Magazine Copy Cat Challenge

OK, I have to start small, I'm new. 

Nothing big and ambitious for my first try at DebbieDoos copy cat challenge.

I was looking through a new mag on my nightstand and saw this little Valentine set up. 

The Mark

I thought how cute- could I do that?  Naaahh.  

Then I learned Debbie has a monthly copy cat challenge.  I'm not good at math but I could put that 2 + 2 together!  

I decided to give it a whirl and duplicate the Country Living magazine vignette.

Inspiration Magazine

I've always wanted to try my hand at those cute little banners.  While I do have an abundance of random playing cards because I am not playing with a full deck, I didn't particularly think the card banner in the inspiration photo was "Valentine cute".

I pulled a couple pages from the 'ol red encyclopedia, printed and cut out BE MINE on the computer, and ransacked the school supply drawer for a glue stick.

I located ribbon and scallop scissors and I was in business.

I think I really could of put this together just like the magazine photo, but we're suppose to put our own twist on it right?

The only things I didn't have a match for were pink spray paint for the tray, or the cool paper straws.

I opted to use a hydrangea since my rose bouquet didn't do a thing for the display - and my white tea pot was buried somewhere in the garage.

I had some left over tags from Halloween specimen jars and made them personal for Brawn and I.  Doesn't everyone make specimen jars?

I even have a couple of the same glass jars but they were packed away in Halloween bins and I wasn't gonna dig through those!  (Notice Brawn's decanter, it's a vintage reproduction from some king that I picked up at a garage sale).

I learned from my first copy cat challenge is that I don't really try new things anymore.  Instead of looking at all the beautiful photos in the magazines (and in blogland) and thinking I could never do that, I realized it's all set up right there in front of me, all I have to do is just as Debbie says...... make it my own.

                                                     

Linking up to DebbieDoos Magazine Copy Cat Challenge

Vintage Mailbox Towel Holder Boys Bathroom

I was inspired by a post on LittleMissMaggie's about her folk art mailbox, so today I'm going to boldly go where no woman should go - my boys bathroom -  so I can show you the vintage mailbox I turned into a towel holder.

16 years ago.

Back then I'm pretty sure everyone who saw it thought I was odd hanging an old mailbox anywhere, let alone in a bathroom.

What's on your toilet?

Call them what you want (I won't go into all the slang terms) but we all have one, or two, or in my case, more..... a toilet. 

As a young woman with a multi butt family I thought how great it would be to have all these bathrooms in our new home.  They're still great to have, cause when 'ya gotta go, 'ya gotta go.... but the joy (if there ever was) of cleaning all of those resting rooms has long since wore off.  

The kids are old enough now to keep their own bathrooms stocked and cleaned (ha ha cleaned).  So I thought as I replenished the main floor with supplies I'd check on them all to find out......

 "Just What's on Their Toilet?".

Danka, Merci, Gracias and Thanks

I'm still new at this, but appreciation is appreciation and I'm feeling it.  I just want to say thank you to the ladies that have hit the "follow me" button so far.  Having 19 people in one week interested enough to tune in to see what I come up with makes me grateful.  Having a few of you checking in on me from time to time might just be what gets me started on some projects (sort of like a cyber kick in the azzz)!  So far I haven't done anything here but dust to take pictures, tried a couple of YOUR recipes (and they were yummy), and stayed up so late every night my eyeballs are red from reading all about you and your homes.  Reading about you is by far more interesting to me, but I can't keep staying up this late!  The Brawn of the operation is feeling neglected, and that doesn't make for a blissful ranch.  If he only knew how long his to-do list is getting...............

Advertising Tins

My name is Bliss, and I am a tin-o-holic.  But I do not want to recover from this, no siree.  Not just tins, but any sort of item that has advertising on it or interesting letters.  If the re-decorating fairy fluttered through my house, she better keep her magic wand away from my tins.  They stay.
No matter what.  But she could drop more off.

 

Not all the tins I have are old.  Well intentioned friends often give me cute ones that look vintage but of course are not.  Doesn't bother me but I do have a fondness for the antique tins.

 

I like the Shinola tin above.  It still has stuff in it and it makes me laugh.  

