Kitty Tent!

Just wanted to share this picture of my kitty enjoying her new tent! Isn't it the cutest thing?? While out on our garage/estate sale travels on Saturday, we also stopped at a newly opened (at least I think it is fairly new...) resale shop near Delmont, PA and I spied this super cute kitty tent. It appears to be homemade and it was only $5. Score! I wasn't sure how Ms. Batista would like it because he have bought her other toys in the past that she doens't seem to play with much, but she climbed right in and has been enjoying it ever since!

Spray Paint and Shell Scenes

So I've had this big box of plastic wall decor sitting in my garage for probably over a year now just waiting to be spray painted and repurposed into something pretty. I am always drawn to the plastic birds, flowers, etc... that I come across at estate and garage sales and have been hoarding them away. Well, this past Sunday was finally the day! It was a beautiful day outside and I was wanting to work on my tan anyway (hehe..I am so pale) so I decided to pick a couple of things from the box and get down to business!

I decided on the cow head, mail organizer and owl figurine (which is not plastic...).

I always first sand the item to give it a little texture for the paint to stick to and then wipe it with a damp cloth. I also realized after my first few attempts at spray painting things that primer is a GREAT THING! I sprayed each of them with a coat of primer and laid on a blanket while they dried.

I was thrilled last year when I discovered just how many awesome colors of spray paint there are out there! I normally get all mine from Wal-Mart and Krylon is definitely my favorite brand. That is my little collection below.

I always like to do at least 2 coats. I plan on keeping the cow head and most likely hanging it in my living room. The mail organizer and owl figurine will probably end up in my Vintage Shop.

Since the first 3 pieces worked out so well I decided to do the seagull wall hangings too. Pretty pink seagulls! ;)

In Other News - - - - - I didn't get to do much treasure hunting this past weekend, unfortunately. But at the one sale I did stop at quickly I found these kitschy winter shell scenes. The figurines are glued to a flat shell and the 'tree' in the scene is also a shell.

I got the 'lady' art  that they are sitting on at the same sale. She sort of reminds me of the

'Big Eyed' girls that I have purchased in the past....but her eyes look pretty proportionate :)

I think these shell scenes are pretty cool. Might even be a fun little project to try with your kids!

Inspiring Illustrations

I just LOVE Little Golden Books.... and it is even better when they come in GIANT size! :) I have collected quite a few Giant Golden Books over the last few years but this one just might be my favorite. It was published in 1955 and Illustrated by Mary Blair. I am sure many of you are familiar with her work. She was an amazing artist that did work for Disney for a time as well. You can learn more about her HERE

The book includes paino music and lyrics to each song and just has the sweetest illustrations.

A lot of the pictures are done in black, white and neutral colors.

But some pages are full color and so fun!

I love this playground scene!

Aren't the illustrations so cute and whimsical?

This Weekend's Treasures

This weekend's thrifting adventures turned out to be pretty major! It was just one of those weekends that ended up holding a lot of great finds for my mom and I. LOVE those kinds of weekends :) I pretty much had a trunk and backseat full of great treasures but only have a few pictures for now.
That is my sweet little neice sitting on a Eames style shell chair that I found. Great turquoise color! Sadly, it isn't the real deal but for $3 I couldn't pass it up. It is in great condition and I have the perfect little corner to put it in.

These brass stools are my most exciting purchases of the weekend. They are just gorgeous works of art. The woman I bought them from said they are foot (or bum!) warming stools from the Middle East (most likely Lebanon or Syria ). They would be taken out into the desert and on cold nights they would fill them with embers (one of the legs comes off and the stool is hollow with decorative venting) and place their feet on top to warm up. I am not sure I can part with both yet but I did already put the one on the left in my Etsy Shop. Click here to check it out and see more pictures. It is a really cool piece!

And last but not least is this great little number! A bright pink dress from the late 70s/early 80s with an awesome dotted pattern. The colors and style couldn't be more perfect. I actually bought quite a few lovely vintage dresses and sweaters this weekend but only got this one's picture for now.

