Blue on Blue Bargains…

 

 

I’ve recently added three more pieces to the blue transferware collection I have in my kitchen hutch.  The large blue plate and the two identical small plates on either side of it were purchased from fellow Ohio blogger and friend, Cindy. 

 

 

 

 

I like the large floral pattern on this dinner plate. Lots of flowing vines…   There is  one small residual area of staining on the plate that I’m going to soak with hydrogen peroxide, then bake the plate in a low temperature oven. That added baking step always seems to remove the final bits of darkness in the stoneware.  I paid $10.00 for this beauty.

 

 

The two small plates have a pretty lip around the edge and are more delicate in their design than the larger plate.  The two plates were $6.00 apiece.

 

 

 

 

Cindy pointed out this small $5.00 pitcher to me at the same booth where she bought some brown transferware  at  last weekend’s Scott’s Antique Market.  Its color is much more subdued than the blues in the other pieces.    I’ve displayed it with my other white pitcher collection on the small shelves on either side of the cabinets by the sink.

The piece has some small hairline cracks in it, but I liked it all the same.  I had some breakage when I was cleaning it up and a small chunk actually broke off, but a little dab of Gorilla instant glue made it look whole in no time flat. 

 

 

 

 

                                          

 

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                                                                          Click on buttons to link to the following parties:

 

                                                                                                  Mosaic Monday 

                

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                                                                                                  Blue Monday   

                                                                                         

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                                                                                                  Table Top Tuesday

                                                                                        

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                                                                                                  Junkin Finds Friday

                                                                                      

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                                                                                                                                                                                                 Favorite things Saturday

                                                                                                                                                     

                                                                                                    

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Meeting the Pioneer Woman on a Buckeye Blogger Outing….

 

I had the pleasure of meeting Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman, at a book signing in Columbus on Saturday.  I met up with Ohio blog pals, Cindy, Lori, and La, for a day of shopping at Scott’s Antique Show, lunch, and a some quality girl talk while waiting for Ree to sign the books we bought. 

                                 

                                      My Book Signing Buckeye Blogger Friends….

             

                           Cindy                                                        Lori                                                               La

Our little group of Buckeye Bloggers found the perfect place to wait for our assigned color group to be called to take our place in line – we were directly in front of the signing table. It was the perfect vantage point to witness Ree‘s graciousness to her many waiting fans.

I have to agree wholeheartedly with La’s take on Ree. In her blog post, La wrote,  “…. She was delightful and engaging.  She was genuine, sweet, and funny.”   When it was my turn to meet Ree and have her sign my book, I felt that she took a more than generous amount of time to speak with me.  It must have been a long, tiring weekend for her, having back to back signings in Cincinnati and Columbus;  but she was unrushed and made me feel so welcome!

 

 

 

 

                                                        photo courtesy of  La

When La and I got up to the table to meet Ree, it was almost 6 p.m. and Ree had been signing books since about 2:00.  There was still another large group behind us, so I’d venture to say that the last of the crowd didn’t leave until well after 7 p.m.   But I’d lay money that Ree was as cheerful then as she was when she first started! 

Oh, and I can assure you that those major droopy eyes of mine weren’t due to cocktails at lunch-  I’ve had a head/chest cold for almost a week now. I’ve been reading that many of you have been enduring a bug, as well.  I do think I’m starting to turn the corner, though; I’m not hacking as much as I was over the weekend, but now I’m sneezing repeatedly! 

 

 

                                          

 

                   

I purchased Ree’s cookbook, which has some yummy looking food pictures inside its covers. There are also some great photos of her cattle ranch and her family.  The first thing I’m going to try fromthe book is her Olive Cheese Bread, shown below.  So what if it’s laden with more than a few calories? I’m rationalizing that I’ll just ride my stationary bike extra hard to make up eating some all of  it!

 

 

 

                                                            ooey gooey cheese……

                                           Photo courtesy of  Pioneer Woman Website.

  

                       Doesn’t this bread look positively delish?

 It was such a fun outing for the four of us, even though Lori and Cindy had to leave the book signing early. Cindy had to get home to a puppy dog and Lori had to meet her family.  I’m really glad that I stuck out the wait with La and was able to meet Ree. 

We’re all looking forward to our next get-together in the spring, when we’re hoping more Ohio bloggers will be able to join us in Marysville for another fun outing at the French Hen Farm barn sale.  Of course, if we find someplace to visit before that, I don’t think any of us would mind.

I’ll have to show you some of the purchases that I brought home from my weekend shopping adventure.  I only bought one small item at Scott’s, but Cindy delivered some pretty transferware to me from her Etsy Shop.   Until that post, I’ll just be drooling over all the food pictures in Ree’s book…..                   

