a few of my favorite ornaments!

the two ornaments on the left are vintage passed on to my parents from my grandmother.  i love the nostalgic feeling of santa and the elf. every year they have a special place on the christmas tree.  the ornament on the right i cross stitched several years ago.  do you have favorite ornaments that you have collected or inherited in your collection?

Merry Christmas!

i was lucky to see santa in lowes a few saturdays ago!  have you told santa what you want for christmas yet? hope everyone has a wonderful weekend- be careful out there the malls and roads will be crazy this weekend!

renninger's antques extravaganza

shelly and i have been going to renninger's antique extravaganza in mt.dora for the past three years. she introduced me to it when i moved back to florida.  i love walking through all the tents, you never know what you are going to find... 

roly poly sign...made me think of all the cool lighting robert and cortney novagratz use.

globes are alway good accessories to use. 

fishing traps made into light fixtures.

old farm house sink with my shadow in the corner. cool, but really big. 

thought this was a clever use for old tool handles. wish i could spend the whole weekend browsing all the antiques, one day is not enough to see everything!  i ended up with a few embroidered linens and a hammered aluminum tray. seems like i can't leave without buying linens-i will share my collection with you soon.

mt.dora is a cool, artsy town-i recommend stopping for a visit if you are ever in the area. we usually eat lunch at the garden gate tearoom before hitting up renninger's.  have any favorite antique markets you love to shop?  i am hoping to make it to roundtop one day!

there's no place like new york city

one year ago this weekend, i was in nyc with teale and shelly.

it was a fun girls weekend filled with good food, good conversation, and good shows!  i love the hustle and bustle of the city-there is no place like nyc, the architecture, the restaurants, the stores are the best!

let's go again, girls! 



and the winner is...

Teale

is the winner of the green zipper and flower pin!!!

i hope you enjoy it! 

thanks to everyone who entered my birthday drawing! 

birthday cake!

today is my birthday! this photo was taken on my birthday 5 years ago...i was in upstate new york.  back then i worked for a national furniture manufacturer and traveled to retail locations throughout the united states and canada. so the birthday cake was actually for the store, they were celebrating an anniversary (or something).  we thought it was hilarious that it was my actual birthday!  i have so many great memories from my time traveling with this job.

i can't believe another birthday is already here!  i'm looking forward to another great year! 

don't forget to enter my birthday giveaway below!  you have until midnight thursday, oct. 27th!  

BIRTHDAY GIVEAWAY!!!

my birthday is this thursday and to celebrate i am giving away this cute little zipper bag to one lucky reader!  it would be great for organizing your purse or bag. it is fully lined in bright pink fabric. oh-the purple flower is actually a pin, so you can use it to accessorize other items as well!

all you have to do to enter is leave me a comment on this post telling me when your birthday is (& what you do to celebrate it). for a bonus entry into the drawing you can blog about my giveaway and link back to my blog.  you have until midnight on thursday october 27th, 2011 to enter.  i will announce the winner on friday, so be sure to check back. you don't have much time, so spread the word! 

***make sure you leave an email or blog for me to get in touch with you in case you win***

spray paint!

i don't know about you guys, but i think it is important to recycle and reuse materials.  i love the idea of taking an empty soup or vegetable can and repurposing it into a small vase (i have seen this somewhere, i just can't remember where).  the has clean lines and interesting texture.  all i did was try to remove most of the glue (probably would have worked better if i used a product specifically for this) and then paint the can with an linen gloss spray paint.  think of all the possibilities available!

the flowers look more like spring than fall, don't they?  that is what is growing right now in florida!

felt envelopes

while browsing pinterest, i stumbled across some adorable play felt envelopes.  you can buy them here, but of course i did not do that.  i made my own to give to my favorite three year old for her birthday!  i used several different stitches on my sewing machine to make the "addresses".  each envelop opens so little hands can stuff things inside them.  i love handmade, unique toys that encourage children to use their imaginations, don't you?  i thought it would be cute to make a mail box out of cardboard to go along with these, but that hasn't happened yet.

pirate party!

ashley (my sister-in-law) planned the cutest pirate party for e's third birthday!  e loves jake and the neverland pirates on disney junior.  she used purple as the accent color to make things a little more girly than red.  she decorated down to the details...

watermelon pirate ship

hot dog pirate ships

birthday banner, especially love the skeleton sitting on top!

do you guys like pinterest (i admit-sometimes i spend way too much time on there)?  there are tons of great ideas on there, including lots of pirate party ideas.