Sweet Clover

If you follow me or Cassie on Facebook you might have gotten wind of some big changes coming our way!  It has been a pleasure to work together with Cassie on our joint venture, Persephone, and we have really enjoyed our time as vendors at the Stylish Patina Barn.  Kelly, the owner of the barn, has worked hard to establish a thriving business and we are blessed to work with an amazing group of talented vendors!

However, Kelly has decided to leave the barn in order to focus on the Stylish Patina shop in Falls Church and a new vintage rentals business.  But the monthly barn sales will go on!  Cassie and I are beyond excited to be joining forces with our friends Celeste and Terri of Catfish Studios to run the barn sales as a new venture named Sweet Clover!  We feel so lucky to have this opportunity to expand our business and hope you will take this journey with us.  We also wholeheartedly wish Kelly all the best and look forward to supporting each other's businesses into the future!

A huge shout out to Gwen for the beautiful new logo!  She took our vague hand drawn ideas and created the logo of our dreams!  (Gwen is also responsible for my blog design - seriously check her out if you need graphic design services.)

Each one of our Sweet Clover partners brings unique talents to our business and together we have a clear vision for expanding the barn sales to bring more vintage looks and handmade items to our customers.  If you would like to keep in touch with Sweet Clover, please follow us on Facebook and check out our new web page where you can sign up for our email newsletter.

Thanks for visiting!

Lucketts 2013

Good afternoon!  I hope you are having a great Monday - I am spending mine lazing around with my little one.  This weekend was super busy with working all day at the Stylish Patina barn sale Saturday and a shopping trip to Lucketts Spring Market on Sunday.  There was also a birthday party and a play date mixed in there but big thanks to my husband for handling the kids' schedules!

This was my third year going to the Spring Market.  Each experience has been completely different.  The first year I was an itty bitty blogger totally overwhelmed by the vintage goodness and the real live "famous" bloggers.  Last year I participated as a vendor with Ginger & Spice Marketplace.  And this year I was strictly a shopper.

I met up with my partner Cassie and our friend Terri to check out the vendors and hopefully score a few deals.  Sunday is the best day for negotiating on prices.  I decided my go-to line would be, "You don't want to have to haul that home!".   It's a total bummer to take a full truck home after the market.

As it turns out I did not break out my negotiating line but I scored EXACTLY what I was looking for!

I mean, how often in the yard sale/thrifting/flea market experience do you actually find what you want for the right price?  I'm thrilled.  Now I'm going to work on accessories - a few pillows, some flowers and runner will create a perfect front porch.

Click over to Primitive & Proper to see the awesomeness that Cassie came home with too.

Thanks for visiting!

Winter Mantel

Good morning!  You might have heard about the big snow storm hitting the East Coast.  Well this morning we woke up to snow and no school!  I realized I never shared my winter mantel and today might just be the perfect day to do it!  It's also probably the mantel's last hurrah since it is the first week of March and I feel a Spring update on the horizon.

You might notice a lot of the elements are the same as my Christmas Mantel.  Same window, chalkboard and burlap ruffle.  After the holidays I wanted to keep things simple.  I also reused the snowflake ornaments right off the tree and hot glued them to the window pane.  The snow covered wood trees were 90% off at Kohls after Christmas.  (Silly Kohls, those trees are not just for Christmas!)

My favorite part of the mantel is the little snowball wreath I created using pom pom yarn and a wreath form.  I simply wrapped the yarn around the wreath till I achieved the look I wanted.  The pom pom yarn makes it so easy - no need to make your own poms!

Thanks for sharing one last bit of Winter with me today!  I hope you are snug and warm on this snowy day!

And if you are looking for some Spring...click over to my friend Cassie's blog.  She's sharing her simple Spring mantel today!

Thanks for visiting!

Young House Love's Thrift Shop Challenge

I've been totally slacking in the blogging department I know it!  I spent the first half of January recuperating from the holidays and preparing for the Stylish Patina Barn Sale and the last half traveling for a wedding and a funeral.

But here I am ready to kick off the new year with Young House Love's Thrift Shop Challenge!  

My friend Maria first shared with me the Macklemore & Ryan Lewis song called Thrift Shop (caution explicit language) on which the challenge is based.  I practically live at our local thrift shops so there's a good reason Maria thought I would like the song.  She was right because I've already made it my ringtone!

The challenge was basically an excuse to go thrifting with "$20 in my pocket" and snap a few pics of items mentioned in the song.  Here I am with my $20.

I don't know why I didn't smile but it was super windy and I felt like a creeper taking my picture with money outside the thrift shop.

Here's what I scored with my twenty.

These wavy glass jars really caught my eye.  I love the blue glass of the smaller one especially.  I think they would make excellent knockoffs of these Pottery Barn lamps.  Don't you?

I also picked up four blue canning jars.  These were priced at less than $2 a piece and you can't beat that!  They are always great for rustic decorating.

I spent $18 on the glassware for the challenge.  But I also picked up a couple more items on this trip to the thrift store.

While not vintage, the soda prints will be cute in the bar area I want to create in the basement rec room and the silver platter were sooo much cheaper than my regular thrift store pricing that I decided to pick them up too.

Now here are a couple of items referenced in the song that I came across in my trip.

By far the best piece of the day was this beautiful antique china cabinet.  I wish I could have brought it home with me but it was a bit pricey at $149.

Isn't she lovely?  The carvings were beautiful!

