FINALLY A PIC OF MY GIVEAWAY!

I AM FINALLY POSTING A PIC OF MY GIVEAWAY! LINDA PARKER FROM PARKER'S PARADISE WON!! THIS TOOK LONGER THAN I THOUGHT TO GET FINISHED! I AM SO SORRY! HUBBY WASN'T FEELING WELL & THINGS DON'T GET CUT OUT OF WOOD WITHOUT HUBBY! :) I HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS PRIM SNOWMAN! HE IS FROM A PATTERN IN MERCANTILE GATHERING!



He will be going out in the mail today!! Hopefully, just in time for your Christmas decorating! :) Thanks again to all who entered & THANKS for becoming a follower!!

OPEN HOUSE INSPIRATION!!!

This year I decided to wait & decorate until after THANKSGIVING! It is really such an important holiday that I thought I would honor Thanksgiving by waiting! :) However, that has not stopped me from enjoying in the many many Christmas Open Houses I have attended!!

Open Houses are no longer just free cider & cookies! They are an important part of my decorating style! Yes, don't get me wrong, I most certainly enjoy the spiced cider & fancy treats that I nibble on throughout the store while I ooooohhhhh & aaaaawwwwww but, the inspiration is everywhere!!!

At Arnett's Country Store I was inspired to buy some of her long red stockings to tie on my front piece of picket fence....how darling & what an awesome POP of color that gives!! So simple!





Arnett's also had the latest & greatest in Christmas "cool"! CONCRETE SNOWMEN!!!



Juat pulling up to a store like this will give you INSTANT inspiration & you will come away just dieing to dive into your own decorating!!



Check out THIS display outside of a country store in Mt.Vernon, IL. I think this idea would look great in my wheelbarrow!



Also, how about adding a HUGE wooden snowman to your decor?! Look how cute he is?!

or what about that "pocket" next to him? What if that were a HUGE stocking filled with goodies & hanging on my front door?! Can't you just picture it?

Now step inside this wonderful store for even more inspiration!!

This tree made me want to buy some of those little battery operated candles to put on my own tree!! Also, just look at all of the dried oranges on this tree?! I will HAVE to try this out this year!




At this store called Two Raggedy Sisters they use Sweet Annie as a GARLAND in their trees!! It looks SO pretty & makes your room smell amazing!!!




Also, you could be a winner of a fantastic FREE door prize!! This is usually a FREE gift certificate or "item"! I won a $15 gift card this year to one of my favorite stores!! The Dusty Attic in Equality, IL! Of course when I went to redeem it I spent another $60!! LoL! :)

Some of the stores have beautiful scenery to take photographs of! At Country Lane Treasures we enjoyed watching & photographing her live sheep!



so what are you waiting for....GET BUSY...and get to an open house!!!! :)

Display Chain!! Bonnets!!

I only have a few bonnets. I was worried at first that I would not have anything to post but then I realized that my Mother gave me a very speial bonnet, that I would LOVE to share with you! It is my grandmother's, my Dad's Mother's bonnet! I keep it on a peg rack in my laundry room. It means so much to me beause I never got to meet either of my Dad's parents & having something that was special to her, something she wore everyday, means so much to me!



Next, I have a bonnet that I have hanging on the front of a piece of furniture in my laundry room that is made of red ticking. I am a HUGE fan of red ticking!



My next bonnet is next to my buttery on the wall. It is grungy cream with yellow flowers!




Finally, I have a bonnett & apron set that I swapped for with a great gal named Teresa from Mammy's Treasures! They are green & brown & grungy! They are displayed on a hearthside peg box on my bedroom wall! I love it's LONG tails!!

DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH!

I am currently hosting a swap on the forum The Primitive Pantry. It is called "Gifts of Christmas Past". In this swap participants must buy their parnter 3 antique items & do a "makeover" item for each other!

Makeover items can be so much fun! They can range from the extremely difficult to terribly easy! I think most of the fun that lies in the makeover is the
"finding" of that one speial piece! Something that would look perfect ....if it only had some fresh paint or some "primitizing"!

I have found that some of the BEST "finds" come from little junk stores or in the far back corner, deep in the bins of an antique store!








Recently, while at a soccer tournament in Missouri, my husband & I stopped at a little roadside flea market. This is also a fantastic place to find hidden treasure! While searching through every little nook we could find, we came across an old wooden bowl!!! It was in good shape, with just a little staining on the inside. I knew right away that this was a fantastic find! Also, it had no price on it! Which means you can start fresh with the dealer on a reasonable price.





This dealer knew that wooden bowls were bringing a "pretty penny" at the prim stores so she offered it to me for $10! A GREAT deal would have been $5 but I have seen them in antique stores for MUCH more, so I accepted that offer. I knew that this bowl was going to be transformed into a beautiful new mustard colored bowl, so it was worth the $10 to me!

Here is my "NEW" bowl! I am VERY happy with the results! :)







I have also been "redoing" an old cutting board. You can find reasonably priced cutting boards with unattractive paintings on the front, sand them down, repaint them, and Voila, "new" vintaqe cutting board!

I got this one for $4 at an antique store!


Starting sanding it down....



Painted it...



Sanded it some more...to give it a "prim" look....



Now it is just waiting to be restained! I am already happy with how it is turning out! Don't get me wrong, I am a PRIM girl so I believe MOST things should be left as they were intended. However, some itmes look so much better with a new coat of paint and a little elbow grease! So, what are you waiting for....GET BUSY....and find yourself a makeover!!

I HAVE A WINNER!!!

MY COWORKER PICKED A NUMBER FOR ME TODAY & IT WAS........LINDA FROM PARKER'S PARADISE!!! CONGRADS TO LINDA! :) SHE WILL BE RECEIVING A WOODEN ITEM MADE BY ME & HUBBY!! I WILL GET BUSY ON THIS THIS WEEK & POST A PHOTO BEFORE I GET IT SENT OFF!

THANKS TO ALL OF MY OLD FOLLOWERS WHO POSTED THIS GIVEAWAY & TO MY NEW FOLLOWERS WHO POSTED THIS GIVEAWAY!! YOU ALL HELPED ME REACH 100 FOLLOWERS!!!

THERE ARE LOTS OF GIVEAWAYS OUT THERE IN THE BLOGGING WORLD! IF YOU DID NOT WIN THIS ONE....GET BUSY...AND TRY AGAIN! :) GOOD LUCK!

Display Chain #7!! Christmas crafting!

I don't decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving so I do not have any of my past crafts displayed yet! I only have 1 thing I have been working on that I would consider to have a Christmas "theme"....labels! My coworker & I have been designing labels for gifts we are going to make. So here are pics of my "Christmas Labels"!




This jar is going to have peppermint sticks inside!


This jar will have grungy little gingerbread men inside!!



This jar will have fake snow & "hopefully" (if I can find one) a small shovel!


So, it looks like I need to...GET BUSY....and finish my holiday crafting! What are you waitning for? GET BUSY...and do some crafting of your own! :)

I REACHED 100!!!!!

GOOD MORNING EVERYONE! I HAVE OFFICIALLY REACHED 100 FOLLOWERS! SO MY GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED DOWN! I WILL DRAW A NAME FROM MY FOLLOWERS & 1 LUCKY WINNER WILL RECIEVE A SURPRISE!!!!

NOW I NEED TO GET BUSY & DO SOME CRAFTING!!! THANKS AGAIN TO EVERYONE WHO JUST SIGNED ON & ALL OF MY PAST FOLLOWERS!!!