Sunday, March 29, 2015

A nice cup of tea

As I am searching the flea market, thrift shops or Ebay for vintage spoons to hammer out, I often come across some fun pieces. You never know what you may find tucked into a lot of flatware from an Ebay auction, probably why I love bidding on the lots, it's like a treasure hunt every time.


Honey is my sweetener of choice, but these cute sugar tongs are too adorable not to use, I think the one on the far left is my favorite of the three.


A hard freeze hit Middle TN last night, so it was a perfect morning to make myself a cup of tea. I am an early riser and I love to enjoy a cup of tea when the house is quiet before everyone starts to get up. Just me, the dogs and Cooking Channel.  A little Earl Grey with milk and the last of my local honey, was such a pleasant way to start the day.



I am not usually a fussy tea drinker, but getting a little fancy once in awhile is pretty fun!

Ready to tackle yet another busy week. Lots of hammering to do and I am excited to be only one week away from being fully staffed in my department at work, once I get my latest analyst trained and transition my division to her, it will be nice to be able to focus on one job, instead of juggling two!

Hope you have a great week!



Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Spring!

On beautiful Spring days like we had today, it's almost hard to believe that just a couple short weeks ago, we had a snow on the ground!


We usually see our Daffodils (or butter cups) bloom around Valentines day here in Middle TN, this year, they were a few weeks late, but they are everywhere now, gorgeous waves of yellow flowers everywhere you look! So beautiful!

I hope you are having a wonderful week!

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Some good progress

It has been a busy, but really fun weekend.

This beautiful spring weather gave us an excellent excuse to head out Saturday morning for pedicures, shopping and a movie (go see Cinderella, a sweet and beautiful film) pretty much the recipe for a perfect weekend!

I also made some great progress on getting my stock completed for next months Farmisan market.

 In fact....I finished making all my herb markers!


Now, onto the 30 sentiment spoons, 10 butter knives, two bookmarks,wind chime project, gardeners citrus hand scrub and bath pucks.

Whew, I have my work cut out for me. Three weeks to go, lets see if I make it! 

Hope you have a fantastic week!

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

I just love an ugly duckling.

It has been a busy couple of weeks at my house, as I am sure you can tell by my sporadic blog posts.  You can tell it is Spring because my Husband and I are both talking about home improvements. One improvement we both agreed needed to happen was a new television set. For years we had a 52" DLP with stand. I admit, I love a big TV, but this one took up a pretty large chunk of my living room floor. So we decided it was time to upgrade and mount a new TV on the wall.

 TV mounted on the wall? Love it.

But what I love the most about the new TV?  The floor space I reclaimed.  Space for a reading chair, oh yes!

I have been casually shopping for such a chair for months. Everything new I found was overlarge or very expensive...or both. So of course I decided I should look for a project. And of course I found one!

I had planned to wait for the Nashville flea market, I was sure I would l would find something there, but on a recent quick trip into my favorite indoor flea market I came across this beauty. Everything I wanted. Perfect size, sturdy, comfortable and 50% off. 

Perfection.


It's got lovely bones! And after only spending $27.00 I don't mind dropping a couple bills to get a new upholstery job for these lovely bones. I am picturing a deep green velvet, I am pretty sure the original color of this chair was green, now it is faded to a greenish gold.  Sometimes I have to look at something for awhile before I decide on what I want to do with it, but velvet may just win. I even considered tackling the project myself. But with the scallop design on the back cushion, well, I think that is best left to a professional.

I plan to drop it off at a local upholstery shop just down the road from my house in the next week or so, I am excited!

I have also been hammering away for a little while pretty much every night. I am almost finished with my herb spoon stock, but I need to get moving on the sentiment spoons.

I was having fun with some fork ideas this past weekend.


Getting excited for the first Farmisan market next month! 

I just hope I will have all my stock ready!

Hope you are having a fantastic week!

Sunday, March 8, 2015

Ummmmmm......no.

I have been playing around with some ideas for silverware art that I found on Pinterest. Loved the fork made into a garden snail idea....but I don't think I have quite perfected it yet. 


No, not quite.

Back to the drawing board, I think I am going to have another go at it as the countdown to the Farmisan Market is on!

Have a great week!!

Thursday, March 5, 2015

These are a few of my favorite things

I have mixed feelings today, I do not love snow, but I love snow days.


This is what we woke up to this morning, needless to say, most of Middle Tennessee shut down, again.


