My NEW Baby!!!

Isn’t she absolutely adorable?!?!?!

This is a picture I found on-line since I am still cleaning mine up.  But I found this EXACT mixer with the two matching bowls at the thrift store today.  The biggest bowl has a chip in it though.

I have wanted a ‘pretty’ stand mixer; pretty enough to leave sitting out on the counter, for as long as I can remember.  And it works!!  But I can’t get the beaters out?!?!?  Even Michael tried to no avail.  I looked around on-line for old instruction manuals (it’s a 1950’s version) to see if there was a secret to getting the beaters out.  No luck there either.

Finally cam across a you-tube video of how to use the juicer attachment (which I do not have).  Decided to watch and see if maybe they showed how to remove the beaters.  They just pulled them out!  But they were hard to get out in the video too.  So, maybe I’ll be able to get them out after I get it all cleaned up.  Lots of ‘grease marks’ all over it to clean.

I’M SO EXCITED ABOUT MY PRETTY NEW MIXER . . . . . . AND MY NEW HOME THAT I WILL BE TAKING IT TO IN LESS THAN A MONTH!!

Yep!  I finally found a place. . . . AND it has an attached garage!  Hallelujah for that garage!!  So, now it’s full steam ahead on the packing.

Seems like I have been ‘packing and purging’ for forEVER already.  feels so good to finally have an end in sight.  And I can’t wait to make the new place ‘my own’ and share the pictures and progress with you all here in my blog.

I’ve been heavily stocking my space at Stars in anticipation of my upcoming move.

I’ve got it full enough right now that I shouldn’t need to take in any more inventory until after I get moved.  All the furniture in my booth is stacked 2-3 pieces high, so I’ll just lower the stacks as things sell, and rearrange and tidy up every week as needed.

Took in a HUGE stack of frames last week!

Some really BIG gold frames, behind the big distressed framed chalk boards.

A few ‘word cloud’ chalk boards; but the more popular name for these seems to be ‘speech bubbles’.  Great fun to use for photos at parties.

A couple of vintage styled dry erase boards.

And still MORE frames!

Here is a better look at a grouping of white and gold distressed frames that are a bit hidden in the above pictures.

It’s been ages since I’ve had a lot of frames in stick so they are bound to sell quickly!

How cute is this vintage pair of suede shoes!?!?

One of a kind teddy bear lamp that I made.

Over-stuffed ‘granny’ foot stool.

And a couple more vintage foot stools; newly reupholstered.

I’ve built up quite the collection of vintage cream pitchers and sugar bowls.

And plenty of ‘butter bells’.  I LOVE my butter bell.  Keeps the butter nice and soft and FRESH without refrigeration.

And look at this CUTIE PATOOTIE mini butter bell with it’s mama!!!

Replenished the vintage Milk Glass dishes.  The gold rimmed ones are SO pretty!

Milk glass bowls and custard cups.

Pretty scalloped Milk Glass fruit cups and a creamer.

Gold rimmed serving bowl and a lace edge Milk Glass candy dish.  I’ve got several of the candy dished in this small size and a larger size.  Perfect for your party candy buffet!

Adorable Milk Glass egg cups.

LOTS of vintage Ironstone in stock too.

Dessert / Hors d’ourves size stoneware plates for your next party.  So much nicer to use than paper plates.

And of course Ironstone BOWLS.  Bowls always seem to sell the fastest.

And I’m well stocked on several sizes and styles of stoneware bowls and ramekins.

Including these extra BIG Ironstone soup/cereal bowls.

Plenty of white Ironstone canisters, utensil crocks and covered casserole dishes too.

Several sets of white stoneware napkin rings too!  Chickens, bunnies, kittens and plain ones.

And for those warm summer nights when you want to languish on the patio . . . this big rusty rooster is a candle lantern! One wing lifts up to place a candle inside.

So, fret not if you don’t hear much from me for the next month or so.  I’ve got a few posts ‘written and ready to publish’ saved up so I’ll have SOME new content to add.  But I’m going to be pretty much buried in bubble wrap and boxes for the next month.  Wish me luck!

