Category Archives: Antiquing

The Barn House Show 2013

Good evening!

This past Saturday, I got to spend the day on my own with no responsibilities. With my camera in hand, and I headed out to Turner, Oregon to spend some time down at The yearly Barn House Show! I like to try and get out there every year, get inspired, and see if I can find any treasures to take home with me.

The Barn House show is held every year at the Turner Memorial Tabernacle! This building is HUGE, and I often dream about purchasing it and turning it into my sweetie and my dream home!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAW!! That would be AWESOME!! 😉 and check out how BLUE that sky was!! 😉

I love this chippy little sign, and I saw it as soon as I walked in – how fitting!! 😉

I think these bottles were faux mercury glass! I had just stumbled onto some instructions on how to do this, and I may have to give this technique a try. So pretty!!

Who knew that an old painted, rusty ceiling tiling could be so beautiful??? I LOVE this!!;-)

This chair is JUST SO ME!!! I love the sexy, curvy shape, and I simply ADORE the zebra stripes!!! 😉

Being a bibliophile, I just LOVE finding unique bookends, and these ones are so industrial-chic!!! BRAVO!! 😉

I just LOVE this oversized wall clock!!

This bag is tres cute! I need to learn how to sew me some ruffles!! 😉

I love these signs!! I dream that one day my sweetie and I will be able to say, “Welcome to our farmhouse!!” 😉

My sweetie thought this marionette was creepy, but I have ALWAYS LOVED harlequin clowns, and I just FELL IN LOVE WITH HIM as soon as I saw him (that applies to both my sweetie and this cute little clown)!!! 😉

Every single one of these items could EASILY find a place in my home!! 😉

I really never knew I was such a industrial-chic kind of girl, but I really just LOVE the mix of architectural details, rust, and a bit of chippy paint!!

Who couldn’t use more glittered feathers in their life??? I know I could!! 😉

I LOVE these brooches!! 😉

AIEEEEE!!! I LOVE these ones too!!! 😉

These last three pics are all from one of my FAVORITE vendors down at Aunt Bee’s House – you might recognize a couple of these quilts from my post on Aunt Bee’s House a couple of weeks ago!! To see more of that, click Here!

Who knew that metal siding could double as art?? I need to get me some of this!! 😉

I love this vintage button bracelet!! I could use this in my accessory wardrobe!! 😉

I have always wanted an oversized mirrored armoir like this!! It always reminds me of the book, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe!

I had such a great time at The Barn House Show, spending the day seeing all of the vendors’ booths, and all of the treasures for sale, and the weather truly could NOT have been more perfect!! I ended up taking a few vintage magazines home, as well as a stack of vintage crochet books!! SCORE!!! 😉 I really do look forward to going every year, so if any of you are in the area, and would like to go with me I think that would be a BLAST!!! Don’t you??? THE MORE THE MERRIER!!! 😉

With that said…

Here is to a FABULOUS evening!! ;-)

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!!

Looking for Beauty at Aunt Bee’s House!

Good evening!

I am so very excited to share this post with you this evening, but before I get too ahead of myself, I wanted to tell you a little bit of back story on this post! Last week, I went to one of my FAVORITE shops here in town, Aunt Bee’s House! Aunt Bee’s House is a large marketplace for people to rent space to sell their home furnishings, decorative items, gifts, and other beautiful treasures!! When I find that I am needing to get some retail therapy, some inspiration for doing some decorating in my little condo, find a new color combination ideas for my next arting project, or if I am need of a unique and perfect gift for a friend or family member – Aunt Bee’s House is my go-to place of choice!!

Well, anyway I had gathered up the nerve to introduce myself to the staff, and ask if I could take some pictures so that I could post them on blog, This Artsy Life. That may not sound like a big deal, but me being eternally shy and having a tendency to want to remain invisible when I am out on the town by myself, I was pretty dang proud of myself!! Well, of course the staff of Aunt Bee’s House being SO AMAZING, welcoming and friendly, they said “yes” immediately, and off I went – snapping away!!! I was such a happy girl, and I think I came home with something like 200 pictures!!

Needless to say, it was a GREAT day!! 🙂

Well, long story short, I got home placed my camera card in my computer, and my computer essentially ate all of my pictures!! UGH!!

I would love to tell you that me being the new brave and outgoing Christina, I turned around went right back and started the process all over again, but alas that is not how it went down! 🙂 It literally took me another week to gather up my courage again to go back and ask if I might take those pictures again!! The FABULOUS staff so graciously said “yes” again, and again I spent a lovely afternoon just snapping away!! Finding all sorts of treasures and beautiful items to delight the senses. I can’t believe it had taken me so long to get back there!! I REALLY LOVE THIS PLACE!!! 😉

Soooo…

Tonight I am very happy to share with you some of the pictures that I took while at Aunt Bee’s House.

