Morning Glory's at Key City Antiques and Shops

Hello and Good Day!  It is absolutely beautiful here, a perfect Fall day.  Hope it's gorgeous where you are and you're able to get out and enjoy it.  Fall is my favorite season and I'm a little (a lot) behind in getting decorated for it, but I plan to Fall-ify my house this weekend.  I love to sit on my porch in the crisp air and sip hot chocolate while the pups play in the leaves.  Another favorite Fall thing I love to do is drive through the mountains and check out the glorious colors.  The Hub and I usually do this for our anniversary on the 15th.  Romantic and awe inspiring!  What are your favorite Fall activities?

Now, as I mentioned in my last post, my friend and I have opened a booth at an antique mall in North Wilkesboro, NC.  Together we call ourselves Morning Glory's.  We have some antiques, but mostly upcycled and repurposed vintage-inspired items.  Really cute stuff!  The mall is in an old furniture factory and the place is so unique and awesome - we're really happy to be a part of it. The "soft opening" was this past Wednesday, but a grand opening will be held very soon. It's now open to the public Mon - Sat 10am to 7pm and Sun 1 to 6pm. In addition to all of the amazing booths that are open daily for shopping, they'll have wine tastings and music events, artisan showcases, and eventually some furniture painting classes. I took some shots of our booth and am so excited to show them off...

We still have some "tweaking" to do to get it just perfect, but for now we like it.  I'm sure the space will evolve as we sell certain pieces and smaller items and as we determine which things are good sellers and which ones are not.  Being our first booth, it will be trial and error for us for a while.  One thing we do have to take care of ASAP is that ugly yellow natural gas pipe that was installed after we chose this booth.  We've been told we can cover it with paper or white duct tape, but we can't paint it.  It really sticks out and we hate it.  We'll make the best of it and try to make it blend in a little better.  So, what do y'all think?  Let me know in the comments - we're open to any and all suggestions!  Oh, and of course, if you're in the neighborhood stop by and visit our booth.  Key City Antique Mall and Shops - 502 Main Street, North Wilkesboro, NC. - a great place to stop and stretch your legs on your way to the mountains to see the Fall leaves!

Toodles,

Hey y'all!! I know, I've been away for a while again. So sorry, but it couldn't be helped. My mom had a car accident while my Dad and I were in Alaska (more on that later), and it's been kinda crazy and stressful around here. Since I've been gone so long, I thought I'd better re-introduce my self...so here are a few facts about little 'ole me:

21 Things You May Not Know About Me

I am a Southern girl. North Carolina born and raised. North, by gosh, Cackalacky!

My husband and I have been together for almost 15 years, married for 9. He's my best friend and the best step-dad ever. His TV Land sense of humor is a challenge to live with day in and day out though. :)

I have a 17 year-old son. He's the coolest, sweetest, funniest kid in the world and I love him to pieces. He's my heart and soul and I plan to shrivel up and die when he leaves for college. Not kidding.

I love animals. We have two dogs – a goofy Boxer named Daisy and a deliriously happy Corgi named Ducky. We spend all our extra money on soccer balls and Beggin Strips. Then there are our two cats, Fonzie and Bean, who sleep 23.5 hours per day and constantly act like they haven't been fed in days.

I have a goat fetish. I LOVE goats. All kinds, but especially pygmy goats. Have you ever seen them dance? Adorbs! Hence, the reason I want to be a goat farmer when I grow up.

I love New Orleans - the city and the football team. If I could live anywhere else, that's where it would be. Jazz and beignets, second lines and catfish, magnolias and po' boys, parades and shrimp creole. Can you tell I also enjoy the food?

Speaking of football, it's my favorite thing on the planet. NFL, college, high school, pee wee, powder puff, you name it. I sink into a deep, dark depression after the SuperBowl. The only thing that keeps me going is my subscription to the NFL network. Sorry men, I'm spoken for.

My husband surprised me with a trip to Paris for our honeymoon. I love everything French. I'm pretty sure I was French in a past life. Probably even royalty, as a matter of fact.

Being “French” you'd think I would like rich, luscious chocolate, but I don't. I like plain old Hershey's Milk or Special Dark. I'm a cheap date.

I enjoy cooking and gardening, although I'm not great at either. I do raise some sweet Tommy Toes. Anybody know what those are? For cooking, bacon is my ingredient of choice. If I could raise that too, I would. But since I prefer goats to pigs, that won't work.

I'm terribly accident and injury prone. Just your normal, everyday spaz. I have a large collection of scars to prove it.

I'm on a first name basis with every clerk at Goodwill and can spend a wad in there. I guess that's better than spending a wad at Diamonds R Us, right?

