I really do exist! I have a follower!!! (Thanks, Jane!)

I guess I really am a blogger now & not just talking to myself (or thinking out loud as I like to call it). I actually have a real follower! So, in honor of this auspicious occasion,  I'd like to share a couple of things I made that were inspired by posts on HER blog, Mamie Jane's.

Old printer's drawers are great. I have several & come across them often. Admittedly, a bulletin board is one use that never occurred to me until I saw Jane's post on a Funky Junk Interiors Saturday Night Special Link Party. Here is one I was inspired to make, using scrapbook paper, vintage jewelry, lace trim & small vintage metal letterpress type. (Ignore the knobs above the middle... I had to lean it against my bathroom cabinets to get good light for a photo & couldn't crop them out of the photo.) The letterpress type words are "ideas", "notes", & "share". Obviously most of these letters are backwards (they had to be for printing), but the "d" is not. That's because it looked like a "b" & just didn't work. The antique store I got them from was closing; I wish now I had bought more from her when I had the chance.

I have another printer's drawer that I had the back replaced with a mirror a few years ago, since the back already had a hole in it. (It's hard to get a good photograph of that one because of the glare.) It looks really nice over our old piano that my husband refinished about 12 years ago.

I know I'm a couple of days late with Fourth of July pics, but I loved next project so much I think I may change it out for several holidays, though I don't think it will make it through July in its current configuration. Once I discovered Jane's blog & had a chance to read earlier posts, I found this one: A Thrifty Photo Holder, she filled her oil lamp with jelly beans for Easter (adorable, BTW). After finding a lamp at a garage sale a couple of weeks ago, I had hoped to find small shiny red, white & blue loose pom poms that would fit inside, with no luck. But I did find Hershey's Kisses in blue foil with silver stars. Added a red, white & blue star pick that looks a bit like fireworks & a small flag. I  printed a vintage postcard for the holiday from The Graphics Fairy. It took some thought to figure out how to get a front & back to print the same size & in the right places but luckily I managed without wasting much ink or good cardstock in the process. Here's what it all looks like:

One more Fourth of July pic, this one of one of my FAVORITE things - an ice cream parlor chair. I went to a Friends of a Feather outdoor sale last month, held in an area near where I grew up. My husband dropped me off while he went on his own "junk" hunt (for car parts) so I was there quite a while. The ladies running the sale were very nice and I saw many people come & go, including a current neighbor of mine! I bought two of these wonderful blue chairs (among other things) which have metal seats & can be left outdoors. I remembered seeing red & white striped petunias at the garden center earlier in the week, so I went back to get those. Now I just needed a container to put them in! I was thinking white would do nicely... I bought a wrought iron bowl at The Salvation Army Thrift Store that I painted, distressed, & then lined with leftover coco mat & plastic, then added the flowers. The only bad thing about waiting to buy flowers is they get a little leggy at the garden center but you do get a good price. A little creative trimming & they've grown back nice & even. I stuck a couple of flags in the pot for the holiday. We've had rain this morning, which may be keeping the red from being as bright as usual.