Here we go!! 🙂

This is what you see when you first walk in to the shop! The colors of these quilts are so happy and joyful, that I think that quilting may become my next hobby/passion!! Oh man, what is my sweetie going to think about that??? 😉

I am really loving teal painted furniture!! Hmmmm…I wonder how my sweetie would feel about having his dresser painted teal?

I love this little vignette! 🙂 The lamps, the bowl of green apples, the books, the horse, everything!! LOVE! LOVE! LOVE!!

I love the juxtaposition of this stripped wooden vessel and the red vintage books.

and how about these two large gears??? Aren’t they just AMAZING???? I am SERIOUSLY thinking about going back and bringing these two manly studs home!!! 🙂

Who knew that oil can could be chic? Well, apparently they can be!!! 🙂

I am LOVING this headboard! The colors, the restic-ness of it, and maybe just the ingeniousness use of recycled fence posts!!

These are decorative storage boxes that looks like books with tapestry covers! VERY SPRINGY!! 😉

I love this vignette too! The books, plant pot, bird, and yes even the doily!! Who knew that I was going to have to start thinking about getting a doily?? My mama would be very proud!! 😉

I LOVE this LOVE sign!! 😉

Aren’t these just the cutest?? They are weighted pillows! I could see myself using these as a door stop for my front door!! SO SWEET!!

This is SUCH an INGENIOUS way to display simple ribbon roses!! I may have to give this project a try!! 😉

I am a SUCKER for colored glass vessels, and this BLUE is just STUNNING!!! 😉

I may need a whole slew of these to decorate all over our place!! I just LOVE rustic stars, and the glitter really adds a but of glam!!

This mannequin FASCINATES me!! Whoever gets to take this love figure home is my hero!! I LOVE THIS!!!

This little lady was kind of tucked in the back of this display, and as soon as I saw her, I knew she just needed to be brought forward and with a little bit of rearranging she is now the ROCK STAR of this vignette!! 😉

Here is another vignette that makes me happy to look at! I am really digging the message of this teal sign. “Thank God for blessing me much more than I deserve!” This has become my motto on almost a daily basis!! 😉

I am just CRAZY about this white chippy dresser!! TRES CHIC!!! 😉

I am so impressed by this paper wreath!! Someone has some SERIOUS patience!! 😉

I love this rack!! I could see this in my place being used as our mail rack…or maybe a medicine rack…or maybe a spice rack…or maybe as an organizer in my art studio…or maybe as a…or as a…!! I KNOW, IT IS A SICKNESS!!! 🙂

This is a message that I am going to try and apply to my life this week!! Enjoy the Little Things!! 🙂

Here is another one of those FABULOUS quilts!! See what I mean?? I love this design and the colors!! I would LOVE to have a new, homemade quilt for our bedroom!!! Sooooo cheery!!!

Well, there you have it!!! I hope you have enjoyed all of these pictures, as much as I had taking them!!! If you happen to be in the Salem area, I would highly recommend visiting Aunt Bee’s House!! I KNOW there will be THE PERFECT treasure waiting there JUST FOR YOU!!!

Thank you to the INCREDIBLE staff at Aunt Bee’s House for letting me share your lovely shop with my readers. I am greatly impressed by everything about your shop, there is such a welcoming, homey feeling that is evident as soon as you walk in the door!!!! I will most DEFINITELY be back in again!! 😉

To my readers, I want to make sure you know that I am in no way compensated by Aunt Bee’s House, and all of the opinions expressed are solely my own!! I hope you enjoyed all of these pictures!! 😉

Here is to a FABULOUS evening!! ;-)

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!!

Some Home Updates!

Good afternoon!

We are having a lovely four-day weekend here at the manse!! LOL! 😉

I thought I would share some new pics of some things going on around our place this weekend! 😉

Here are some pics of our garden! It is so fun to watch the plants grow and getting out there and weeding, pruning, and making everything look lovely!!

We are so jazzed to see how much lettuce we are going to have! They are growing so much faster then us newbie-farmers could even imagine!

Here are our snap-peas, and 3 strawberry plants! We already have one red strawberry!! We will have to flip a coin to see who gets to eat it!! 😉

Here are the two blueberry bushes! I can’t wait to see how much they produce! 😉

Here are a few of our herbs!

