Simple Silly Life

Monday, December 12, 2011

Harlequin Dreams

I posted last week that I have 'inherited' my mother's mother's Harlequin dishes.

Every Saturday my family heads to a local diner for breakfast. For years I joined them, but when I got married it was kind of a long drive, so Freddy and I make quarterly appearances. Topics of conversation include anything from politics to Jesus to medications to things that hang out in the basement.

Hence when the dishes were casually mentioned by my mother. "We have those fake Fiesta dishes from my mother downstairs. I never liked them." Whhhaaaaa??? We have faux-Fiesta? Like for realsies? Oh and they are turquoise and rose? And they've been in a box in the home I grew up in for oh, 26 years?? You have to be kidding me, Mom.

And when we went home there they were, wrapped in newspaper from 1985.

I've had a little Fiesta obsession for a few months now. I'd go on Kohls.com and check out how much it would cost to get a turquoise collection of dishes.

The answer was too much. Especially since I have three sets of nearly new Corelle. I just couldn't justify buying more dishes even if I loved them.

I had stopped dreaming of stocking my cabinets with multicolored goodness. And that's when these beatus entered my life.

They were scrubbed and rescrubbed.

We thought they were worthless, but learned they actually are collectable (The yellow dish is authentic Fiesta).

They were made by the same designer as Fiesta Pottery and were likely made in the 40s or 50s. You can learn more about Harlequin Pottery here.

My mother was hysterical laughing as I read the values of some of the items to her. She promptly called her sister who actually bought them and neither could believe they were worth something or that I would even want them.

And that the teapot is legit valuable because it's in mint condition. And thus it will live among the collection of special treasures above the cabinets.

And so, something unexpectedly wonderful from my grandmother is enjoying a new home, being used and loved the way they should be.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

Pique Your Interest Week 15

Here's what I loved on Pinterest this week.

This photo of Rachel Bilson wearing a very similar Hermes scarf to mine. It must be from the same collection. I always felt stuck with that scarf because I feel it's seasonally limited...apparently not!

Source: google.com via Kathleen on Pinterest

It looks like Orla Kiely, but doesn't have the price tag tote:

Source: blueq.com via Kathleen on Pinterest

Gorgeous Fiestaware collection - I am SO replacing my Corelle one day.

Source: flickr.com via Kathleen on Pinterest

This is a great tutorial for snapping that glowing Christmas tree shot:

Source: unskinnyboppy.blogspot.com via Kathleen on Pinterest

So, what piqued your interest this week?

Monday, December 5, 2011

Made it in Monday 12/5/11

This week I finally decided to sit down and use my milk glass planters.

I sought them out week after week at the thrift store and was able to collect three of them in the past few months, which was perfect (I have one on my coffee table all year with different flower arrangements).

Originally I wanted to make these:

Source: bhg.com via Kathleen on Pinterest

I love the idea of little sparkly topiaries. But once I actually sit down to read the instructions and remembered the incredible difficulty of making my Starbucks wreath years ago (the hot glue burns are seared in my memory), I passed and made something I was more comfortable with.

Cute paper trees.

Here's the how-to.

I used the largest cone I could find, about 12 inches high and bought it in my local craft store.

I went through my scrapbook paper and pulled out 10 sheets of Christmasy-colored paper.

I used pieces of My Minds Eye from their Christmas collection a few years ago, Basic Grey Fruitcake and Blitzen, another sheet of Basic Grey (the blue, but not sure what collection), very old 7Gypsies and Die Cuts with a View (the sheets with text) and a random scrap that I don't have a clue who made it (the dark green paisley). In the past I've done these in papers that have nothing to do with Christmas, so you can really use whatever. I think some of the KI Memories with pink and teal would be amazing.

A box of pins was enough for both trees, but I bought two just in case. In the past I used the ones with metal heads, but the pain of pushing them through the paper and cones was pretty intense, so this time I went with the pricier pearl heads.

A thimble helps avoid that push-the-pin pain.

