Succulents + Thrifted Cup = Happiness

I bought a set of these little tea cups about 2 years ago at a thrift store(I think) and they have  just been sitting in my
china cabinet waiting to be used. 

I think I finally found the perfect use! 

Don't you ?

So, so cute. 

And a new use for a favorite birdy mug, a terra cotta pot one of the kids painted and a vintage bright blue coffee can.

Happy. 

Sometimes the littlest, simplest things make me so happy. 

Now to fill the rest of my little tea cups and gaze at this little backyard corner... 

Have a happy day. 

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Thrifting On A Thursday :: Church Rummage Sales

Honestly, I almost titled this post : Bragging On A Thursday.
Seriously.
I really probably should have.

The weekend before I went on vacation,  the kids and I hit two different church rummage sales on a Saturday morning.

Let me tell you something, the church rummage sales are where it's at.

People always ask me where I get stuff or how I find it and I have to say that I have gotten some of my most favorite things 

from church rummage sales.

Just think of all of those little old ladies getting rid of all their good stuff!

One tip about church rummage sales: I have been to several that do the fill a paper bag up for $5 thing.

These are the BEST.
You can get a lot in a paper bag, believe me, I should know.

/////////////
Some of this stuff I am keeping and some is going in My Shop.
I am definitely keeping the records and maybe the horse paint-by-numbers because they are so cool and I never really come across any.
The mugs have to go in the shop so my husband doesn't kill me(although I really love them)...I have way too many already
and usually only use the same ones over and over.

These church rummage sales really got me in the mood for soem serious rummage sailing now.
It's not quit that time for them here yet,  but it won't be long... come on warmer weather!

Three Hours /// Simple Things

Three hours, a full tank of gas and a little bit of money, just a little... that's all I needed last Friday afternoon.
I only had around $12 on me, but I did have a lot of change, which is necessary when you are  driving randomly through the country
not sure at all where you are headed,  except...  South.
The change was for the fountain diet coke at the gas station.
Total mini-Road Trip necessity.

Somehow I ended up at one of my favorite junky thrift stores about 30-40 minutes away--
which, had I been thinking, I would have made sure I had more cash on me... but it all worked out.
{Just wait... you'll see}.
If you have been reading here long you know that country drives are one of my most favorite things.
Now that means that I have to allow for quite a bit more time than what my trip will actually take because I like to drive on the actual
country roads, not the highway.
You should also know that I am directionally challenged, so this is the other reason I have to allow for my little trips to take longer
than they actually should.
All I can say is, thank god for the compass and GPS on my phone.
I am a hot mess.

Sun shining, country roads, fields, barns, silos, tractors, lots of animals, big old country houses....
I am in heaven.
On my way back home I stopped at the cemetery to see my grandma + grandpa's grave...
and wouldn't ya know, I still had some change left so I was able to leave a quarter there for my grandpa.
It makes me smile when I stop there and see a little row of quarters lined up there left by his kids and/or grand kids.
My grandpa always gave us quarters when we were little, and maybe even when we were too old to be wanting quarters, so now
we leave them for him.

By the time I got back in town, home and inside my house I might have only beat the kids home by about 5 minutes, you might
say I cut it just a little too close ... but I made it.
And it was just what I needed.
Time to think, away from home and any responsibilities, no music playing... just completely quiet...
that truly does me a world of good.

OH! And my purchase... the one that made me GASP loud enough to almost really embarrass myself...
I almost missed this little beauty... this awesome little wooden lamp that plays music when you wind up the little
cat and the girl rocks back and forth.
I am in love.
This lamp that plays music and lights up and rocks and does just what the tag said it could was only--
wait for it.................................... $12.
Exactly how much I had on me.
Can you even believe it?

Maybe this little lamp will inspire me to finally do the big re-do on Charlotte's bedroom...
Maybe?
Hmmm...... Well anyway, in the mean time it sure does look cute in there.

>>>>>>>>>>

Hope you have a happy, happy Sunday.

It's Feeling Like Fall + A Shop Update

Hey there.
It's Friday!
And you know what?
It is really feeling like Fall last night and today, cooler temps, a little rain and no humidity!
amen.
That means we have survived 4 whole weeks of school now.
I have a whole post coming on that and what i think about our BIG switch and listening to
that little voice inside your head-- or heart.
more on that next week though.

>>>>>>>>>

This was my little Shop Assistant on Wednesday.
Isn't she cute?
Too bad she kept saying things like; "Why is your office so messy?" and "What is all this junk for?"
Whooops. Yeah, she might have been kinda right.

So I wanted to share with you here a few things here that I have just added and a few of my
personal favorites that are in the shop.
This whole Etsy shop thing is kinda time consuming, or really time consuming, but a lot of fun, too.
I have the perfect excuse to do what I already love doing;  thrifting, antiquing, flea-marketing and
rummage sailing but for my shop(and sometimes for myself) -- it's working for me.

*{Autumn Harvest Table Cloth + 4 cloth napkins}

I don't quite think the photos due this sweet table cloth justice, it is really cute and the muted Fall
colors make it just a little bit different than a lot of the table cloths I come across.
Perfect for Fall and Thanksgiving-- but it does not look like it is just for Thanksgiving at all so you
could use this for the next couple of months.

Here are a few of my personal Fall Favorites in the Shop right now....

