Lap it up..... :)

Juuust take a gander at these lovelies:) I scored them at...yep, you guessed it! A freaking garage sale this last Saturday!

How adorable are they? This lady had a whole box of linens and things that she was practically giving away. I die:)  

I thought, (and so did she) that there were only 11. She sold them to me for.........5 bucks!! When I got home and started to take the stack apart, there were 12!!!! 12 lovely Belgian linens from Anthro.

S-C-O-R-E !!

These beauts are a whopping 26" square:) I believe my friend Martha Stewart calls them "lapkins". And I LOVE them:) 

But love isn't love till you.....

GIVE IT AWAY!!

Yes, these lovelies can be yours:)

Tell me the best thing you've scored for under $5. That's it!!

I'll announce the winner next Tuesday:)

The early bird..... :)

I love to sleep. Like LOVE to sleep. And I happened to be married to a guy who needs like NO sleep. He's up with the sun and ready to go! Always. He even tries to coerce me awake with the smell of a 4 raw sugar latte on my nightstand:) God bless him:) He soon realized(he's a quick learner that one!) the way to get me out of bed early on a Saturday, is to whisper these 2 little words in my ear...

Garage sale. Uh huh. THAT'S what will get this girl up faster than anything:) Especially here in Dana Point. For some reason I've had the best of luck here:)

Just take a gander at the latest goodies I've found! This

$2 frame. I'm thinkin it used to have a pic of some sort in it, but I'm going to turn it into a cork board:)

This $1 perfectly chippy, old, faded picture:)

Me loves:)

But this last weekend?? I happened upon the Mother lode of all garage sales. Although I didn't end up with all the goodies at this particular one, I DID end up with... 2 All-Clad pans for......$5!!!!

I know what you're thinking- WHO sells their All-Clad at a garage sale?? I'll tell you who- the same crazy lady that sells her white KitchenAde mixer at a garage sale! Yep, I just missed out on it. Some granny with a cane was all over it:( My hubby did that "see, I told you you needed to get up earlier" thing. UGH! I hate when he's right:(

Sad, worn pans- let me introduce you to my friend- Bar keepers friend:) Yeah, the pic is all sideways but the Bachelorette is coming on and I gots to get this stinkin post done! Soooo I ain't fixin it:)

Ta da!!

Seriously? How amazing do they look!

The moral to this story? Yes, I got me some All-Clad. But apparently...

The early bird..... gets the KitchenAid !!

Weekend roundup...:)

Whilst enjoying the amazing weather that Dana Point California has to offer, I thought I'd show you  what a little bit of cooler weather does for this gal:)

I redo shelves-

Before

After:)

I make pizza for lunch:)

And cookies for dessert:)

I pick hydrangeas from my back yard:)

I hit the flea market:)

What I didn't get done??? Cleaning these stinkin curtains!! These are my white linen curtains that hang in my bedroom. You can see (if you can take your eyes off that handsome bully) that they have yellowed in some places:(

So I thought maybe a good soak in oxy clean would do it! Well 3 hours later....nothin:( then I threw them in the washer with hot water, soap and bleach.....nothin.

Then I thought hey! Maybe 3 days (yes I said 3 days!) in the sun would surely do the trick!! Never mind that LB thought it was an absolutely wonderful place to bathe in the sun himself.......

Nothin!!! Does ANYONE know the magic trick to whitening linen curtains? My frustration level is in the red zone:( 

Set it and forget it ? ....:)

I bought this clock below, forever ago. I don't know why. I seriously don't. Maybe I bought it on the same delusional shopping trip that I bought my hideous red washer and dryer??? Ugh. I could kick myself sometimes. I mean for heaven's sake this clock has stinkin crabs or lobsters or some kind of crustaceans all over it? And I totally don't get the Paris France connection. But whatevs.

I took the clock and hung it outside ( so I wouldn't have that constant reminder of shopping gone bad I guess?) and had NO IDEA that it would... Number 1- survive the elements, and Number 2- that it would turn out like THIS!!! God bless 4 years of sunshine right??!!

I was admiring my hydrangeas (that are INCREDIBLE here in DP) and happened to turn and see the ole gal looking all lovely and sun bleached, still hanging there in that same spot she had been for over 4 years:) And suddenly? I loved her:)

I put a new battery in and it works!! I hung it in my bathroom yesterday:) OK, the hubby hung it.

