Today I brought home my greatest find to date. I noticed this beauty as soon as I walked through the door. One of the tentacles is slightly damaged (but easily fixed) so the homeowner didn't want it. It will someday hang in our future tiki bar.

Immediately I knew it was my mums who i lost way back in 2005. I didn't even need to see her signature. So this is 29 years old and I couldn't tell you when i saw it last, closer to 91. Also I'm about an hr and a half from where my mum lived her whole life. My birthday was just 3 days ago and i definitely feel this was her saying happy birthday and giving me the gift of something she made. I feel so lucky and am pinching myself still.

August, my Himalayan, also knew what he needed to do.

When she got too frail to make that dream come true, she gave me the box of jewelry. After she passed away, I finally sat down to create her dream. I remember her wearing some of the pieces and playing with some of the others as a kid. My husband thought it was fitting that the back of Grandma Dorothy's "D" pin was the hardest to remove as she could also be humorously stubborn

A little back story: my Dad left the poor family farm during the Depression to pursue his education at Appalachian State deep in the NC mountains. He earned his tuition by living in a basement boiler room and keeping the boilers fired for that building. He frequently ate on 10 cents a day: a nickel for a Coke, a nickel for a can of sardines, and the soda crackers that were free with the sardines. He picked up a bit of pocket money by playing his guitar for the little mountain churches on Sundays, and playing saxophone with a local dance band on Saturday nights. 75 years later, with my Daddy long gone, we were cleaning out the house I grew up in, preparing to sell it. Among the artifacts that turned up - Daddy's saxophone. It was never a high quality instrument, and 75+ years in basement storage had not been kind to it. It didn't make sense to try to restore it, but I couldn't bear to throw it out. It came home with me and collected dust for a couple of years, until I came home from school one day to find that my brilliant husband had transformed it into this awesome lamp

Then the next morning when I woke up I saw it sitting on my porch because the woman knew where I lived and there was a note attached to it instructing me to have it for free that she sending it over with love and that she believed it would be in the right home if it was with me… feeling over joyed!

Got at my local Goodwill in Worcester, MA last year for only $6.99!!!! I don’t even plan to have a big wedding but I could not leave this Edwardian beauty behind

Thinking about putting a strip of light underneath or behind them.

Someone was throwing these windows away on a house demolition so we created this little room with them. Most of the decor came from my thrifted treasures or items I made.

In 1958, my grandparents moved into a beautiful, new mid-century modern home. To make the best use of the cavernous great room, my grandfather designed this gorgeous sofa with matching tables and three stools. If you look under the table on the right, you can just see one of the stools. When the time came to pass it along, I was the only one with a just-barely-large enough living room!

He went and knocked on the door to make sure they were really throwing it out. It’s an OLD sea captains chest. It was the guys great grandmothers that she had inherited. It’s awesome.

I’ve collected suitcases all my life. I have found them at thrift stores and garage sales and sitting on the side of the road. I also have had friends donate them to me when they know I collect. My father was in the Air Force and my brother and I were born in Germany and the two burgundy trunks on the bottom row are the steamer trunks that brought us back from Europe to Canada on the steamship. My mother used to share a story how a nun saved me on the ship trying to crawl over the side! I think some may be interested in what I may keep inside. The labels do tell what’s inside of each. I store lots of things in them. I have a knitting suitcase, with yarn and knitting books, etc., I have photograph suitcases, (when we used to have photographs), I have a collection of plastic animals for when my grandchildren come over as well as many other suitcases with toys in them for my grandchildren, material, beads, a sewing/mending suitcase, a suitcase for screws, a suitcase with a drill in it… I could go on and on and on and on. It’s all pretty organized and getting more organized all the time as I sort through and give away lots of things that I don’t need anymore. One of the trunks is a Christmas trunk and one of the trunks stores my patio cushions from my patio furniture and another trunk stores my mother’s dress form and material and patterns for when I’m going to get to those projects.

Not exactly antique, but definitely vintage. My eldest child fell head over heels for it. Her dad and I decided to buy it for her birthday, when she noticed it was gone from the shop she was so sad but said she was glad someone would get to love it instead of it wasting away on display. She had no idea that someone was going to be her.

I fixed up the minor repairs that it needed on the centrepiece before giving it to her. Her reaction was worth every bead re-stranded.

Just in case you're curious, the 8 foot Sinclair Dinosaur will fit in a minivan. Second pic is his new home in my front yard.

Had to have him!! My mom has one and I always wanted my own. Hope y’all can appreciate my garden gater Steve. 🤩 he is placed where the water comes off the porch to look the most terrifying. 😁😁 I live in Alabama so kind of unusual to see a alligator running around unless your in southern Alabama where the swamps are.

But one popped up on my local FB marketplace this week. There was a lady with the set and no listed price so I reached out on the longest shot ever and was like hey I have wanted a spice village forever, by any chance would you be interested in a trade or partial trade for some of my art? TOTALLY expecting to be shot down but to my shock she said yes and we did a *straight trade with no money* and I am still in shock that she agreed and this went down and my dream village is now minneeeee. Other artists will truly get it - sometimes it feels like nobody sees the value in you and what you do. But she was so into all of it and was also so happy I was going to use it and not resell it.

STEP RIGHT UP AND WITNESS THE MOST FEARSOME AND FEROCIOUS FELINE THIS SIDE OF THE MISSISSIP. HAILING FROM THE WILDS OF A WEST MILWAUKEE USED BOOKSTORE BASEMENT, THE WOVEN WICKER WONDER WILL SHOCK AND AWE YOU. WATCH AS ESTHER JELLYBEAN AND HER LOVELY ASSISTANT EUNICE MARSHMALLOW BRAVE THE JAWS OF THE THE RATTAN RASCAL, BARELY ESCAPING WITH THEIR LIVES AND A FANCY FEAST CRAB AND BEEF TREAT SQUARE. DARE YOU TANGLE WITH THE MILWAUKEE MANED MANIAC? THE TOOTHY TYRANT? THE PLANT PANNIERED BLOODTHIRSTY BOOKSTORE BEAST?