Dollhouses Castles

(photo source)

A week ago, Kim K. at Musings with Kim showed her darling gingerbread house she made for her little girl. I fell in love and decided I was going to make one for my nieces Hattie and Harper. So, when I found a few minutes to spare I scoured Michaels looking for one of those unfinished house shaped CD holders...with no luck. I was thinking I need to remember to put this on the mental thrift list (I couldn't even find them online!) I decided this will be next year's project (and little Harper will be closer to three and more inclined to play with it).

While at Michaels, however, I stumbled upon this unfinished wooden castle! Because I am the mom to boys, this is the perfect Christmas project for me to make for them. Ironically, I had just mentioned to my mother-in-law that I wished they made dollhouses for boys as Lyndon loves playing with the one I thrifted earlier this year. I am so happy to have found this castle.

(Disclaimer: I don't believe in boys can't play with girls toys and vice versus, my brother played Barbies with me plenty of times in our youth and I with his Hotwheels. It's sad we divide our society into sexist categories at such young ages. School, unfortunately, seems to have brought the societal notion that some toys are only for girls and others for boys into our household-much to my chagrin).

So, next week I am going to quickly transform it into a proper place for knights and dragons. Hopefully, I'll have a finished product to show you (I borrowed that photo above as I am traveling this week for work. Check out the finished one!)

11 11 11

O, man...I have to give credit where credit is due. I have been desperately trying to get my Etsy shop up and running and have new respect for shop owners out there. It is hard work editing photographs (properly...not the lazy way as I do for this blog! :)

I was hoping to open up on 11-11-11. How lucky would that have been? unfortunately, I am still pecking away at the photo editing and uploading. Maybe...hopefully, I will have my grand opening by Sunday.

At the very least, I finally have my shop's banner done. This should have been simple, but I changed my mind on my shop name three times before settling meekly on one. I think I like it. In fact, I may change LKL's name as well to reflect the choice. Maybe.

I have so, so many posts to write-up. I have all my Nashville adventure & finds (thank you, Rae, for your fabulous suggestions!), Louisville recent finds, and some other loose ends of life that has been passing me by of late. The best part is I went back to a DSL at the farm house (I'd been using a mobile air card due to my constant travel) which will make it easier to keep caught up on the weekends (air card does not get decent signal out in the sticks).

Anyway, the above photograph is a forever ago find (I can't even remember the Who What Where of it anymore). It is a sneak preview of what one may find in my (very) soon-to-be shop!

Weeks Fly By Unslowly

Tomorrow is Sunday. Since September, Sundays have had a different meaning to me: They mean it is time to head back to the south. This week, Sunday is especially hard because my week home has made me sad, made me think that maybe taking the job was not such a great idea. We knew it was going to be a hard year, but still...

Yes, Sunday I will be heading back to KY. No detours, no deviations, just a long four hour roadtrip back across the O-hi-o and into lovely Louisville. O, how I wish my kids and hubby were coming too. Five days without them is a long time, yet overall time is just flying by into oblivion.

Actually, even if they were coming back with me, I would not see them for I am heading to Chicago for work this week. I won't be home until Friday and home will be back with them again in IN. I have to keep this perspective to make the next months bearable. June will be here before we all know it, right?

So, today I packed away the Xmas decor and de-ornamented the tree (still in house with lights as I feel like I barely was able to enjoy it). I remembered I wanted to show you the vintage, homemade card baskets I thrifted in November in West Virginia. I filled them full of Shiny Brights for a quick display. I think I paid $1 for them both.

A couple of weeks ago I was in Cleveland for work and down the road from my hotel was an Anthropologie store. I drool over the items in the catalogs they send me (not so much over the prices or the anorexic-looking models), but have never ventured into one of the stores. Much to my surprise, I found Christmas card baskets just like mine (only not really vintage and slightly bigger). They wanted much more than a $1 for their version (I couldn't find a link on their website!) and the graphics were not nearly as gorgeous as the ones on the WV treasures! So, there you have it: Proof that Thrifting not only yields the same thing as big money retail, but something more authentic as well!

Want to make some for yourself? Here is a tutorial.

Thrifty Monday: Blue Christmas Rendition

(Complete and unused bridge set)

Sigh. It is 9:18 already and I feel like I have done nothing at all today. OK, so I went to work today, finished last minutes gift-buying at the Liquor Barn (can't go wrong with Kentucky bourbon), and spent way too much money at the Goodwill across from the L-Barn, but, really, where does the time go?

This time of year is so hard for me. I can't stand the race of Christmas and the darkness gets to me. It is one of the reasons I celebrate Winter Solstice is that I so welcome the return of the light and feeling like my day has some length to it. Yes, the hours are the same (and in fact we "Fall back" right?), but the darkness makes me yearn for my (thrifted) gnome pajama bottoms and a warm bed starting at 5:30 pm!

And, back to the holiday race, why do we not gift all year long? I can't sit on gifts and it is why I am never organized enough to space my Xmas shopping out all year long. It is always on the resolution list, but never happens. I was stressing because three stores were out of something that goes with a gift for my mother, but then I thought how ridiculous my panic was considering the piece is not a "sale" item and will be available in the weeks following the holiday.

Both my husband and I received work bonuses this year (something that has not happened in three years). We indulged partly because we had this unbudgeted money and partly because I feel so much guilt at being away from my boys during the week (I will be so happy when we are together this again...hopefully this spring/early summer). I miss my kids so much. It was stupid, I know, but the sad thing is I feel we got so much less than when we used a smaller budget (is it me or is everything more expensive this year???)

So, with the New Year goal list making season almost on top of us (suffocating us, no doubt), I plan to tighten the belt, be more organized and get my family moved down to KY as soon as humanly possible. I'll post the list next week with the specifics. Sadly, one of the items will be less thrifting for me (with a side goal of selling off lots of my "junk") at least until some of the bills are paid off. It will be good to purge since we plan to rent a smaller place while we try to sell the Northern house and land. We will buy a new house only when the bills are tidy and manageable.

OK, enough with the downer talk. Seems a lot of us out there are thinking about new years and new goals. Here is some thrifty fluff from tonight's scores:

(Cheese plate and dome)

(Set of 8 7 Tab glasses...dropped one in parking lot)

(Ok, so the Spotted Dick Pudding wasn't a thrifty find [container under it was], but I had to snatch it up for a friend last week at a Irish gift shop. It's a long story, but suffice to say it will have meaning to my dear friend...hopefully shared with a sense of humor! ;)