I appologized for all the years of neglect- we're all cool now:)

Project- laundry....:)

It's no secret that I love to do laundry:) Ok, well if it was a secret- I just told on myself. Anyway...this here is my laundry room in our Dana Point cottage:)

Cute- but kinda booooring!! I always thought some stripes would look fab in here, and this last weekend I tackled it with the help of my amazing sidekick:)

I have hated these cabinets that I call the GIRAFFE since they were put in. I asked for light distressed and the only thing that was lightly distressed was me- for the last 5 years!! UGH!! Moving along...

Since I have the patience of a two year old and the math skills to match, I let my hubby do the taping:) I mean seriously, I could hear him saying things like 11 and 15/16th's and stuff! Wa what?? I did however, read some time saving tips from Beth about painting stripes, and her info was spot on!

Oh! and for the first time evah I actually wore gloves and saved the manicure I just got a few days ago! I'm growing up:)

We painted a few coats and waited for the paint to dry....

Yippee!!! I'm in love:)

I found these sweet little drum lights at Lowe's, and just shortened the curtains that I already had:)

Here's the view from the kitchen:)

Next week? I'm hoping to get to project-send-the-giraffe-back-to-the-zoo! I'll keep ya posted;)

Better After...:)

Ok, who doesn't LOVE a really good before/after?? This weekend, I painted my house. My dollhouse:) When I ordered this thing, the paint colors I had to choose from were verrry limited. Seriously, it was this or purple or pink or paint it myself...ummm NO! Soo I went with the blue. I thought I could deal with it, because I had these grandiose plans on taking it to our Cali house, and it would fit in perfectly:) Weeeell, 4 years later and she's no where near the beach:(

So Friday my sweet little niece (who had a day off from school) and I took to tackling this crazy paint job. By Monday morning (and coercing Rio to help me)....here she is!!! GREEN:) of course:) I left the shutters and trim the same color and doesn't she look soooo much happier??

Speaking of happier..... Take a look. This is the only "before" pic I could find of the house (if you could call it that) across the street. The blueish- grayish- eyesore- with no grass- sketchy peeps living in it- mess of house- that just needed SOMEONE to love it. This house is what I looked at every time I sat at my dining room table, or on my front porch. It was a house at one time, but over the years had been "converted" into 3 separate apartments:(

Enter Peter Mirata. Owner of Gilbert Contracting Company and pretty much the neighborhood hero:) Yep, he arrived on his white horse and saved this ramshackle sad excuse of a house, and turned her into something the entire neighborhood is proud of:)

Peter spared no expense renovating this house. I'm not kidding, I watched the entire thing-- from my dining table and front porch:)  Check out the master bath:)  

And how beautiful is this kitchen??

My neighbors and I would LOVE some cool peeps to buy this place. Because we're cool peeps!! Uh huh! I mean come on! Who doesn't want to live on a street where there's a Dorie, Lori, Tori and a Jeory!! (I'm secretly hoping for the new buyers to be a Cory....a Maury..... ) Anyway, if you love historic neighborhoods, living downtown, neighborhood parties and happy hour on the porch give these guys a call :)   480.926.2727  more pics here:)

Hpy Mthrs Dy!!

So the hubby and I are here in DP:) and it's Monday. And that means I should be blogging right? Nope. Here I sat with absolutely no ideas. Maybe because when I get here my brain totally shuts off:) Soooo, I turned on what my mom always called- the monster. Yep, that's what she called the TV:)

And look what was on!! PERFECT! I was thinking about doing a Mother's Day post!!

No wire hangers EVER!!!!!

Nothing can make you board the crazy train faster than your kids. And my mama had 6 of them. She used to always say- "insanity is hereditary, you get if from your kids!" I seriously don't know how she did it.

This sweet lady is the bestest of  a mom and an even better Grandma Sweets. She can cure your cold with her chicken neck soup, and make your tummy smile with her homemade mole. But my favorite thing? Her writing. Her words and her calligraphy. And now? Her texts!! She abbreviates.

 I love her to pieces:)

Happy Mother's Day!!