Cheap Love

 The Salvation Army has been my treasure trove recently.  My latest treasure was this sweet little piece of pottery - it doesn't really go with anything but for some reason I just LOVE it!  It was hand painted.  It's not perfect, they strokes are uneven, the colors are summged, there is even a little chip on the edge. Maybe I'm feeling a little kinship with my new love. 

(In case your curious it was $2.)

I'm just going to sit here and admire my bowl and all it's imperfections -
                                                 y'all have an awesome day!

I'm linking up to Melissa's BE INSPIRED! Party at The Inspired Room.

Bowls, boxes and more

I have the LOOONNNG dresser-thingy in my entry that is beautiful but difficult to decorate. Its hard to fill it without OVERfilling it, if you know what I mean.  Here's my latest vignette of bowls, boxes and more -

I got the table runner in Chinatown in SF for $1!!

Family Heirloom Vignette

I just saw Beth's Ready Set Vignette Party and had to grab my camera and take a few pics of my latest vignettes to add. I REALLY, REALLY wish I had a great camera but that's not going to be in my budget anytime soon so please forgive the LOUSY pics! 

This was my grandmother's writing desk.  I'm not crazy about the color, but I haven't figured out what I want to change it to.  Ironically, she was antiquing and distressing her furniture back in the 60's & 70's before it was popular. Anyway, I just took down Easter decor and wanted something summery (we're already using the swimming pools here! )

The opera glasses were a christmas present to my great-grandmother in 1898.  The other object is a victorian vaporizer - how did they use those around kids without buring the house down?!

The bowl is filled with shells and post cards that belonged to my grandmother who lived on the coast most of her life. 

Anyway, it makes me smile and remember that precious lady everytime I pass it. Thanks Beth for the Party!

IT'S FREE!

Ok I realize that I'm a little biased since I'm a librarian but have you seen some of the great stuff  libraries have lately?!?

I just stopped by a library I don't usually visit and found several HUNDRED decorating books, many I had never seen before!

I don't know how your library works but at mine you can check out 75 books with each card.
My card + my 3 kids' library cards means I can cart home 300 books at a time if I wanted too for FREEEEEE!

It just doesn't get any better than that!

Blogging fun

The next best thing to the McLinky parties are the give-aways! Make sure y'all head over to Linda's blog Costal Charm to enter her contest. She's giving away this lovely vase! Hurry ends, today!

I LOVE paint!

After reading so many blog entries about the wonders of paint, I've tried a few projects of my own.  I've started small, but I've got my eye on some BIG projects (china cabinet, high boy, desks etc) when I get a little more accomplished.

This is a picnic basket (obviously, right?) I picked up at a garage sale for $2.00.  Of course I forgot to take a pic until after I started painting. You can see from the underside of the lid the original color- UGLY!

This is an old brass pitcher from my grandmother's house.  I loved the shape but wanted something not so "granny-ish".

Here they are, finished after several coats of white paint, dry brushed with thinned brown paint and distressed. Sorry but my little "point and shoot" doesn't do them justice! Anyone with a good camera wanna come over and take pics for me????
I'm joining my FIRST McLinky parties!

A new day

I finally broke down and went to the doctor about the insomnia. I've been avoiding it because I don't want to take Rx drugs for it but it got bad enough that I couldn't function. Luckily, he suggested I start with valerian root. According to unverifiable sources (bad librarian), it’s been used since early times for treating insomnia. The bottle says take 1-5 capsules at night - kinda vague isn't it? I'll start with 2 and see how it goes. I'm looking forward to getting enough sleep to able to think again! Of course, I will miss all the interesting blog sites I've been reading at 2 am.

insomnia isn't fun

Can't sleep, been up since 2:30 this morning.... it's going to be a looooong day.

Maybe the days of film & negatives were better

MAD,       
MAD,             
MAD!!!!


I  just tried out a new photo software and managed to loose all of my recent pictures! UGH! How could I be so stupid?!?! When the software said it was done importing, silly me thought it had actually stored the pics on my computer - but NOOO - when I closed the window they (and all copies on my mem card) went away!
I'm mourning the loss of some wonderful pics of my girl's birthday, a day at the park with the ducklings and my latest projects that I was going to post on this blog.  *head desk*head desk*head desk*

What's in a name?

So I've decided to give in and create my own blog if for no other reason than to join those great McLinky parties. My first step turned out to be the hardest, creating a name and URL for my blog.

Let's see...

"The Rouse House"
@ rousehouse.blogger.com? nope, its already taken.
@ rousehouse3.blooger.com (a good one since we have 3 kids) ? nope, it's also taken.
OK...so how about
@ rousehousetexas.blooger.com? it's taken too?

Fine, I'll just use my first name, it's really unsual -
@shaleza.blogger.com? TAKEN?!?!?

How many Shalezas can there be??? Apparently, A LOT. :-)