Another “What is it”.

Found this little ‘thing’ last time I was out thrifting.  Have NO IDEA what it is.  It was in with the kitchen stuff.  It’s tiny.  Just 2-1/2″ tall x 2″ wide.

It’s 2 pieces.  The top lifts off, and is shown on the left in the above picture.  It ‘somewhat’ reminds me of the general principle of a butter bell.  But I would be awfully hard to get butter out of that small, oddly shaped top part.

Anyone know what this thing is????  First correct answer, and the internet link to validate the answer (otherwise how would I know!?!) will win any one of my e-books of their choosing.  Post your answers and link via a comment.

WE HAVE A WINNER!!  Beth C. provided the correct answer AND the link to prove it.

http://www.modcloth.com/shop/furnish-decorate/grow-bot-planter

Gotta say that I never would have guessed that!!!  I think what had me SO fooled was that the pieces were staccked inside each other when I bought them.  But they are not intended to fit together like that!  Good job Beth!  Let me knwo which of my e-books you’d like.

Another one bites the dust . . .

Add to the things that have broken at the touch of my hand, a Command Max Power Paint Sprayer.

Michael has one of the bigger power painters, like you’d use to paint a whole house; and did NOT recommend that I try this smaller version.  However, I had read a review of the product on another blog, by a gal who does a lot of painting of furniture and she gave it a thumbs up.  

Since the most time consuming and labor intensive part if what I do is the painting, I decided it was worth a try.  If it didn’t work for me, I’d send it back.  The least I could do was ‘give it a try’.  Home Depot doesn’t carry it IN the stores, so I ordered on-line.

It arrived and the ‘waiting game’ began.  Waiting for a DRY day so I could have a paint-a-thon.  Only had to wait a couple of weeks for a gorgeous sunny Sunday.  Michael helped me get all set up.

We laid out one of the BIG disposable plastic tarps in the driveway to work on.

Michael pulled all the unfinished shelves he had made out of the storage shed.  Since it’s faster and easier to make then in quantity, he always makes several at a time.  Then we store them until I am ready to paint them.  ONE shelf like this would usually take me the better part of a day to paint.  And at the end of that day, my back was sure to let me know I’d over done it.

These are birch plywood shelves, so the PLY shows on the front edges.  I sand the edges EXTRA well, then apply a good primer, like KILZ.  It was such a nice warm day that by the time I got all the shelves primed, the first one was dry enough to start painting.

BEHIND the shelf in the front of this photo, you can see how Michael set the shelves up on saw horses for me to paint.  since you can’t TIP the sprayer to reach those inside nooks and corners, you have to manipulate the shelf to accommodate  the painting.  That was one thing I found to be difficult about using the sprayer.  And perhaps the NEXT time, I would hand paint those inside corners first, then use the sprayer for the rest of it.

One thing that REALLY surprised me about the paint sprayer is how HEAVY it was to USE!  The box felt quite lightweight when it arrived.  But holding the filled sprayer ‘in painting position’ made my wrist ache almost instantly.  I have a wrist brace which helped a little.  Just had to keep switching hands, and resting a few minutes every ten minutes.  Once you START painting you can’t stop for more than 30 minutes or the sprayer will clog.

As I was finishing up the third shelf and wanted to stop for a short rest, I let go of the trigger, but it kept spraying!!  Yanked the power cord to get it to stop and called for Michael to come take a look at it.   I emptied and cleaned it, lest there be a clog, and Michael looked at the switch.  Couldn’t find any way to fix it.  I finished up the third shelf anyhow, so all the paint would match.

Called the customer service number provided and they gave me a return # and said to send it back; which I promptly did.  Not sure WHERE things stand right now.  The charge for it was still on the card I used to pay for it, and I haven’t heard anything about them sending me another one.  So ………………..

We’ll see where this all goes!  Overall I was thrilled to be able to get THREE shelves painted in a few hours time.  And shelves have the MOST surface area to paint of  just about any furniture piece.  I can envision getting a whole slew of furniture pieces painted in one day with this baby.  IF I can get one that’s not defective!