a C&O guy.

I'm not exactly sure why, but I keep this pin in a drawer. Not displayed anywhere - just sitting in a drawer for me to look at a few times every day as I'm opening and closing that drawer.

When I was a child I remember taking train trips to Detroit and Chicago. The train ride was sooo fun. I remember drinking water out of cone shaped paper cups. And the bathrooms were AMAZING.

I remember very little about Detroit and Chicago from those trips. But I suppose that when one is a child, drinking water from cone shaped paper cups and using a bathroom that jiggled all around WAS more exciting than, well, crowds and shopping.

February Favorites

These cute Cute CUTE vintage looking flash cards can be purchased at www.prettylittlestudio.com

On SOMEBODY'S blog I saw an idea using the 1 -31 number cards.

Since Jonge and Famke are learning about days and months at home, I thought this would be a FUN way for them to count down to birthdays and exciting things like that.

If I get around to making one, I will show you. And if I can find the blog with the wonderful detailed instructions on HOW to do it, I'll link to that too.

Seriously CUTE stuff.

More things I love. Vintage, vintage looking, and IDEAS!