High Five For Friday!

Linking up with Lauren from My Grey Desk to celebrate the fact that it's Friday!

So - 5 things that were great about the past week:

1. Mani Monday Party! Friends, food, gossip, and painting our nails. So much fun!

2. Seeing a great friend who now lives way too far away! 

3. Getting my sewing machine back from the repair shop. Now I'm all fired up to get back to sewing!

4. Working out with my boo. Probably did more laughing than working out, but it was fun!

5. Funny pictures that people come up with in the Draw Something App. 

Have a great weekend!

Julia

Pretty {& FREE} Desktop Backgrounds

Desktop images from Vera Bradley

Desktop images/calendar from oh, hello friend: you are loved



oh, hello friend has lots of free templates/calendars/etc to share. I love when people share the things they've made. I've enjoyed her monthly backgrounds the whole year so far.

-Julia

Whoa! One year later...

HELLO!

Oh geez...it's been a year. Time flies when you've got a large load on your plate at work...but...I'm back...and I've been pinning. Check it out here. Here are some of my favs from Pinterest.

For the home...

{Cat Studio Atlanta Pillow}

Wish this was my home...

{beautiful kitchen}

Made this already...

{doily runner}

Yep...

{yes please}

Well, that about sums it up. I should be back more regularly now.

Toodles.
Julia

Headboard

While surfing through my daily blog reads tonight I stumbled upon this cool headboard (so fitting with Valentine's Day tomorrow):

{image here} {project here}

A headboard is the next thing on my list of "wants/needs/to-do's" and this one is just my style - minus the word love. I'll probably just leave it blank... Luckily I was already planning on heading to the Lakewood Antique Market next weekend so I'll just add "random pieces of wood" to my list of things to look for, along with something to put my TV on and a bus or car seat for work...

Toodles,
Julia

Kudzu Antique Market

Since I haven't had as much time to sew or do anything crafty lately I've gotten on a redecorating kick. By now, my roomies are used to coming home and finding new fabric on the dining room chairs, new pillows, new art above the mantel, etc.... My last two trips to Kudzu were in search of a new TV stand, which I'm still looking for, but I found a few other kooky, cool, fun items I thought I'd share with you.


1. Flour, coffee, sugar, and tea canisters. I almost scooped them up to replace the red-checked ones we have now, but left them because they would take up a bit too much space in our tiny, tiny kitchen.



2. Child sized stove, mixer, and blender(not pictured)! Where were these when I was growing up? I had to use my imagination...though I have to say, it's a little scary that the stove has an electrical outlet plug. Maybe it just made noises and lights go on? Anyone have one of these when you were growing up? Oh, and it says "Suzy Homemaker" on it. Ha!



3. Hoof ash tray...ewwww! Need I say more?


4. Super cute pie cabinet. I'd use it in a bathroom to store extra towels and glass jars filled with cotton balls, q-tips, and other pretty white things....a girl can dream of a bathroom that big, right?


5. Amazing, industrial furniture. The pictures don't do justice to the pieces, but they are incredible in person. The bike wheel artwork was massive - at least 5 feet wide. Clearly these aren't antiques...but gorgeous nonetheless. Definitely out of my budget, but not too insanely priced...something to save up for.





A few items came home with me that day, but I'll post pictures of them later. They've been added to the living room mantle, but I need something 'new' (to me) up there to tie into the vintage/homey feel of the room. I've had a cool print above it, but it's a little too modern for the room, so it'll be moved somewhere else in the house. I'm thinking about something along the lines of these pieces:

{Image from here} {Available here}

• 

{Image from here} {Available here}

Enough for now. I'll be back soon with pictures from my trip to the big apple for the New York Gift Show. That city is a blast, but I'm always ready to come back home...

Julia

Wanting something pretty...

...to put my TV on. Currently it's sitting on an old Ikea-like desk that I got from a friend. It's a light wood finish and it's got some crayon scribbles on top from the younger days of her cute daughter. I made a curtain to cover the cords that hang down the back, but I'm getting bored with it and want something new...different...cool...antique-y...

This is what it looks like now:

I was a little too lazy to hem the curtain to the correct length...but I also made it around midnight the night before I hosted my step-mom's baby shower, so I was a little rushed.

Anyways, last weekend I took a little trip to Kudzu Antique Market to look around and see if I could find anything. {I love Kudzu!} Here's the first piece I thought about:

The piece is massive! I have no idea what it was once used for, but it was old, on wheels...big, red, and beautiful! Unfortunately the price on it was a bit out of my budget (not sure what the budget was, but definitely out of it). It also didn't really have a good spot for a dvd player to reside, so I left it there for someone else to find.

This is what I really, really wanted to bring home that day:
I think it's an old school cart of some sorts...but I'm probably wrong. Painted green metal with a few rust spots, the doors open out and would be a great place to store books, dvd's, odds'n'ends, etc... I'm a sucker for old metal things {which explains my metal basket collection}. Unfortunately, this piece was even more outside my budget than the first one, so it stayed at Kudzu.

I wish I still had the Scoutmob deal for Kudzu. Maybe they'll do another one? Anyone have any suggestions on other places to look for cool pieces of furniture?

Julia

SNOW!!

It snowed the day after Christmas in North Carolina and was pretty much the "perfect snow". It covered the ground, but didn't stick to the roads or sidewalks. That was the first white Christmas I remember...ever. Pretty cool thing to experience as a Southerner.

{tree at my grandmother's house}

{throwing snow in the air}

Now, it's snowing here in Georgia and we're all freaking out! The grocery store shelves are empty, restaurants only have frozen {read as fry-able} food left, and we're going into our third day off from work/school...except for me because I live a mile from work and can walk there. Anyways, the snow was absolutely gorgeous Sunday night when it was coming down. So light and powdery. The roomies and I went for a walk that night and it was so neat to only hear the snow falling.

{late night walk through the falling snow}

{snow building up on our back staircase}

{people sledding in the cemetary}

Snow Day 1 was filled with snowball fights, sledding, walking into town to the local pub, and snuggling up on the couch. Snow Day 2 involved working a little bit, going to the pub, working a little more, snuggling up on the couch at home. I'm hoping that Snow Day 3 gets back to normal. I can only take so much free time. Apparently I'm better at getting things done only when I have a million other things to do.

Oh, and cookie sheets work really well for sledding down driveways and hills, but be careful because they go really fast on ice and you might not be able to use them for cookies after you're done.

Happy Snowpocalypse!
Julia