I am a terrible sleeper and have been all my life. When my husband falls asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow, I consider smothering him with said pillow out of pure jealousy.

Ryan Reynolds is my celebrity crush. If I had nothing better to do, I'd stalk him.

I say bad words when I'm driving.  Way too many bad words.  I should be ashamed and my mother would be too if she knew.

I love to rearrange furniture, pictures, decorations, etc. I'm always playing around with different arrangements. My family never knows from one day (minute) to the next what the house will look like when they get home. They usually just roll their eyes and say “Gah, again??!!”.

I have a serious gummy bear habit. Unfortunately, there isn't a support group for this affliction. I checked.

My aforementioned habit is a bad one because I've had Type I Diabetes since I was a teenager. But a girl has to live a little, ya know. Having “the shuggah” sucks, but it could be a lot worse. I could have rickets or scurvy.

I have the weirdest, most eclectic taste in music. My playlist boasts everything from Gangsta Rap to show tunes. Must be where my son gets his musical genius from, for sure.

I just recently discovered that you can curl your hair with a hair straightener. What??!! Apparently everyone knew this but me, as I always seem to be totally out of the loop. For a girl with stick-straight hair, it was an exciting revelation and has seriously changed my life. You see, it doesn't take much to rock my world.

And last, but not least, I hate WWE wrestling. Or “rasslin'” as my Pop used to call it. It's nothing but a glorified, silly soap opera for men - The Young and the Rassless. 

So there you go, a few nuggets of information about me.  Like I said, it's been super busy and stressful for me lately.  Things are slowly getting back to normal and I hope to get back in the swing of things in a week or two.  During all of this craziness, I also had to get things ready for Morning Glory's first booth, which opened October 1st.  I'll post about that tomorrow and show some pictures of our space.  Until then, have a great day!

Toodles,

I Love Lamp

Yes, that's right.  I said I love lamp.  And I'm not just quoting Anchorman here.  I am a lamp freak.  I see them all tacky and unloved at yard sales and out thrifting, and I just can't resist bringing them home.   My favorite kind of lamp is one that costs next to nothing.  That's how I just KNOW it's going to be a treasure! I've found so many cool ones lately and have been working on getting them ready to go in our booth at Key City Antique Mall and Shops.  We're scheduled to open September 1st, and I am SUPER excited!  Today, I thought I'd give y'all a preview of the lamps I have ready so you can tell me what you think.  Sorry, once again, I neglected to take a before picture of almost all of them.  You can attribute it to the fact that I have no less than 84,000 work, home, and craft projects all going on at the same time on any given day.  And then there's the little issue of my advancing age.

And now, for lamps galore....

This cutie was just a dollar :) at the Rescue Mission and I had this charming little chevron shade already. I kinda liked the tarnished brass on the base, so I left it and just painted the wood with CeCe Caldwell's Simply White and then aged it with a little dark wax.  It's only about 14" tall with the shade.  Love it!

And this lamp is plastic, believe it or not.  It was ugly brown plastic to be exact and I think I paid $3.00 for it - I thought the design on it was cool.  I painted the base with the same Simply White chalk paint, but didn't sand it or wax it.  It gives it a little bit of a rough texture and I like it.  I found the perfectly good linen-like drum shade at Goodwill for $2.00 and I think they look pretty sweet together - subtle color and very neutral.

A very tall one, probably 28" with the shade.  I bought it because I loved the design on the lamp - it looks kind of like micah to me or those really thin opaque shells you find at the beach.  The base, which I thought was brass was pretty gross, a little rusty-ish and filthy dirty.  I cleaned it up and uncovered the neatest teal blue patina where it had oxidized, proving the base to be copper rather than brass.  Score!  I had bought the bird lampshade for my living room and it just wasn't quite right, so I thought it might look nice on this lamp and I think I was right.  What do you think?

I found this one at a thrift store and paid $1.98 for it.  It was pretty ugly and I wasn't sure if it would take paint or not because it was made of a bisque-like ceramic.  The texture reminded me of a sand dollar or a sea biscuit and it actually painted up really nicely.  I used American Paint Company's Liberty paint on the lamp base, which gave it that beachy hue that I love.  The shade came off of the next lamp I'm about to show you and I think they look great together.

Isn't this a beautiful white lamp?  I just love the shape of it and the designs in the ceramic.  It's the most expensive lamp in this menagerie, coming in at a whopping $4.00!  The Hub said "Cool it, big spender!!". Whatever.  I'm not planning on painting or changing it because I don't think it would add anything to the lamp.  The burlap-ish shade that came with it looked terrible on such a dainty, feminine lamp but I knew it would probably be perfect for the beachy lamp I was working on :).  I just need help figuring out the right shade for this one. Do I go for a plain white shade for a monochromatic look?  Should I try to give it a more modern twist, or go with something girly and floral?  Here's the "modern twist" shade I have in my stash, but I'm thinking it's a no-go...