Here are a few more! We have 3 pots of herbs growing! 😉

Next, on to our living room!! As many of you know, my sweetie and I are getting ready for Bariatric surgery. One of my goals before surgery is to make sure that the house is clean, organized, purged, and no muss, no fuss ready for us to just concentrate on getting better!

One of the things we have been hearing from past patients is that a recliner is almost imperative to post-surgery resting! Well, I have been a long time naysayer of recliners. They are large, ugly, and I have just really never liked them! So, when I picked up two leather ones this weekend, I was sure that I was losing my mind, but my rationale behind doing that was twofold! 1. I know that we will both be having surgery, and I don’t want either one of us to have to sleep on the couch! 2. It has been really hard to have company over when there is just not enough seats in our place!

So after a ton of time spent cleaning, purging, and redecorating, and along with the help of my FABULOUS sweetie, we were able to take our living room from this:

To this:

Aaaaaaah…SO MUCH BETTER!!

The feeling in here is now so much more calming. We moved the large television out from in front of the window, so the room is now awash in sunlight! What a much more positive feeling, and way less drab and gloomy!!

Also, now that I have a bunch more of our favorite art work on the wall, the space feels sooo much more like us!!! I can’t wait to see what the rest of the house looks like once we are finished, but we are really so close!! I will make sure to share pictures with you as more progress is made!!

Here is to a FABULOUS evening!! ;-)

If you want to have a different life, you have to live differently!

Treasure Hunting!

Good evening!
The other day, I had the opportunity to go treasure hunting, and I thought today that I would share two of my finds with you!

I found these two spectacular pieces at Aunt Bee’s here in town! I was absolutely flabbergasted when I first laid eyes on them, I just KNEW they had to come home with me! They were a little spendier than I am used to spending on a whim, but I knew that they would be a great investment and a great addition to my ever growing art collection. That sounds so cool to me! 😉

These pictures make me long to visit Europe. I dream of what it would be like if I could live there someday. Maybe live in the countryside of France, or the hustle and bustle of an Italian Villa, or maybe even live on a remote and isolated emerald isle of Ireland. DREAMY!

I can imagine myself walking endlessly, just enjoying the scenery, or holding hands with my sweetie as we enjoy the sights of Europe together. Reading on a blanket under a shady tree, or sloshing in puddles while wearing my wellies, and the rain is coming down pitter-patting on my umbrella, that of course I would have right on hand! I would love to see the magnificent architecture, and learn about the vast history, and I would be proficient in every language – ok that may be pushing it, but I think you get what I mean. I would love to be blend in with the locals, and live the culture the way that they really live it. Living life, loving life, enjoying my friends and family! That would be AMAZING!!!

Someday, you will see. I am not sure how, and I am not sure when, but it will happen!! And when it does maybe I will be able to see these actual scenes first hand. For now, I will settle with enjoying my European view through these small paintings that I will truly treasure! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

A Lazy Naked Sunday!

Good evening!
I have had the best kind of lazy naked Sunday! There have been no plans, no agendas, and no to-do lists! THAT IS THE BEST KIND OF SUNDAY!!

I have been spending some time this evening perusing new blogs, and websites. Places that have inspired me to do a little decorating for the Winter holidays! I thought I would share some of these with you!

Dreamy Whites

One that I just happened to stumble upon is called Dreamy Whites. I am in LOVE with this site. It is so romantic, chic, and so homey looking! I just LOVE this site!! This site has inspired me to cover my red sofa with a scrumptious white blanket!! Aaaah!!! LOVELY!

Peony & Sage

Another site that I have been enjoying is Peony & Sage, they have some very beautiful vintage-y fabrics! These make me want to have throw pillows done for the entire house in these great fabrics!

The Paris Apartment

The last site I want to share with you this evening is The Paris Apartment. I know, I know, I have talked about this site before. This is actually one of my FAVORITE sites!! I could just jump right in to anyone of the lovely vignettes that she posts! I would be SUCH A HAPPY GIRL!!! French chic!!! DIVINE!!!

I am going to go do a little more inspiration induced perusing!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! ;-)

Do You Have a Dream?

Good evening!

I have had an Ah-Ha moment this evening. A couple of weeks ago I had picked up a copy of a book called The Dream Giver by Bruce Wilkinson. It was one of those purchases that was unplanned and kind of random, but I had read one of his other books called The Prayer of Jabez, and loved it so thought, why not? Well, for some reason, I decided to carry it around with me today. I just had this strange feeling that I really needed to read this book, and NOW!! Well, as I got home from work today, I sat right down and started to read.

WHAT AN AMAZING LITTLE BOOK!!

It is basically a little story about a very big idea. This modern-day parable tells the story of a man named Ordinary, who dares to leave the Land of Familiar to pursue his BIG DREAM.

