Pink and Cream China

A couple of years ago, when my dad was in a nursing home, I slipped over to our local flea market and found a set of cream and white china for $12. I bought it for my mom....it wasn't complete: 4 plates, 3 fruit bowls and a small veggie bowl. She was thrilled! It came at a good time when she was down about the circumstances and needed a lift. Come to find out she didn't like her everyday china, my aunt had picked it out and she never liked it and always wanted pink floral china. Since then we have picked up odds and ends that go with the set but aren't necessarily the same pattern. Well yesterday I walked into my favorite thrifting haunt and found these beauties! I bought 4 plates and 3 coffee cups. My mom was very excited! As a matter of fact, she sent me back today to buy more so.... now we have 10 new plates, 1 soup bowl, a veggie bowl and 4 bread and butter plates...AHHHHH! china heaven!

The picture I am leaving you with is of a very old, very delicate pillow cover that I also found a couple of weeks ago...it is just so creamy and beautiful!

Happy Friday Night! hugs! karen.....

A Gardener???

I don't know about you but I have always considered myself a "brown thumb"

Well, one of the vows I made to myself when we moved into my childhood home with my mom was that I would give her a pretty garden at some point.

Well....I'm working on it, and she has been very pleased with the results...luckily for me she loves almost every flower and lots of petunias (can you say easy to grow?) Here are some Cala Lilies which were already established in her garden but they are just the prettiest pink so I thought I would share it with you.

Also, here is a pic of one side of our veggie garden, we grow one every year but this is the first really good garden we have had in a few years....We picked our first cukes (5 of them!) and squash today.....yummy!

Happy thursday! The green thumb-in-training

Some Dolly Love

I posted a picture of this little doll a couple of weeks ago and she was naked... no clothes for her.... On friday, I walked into one of my favorite thrift stores and

there was a gallon sized bag full of cute old doll clothes...She's not nakie any more!!!

I have grown very fond of this little girl and am so happy to dress her...Not all the clothes fit her but a few do and the picture to the left shows my favorites of the bunch! I love the vintage fabrics used in the handmade dresses and all the cute panties to match.... so much fun!

Tomorrow I start summer school, those few days went very fast! We had a heat wave here in Calif. that we aren't accustomed to and don't have air conditioning for so I was not as productive as I hoped to be...just mainly focused on staying cool. Luckily it has passed and we had a normal june day so the doggie got her shots and I got some laundry done...all those fun and necessary chores that you gotta do!

I will have to let you meet our pets soon!

Happy Tuesday evening! xoxo karen......

When did that happen?

My sweet, darling, smart , quirky little girl graduated from middle school today! WHAT??? She was just two, stealing my shoes and babbling away! I cannot believe she is going into high school already! I decided to share a pic with me in it too so you can see the 40 somethin', needs her hair dyed, much-too-fluffy (I dont say fat) person that you have been so patiently listening to on my blog.... But focus on the cute young one with the pretty smile okay...???
I also wanted to show you a pic of the class I am taking on Sunday at Piecemakers in Costa Mesa, CA. My friend Robin is teaching it and when she made this beauty, I was instantly in love! The main focus is the punched birdy image on the front but Robin filled hers with vintage sewing notions and tools and instant love for me! Robins egg blue, ribbon flowers, birds, vintage stuff ---Yum! I cant wait! I will show you what I make when I am done!
xoxo karen

Fun Etsy Buy! A gift for me!

I was surfing etsy the other night and came across this seller: oneripepeach@etsy.com and instantly fell in love with the sweetness of her little cards and loved all the trims and goodies she had to offer . I don't splurge very often online...save my splurges for thrifting but I just couldn't resist!
Well...it came today and look how cute it was wrapped! A present just for me! Here are the goodies unwrapped and you can see a little thank you package with teeny tiny pretty things to use in my art.
Take a look at the sweet little cards she makes. I had to buy the dotted swiss when I saw how cute her little cards came out using it in the background. So if you feel like getting yourself a cute little something....One Ripe Peach is the place! Sorry for the lipstick smudge in the background of these pics... just didn't have time to style my photos today! Happy Wednesday! karen.....

Happy Fathers Day- and I'm such a dork!

First of all, Happy Father's Day!
I hope you all enjoy your hubbies, dads, boyfriends and sons (future dads) today and show them how much you love them. I am off to make eggs benedict after this post to show my cute hubby how special he is!
Next: I am such a dork!!!!
I will not be able to do Show and tell sunday because I left my camera at work!
So ignore what I wrote last night about posting today, I even had to try to find a fathery pic to post so it looked like I at least planned it! This picture is some of my thrifting finds from a couple of weeks ago!
I will show you some of my favorite flea market finds when I have my camera back but for now....Just have a wonderful Sunday and show your family you love them! xoxo karen

Busy, Busy!!!

