I'm in Love!

Those of you who have been reading my blog know that I love dishes. So when I saw this china pattern posted on someones blog I went straight over to e-bay to scope it out. Some of the pieces can be really pricey, like $350.00 for a teapot!! The pattern is called Billingsley Rose by Spode, it is one of their oldest patterns. Some of the vintage pieces with the "red mark" are commanding some big prices. Luckily, I found some pieces that were priced reasonably. I think the seller was trying to clear them out so they offered them for 65% off. I got 2 dinner plates, 2

cups and saucers, 2 demitasse cups and saucers, two salad plates and 2 extra saucers, plus shipping for a total of $50.00.

I love the pink roses and the lacy edges. I thought that they would go so well with the lace on the shades of the chandelier. Now, I'm at odds whether to move the wire shelf into the hall with the blue dishes or what.

Saturday Jennifer (my daughter) and I went shopping. She got new tennies, so cute with pink trim. Since Cindy of My Romantic Home shops at Marshall's all the time I told Jen, lets swing around the corner and go to Marshall's. I found a beautiful oval mirror there that has a frame that looks carved with some roses. The only drawback is it is black with some brownish antiquing on it. There are lots of you out there that love all things black but it isn't me. So I need to paint t it white and antique it down. I love the mirror in the dining room of Kelly on Rose Vine Cottage, Two. So I'm thinking of putting the mirror in the place of the shelf and adding some of the rose dishes with it. The mirror would reflect the crystal chandelier and increase the light in the room. Mmmmmmmm!

I also bought a couple of other things, one at Marshall's and one at Home Goods, all real good buys but require some redoing, I'll share them with you later. If you get the chance go over to Kelly's site and see what you think of the mirror... One thing that got me thinking about changing the shelf , is the wall behind the rack is the French blue and the blue and white dishes don't show up as good as they would with a white or cream back ground and the creamy white dishes and mirror would "pop' more. Any opinions??

And, More light!

Whew!!! What a week, it seems everyone here is sick! We have been flying around all week trying to accommodate all the sick people on our campus. I work for a large research facility and we have over 3000 employees on our campus and it appears the majority of them have colds, sinus infections or allergies. At least it seems that way. So sorry I am behind with my blogging.

I figured that while I was talking about lights that I would show you a couple more of my crystal

lights.

The first is my candlestick lamp that I have on my front door. Several months ago I bought two candlestick lamps on sale at Hobby lobby for $15.00 each. One of the lamps I bought had a leopard lamp shade. While I know that they are very popular with a lot of people, it is not my style. I looked for another shade for it for a longtime but had a hard time finding one that would fit because the base of the shade is very small.

I can't remember on whose blog I saw a lamp with just the bare lamp frame. It gave me the idea to remove the fabric and just use the frame. The pictures above show how it turned out.

I had some ribbon with crystals attached that I had purchased at Walmart in the craft section, so I just attached it to the top and bottom edge of the frame. It's different but I like it. I also changed the light bulb to a 5 watt bulb that had been dipped in silicone. It makes it look more like a candle and surprisingly enough it is enough light to light the foyer.

The chandelier in the hallway is one of the things I bought on our trip to Mobile last spring. It was hanging in the entryway of a shop that was going out of business and the owner literally took it down to sell it to me. I originally wanted to put it in the entry but it hung too low and would have been hit by the front door, so it ended up in the hallway. If I can't find a good chandelier for my bathroom I might replace it with something else and put it in my bathroom. It is the kind of fixture I wanted for the dining room but larger ones in that style are soooo expensive so I

ended up with the one in the previous post. Actually, I like what I got in the dining room just as well and it has more of my creativity in it and it is definitely one of a kind!!

Let There be Light!

I have finally finished my dining room chandelier. I wanted a large crystal chandelier but after looking at them for a longtime I just couldn't afford to put out $500 plus. I just had too many other places to use my money.