                                                                                                                  

Blogging Tip- Eliminating the default border around your header

 

I’m guest posting today at Brenda’s  Cozy Little House  for her Blogger Tips Monday.  Thanks, Brenda, for letting me come over and spout some information that I hope will be helpful to a few peeps!

                                                             

                           click on Brenda’s button to visit this amazing, fun, and talented lady!        

 

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This is a screen shot of what my blog would look like if I had not removed the default Blogger border when I changed my blog header for the first time last year.   It’s a little distracting, wouldn’t you agree?  Those double lines made it look as if my photo mosaic wasn’t large enough to  fill the header box.  Well, I removed those lines, as you can see in my current header  on my blog. It was a very easy, peasy computer code fix and you can do it, too!  Don’t be scared…  All you have to lose are those ugly border lines! 

 

 

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Lately,  a  lot of  you in blogland have been busy customizing your headers with new pictures and fun mosaics.   I’ve noticed on some of your blogs that the default Blogger border has remained in place even after you’ve uploaded your new headers.  Did you know that you can remove it to give your new header a more polished and finished look? I have an easy tutorial for you, showing how a simple HTML code change can get rid of it.

Now, I like to practice all my html changes on my test blog. Having a test blog makes it so much easier to play around with code or anything else you want to practice on- you  never have to worry about making changes while people are viewing your blog pages and you don’t have to work in the wee hours of the morning when you think everyone else might be sleeping and not on your blog!  And if you’ve set your test blog settings to where only you can access it, no one sees your test blog, at all.    For me, I like to practice in a place nobody can see all my boo-boo’s! 

But whether you choose to do this in your test blog first or on your actual blog, itself - 

Here are the instructions-

 

1)  Go to your design page on your dashboard and click on “edit html” on the layout page.

 

2) Before you do anything else, make sure you save a copy of the existing template. You can copy and paste it into a word or notepad document. You can always restore the original template if you are unhappy with any changes you make.

3)  Click on  Expand Widget Templates- this will place a check mark in the box. 

 

 

You may see in the following screen shots that I didn’t check the  “expand  widget template” box.  I just forgot to do it in those screen captures.   So, do as I say and not as I did….   :-)

 

4) On your keyboard, hold down the control button and then the letter f.   This will bring up a search  (Find)  box at the bottom of your screen. Type in the word “header” and hit the enter key. 

 

 

If hitting enter did not bring up the code below, hit enter again until this part of the code appears.

 

#header-wrapper {
  width:860px;
  margin:0 auto 10px;
  border:1x solid $bordercolor;   }
#header-inner {
  background-position: center;
  margin-left: auto;
  margin-right: auto;
}
  #header {
  margin: 5px;
  border: 1px solid $bordercolor;   text-align: center;

 

The highlighted border code numbers above might be different than in your code, depending on the actual width of your border, so don’t be alarmed if they don’t say  “1.”

 

The code in the following screen shot is the part of the code you are going to work on.

5)   I’ve highlighted the portion of the code you will be changing. Do you see the number 1 in both places?   You will be changing  the number 1 in both places to a 0.

 

 

 

This is what your template should look like after you’ve changed the code-

 

6)  After you have done this, click on preview to see your changes.  The border should now be gone.

 

7)  If you are satisfied with what you have done, click on save template. You should now have no border to distract from that great new header you added!                                                                                             

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Hope this tip will be useful to those of you who have already added those fantastic new mosaic headers and to those of you who might be contemplating adding them!

                                                                                                               

Shelving Stuff…

 

Before I get started painting the study, I thought I’d take a few shots of the built-in bookshelves tucked into the corner of the room.   Things will stay this way until I select new furniture at furniture market in April and decide what style I want to go with in regards to accessories.  After getting rid of my sofa and tables last month, the only thing left in the room is my desk and chair.  It’s pretty bare in here, but that’s actually okay- it’s less for me to move when I finally get around to painting.

I love to place a variety of things on my shelves. Books, mirrors, framed photographs, ceramics….  It’s pretty much a fun mish-mash of accessories on these shelves.

 

 

I never did get around to showing the juggling pins that I purchased back in the fall.  Do you see them tucked into the right hand corner of the shelf with the globe?

 

They were a yard sale find that I negotiated down to a price of $12.00.  They are the real deal, not reproductions.  The woman having the sale told me that her son had found them in the cellar when the family moved into their home over sixty years ago.  She didn’t really know what they were and had placed a $15.00 tag on them.

