Rearranging the China

If your one of my followers you know I recently purchased some new dishes.  To be honest, I've actually added quite a bit of dishes lately to my cabinets this year.  I've added several sets of salad plates, dinner plates and outdoor plates too!  All this plate buying has led me to do some rearranging! 


Since it is time for Table Top Tuesday I thought I'd share my kitchen china cabinet.  I still have several other sets of dishes in my other cabinets but I tried to put some prettier ones in here that would show well together!  I hope you don't mind seeing real china mixed with earthenware, stoneware, and plastic!  If you do, you may want to skip down to some of my other vignettes I'm sharing today also.


Here's my built in kitchen cabinet and it's new look.

Let's take a peek inside!

On the top shelf I have a mixture of my grandmother, Nana's china, and serving pieces from her china and my china.  I also have a mixture of coffee cups from her china, my china, and my stoneware.

On the middle shelf I have my china plates to the left, Nana's china plates to the right and my new Franciscan Ivy serving pieces.  I also have my beautiful melamine bird plates in the back.

I just love how the bird plates look near the Ivy pieces.

Then on the bottom shelf I have plates, plates and more plates!  I have more of Nana's china plates on both the left and right side.  I have a huge amount of her china!

Then shown in the middle, I have my white fruit plates, moved into this cabinet from other shelves in the kitchen.  This freed up space to put some other plates that don't coordinate as well with these, on the shelves.  I also have some pretty green plates I got this year from a church sale and my new ivy plates and finally more plastic plates.

This was fun rearranging this cabinet and I'm very pleased with the results.  Now, if I can just get the rest of my family to remember where everything goes!  LOL!

Don't leave yet, I want to show you a few other vignettes today as well!

Remember my newest rooster, well, here's where he ended up, in the kitchen.

 I thought you might also like to see this vignette on my side table in the dining room.

 Since I was working on something else in the dining room today I thought I'd show you this one too!  Don't peek in the mirror now, I'll  be sharing that this week also, I promise!

Looks like a case of the blurries today...sorry!

Oh and one more thing I just have to share!  I have had these purple wired beads that go around a candle for years.  For some reason I have never like them on a candlestick.  Recently I was cleaning out a kitchen drawer and saw them and put them on the top of these lamps!  In case you didn't know I love me some bling, so this was super exciting!  I just love it!  Try it if you like too!  I love sharing ideas!

Well, that's it for today, Hope you enjoyed peeking at a few of my vignettes.  I really love looking at everyone else's, they are always so inspiring!  Be sure and click on the link below to see more if you enjoy looking at vignettes as much as I do.  You will love it!

Please join Marty @ http://astrollthrulife.blogspot.com/

for Table Top Tuesday

Leave a comment if you please, I'd love to hear what you think!

Sometimes Patience Pays Off!

I am very excited about this weeks finds.  I have been watching something at one of our local consignment stores for about a month now and finally went for it.  Wait, I will get back to that in a moment.

 First, let me show you my GW finds!  I made a special trip out there this week after seeing so many of you coming up with such neat stuff.  It is rather out of the way for me to go to GW and in a very heavy traffic area. Usually my visits to GW aren't very fruitful, but this week I was pretty pleased.  Here's a quick glimpse of my finds and a peek of the consignment store bargain..can you guess what came from where?

That's right!  The dish's are the consignment store bargain.  The rest was from GW!

Let's look at these GW goodies!  They are ceramic soup and cracker bowls!  I just fell in love with them the instant I saw them.  I love how unique and unusual they are!  They are off white in color with brown specks.

When I flipped them over I was very happy to see the name on the back,  Robert Weiss Ceramics, USA.  I have heard of him before and do know there is a market for his pottery.  These do not currently carry a very high value with starting bids on Ebay only at $7.99 each.  However, considering I only paid .60 cents a piece for them they are very valuable to me!  I was lucky enough to get a set of four.

