Whiny About The Heat, Yet Gardening

(The garden the day we planted...)


I don't like to complain, BUT...it feels like August. Humid and 92 and I am melt-ing.

And yet I carry on with my gardening as a good gardener should. Every morning and every evening, you will find me up at my small plot of land, doing extensive weeding. I exaggerate. It takes maybe two minutes. But I like to act as though I am doing a whole lot more than what I am.

Even though *I* am unhappy with all this heat and humidity, the veggies are thriving!

(the garden just a couple of hours ago...)


Snowpeas (from seeds!), cukes and green peppers...


Cukes...


Watermelon (From seeds!)...


Basil (from seeds!)...


Red Onion (from bulbs or whatever you call them!)...

Can you tell I haven't planted 'from seed' before?
Mmmmm...I can almost taste the salads that shall be made!

Recent Fun Finds...

One of my best Girlfriends came over yesterday to help me clean. These are the kinds of friends that are priceless:
--Friends you can call in the middle of the night
--Friends who love your children
--Friends who help you clean

And this friend is a cleaning machine with a vacuum I want to spend a long weekend with. I wasn't at all into vacuums before yesterday. At all. But this one changed my life. So she came, she helped clean and now my home is literally spot-less! Did I mention how much I dislike cleaning? She thrives on it. Her enthusiasm was contagious and after she left I still soldiered on...and my home is thanking me for it.

This morning, I am in the mood for decluttering and found a couple pics from last week that I haven't had a chance to show you yet!

Tiny Forks


Metal Clipboard


Two new Swanky Swigs with very cool graphics





A Santa Door Bell


A Wooden Santa To Display


And a very cool metal dart board


(CallieCat likes it too)


I believe the dart board at some point had some metal darts to throw at it as well as some shot glasses to rest in the bottom of it. It'll be fun fashioning some new darts!

What 75 Cents Can Buy You...

An adorable coffee mug. A very cool green jar with a frosted lid. A yummy plate.

Thrifted Tealight Lamp For Lu

I came across this cute tea light lamp for $1 last week and had to purchase it...I mean really, a dollar?! I was planning on putting it in the corner buffet area where I have that blue/green theme going during the summer months. But then Lu saw it and claimed it for her own. And so it goes...






(that fish up there next to the lamp was made in art class during their pottery course...he cracks me up!)

The Amazing Yearly Neighbors Sale

Every year one of the neighbors down the street holds her annual rummage sale. It is a sale worth going to a few minutes before it is actually supposed to start...not that I approve of that sort of thing. But at this sale, I am gonna say yes! Yes, you go a few minutes before the 4pm start time! You camp out in your car and wait for a couple other people to go up the driveway first and then you follow hot on their trail! You move quickly and steadily through the areas she has set up! You make another quick trip around.

And this is what you walk away with:



I am so happy with my purchases! Let's see what we have here...there are two fabulous Swanky Swigs, a groovy glass ice bucket--with tongs and holder, a set of 8 large cloth napkins and a brand spanking new Yankee Candle.

Stan, you would have been so proud of me--I left a whole lot of treasures for others to find!

My only disappointment was that we weren't able to hit the sale again on Saturday morning when she puts MORE stuff out! She has spectacular vintage Christmas decor and that was to come out then...but I am moving forward and enjoying my new treasures that came home.

The Cracker Barrel!

This is the kind of find that when I see it, pick it up and look around at all the other people shopping at Goodwill, I have to wonder to myself..."Why has nobody grabbed this?! It is AWESOME!!"
And then squeal and put it into my cart.

Booth Closing Sale--50% off!

If you walked past my booth at Memory Lane right now, you would chuckle...it is a celebration of Christmas In May! The final day to shop it will be May 31st and then it shall be closing for the summer months.

And then this fall? This fall you will be able to shop my finds on Etsy once again!

Play Kitchen (and so much more!)

So I painted it a light olive green. It looks taupe, but truly it is more green. I am kinda grooving it in the backyard! I could go all Heather Bullard on it and use it as a drink station...

Or as a small garden center...

Or back into the house in the master bath to use for towels...

Or for in the dining room to use as a Christmas display as planned...

You will Never Guess What I Found!

It's an old play kitchen! Bud and I are going to be picking out paint this morning...the plan is to use it as a display piece in the dining room at Christmas! I am probably going to pick a red to paint it, but there is this wild side to me that wants to paint it very dark pink.

Gardening And Graduation

It was a good weekend. Bud is going on to his next level of higher education and we had a ceremony yesterday celebrating that...This is Callie wearing the cap.



And the garden is officially planted!
This year we are attempting:
Tomatoes (six different varieties!)
Cukes
Sweet Peas
Watermelon
Red Onions
Basil
Green Peppers








Be sure to sign up for the Christmas-Card-In-May Giveaway by scrolling down to the previous post. A winner will be drawn in a few days!

Christmas-Cards-In-May Giveaway!

Update: Congratulations to Jenny S, who's name Lu drew out of a basket! Thank you to all who entered, it is always so fun to see what creative minds come up with.






After thrifting piles of vintage Christmas cards yesterday and realizing that I should share in this bounty, we are going to have a little Christmas-Cards-In-May Giveaway here at Dime Store Thrift.

The randomly selected winner will receive 32 bits and pieces of vintage Christmas cards from the late 40's...great illustrated pictures or lovely sentiments from the inside of the cards.

Just leave a comment and tell me what you would do with this ephemera (and please, please leave an email address with your comment in case you are the lucky winner!)

A winner will be announced early next week.

Ready, Set...GO!

Christmas Savings Club

Isn't this AWESOME?! Other than cleaning it up, I am leaving it as is.

(This photo, like yesterdays, was also taken on a gorgeous sheer Christmas apron that was gifted to me a few months back...)

Elf Gathering!

What is cuter than a small Elf/Pixie head??




An entire extended family of them!



What should be done with them? I am wanting to fashion something out of felt and wire for their little tiny bodies!

Garden Markers?

I have been crazy busy...between gathering, thrifting, marking for the booth and creating, there is a lot of stuff going on at Dime Store Thrift!

Something that I have been wanting to try for awhile: Stamping on metal. Bought some stamps. Didn't work. Believe me I tried. Then decided that I am going to leave the metal stamping of stuff to the professionals. But in the meantime? I had thrifted a lot of vintage silverware to make garden markers out of! What to do? What to do?

Get out my sharpie of course!

Taking Inventory

First and Foremost, I hope you had a beautiful Mother's day! My favorite gifts are always the handmade...






You would be proud of me. I am quite proud of me! I think I have found a good way for me to keep inventory...the way I was keeping inventory before was enough to make my CPA teary eyed. So...I purchased composition books and have them labeled for Decor, Crafts, Christmas, Books, Toys. Each item gets inventoried into the book with the item number, description, date purchased, amount of money, date sold and for how much. So far, so good. List making completes me.

We'll see if I am still this enthusiastic in a few weeks...





Part of this past weekend was spent down in the studio cleaning and organizing. I tried to look at things objectively and decide if I was going to donate things I am just not grooving anymore. Goodwill will be getting a pile of goodies later today.

And I happily boxed up items that needed to go to Memory Lane for the last few weeks of the booth, making one trip yesterday to foof the booth. And one more load will be taken later this morning. Since deciding to not have the booth over the summer months, I really had been neglecting it. So it deserves to be showered with love the rest of May.

Found some super cool goodies while thrifting back in our hometown that I will be showing you in the coming week...watch for updates!