 

 

I love the patina on them.  Banged up and worn. I wonder who would have been using them so many years ago…

 

 

 

I found this old globe on the other end of the shelf at an estate sale. I’m always on the lookout for the small sized ones, but figured that this one was a bargain at $2.00.

 

 

 

I placed a dried bouquet of roses on top of an open book placed in front of a framed picture.

 

 

These were given to me by  Mr. Sullivan for some occasion or the other. I always tell him he doesn’t have to give me flowers, but he really likes doing it.   In fact, I received a dozen red roses this evening for Valentine’s Day.   What a guy…..

 

 

An uncirculated 5 cent stamp featuring Winston Churchill is mounted inside the frame. The quote reads:

            “A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.”

 

 

 

 

On this shelf, two little ceramic dogs stand guard over photos of two of my nieces on their wedding days. I tucked in two vintage post cards for added interest.  The wire picture holder was one of five that I bought for $3.00. Who can beat 60¢ apiece? It makes for an interesting way to showcase photos. You don’t always have to pop them in frames….

 

 

 

 

Isn’t this guy’s face just adorable?  He even has a freckle on his mouth.

 

 

Here’s the other one….

 

 

 

I found the two postcards shown below in a nearby antiques mall.  I don’t believe I paid more than $2.00 apiece for them.

 

This postcard, sent from a father to his daughter,  is postmarked 1902 and was mailed from Marseilles to London on the day he was sailing to Port Said in Egypt.

 

 

Another postcard, written in French, was addressed to the same address as the one above.  It appears to be written in a feminine hand.

 

 

I’ve really curbed my thrift shopping ever since I started my organizational purging in January. I’ve decided to be a lot more selective about what I will be buying. Plus, I think my tastes are changing.  You cannot imagine all the things I’ll be getting rid of at my own tag sale!   I’m  seriously even contemplating selling the goat cart that I bought  last year!                                                                  

 

                                                                                                       I’m linking this post to :

 

                                                                                                      

 

                                                                                                         

     

                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                 

 

                                                           Won’t you please pay them a visit on their appropriate party days?

 

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On another note….   

I’ve decided to use the Sherwin Williams Amazing Gray paint in this room and hope to get started on the paint job soon.  We’ll see…..

    

Decisions, decisions…

 

I am stumped.  While I usually find it easy to help select paint colors for someone else, I’m having  a hard time trying to decide what I’m doing for myself!  I’ve always leaned toward earthy colors, but I’m trying to get away from them and move towards the gray palette.  A cooler look, without being sterile.  I started searching in my Sherwin Williams paint deck last week and happened upon several colors that I thought I could love.  One of them was actually used by blogging friend, Pat, from Back Porch Musings. She used SW’s “Sticks and Stones” in her kitchen, hearth room, and breakfast room and it turned out just beautifully!  After seeing her photos, I knew that had to be the color I would choose to paint my study. 

Wrong!!!  

What looked gorgeous gray in Pat’s lighting turned to warm chocolate in mine!  

 

This is a shot of Pat’s  hearth room.  It appears to receive quite a bit of light, so the color looks true to the paint chip.

 

 

 

 

  

And this is the color in my room. It’s actually showing up lighter in this shot.  I think that the color tends to go more brown with the lighting in here.  In fact,  I think it looks like a chocolate milkshake.   Am I always thinking of food?!

 

 

 

 

 

So, just for kicks, I decided to try the color in the dining room, which is another space that desperately needs a color make-over.  It’s been green for much too long.  But, although the study and the dining room both face the very same direction, the lighting  in here brings out a purple cast in the paint!    aaaggghhhh……   Guess I won’t be using the paint in here!

 

I think I want a gray that’s more like this-

This is the second color from SW that I applied to the study walls. It’s called “Amazing Gray” and it stays pretty true to this color both day and night.  After living with it for a few days, I’m thinking I really like it for the study.

 

 

 

 

Here are the two colors side by side in the study.  Do you see what I mean about the one on the left looking more brown than the one on the right?  Nice, but not quite what I had in mind.  Why couldn’t  I have Pat’s lighting?

So, in an effort to be absolutely sure that I’m going to get the gray that I truly like,  I’ve selected two more colors  to have made up.  I’m off to the paint store this afternoon to see if I can come home with a color that’s exactly what I want.   Do you recall that old adage about the cobbler’s children going without shoes?  That’s kinda  the way I feel- like the kid whose dad makes shoes and I’m going without!  I’m working on a project for someone right now and it’s been a pretty easy job of selecting colors for her new house.  So, why am I having such a difficult time for myself?

Decisions, decisions…..