Garage Sale Finds for the Bedroom

Garage sale finds make my heart beat a little faster.  Like so many of you I head out into the community every week to see what treasures I can find. Most of the time, I don’t have any specific items for which I am searching.  I do enjoy finding something to decorate my home. 

I am also always on the prowl for items to make and display jewelry.  I would love to find a mannequin or mannequin head in good condition in a flesh color.

Recently I located some excellent bargains for my bedroom.  I have wanted to change out my bedding to a celery green and soft blue theme.  I had already purchased a set of green and blue decorative boxes last year at a garage sale.  I wanted to place them in the window seat in the bedroom, but they simply did not coordinate with the room.  I could not justify to myself purchasing a new bedspread and pillow shams just to coordinate with the boxes.

Last week I scored!  I located a beautiful green Pottery Barn brand new bedspread and pillow sham set.  It is the exact shade of celery green that I wanted.  It is a full/queen size and works very well on my full size bed.  I believe it is an older version of the pick stitch quilts now sold by Pottery Barn.  It is so soft and light weight for summer.  I also found a cute small pillow in a slightly different shade of green at another sale.  That works as a throw pillow.

As I went from sale to sale I found one more item to use with the ensemble, a lovely off white feminine lampshade to place on my bedside lamp.  This bedroom is feminine and kind of cottage chic.  The white wicker headboard and the pictures above the headboard were also garage sale finds within the past few years.  My most expensive purchase here was the Pottery Barn quilt set for a sum of $30.00, brand new.  Each pillow sham was originally marked with a $39.99 tag.  What a deal!

What treasures have you found at garage sales or flea markets?

Christmas Blessings

Today is the day for me to decorate the house for Christmas.  I will put up our tree and add decorations.  Decorating always brings back memories and sometimes a few tears.  Whenever I hang up the baby's first Christmas ornaments I cry a little.  Tears over the quick passing of time mixed with tears of joy over all the blessings God has bestowed on my family and me.

God has me in a good place.  He has blessed me with an awesome husband, loving adult children, fabulous grandchildren, an ability to move and groove, a lovely home and place to live, a good job, and a growing and thriving handmade jewelry business.

God Bless All of You!

Blue Christmas Treasury

Blue on Blue Flower Earrings

I am so fortunate to be included in another Etsy treasury for Christmas.  Again it is a pair of my flower earrings that is included in the treasury.  Many other beautiful blue items are in this treasury.

I have been very remiss on paying attention to this blog.  It has been several months.

Today one of my items was featured in a Christmas treasury on Etsy.  These Christmas red flower earrings were selected for this treasury.

You can view the entire treasury on my Etsy treasury page.

Relaxing by the River - Bead Style

I often wanted to stay in a small cabin on a river and just relax and create my beaded jewelry.  I was so fortunate to do this in September.  We had such a good time taking a four day weekend to basically do whatever we wanted with no set goals to visit any other destination.

I packed up enough beads to make lots of beaded lanyards and jewelry.  The weather cooperated, and we had cool days with highs of mid seventies and sunshine.  Each day I took my bead tools and goodies out on the deck that was over the water.  There was a table and chairs there.  I would listen to the sound of the rapids on the Big Thompson River, bask in the sunshine, and create to my heart's content. Sometimes I would sit in the lounge chair and read, and even nap for awhile. 

We were located about a mile and a half from Estes Park, Colorado one of the most visited tourist towns in Colorado.  It was the time for the elk to bugle, part of their mating ritual.  We went to town several times, and each time we saw a herd of elk in a park or on a large lawn.  We went to a restaurant on Saturday evening, and the elk were out on the lawn.  One of the does came right up to the window and peered in at everyone. Everyone was enjoying and laughing.

Our time there was so refreshing and I produced four lanyards and a necklace.  I could have done more had I pressured myself.  But this was a vacation!  Hope I can do this again next year.

Garage Sale Find - Crystals and Pearls

One of my favorite pass times is to go to garage sales on Saturday mornings.  Among other things I am always on the lookout for jewelry that I can remake into something fun and interesting.  This Saturday I only found one piece, but what a treasure!

This necklace has lots of graduated beautiful blue crystals plus lots of large soft green pearls.  They look like Swarovski crystals and pearls, but I am not sure.  I think the combination of these pearls and crystals is not very attractive.  But, it is geat for me to use in other jewelry.


Now for the really good part.  This necklace cost me a grand total of fifty cents.  YIPPEE!

Here are some close-up pictures of the pearls and crystals.  If anyone has some advice on how to determine what kind of crystals and pearls these are, I would love to hear it.

Do you make new  jewelry from rescued treasures?

Frog Fun

Frogs are fun and can bring a smile to my face. We have been collecting different decorative frogs for the last 10 years or so.  Not that we go overboard, we get one or two new ones each year.  Most of them stay outside.  But a few have found their way into the house to add a little humor here and there.

My husband is the one who started this, but I get a lot of fun out of it as well.  We are always finding cute frogs at Hobby Lobby.  Here's a set we found this spring.  They live out on our deck by the flower pots.

The sweet potato vines are always trying to cover them.  Or then maybe the frogs want to hide.  Who knows?