Giveaway

We have been so pleased and excited with all of the readers and comments on our blog. Junk Mammas started as a dream that 2 junk loving friends came up with and it has been extremely rewarding for us, we even have a few family members that we have turned into Junk Mamma Junkies!

We love to read all of your blogs and are extremely inspired each and everyday by all of you talented people.

So enough with the sappy stuff. We want to give someone back to at least one of our blog friends. On to the rules.

1. You must leave us a comment on this post. It can be anything from Hi, to how you found our blog. We just want to hear from you all.

2. To double your chances to win all the goodies below, link us to your blog and mention our little giveaway.

Now on to the fun stuff - The giveaway

#1. One of our french provincial chalk board. A great accent to your kitchen, kids room or any other place you want to add some words of wisdom.

#2. A posy pin,

#3. Cutest brown bunnie towel

#4. 4 pack of bubble magnets in a tin.

One lucky winner with receive all the goods. You can leave a comment from April 1st-April 5th. We will announce the winner on April 6th, 2009!!!

Good Luck, tell all of your friends about our give away and please leave our post with lots of comments!!


The Junk Mammas

Our shop

We have opened our shop again on Etsy. Come visit some new items as well as some treasured favorites we keep making and bringing back.

Did I mention we love chalk boards. These french provincial ones are so cute and were inspired by something we saw at Pottery Barn Kids. Get yours for only $10.00 plus shipping.

This gold whimsical chalk board would look great on your kitchen counter or any place you want to add a touch of whimsy. Again, only $10.00 plus shipping.

Art clips are a must if you have children. My 1st grader and my preschooler come home with what feels like hundreds of art projects each week. What better way to display them, but with this fabulous art clip.

We also have a couple of cute peg hooks. A pink one to hang all of your pretties or a primary color rustic one that would look great in your little guys room.

Looking for a little touch of spring. We have some great cups filled with little nests and sparkling eggs. So cute and just $10.00 plus shipping.

Stop by and check us out!

The Junk Mammas

Great make overs

Jen over a Sancturay Arts is having a "Make over party", so here is one of our best to date make overs.
My in-laws are avid rummagers and found a hutch similar to the one above for $70.00. While I was over at their house one day, I spied it in their garage. They had no plans for it, they just bought it in case someone needed one or were going to re-sell it when they has a sale. They thought I was nuts because I wanted to paint it. It was too nice of wood to paint they told me, but I knew it would be great painted.

After much discussion, I talked my husband into tackling the project. Sometimes he just doesn't get the vision that I do when I see something.


We took out the back and replaced it with bead board. Then we removed the glass and put wire screening in the door openings. Painted it all cream, added new hadware and distressed. For around $150.00 total, we have a pretty great looking piece of furniture.

The Junk Mammas

Toile

Toile is one of our favorite patterns. Pretty Organized Palace is having a "Toile Tuesday Party", so we decided to share our love of toile.


This chocolate toile hutch from Layla Grayce is delicious.

Toile look great with coordinating gingham checks and stripes.




My love of toile is in my bathroom with the widely sought after toile bird shower curtain from Target. I love the suttle back ground with the florals, bees and then the robbins egg blue birds. I will include pictures of my bathroom once I get it painted and accessorized.

I have a love of transferware, much of which has a toile pattern. I have some lovely pieces in red and browns around my home.

Last but not least, this lovely art I made for our Esty shop. A cream frame with black and white toile. Silverware attached with a gingham ribbon and velvet button.

The Junk Mammas

Fabulous Finds Friday

Found this at an antique store for $5.00. They seem to be all the craze these days. Though mine kind of smells and is very dirty.

I am not sure what I will use it for, but I found some incredible inpirations online for them. Dan Marty Design and Tumbleweed and Dandelion have some great stuff. Like the pillows, settee and the lovely dinning chairs.

I have some pretty big dreams for my $5.00 sack!

The Junk Mammas

Just around the corner

While, I have professed my love for them before, here we go again. William Sonoma has some fabulous Easter stuff. Since Easter is just around the corner I thought I would do some looking for inspriation. Look at these blue robbins egg truffes.