Well, I believe that's all the lamp love I have for you today.  Let me know what you think about the shade for the white lamp in the comments, and of course, any thoughts or suggestions are always welcome!  Have a great one, lovely people!

Toodles,

I Heart Grain Sack Stripes

Okay, so let's just get this right out of the way at the beginning of this post...I am terrible at remembering to take "before" photos.  I get so excited about the project at hand that I just dive right in, kinda like a little kid.  Maybe when I grow up I'll do better.  Yeah, sure thing.  Not certain when it's gonna happen, but I'll be a big girl someday, I just know it!  But enough about my childish ways...

I have pictures of a couple of neat little items to show you today, because as you might have heard, I heart grain sack stripes.  No "befores", just "afters".  First, for those of you who don't know what grain sack stripes are, they look like this:

source: Second Shout Out

Antique grain sacks are worn and faded, sometimes hard to find and can get pricey. But they're fabulous.  Tres Francais, n'est pas?  I love to paint them on things. Chairs, stools, fabric.  I'd put them on pretty much anything that's not nailed down or breathing. They come in all widths and numbers of stripes.  Some grain sacks even have hand-embroidered monograms on each side of the stripes.  Be still my heart!

I've done several grain sack projects.  I love them all and am always sad to see them go when they sell because truthfully, I want to keep them all for myself.  But sharing is caring, so I share.  Here are a few of the ones I've done:

This one is by far my favorite.  The chair was a $3 find at Goodwill.  Isn't it amazing what a little chalk paint and some dark wax can do?

I think I paid a dollar for this stool at a yard sale.  It was a hideous color of green, but a few coats of regular flat latex paint in blue and some chalk paint stripes turned this ugly duckling into a sweet little swan.

This pretty chair was another Goodwill find while I was at the beach back in the spring.  The seat was an ugly camel-colored Naugahyde vinyl and it had to go.  I knew the stripes would really make it pop.

I taped them off and painted these stripes on an old drop cloth and I love the look. The drop cloth kind of looks linen-y.  I painted this chair to sell, but it would look so cute at my dressing table....hmmm, what should I do?  Oh, right, sharing is caring. Sell it, I will.

Do you heart grain sack stripes as much as I do?  Tell me all about it in the comments.  Enjoy your day!

Toodles,

Industrial-Style Mason Jar Vase Tutorial

Folks, as this week draws closer to an end, I'm getting more and more excited about heading to the beach for some fun and family time.  But I'm also feeling a little overwhelmed with all that I have to get done before we leave Saturday.  Of course, all the laundry has to be done so we don't go nekkid the whole week.  I don't like to come home to a dirty house, so I'll need to do a little cleaning too.  The Hub and Bub both need new swim trunks and I have a lot of food to buy and pack.  Trust me, fighting all the tourists at the one nearby grocery store is not something I look forward to, so this year we're bringing everything we can with us.  And of course, I need to schedule some posts to run while I'm gone so y'all don't miss me too much! ;)

But, as promised, today I have a tutorial for you on how to make Mason jar vases.  I love these because they're kind of rustic and industrial looking.  The best part is, they're SUPER easy to make.  Here's what you'll need:

Mason jar - any size you want
Stainless steel fasteners (found in the plumbing dept. of your local home improvement store)
5 1/2" x 7" piece of wood or wood cut to size for your jar
Paint or stain for wood if you choose
Hammer
Small nails or screws
Flat head screwdriver or drill
Eye hooks
Wire and/or twine

So, you start with your piece of wood.  I painted mine with CeCe Caldwell's Simply White chalk paint and then used some dark wax to age it.



I used really small nails to secure the fastener to the board.  You could use screws here, but I didn't have any small enough on hand, so I went with the nails and they worked just fine.

I got six of these these awesome Ball Mason jars at Wally World for about $10.  This green is so pretty. They also have them available in blue, but I think you have to order them from their website.  I haven't seen them in stores lately.  Of course, best case scenario would be to use an antique blue mason jar if you have one.  I heart the old ones...

Place the jar inside the fastener, slide the fastener together and tighten the screw with a flat head screw driver.  I actually ended up using my cordless drill and it worked great.

Screw two eye hooks into top of board to attach wire or twine for hanging.  If you didn't want to do the wire or twine, you could always place a picture hanger on the back

Here's one using twine as a hanger.  The green eye hooks came off of something else and I thought they were the perfect shade to go with the green jar.