My cutter is alcohol ink stained...one of these days I'll get around to de-colorizing it.

For each tree I cut 1''x4'' strips of paper from every sheet. At the end I ended up with a pile of extras. I meant to count, but not really sure how many strips you'd definitely need.

Then you curve the stips in half, but don't fold them.

Pin them in the top corner at the bottom and overlap the new ones on the earlier added sheets.

The next layer should cover the pins of the row below it.

You have to think intentionally random placement so it doesn't look perfect, but everything flows at the same time.

For the top you're left with a blank spot.

In the past I've put buttons on top, and admittedly, that looked sloppy.

I used American Crafts plastic flowers from years ago, brads from Making Memories and a popsicle stick.

I colored the stick with fast-drying ink. You could paint it, stickle it up with glitter. Anything really.

I put brads on each of the two flowers that would be sandwiched around the stick.

Hot glue on high heat (cool won't work for plastic I learned) and press em together.

Press the stick into the styrofoam ( you can add some hot glue to the bottom so it's more permanent when added). Then cut one of the medium sized flowers in half and hot glue around the top.

I thought it looked much neater than my older ones.

Place them on the milk glass planters and voila!

You have some simple paper trees to sprinkle Christmas in your home.

Linking here:

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Did Ya Ever Need a Morning Pick-Me-Up?

Six years ago Paige and I met at work.

We kinda looked like sisters.

A lot.

Some people thought we were sisters.

She has a great sister, though and I don't have one at all...

But I've always wanted one.

Ya know what sisters do?

They exchange clothes

(among many other things like being caring and all that).

And today, at the start of a day when

I had a raging headache and an event at work,

after running a little bit late and

walking into a pile of stuff to attack,

I got such a great phone call.

Paige had some jackets she was going

to donate to Big Brothers Big Sisters.

She realized she could do that and they would wind up in the local thrift store across the street from my job.

I would go there and find them and do the "Paige had something just like this!!!" freak out excited dance.

I would buy each and every one of them.

Instead she is going to give them to me!!!

Yay for an awesome friend who knows just the way to make a morning wonderful!

Monday, November 28, 2011

Miscellany Monday 11/28/11

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I'm linking up here to share some randomness about the week.

Our Thanksgiving was...boring.

No cooking, no hosting, just relaxing.

And I was totally ok with that.

We started the day with a tradition we've loved for the past 20 years...Thanksgiving breakfast with faux-family. It's been a highlight of my life. My parents and their friends go to mass in the morning and then enjoy a meal together, parting ways in the afternoon to head to family gatherings. We always take a group photo and this may be one of the best we've ever captured.

Dinner was with my husband's family and was quiet and lovely.

I'm not a big fan of Thanksgiving food (gasp, I didn't have more than a mouthful of turkey, no potatoes and no dessert), but I enjoyed being with family. After years of forcing my husband to take tons of photos on holidays, I've been putting the camera away and letting others take shots, so I'll have them once they get shared on the Facebook.

Our highlight of the week was decorating our church for Christmas.

Since we rent, we don't decorate big time or outside.

I've gotten very sad about this in the past.

This little decorating adventure lifted my spirits and filled that need to decorate a big space.

Somehow I got roped into decorating the

'it belongs in a department store' tree.

Seriously.

I've always wondered how those trees get so beautiful.

By shoving tons of glittering stuff into it.

Now you know too.

My job was handing the decorations to someone, so I had little to do with this gorgeous tree.

But it was totally awesome to be with new friends the night before Thanksgiving.

I hope we do this every year.

I've already said that I'm not looking forward to being part of the de-decorating committee!

This week I'll be writing out my Christmas cards and doing some shopping. We've decided to really downsize this year - one decent gift for each person. It's not so much a money thing (welp, it kinda is, but that wasn't the motivating factor) but a desire to appreciate time spent with others. We pretty much had a calm Christmas last year, so we'd like to keep that simplicity going.

Oh, and I may finally get to make these this week.

Source: bhg.com via Kathleen on Pinterest