Thursday, December 31, 2009

Happy New Year 2010




Happy New Year to all
. Lots of changes this year, with 2 new booth spaces, and magazine shoots. I've made new friends for a lifetime.
Can't wait to see what wonderful things are in store for 2010





Tuesday, December 29, 2009

One for the Books



Once upon a time a family piled into 2 cars and headed for the big city. The family had a tradition of coming together on Christmas eve that goes back to the 1950's. When this family left their home town, just 2 hrs away from their destination, the weather was clear with a slight drizzle.
For awhile all goes as planned, and then they run into this

Although this may not seem like much of a snow storm to many of you, to this family it was something to behold. Usually beautiful this snow was not, as they had to drive in it. Roads were quickly becoming frozen and traffic slowed to a crawl on the highway.

Since they were in 2 cars, the mommy of this family kept calling the oldest son to check on his status. Everyone was running late. They were supposed to reach their destination by 5:00 and it was now 5:30 with no end in sight.

After arriving at the first destination at around 6:30 and quickly swapping gifts the family headed to their second and final destination (or so they thought).

To add insult to injury it became quite clear that they would have to stay the night and wait for the weather and roads to clear. Thankfully there was room at the inn.

So after a fun filled, weeney roasting Christmas eve they headed for their lovely hotel rooms, to sleep the night away in the only clothes they had brought with them.

Waking up in a hotel room on Christmas day is not a lot of fun, but they were thankful for the slightly good night's sleep and headed out bright and early for brighter pastures and clearer skies. Fortunately the Sand Elves had sanded the bridges and overpasses and they arrived at home by noon.

Do we have Christmas dinner today or tomorrow the mother asked herself? And realizing that she wanted to get this over with she decided to cook the meal for dinner rather than lunch.
Once again this family came together, opened gifts, ate their feast and reflected on what would be the horrible holiday of 2009.


But in the tradition of counting our blessings it could have been worse, much worse.
No one died,
No car accidents,
We weren't stranded for more that overnight
Dogs did not freeze from being left outside all night
all was well in the end.

and this is The End of my story
Hope you had a good one, I'd like to forget this one actually. Nothing like sleeping in your clothes and waking up with no toothbrush to break the holiday spirit.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Margo's Favorite List



In true Oprah fashion, I've compiled a small "Margo's Favorite" list.
Now since I'm not a stuff person, this is hard, but here goes.

Favorite Sweet Snack

My husband is to blame for this one. He's got himself addicted to the flavored popcorn offered by our local Popcorn Junction. My fav is the vanilla. The coating is crispy, and as you bite into the popcorn, the corn part melts and the outside stays a bit crispy for a split second before the whole thing melts in your mouth. OH Me Oh My!!!


Favorite Chocolate Snack

Enough Said

Favorite "how did I live without it" item

Tomboy tools has these great tool belt aprons. I use mine to keep all my booth pricing supplies in. Scissors, tape, tags, string, labels etc. All close at hand. And it's durable and washable.

Favorite Candle

My favorite brand of candle is Circle E and my favorite fragrance is Bird of Paradise.
The best price I've seen for these candles locally is at Our Little Corner, I need to get another BOP as this one is about gone. The first time I discovered Circle E candles was at an estate sale. Sometimes estate homes can smell unpleasant. The candle they had burning in one room, could be smelled throughout the whole house and was such a pleasant smell, I was hooked.


Favorite Guy Gift

The is something else that DH brought home. This flashlight has several great and wonderful features. First, it's LED which means it's super bright. Next, it's rechargeable, No batteries.
It can be sat on a table or surface and it stands by itself. Lastly it has a hook on the top. I've used this when carrying stuff to the barn in the dark. I'll just hook it on the box, like a headlamp and it works great. I don't have to carry the flashlight AND the box.


Favorite Project 2009

It's hard to pick a favorite, but I think one of my favorites at least are these lamps I make from old work lights. I've made several, I've kept them all. Work Light cages come in all shapes and sizes, and these are fun and functional lamps. The project is easy, I don't do any wiring, I just wrap the cord around the outside of whatever stand I use for the lamp.



Favorite Find 2009

Usually my favorite find is my most recent find. That is the case here. Last week I found this great old wash stand. White enamel legs, rusty patina top, all metal and oh so industrial. I love it as a coffee table. Now If my slip cover will just come in I can get that sheet off the couch.