Hi Again!
So sorry it has taken me so long to blog! I don't know if I have blogged about what I do in my day job? I am a behavior therapist working in a local school district with children with Autism ages 3 - 7. It is the end of the school year and so I have to tie up all the loose ends, plus we have 3 new kiddos start in the last 2 weeks or so and we are trying hard to get them comfortable in their new school before summer school starts and they have a bunch of changes again so it has been crazy busy and by the time I get home I just want to crash!
Also, my little girl, my baby, is graduating from middle school! AAAAAgh! When did she grow up??? It happens so fast! She is not a shopper so you can imagine the joy I have been going through trying to find a dress and shoes for this....she even suggested she just wear her converse tennies with her brown and blue polka dot dress!????
So.... I will be writing soon, I am definitely getting in on Show and Tell Sunday this week so stop on by in a tomorrow and I promise to post more often in the near future!
xoxo karen....

Determination

First, I just wanted to share a picture of some Peonies we bought at Trader Joes. My dad always told me they were his favorite flower but they didn't grow out here in California... Now that he is gone and all of you wonderful women all over the U.S. have shared your peonies on your blog, I couldn't believe how beautiful they were! So in a pretty vase that my dad gave my mom are our peonies...purchased but beautiful indeed!

Now for my second topic and the reason for the title of this post... I have been frustrated with some of the things going on at work lately... Maybe having a start of a little pity party in my head.... Then one day I walked by our front planter and these tomatoes just stuck in my head. I kept thinking about this silly tomato bush that is growing in our front planter, amongst our gerbera daisies and hydrangea bushes. We never planted this

bush, it just popped up last year and gave us all of 3 tomatoes. We didnt thank it, just popped those babies in our mouth and said "hmph, funny tomato bush!"

Now this year this puppy is growing many tomatoes...did we fertilize it? No...

Did we give it any special TLC? No...but it is filled with beautiful and sweet cherry tomatoes...Now that is determination!

No more whining Karen.... if that little tomato bush can survive without as much as a how-do-ya-do, I can keep on going without complaint, just a little determination!

Lastly, I wanted to show you the darling card we made in stamp club last week! I just love birds and if you look closely this one even has a nest on the roof of the little house and pearl eggs to go in it! Hope you are having a great start to your weekend! Talk to you soon! karen....

New kits in shop!

I have added 3 new inpiration kits to my etsy site!

The first is a really cute child's basket purse filled with yummy goodies to use in your art or scrapbooking...The containers to all these kits are wonderful on their own but I also took alot of thought and time filling them with mostly vintage theme related fun stuff for you to get inspired!

The Second is an Emeraude powder box filled with glamour/drama themed art supplies. Beaded, rhinestoned, glamour filled fun!

The last, but not least inspiration kit is a beautiful wedgewood tin filled with blue and white-vintage/victorian yummi-ness. (I use food descriptive words far too much!)

I hope you are having a wonderful Tuesday Night! I will talk to you soon!

karen.....

Organization? Oh boy....not me.....

This is a very late show and tell blog and here is the reason:

I AM NOT VERY ORGANIZED! Scary but true. In some ways I like it because I see things with other things that I forgot I had and get really excited but.... and this is a big but! We all know how long it takes to find things when you are not organized....... a bazillion times longer than it should.

Now that we are compacted into one room- hubby's computer building hobby, my hoarding of all things vintage and arting hobby and our bedroom, I have been a little better at it. I am now using some cute containers to contain my stuff! So here ya go! Like it or not....I am NOT showing you the other messes so don't even ask! Just pretend that everything looks really pretty around these spaces okie dokie??? That would make me very happy!

This pic shows this awesome set of drawers that a man made by hand for his treasures. He was retired, built 2 houses with his sons and just loved woodworking so he kept going and this was one of his projects. It has 32 drawers. He made it and built his houses with a special woodworking kit he bought from Sears in the 1950's! You can see some of my favorite tins-filled with buttons a cute big painted tin thing that has a mish mash of goodies and some other odd and end storage containers.

This next picture is the top of an armoire that Micheal and

I originally finished as a computer desk but then refitted it to be my art closet. On top you will find my hat boxes, white wood and metal boxes, an ikea drawer set that needs new colors and some odd-n-end containers.

The picture at the top of this post is of the top of my closet....There you will find more hat boxes, button jars, my scrapbooks...yada yada..

And this last pic is a shelf on my computer table. It has one of those old, cool wooden handled boxes filled with eyecandy, I mean supplies. And a really cool pencil can made by Robin with one of her signature birdies on it....

I hope you are having a great day.....I will be back soon with some etsy additions! karen......