our Thanksgiving table ~

 Hello!  Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving with your loved ones!  It's hard to believe the holidays of 2011 are upon us already, isn't it?  

We had a quiet little holiday here at home and then off to visit with family later in the afternoon.  I did a simple Thanksgiving table and thought I would share some photos.

 This is a picture of the table prior to the dishes being added.

 

 The velvet pumpkins are from Urban Farmhouse.

The creamy white pine cone stems are from Michael's 75% off bins!

I just added my turkey dishes and the Give Thanks napkins I made a couple weeks ago.

simple but pretty

So, I do have a cooking question that I thought I would put out there for comments and suggestions.  In an effort to keep our Thanksgiving dinner as healthy as possible, I used zero added salt, unsalted broth, light butter, and all low sodium ingredients.  Unfortunately, this meant things were not as tasty........at least they didn't taste like what mom and grandma used to make!  Do any of you have suggestions on how you keep your stuffing and noodles tasting good without the extra sodium and fat?  I would appreciate any advice!

Have a great weekend, wherever you are!

~ keep dreaming ~

Polly

I won a fabulous necklace and maybe you can too ~

Hello!  And happy {almost} weekend to you all!

Not too long ago, I entered a giveaway at Lynda's blog Happenstance Home for a necklace called The White Rabbit's Time Keeper from Shabby Apple.  Turns out, I won!  The necklace arrived directly from Shabby Apple just in time for my birthday, so it was an unexpected treat!  I would like to take a moment to thank both Lynda and Shabby Apple for offering this giveaway and for giving all of us a chance to win such a neat piece of jewelry!  I was so excited to learn that I had won! 

 

 I wore the lovely necklace the very next day and got tons of compliments!  The handwork is exquisite.  As a matter of fact, I was asked several times if it was an old pocket watch!

In the meantime, while visiting  Vintage Restyled, a blog local to my area and whose writer, Shannon, owns two fabulous booths at the same antique mall as me, I saw that she is offering the exact same necklace from Shabby Apple as her first giveaway!.

So, don't be late!  Head over there to get your name in the hat!  Shannon's giveaway ends this Sunday, November 20th.  You will also have a chance to oogle over Shannon's amazing furniture transformations!  She takes sad, old discarded pieces in the rough and turns them into beautiful, functional treasures for every room in your home!

Thanks again to Lynda at Happenstance Home and Shabby Apple for the generous necklace!

And best of luck to any of you that decide to try to win a White Rabbit's Timekeeper at Vintage Restyled!

~ keep dreaming ~

Polly

rosette pillows ~

 Thank goodness for husbands with amazing technical abilities!  And patience.

I have not sewn for so long because my sewing machine was acting up.  Well, not really.  I just didn't know how to properly fill the bobbin with thread.  And I'm not patient enough to sit and read the instruction booklet.  Sad, but true!  I don't know, all those pictures in those manuals just make my eyes all buggy and my brain starts hurting almost instantly.  I think it's the creative side of my brain screaming for help.  At any rate, the husband offered to get me a new sewing machine for my birthday but instead I suggested that he just take a look at my current machine and see if he could get it working again.  It took him all of 10 minutes and she was buzzing along!

So, I pulled out my fabric stash and got busy making a few pillows and rosettes.

 

I finished three and will be running over to the shop this morning to drop them off.  Hopefully I'll be able to make some more this week!  I have another tub of vintage Christmas stuff to take over as well!

Hope you all have a good week ahead of you!

~ keep dreaming ~

Polly

my other booth ~

Yesterday was my birthday.  I was excited to have a bday on 11-11-11 and I was born at 11:02!  Kinda fun!  For my birthday, I told my hubby that all the things I would like are intangibles.  The most important being his height and muscles to help me in my other booth.  I had a vision and I needed his help to make it happen!  So, sweet guy met me right after work and climbed, hung, unloaded, loaded, moved and stacked until nearly 9pm!  

I rent two booth spaces at Heritage Square Antique Mall, one of which I share with my friend Keely and call Motley Junket.  My other booth is right across the aisle and it gives me another venue in which to market my wares.  I haven't named this space yet, but I have an idea of what it will be!  

