Valentine Lovelies

I have been doing a bit of  Valentine's Day decorating around the manor. Normally I don't do very much.

Winter has been non-existent this year. Last Friday it was 78 degrees on my way home from work and tonight we had thunderstorms. Needless to say the snowflakes, snowmen and pine cones had to be packed up. It is crazy! It seems way too early to decorate for spring, so I pulIed  out my box of Valentine's Day stuff. I got two new magazines for inspiration. These two publications are my favorite for a romantic, shabby style of decorating.

I am still loving my dusty ivories, brown, purples and pinks. I'll try to squeeze a little red into this as well.  I just can't do the typical bright colors befitting the holiday, so I am trying to do a few things and stay true to my color palette. I pulled out some elements to sprinkle around the house.

If you are like me and you don't want to go traditional, I recommend old red worn books, shell hearts, birds, roses and one of my all time favorites, flower pictures with black backgrounds. Here are some displays I came up with.

I love old books for rounding out a vignette. The seashell heart boxes were thrifted, but they are reminiscent of something a sailor would make for his love during the long months out at sea. 

You can find similar boxes at a beachy souvenir shop next time you head to the coast. 

They will look super cute come summer. 

 

Mr. Bill wondered why I had Christmas decorations out. 

The painting is one done by my Great Grandmother Staege. I love the teal of this painting.  

I have been seeing some cute country fabric hearts on Pinterest and Ebay lately, so I decided to bust out the old sewing machine and whip some up. It has been years since I have sewn a heart shaped anything, but the long term memory 
kicked in (Can you say 1987?) and in about 30 minutes I had two cute little hearts. 
One is in a brown ticking and the other in a off white muslin. 
I hot glued a packing string bow and an antique key onto each. I love vintage keys right now.

I also love the look of frosted cookies. But... we are not really supposed to be eating cookies around here. Okay, Bill is not supposed to eat cookies and I only eat cookies when he is not looking.
So I decided to to make them out of salt dough. I looked up the recipe on-line and pulled out my heart cookie cutters.
Here is the recipe;
1/2 cup salt
1 cup flour
1/2 warm water
Sounds easy right?
Mix until dough is the consistency of pie crust. Add more flour if too wet. (It was pretty soggy outside the day I made these. The humidity seemed to have no effect.)
Roll out and cut into shapes.

Bake at 200 degrees for 6  hours.

Decorate as desired.
It is so easy. The dough is easier to work with than pie crust. In just a few minutes I had the cookies ready to go in the oven. I decided to make a couple for Easter since there is a 6 hour cooking time and I felt bad using that much energy for faux cookies. I used paint to "frost" but used real sprinkles on top.

I pulled out my Pink Castles by Johnson Brothers dinnerware. 

Have I confessed yet that I have a bit of a china hording problem?

          I think that silver and tranferware are a classic, not over the top, decoration for V.D.

Look at these adorable vintage Valentines. Are they not the cutest? 

I found them at the local craft mall. 

 

I love having little vintage cards on my faux garden gate. It hangs above my desk in the kitchen.  It used to be a piece of lawn edging and had posts to  stick in the ground. I cut them off with a hack saw and hung it up. I got it at this time last year at Tuesday Morning.

I am crazy about the little mini clothes pins I used to attach the cards.

I dried some roses by hanging them upside down for a few weeks. 

I still love my chalkboard. I decorated it with sheet music hearts strung into a garland. I love all the vintage sheet music I have been seeing lately.

Can you see it says amoureux? Loving! How perfect is that? 

I got this in a stack of sheet music with our piano. 

I bought some cyclamen at my neighborhood nursery. I hope they will bloom the rest of the winter.  I just love the heart in the chair. The plants will be fine unless it gets below 25 degrees. They can go inside if it gets below that. With the way the weather has been, I'm afraid I won't need to. 

It feels like spring not Valentine's Day. I hope that we will still have some cold weather. I'm still having nightmares about our 72 days over 100 degrees last summer. I'm not ready for spring yet!

Sprinkled with Valentine bits,

Katie

Thank you for being patient as I play with the way the blog looks. I read that I was supposed to have a "test" blog first. I didn't know any of that. I'm learning a lot and having fun in the midst of the learning.
Linking with The house in the roses
andBetween Naps on the Porch
anddebbie-debbiedoos.blogspot
andMod Vintage Life

It's Laundry Day!

