Category Archives: Shopping

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 New Books!

Good evening!

My sweetie and I got home from work this evening, and I was very happily surprised to see that I had not one, but two packages in the mail!! BOOKS!!! Yeah!! 😉

Last week I finally broke down and ordered 4 books that I have been drooling over for quite some time now!!

Life is a Verb by Patti Digh

Creative is a Verb by Patti Digh

Surface Treatment Workshop by Darlene Olivia McElroy & Sandra Duran Wilson

and last, but not least:

Simple Soldered Jewelry and Accessories by Lisa Bluhm

I normally would not buy 4 new books at a get-go, not since my Border’s days anyway, but these were at such a great discounted price on Amazon, that there was no way that I could make myself pass them up!! Anyway, I am so excited to read them, and put their knowledge to good use!! I most definitely need to keep creativity alive in my life! It makes me a happy girl!!!

What else is going on in my little world?? Well, I have implemented a daily chore chart – I think I had mentioned that I was going to do that in an earlier post – and I did, and my sweetie and I really liking it! We don’t have to guess what still needs done, and we both get a sense of accomplishment when we get to cross out things off of our list! Besides our Christmas stuff being scattered all over the living room (still working on re-organizing that), our house is now the cleanest that it has been in weeks!! YEAH!!! 😉

Tomorrow night is Chunky Dunker’s night here in Christinaville, and then on Thursday night, I am planning on sharing some pics with you of my niece and nephew’s basketball games that we got to go to this past Saturday! I know you will love them!

Anyway, I am going to get some try and make some more headway on getting this Christmas stuff put away before we call it a night!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! :-)

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

All Done!

Good evening!

I am very happy to report that we are all done with the Douglas County Christmas Craft Fair! We ended up doing much better than we did last year, but it was still a really hard weekend, with a lot of work, and it is up in the air whether or not we are going to do this again next year! In all honesty, we can’t decide right now because we are absolutely pooped!! 😉

We got back to Jennifer’s place, ate a healthy dinner, and then had some fun playing Wii! Trina totally kicked our booties, but we still had fun! 🙂

Then we spent some time, while trying not to gall asleep, watching some new Christmas cartoons, The Gift of the Night Fury, which is the new How to Train Your Dragon Christmas cartoon, and then we watched Ice Age, a Mammoth Christmas Special. FUN! FUN! FUN!! 😉

Now, it is time to call it a night, and get some sleep. Tomorrow, we will be up around 5 am, to help unload the van, and start heading back to Salem. I know that is early, but Jennifer has to get to work rather early tomorrow, so we need to get a very early start!

Until tomorrow…

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

End of Day 2 Christmas Fair!

Good evening!

Well, it has been another exciting day at this year’s Douglas County Christmas Fair! We have seen all sorts of sights today, a little girl passing by in the sweetest baby pink cowboy boots, a little spider-man asleep on his daddy’s shoulder, alittle girl in colorful striped tights and a tu-tu, a little batman in a stroller yelling out for his daddy because he was missing, and more recently a little girl who couldn’t have been more than e who was wearing an orange boa!!! Seriously, I never realized Roseburg, Oregon was such a happening town!

I know that it is the kiddos that I am focusing on today, but a lot of our sales have been to the kiddos today, our Christmas ornaments, grab bags, elves with candy overflowing from their heads are really a big hit in our booth!! We have also sold out of our glycerin soaps, and I am thinking I will be out of earrings by the end of the day tomorrow!! Not that I am complaining by any means! Yeah!!! 😉

We have one more day to go, but tomorrow only goes until 4 and then we are all heading back to my sisters’ place, getting into our PJ’s putting our sore feet up and hanging out visiting together! Whew!! That will be fun!

You know every year we do this fair, we get to December and tell each other that we will never do this again, until we actually got through the show. Well, this year I am already pre-planning next year!! It is easy to see which booths have done well, and which ones not so much! I want to be one of the ones who do well, so I am thinking some more pre-planning and organizing is going to be necessary to make that happen!! 😉 We will see if I can convince the sisters that it will be worth it – we will see!!!

Anyways, something else that we did that was a lot of fun – we all got airbrush tattoos!!! We giggled the entire time and even got the airbrush artist laughing too! What a HOOT! 😉

Jennifer got a pretty design that she chose because she really liked it!

Trina got 2: a blue penguin, because she LOVES blue penguins, and a rose, because she was feeling in a Phantom of the Opera mood!!!! 😉

I got a Hawaiian floral design, which I thought was kind of cool!! 😉

Anyway, it has been another long day so I am going to call it a night!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

Our First Day at the Market!

Good evening!
We just got home from the Douglas County Christmas Craft Fair, and we are all exhausted!! Matter of fact, I may have just dozed off twice in the past 1/2 an hour. Anyway, we had a pretty good day! Our sales are doing better than we did last year, and having a double booth seems to really have made a difference in how customer are able to move around our booth and interact with all of us girls!!

Instead of spending a lot of time writing, I am going to share with you pictures of our booth!

We have all sorts of gift baskets!

Assorted crocheted hats!

and scarves!

Nativity sets!

Neck warmers and hand warmers!

Glycerin soaps!

various ornaments, and gift bags, which is a favorite with the kiddos!!

I have SOOOO MANY more pictures that I am excited to share with you, but I can barely keep my eyes open!!