This book, in a very interesting, and compelling way shows you how, with Faith, and some truths that you learn along the way, you too can leave your own Land of Familiar and pursue your big dream, the one that God had made you for, too!!

This book starts out with Ordinary living his life day in and day out going to work, coming home, watching the tele, going to bed, going to work, coming home, watching the tele, going to bed, etc. Sound familiar to anyone out there? Well, Ordinary starts to become sad as he realizes that there has to be more than life to this. Sure it is comfortable, but he is not content to live the same life he has been living for so long. So he embarks on a journey to go towards his big dream. What an awesome little book. I truly believe that it was serendipitous that it almost literally landed in my hands that day!!

Anyway, before I leave you for this evening, I thought I would share some of the pics that I had taken from my dad and his wife’s visit with us this past weekend!

This is my sweetie and my dad “cooperating” to have their pictures taken!! I couldn’t get them to look at the camera, and when I told them to scootch closer together, they literally just leaned there upper bodies towards each other while hiding behind their menus! Thanks guys!! 😉

Here is a book set that Trudi found at a large antique store we were in, she said she had this set as a kid. I want this set as an adult!! 😉

Here is Jason’s dream find of the day! It is a Dutch cast iron Aebelskiver pan. Aebelskivers are like Dutch pancake balls – they are truly very DELICIOUS!! Here is a recipe in case you are interested! 😉

Here is a Shriner’s tunic my dad found. Is what really cool! I love the colors and the designs of this!!

We went to a brass band concert on Saturday night, and I will share pics of that with you tomorrow!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening! ;-)

Oh Em Gee!

Good evening!

I have had such a GREAT day!!! My time is so short this evening to get my blog posted before midnight tonight!! So, here is the VERY abbreviated version of my day with my dad and Trudi!!!

Got up early!
Rallied the troops late!
Went to The Original Pancake House for a yummy lunch!
Then back to JoAnn fabrics – just to return something from last night!
Made a stop over at Pier One Imports for a new scented candle – had so much fun there, even my sweetie picked out a scent for himself called Spiced Cake, which he said made him want Christmas early this year! I am ALWAYS game for that!! 😉
Went over to Catherine’s to see if I could find something I have been looking for – no luck
Went to sports store to find a pair of tennies for my dad – luck! 😉
Next off to downtown Salem to go antiquing, and had a BLAST searching for treasures!! DO YOU KNOW THAT PLACE IS HAUNTED??? I have it on good authority that any old building is haunted, and if there is any place in Salem that qualified as old, was the place we ended up at!! 😉
We headed back to our place for the world’s shortest mini/nap/break/pause before we headed out again to go to a brass band concert – SO MUCH FUN!!! (Made me want to start playing again!!!!)
Then Jason and I stopped – super late – to pick up dinner and then off to meet Dad and Trudi over at Cold Stone Creamery by our place.
At Cold Stone Creamery the owner came in, who Jason happens to know, and I ended up having the BEST chat with their 6-year old daughter, who is just as cute as a bug in a rug!!! SERIOUSLY!!! 😉
Then maybe the MOST AWESOME part of our day, we stood outside of the Cold Stone for over an hour just talking, and getting to know the Cold Stone owner and her husband!! I just LOVE her and her family!! I know that I have just met her for the first time this evening, but I feel we have known each other FOR EVER!!! I will most definitely be getting in touch with her again soon!!! OOH!! Maybe she would like to join me and my girlfriends for our next Girls’ Night In!!! That would be FANTASTIC!!!

Anyway, I have a whole BUNCH of pics to share with you but since my time is sooooo short this evening, I am going to make sure to take some serious time to get them posted tomorrow!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

A Relaxing Saturday!

Good evening!

I am having a very relaxing Saturday at home with my sweetie! I wanted to share some more pics from my weekend with my sisters with you this evening!

I found these two FABULOUS vintage train cases, that looking at them now, I am sick to myself that I did not pick these up! I may just have to call my sissy, and ask her to pick them up for me!! HEE! HEE! 😉

There was also this little chi-chi red and white striped purse. Can you say A-D-O-R-A-B-L-E?????

I also love these little goblets. I am not sure if it is the cut of them, the fact that they are nice and heavy, or if it is just the scrumptious blue!!! I LOVE these!!

These pictures were right up my alley!! Pic 1!

Pic 2!! 😉

This is my dream vanity!! I have always dreamed about having a sexy place to get all dressed up!! DREAMY! 😉

These boxes of music rolls were so interesting! At first glance it reminded me of Olivander’s shop in Harry Potter! 😉 But I just love decorating with these kind of historical trinkets that are just GREAT conversation starters!!

