Antiquing

Every other Friday, my hubby (Floyd) gets the day off. We use this special day as our “date day” and we go off to explore the city, watch a movie, or do something fun and different. This past Friday we went to a wonderful little town just north of San Antonio. It’s called Bourne (pronounced burn-ee) and was founded in the late 1800’s.

Oh My Goodness! As soon as we turned on to Main St. we fell in love with the place! The street was lined with antique shops, boutiques, yummy places to eat and you should see the wonderful old architecture of the homes and buildings. Victorian cottage galore!!! We immediately began day-dreaming and planning on buying property there while we were having lunch. We hadn’t even seen the rest of the town yet.

We had so much fun walking through a lot of the shops. We’re going back again soon, so that we can see ALL of the shops, the parks and the rest of the town. These are pictures of what I purchased that day. I got GREAT deals on all my little treasures. But my favorite is the Scottie dog guest towel. How cute is that? The needlework is beautiful and perfect. And of course, I love the theme! I’m not sure if I’ll be selling this one or keeping it. I may do both; Enjoy it for a while, then sell it at a later date. We’ll see…

Missing my garden...

I had a teeny, tiny garden in California. But I filled it up as much as I could and let my pretty little plants go wild in the California sun. My all time favorites (beside my roses) were my foxgloves
These sweet little angels hold sunflower seeds.
This was the biggest area of my garden. It's a triangle that was about 10' by 10' by 17'. Not very big, but the few rose bushes that were in it produced abundant roses almost all year long
This was a miniature rose plant that my mom gave me for Mother's Day one year. It went wild!
I love this gorgeous cabbage rose! It was a climber that really didn't get enough sun where I had it under the eves of the house, but didn't stop it from producing.

Double Deight is one of my favorite roses. This particular plant really should have been called triple delight as it is beautiful, has a very strong scent and wouldn't stop producing.
This is my garden now. I have a huge lot now and most of it looks like this. Boy do I have a long way to go, Now if only I could dig into the "soil" which is really called ROCK!

Pretty Tea Cozies

These are some tea cozies I've made out of old linens. They're my favorite to make, mostly because I love to have tea parties. I think they're pretty enough to display even when not in use. This is a great way to display old linens that maybe show too much "history." This one is made out of an old pillowcase.

I LOVE linens, and always look for items that are in the best condition possible. But sometimes I get so excited about how pretty it is, that I don't always catch a flaw until after it's been purchased and washed, and I'm in the process of ironing it. Some flaws I can live with, some not. But I can't stand just throwing these beautiful, hand worked items away. So I save them up and make something out of them. This pretty cozy was made from the corner a pulled-thread tea towel.

This beautiaul blue belle tea cozy was made from a pillowcase that had been torn in half. I bought it anyway because I couldn't resist the amazing embroidery and crochet work.

Here's another pillowcase turned into tea cozy. This was an old one from about the 20's. I love how it turned out!

This is the back of the blue belle tea cozy. I like to make the backs of my cozies as pretty and interesting as the front. That way it looks beautiful from all angles and everyone can enjoy them.

I hope you enjoyed these pretty tea cozies and got some great ideas on using vintage linens that are past their prime.

Chic & Shabby Closet

My cottage shabby closet is mainly set up so that I have all my seasonal linens in one place. But I have to admit that I sometimes open the doors because it's one way to enjoy so many of my little treasures in one place.




One side of the closet has all my pink and white linens, while the other side has my seasonal bedding. Yellow and blue is for spring, white and blue is for summer. At the top, which is not visible are my fall linens in greens and browns. Deep red and brown Ralph Lauren linens are for winter.
I placed a little shelf on its side to store some of my silver toiletry items. These too are seasonal. I like to switch things out a lot. That's great because it means I get to go shopping and adding to my collection.
These are some of my favorite linens. A very nice lady from Australia suggested that I not sell everything I find and keep the ones I like best. I can't believe I didn't think of that before! Thanks Gina! (check out her blog: http://patrasplace.blogspot.com/)

I hope you enjoyed a walk through my shabby closet. I strongly believe that all drawers and closets should have a small surprise in them that will bring a smile to your heart. Put a pretty hanky in your night table drawer or a pretty sachet in your hall closet where you can easily see it. Keeping things pretty inside and out really helps to stay organized.