And now, just because I love y'all...a bonus project!

I made this one as well, with just a little twist on the original.  I got these faceted jars at Goodwill and thought they'd be cute painted.  I used my favorite color, American Paint Company's Liberty, and sanded them lightly.  This board is 6" x 12".  I wrapped the burlap around the board and stapled it to the back.  Cute, yes?  I love it!  I hung it in the hall bath to hold the Bub's stuff that is usually laying all over the counter.  We'll see how long he uses it.

These little vases can be used for so many things - flowers, herbs, silverware, utensils, makeup brushes, paint brushes, pens - the list goes on and on.  Next time, I think I'll use some old barn boards to make these, just to give it a little more rustic appeal.  What do y'all think?  Let me know in the comments and have a fabulous day!

Toodles,

THANK YOU and A Mason Jar Sneak Peek

Hello, my loves!  Happy Hump Day!  I'm going to be heading to the beach house for a week with the WHOLE family in a few days - that'll be 12 of us in one house plus another family that will be visiting off and on throughout the week - I'll need a vacation to recover from my vacation!  Just the cooking and cleaning for that many people is exhausting, not to mention all the sun and fun. So, I'm going to try to get a few more posts done this week before I leave and have some scheduled for next week to keep you company while I'm gone...

But first, I have to tell you about the HUGE surprise I got this morning.  I've been doing this blogging thing since last August, a little here and a little there, but have really been trying to step things up lately.  I really enjoy doing this and am excited to see where it will go.  In the past week, this little blog has gotten about 2,000 views and I have finally reached over 10,500 total.  I gotta tell ya, I'm pretty shocked!  But I'm also pretty humbled and grateful for the readers who have checked out Holly Crescent Cottage - I can't thank y'all enough for the inspiration to keep HCC going and growing.  Y'all are the best-est ever!  I didn't have a post planned for today, but because I really needed to say thank you, I thought I'd add a little sneak peek for you...

So, let's get to it!  I did this little project yesterday in my "spare time".  Spare time...I crack myself up...meaning, I had to wait for some paint projects to dry so I could finish them up and had an extra half-hour or so (chalk paint dries FAST, ya know).  I was antsy and looking for a quick little something to do, so I grabbed a couple of Ball Mason jars in Spring Green that I had on hand and put this together:

It was super easy and I'll be posting a quick tutorial on how to make your own tomorrow.  Isn't it adorable? I have an abundance of Strawflowers in my garden that need to be cut - I can't wait to put some in this little jar.  This will also be a great way to keep herbs in water and close at hand in the kitchen since we're about to be overrun with bushels of Basil too!  

Okay, now let's review.  The main point of today's post was to throw out an enormous THANK YOU. Consider yourselves thanked - immensely.  And where will you be tomorrow? Back here to check out the tutorial, right?  Tell me in the comments what you like best (or least) about my blog and offer any suggestions you may have to make it better - I promise, I read every single comment and take them to heart. Keep coming back and we'll take this fun journey together!

Toodles,

DIY Laundry Sign and Free Graphic

Afternoon, folks!  I'm a little late getting this post up and going today, but better late than never, right?  I only got a little work done on the laundry room this weekend. The Hub wasn't feeling well and couldn't help me get the cabinet painting finished - they're really high and I can't reach the top so I'll have to have his help.  I did get the doors painted and ready to be put up though.  I'm so impatient too when a project is this close to completion - it PAINS me to have to wait!

Anyways...I got one of the signs made that I plan to use.  The big one didn't work out, so it's back to the drawing board on that one, but this little cutie was easy peasy:

I just printed the graphic out onto some pretty scrapbook paper and placed it in this picture frame that I got for 10 cents at our local Rescue Mission.  Man, I love that place!  The frame was already the exact distressed/pickled finish that I wanted, so it literally took me about 30 seconds to put this together once I got it sized to fit.  See? Easy Peasy!  Now, for your viewing pleasure, I am providing the graphic so you can have one to look at of your very own!  Ain't I sweet?  Awww, stop it! 

LAUNDRY

Drop Your Drawers Here

My source for the hand was The Graphics Fairy.  They have a great selection of all kinds of vintage graphics and clip art, all for free.  F to the R to the E-E people!!  So this little sign is adorable in my new laundry room.  And did I mention - I actually enjoyed doing laundry in there this weekend?  It's so nice to have a place to sort and fold.  Whatever makes doing laundry a more tolerable task works for me!  How about you - are you a laundry junkie or a laundry avoid-er?

Toodles,