A trip to the Archetechtural Salvage in Sarasota Florida

Yippee, This would be heaven for me! Sarasota Architectural Salvage.. inside and out!

They have all kinds of architectural pieces and stuff that been recycled and reused in combinations that make my head spin!
this table looks like it is made from old train wheels

This cabinet is made from salvaged wood and a stain glass piece. Oh I wish I had a spot for it!

I adore it.

A nice assortment of drawers used as shelving... I love this look.

I got me another door! They had tons of them. this one will go in my booth in Cape May when I get back to New Jersey. I think it will be a great place to hang things on.

I went looking for shutters for my courtyard. I found 2 of these gorgeous and unique pieces.

Just a quick post about some of my favorite white things.
First and foremost.
White bed linens,
The crispy ones from Rachel Ashwell's shabby chic line at target.

 And the texture of her white chenille patchwork quilt.

 I adore.

White table linens

White Pitchers

White slipcovers

and vintage white chenille blankets

with a splash of color

And pretty white garden gates 

What's your favorite white thing?

Join in with me at the party held by Kathleen

White Wednesdays at Faded Charm

Project 8 and 9 The Bureaux and the Fruit Stand

Annie to the rescue! Annie Sloan paint that is. Moi did the hard part. The luggin and paintin and sandin.

This lovely bureaux needed a bit of help to shine.

this is her now

Below is how she use to look.
The top was ruined from some pieces of paper that had been left to soak wet clear into the finish

 and two wheels were missing.. so she stood like some say I do... with a leen to the side! ....

Get it? Eileen.... yeah I know. I get it all the time. Dopey joke. :)
That's why you see books propping up her front feet.

But she was a great size dresser and had loads of potential so I snagged her up and transformed her to a sweet vintage piece. Even her drawers are sliding smooth as silk.

And the fruit stand was a side of the road save, I thought she was a farmhouse cutie patutie the minute I saw her, all upside down, legs outstretched . Her muffled cry for help.

I think with a generous helping of Annie Sloan grey, she worked out to be the perfect little beachy display stand.

So on to the next project I go!
Sharing with these linky parties.
Vintage Inspiration Fiday
Furniture Feature Friday
Feathered Nest Friday
Saturday Night special
Nifty thrifty Tuesdays

Project #5 What to do with an Old Tool box

I found this wonderful old tool box I just had to bring home. It was love at first site.

It had lots of yucky old tools in it and encrusted with dirt

but....

It spoke to me... " I clean up nice"

and below is how I saw it in my head!

A bit of elbow grease and help from  my dearest friend, Mr Clean magic eraser, and it went from
this:

to this:

And all dressed to party...filled with some chosen treasures, dried roses from my daughter's birthday, pretty china, vintage bottles.

In the Dining room.

 My centerpiece at the Dining table morphs from one thing to another all winter long, just to entertain myself!

In the summer hardly anything at all will happen in here. I will be busy entertaining myself on the beach.

:0)

That little birdhouse in the background corner was a thrifted find that I adore, and I filled it with those bottle brush trees that I'm keeping out all winter.

This way it reminds me of peering thru the garden gate of an old mansion in winter, as a child.

Here's hoping these are the only snow covered trees I see all winter!!

Off to the partays!!
~White Wednesday # 135~
Under $100 linky party

The Shabby Chic Cottage

Strut Your Stuff @ Somewhat Simple
Vintage Inspiration Friday
Feathered Nest Friday
Welcome to Inspiration Friday #48!

a Pretty Rainbow

My cottage survived the storm very well. Thank you all for the emails and the prayers!
 I've been very busy lately putting things back in order, and cleaning up.
I thought it might be a good time to post a couple of nice rainbow pictures that I took in  North Wildwood.

It was a full arch and I don't have a wide angle lense so I had to take several separate shots!
Below is the other side of the arch.

And I just luv how the sea birds have a glow about them in this one:

Also been busy getting ready to move my youngest into a college dorm room tomorrow.  Making pillow covers and picking out bedding, and printing pictures for her new frames. We are trying to decorate with lots of pictures so she doesn't miss us all too much. I'll post pics of her dorm room  re -do, after we get it all set up.
She wanted to make a statement. Can you guess what color scheme she is going with?
The choices:

• black and white
• black, pink, and white
• red and white
• red and black

We've got everything ready now and packed in the car!
hasta la vista, baby

Picky's thrifty finds while Pickier was lazing away in Florida

I just want to show you a few fun and usable things that I found while out thrifting and they seem to fit right into my little cottage.

First off i love little porcelain pots, and cookware, and I found this great strainer for like 2.00 at our local thrift, so I nabbed it. ain't she sweet?
And the minute I saw this cute little spoon rest/ bowl/whatever i want to put in it, versatile  fish piece, I snatched it up with my greedy little paws. pretty, tiny hands.

It was only 1.00 and doesn't it look darling next to my fishy trivet by the oven?

One of my all time favorite pieces I ever thrifted was a wopping 3.00 platter
that says on the back "hand painted, Italy"
It is great for getting big orders off the Barbbie, or for a huge selection of fruit. I love the blues and greens, and that it features fish.

A big white glass embossed bowl perfect for serving mash potatoes in, Love at first sight- it had to come home with me!

Perfect for feathering my nest!

The blue tinted wine glass below, I grabbed at a yard sale down here at the shore a while back for 25 Cents... and wished they had more than one. It is featured below  at dinner. :)
I have been fooling around with my new camera all week. The photo challenge for week 4 at a step in the journey was dinner.

I'm not very experienced at taking pictures of food. I do see it around in magazines and food blogs. 

But  this was the challenge, so I took a few pics of the dinner I made, tortellini and meatballs, and settled on this one for my shot in the challenge, because I like how the wine glass looks up against the porcelain pasta strainer.

It's a simple dinner tonight only for two, and not a great big gang of us!

I gotta go finish setting the table....
 Arrivederci Amico
Eileen

Joining in at these parties!
Feathered Nest Fridays @ French Country Cottage
Photography Challenge: Week #4 @ A Step in the Journey