What day is laundry day at your house? For Bill and I it is Saturday. I love my laundry room on a bright Saturday morning. It faces the street, so I can check out what my neighbors are up to for the weekend. 

I was laughing when I uploaded pictures. 

I had no idea I caught my neighbor weeding! I feel like Mrs. Kravitz. 

I haven't always loved this space. Most of the time it has been an eyesore. Now that it is just the two of us, I hope I will be able to keep it a little cleaner. Actually I'll let you know that Mr. Bill has been doing a good portion of the laundry lately. He even knows to take my tops and hang them instead of putting them in the dryer. He really is amazing! 
The laundry room is very narrow and since it is at the front of the house, people walking down the street can see in the window.  Not only that, the builder cheap waded us on cabinetry. We don't have any. Some of the neighbors have cabinet is their laundry room. We have open shelves instead. When we moved in there was only one shelf. Bill installed the 2nd.  At first I used the shelves the way they were intended, but since this room is off the kitchen I wanted it to look somewhat cute. As it is, there has always been a basket of unfolded laundry that can pile up to my waist or higher. (I just really don't like folding laundry)
I also use this room as a makeshift butler's pantry during parties.
I wanted a fun looking place to do laundry. I decided to decorate the shelves using some of my antique and vintage toys. They had been in storage for a long time. 

Some of these belonged to my mother. The washboard and the sewing machine were hers. The stove is not a toy, but a salesmen's sample. I let my son play with it when he was a preschooler. It should have been indestructible, but he dropped it and broke one of the cast iron legs off.  One of Mr. Bill's customers was able to weld it for me. 

The dollhouse is a German lithograph toy.

I absolutely adore the teal color of this toy sewing machine. I bought it one at one of my favorite junk shops. 
I love collecting little vintage oil paintings.  I don't know how these end up in antique stores so often. I can't understand why heirs would get rid of them. The most I have ever paid for one is $20. Usually I can find them for about $5. I would rather have a painting by an amatur painter than an overproduced print. 

I love the doll irons. (Looks like it is time for new shelves.) 

My depression era cupboard fit perfectly in a spot designed for a freezer. 

The cabinet originally had panel doors. I pulled out the panels and inserted the chicken wire instead so that I could have some display space. I use it to store my cookbooks and overflow china.The Blue Willow was my grandmother's good china. I have service for 27.  It is easy to collect, because it is at almost every antique shop and thrift store for differing price ranges.

I love the chandelier that I found in a little antique shop. It was only $5.00. 

I really believe most rooms look better with a chandelier. 

A laundry room seems like an odd place for one but it makes this room better to look at when I am in the kitchen. 

 The vintage hamper and pot for laundry soap came from a favorite junkteque store. 

When we bought the house I stenciled vines around the top of the wall. Green ivy was a huge thing in 1993.  A few years ago I did glaze the walls with a Martha Stewart Mocha color. I liked that I could see the ivy under the glaze. The walls however reminded me of the sponge painted wall treatment I did in Rebekah's nursery in 1987. I think that is why I am not a faux finish fan.  All of my wall techniques ended up looking like I just took a sponge to the walls. 
The curtain treatment is a Better Homes and Garden's drapery panel from Walmart. I turned a 84 inch long one on it's side and stapled it to a board. I attached the board to the wall with L brackets. It was so easy and no sewing. I gathered the middle with a vintage drapery tie.
The sconce and the picture came from a garage sale. The original oil paintings all came from various antique shops. I usually pay about 5-10 dollars a piece. The color is Sherwin Williams Kilim beige. 

I hope you are inspired to decorate your laundry room. It is a fun place to add a little whimsy. It makes doing laundry just a little more fun.

Here is something I picked up at the grocery store to add fun to these winter days.

Check to make sure you know what day the floral department gets their truck. You don't want flowers that are almost passed their prime. I've done that before. 

I have also planted some paper whites. I will update you on how they turn out. I got the straightest ones they had. I hope they aren't going to grow all sideways like that. 

As you can see, I have been playing with chalkboard paint. 

I will do an update soon about all of the fun I am having with that stuff. 

Sprinkles with whimsy,

Katie

Pantry Clean Up

We are still in the midst of nesting the empty nest. I know that expectant moms nest before the birth. I have never heard of anyone nesting an empty one, but it seems that is what we are doing. 
I showed you all the picture of our pantry immediately after the last chick left. 

