Remembering on Memorial Day

My blogging friend, Sandy, at 521 Lake Street, encouraged us to share photos of some of the Veterans in our family. Of course, I chose my sweet Dad:




Thank you Daddy... and all Veterans who have served this great country. Also, thank you to all who are currently serving us and our country! Our deepest heartfelt appreciation goes out to you.



I recently made this little box (below) with the vintage children, for a birthday gift. I felt I should blur their little faces because I can't remember where I got this image. If these are family members of yours and you would like me to remove these pics, just let me know and I will gladly do so. I don't ever plan on using this image to make items for sale.

I added the red and blue......The hat.......Hairbow.......and flag. : )

Happy Memorial Day!!!
Mary Lou

Wednesdays With My Mom AND...Getting Ready For the Summer Holidays

That's me in the little red dress. The girls in our family affectionately call it "the Cheerios dress". If you look in the photograph below this one, you will see Diana and June wearing theirs. I remember looking at them in a box when I was little and could hardly wait to grow into them!!!
Here, below, it was finally my turn...YEA!!!

Since Memorial Day is Monday and then the 4th of July will be just over a month after that, I thought I would go ahead and change my Header now. I finally finished dressing Annie. : )
As promised, my two beautiful Santos gals are holding a banner between them to help celebrate the upcoming holidays.

Most likely I will be wrapping up my 'Wednesdays With Mom' next week with some of my favorite photos of the things we did together on Wednesdays since blogging. I've SO enjoyed sharing all of our Wednesday Adventures with you since 2008. Things have changed dramatically in the last couple of months and I feel it's time to bring this feature to a close with only occasional updates. I will explain more in my 'Wrap-Up' Post next week.
I'll try not to skip my weekend Post this week. Last week was such a blur that the weekend just whizzed by!
Happy Wednesday,
Mary Lou

Wednesdays With My Mom AND...A Post Revisited

This photo was taken on my parent's wedding day. I love taking in every detail. Old California...wish I could have been there! : )
I didn't take any photos of my mom last week, because she was having a rough time. I told my brothers and sisters afterwards, that I guess we'll just have to treasure the good days, because it seems to go back and forth.
So, I thought instead, I would re-post an old favorite of mine from 2008. Enjoy!...
No...you're not seeing double. Sara & I went to an antique store last week and I bought this second M.E. teapot. When they were ringing it up Sara said, "Don't you have one just like that at home?" I replied, "yes", but that I was planning on changing this one up a bit. She just shrugged her shoulders and said, "Hmm." Note: I paid (around) $28.00 for the first one at a very nice boutique several years ago. This second one only cost me $8.00. However, there is a little chip in the base, but that didn't bother me because I was planning on painting over it anyway. SO...let the fun begin! I chose red nail polish for the new flower color. And black enamel paint for the new polka-dots and base color. NOTE: The nail polish worked so much better. I ended up having to paint clear nail polish over the black.
For the big polka-dots I used a pencil eraser.

Bye-bye pink.

And I used the ball of a sewing pin for the little polka-dots.

Cute little cousins now. : )
One last photo with the flash so you can see how bright the red really is.
DO try this at home. : )

Playing With Flowers and Other Random Things...

Michael's has their Hydrangeas on sale this week, so I brought a bunch home and have had fun trying to arrange them.

Isn't this vase, below, just beautiful???
I just got it at Marshalls in case you have to have one too. : )
This one below, is Sara's take on it. She really loves them in the ceramic pitchers (as seen in many magazines lately).
Many of you have seen my other Santos figurine wearing the crown I made. Thanks to A Day in the Life of Ramona, she directed me to the Ballard Design website to find that first one. Then, they recently put this beauty on sale for half price. Who could resist??? Not me!!!! I'm planning on having the two of them hold a banner between them in some kind of future vignette. Be waiting with bated breath. : )

I took this photo(below) in the morning and was hoping those sun spots would show up on the finished product.
Does anyone know what this random little thing was meant for originally? It didn't come with the bottles, but I'm glad they fit.
I decided to use it for button storage.

More storage for my specialty buttons. These flower-cases are found on the bead aisle in the craft stores.
And here's a sneak peek at what I'm hoping to finish in time for my 4th of July vignette. She's only been months in the making!
Have a great weekend,
Mary Lou

Wednesdays With My Mom , PLUS...some fun furniture makeover ideas

This pic was taken in 1963, I believe. Notice my dad's flip-flops. He used to buy us brand spanking new ones at the beginning of every Summer. One of my favorite memories!!!
June was able to join Sara and me at the end of our visit last week. : )
Then over the weekend, Emily and the two little Princesses came with me to visit "G.G.". What a treat!!!


A long time ago, my mom taught all of us how to get our hair to grow fuller...all you do is "brush" your fingernails back and forth for a bit each day (Emily is reminding her grandmother of this, below). I have a lot of memories of my dad watching TV while he did this and he always had a beautiful head of hair. : )
Below, my mom hugging the little black puppy that the girls brought to G.G. while she was in the hospital.
Mom reading my Mother's Day card, below.

And Princess G. putting "Nathan's" hat back on. : )
I've always loved just about everything Better Homes and Gardens has published. This (below) is one of my favorites. It's published quarterly.
Here's a couple of GREAT ideas for furniture makeovers. You can click on the pics to make them bigger and actually read the instructions.

Attention Tami and Holly: I once described this piece of furniture (below) to both of you in comments I left. Now, here's the photo to go with. : )
See these two white Nightstands, below? Look what they did with them for someone's Workspace! Genius!!!

Here's the "AFTER" (below) in blue. Great idea!!!
Happy Wednesday,
Mary Lou