They even have little nests you can buy to put them in. These are so cute.

Easter egg brownie pops, that look to die for. Who comes up with this stuff?

After visiting W.S. I still didn't find what I was really looking for, inspriation for something to put on my front door. I have found a lot that I liked, but something about this one below really grabbed my attention.

While it is a little busy for my taste, I love the vintage flair of it. The old easter images, the birds nests, eggs and flowers. I will have to work on this one and see what I come up with.

The Junk Mammas

Spring fever

We are feeling it, how about you! The sun has been warmer, the snow is almost gone, and it is supposed to be close to 60 degrees and sunny this weekend. Yippee!!

Received a new catalog in the mail yesterday- Spring Hill Nurseries. They have beautiful plants and great garden plans. I am really looking forward to tending to the garden and planting flowers. If you don't get this catalog all of their great stuff is available online

Another great road map for garden plans is on the Better Homes and Gardens website. They have great ideas, plans and advice for growing gardens of any size.

While planting and planning the garden is fun- what about accessorizing it? Last fall I bought an old trike for $3.00 at an estate sale. I can not wait to put it in my garden, and I am hoping to find a basket to fit the front to add some plants-similar to this one.

Old metal coffee pots and teacups make great planters too! Don't forget the hens and chicks in old boots, hope mine survived from last year.

Not sure what I would have a place for this last one, but love the elegance this could add to the garden. Could you image candles in these for a small gathering.

Now on to some more spring planning....

The Junk Mammas

Tooth fairy

The tooth fairy will be paying a visit to our house for the first time, very soon! My 6 year old son has a bottom tooth that will be out before we know it.

I have been frantically searching the web for some ideas for her first visit. Something special we can keep, but also put under his pillow.

I have come across a couple of things that were great. I love this fairy. She is adorable. You can find this one on mmm crafts and there are even instructions on how to create this.

Another one I liked was by Craft Carnival

This one is fantastic and has endless possibilities for either a boy or girl. Plus, it's complete with a free patten.

Leave a comment, link to photos. We would love to see and hear how the tooth fairy arrived at your home!

The Junk Mammas

Daisy-Head Maize

At my daughter's school they will be celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday today. The children were asked to dress as their favorite Dr. Seuss character. So after last week's Beating the Winter Blahs Week at school, each day there was a different day like mismatch day, rock star day, etc. I was a little tired of trying to figure out how to dress her everyday.

Then when I wasn't looking, inspiration hit. I was at my SIL's, celebrating my MIL's birthday. It was time to clean up my 2 year's old mess he had made in my niece's bedroom, I was putting away the books and noticed the Daisy-Head Maize. I knew that my dd had to be her for the Seuss celebration. It would be easy to pull off too. My gracious niece borrowed us the book and a video for further inspiration. We read the book immediately when we got home.

I used a daisy flower head I had around the house and hot glued it to a green pipe cleaner. Then I just wrapped the other end of the pipe cleaner around a head band. We had a pink dress, so we were all set. Technically Maize's daisy was white, but the yellow daisy was ok with my dd. She was happy, I was too.

Small changes

Country Home

This picture was the inspiration for making some small but needed changes in my kitchen. I love the clean look of this kitchen with the whites, creams and yellows.

While, I don't necessarily want to change my paint color in my kitchen to freshen it up, I decided to unload the dark and cluttered look above my cabinets. I replaced the colored tins with anything white I could find around the house.
Used my white dishes, an old window and painted my rooster weather vane cream.

These small changes gave my kitchen and my cabinets a whole new look. Next up will be to find a neutral window treatment. Right now, I have a red floral that I have grown tired of.

The Junk Mammas

10 Minute Decorating

The Nesting Place is having a 10 minute decorating party. This our contribution.

Without a mudroom I try to use the back porch for my mudroom. One day last summer I was sweeping out the porch and and remembered I had purchased a bike basket at a garage sale to use as a magazine rack in the backroom, but had failed to ever put it up. So I grabbed a hammer and nails and pounded it up next to my farmhouse bench.

