How did i NOT know about this?!? Thank goodness i read Jo's blog so i can add the Jazz Age Lawn Party to my bucket list! Antique cars! Flappers! Bobbed hair! The Charleston! Wah wahs!
Michael Arenella & His Dreamland Orchestra
Doesn't this look like so much fun!
Unrelatedly, and belatedly, i have to thank Erin at House of Turquoise for featuring my living room as part of a mega readers rooms collection a few Fridays back. And yesterday i found out i won a CSN giveaway at
Russet Street Reno, which may mean good news for you, friends, come October! Hint: my birthday month!
S was perusing Craigslist yesterday and told me that today, after their church service, a local church was giving away everything that didn't sell at their annual yard sale. There were specific instructions: what street to enter on, what door to go in, an invitation to join the service b/c no one would be opening the door a moment earlier than the 11:00 start time. 11:00 start time, right up my alley! Thank goodness S just bought a junker of a truck for situations such as these and HD runs.
I will catalogue it in future posts, but check out the piles we got, all for free. We spent 40 minutes there, and were the third in line to get in. The church was thrilled to get rid of all these things so they don't have to schlep them to Goodwill. No wonder some of these things didn't sell, they were priced way too high.
That's one bag, 4 boxes, piles of frames, wallpaper...
Giant frame
Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! Did i say fa-ree! This will be my crafting desk, so i can spread all out and go to town!
S assures me he will cut a piece to fit where the sewing machine was. I asked the church people (what else to call them?) if they do this every year, and this is their THIRD year!! The guy said they've listed it on CL for the last two years, so HOW DID WE MISS THIS?? We stalk Craigslist like the paparazzi stalk Brangelina, so i can't believe we've never seen this. Maybe since i wasn't blogging then i didn't care or want other people's crap to remake? You can be sure that this time next year, the stalking will be amped up. There is no way i am going to miss this!
Oh, yeah, and these 2 directors chairs.
I have to say, that's some mega haul. I didn't mind the many trips we made to the truck, or the many trips to bring it inside. In fact, i gleefully skipped. No seriously. Full of glee. And skipping. And clapping. And kissed the junker truck in all his peeling paint glory for his timely arrival into our lives.
The bad news is, i can't get downstairs to do the laundry. Unless i want to balance the unwieldy, overflowing basket of clothes on my head while i attempt to climb down the ladder. And while i am sure that would be amusing to attempt, and possibly result in injury, i am looking at this as an opportunity to wear the clothes i like second best.
The good news is that the basement is beginning to have the bones of an actual room! Yay! More pictures to come, i promise. You know, once i can get downstairs.
when you have neither curbing nor storm drains along your streets. And the heavens bring forth torrential, sudden rains.
Unnaturally close to my sunroom...
Why yes, that is higher than the driveway apron, so glad you noticed.
A four way stop that slopes in the middle, yet no drains in sight. What kind of genius thought of that design?!?
Unnaturally close to my front door.
Ridiculous!
We take these pictures as our ammo should we ever go to a town meeting of some sort. Never have we gone, mind you, but we feel empowered taking these pictures as evidence that one needs storm drains!
Have you ever had to "fight" for something to be added to your neighborhood or your property? I'd really love to know. There appear to be 128 of you out there, so come on people! I'm counting on you to counsel me in the ways of politely, yet forceful...maneuvering.
I finally went over to the HD (that's Home Depot, for those unfamiliar with my jargon) tonite to check out their clearance indoor/outdoor pillows. They had many more than the solid blue ones that S kept insisting i check out. The boy was lookin' out for my thrifty self. So sweet. For 5 bucks each, down from 12.99, i got 2 of these snazzy ones for the sunroom.
And i got 2 of these for the outdoor swing, but since it's been pouring i will not be trudging out into my muddy yard for a photo. Sorry, Tennessee*. Do they make you think of anything else around these parts? Like my blog background, perhaps? It's not that i have a love for paisley in particular, but it's these fall colors that make me lean their way.
*Ten points for anyone who knows what that is from, and is saying it in your head with the correct tone.
So what scores have you found at "big stores" recently?
See where i am linking up these frugal finds in my sidebar and party page, please.
it's hot, dreary, and lazy here today. the perfect configuration for some mid day napping, if you ask me. hope you guys had the weekend you needed....i sure did!
Would you like to get to know me? I mean, you're reading this ol' blog here, and i think i am pretty real and pretty free on here, but i saw a post the other day about sharing the person behind the pretty images and diy projects.
Nothing defines me more than music. My "if you were on a deserted island" answers always consisted of bringing my music. I was in choir in elementary school all the way through college, so singing is important to me. Voice is important to me, so most of the musicians i like, i like for their voice. And if i don't like a voice, i can't like that music. Sorry, Dave Matthews and U2, but as much as i respect them musically, i can't get on board. I sing, hum, and rock out in the car, in the shower, at my desk, and i'm that girl who doesn't realize she's singing along with her mp3 player.
So here are some voices that melt me like buttah and make me feel their songs in my gut/heart/veins. What, you don't have music pulsing through you? I surely do. Don't ask which songs by these voices, b/c i could never pick, ever.
Michael Buble. I can't get over how many people in blog land love him. Girls, i think i was the first, lol. I saw in concert years ago and met him backstage after. I told him he was effortless and he told me he loved my name. Now he's my boyfriend. Ok not really, but wouldn't that be sa weet!
