Goodies!!!

     Awwwww, you all are so talented and generous! I keep telling my mom how nice the fellowship is. You all are a blessing to me! 

     Here are this week's goodies (this will all cease now that school has started.  That is probably a good thing.  I'd better make sure I list those eBay things.  No benadryl for an excuse...Oops.)   To be honest, I am swapping  out things that are not homemade (they go on eBay) for the dear homemade goods from you all.  I am truly not becoming a hoarder.  You will not see me on a reality TV show.  Truly.

     So, the crow shelf sitter. I got that on eBay from "The Tin Crow". I love crows. There is one that hangs around school. I named him Frank. I name all animals. Sometime,I will tell you about Winston the Mockingbird.

      The pillows, candles, and sheepy sign are the extra goodies that Cindi at Cindi's Primitive Country Corner gave for her giveaway! Soooo, cute! Thank you for your generosity, all, with your giveaways!

     And last, but not least, The sheepy, pumpkin, and pumpkin pin tuck are from The Rusty Thimble. The pillow tuck was from her wonderful giveaway. Awwwww. The pumpkin guy makes me smile! Thank you, Brenda!

 

     Oh, and look what I found for my "Command Center" at school! Yes, it says "$.50".  My paperclips will be happy. And probably a little wiser... Get it?  Owl. Wise.  Heeheee.  I am just going to laugh at my own corny joke.  You go ahead and keep reading...

 So with all of these blessings of gifts from talented people and good bargains, the most precious gift is friendship!

Philippians 1:3-7

" I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace..."

          This a message from Paul to fellow believers in Philippi. Now, Paul was so very grateful to have a support system of friends in his persecution and imprisonment as a believer and teacher of the Gospel.  However, these sentiments ring true with the blessings God has shown me through His merciful blessings of the friendships He has put in my life.  My friends at home, school, and through this blog.  I am blessed by your willingness to encourage, the time you take to respond to posts, your boldness to share your faith, and your love and concern for others that you cannot physically interact with because of the distances between us all!  Here is my porch.  There are a lot of empty spots that would love to hold friends for a real sit-down chat.  Until then,  you are in my prayers!

Blessings,

Heather (aka Mrs. Wise, Anne Shirley, Cordelia, or Benadryl-induced shopper)

Shopping on Benadryl... Good Times!

I am having so much fun continuing to sit on the couch, taking my Benadryl every few hours, watching "Downton Abbey" re-runs, and checking out blogs.  I have also discovered the world of etsy.  Oh.  My.  So much great prim stuff!  I will continue to add the places I find to my section on my blog, "Favorite Places to Snoop and Shop".

Here are some of my shopping places up-to-date (Um, today on the couch):

The Rusty Thimble - I bought an adorable black wool felted sheep on a little hanger.  I love black sheep.  It's not because I am a rebel or anything, I just love the color in prim decorating.
Some of the other things I loved on this site are the pillow tucks and prim pumpkins (I am not ready for Fall, even though it is my favorite season.  I am falling prey to influence.  Thank you, Christine, for making me feel like I should be eating ice cream and jumping on the Autumn bandwagon).  Great graphics, cute little faces, and very affordable.  This will have to be a purchase for another day.  I think telling my husband that my shopping was "Benadryl induced" probably won't fly. :S


  http://therustythimble.blogspot.com/

The 1890 Gable House Goodes
 I bought a Barn Owl Candle (I love owls.  My last name is "Wise"- get it? That's why I am a "wise-cracker") Listen to this scent (some of my favorite smells!) -"Roasted Coffee Bean & Maple Cream ~A Yummy Country Brew."  Ahhhhh!  I can't wait to shove my nose in that when it arrives!
 
 http://gablehousegoodes.blogspot.com/

So, some things I have been looking at that I might get hooked on are cross-stitch little pillow tucks or old bags with the cross stitch samplers attached to it...  There are a lot out there! My friend, Christine, at Preferably Prim does beautiful ones and has some cute patterns I want to try.  I have the material and thread.  I just don't know what to do with it. I think I have sewed "crookedly" for too long!

I was visiting another blog, The Cranky Crow.  She was talking about the history of spin tops.  I never realized how beautiful they are.  You should definitely read about their history and look at her collection.  I might have to purchase some and put them in a bowl. 

YIKES!!!!  I would like to take this moment to thank you all for feeding my habit.  You may never hear from me again after this because my laptop will be taken away because of overuse...

*SIGH*

Blessings!
Heather

Coffee Talk for the Today- Talk amongst yourselves.  I am on etsy...

Break it and remake it... The Six Million Dollar Man Project

     You know the old adage " If it ain't broke, don't fix it"? That phrase doesn't belong in Prim decorating, does it?  Even if something isn't broken, we sand, stain, tear, and "grungify" it. I don't know how many times I look at something and say, "Oh, that  HAS to be tea stained!"  We put on fake patches and real patches.  We stitch clumsily even though we can stitch in a straight line (Well, maybe not me, but most people.).  We put dates from the past. We put nicks into wood. We do anything to simulate dirt, use, patina from ages past even though you just bought it new at Hobby Lobby a half of an hour ago! 

     Well, I did break something and fix it (A real shocker in my household).  Ok, so you know those hollow pillar candles with the grungy little battery tea light on the inside?  They are a must-have in any primitive home.  Well, I had two sconces that I had painted black (My favorite anchor color). I distressed them, painted the one with a combing technique. I was so excited to hang them and light them up.  I had one pillar candle and needed another.  So, off I traipsed to the local craft store that carried them.  I got it home and was unwrapping it.  AND, *GASP*, it slipped from my hand about an inch about the counter and broke into several pieces.  Before I continue, I thought they were made of resin, not thin wax.  So a caveat to myself, and everyone else, is even an inch drop can kill one.  Ok, so back to the story.  

     I looked with despair at my new purchase.  I started muttering to myself, "It's okay, it's okay.  I can fix this."  I looked upon my poor broken candle like Oscar Goldman looked at the potential of making the Six Million Dollar Man "Better...than he was before."  Out came the white glue.  I hovered above my "patient" trying to decide on my best approach to piecing it back together. It didn't help that the bottom was split in two.  I finally decided to build from the bottom up.  Um, white glue was not the best choice.  It was slimy, slow to dry, and I'd move one piece and another would pop out.  Finally, I got it together.  I let it dry (trying to avoid the temptation to touch it).  After it had dried, I surveyed my work.  It was awful.  I mean, Dr. Frankenstein's project looked better.  Errr.  Now what?  

     Well, what if I rolled it in spices and my faithful friend, instant coffee?  So with a lot of Modge Podge, brown, sticky fingers, and well, a big ol' mess, I had a grungy pillar candle.  Yea!  I cleaned up my mess and then looked at the pathetically unadorned candle that I already had.  Awwwww, well that's not going to work.  So I grunged and made a mess again.  This time I was smart.  I grunged some regular tapers that didn't match my other primitive-purchased tapers.  Then, I coffee stained a few things.  Before long, I had stuff drying EVERYWHERE.  It was one of those If You Give a Moose a Muffin days (Ok, that story is really my life story, but I digress).  So, you can see in my pictures the fruit of my grungy, sticky endevours- one repaired and grunged, one grunged.  Can you spot the broken one?

     Another repair achievement I had once was repairing a yellowware bowl I'd purchased from eBay that had broken in transit. That is a story for another day, my dear readers.

Coffee Talk for Today:  What is your best "Six Million Dollar Man" restoration project.  Try to think of something that was broken and please share how you fixed it.  

Also, feel free to guess which candle is the broken one. You won't hurt my feelings if you guess correctly.  Well, not much... ;)