I also added a hook I had laying around and hung up a wicker bike basket from ribbon. The basket holds my items that must go with me in the morning. I use the clothes pin to hold mail that must go to the post office. Today it is holding libary books that need to be retured. That's my ten minute decorating.

The Junk Mammas

Valentines Day

Love Valentines Day! It's such a fun holiday to decorate. We cut hearts out of scrapbook paper to make this garland.

Added ornament hearts to all of my bowls and jars around the house for a extra little touch.

Simple teachers gifts. Took small heart containers I found at Michael's for $1.00 each. Filled them with kisses, chocolate hearts and tied it off with a red themed fabric pin.

Found this cute idea for valentines on The Crafty Crow. Owl valentines, they are cute, fun and were easy for my 4 year old to make for preschool.

Don't have much on it, but I used a pink tree I purchased after Christmas and put it into one of my soup turines with paper shreds. Love when you can decorate with things lying around the house.

The Junk Mammas

Sunday Estate Sale

Estate sales season has began around these parts. Yipeee!!! I hadn't been to an estate sales in months, so I was looking forward to the hunt. I always get anxious waiting in line. Watching as people leave and spying to see what goodies they bought. I was hoping there was some good stuff left for me. Today most items where 50% or reduced, another Yipee.

Some of the treasures I found were vintage valentines, a chalk board, keys, folding measuring tape, map trash can and dictionary. My grand total was 11 bucks. I placed the valentines in floral frogs and displayed them on top of what I loosely call my china cabinet. I think I will use the trash can and chalk board in my son's room. And I was thinking of using the measuring tape as a growth chart for my kids, not sure yet. It's always fun junking!

The Junk Mammas

Soups on!

It's cold here again! Soup sounded like a good choice for dinner. With some good bread,an easy dinner. I am in heaven until I remember that it below zero out side. This recipe is from Cooking Light. And it is good for lunch the next day.

Stuffed Pepper Soup

1/2 pound ground round
2 cups chopped green bell pepper
1 cup chopped onion
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 (14-ounce) can less-sodium beef broth
1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can tomato soup, undiluted
1 1/2 cups hot cooked white rice

Heat a small Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add beef; cook 3 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Add chopped green bell pepper and onion; cook 8 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Stir in black pepper, less-sodium beef broth, diced tomatoes, and tomato soup; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 45 minutes.Spoon 1/4 cup hot cooked white rice into each of 6 bowls; top with 1 cup soup.

Yield: 6 servings

CALORIES 219 (30% from fat); FAT 7.2g (sat 2.6g,mono 2.9g,poly 0.8g); PROTEIN 11.7g; CHOLESTEROL 26mg; CALCIUM 39mg; SODIUM 444mg; FIBER 3.2g; IRON 2.7mg; CARBOHYDRATE 27.5g

The Junk Mammas

Taming kid clutter

Wendy over at the Shabby Nest is having a party "Taming Kid Clutter". We wanted to share some solutions we have found to tame the clutter and resume some sort of order in our homes. But the real key is down sizing. Get rid of some toys and really scrutinize what comes in your house. The best tip we have is to rotate toys. Every toy does not need to be in circulation, when you bring the toy back out it's like a new toy again. At our house we never open all the toys from the birthday party or Christmas, we keep them in the package for a rainy day. We of course follow these rules to a "T",we try at least.

In our old house we find small closets or no closets in rooms. We have to be creative in most aspects, to keep our sanity. That inspired my idea for the closet play nook. I have seen many times where people have turned closets into small office spaces, so I decided to try it in my daughters room. Transforming her closet into a extended play area. You can check out the original post here.

Land of Nod has some great storage solutions, the above buckets come in various sizes from them and other retailers. They are great for keeping pencils, scissors and various art supplies in check. The larger ones store trucks and Legos with ease.


Shelving is another great options. They are not just for books anymore. Bins are a great addtion to shelves to add addtional storage for all of the stuff you need to tame.

The Junk Mammas