Don't you just LOVE a fun and exciting garage sale day?!

And don't you just love when you go up to a garage sale and find a box tucked away off to the side that no one was interested in, and when you peek inside you find..........

THIS!!!!

Being that orange is my favorite color... I was drawn to the pot. I scooped it up quick and asked what she wanted for it. I only had $15 dollars left in my pocket. She wanted $2.00... holy cow! Asked her what she wanted for the whole set and she replied "$15".... MINE!

This is what I uncovered when I got home.....

I've since discovered that these lovely pieces of enamelware (my favorite thing to collect and highly addicting) are imported from Italy and Yugoslavia. I looked them up on ebay to try and get some info on them as I've never seen them before, and the blue pot in the top picture is currently going for $45. Its Catherine Holm, Made in Normandy. The little skillets and plates are worth a pretty penny too. So fun!

Picked up this cute vintage kitchen set, still in the original wrapper.

Love this vintage umprella with lucite handle

Also scored this Schwinn Fair Lady in excellent condition.... 20 bucks! Came with original basket and training wheels. Looked it up on ebay and one is currently going for $185, not nearly as in good condition.

And my treasure partner son, Drew, also scored a bike he is most excited about.....

A 60's Firestone Bike... missing a few parts that will have to search for. But such a cool bike!

Was a fun day!

Enamel..... what?

I love enamelware. Anything enamel and I buy it, whether rusty, beat up or not, I just simply adore it. So, I picked this "piece" up (years ago) just because it was enamelware, but never knew what it was or used for. I'm thinking hospital.... something. So it sat for years in my collection until I just decided I needed to do something with it. And this is what I decided over the weekend. I drilled a hole and planted in it.

The saving of a bench swing

See the picture above? I am part of this garage sale group through facebook. This post came up for items for sale. Do you know what I noticed right away? The old blue rocking bench in the background. That's all I needed to see... that tiny portion of delicious old chippy blue wood! I wrote to her right away and asked if it too was for sale. It was :) I drove out to her house and the poor weathered bench was just as rickety as could be and had so much rotted wood. She was asking $20 and after looking it over I knew it would need so much work and ALOT of new wood. She was very firm on her price but I managed to talk her down to $15 (she obviously didn't know that the ants had hollowed out all the interior of the wood.)

When I got home with my new treasure, my family came out to the truck and said "cool mom, you brought home firewood." They didn't see the "potential" beauty in it that I did. My oldest son, Drew, however, my fellow junker and lover of all things old, saw what I saw in her. It immediately became a fun and challenging project for him and he went right to work.

The pickets along the back basically fell off as you touched them and the main support was very rotted. He is saving all the pieces possible. Here are the pics showing the progress so far. Will post "after" pictures when she is ready to rock and roll again.

So far Drew has built an entirely new frame (with extra wood we already had laying around) and has started on the bench itself. The original chains and a piece of the original frame, cut down to a smaller piece was about all that was salvageable. She is rocking like she used to :) Even though not too much of the original will be left... I ended up with a really cool pattern for a vintage bench.  Will continue to post pictures of his progress.

The next project

These forts, once territory of my boys, whom are now teenagers and have no interest in playing in them any longer, will now blossom into a little girls playhouse.... The one "leaning" used to be up on 4x4's and a beam connected the 2 with a swing in the middle. Time rotted the wood and late last year the raised fort was pulled to the ground. Sooooo... I'm thinking a cream color with pink and pale green accents. I plan to add window shutters and a window box, landscaping, a vintage mailbox and walkway. Paint the inside white and I have a vintage wooden kitchen set waiting for its new home. The other fort will be part of her new playhouse as well.  Here are the before pictures and I will post pictures as we make progress :)

A beautiful day in Idaho and the raised vegetable garden is underway

The anxiety is increasing as the beds get closer to completion. The thought of growing my own veggies for juicing and canning makes me soooo happy. The plan is 3 each of 4x12 foot beds. I've tried to grow a garden directly in the ground in this same area, but the weeds and maintenance was overwhelming.

Here is the progress made today. I also ran to a yard sale out in the country and found some vintage metal garden chairs, a vintage garden gate and some misc fun items.

The third box is almost done as I type this. While they were working on that, Miss Emma and I painted plant markers...

Here also are some shots of my fun treasures I found today....

Vintage Metal Garden Chairs.... I'm thinking they need to be pale green or red?

Loved the character on this little farm table... need to make room for her somewhere.

Love this old garden gate.... will fit right in my garden area with my vintage garden tools and such I plan to hang on the fence.

Hello my neglected little blog

So I am excited today as I am planning and designing my raised vegetable garden. Figuring out where the beds will be placed and which vegetables to plant. I have been juicing, alot. So the thought of growing my own organic vegetables to throw in my juicer has me very motivated. I was inspired to juice from the documentary "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead". I juice every fruit and vegetable I can. Nothing makes me feel better than handing my kiddos a large glass of vitamins and nutrients.  They don't eat vegetables... once cooked, they loose all those precious micronutrients anyway. Did you know that juiced broccoli has no flavor? Ha! A perfect way to sneak that valuable vegetable into their diet.

What I am planning to grow and my fav's to juice so far.

Beets (we juice the greens too)
Chard
Cucumbers
Tomatoes (Juice your own tomato juice, I mix mine with green peppers)
Parsley
Carrots
Broccoli
Green Peppers

I also juice, oranges, apples, lemons, limes, ginger root, mustard greens, pineapple, mango, peaches (yum)! And alot more just not coming to mind right now.

I like to mix the veggies with the oranges and apples. Those give the juice a good sweet base and then you don't taste alot of the veggies. Good way to make the kids drink it. My favorite flavor is the beets (so earthy).

Will write more about my new garden as it starts to come together. I hope I can inspire those of you who do not juice. There simply is not a healthier choice.

Happy Sunday!

A gift to my Angels...

Today, I finally did something I've wanted to for a very long time. I had my two angels names applied permanently to my skin. I have for many years wanted to tattoo their names "somewhere". Some places I considered were around my wrist like a bracelet or on my inner wrists with wings... I met with my tattoo artist and threw some ideas around with him and when he showed me these angel wings I knew thats exactly what I wanted.

My tattoo artist Layne

I did this today for them. My memorial for my little babies I miss so incredibly much. Grace's birthday just passed a few days ago and Christian's is coming up next week. This is my birthday present to them.

It still needs some touch-up work. After 3 hours of pain I was done and couldn't take anymore. I am happy with it and it makes me feel good to show the world that my two little ones WERE here for a brief moment and rocked my world..