Finding rusty old junk is fun! Nevertheless, I have found that no matter how much "stuff" I find and collect, only God can fully satisfy my heart. Matthew 6:19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Monday, September 1, 2014

Happy Labor Day, Goodbye Summer!


Happy Labor Day everyone! I thought today would be perfect for showing my little patriotic vignette I created for the Fourth of July since I missed posting in July and red, white and blue is a Labor Day theme as well.

For summer I like to put out my Uncle Sam and patriotic touches to last though Labor Day. Although I love shabby-junky-chic, I always keep some primitive things around the house to create a welcome home-spun feel and it works so well with my ironstone and farmhouse items.

Vintage birthday candles to celebrate America's birthday on the Fourth.

Summer isn't summer without bubbles! Love this vintage jar with original contents.
I found this antique scrap at an estate sale. Someone long ago took the time to hand stitch a tribute to  one of the most famous hand-stitched pieces in history!

I used it to temporarily cover an old stool.

Farewell summer! Bring on the pumpkins!

Thursday, August 14, 2014

A "Deer" Summer Vignette

Hello again already! I'm back with another quick post of a "deer" little summer vignette I threw together with some junk I had in my stash. You may remember my sweet deer from previous posts. She surely is one of my all time favorite finds. Today she is enjoying the last days of summer decked in her retro shades and enjoying a cool sip from a vintage coke bottle.

One reason I love blog land is knowing that you Junkers totally "get" how much enjoyment I get from creating a little display like this. Some visitors just sort of look at my stuff in odd way, and although they think it's cute, they just don't get the thrill.
 Call me weird, but I just love this deer in her sunglasses and she truly has made my gloomy summer (health issues) a lot brighter.



She's enjoying her time in Fl. I love that little vintage mini license plate. I found it about a week after I had created the vignette and it was a perfect addition.


She used a vintage map hankie to find her way to FL. (Actually it's a Wyoming state hankie. I know these are hot collectors items, so I'm willing to sell it once my deer makes it back home to settle into her fall vignette-just message me if you are interested!)

                       Fall 2013
I can't believe it's the middle of August and it won't be long until the fall decorating actually begins.

Until then, have a "deer" rest of your summer!

Feathered Nest Friday

Sunday, August 3, 2014

For The Birds


Well this summer really has been "for the birds" for me due to health issues and I really didn't get to enjoy it much or do a lot of decorating. I'm going to spend the next few posts catching up a bit and hopefully I'll be back blogging full force for fall. I can't miss blogging during my favorite season!

Today, however, "for the birds" is dedicated to lovely little birds and has a more positive connotation. I'm going to show you a corner of my dining room that hosts my bird themed treasures.

The 1930's bird cage is a focal point which creates the perfect backdrop for my bird treasures. This year I filled the cage with my vintage McCoy pots and some old floral tins for a summery garden display. 

Back in the spring I found this cool "junk light cover thingy?"" I originally planned to use it on my garden but it ended up making a pretty cloche display on my shabby green side table.
Even though I created this vignette back in the spring I love it so much that I still haven't changed it. The colors and garden theme still seemed to work for summer so I left it alone.

I filled it with some sweet things as you can see, such as an old garden nozzle, tiny chalk painted terra cotta pots and some natural looking eggs.  The bird picture was cut from an old 1800's book that was falling apart.  I got on a vintage frozen Charlotte kick in the spring and was buying them up and altering them to sell in my Junky Chic Boutique, but  like so many of my creations, I ended up keeping her since she is just so cute!
I used old lace and ribbon scraps to make her a dress and an old tiny doily for her hat. A vintage watch piece announces the season.


I display most of my bird treasures on the ledge behind the side table.


I'm pretty sure my whole bird thing started with this lovely vintage tray that I bought many years ago at a yard sale for a quarter. 

Actually most everything in this picture is from a yard sale.
Here is another illustration from the same 1800's book as the picture in the cloche.  You will probably be seeing several more pictures from the same book coming up in future posts. The artwork is just beautiful. 

Well I have enjoyed getting a real post up today! I am looking forward to getting caught up on your lovely blogs and linking up to some parties this week. If you love birds, nests, birdhouses, etc., take a look at my  "For The Birds" board on Pinterest.

Have a great Sunday!parties:
http://romantichome.blogspot.com/2014/08/a-new-soap-dispenser-show-and-tell.html?m=1


http://ivyandelephants.blogspot.com/2014/08/tray-chic.html?m=1

http://www.frenchcountrycottage.net/2014/08/feathered-nest-friday.html?m=1

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Catching Up! Good Friday: Behold The Lamb


Update: I have been dealing with Lyme related issues for months, therefore I have been absent from blogging. This post is one I was working on before things got really bad. I am doing a little better now and I hope to get back into blogging soon.  


For the first part of the post I will show you how I simply tweaked my Easter mantel. I decided I wanted to keep a spiritual theme through summer, as I am going through such a difficult time and find peace looking at the Lord's picture. 