Bruno loves the snow. He eats snow and ends up with a snow goatee, have I mentioned how much he cracks me up? I love my little buddy!

I made the most of my surprise day off today. Getting caught up on some work emails, then tackled a couple small projects around the house. One project I tackled was re arranging my China Cabinet and I as I was working on it, I started thinking about some of my favorite things,  those little things that you may not use or touch every day, but that you would really miss if they were gone.

It was the McCoy Frogs and turtles that got me started down this path. I started collecting them close to 15 years ago and just loved them. But I guess I consider the collection complete and have not picked one up in probably close to 5 years. Of course I have moved on to new collections so now, I am running out of room and considered putting them in storage. Then I realized I just could not bring myself to do it, see, although I have not really collected them in awhile, I just love them to much. I would miss seeing them everyday.


I just love the colors.


They did end up getting moved out of the China Cabinet, so now I am casting my eye around to see where their next home will be. Somewhere that I can see them all the time, cause I would miss their sweet faces. 

I have been busy hammering away again, this week I have gotten a nice start on restocking my herb spoons. I also had some time today to experiment a bit with some new silverware projects that I have in mind for the booth at the Farmisan Market this summer.

Fun stuff! 

They are going to try and re open our office tomorrow, we shall see. The sun peeped out today, melted some of the snow but did not dry the roads so all that melted has now turned into perfect ice rinks or frozen speed bumps. Needless to say, I am putting my money on being shut in again tomorrow.

But that is alright if we are, I have to admit, as much as I miss my flowers, these peaceful days snowed in at home have been so nice!

Spring will be here soon enough, I will just remind myself to enjoy the snow while it lasts.



Because it will not be long before we are enjoying the scent of luscious spring peonies again!


 Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Monday, March 2, 2015

Whoops!

So last week got away on me, and when I sat down on Saturday night to write my planned post I realized..whoops, let my kid go out on a weekend trip looking for Bald Eagles with the SD card loaded with my blog post pictures. 

Not my best planning, oh well, this week will be better!

This past weekend was a girls weekend filled with shopping, movies and eating out, but the weekend before last, suffering from just a tiny bit of cabin fever after our epic Southern Ice storm, I headed out to Goodwill and the thrifts.

And did not do too badly!

First find was at a local Southern Thrift shop, I am so/so with finding things there, but this time, I scored!



Fire King chili bowl, I have been looking for red or orange, but I was just as happy with a yellow, especially when it only cost me .75 I caught it on a 50% off day! Love it, But I still want to find a red or orange!

Next was on to Goodwill where I scored another platter. I was attracted to the design which I recognized but did not know much about. Again, me and platters, I grab them cause I use them. I love the graphics on this platter, it is huge and in mint condition. After a quick look out on ebay I realized it was a real steal at 2.49. I saw many of the same platter out there for 20.00 and up not including shipping, not sure if they are selling, but if they are, I may be tempted to try my luck at selling.

I just love the graphics!



And the size!


It has been a very long time since I scored any of my German/Bavarian china in a thrift shop so I was thrilled to find these sweet little berry bowls. 


Eight for under 3.00 mint condition, not a scratch or chip, I was tickled.

All in all a very fun trip!

Update! Some exciting news for our Farmisan market!

We had a vendor meeting  this past Wednesday night with the two lovely ladies that selflessly dedicate their time to beautifully organize our Farmisan market, I am so excited! Not only are we moving to a fantastic local park, Charlie Daniels Park in Mt. Juliet, but we are also joining up with the Art Alliance! The change in venue alone has attracted more vendors and the Art Alliance has an established following of its own and will be playing some wonderful concerts during our markets all summer long, most of the wonderful vendor from last year are coming back along with lots of new vendors, we will be working with the local animal shelter and doing pet adoptions, more food trucks  will join us and a charity fund raiser for a worthy cause each month. our little market is truly growing into a wonderful community event, I am so proud to be a part of it!

So I am back to hammering again this week, I had taken an unintentional break the last couple weeks, unmotivated I guess, or more like lulled into a happy stupor snuggled under blankets watching movies during the storms, not any  more. Looking a the calendar I have less than six weeks to get ready for what will most likely be a HUGE kick off to our Farmisan market season.

But I will be ready to go! Too much fun to miss out on!

Wont't be long now! Except this year it will be grass instead of a parking lot! 

So excited!!!


Have a wonderful week!