Blog Parties

Thursday, July 28, 2011

It's a vintage Summer

Can you believe that it is almost August?

The summer is just whizzing by.

I decided to put away the patriotic decor and put up something more summery. I'm a vintage kind of gal, so I decided on a vintage beach theme.

I still haven't finished my mantel. I gave you a sneak peek last week or so, but I still haven't finished it. So you will have to wait a little longer. But I did get this shelf area done. Let's take a look.

I "googled" vintage beach images and came up with these fine specimens.

I don't think I would have wanted to live during these time periods. It seems all romantic and all, but I'm sure I would have hated not having all the conveniences we have now.


I had to use this vintage photo of the Hotel Del Coronado as I grew up in San Diego County. And besides, who doesn't love the Hotel Del Coronado? The sand at the beach at the Del is softer than any other beach in San Diego. They have "special" sand.


I made all these images "wallet" size on Picasa. Then used mini clothes pins found at Walmart to hang them from some Dollar Store twine. Cheap is my middle name.


These three images I actually found on Pinterest. At first I didn't see what all the fuss was about in regards to Pinterest. Now I'm officially "hooked". Just not enough hours in the day to surf around it.


These bottles have stayed on this shelf for almost a year now. I think that is the longest I've left something in my family room. But bottles say "Summer" to me. I should have put a message in the bottles. I might still do that. If I can remember it by the time I get home tonight.

I love this vintage image of all the beauties in their swim suits. I was going to put this image on a pillow, but I'm too lazy. I was even too lazy to frame it. Just plopped it on an easel.


Added some shells, a starfish and my vintage beachy vignette was complete.


So what do you think? Should I add a message or two or three to the bottles? Or leave as is?


And speaking of Pinterest, while cruising around I found my perfect mantra.





Linking to:

Sat Nite Special @ Funky Junk

Weekend Wrap up @ Tatertots & JelloLink

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Summer Cloche Party

It's time to par-tay!!!!

Marty over at A Stroll Thru Life is having another cloche party. This time it is a Summer cloche party.

As usual, I am fashionably late to the party. But I'm ready to have fun. So let's get this party started!!!!

I must warn you though, I am a party girl. So you will find lots of photos as I have a ton of cloches plus I've already decorated them all twice this summer.

This cloche sits on my china hutch. Here is it all decorated for summer.


Lucky for me, my son loved collecting shells when he was a kid. So I have lots to decorate with.


And here is the same cloche decorated for the 4th.

You will see that most of my "summer" cloches" are decorated with sea shells.

The pencil starfish is looking a little tarnished. That is what happens with German Glass Glitter.

The Patriotic version of the same cloche.

I think this might be my favorite cloche of the summer.


I googled vintage beach images to find this one. I love it!

For 4th of July I placed a simple paper fan with a patriotic sticker. Super easy.

I have a couple of cheese dome cloches on my hutch. This one I filled with sand and what else? Shells, of course. This starfish is a fake one. I bought some at Kohl's a few years back.

Same cloche for the 4th. I placed some cheapo dollar necklaces, a tarnished pencil starfish, another paper fan with sticker & a cookie cutter shaped like the United States.

Here is the other cheese dome. My cheese domes are hard to photograph for some reason. I placed a bunch of old vintage wheels inside.


Hubby & I just found the wheels this past weekend at a thrift store. Not sure what we will do with them, but I kind of like them under glass.

For my patriotic version, I placed a bunch of toothpick flags inside a vintage flower frog.


My apothecary jars currently. I'm still loving my number balls. And the dominoes remind me of vacation with my parents. And I love the old clothes pins.

And here is what it looked like earlier in the month. Patriotic tootsie rolls from Dollar Tree and some Patriotic clothes pins I found on eBay.

This apothecary jar is filled with white shells.


I've been collecting them since I was a little girl. Who am I kidding? They came from Marshall's a few years ago.

Normally this apothecary jar is filled with my letter balls. You can sort of see them in this photo.

I love my purple coral & pencil starfish.


They were actually some my son collected. But I stole them from him.

For the 4th, I had these cute patriotic salt & pepper shakers I found on eBay.

Another shell under glass. I never did take any photos of how I had it decorated for the 4th.



A few years ago I scored a bunch of old bottles off of eBay for $10.00 for 10 of them. They look fabulous under glass.

Another fake starfish from Kohl's.

The sea glass came from Dollar Tree.

For the 4th this cloche was actually in a different spot. I placed a patriotic creamer I found at the thrift store inside along with a flag star stick I picked up from Tai Pan Trading.

Inside this cloche I placed my small collection of silver baby cups. Obviously I'm too lazy to polish them up for you. But I like them tarnished.

I did add some more shells! And a dried out sea horse. But it's sort of creepy. Not sure I'll keep it there.

I only have 5 silver baby cups. But it's a collection.

For the 4th I placed a patriotic print a couple of flags & filled the bottom with:


Firecrackers!!!! Luckily I don't have small children in my house. And the men in my house left them alone this year.

I just dumped a bunch of larger shells into this cloche.


I placed a small Uncle Sam box inside this cloche with a paper fan I found on Martha Stewart website.


And finally we have reached my last cloche.

I found this print off Google as well. Isn't is cute? It's actually the cover to a Little Golden Book.


And this is what it looked like for the 4th. Almost identical to the other cloche. The box Uncle Sam is sitting on is a little different.

Well there you have my summer cloche collection. I still need to finish up my summer mantel. Hopefully I'll get it done before summer ends. But here in SoCal, summer doesn't really end until sometime in October. So I have plenty of time.




Linking to:

Summer Cloche Party @ A Stroll Thru Life