I can only hope to have another great thrifting weekend as good as this in the coming weeks. Sometimes (as I am sure many of you know) there are just weeks without finding much exciting...but then you get a weekend like this that reminds you why you keep getting up so early on Saturdays ;)

Wheezy Wednesday

It's Wheezy Wednesday! :) I took this photo last night. I got Wheez this new bed a few days ago and she loves it. It's the perfect size for her. The way she sits just kills me. The picture is a little dark but I thought I would still share it because she is just too adorable - don't ya think? ;)

Also - Just 2 quick pics of some terrariums the BF and I were putting together last night. I have been collecting vintage glass jars and containers for awhile now in hopes of making some pretty terrariums and we finally gave it a try for the first time last night. I took a lot more pictures of the process and figured I would do a sort of DIY post about them.....but I want to make sure they stay alive for awhile first! LOL. I am certainly no green thumb so I just want to make sure I did it right before I share. But in the meantime, here is a sneak peek!

This weekends Vintage finds

Just a quick pic of most of the finds from my garage/estate sale adventures this weekend (I also found an amazing chrome breadbox). I was really happy to find the little globe and mint condition Girl Scout thermos I found at a church flea market. I found the doll on the left in a Rubbermaid container full of odds and ends at a garage sale. She was still in her plastic with tags and is wearing a great mod outfit. 

But probably my most exciting find was the crazy map poncho/cape with the red pom pom tassels. I found it at an estate sale and just couldn't leave it behind. It was handmade by one of the homeowners at least 50 years ago.

Did you get to any sales this weekend? Find anything fabulous?? :)

Day Trippin

This past weekend, the BF and I decided to take a little road trip. Both our Mama's were going to be away for Mother's Day and we decided we had worked so hard the previous weekend on landscaping that we deserved a little break ;) We drove about 2 hours north of Pittsburgh to Erie, PA. We have both been through Erie plenty of times but I had never really taken in any of the 'attractions' there. The first place we went when we arrived late Saturday morning was Presque Isle State Park. We had hoped to rent bikes and ride the nice flat trails around the park but sadly did not realize the bike rental place doesn't open until Memorial Day. So we just decided to walk the beach for awhile.

There were TONS of baby geese everywhere. I am normally not a fan of 'big' geese but the babies were sooo fuzzy and adorable :)

 I was surprised to find quite a few of those shells (below) and Jon was a cutie and proclaimed his love for me in the sand ;)

The beach also had plenty of smooth, flat stones (took quite a few home for some future terrarium making) .... and seagulls.

Presque Isle State Park was a very beautiful place with plenty to do. Next time we will be more prepared to spend some more time there.

When we had enough of the beach and driving around the park, we stopped for some lunch at Sara's. A friend at work had told me we had to stop and get a hot dog. The fun little diner ended up being right at the entrance to the park so it was kind of hard to miss. The place was packed and the food ended up being pretty good. Sara's really has a fun 50's vibe to it. AND we even got Coke in glass bottles ;)

Next stop was the Erie Zoo. Until talking with a co-worker the week before, I never even knew there WAS a zoo in Erie. It is quite a bit smaller than the Pittsburgh zoo but the animals seemed to be a lot closer and easier to see (zoo's make me sad a little bit actually. I was holding back tears when watching the gorilla. She seemed so sad.). Most of the animals seemed pretty active and the rhinoceroses and orangutan's really put on a show. I was super fascinated with the pig in the bottom left corner. I think the sign actually said he as a miniature pig..HA!

And check out the video below! The baby orangutan was sooooo cute! He was flipping and playing all around. I am glad I was able to catch some of it on video. He knew he had an audience and we definitely giving us a show :)

Just some flowers and trees I thought were cool.

After freshening up and having a quick Chinese Buffet Dinner (Jon's request - I wasn't feeling it), we headed to Waldameer Amusement Park. A cute, little amuesement/water park also near the entrance to Presque Isle. The nice thing about Waldameer's is that you can get in for free and just stroll around. And if you decide you want to ride anything you just have to buy tickets. The park was only open unitl 8:30 and we got there around 7...but it was plenty of time for us. We walked around the park and decided to buy enough tickets for 2 rides - a wooden rollercoaster called the Ravine Flyer 2 and a nice leisurely ride on the Sky Ride which is just like a ski lift that takes you across the park and back. The Ravine Flyer 2 was a lot cooler than I had expected - a pretty big drop in the beginning and a lot faster than I expected. 

A shot taken while on the Sky Ride. You can sort of make out Lake Erie in the background.

It was a fun little getaway. Always fun to explore new places and try new things with the ones you love :). If you live near enough to Erie and are ever looking for to take a day trip or quick weekend getaway - Erie has plenty of fun things to try!

~ All photos (and video) above were taken with my Iphone. Both just the normal camera and Instagram.