Favorite Movie

Love this movie, and the back story is interesting too. It will make you happy & angry, It will make you cry, swoon, and in the end all the people make the right decisions. Not a family movie, but a great chick flick.

Favorite re-purpose decorating Book

2nd book from these authors, and I love it. Simple, industrial, repurposed. If you like cottage don't get this book. If you like a new country industrial clean look, you'll love it.

Favorite Junking Moment 2009


My Junking Adventure with Ki Nassauer



Favorite Blog Reader


You of course



Friday, December 25, 2009

Merry Christmas


And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold,I bring you good tidings, of great joy, which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.


And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.



Monday, December 21, 2009

Junking is catching


Meet Hannah, she is one of our employees at our shop

She couldn't wait to show me her project. She made this wreath out of beer bottle tops.
I love the colors. This project would look great with any kind of bottle top.
Some of those flavored mexican soda's have great colors.
Good Job Hannah

That is a lot of beer Hannah, we need to have a talk.

above is the bow.
She punched and wired all of those on there, my fingers hurt just thinking about it.

Hannah's sister has a fun etsy account, you might want to take a look at what's she's doing with vinyl records.

Saturday, December 19, 2009

Fun Christmas Ideas at Winnie & Tulula's



I always love it when it's time to go work on my booth at Winnie & Tulula's. It's also a time for me to wander around the store and take in all the great ideas and displays that the other dealers have.

This week I was amazed by this wonderful thing by Liz & Fran

It's a little hard to tell in the pic, but it's those are round spring sets, stacked on top of each other. I'm not sure what it came from but it makes the shape of a tree. Inside they have music paper cones, and other fun things. What a great centerpiece this would be on a grand harvest table, Or on a round foyer table.

As I continued my wanderings I found these fun things from Curious Goods.

They are icicles made from ham can lids

What a fun idea

I brought in something new for my space, Perfume bottle pendants.

They are between $14-$19 ea

These are such fun to make and to wear


Hope you enjoyed the ideas from Winnie & Tulula's. Have a great week.


Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Thrifty Gift Wrapping-repost

This is mostly a re-post from last December. This month has been really hectic and I'm just now thinking of wrapping my gifts. Maybe this will get me in the mood. Hope you enjoy this flashback from last year.

First let me say that I am not known for my gift wrapping skills. I'm sure there are some really creative gals out there, who would run circles around my wrappings. But I try.
First I need to gather all my supplies


See that bolt of twine, I'll be using lots of that.

The only new thing I bought was the paper

See this bag

Not too useful for gifts, but if you cover that logo with an old Christmas Card, it's perfect.


Here's a similar idea, but this bag had hand writing on it.
Those candle clips work great to seal up these bags from peeking eyes.

See this pile of crinkley confetti. It came in a gift box of nuts that we received.

I tied a clump of it together as a bow substitute

I didn't use ribbon this year, I used twine instead. I picked up this huge bolt of twine at a GS earlier this year. I use it for everything.

This Gift is wrapped up in some old music, twine.

I clipped some evergreen branches from the yard

And tucked them in underneath the twine

On the top gift, I added an old ornament that we no longer use, as decoration. And the name tag is one of those mini chalkboard tags that I make.
I made most of my name tags from regular scrapbooking paper or torn craft paper. I used my candle clips for gifts within our family, as I want to keep them.
It was really a lot of fun to use stuff I had on hand. total wrapping expense $3.

Margo



Tuesday, December 15, 2009

More Christmas - ing


I think I'm finally done with decking the halls. I don't really enjoy the "tree" part, but that is something that I seem to HAVE to do, so that was on my chore list this weekend. I also added a little fun holiday area to the front porch.


A Friend found the old mail slot box and just knew I'd want it. She was right.


I don't have a fireplace or a mantle. We have a wood burning stove that we use a lot. Hanging the stockings anywhere near it is not safe. A Few years ago I found this old plate rack that I hang my stockings from. I like it's form and how the stockings layer over each other.

Below is my foyer
You can see the vintage wreath that I made last year, out of vintage ornaments. It has to hang inside because the orns are so delicate.

This is the 2nd Christmas I've not done the traditional "tree". Instead I have my Christmas "Forest". There are actually 4 trees there, grouped together. These are the 1 piece trees, that are pre-lit.

The skirt is an old red/white quilt and since I don't have any presents wrapped yet, I threw some vintage boxed ornaments under the trees.

Thank you for visiting.
I've got some more Christmas projects in the works so be sure to come back.

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