My Pumpkin Bathroom has a new resident!

My Dog "Corrie" and my latest rug.

I finished my latest rag rug last night. It is approx. 4 ft x 3 ft in size....I can't find my measuring tape so I am guessing.  It was made using some sheets that I picked up at a local Salvation Army Store.  It will need to lie on the floor for a while to get it to lay flat....I am still learning how to get the stitches just right in order to get a perfectly flat rug. 

I found this Boy yesterday at the Thrift store where I work!  I hemmed and hawed before deciding to bring him home.  He is an unsigned little oil painting and the price was right..less than the cost of a magazine.  I just couldn't leave this painting behind, the colors were so perfect for my little powder room that I just painted.  I love to pick up things that make me laugh...this little guy with a butt hanging out of his mouth is just so funny to me.  So politically incorrect!  I will have to come up with some kind of important lesson to tell my future Grandchildren about the horrors of smoking or something like that to justify this boy living in my Bathroom!  My husband hasn't noticed him yet...I don't think he will be impressed! LOL!!!

Nice old sign and a weekend well spent.

 

This old sign was an Ebay purchase that I made a few years ago when I was really diggin' Ebay and spending a lot of time on it.  It is a wooden sign, nice and old and chippy.  I am pretty sure that it once lived on a post in a train yard.  My guess is that it was used to measure the length of a train in the yard.....the sign would indicate where there was 110 cars?  Does that make sense?  Anyway it is nice and rusty and looks like it saw lots of weather so I like it!  

I finally got around to painting my powder room on the main floor this past weekend!  We moved in to the house we are in now three years ago.  It was a new build and is an awesome house but it is taking me a lot longer to paint it than I had anticipated.  10 years ago I would have painted it non stop until it was done but the old body AND my old mind just can't seem to move to the pace that it used to. 


I found what I like to call a "Boo Boo" can of paint at the local do it center for 9 bucks so it seemed to be the time to "get 'er done" as they say. 

It's a warm Pumpkin Pie kinda color and I like it.  My daughters think it looks like "POO" and will get you in the mood to use the room for it's intended purpose.  Whatever I can do to help......LOL!

Another Sign from my Travels...and by travel I mean buzzing around near home....

This is my big "D".  I found this wonderful thing at a local hole in the wall Flea Market not far from my house....I always think of that particular place as a crummy Flea Market but I really shouldn't however because I have found a couple of really great treasures there.  I was told by the vendor that this "D" came from a Denny's sign that was on a restaurant in Saskatchewan.  If that is true, it is far from home. When I haggled with him I got the impression that he was glad to be rid of it and he let me have it for $20.00  It is a beautiful thing in deep orange Plexi glass with a metal frame that is nice and chippy ( the paint is half chipped off).  Apparently Denny's moved on to a new logo design with a simpler "D".  Too bad because I love the little curly cue! It has no relevance to our family name but if anyone asks what it stands for, I can come up with any number of answers....D for Duh!....D for Dinner....D for Don't ask me what it stands for!   I am carefully guarding my "D" these days because my middle daughter, Morgan, is dating a guy whose surname begins with a "D" and he has had his eyes on my sign!!  He will have to be VERY good to my girl for me to even consider letting him have it!

Signs, Signs, Everywhere a Sign....more of my Favorite Things.

There is a list of things that I have a "Thing" for....old wooden picture frames, vintage buttons, little chairs, original paintings found in thrift shops, and Signs.  The frame thing really drives my husband crazy because there is quite a stack of them in the basement and he just doesn't "get it".  But the signs, he seems to be able to handle.  He hasn't really been vocal about them anyway.

This is probably my favorite sign and something that I would want to grab if the house caught fire.  It is an old street sign and is double sided and looks exactly the same on the other side with big black hooks where it hung from a bracket outside of a salon.  I found it in a little town I used to live in, Almonte, in the Ottawa valley back around 1997.  It was in a big barn that was chocked full of auction and estate stuff and the old guy who ran the place was a gruff man named Gary who went around the store leaning one leg on a little scooter/skateboard type thing because he was loosing bits of one leg a piece at a time.  I saw this sign and fell in love with it immediately.  I had been a hairdresser back when I was first in the working world (still have my license but have not worked in a salon for years).  He wanted $35.00 for the sign and I just did not have the money but was hoping and praying that the sign would still be there when I was able to get the money together.  A week or so later I went back ( I think I took it out of the grocery money, an old trick that I learned from my Mother) and to my dismay, the sign was gone! Gary told me an Interior Designer from Ottawa had come in a bought it!  I was shattered and went home with my head hanging low.  Weeks later on Christmas morning when all of the other presents had been opened by my three daughters and the frenzy of the moment had subsided, my oldest daughter, Lauren, came into the room with a large square wrapped package.  I had absolutely no clue what it was.  When I tore the corner of the paper I knew immediately and I broke down in tears....no Diamonds to make me happy, old signs will do it for me anytime!!!  My husband had done one of the nicest things he has ever done for me and my little girls had managed to keep it a surprise for weeks! I love you guys....Thanks for understanding me!

Some of my Favorite Things

I thought I'd share today some of my favorite things today.  We are snowed in here, just like a lot of people in North America and I have been told to stay home from work.  A good day to spend online!
I love to shop in thrift shops and at flea markets.  Unfortunately where I live there is limited choice of good places to go to find the types of things I love.  I am envious of  those of you who live in the States.  It seems to me from surfing the net and reading articles in magazines that you have a much more varied and rich supply of places to hunt for "Junk" and vintage collectibles.
Here in Canada it's like searching for the holy grail.  Everyone seems to be on the same hunt and you really have to be in the right place at the right time to find what you are looking for.

   This soldier boy was found at the Aberfoyle Flea Market near Guelph, Ontario.  I just had to have him.  When I was a teenager, I was an Air Cadet.  I met my husband in the Air Cadets and our daughters all did time in the program.  the uniform this WW2 soldier is wearing is  pretty much the same uniform that the Air Cadets in Canada wear today.

The log cabin quilt was made by me back in the late 90's when I was at home with my children and running a home daycare.  I shopped for wool skirts in thrift shops and was usually able to pick them up for a dollar or two each, can't do that now, prices have gone up!  The quilt on top is one that I picked up at Value Village approx. 3 years ago.  It is in fabulous condition and was lovingly hand made by someone very talented.

This painting was another Thrift shop find and I was able to pick it up for $3!  The colors are very funky and it sits proudly on coat rack shelf in the foyer of my home.  It measure 3ft across and 1ft in height.

.Just a few things that I love.  I will post more pics of some of my favorite finds soon! Keep warm everyone!