Yes, I’m childless today in the sense that my mother has taken my three youngest children to spend a few days with her.  In case you have not read about Grandma’s and Grandpa’s, it’s a wonderful place.  My mother says that the pictures I took last time were so early-spring, they don’t really show you any of her flowers or shrubs in bloom, so I’ll have to take some updated pictures to show off her beautiful gardening handiwork.

Yesterday At The Thrift Stores

My mom came early to get the children and we ended up spending the day together out at antique and thrift and craft stores, and we just had the BEST time!  Princess of the Universe was with us.  It was a great girl time before my mom took Princess and two of the boys and headed to her house later on in the day.

One of my finds was this old wooden jewelry box — very outdated, that I knew would be nice to clean up and paint and use for more of my craft and scrapbooking supplies.  I forgot to get a picture of it before painting, but you can see it here with a bit of primer on it.

Above you can see the color of the wood before painting.  The little wooden handles are simple and sweet.

I painted the case itself in this beautiful Krylon celery green and then the drawers inside were painted ivory.

I think the contrast is beautiful!

It holds ribbon and pretty string…

and tiny little card charms and treasures.

Book Finds

I also found some great books yesterday.  1$ apiece for the hardbacks and .50 apiece for the paperbacks.

This little cookbook has some really cool recipes in it; even things I might try for my “starving” teenagers.  My second son is a great Tolkien fan, so I knew for .50 he would want this copy of The Fellowship of the Ring.

The Atlas of the American Revolution is an unusual, heavy book with amazing maps and pictures.  For 1 dollar.  Yes.  I’m excited about the Issac Newton biography, especially since we recently watched an educational video about him.

The large open pages are from Columbus:  For Gold, God and Glory.

Sea Power is a book about the Navy.  It has spectacular, huge pictures.  Again, 1 dollar.  My my.

A New Umbrella Holder

It still needs cleaning up, but I was very pleased to find this planter, which I will use to hold our umbrellas in the mudroom.  My former umbrella holder was metal, and it was rusting, and the rust was working its way onto the umbrellas making them not very pretty.  I think the metal container will be most useful cleaned up and spray painted and used as a trash can upstairs.  It has an attactive shape and it just the right size.  Pictures of that later.

Scrapbooking

I have two on-line buddies who do some awesome scrapbooking.  One is Emily and the other is Heather.  I know there are many awesome sites out there with scrapbooking ideas (feel free to leave me their links), but these are two that I like to visit.

Heather and Emily have inspired me to get my rear in gear and start putting together as pages all the wonderful stuff I’ve been saving for scrapbooks.  So I’ve now gotten my supplies fairly well organized around my sewing desk and this week I started the task of getting caught up!

My paper scraps and stacks are organized.  Embellishments are all separated and organized.

I have purchased some really sweet paper on which to preserve our chidlren’s school memories and work.  I can sit and work with all my supplies close by.

These big cozy cushions on the floor near my desk make a great place to read my ME magazines and get inspiration.  I was just going through the stickers in the pretty white basket.

I actually completed four pages last night for Miss Priss’s kindergarten scrapbook. 

And now, back to my original question.  What will I do with myself today with a quiet house and no children running around?  As you can see, I have an abundance of things to eat up these few quiet days.

Have a great Wednesday!

Lynn