Someone asked me just the other day how I shopped for my Shop.
Well, I just listed most of the places above, I also love Estate Sales and pretty much anywhere I
can dig through a bunch of stuff looking for buried treasures.
I am not afraid to get my hands dirty.
I only buy things that I like myself, unless I am specifically buying something for a person I have in
mind. I don't buy things just because I think they will sell if I don't really like it because if it doesn't sell
then it's mine, so I had better love it.

Happy Friday everyone, hope you have a great weekend!!

An Audible Gasp

So this might be a little much for you non-thrifting readers...maybe you could imagine yourself
at like Anthropologie... or you knitters out there could imagine yourselves at Purl Soho...or you fantastic seamstresses could
pretend you were walking into a super-cool fabric store...k?
Then maybe I won't sound so crazy.

So I walked into a kinda-scroungy thrift store last week, the kind that is filled with grandma cast-offs and most of it not-so-good
grandma cast-offs, look down on a shelf and see this little mini quilt.
Folded up, with junk stacked on top of it-I picked it up, unfolded it...realized it wasn't super
tiny like I thought but a decent size baby quilt and yes-an audible gasp escaped me--
it might have made the lady near me snap her head around to see what could be that exciting in
this little thrift store.

Look at these colors!
I about died.
Heart racing, turning it over to see what was 'wrong' with it and found...nothing.
It was a steal, it was perfect.
Perfectly imperfect, just for me.

Oh, but wait--because here comes the vinyl baby doll buggy I found at the next shop....
I saw it as soon as I walked in , went right over to it, thought I saw $15.00 on the tag, was trying to
decide if it was too much, did a double-take and realized the tag said $1.50.
One dollar and fifty cents.
I might have almost peed my pants.

You can see in the picture above that it is ripped a bit on the left side, it's vinyl, it's old and not in
perfect condition by any means.
It has been played with. Thankfully.
But it is adorable and cute and it was one whole dollar and fifty cents.
And no, this will not be going in my shop, Charlotte has already claimed it.
She loves it.

When I think of the things I want to have in my online shop, this is what I want.
Not necessarily the buggy or the quilt exactly, but I want people to click on the page and see
things that make them gasp... or smile...or remember.
Maybe that thing they have been looking for for some time, something from their childhood that they had forgotten all about, that thing their cousin or neighbor had that they always wanted but never had--or just something that is super cute, that perfectly imperfect thing they didn't
even know they needed but might just find a happy place in their home.

Happy Sunday friends.
I have a fence to help build(ok, really I only help hold up the pickets or grab the level) and a house
to clean, hope you all have a great day!

The Post Where I Realize How Cheap I Really Am.....

 today charlotte and i got away for a few hours of girl-time. we went to target, pier 1 and panera. 

i am looking for an outdoor rug for my new favorite little spot on the front porch but had no luck today. 

i refuse to pay an arm and a leg for an outdoor rug that is going to get wet, dirty, buggy, bubbles 

spilled on it, popsicles dripped on it and rained on. plus i am cheap, so i'm just not.

that little old copper watering can belonged to eric's great-grandma i think.

this little canister holds a whole bunch of chalk and sits on a little book case on the porch. 

we are set on chalk and bubbles for a while, along while.

whenever i see either of them for a really good price i guess i buy more.

 bubbles and chalk are essential for summer days at the bramer homestead. 

i love those birds on that canister, i scrounged it up at one of my favorite junk stores for under a dollar.

charlotte took this camera with her on our errands today. she said she was a real photographer. 

in target she said she was video taping people with her camera and at one point she dropped the camera, looked at a lady in the aisle by us and said; "now THAT is ridiculous to be that full! " i looked up and the lady's cart was actually overflowing and yes, it was ridiculous.

 i hung my head in shame and made a quick exit out of that aisle. that girl of mine....!!!

i got this necklace at a rummage sale for twenty five cents last week. 

mmmm hmmm...a whole quarter. 

and actually all i had on me was a twenty dollar bill so wyatt bought it for me from his

 rummaging money. what a sweetie. 

although i guess i did give him his rummaging money in the first place.

i smuggled these in when i took the kids to the movie the other day.

i know, it's illegal and stuff but i did.

and if i must tell the whole truth i also smuggled in a capri sun for each kid.

some days i have no shame to my game.

i confess the main reason i bought the animal crackers is because i really wanted to
 make these with the kids though. so, so cute.

i usually avoid wal-mart in favor of target but some times i give in because i actually need something specifically from wal-mart. well, yesterday was one of those days. the trip was worth it because i scored this shirt for myself for $1 and an even cuter one for miss charlotte for $2. oh yeah. i have to admit that one reason i avoid that place is because i usually cannot get out of there without seeing one of 

my families from school. 

{translation: one of the families that i did home visits with or that came to our playgroups when

 i worked in the birth-3 program for our school district}

some days it's a good thing to see my families and some days i just want to block that 

jerry springer-drama from my mind completely.

wyatt and his best and favorite cousin, ben,  playing with the water guns today.

best $3 i ever spent? quite possibly.

 now i need to remember to go buy a few back-ups for when these break. 

they can't last long with the amount of use they have gotten already.

Wow- this whole post was pretty much all about how CHEAP i am, huh?

i'm not sure if that's a good thing, but i just re-read the post so i guess it's true.

well, time for me to go lay in bed and watch a little crime/prison/investigation/mystery tv.
it might just be another "Lock-Up" (anyone?) night for me again if there is nothing else on tonight...
yep, love me some crime tv, not gonna lie. 

good night, y'all!