 

I also bought these decorative oil bottles from GW!  I have recently seen two of our bloggers using them in their kitchen decor and really liked how they looked.  Check out the kitchen photos at http://astrollthrulife.blogspot.com/ and http://lizssavvyseasons.blogspot.com/ for more beautiful vignettes using these types of bottles.  I just couldn't pass them up at .80 cents a piece, would you?

Now , for my super exciting news!  I first saw these dish's on another one of our blogging friends posts.  You can see them here on Anita's blog @

http://anita-faraboverubies.blogspot.com/

She does beautiful table scapes that are to die for!  You really need to visit her blog!!!

 When I saw these dish's I was immediately in love with the Ivy pattern.  I have wanted to add a new set of everyday to my cupboards but hadn't really seen anything out there that has made me move into action.  Being a thrifty gal, I have also been looking for a bargain!  This was essential since I really don't NEED more dishes.  Even though I loved the way the Franciscan Ivy pattern looked, I wasn't out searching to find them.  Then about a month ago I saw them in one of our local consignment stores.  At that time they were already marked 50% off of what she had them priced for.  However, I was still in the admiring stage of these dishes, especially since there was a complete set of four and many serving pieces all priced individually.  Two weeks ago I walked in and saw that all the Franciscan Ivy was on sale 75% off the lowest price.  Can you believe I still didn't buy?  Well, I waited patiently but it sure was weighing heavily on me!  Then yesterday, I went back in and happily bought the dishes!

I got 4 plates at $2.50 each and 4 salads at $2.00 each and four small bowls at $2.00 each!  I was thrilled!  She had the larger cereal bowls also at $5.00 each, but I passed on those.  I couldn't understand why she would have had the bowls priced higher then the plates.  Weird! 

There was also a set of four cup and saucers a teapot, serving bowls, butter dish, sugar bowl, and gravy boat.  I didn't get any of those when I left yesterday.

  When I got home I was expecting the Mr. to fuss about why we need, yet another set of dishes.  Instead, he surprised me by saying these were the dish's he grew up with.  He said, he is very confidant his sister has the dish's now.  I haven't been able to talk to her yet to confirm this but am so excited.  He insisted these were one and the same.  He remembered the Ivy and really liked them. 

I was so encouraged by his reaction last night that I decided to add more.  Today I went back and added these three serving pieces to my collection.

I got the small 7" serving bowl and the larger 8" serving bowl....

... and this 8" lidded casserole dish.

I am so excited to have gotten such a good deal on getting started with this set, and absolutely love the way they look!

I am so thrilled about all my great finds this week!   I am even more thrilled that this time being patient paid off!  I'm listening God, but it is really hard at times!  Thank you for being so patient with me!

I'm sharing this with everyone over at the Garage Salen Party @   http://debbie-debbiedoos.blogspot.com/

Please be sure and stop by the link above to see more great finds.

Have a great weekend Yall!

My Vintage Loft

Wow!  I really didn't think I would have this much to post about this week but it really has been quite eventful for me lately.  Yesterday, I helped my mom clean out her closet.  She has been wanting me to help for sometime.  This basically means taking away the things she doesn't want or giving them to me!


I hadn't expected she had so much neat stuff in her closet.  I knew she kept some things other then clothes in there but was surprised to find some of what I did!  I came away with more then I am showing you here today but wanted to share these in particular since they are definitely vintage!  I don't know why I wanted them but after getting back home I realized I had the perfect spot for them upstairs.

At the top of our stairs in between the bedrooms there is an area (alcove?) we call the loft.  It is quite a neat little space but I have constantly been redoing this space.  Currently I relocated all of our old wicker furniture that was sitting in the basement to this space.  It is in really bad shape but was getting worse in the basement and I didn't have the heart to part with it yet. 

When I first got this set it was white, and a hand me down by my brother.  I immediately painted it black and put it on the screen porch.  The way our porch is built the end by the hammock gets a lot of exposure to the weather.  This poor little set was rapidly deteriorating so it had to be moved.  Lesson learned! 

Please don't focus too much on how unfinished this area is as it's a work in progress and will likely change should I get the heart to say farewell to my wicker.  But that's not what I brought you here to see today!  Take a closer look and I'm sure you'll see what I want you to focus on.