I simply took away any Easter-y things and added this old ruler with "A Good Rule" on it, then I just changed some things around. I dropped my new iPhone in water so I had to take these photos with my old one, sorry they aren't clear.



I really like the little brass candle holder for some reason. I'm still looking for something junky-chic and unique to sit on top. 

Now moving on to my original post-

Hello all! I hope you are enjoying this Easter weekend. I had only a quick bit of time to snap a few shots of my mantel earlier on this glorious Good Friday. The beautiful sunshine resulted in glares and less than perfect photos, but our focus today isn't on our homes and decorating, but on our Lord Jesus Christ. This year for Easter I decided to base my mantel theme upon Jesus, the true meaning of Easter.

Behold the lamb of God, who take taketh   
away the sins of the world.
Psalm 23~The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He is risen!

Best Easter wishes to you all!
Amber

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

A Prayer For Spring

The warmth and sunshine has inspired a little post on this beautiful first day of April.  Today I will simply be sharing my lovely daffodils and an excerpt from "A Prayer In Spring," by Robert Frost. 



Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today; And give us not to think so far away, as the uncertain harvest; keep us here, all simply on the springing of the year...

Happy April!

Amber

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Hippity-Hoppity Easter's On It's Way

Well if you've been following a while then  it's no secret that I love holiday decorating and I really get into to most of them. I am especially excited for Easter and spring and gardening, since we are having the winter that never seems to end this year. Every time we get a couple of teaser days, snow follows. Nevertheless I have all of my spring decorating finished in time to enjoy it for a few weeks before Easter. I have several vignettes to share so I'll be showing just one today and hopefully one of my next few posts will be my Easter mantel and our new fireplace before and after makeover.
I started out creating a display using my soon to be 39 year old Anna-Lee rabbit from my first Easter. I love this Farmhouse-cottage area of our dining room that evolved when I brought in an old chippy screeen door and placed it in front of the ledge where I keep a lot of my ironstone. I thought an outdoorsy-farm theme would be perfect here for Spring.


 We both turn  39 tomorrow and we're still smiling!


Anna Lee Rabbit carries an Easter basket full of sweet little vintage eggs, a  furry chick, some straw and soft, yellow downy feathers.

This is such a great old ironstone piece. A cabbage bowl is just perfect for Easter.

I love filling the bowl with vintage decoupaged eggs, little blue eggs and straw and feathers instead of cheap, plastic grass. Just creates such a genuine farmhouse look.

                         Such beautiful, vivid pictures on these eggs which remind me so much of childhood Easters.

I recently bought several vintage Easter postcards and this one with the baby chick was a great addition to the spring farm vignette. 

Bon Ami, good friend(s), hope you  all have a springy-week full of sunshine and flowers everywhere! I have several more posts of vintage Easter and spring coming up soon, so be sure to stop by. Thanks for visiting today!


Amber

Parties:

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Up cycled Vintage "Angel of Faith"

Hello again! I thought I would do a quick post tonight to show you my latest project. I found this little vintage angel Christmas ornament at an estate sale and thought she would be perfect for a chic up cycle.



I cleaned her up and gave her some shabby chic touches using vintage lace, an old button, some pearls and  tarnished tinsel. I had the little shield in my craft stash and decided it was just what she needed. Now she is not longer just a Christmas decoration, but can be a reminder of faith everyday. 

                                                                         Sweet feet

                                                                   Such a beautiful face!

Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified. Do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9

                                   Don't we all look and  feel better with a little bit of faith, lace and pearls?

"Angel of Faith" is now available in my Junky Chic Boutique Etsy shop. https://www.etsy.com/listing/184095898/vintage-japan-angel-ornament-up-cycle

 I think she would make a great graduation gift.

Thanks for visiting today. Remember, be strong and courageous!
Amber

Partying with:http://www.commonground-do.com/
What's It Wednesday
Knick of Time Tuesday
Blissful Whites Wednesday
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday
Home and Garden Thursday

Monday, March 24, 2014

March Madness and Some Recent Junk Finds

It's March! Wait, it's almost April? Where has the time gone? In Kentucky, March Madness is usually associated with University of Kentucky basketball, but for me it's always about the big spring musical I am involved in, getting the yard and home prepared for spring, two birthdays, and trying to celebrate a little Saint Patrick's Day too! Things have finally settled down here long enough for me to get a blog post up today. I am the musical director for a large performing arts center in our town and every March is hectic. Our big spring musical always falls around St. Patrick's Day and it takes me at least a week to recover from the hectic schedule and to get back into blogging, decorating and junking. Last year I had a very similar post to this one when we did The Wizard Of Oz, which I am proud to say, ended up being nominated for seven national performing arts awards of which we won three! Well, now it's all over and I can take a breather, so today I am going to be showing you some highlights from my St. Patrick's Day/Grease weekend and also some of my favorite junk finds from this weekend.





