The other day I was picturing all the things I’d love to do to our house. Of course, since that money tree hasn’t taken root, we’re still in the day dreaming stage. I think I’d start with our downstairs bathroom since it’s the smallest room in the house. I really want a new vanity for starters.

I really like the look of this one. I’d put a skirt around the inside perimeter to hide the essentials.  I’d also love to wallpaper the wall with book pages. Wouldn’t that be fun!

Ok…enough with the day dreaming for today. Let’s get on with the giveaway…


The CSN stores have given me the great opportunity host a giveaway open to U.S. and Canada residents right here, right now!
I checked out the art supplies and came up with these great items:

So, how do you win these art supplies? 
  • 1st entry- leave a comment on this post…make sure there is some way for me to contact you
  • 2nd optional entry- become a follower of my blog then post another comment telling me you did so…if you already follow tell me that in a comment as well
  • 3rd optional entry- blog about this giveaway and post the link in a comment
Please post your comment before midnight central time on Wednesday June 30th to be counted. The winner will be chosen using a random number generator. The winner’s name will be posted July 1st.

That’s it …  Good luck!

Before my garage sale I made some flags from scraps to put up by the street so people would know the sale was here. As it turned out, we had so much stuff the flags weren’t needed. They’ve sat on my sewing machine case until today. I decided to pretty up the garden a bit.

Incidentally…the garden is doing very well. I have green tomatoes on all the plants and a couple yellow pepper on one plant. I’ve been harvesting herbs nearly daily. The lettuce is looking pretty poor but I’m going to try and let it dry out a little more. I think it’s not well enough drained.

I picked up a small stoneware pitcher from a garage sale last week. The lady didn’t want to bargain much with me because she said it was made by a famous MN potter named Robert Briscoe. I’d never heard of him but looked it up when I got home. I paid $5 for it…she said she paid over $30.
Last evening, I went around the yard and picked a pretty bouquet for my new pitcher.


I’ve been working on random projects as time permits since it’s summer break for the kids.

I made another cork board. An 8×10 version this time. I tried out cutting the long “stem” off the champagne corks. This posed more of a challenge in the layout. I still have a bag of corks from the giant fish bowl…amazing how many were in there.

Four cartons of fire starters made from sawdust and leftover candles for our chimenea.They work really slick. Just break off one section and it adds enough fuel to get the fire going really good. Great way to use up those candle bits that won’t burn anymore.


This time I had quite a bit of extra wax due mostly to a couple of really poor candles I bought a while back. They were both the jarred variety and kept drowning the wick in the puddled wax. Frustrating!

I decided to try a citronella candle for the deck once I found the wicking and citronella oil in my candle making box. I reused one of those old candle glass jar for this experiment.

PS…what do you think of my new signature?

I’m almost there!! One more dress and I’ll be caught up with the rest of the Dress-up Project participants.

This dress I wanted to be kind of sassy. Maybe prom dress like.
First I adhered a scrap hand dyed fabric from my stash to the cereal box form.
Next I got out a couple silk flower arrangements likely from the 80’s or early 90’s judging by the color. I pulled them apart and stapled the folded flowers in layers to form the skirt flounces.
The pearl and lace ribbon was used to cover the staples. See you’d have never known my secret had I not spilled the beans!!

My only issue with the dress is how to hang it in my yet to be finished wardrobe. I do have a small clothes pin that can work in a pinch. I was considering fish line…then it would be like those plastic strap things that sometimes come on woman’s clothing.
Regardless of how I hang it…I love it.
Sassy, flirty but in a youthful, more innocent way.

Be sure to check out the other May Dresses over at the Alice and Camilla Blog.

Check out my latest dress for the Dress-up Project.

I mostly used recycled materials for this one. The  “fabric” of the dress is the paper my boy and I made last summer. I cut out a front and back then sprayed them with the one bottle of Glimmer Mists I own. :)

I stamped across the dress lightly with a script stamp and distress ink for extra interest. I “stuffed” the dress with some tissue to give it a bit of dimension before gluing it together.

The fringe bottom was created by folding little pieces of cut tablcloth.

The necklace was a pierced earring. All I had to do was take off the post and ta-da…necklace.

Make sure and stop by the Alice and Camilla blog to check out all the other April dresses!

On a whim, I went in search of some garage sales with my neighbor.  Yeah, I know, what was I thinking. I just had a sale myself to get rid of stuff. We have more room now so I have to do my best to fill it back up.

I did very well in just 2 hours. I got all you see here plus a nightstand for my son’s room for the small price of $22.40. 

  • New Stampin’ Up! Sunflower set
  • Stampin’ Up! set of distressing tools
  • square frame
  • sunflower floral spray
  • craft paints new or barely used
  • candle
  • vintage books
  • cigar box
  • terracotta saucers
  • stack of white cardstock
  • picnic basket
  • canvas boards

Since garage sales and thrift stores are the only places I’m allowing myself to purchase supplies this year I think I really scored!

I just put the finishing touches on my Gothic Arches for the 7th Anniversary swap on ABC. I’ve never worked in this shape before. My goal was to get these in the mail by tomorrow and I think I’ll meet it.  That is, unless chaos reins since it’s the first non-school day of the summer.

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