Have you heard the "Thrift Shop" song yet?  What treasure did you find on your last thrifting adventure?

Thanks for visiting!

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Young House Love's Thrift Shop Challenge

Our 2012 Christmas Tree and a No Sew Felt & Burlap Tree Skirt

I wouldn't say that I leave all the Christmas decorating to the last minute but I am definitely not a professional blogger, early December decorator either.  My process is my process and I never know where I'm going with the decorating until I get deep into it.  Plus let's keep it real - my house is rarely tidy enough for the beauty shots with two kids running around.

My tree has actually been up for a few weeks but I've finally got the pics to share with you today!  Our family tree is in the room with the stone fireplace and this mantel.  I tried to keep the color scheme to natural, red and white but bits of silver and gold sparkle kept sneaking in too.  Most of the ornaments are woodland creatures, stars and things found in nature.

Last year I put the tree in a galvanized tub and loved it!  But this year the tree stand that is large enough to fit this tree is too big for the tub.  Instead I bought a $5 red felt tree skirt at Target.  When I got it home it was far too skimpy for the large tree.  So I decided to beef it up with some burlap ribbon.  Lately burlap is my go-to decorating item and it pairs nicely with the mantel and the garland on the tree.

Here's what the tree skirt looked like before.

To make this no sew felt & burlap tree skirt, I first flipped my felt tree skirt over and started hot glueing the ribbon across the scallop edge at the back slit of the skirt.

At each indentation on either side of the scallops I folded the burlap over what was already glued down and back again to form a pleat in the ribbon and then hot glued the pleat in place.  This gives the burlap some pretty ruffle and helps to make the straight ribbon conform to the circular tree skirt.

When you flip it over the pleats will look like this.

Once the ribbon was glued all the way around the felt skirt I had this!

It came out just as I pictured it in my mind and all for about $10!  This has got to be the simplest no sew burlap tree skirt ever!

Thanks for visiting!

Christmas Mantel 2012

I'm sharing our Christmas mantel today!  Finally.  If you follow me on Facebook you know I was planning to post this earlier in the week.  The availability of poinsettias at Costco and perfect picture taking light eluded me until today.

This year I used the same color scheme as last year and some of the same decor elements.

But this year I also incorporated two old windows that I got from my friend Beth.  Her husband thought I was crazy when I came to haul away their old windows!  I started by hanging the large 9 pane window to give the mantel height.  Then I painted the single pane window to make a chalkboard.

The yarn wreath and silver JOY are from last year's mantel but I'm am totally in love with using them in conjunction with the chalkboard this year.   I just started playing around with fun chalkboard fonts and it's not quite as difficult as I thought it would be.  (plus it looks better from far away ;)

For a little softness and texture I used ruffled burlap ribbon on the mantel as a runner.  I always have rolls of this stuff for wreath making and tree garland.  It made sense to tie in the mantel with the rest of the Christmas decor.

We have used these stocking the last few years and I like that they are neutral enough to go with whatever color scheme I choose.  This year I picked up the initial tags for each of us but they don't really pop so I'm thinking of switching them out for red plaid ones I saw at Target.

This year I'm keeping it simple - not too much bling or "stuff" on the mantel - and I like it!

What's your color scheme or inspiration this holiday season?

Thanks for visiting!

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Jingle Bell Junk Swap - Christmas Tree Candle Lumiaries

 

Today I'm participating in the first ever Jingle Bell Junk Swap!  The awesome Bliss from Bliss Ranch sent me some good vintage "junk" and my challenge was to use it to create cute Christmas decor.  Here's what Bliss sent me.

When I saw this set of Christmas tree molds I knew I could work with it!  Bliss even sent along a little note to help me get started.

Rice Krispy treats were one of the first things to come to mind but that seemed like taking the easy way out!  I knew that I definitely wanted to take the trees off the metal frame to use them individually.  It seemed like an easy task.  Here's a better view of how they were attached.

I thought with a little elbow grease those babies would pop right off.  I was wrong.  Reeeeally wrong!  To remove the first tree I use metal snips and a screw driver to cut and bend the metal till the metal buttons holding the tree on the frame popped loose.  With this method I was in constant fear of stabbing myself with the screw driver or gouging out an eye (like for reals).  Maybe I was going to  make Rice Krispy treats after all...

Luckily I avoided bodily harm and my husband suggested using the Dremel cutting tool to remove the rest.  The Dremel was a bit safer and a whole lot faster!

Once the trees were off the frame they had two small holes in them from the metal buttons that held them on the frame.  I decided to go with it and use a nail and hammer to pierce holes in the whole front of the tree - sort of like Christmas ornaments - to make luminaries.  Next I glued them to small brass candlesticks from the thrift store with Liquid Nails and gave the whole shebang several coats of gold Glitter Blast spray paint.  Behold, Christmas tree candle luminaries.

When the candles are lit the trees have a soft glow.

What "junk" are you using in your Christmas decorating this year?  Be sure to check out how the rest of the ladies completed the Junk Swap challenge!

Bliss @ Bliss Ranch
Cassie @ PrimitiveAndProper
Gwen @ TheBoldAbode.com 
Abbie @ FivedaysFiveways
Andi @ JaneOfAllCrafts
Ali @ MyThirdTrueLove
Bella @ WeHeartdiy
Jill @ JunkyVagabond
Janel @ Nelliebellie
Lori @ MamaWithaDashofdiyDrama

Thanks for visiting!

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