So "my other booth" got loaded up last night with more Christmas and some other unique pieces.  

 bell cloche - heavy glass in a pale aqua color

 

 vintage one drawer stand with carrara marble top

vintage alabaster lamp with ruffled shade

old baby bed springs upcycled into a bulletin board

all kinds of vintage letters perfect for crafting

vintage dress form

vintage crinoline

vintage life size sparkly reindeer......i heart this thing so much!!

vintage stainless steel industrial restaurant workstation

lots of smalls

 

 awwwww......here she is in all her sparkly vintage glory!

a tree filled with ornaments and handmade coffee filter roses....all priced for individual sale

2 versions of handmade magnets -

marbles with antique dictionary page images and handmade book page roses

 bags and bags of ornaments!

 there is a matching set of these 6 foot tall candleabras dressed in fresh white paint

sweet vintage fabric birds with lacy wings

pair of grey cast iron architectural works - instant art in my opinion!

antique photos in old oval frames with curved glass

a booth shot from across the aisle

I had a good time working with the Mr. last night!  I met some new friendly faces including a gal who is opening her first booth there at Heritage Square soon.  She is on Facebook at Sparkle and Rust and I think her booth is going to be fabulous!  Stop by her Facebook page and wish her well on her new adventure!

Thanks for coming by for a visit!

~ keep dreaming ~

Polly

simple give thanks napkins ~

 Saturday evening chilling at home yielded some time to clean, put away all the Halloween stuff and start thinking about some Thanksgiving touches around the house.  Isn't it fun to pull out those tubs of decorations that have been hibernating for the past year?  For me, it's like unwrapping a present!

After fiddling about filling pitchers with twigs, reuniting with my vintage turkey platters, and arranging my velvet pumpkins on my dining room table, I decided to make some very simple Thanksgiving napkins.

I had four of these oatmeal colored linen napkins that were a thrift store find.  The next step is to hop on the computer and create your design.  I chose "give thanks" as the graphic and decided on English Script as my font.  I increased the font size to 120 to make my graphic big and bold.  I played around with various fonts and sizes until I found a style that matched my vision for my Thanksgiving decor.

Once my design was complete, the image got flipped and printed out on iron-on transfer paper.

Then the task of ironing the images onto the fabric just takes a few minutes.

 If you want to try this as project, just follow the instructions on the iron-on transfer paper package.  It's super easy and so fun to create whatever look you are going for!  I have made several kitchen and bathroom towels using this same technique and they've turned out well and have lasted through several washings.

Just a fun little project to fill my time on a night at home!

Linked up to Debra's Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground

Thanks for stopping by!

~ keep dreaming ~

Polly

random penguins, frogs, and Christmas ~

I love spending time with Keely at our little booth shop!  We spend our time working but also bonding and chatting.  It's just cathartic on many levels.  Today we reset the space and added some holiday cheer!

Quite possibly the funnest item we have is this cute vintage penguin!

 From across the way...

cool old industrial drawers (SOLD) filled with skates and ornaments and ironstone.

does it get any more motley than that?

mint green frame and an assortment of vintage pin frogs....

vintage paper tinsel Santa, book page tree, and Shiny Brites...

love this sweet little outfit complete with trapeze coat, pantaloon and hat...

 Keely found this neat vintage flower bucket display rack......it reminds me so much of a french florist shop!

at the bottom of the photo, you can see the top of a folding chair that I painted shabby white and added the Paris, France stencil....

 

 we both love vintage ephemera, so we usually have an assortment of flash cards, old photos and other paper items available.  The vintage gas station letters are so cool and just $4 each!  There's still quite a few left!

LOTS of vintage frames scattered throughout the booth!  Several chippy old ceiling tiles too!

 Another shot from the aisle....

That's our motley assortment so far!  More to come!!

Happy Holiday season to all!

~ keep dreaming ~

Polly

a little peek ~

 Tomorrow Keely and I are spending some time in our little booth shop transitioning our wares over to the holiday season!  Yep, that's right......Christmas is coming!

Here's a little peek of some of my stuff before I loaded up my car tonight.

I'll be adding several nice old frames.  A few I left in their original goldish color while the others got a nice coat of white or french grey....

This oak pedestal side table is freshly dressed in french grey (SOLD).  The two cabinet doors were transformed into chalkboards one of which is minty green and the other is shabby white.

This fun little ditty was in baaaaaaaad shape, let me just tell ya!  You'll have to believe me because I didn't get a before picture.  It's one half of a vanity and it had (well, it still kinda has) holes on one side where someone decided to separate it from it's mate.  I filled the holes best I could with wood filler, but it's still very imperfect on that one side.  But, you know me, imperfect is perfect in my world!  I painted it with some creamy white paint and added french grey numbers to the drawers.  I love the lines of this little mid century piece and I love that the drawers are knobless.(SOLD)

 I think it would be a lovely addition to a craft room or office!

I had already packed up most of my smalls in tubs, but this vintage Haeger mother and child statue hadn't been wrapped up yet.....

In addition, I have quite a stash of vintage Christmas ornaments all merchandised into bags...

I heart vintage Shiny Brites so much!  This picture just makes me giddy!  They look like rainbow sherbet!

Can't wait to spend the day with my pal Keely fluffing and primping our little corner of the vintage retail world tomorrow!  If you're out and about, stop by and say hello!  We would love to see you!

~ keep dreaming ~

Polly