That's right!  It's the vintage shoes!  I got both of these shoes from my mom yesterday as well as the purse.

I thought it would be cute to display this shoe and purse together on this chest. I already had the rose teapot and my Lamp Berger on this table.  The painting above was done by my grandmother on my fathers side.  It was one of the last she did before her cataracts became worse.  You can tell her since of depth in this one was really off, but we love it all the same because this mill was a special location for her. 

Here is the first "vintage" shoe I wanted to show you!  I really need to clean it up a bit but isn't it cool!

It really isn't so far off from some of the styles I've seen around today.  I guess you would call this one a classic!  I love that is has a wider heel, as I really need wider heels to stay balanced!

The purse I also got from my mom yesterday!  It was her mamma's.  I almost passed it by, but then I just couldn't!  It's so narrow, but so well made.  Definitely a formal wedding or funeral type purse!  LOL!

And here's shoe number two!

This one really cracks me up.  Look at the shape of it!  Can you imagine?  My mother saved these from many, many years ago from when she used to be in a garden club.  They used these in their arrangements.  I really wonder where they came from?

This lamp also has a wonderfully old look to me too!  It was an inherited piece from my MIL.  I love the sweet roses on it!  It doesn't really fit my decor but I will always keep this lamp.  I love it!

Here is another one my grandmothers paintings!  She actually had an old pail she would leave by the spicket that was next to the house. She really did see these sweet little birds come and drink water from her pail.

My old wicker now holds all these pillows I made year ago!  I made all of the ones on this sofa except the one in the middle.  I love all types of fabric!  These also look very vintage to me.

Both my wicker chairs have two pillows, a plaid and this floral.  The floral, plaid and bird pillows are all reversible.  The plaid has a solid plum color, the birds, have the plaid, and this floral has the photo below.  I made them all at different times using fabric I had on hand.  Since they all coordinate, I put them all together here on this set for the first time when I moved it up here!

I really am starting to like how this space is coming together.  I am open to any additional suggestions since this is not my usual style!  I am thinking of repainting the wicker (dread) if I keep it.  I would love to hear all your thoughts on this if you would be so kind as to share!   I think there is so much more I could do here in this space using this direction.  What do you think?

I'm linking up with http://coloradolady.blogspot.com/ for Vintage Thingy Thursday!

Be sure and visit the link above to see more old stuff!  LOL!  Urrr...I mean vintage stuff!

Have a great day!

Mary

Refreshing Blues

I finally moved some things around the lower back deck after loosing my umbrella table.  I've come up with a temporary arrangement that works for me for now.  Anyway, while moving things around today I noticed a certain little stand that I have used as a table looking pretty rusty and BORING!

  I remember going out and looking for this stand after going to a parade of homes and seeing that the decorators had used these for little tables in between seating.  Perfect for holding a glass of wine or two.

This one in particular appealed to me with the tropical palms on it!

Well after getting everything all prepped and giving it a fresh coat of paint, I still had more paint!

I already had this spray paint can left over from another project.  Wow!  I still have more!

That's when I remembered this sweet little chair in the front yard.

This photo is from late April when I first purchased this chair.  I still love the chair but everything has grown so much and filled in around it that it was getting lost in this setting.  So I spray painted it too!

By now your probably wondering what color right?  Well, here you are, take a look!

That's right it's blue!  I guess you could say I've been getting rather hot around here lately and this blue sure does add a refreshing and soothing ambiance.  I knew I wanted to use this color on my stand since it was already in the tiles but I just went out on a limb with the little chair. 

And now, here's a glimpse with my stand and it news look.

I've been using this stand for some time between these two lounge chairs but I've only recently put the umbrella in between them too.  My pretty blue umbrella which by the way actually did suffer more than I had thought!  It will be seeing it's last summer this year too and will need replacing!  I'll be watching those end of the year sales closely for sure! 

I'm joining http://www.theshabbychiccottage.net/ for Transformation Thursday.  Please be sure and check out other great transformations at the link above.

Thanks for stopping by, be sure and leave a comment if you please!

Mary