April Showers Continue

A page from my old all-time favorite Mary Engelbreit calendar




Over the weekend we had a brief respite from the rain. On Friday I rode along with my husband to work in order to shop nearer to the big city. I started my quest in a new (to me) thrift store in Kensington, Maryland. It struck me as the kind of place that you would need to check out quite frequently in order to catch a treasure. Friday was not my day for finding my treasure. I decided to move on to Home Goods, a place I could browse in for hours. The clearance aisles were beckoning! I was able to find lavender water for my vintage linens. I had picked out several "black & white" items for the wedding shower, but eventually put all of them back because the backgrounds were more ivory than white. Spent a considerable amount of time going through the clearance aisles, my absolute favorites, but came up empty handed.


On to Marshall's just to make sure there wasn't anything hiding there that had not turned up at Home Goods. No such luck, but enjoyed looking. A.C. Moore was my next stop. I have been trying to find wood or "plastic" shabby embellishments for a hutch I am re-painting and trying to tone down its primitive country look. None to be had at A.C. Moore, but I did purchase a tool for attaching snaps to my "vintage" baby bibs, etc. I have destroyed countless snaps while trying to attach them with several different brands of "snap sets." This tool cost a lot more, but if it works it should save me money in the long run if I don't destroy as many snaps!


Joined my husband for a late lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. Had a great salad and didn't get dessert! After futile attempts to find embellishments at Michaels, Home Depot and Lowe's, I've decided to follow the recommendations of Cindy at My Romantic Home and order them from Do It Yourself Chic.


Saturday morning I got a late start going to a community yard sale. I was able to find a few "buys." I decided to check out a yard sale that had begun on Friday and figured that I would be too late to find much. I was excited to find an assortment of very old books. My lot included three old geography books, a copy of Cicero's orations, several history books and a lovely 1902 poetry book which will be wonderful for collages, scrapbooking and framing. Rain began again in the evening!

Rain continued on Sunday, but we were busy working on our "old kitchen," which is the oldest part of our house. After the Victorian part of the house was added, it was used as a servants' kitchen. Unfortunately for me, during the first 20 odd years of living here the servants were long gone and it was far from the kitchen of my dreams. Our plans now are to turn it into a small library/office.

On this gloomy Monday I have wedding related "to dos" to accomplish, orders from our website and Etsy to package, lots of ironing, continue painting hutch and the list goes on.......

RAIN...Day Three

It's been raining since Saturday evening and the sun is now trying to push through the heavy cloud cover. The gloomy outside conditions are making it a little easier to keep on track with creating the "Save The Date" cards that I must complete.

After much searching all over the net, I settled on paper from papersource.com. Because I wanted to feel the paper and envelopes I chose to visit their store in Georgetown (D.C.). It's the kind of store that you wander and buy things whether or not you need them... just because they look so good. Two stories of walls lined with lovely papers very much like a quilt fabric store. Fortunately for me, the wedding colors are black and white so that I was able to resist the temptations of the multitude of beautiful prints and rainbow of colors.

I've edited all of the text. Now I have to fit the various parts together so that they will fit into the envelopes that I've purchased. There will be 5-6 small white sheets tied with ribbon to the black card stock background. I am slowly but surely perfecting the cuts so that the cards will slide into the envelope without crinkling.

Goal is to finish the "Save The Dates" in the next couple of days.

For the bridal shower that my daughter and I will be giving for my future daughter-in-law I have been inspired by the amazing shower given by friends for Jennifer Skog as well as a bridal shower showcased on HGTV's "World's Longest Yard Sale 2006" episode. Instead of the lime green accent in Jennifer's shower, the accent color for "our" wedding will be red, but since our bridal shower will take place in August we may use alternate accent colors. The bridal shower highlighted on HGTV was given by a lady who seached for "yard sale" finds in blues and whites. Everything from milk glass, depressions glass, linens were accumulated during the three day event. She managed to snag many lovely items, including a forlorn chair that she was able to transform into a "shabby chic" wonder for the future bride! Anyone with ideas for unique "black and white" shower or wedding decor, please leave comments or links.

The sun is definitely pushing through these clouds. Hopefully it will provide better lighting for all of the photographs I need to take to post items on Etsy and Ebay later today!

Vicky's Secret Garden

Collections Rule!

I'm getting ready for a weekend of projects. One of my obsessions is collecting....all kinds of things...and having a very hard time letting go. I am very eclectic as to what I might decide to collect and how I choose to decorate areas of our house. As far as architectural design is concerned, we live in a predominately Victorian house, but Victorian furnishings are not high on my list as far as design and comfort. So, there is not one theme in our house, which may make many designers shudder, but I am quite happy to have it that way. If I had multiple houses, perhaps I would have a single theme in each, but until our "money tree" bears fruit, I have to be happy with various themes throughout the house that we have!

I've included photos of one of my collections...Molly Dallas Pottery. When attending trade shows featuring "Country" handcrafted items, I was always drawn to their booth. Whether it was the blue and white background (one of my favorite color palettes) or the cows, roosters, sheep and pigs, I finally decided to carry it in our gift store and of course pieces began to find their way home! On one shelf, two of my favorite roosters guard Molly and other blue "treasures." You may catch a glimpse of another collection/obsession, bowls (vintage and repro).

This weekend I will be working on editing and beginning to print parts of the "Save The Date" cards for our son's wedding. Because it is a destination wedding, we are including individual sheets on various topics which will be incorporated into a "bow-tied booklet." Wish me luck and patience!