Sometimes I don't look inside the tins I find because I'm not sure what I might see.  And in the case of the Shinola tin, that old saying had to come from somewhere, so why chance it?

 

Dust mop in a can?  Hmmm.  

I think this is the kind of thing those elixir guys sold out of their traveling wagons along with snake oil.  Look, it even has sort of a snake charmer guy as a mascot.  I haven't read the fine print on it, or opened it.  It has the word "dust" on it, and with my luck I would release what's inside, and Lord knows I don't want any more dust!  If it looks a little familiar to you that's because I turned this 'ol tin into my 

Bliss Ranch Button on the my sidebar. 

 

This Rolled Oats tin isn't even a tin.  It's the old fashioned version of cardboard.  I wonder if someone was sitting around their antique shop when they picked the name for the Golden Gophers Football team in Minnesota.  The oats are from St. Paul.  

This is also one of my favorites from my collection.

The tins I have are far from perfect, they won't be heading to any museums.  But somewhere sometime they were in someone's home, and if they could only talk.  Like this little Baby Talc tin above.  If you look close you can see pencil scratch marks all over.  Some little Victorian tot with a chaffed butt maybe took it out on the tin?  This one has stuff in it too.  

I have fought the urge to smell it.  

Linked up to:

Knick of Time Tuesday

Gearing up for a Country Pine Re-do

I've been trying to get a handle on cleaning out collections and brightening up my surroundings.  When we first built Bliss Ranch we had 4 kids, and then added two more in the early house decorating stages.  I picked things out by if it would show jelly or fruit juice, not by what I maybe really wanted.  I was being practical.  I also wasn't in my right mind (or body either!)  since I made those choices while pregnant.  And would you really trust anyone who might crave pickles and ice cream with your decorating?

 So I have these two pine pieces Mr. Bliss made with a big pine log, part of which was our Christmas tree, back when I didn't want white around for fear I'd constantly be cleaning it.  It's a nice piece, solid, and I don't hate it, I just want to update and brighten it, we have a lot of wood in our house.  It is top on my project list, along with the matching pine farm table.  My more rustic tastes from then have changed.  I plan to use something from the Graphics Fairy, along the lines of my all time favorite table designer Korrie at Red Hen Home.  I love her *chocolate table*, take a peek at her table, and she made some other ones too that are all my inspiration. 

Till I have a chance to pick up some of the famous Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, I added some white salad plates and some antique pine cone cups to brighten it up.  My daughter also makes those cute little stamped vintage silverware things and had a box of supplies sitting on my desk.  Soooo, in keeping with the cleaning up and decluttering going on, I took it off my desk, picked what I liked, fetched a metal tray that was heading to the Good Will, and put it all to use in a spot that has been famously empty unless there is a holiday.

The hardest thing around here is to say the words "painting wood".  Mr. Bliss loves the grain, the smell, the feel, the look of all things wood.  So I have to mentally prepare him for the assault on the dining room furniture.  I hope to start work on this next week if I can find a place in Minnesota with the paint.  What color ASCP would you use?

More Stones for Fiona

What a great name.... Fiona.  Fiona has a blog called Just paint it white here and she left me a comment to see more rocks!  So I went in to my photo albums to see what I have, because Lord knows I wasn't doing any dusting today so I could take photos.  I found a couple outside:

This is a photo of a patio pond Mr. Rough-Hewn Brawn got a wild hair to create.  I didn't really want anything else that needed to be maintained, but secretly I love it.  We have our own babbling brook to listen to on beautiful evenings.  Just not this time of year, it's cold in Minnesota and it's frozen!

On the left is one of the two stone pillars at the very start of the quarter mile long driveway into Bliss Ranch.  We had a wedding here a couple years ago hence the decoration thing hanging on it.  Then on the right, I have glass jars around the house that I didn't know what to do with, so for now they hold rocks.  Just like my head. ~Bliss~

I've got rocks in my head

Yup.  It's official.
 
I've got rocks in my head.

Why?  Because I'm the lady who doesn't like Facebook 'cause then everyone knows your business' - yet here I am sharing info on a blog!

On purpose.   Crazy I say.