Ohh…  I couldn’t resist this little beauty for my own home… $20 at the Orange County Flea Market!

This vintage train case, covered in elk skin and trimmed in leather, now sits on the hearth of our kitchen fireplace.  I added the beaded Tanzanian cuff… borrowed from a collection in another room.  Such a fun piece, and useful too.  It now holds our matchbook collection.

Did you find something fun at the flea market last weekend?

As if I needed another excuse to spend WAY too much time on the internet.  As if I’d asked for more luscious pictures to peruse… of places, products, people and other amazing things to drool, dream and dote over.  AND then… along came

DAMN you, Pinterest!  My daughters warned me.  My friends suggested I proceed with great care.  Even I knew I’d have to exhibit great self control.  MY Motorcycle Man rolled his eyes and groaned when I told him I wa now “addicted” and had hung out on Pinterest from 12:30-3:30 this am!  Question:  would I be awake during the middle of the night if I didn’t have Pinterest to play with?

But…. Pinterest is a great way to organize beautiful photos of my likes, loves, dreams, wishes, plans, ideas.  And… to look at those of other Pinterest fiends from around the world.  In picture form.

Here are some pictures from my files.

I like these bedrooms:

Such cool chandeliers:

Oh WoW… Looking for a branch now:

Inspiring garden scenes:

A must have…    gypsy trailer in my backyard…

Fun outfits are easy to find and “pin”:

My favorite Pins are the funny ones:

Have you looked at Pinterest?  Punch the “P” button on the right side of my website and you’ll get a little taste. Beware… you just might get hooked!!!

(PS….If you need an invite, let me know!)

My flea market church pew, hand painted in an “Out of Africa” kind of a way by my Motorcycle Man, desperately needed a cushion.  It was hard and SO uncomfortable… a typical church pew trait.

Since this is a rustic piece of furniture, (here you can see up close what the hand painting looks like) I knew I wanted a rough, imperfect looking fabric and cushion to go with it.

The fabric part was easy… burlap, $2.99/yd!  But, I knew I wanted the cushion to be hand tufted and wasn’t so sure how to do that, so decided to head up to Alchemy Fine Living on Saturday for an upholstering lesson with the very talented Connie.  She quickly taught me everything I needed to know about putting the cushion together and even let me take a spin on her super fast industrial serger and sewing machines.  I left after 2 hours with this:  a plain old burlap cushion:

And, during the course of only one football game on Sunday, I was able to finish up the tufting and end up with this:

Beautifully hand tufted,(if I do say so myself…!) and SO comfy.  I was able to sit on the cushion during the second football game (and overtime…..)  I was not happy about the outcome of the game, buuutt… was thrilled with how the new cushion turned out!