As I slink off to bed…

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

A Flurry of Activity!

Good evening!

This evening has been a FLURRY of activity!! My sweetie and I are frantically getting everything ready to go down to Roseburg for the weekend. My sisters and I have rented two booths down at the Douglas County Christmas Fair, and we are going to be selling all sorts of hand made goodies! I will make sure to take plenty of pictures all weekend of everything and anything! Our good friend, Don is going to be coming over and babysitting our two little girls – thanks, Don!!! So, I know they will be in good hands!

We still have some more housekeeping to do before we go, and I need to make sure we get EVERYTHING packed into the minivan, because I am leaving work at 1:30 tomorrow afternoon to head out, and we are leaving straight from there.

I am not exactly sure what to expect from this Christmas bazaar, but I am excited to be getting to spend some time with my sissies, and to be able to sell some of my hand made bead and wire jewelry. It has been sitting in the house, some of it for up to five years, I have got to sell it, and make room for new creativity!

Back in 2007, I had opened my own jewelry business, and I did pretty well at making a nice selection of treasures, but because of some health problems that my sweetie was having, I decided that I needed to focus my attention on getting him better, so I put all of my jewelry-making supplies away. I get a little sad whenever I see them now, because I really do enjoy making jewelry, but really haven’t given myself permission to get back into making my little baubles! I think that after this weekend, that is going to really change! I would love to see myself start making jewelry again, with a focus on soldering, mini collages, ephemera, personalized memorabilia, and inspirational and sassy thoughts! 🙂 That sounds like SO MUCH FUN!!! 😉

Anyway, as much as I am enjoying my view of our lovely Christmas tree, and part of my book collection (see picture above), I have got to get going and get the rest of my to-do done for the evening, so I can go to bed before midnight!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

Shopping! Shopping!

Good evening!

This is going to be a short post, I am tired, and wanting to call it a night!!

My sweetie and I got up this morning, had a lovely breakfast together, and headed out for a day of shopping. and I don’t mean run to the corner market to pick up a few things, I mean marathon shopping with a HUGE list!! I have to tell you that we really did have such a fun day!! Jason doesn’t usually like shopping, but he was such a trooper today, helping with making choices, and being extremely patient as I worked on trying to figure out who got what! I would love to tell you that I got all of my Christmas shopping done, but no, I still have a couple of people to get for, and THEN I will be done! WHEW!! 😉

OK, that is enough for tonight! I promise I will take more time to write tomorrow!

Have a a FABULOUS evening!!

A Day with My Auntie!

Good evening!

I am sorry I am posting so late, uhmmmm….I would love to give you a good excuse for that, but I have to admit that I have been doodling on Pinterest for quite a few hours this evening! Oopsie!!

Anyway, that is not what I want to talk about this evening. I wanted to talk about my Auntie Flo, and fun time that we had spending time together today! You see, my aunt and I, along with my Aunt Alice, my Aunt Flo’s sister, we meet every year for a Christmas outing to just get together, have lunch, do some window shopping, and spend some quality time together catching up! Well, this year Aunt Alice wasn’t able to join us, but Flo and I still made a point to get together. Today was the day, and we met up at the Woodburn outlet mall! Colby was with us for a little while, as he was in need of some new basketball shoes. His dad came and picked him up, and then Flo and I headed out for some serious discount shopping, and man did we ever make out like bandits!! 😉

One of the first places we stopped was Lane Bryant, for me, and I spent about $120 but had saved $145 – NOT BAD, if I may say so myself!!! I ended up with new pajamas, a red cardigan, 5 pairs of the cutest undies, 3 sets of bangled bracelets, 2 large hair flowers, a sparkly cocktail ring, and a pair of earrings!

After that we located the restrooms, and got a good chuckle from listening to some women who were fretting because the hand towel dispenser that they were standing at didn’t seem to be working. LOL! They were talking almost as if they would never be able to leave the restroom if they couldn’t figure out how to dry their hands!! If they would have just walked around the corner, and there was a perfectly functional hand towel dispenser. Too funny!! 😉

We ended up at a small Mexican food place for fajitas for lunch, and spent a good hour or so just talking about everything and anything that we could possibly think of! The future, politics, family, drama, etc, etc.

Next we went from place to place to place looking for Flo’s great discount, and I can’t remember the name of the store, but she ended up finding a flannel shirt, a sweatshirt, and something like 8 t-shirts at this one place. With all of the discounts said and done, she ended up paying ONLY $41!!!! WOW!!!

Both of our fabulous discounts gave us permission to do some more shopping/window shopping. After ending up visiting for quite some more time over at the local Jamba Juice, we decided to call it a day. We had such a GREAT time!! I ALWAYS LOVE Auntie Days!!!

Hmmmmm…where should we meet and what should we do next ladies??? I am seriously looking forward to our next Auntie Day outing!!

I am off to put up my Christmas tree – I know it might be early, but trust me, I am really ready for some Christmas spirit around here! The earlier the better is always my motto!!!

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!!! ;-)

Beautiful Creatives

Empowering your juicy life!

Category Archives: Shopping

The Barn House Show 2013

Looking for Beauty at Aunt Bee’s House!

Some New Books!

All Done!

End of Day 2 Christmas Fair!

Our First Day at the Market!

A Flurry of Activity!

Shopping! Shopping!

A Day with My Auntie!

A Lazy Naked Sunday!