A LUNCH, TEA OR JUST FOR SHOPPING IN OC?

I've been reading several blogs the past few months and I have noticed several of you don't live that far from me.

So I was thinking it would be fun to set a date for us to meet up for lunch, tea or just a day of shopping.

The Orange Circle has some great shops and eating places as well as several tea house. I thought that may be a fun place to meet up. What do you think?

Do I have any takers? I know there are several from OC, Riverside, Ontario and other surrounding areas. I hope you guys would like to meet up as much as I would.

If you are interested then leave a post here and let me know when would be better, week day or weekend. It won't be for several weeks as I will need to plan where and when so the most people could make it. Then I will email everyone to let you know.

We can then blog about our day and share it with the rest of our blogland friends.

Hugs,
Joanne

HOW MANY OF YOU HAVE ONE OF THESE NEAR YOU?

Well my camera batteries are being charged right not so I couldn't take photos of my thrift store finds.

So I thought I would show you this photo. Have you seen it before? Does it look like something you have seen in movies or TV shows? Well it is!
It's the nuclear power plants in San Onofre CA.

I would see these buildings every time I drove to and from visiting with my brother. It's pretty scary if you think about it.

I bet most people don't have a nuclear plant near by that could be a target for terrorist or have a melt down or leak. It would be like Chernobyl, but over here by where I live. Living in CA I wonder how well they hold up with Earthquakes. YIKES!

However, even though it could be pretty scary, I found out you can take a tour. I want to do that one day. Maybe I could get some answers to my questions.


Well on a more peaceful thought here is the chair I painted pink. I think it's much nicer then the before grey color. What do you think?

My BIL put my new swing up, so I'm going to paint that pink too. I can't wait to see it finished.

Now I need to find some cute pink outdoor pillows. I would make them but I don't sew. I wish I had a friend that did. I would be happy to buy the material and even pay her to make me some custom pillows. Oh well, I'm hoping I can find some pretty ones already made.

I made my last trip to the hospital to visit with Gene yesterday. He is finally going home! He is so excited. I don't blame him. Seems like he has been there forever!

He will still have rehab but on an out patient basis.

Yesterday he walked down the parallel bars three times. I had to fight back the tears when I saw him doing that. It's surely only a matter of time before he is walking on his own.

We made plans, that on the anniversary date of his stroke, we are going to go on a cruise to Alaska. We are hoping he will be all better by then but, even if he still has problems we are going. I told him I would push him in a wheel chair if I had to. I think having a goal is good for him. It gives him something to work towards.

I hope everyone had a nice Father's Day and a great weekend. I'm off to read other's blogs.

Hugs to you.
Joanne

WANT TO COME THRIFTING WITH ME?

My sister, Maureen, and I went to several thrift stores today. I thought it might be fun to take you along with us so you can see for yourself what the CA thrift stores look like.
This first shop we stopped at had things that we don't normally see at thrift stores any more. They mark things Vintage though which of course brings the price up. But the store was very clean and well put together.
I loved this old ironing board and that little blue chair too. But I didn't have any place for them so I passed them up.
They had a lot of items out that could be for 4th of July. Lots of people were buying these kinds of items.
Then of course they had the junky area.

This was at a Goodwill store. They also display things nicely. I think they think since they have raised the prices they should at least make things look nicer.
I did like these little tea cup and saucers but I passed them up too.

They had a cute pink area. I was drawn to this area! But I didn't get anything from here either. I almost got this cute pink cotton candy machine but then I knew I would never use it so I left it for someone who would.
More pretty dishes.

I found this soup dish at another thrift store. I thought of Cindy at Romantic Homes when I came across this. I almost took it home but again, I knew I wouldn't use it and since I'm not working on the dinning room right now I left it alone. I loved the little Shabby Chic cupboard but it was to much for me today. I think it was $129 and I didn't bring that much. Besides, tomorrow is 1/2 on furniture so if I can't stop thinking about this I can always go back.
I fell in love with these rockers and wanted to take them home. They would be perfect in my back yard. But, I drove and they would not fit in my tiny Honda Civic. So I had to leave them behind also.
They had this cute wicker set too. Man, someone is going to have a cute patio set when they find this.

This is what most of our thrift story areas look like. Crammed full of stuff.
You could get shells or this darling pottery piece.
Pretty vintage platters or a vintage Christmas box.
Again, I almost took these plates. I thought they would be cute to have lunch on when my back yard is finished and done in pink. But I didn't give in.

I don't know why but I LOVE these bowls. These are the things I wish I really would have bought. They just make me smile.

I think piece of pottery was pretty too. But I didn't know where to put it so it's still there for some other treasure hunter.
Anyone want an Eiffel Tower full of red, white and blue jelly beans?
How about a sweet little peach tea pot?
Or some vintage glasses or small pitcher?

This little vintage chicken kept calling my name. I went back to him 3 times but sadly I left him to find a different new home.

I know you want to know what I bought.....don't you? Well I will show you tomorrow.

I hope you had fun going to the thrift stores with me today. I would love to see what the thrift stores in your town looks like.

To find out who won my give away scroll down as I posted the winner before I did this post.

Hope everyone has a HAPPY Friday the 13th!

Big hugs to everyone,

Joanne

AND THE WINNER IS.......