The most I really had time for was a quick display on our mantel and a few small additions of green around the house. Because I am of Scottish heritage by birth and my husband is also of Scottish-Irish descent, we collect a lot of Celtic-inspired treasures, so in the past few years I stopped buying cutesy St. Patrick's Day decorations and started using what we already had, which is my favorite way to decorate anyway. I did our mantel up using some of these items. Unfortunately in the mayhem I just had time to snap a few blurry iphone pictures and didn't even get a whole mantel pic. That's how busy things were that weekend!

This Claddgah door knocker was found at an estate sale just a few days before St. Patrick's day. Lucky me!
Here is my great, great grandfather's journal. Absolutely amazing stuff in here! I acutally found this on St. Patrick's day while looking for something completely non-related. How's that for luck?

Last year I found this vintage Beistle die-cut leprechaun. I haven't looked it up but I would think this guy is pretty hard to come by. He really shows up well on the front door. Actually he is kind of creepy, but leprechauns are bit creepy when you think about it, so it's all good.

And what is March without lucky shamrocks? I love them, and they grow well for me outside from May til October. I plant them in my celtic knot planter with Irish moss and it's very magical. For now they are in sitting down in a silverplate bowl on the bar in our kitchen. I'm getting excited about gardening, and seeing these shamrocks everyday reminds me that it won't be too much longer.


 GREASE is the word...

This year's musical was Grease and it turned out fantastic! I was NOT a pink lady, just a wannabe! I am the musical director, so I teach all the songs and direct the music for the production, sing from off-stage, help with costuming and set, as well co-direct artistically. It's a lot of fun.


All of our cast were amazing this year. Our Rizzo was phenomenal. She is going on to major in musical theater and we all expect great things in her future. Her voice is pure BROADWAY!


            And here I am with Sandra Dee!This little gal is one of my private vocal and piano students for four years and she is like a little sister to me too. When she was in 5th grade she could sing Adele like nobody's business, and at age 14 she was able to land the lead role in this musical and she was amazing. I am so proud of her! Don't be surprised if you see her on American Idol one of these days!
                                            And we had some pretty cool T-Birds too!

I love doing plays and productions but with  my health issues it's hard to do much else during the last few weeks before opening, so my home and blogging took a back seat. Somehow this year I even managed to get a new boutique space opened during all the chaos. I have recouperated well, which makes me feel confident that my Lyme disease treatments are helping somewhat. Thank you to all of you who have been following and have commented that you are thinking of me and praying. Please continue. Although I look happy and "normal" in these pictures, it really is a struggle. But, I truly am on my way to recovery! For me, music, junking, blogging and decorating are the best medicine for the emotional aspects of chronic illness. Bring  on the junk!

This weekend I got back to junking and had some St. Patrick's Day luck leftover from the previous weekend! I found some gorgeous jewelry and antique postcards, some of which I will be listing in my Junky Chic Boutique etsy shop.  Here are some of my favorite finds:
Oh how I love ALL of these. I already have a few vintage Easter postcards so I'm going to list of couple of these in the shop and keep a few for myself. It's going to be hard to decide which ones to let go. You can also see a bit of the sweet, vintage dogwood earrings I found this weekend. They are in the little teal McCoy basket with the cutest little tiny eggs.

I also got some non-holiday postcards. This one is by far my favorite. Lovely artwork and an except from a poem by the famous Scottish poet, Robert Burns (My Luve Is Like A Red, Red Rose). This poem has also been set to music and I have used it many times as a teaching tool with my beginning choir classes, so that makes this postcard really special to me as it will always be a reminder of my days as a high school choral director.
Here's a lot of vintage jewelry which really seems to be what keeps coming my way these days. Or maybe I seek it out. I just can't resist it.

More awesome flea market finds. Cameo love/obsession. Vintage hardware love/obsession. Vintage postcard love/obsession. Vintage pin love/obsession. Vintage anything that is white and metal or iron and rusty-even if I have no clue what it is love/obsession You get the idea! Of course you do. You all  have your own junk passions too.
This sweet little pin from the 1920's-30's but it will be listed in Junky Chic Boutique later today before I end up hoarding keeping it too. It's so "period" looking, fantastic. Okay I am stopping now before I talk myself into pinning it on some lace somewhere around the house.

My birthday is March 31, and on the day I was born the newspaper horoscope said, "If your child is born today he/she will have lots of luck!" That has turned out to be true, but sometimes I must admit I wish the author would have specified, "good luck!" But overall, I must say I am very lucky indeed. So to end this post, I would have to say that  my favorite little treasure from the weekend would have to be his vintage horseshoe pin. As I say, I am a lucky junker! Junking is just really getting started with the warmer weather. Hope this find is a sign of things to come for the next few months.



Thanks for stopping by today! I'll be back soon with some spring and Easter highlights and some of my recent projects.

Happy Spring!

Amber

Linking up:
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