It has been the most ridiculous and frustrating pantry in the 18 years we have lived here. The shelves are not very deep and not one shelf is tall enough to stand up a cereal box. Are you kidding me? A four bedroom house. Apparently the builder didn't think the children living in three of the bedrooms would want to eat cereal. I am not a morning person. One of the first things I taught my children once they were weaned was how to pour their own cereal. 

I am kidding! (sort of) 

I cleaned out all the stale crackers and the expired cans of sweetened condensed milk. I don't know why I had 3 cans of it. I guess I thought that the zombies would want 7 layer cookies during the apocalypse. That is my new excuse for having too much of something. I can just tell Mr. Bill that the zombies need a lot of pillows on the couch and bed when they arrive. (That sounded very southern when I read that back to myself)

I raided all my cupboards for any baskets, bins and containers. I also stopped by my local thrift for anything they had. I promise that a trip to the dollar tree or the thrift can yield enough containers for stuff. 

These were $11.00. I loved the lined ones. I missed that bandwagon in the retail shops because I was too cheap. So I was happy to find these cute lined baskets. I popped the liners in the wash and  I gave the baskets a run through the faucet with some Clorox Clean Up. They were clean and didn't look used, but I still wanted to spruce them up. 

Mr. Bill gave me these tags as a stocking stuffer.I wasn't sure what I would do with them. Bill would like me to open a shop, but I don't see that happening. I thought they would look cute labeling baskets of like items. 

Here are some shots of the pantry after just a few hours shopping for baskets, pitching expired items and cleaning. I just relined the shelves last summer so fortunately I didn't need to do that. 

I love my sprinkles corralled together! 

 Bill's breakfast bars. No, I don't cook him breakfast. 

He thought he was getting that kind of wife. Poor man, he has also suffered because I am not a morning person. I can't even speak until I have had some coffee. 

I love my Vera Bradley shopping tote. It is hanging on a galvanized hook I found while hiking. I felt very "farm chicks" when I found it. I have been in a very galvanized mood lately so it fit right in. 

I collect these 1950's cross stitch aprons. They are hanging on a "over the door" hook. I have used them occasionally and they are a fun pop of vintage. 
It was a quick fix for a very dysfunctional space. 

There is still more I want to do. I would like to get an old door like this one.

I told you about this blog I love.  http://downtoearthstyle.blogspot.com/ 
This woman is a genius repurposer and I love that she builds things herself. 

I will update pictures of the pantry if I can talk Mr. Bill into going on a "date" to the home restoration warehouse.

I hope you have a happy Monday. Go ahead and do some organizing today.

Here is how my amaryllis looked in full bloom. 

Sprinkled with baskets and organization,

Katie

The Blog!

The blog is a little over a month old. I am tickled that I have had almost 500 people look at my site. I'm annoyed by the people from Russia who are probably trying to find out information about me so they can scam me, but to them I say. "I am just a lowly preschool teacher, I deal with poop and pee almost on a daily basis. My identity is not really one you want to steal unless of course I fulfill my dream of winning or just being on "Dancing With The Stars."" I am one step closer to that dream if I become famous for this blog or I win the reality show I have created called "Last Pre-School Teacher Standing."
As a contestant on my reality show, early childhood teachers  have to win series of challenges. Like the "juice box challenge" where they have to open 10 juice boxes in the shortest amount of time. Or how about the mandarin orange challenge where teachers have to open those little cups of mandarin oranges without spilling a single drop. (Try it, those things are tough to open.)  Today was the "Gogurt Challenge." If you twist those little sucky tubes of yogurt they will open if twisted hard enough. Can you tell most of the challenges involve opening food for a table of hungry, not quite self sufficient little ones?
There are oodles of other challenges and obstacles, but most of them involve bodily fluids so I don't think you want to hear about those. It would be a "Fear Factor" meets "Survivor" kind of thing. It has potential, right?
But enough about that. I just love blogging. I should have been doing this years ago. The things I write about for you are every day occurrences around here. What I have realized by chronicling this past 6 weeks is that this is how Bill and I really live. We are always in the midst of projects. I love it when I find before pictures on my computer for one of my posts. Most of the time I'm so excited about my projects I forget to photograph them. And Rebekah says that I always say "It will be awesome." about something I am working on.
So in the days to come, I can't wait to show you what else we have been up to at the manor. My profile states that we are DIYers. But we are also proponents of "don't do it yourself" "DDIY" I will be honest about projects that are just better left to the professionals. I am excited about doing a post about the 5 best and 5 worst decorating mistakes we have made. Oh, and I can't wait for gardening season.