Morrissey. I know i've spoken of my love for Moz and the Smiths before, but this is the voice. This voice is like nothing else. The man is a lyrical genius-"Emotional air raids exhausted my heart," i mean come on! And this is live and he sounds like this! Sure, he's 50 now and has a much smaller pompadour (look at that thing!) but he still is IT, capital I capital T.
Mad piano playing and haunting vocals. Yep, Tori Amos. Girls got skillz.
The Beatles. You will get chills with this one, i promise.
Whose music could you not live without?
Also, this marks my 100th post. Super exciting for someone who never dreamed of having a blog!
Philadelphia is an interesting city. There are some really nice older homes, and then some really shady places in the same proximity. So when my friend Maggie told me she moved to the Germantown section of Philly, i wasn't really sure what to expect. She assured me it was the nice part with plenty of parking, and for her surrounding blocks, it really is. Mama didn't even need to parallel park, which is a really good thing!
Maggie's house is a twin, and it is adorable, but you wouldn't know it by these pictures. Why on earth did i not take a picture of the whole front? I was trying to get the original shutters and closures in this shot.
The reason for the ample parking is that pretty much the entire block is taken up by the side of this humongous house!
Wowzers.
How storybook looking is this?
Look at those details on the front door and those windows!
Yes, this is a house. At least it is now.
They all had very aged looking iron gates, so different from each other. You could do this same walk every day and see something totally new each time.
Thanks for going on this walking tour with me...wasn't it much cooler than actually venturing outside?
A little professionalism is coming to the hizouse! I won the custom header giveaway at My Sugar and Spice Creations!! i could not be more excited, because seriously, it needs a little sumpin' sumpin' in this jawn, fo reals. *
*Apparently mixing my "Bad Ass Rap Mix" and this blog post results in an entry that requires consulting urbandictionary.com. My bad.
So I thought having to work Saturday would have at least yielded me some good garage sales, since i am never up in time. I like my sleep. Sadly, I only saw one on my way in, and as far as i could tell from my drive by it wasn't worth being a little late for.
Feeling unfulfilled, i weaved my way home after work via the scenic route, and only found 1, about a block from my house. It was a very small set up, but i was so in the mood for thrifty shopping that i stopped. And i'm glad i did! I saw these bird pillows, marked 4.oo for the set. I thought, maybe for my MIL who loves bird watching...but their almost icy blueness meant i at least had totry them in my bedroom. Guess where they're staying.
Perfect addition to the chaise.
Perfect to gel with the maroon of the chaise and carpet.
Clearly i'm still having trouble deciding on duvet and wall colors...such is the life of a Libra. What about you, any surprising good finds lately? Are you like your astrological sign?
S forwarded me this article from oddstuffmagazine.com about graphite artist Dalton Ghetti. According to the article, Ghetti refuses to use a magnifying glass and only uses 3 tools to orchestrate his art-a razor blade, a sewing needle, and a sculpting knife. You really need to check out the article to see more of his amazing pieces, but these are my faves.
From this:
To this:
This one's for you, Kaleena J!
Isn't that amazing? He doesn't sell his pieces either, he just gives them to friends. Maybe he would like to be friends with me...i'll gladly take one of these puppies off his hands!
I'm linking this to favorite things Friday @ the hills are livin' and the inspired room b/c people need to see this good stuff!
I figure we should talk about the backyard while it's still summer and it makes sense to show you pictures of flowers. No one's gonna want to see a backyard redo when it's 65 degrees out, you know? You just won't be in the zone.
First i have to tell you about one of the main reasons we chose this particular house-it had the space to build a giant detached garage for S's antique truck that he's rebuilding. Said giant garage is also the reason the house hasn't come along as quickly as it should, since many months were put into the preparing of the garage and the driveway.
This is literally the first day we got the house. I'd like to call your attention to the magnitude of weeds, black vent hiding behind the bush, and the tiered driveway with the garage under the house. Sadly the green garage door still exists, but not for too much longer.
The yard. I hardly knew ye.
The tiered steep driveway leading to the under the house garage. See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya! This all got filled in with dirt to where the flat piece is.
Only picture i could find to illustrate this, lol. We will be connecting this "walkway to nowhere" with stairs coming from the basement.
At least S knows his limitations-although he dug the footings, wheel-barrowed dirt back and forth a million times to fill in the steep driveway, shingled the roof of the garage, did the capping and the soffeting, ran the electricity, something about "conduit", etc, he hired professionals to do the masonry and pour the concrete.
Boys and their toys. Yep, that's him digging the new driveway.
What i have termed "the runway." it's long but it looks darn good! We were the talk of our neighborhood with this addition, strangers driving by would literally slow down and tell us what a great job we did and how the concrete looks so nice (instead of asphalt). I like it because it gives us more side yard, and we are the only house that doesn't have the driveway next to the house, which i think is a rather clean look.
The outside of the sunroom had a facelift, too. Can you see where that black vent was? Look at those stairs, lordy lou. They are stairs on stairs, if you can tell. Concrete and then aluminum and iron, for some strange reason.
We painted the black sides tan to match the stucco, and the railings white. I think they flow much better and don't look like they were just plopped on. It also wasn't very long before i couldn't stand looking at the giant cinderblock garage til we stucco it. Can't wait to show you how i prettied that up. I hope you'll think so, too! Here's a sneaky peak!
