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Showing posts from August 21, 2011

Olde English Countryside Brown Transferware Tablescape ~ Book Inspired

Do you ever view the pages of a book, admiring its perfect photos, and dream about living in one of the places you are reading about and seeing?  I have a book, The Most Beautiful Villages of England, that I love to look through and do just that.  Dream.  Imagine.  Wish.  Hope.  I have resolved to never outgrow dreaming.   I cannot imagine not imagining.     I am crazy for English cottages and buildings.  I am enamored with thatched roofs.  I love the wood details mixed with stucco and rock.  I love the informality of English gardens; the way the flowers appear to grow naturally.  And, I loveee my English transferware!  My dream of dream homes would be an old English Tudor styled cottage with a genuine thatched roof.   I described this place in one of my poems, Writing Abode , which is also the name of my other blog...which I have not given as much time to as I would like to...which I am still imagining I will do.  I hope. This book is filled with such places that I dream of and th

Storing All That Pocket Change ~ Creating A Faux Demijohn

http://thediyshowoff.blogspot.com/I am pretty certain that we are not the only ones that have a big jar or vessel we throw our pocket change in.  Am I right?   Admittedly, I will try to get rid of every penny I can.  Even when I send one of the kids into the store to pick something up, I always add four pennies so they'll have enough to make change with!  "Use the pennies", I say.  Ridiculous I know, but I do it anyway. Sometimes I try to get rid of a dime's worth of pennies in one stop. "Embarrassing" is what Shawn and the kids say.  I think it's part of my OCD.  I feel I HAVE to use the pennies up! It drives Shawn crazy because he never uses pennies.  He just pulls out a bill to pay and I stop him by saying, "wait, I've got the pennies!".  He pretends not to hear me and so it is, we have lots of loose change...much more than even I can get rid of in one trip.   Years ago the kids and I had filled a gallon sized jar with coins tha

Ramsign Custom Porcelain Enamel Sign Giveaway!

Time for a Giveaway!   I was contacted recently by Ramsign , a Danish company that makes porcelain enamel signs.   Their signs are old fashioned in design and are hand stenciled onto thick, glossy enamel.  Each sign comes with a 30 year warranty.  Ramsign makes all sorts of custom and personalized porcelain enamel signs.   Generously, they have offered one of my readers a choice of any of the house number signs they offer.   This is my favorite numeral sign...so European!  It's called Engelhardt and retails for $69. I just love this sign posted on the fence exterior.  How cute is this!?! I also like this personalized sign which includes a name and address.  This is from the Highlander collection. Here are some other examples of the porcelain enamel signs by Ramsign. This one is from the Lighthouse series.  Serious cottage charm!  This sign is from the Metropolitan collection. Ramsign ships free to any location in the world!  There are five ways to enter for this giveaw

Adding Crystal Garland to Existing Light Fixtures

My kids started back to school today.  I had not bought even a pencil until late yesterday afternoon, and by the looks of all the crowds at the stores and mall, I don't think I was the only one!  Now that my kids are all in junior and high school they don't have the big lists with all the crayons and what not so I have to say it is much easier than when they were in elementary school.  I remember spending hours in one or two aisles at Walmart each year just gathering most of their school supplies.  Of course there were always those few things that required trips to special stores for a particular brand or style that was a 'requirement' by the teacher.   Those days I do not miss. Yesterday, Trevor, Ashton and I stood in one line for about 30 minutes and as we finally made it to the 'yippee,we're next' status a lady stepped right beside us and went to one of the registers to return something.  I had one item with me to return and only realized after all that w