Have a blessed day,
Sprinkled with humor,
Katie

Three Day Weekend Makeover Revealed

The pot roast is cooking and the three day weekend is winding down. Mr. Bill is running one last errand and will finish up his little project before dinner. 

I have asked him to be a guest blogger, because his projects are amazing! Like this chair he covered in leather. 

But... he says that he can't blog on "something called Sprinkles." I think that he can. 
Since he won't blog, I will do a blog about this chair sometime.

Are you ready to see what color I painted the dish dresser? First let me tell you that I am so excited about this piece again. I haven't been this in love with it since it was brand new. Here is what it looked like before. 

It really had been a junk stop for stuff that had to go out to the shed or garden.

I started the project Saturday morning after I had coffee in my favorite stay at home and drink coffee mug. As soon as I was finished, I got to priming. 

I used Prime and Seal by Behr. 

It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day on Saturday, just perfect for quick drying on the primer. If it had been raining I would have postponed the project. 
I used the primer so I would not have to strip or sand. I hate sanding with a passion. This piece is not going to get high use, so I think the primer will be fine. I would sand if I were painting kitchen cabinets or a table. 
I used some freedom and creativity on this because Bill said he was not attached to it. In fact he said I could give it away. I think that released me to do some things I wouldn't normally do. This is in our sunroom. which he enclosed. (Can you say guest blogger?) We tend to go a little bit more country out here than in the rest of the house. Okay, I go a little more country.

I used an oil based paint from Sherwin Williams called White Duck. I let it dry overnight.  Painting with oil based paints provides such a nice finish. It takes longer to dry and the clean up is more difficult. To speed clean up I throw the brush away. Don't  judge. I conserve in other ways. 
I staged it Sunday with some accessories and then thought about what else I could do. 
The embellishments came from Home Depot. 
I love this blog.http://downtoearthstyle.blogspot.com/p/tour-my-house.html
She does the cutest stuff with numbers.

The numbers have significance. They were $1.48 each.
One hook was left over from a Bill project for his closet. The other one was $3.29.
The hammered pulls on each side were only $2.58. They look so vintage to me.
The cloverleaf grille was the most expensive element. It was $32.98. It was brass so I spray painted it flat black.  I have seen the sheet metal used to make radiator covers.
I am hoping it will give the dog hair a resting place instead of the way it floats around the room.

I am so excited about other uses for this stuff. I have a little left over so I will be experimenting. It cut very easily with tin snips. 

I screwed it in. The edge shows so I put the cut edge toward the front of the piece. The factory edge is towards the back and bottom, so it looks nicer. 

The decoration on the front was a brass piece I have had kicking around in my junk embellishment bag for ages.


I will have tons of fun staging this through out the seasons. You will love my vintage strawberry collection. 
I didn't go with black paint on this piece because most of the art in my little vintage collections have black backgrounds. Much like the pear below. I thought my collections and my black transferware would get lost in a sea of black. I have used black furniture elsewhere in the house and was ready for something bright. 

I have a whole set of these little fruit appliques. They came off of a wool skirt made for my step mom by her mother-in-law. It was given to me when I could wear a size two. I had the skirt for years and never wore it. I finally cut out the line of applique and made a vest during the 90's. Once the vest craze was over I took the vest apart and framed the strawberries. I have an apple and a plum as well. I love them. The handiwork on these little pieces of fruit is amazing. 
I went with pears for this seasonal display. 

My dear daughter did some pear watercolors in school. I will frame them, as soon as I can find where I put them. 
I have been into the galvanized accessories for a while. They showed up in my Christmas decorating. I got the two teared holder at Hobby Lobby on half price metal day. It was about 4.00. I also still love my mom's little stove.

There is another three day weekend in February. I'm excited about more refurbishing. 
Sprinkled with pears,

Katie

 Linking up with Funky Junk's Saturday Nite Special &

Get Schooled Saturday @ Too Much Time On My Hands