I can not believe I had 93 people sign up for this give away. I want to thank each and every one of you for coming to visit me and for signing up. I wish I had enough items to give each of you a big box full of fun stuff.
OK, I won't delay any more. My great niece, Trinity, was over so I had her pick a number out of the box. And she drew number..........5!
The 5th person to sign up was Diana Lyn! Congratulations! I hope you enjoy your items. I'll be mailing your package out to you soon.
Well keep coming back though, I'm going to be doing give aways often. I love doing them.

Hugs,
Joanne

WORKING IN THE GARDEN & CRAIGSLIST FINDS

We have this little area near our front door that for some reason won't allow anything to grow at all. It doesn't matter what we plant there it dies. So we tried to think of something to do with that area and thought it would be cute to put some pea gravel down and add a fountain there.

We can hear the water when we are in the living room. You know how soothing that is.

We got this little rose fountain at Lowe's. It was only $45.00. Can't beat that. Two bags of pea gravel was about $7.00. We had the bunny and the plant already so for only $52.00 we found a way to have a little beauty in a spot where nothing will grow.

I'm going to get more flowers to put in this area. I want to hang some pots on the wall and also we have a double hook that I'm going to put a hanging plant on and a bird house. But at least we got a start.

This is our mailbox which is right by the front door. Yikes! I need to paint the top. Or should I leave it the way it is, with chippy white paint?
I got these two cute bird houses at Michaels. They were both 1/2 off so I couldn't pass them up. I think I will put one of these out by the new fountain. Which one do you think would be best?
I found these two cute lamps on Craigslist. They are more of a creamy yellow color then they look like. I'll be painting them more of a white. They will go in my blue bedroom.

Oh it doesn't look like I'm sticking to doing only one area of the house at a time. It's hard for me to do that. I like to pick up things as I find them.

But right now I am trying to stick to the garden area. Both front and back.

We did get the swing I wrote about. Sadly though, it's really more of a cream and tan color rather then pink. But, I think I'm going to paint the metal part pink and add some cute pink pillows. So in the long run it will still give the feeling of a pink swing. Don't you think?

I've been working on my blog for Gene. I've started at the beginning so I don't have any updates posted there yet. But the good news is he is getting movement back in his paralized arm! How exciting!

I also think he is going to go home this coming Monday or Tues. I know he will be glad to get there. It's been about 7 weeks already that he has been in the hospital. That's enough to make anyone long for home.

Well don't forget to sign up for my give away, if you have not yet done so. It will be closed tonight at midnight and I will draw the name tomorrow. I can't believe how many people have signed up already.

Also, if you have not noticed, I have an area on the right of my blog for other give aways I find out about. So spend some time clicking over there and you are bound to find several things you want to sign up for.

Hugs,

Joanne

I LOVE GETTING PACKAGES IN THE MAIL!

Today I came home after a long day at the hospital with Gene. I was tired and a bit cranky. I get that way when I have to get up early.

But when I walked in my sister, Patty, told me there was a package that came for me. I quickly perked right up and went into the dinning room so I could rip the package open. No, I'm not one of those people who slowly and carefully opens a package. I'm more like a little kid that tears right into it!

I was thrilled when I saw it was from Shay at Uniquely Yours. I had won her give away of this great book called Child of Wonder by Ginger Carlson.

She also sent a nice little note and her business card.

If you have not been to UNIQUELY YOURS you should go take a look. Her art work is wonderful.

Thanks Shay. I can't wait to read this book.

I've decided I'm going to start a new blog dedicated to my brother Gene and his journey to recover from his stroke. So, I'm going to be working on that blog the next few days. Which means I won't be back here until Friday the 13th, at which point I will be posting the WINNER of MY GIVE AWAY!

If you have not signed up for it yet, you still have time. Just click on the button over on the side and it will take you to the post to leave your message.

So until Friday, be well, be safe and enjoy life.

Hugs,
Joanne

I'VE DESIDED TO GO PINK!

I'm in the process of redoing my back yard. I wasn't sure what color I should go with. At first I thought blue. Then I thought all white. But then I thought pink!

My sister, Pat, told me she saw a pink and white swing set and as soon as she showed it to me I knew I had to have it.

So tomorrow she is going to go pick one up. I can't wait! It's going to be so cute with some pretty little floral pillows on there.

Today I started to paint some chairs we have pink. A pretty pale, Shabby Chic pink. They will be perfect with the swing.

Almost all of the flowers in our garden are pink, purple and white so they will look beautiful with the pink chairs and swing.

I also have a bench I'm going to paint white and then redo the cushions in a lovely pink material. Maybe I'll try to find some pink and white striped material for pillows so they will tie in with the swing. What do you think?

I can hardly wait to see this yard all done.

I think I'm going to take my other sister, Maureen's, advice and try to finish up on one room at a time. Rather then work on my bedroom, bathroom, office and yard all at one time, I'll stick with the yard first then move on to another area.

So sadly that means I'm not going to do much shopping at the thrift stores or garage sales for while. But it also means I'm going to be working on finishing up tons of projects I already have to do.

Well that's the plan at least. I'll let you know how it goes.

I'll post the pink chairs tomorrow. I only got one 1/2 done. The front. The back will get done tomorrow.

Hugs to everyone,

Joanne