Alright, I am going to call it quits for this night and spend some more quiet time with my sweetie and the girls!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

Vacation!

Good evening!
Ok, so it is officially the first full day of my vacation isn’t going too well. It started off alright, matter of fact, I spent the ENTIRE morning in bed reading. I read the book The Power of Six (The Lorien Legacies), and it was really good!! When my sweetie finally got off of work, we got ready to go, and, well, long story short, our evening plans fell through so we decided to have a nice quiet evening out, just the two of us. Tonight Jason is out being a good friend, and I am just so ready to get out of town, and go hang out on the beach!

There is still so much to do before we actually head on Sunday morning, and to be honest with you, it is a little daunting, but I know that it will be worth it!

However, instead of dwelling on the fact that today didn’t go as planned, I thought I would share some pictures of one of the local antique/salvages stores I had gone to a while back! I have been saving these pics for just such an occasion!!

Enjoy!

I just love spending an afternoon looking at all sorts of interesting finds in architectural salvage shops, this place is no exception. I can’t remember the name of the place, but is a little place up in Aurora, Oregon.

My sweetie has just gotten home, so I am off to go spend some quality time with him before it is time for bed!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

Motivated!

Good evening!

This morning I stumbled across this quote that I haven’t been able to get out of my mind all day.

“What you can do or dream you can do, begin it, boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”
~Johann von Goethe

There are so many odd projects laying around the house that seriously need my attention, and I know that I need to spend time crossing each one off of my list! But, right now, the big project is Jason and I are participating in a large garage sale this Saturday. This is the perfect opportunity to clear out a lot of the miscellaneous stuff that in all honesty Jason and I haven’t seen in years!! We spent a few hours this evening going through boxes, and it was so energizing to let go of all of that old stuff. It is true what they say about stuff literally weighing you down, mentally! I am learning to believe that is true.

Ok, confession time!! I might be just a bit of a shop-a-holic (ok, Jay, stop laughing!!). Ok, I’ve said it!! I don’t think I go too crazy money-wise because I pay myself first, pay all of my bills, I have a nice retirement fund and a savings account, but where I think it is really starting to hurt me is in my living space. We live in such a small condo, and it seems that no matter how much stuff I have leaving this place, I just seem to fill the new space with almost twice as much stuff! (That might be a slight exaggeration, but I am sure not by much!)

My biggest areas I have problems with this is books, and fashion!! I can’t pass up a good book, ESPECIALLY if I can find it for a FABULOUS price! and ANYTIME I find a cute dress, or other clothing item that makes me feel good, I just snatch it up – and sometimes in multiple colors!!! This is really starting to become a problem! I would like to tell you that I could stop anytime I want too, but I find that I use shopping to sometimes fill a void that I can sometimes feel in myself. Like something I am needing and I am hoping a certain book, or a certain top will somehow fill it. Crazy, I know! I hear myself saying it, and just think,

“SNAP OUT OF IT GIRL!!!”

Sad, I know!! I am hoping that our garage sale this weekend will really help me make a serious dent in all of the “STUFF”!! I am a little nervous that I am going to be making my hubbies head spin by how fast and how much stuff is leaving this house! I am being seriously RUTHLESS in what goes and what stays!! If we haven’t even seen in since we moved in here 5 years ago, why the heck do we have it still!! Now, there are some memorabilia that I have a different set of rules for, but for the most part, that only pertains to things like cards, and photos, which don’t take up a lot of room in this house!! Thankfully!!

And, if my sweetie and I are going to stay in this condo a few more years, then I owe it to the both of us to make every effort to turn it into our home, and not just a stopping point – like a sad hotel!! Now, a GLAMOROUS HOTEL??? I am SOOO there for that, but not what we have been living in up to this point!!

Also, I have realized today, that I have so much extra home decor and what nots that I could actually start an online home boutique. Don’t think I am not seriously contemplating that either!! That has always been one of my dreams, and this quote above is making me thinking that I just need to get brave, and open my own boutique!! How cool would that be??!!

Oh to dream out loud!!

That would be BLISS!!!

Anyway, I am going to head up to bed for the night, and dream of my new clutter free home!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

Beautiful Creatives

Empowering your juicy life!

Category Archives: Antiquing

The Barn House Show 2013

Looking for Beauty at Aunt Bee’s House!

Some Home Updates!

Treasure Hunting!

A Lazy Naked Sunday!

Do You Have a Dream?

Oh Em Gee!

A Relaxing Saturday!

Vacation!

Motivated!