I went to e-bay and kept looking at the offerings there. I finally found this chandelier. It was

brass and very colonial looking but the price was right. Just $25.00 plus shipping. I painted it white, took the big colonial looking ball off the bottom and then looked for crystals. I found a

combination of old and new crystals, again from e-bay. I also added a fair amount of the crystals from my finds from the Michael's wedding section (like on my kitchen chandelier.)

Additionally, I added shades to all the lights. I got some basic shades from Lowe's and even at

3.00 for each shade, it added up. I didn't like them plain so I covered them with cream colored

lace cut from the edge of lace that I have in my bedroom. My Mom originally had this fabric in her bedroom in a previous bedroom and when she moved from there, there was enough for her to use as well as me. It is a beautiful creme lace that is embroidered panels with a sheer netting in the middle. She bought it at a mill ends place in Arizona for just $5.00 a yard.

I glued the fabric to the shades and added a trim to the top edge. Then to bring the blue up to it

I added a gauzy blue wired ribbon. I think it turned out lovely and the lace really shows up beautifully when the light is t urned on. I put 25watt bulbs in all the lower 8 bulbs and 40 watt in the top 4 that way it doesn't look like I am setting the room on fire. It also has a rheostat to softenwhen needed.

It took me a while to get all the shades covered but now I love the look and the total cost was about $200.00. I think it lends some presence to the dining room.

Update and More Visual Aids!

My living room fabric that I got from E-bay

The backside of fabric tacked up on the window


Larger view of dining room

Front side of fabric, color is stronger than it appears

The Toile, very strong on the reddish browns

I am reminded by one of my blogging buddies that I didn't give you enough visual aids to make a good decision without a picture of all the fabrics involved. Thanks, Penny Suzie for helping me do better.Thanks!

I'm Backward! What do you think?

I've been running over in my mind what to post next.

I bought some fabric back in December.If you've read some of my previous posts you know that I have been looking for some fabric for my dining room window. The fabric in the living room that I love is a blue fabric with pink roses. I bought the piece of fabric on E-bay and it was just a small remnant. I have searched and searched to find more of it but to no avail. I keep checking E-bay and have spent hours on the Internet and in fabric shops but "Nada".

I've bought several pieces of fabric, gotten it home and didn't like it. It just doesn't fill the image of what I think the dining room should look like. Recently I bought 2 pieces of fabric online and when they arrived I was disappointed again.

One was a Toile and the other a companion stripe. The colors were just too strong. So the Toile was out. I liked the companion fabric better. The picture above is what it looks like BUT what you see is actually the back of the fabric. It gives it that old vintage look that I want. What do you think? Should I try it or keep looking?

My Favorite After Christmas Buys

The Saturday after Christmas I took my Mom shopping. She's 87 and doesn't drive much except to the grocery and near by places like my or my sister's house. She has a couple of special places she likes to go. One of them is a store called 5 Broads off Broadway. They had all their Christmas ornaments 50% off. Above you can see the things that I purchased there.

My favorite is the little birds nest and the small glass cloche. The nest is actually an ornament but I think it is cute enough to stay out all year. The plate underneath it is from Home Goods.

I bought it several months ago and just had it sitting as is on the side table next to the sofa. When I got the nest and cloche they just seemed to go together naturally. I had taken about 20 some pictures of this with terrible results until today when I got out the book that goes with my camera and starting trying to adjust the light. The flash kept washing out the detail in the little bird and the flowers on the edge of the plate. I finally figured out how to turn off the flash and get the shot I have above. Using the macro setting it finally came together.

I also got the glittering icicles at that shop. Also, the silver beaded ornament came from there.

Then it was off to Tuesday Morning where I found the "top" shaped ornament. They have the mercury glass look but when you put them on the tree with the lights on they are kind of translucent and because

of the mottled silver they kind of look lacy. A very pretty effect. I really like the mercury glass effect. I also have some round mercury-like ornaments I got last year at Hobby Lobby and I might try putting the two different styles in a big container (don't know exactly what yet) and see if

they can stay out, too. What do you think?