It's finally going to reach the '80s today! Most of my warm weather clothes are still in the attic....another weekend project! I'm also including some photos taken in and around my friend's lovely backyard. Her yard has not been invaded by "bobcats" and construction crews. These little nooks offer a much needed escape for contemplation and relaxation.

The other day I registered at the PaperBackSwap website (see sidebar). You list books that you are willing to swap. In the beginning you list 10 and receive 2 credits towards books you order and from then on when you send out a book, you will pay to mail them and receive one credit per book that you may redeem to request books from other people (they pay to mail to you). This is a great way to recycle books and replenish your own reading material at a very frugal price. Within 12 hours, I received two requests for books and will now have 4 credits to use for books I find. I tend to read fast and hate to pay the current rate of $8-$10 per book at bookstores.

On to the projects at hand!

Sunday Musings

I thought that a little tour of the area in which we live might interest others and perk someone's interest to visit the area in the future. The photo above, of Zion Episcopal Church, was taken on a much brighter and warmer day. We are in the grip of another cool and dreary stretch of weather, even though spring began weeks ago. Zion has long been a landmark on the horizon of this historic town, Charles Town, West Virginia. The main body of the church was built in 1815 and its graveyard is reputed to having the largest number of graves of the Washington family (George's family) in the United States. George Washington surveyed this area for Lord Fairfax and later his brother Charles founded the town. Jefferson County was home to not only his brothers, but nephews, nieces and so on down through the years. Can you tell I am a former history teacher???

Charles Town is in the extreme eastern panhandle of West Virginia, only about 6-8 miles from both the Maryland and Virginia borders, and therefore has become a bedroom community for D.C. and northern Virginia. We are not natives to the area, but transplants from the metropolitan Baltimore-Washington area over 25 years ago. Ironically, after moving here, one of my other obsessions, genealogy, led me to discover that some of my Tidewater Virginia ancestors were some of the earliest settlers in the area.

Jefferson County includes Harper's Ferry, infamous for John Brown's raid, Charles Town Courthouse where John Brown was tried and the spot where he was hung is several blocks from our home, the banks of the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers, many historic Washington homes, Shepherd University, orchards, mountains and a growing population from all parts of the nation.

We bought an old home in town, affectionately referred to as either the Manor or the Money Pit, take your choice. The oldest portion of the house dates to about 1790-1800 and the larger, Victorian portion to 1889. As I have said earlier we are finishing an addition to the house at this time to provide more "modern" conveniences.

Just recently I joined the Etsy community and have begun an attempt to "de-stash" as well as market my own creations. We have operated an Ebay store for quite a few years and also maintain a new website, but I found Etsy to be a pleasant addition to my business. I hope to add a link to my Etsy shop to this blog as soon as I can figure out how to do it! The last week or so I feel like I have had an endless course in "computereez" (is that a word?).

My daughter just called to let me know that she is safely back at her college from a weekend at Myrtle Beach. She said the weather was great and I am quite envious. She chose a Southern school and is loving it. Although born in Maryland, I grew up partially in North Carolina and love the South and most all things Southern. In the future, we hope to retire in the Carolinas or perhaps Georgia.

My long list of "To Dos" is calling me. Hope to post a little closer together as time goes on.

Where To Begin?

It's taken a few days to collect my thoughts as to what I would like to say at the beginning of this blog adventure.

For over twenty years, while raising two children and renovating a colonial (c. 1800 /Victorian (1889) home, I operated a gift store. With our youngest leaving for college last fall, I decided it was time for a big change. We have closed the "brick and mortar" store and opted for a website as well as continuing to operate an Ebay Store and opening an Etsy shop. It was creating my own designs that originally led to opening the store, but over the years the time that remained for my own "creating" dwindled to a trickle. Customers were always asking..."remember the arrangements...wreaths...pillows...jewelry...bibs...etc...that you used to make?" So now we will continue to liquidate store merchandise while I re-build my own handcrafted lines.

As anyone will tell you, I love to collect and have an awful time letting go of anything. Consequently, the full floor attic of our Victorian home is filled to the brim...no matter how many attempts we have made to "clean it out." So not only do I have the small farmhouse, that we used for our store, to empty, but I have tons to sort and clean out from our home.

My favorite past-times usually involve auctions, estate sales, thrift and consignment shopping. No matter where we travel, I will map out the possibilities for thrift shopping along the way and throughout the area where we stay. Buying for the store demanded frequent trips to "Market" in Atlanta and many regional gift and craft shows. These buying trips were very tempting and many times my husband would ask, "Is this for the store, or for you?"

Another big change in our lives is the upcoming wedding of our son this coming November. He and his fiance will be graduating from law school this spring and then begin to cram for the bar. Plans for invitations, bridal showers, rehearsal dinner, etc. are growing and because it is a destination wedding in Florida, many of the planning is long distance. I welcome anyone with prior experience as "mother of the groom" or "wedding planner" to offer any tips or advice. More about this in future posts. Our youngest child is female, and this will be great experience and practice for that future (far, I hope) event!

We are also finishing a large addition to our old home. Most people have said, why do you need more room? These people have never lived in an old house. For over twenty-five years, I lived without a modern kitchen, adequate bathrooms and laundry room. It seems like it will never be finished, but it's getting there. More on the progress later....

I have found many entertaining and delightful blogs as I researched decorating techniques, etc. and will include them in my "Legacies From Others" section. Hopefully, I will be able to keep up with blogging and still run our new fledgling web businesses.