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

Fabulous Find Friday

Saw this on HGTV the other day, stainless steel contact paper. Thought it was really neat. They used it to cover storage type photo boxes, I have read it works great on garbage cans also to give them an updated look.

Have not checked our local retailers for this, but found it on Amazon for $11.49 a roll. Stayed tuned for some projects with this stuff. If you have used this product please share, we'd love to hear from you.

The Junk Mamma's

Scrabble anyone

Our house has no mud room or coat closet near the back door, one of the pitfuls of an older home. But I do have a back porch that I use kinda like a mud room in the warmer months. If you leave your gear out there this time of year it would be frozen. So I had to have a place for the kids to leave there jackets and backpacks inside. I'd love not to have to look at jackets every time I am in the kitchen but you have to make due with what you have sometimes.

I added some hooks to this little wall, but wanted to add the kids names somehow. One day I thought of my scrabble game that was hidden in the basement under my craft stuff. I pondered a good while how to hang them up then it came to me, poster putty. I just stuck a little on the back of each letter and put them on the molding. Now my kids know where there jackets belong. Do they get hung there, about 90% of the time.

I have seen some really cool things made out of scrabble tiles such as necklaces and key rings. Have you used scrabble tiles in a unique way?

The Junk Mammas

Fabulous Find Friday

I have been eyeing these little faux moss pieces up well before Christmas at Target. I just couldn't bring myself to buy them for myself till after Christmas.

I truly have a brown thumb, but I seem to be able to grow an amaryllis or two. So I placed the moss pieces at the base of my amaryllis plant in my favorite pot to cover the dirt. I thought this would help my little guy from digging his fingers in the dirt. Instead he thought these looked yummy and took a bite of one. What was I thinking. I just glued it back together, put that side down.

You can find them in the aisle with the vases and vase fillers for about 8 bucks for eight pieces. Now I am hooked on these little things. This post was inspired by the Beautiful Life Linky party at the Inspired Room and Hooked on Houses party. With little ones you can have a beautiful display, even if is only lasts during nap time. Enjoy something beautiful, even it only lasts a moment.

The Junk Mammas

Burrrr.... It's cold outside

No school today, schools were being canceled last night before suppertime. The weather service in our area is predicting temperatures about minus 19 degrees with wind chills 36 below zero today.

Sounds like a good day to curl up with a book, cup of hot tea and a warm cozy blanket.

The Junk Mammas

Blogland

I just love that I discovered blogs about two years ago. There are really so many creative and talented people out there. But, I spend way too much time on the computer. Anyone relate? One of my recent blog finds is Lola B. The girl has some killer decorating style, I love it. Her blog is celebrating her one year anniversary and is having a great give away. Go check her out, heres a few sneak peeks at her blog.

I need to get me some of these letter balls, but I have a feeling they would be all over my house. My kids seem to love all my arrangements and must investigate.

And the girl has some fashion sense too. It just isn't fair that some girls have it all.

Who wouldn't love this closet.

Stay tuned we will be having a giveaway to celebrate our 50th post!

The Junk Mammas

Fabulous Finds Friday-A cool scrunchy

Ballard Designs

Our feature this Friday is all about a scrunchy that is still in style. For the longest time I have been admiring these chandelier chain scrunchy things from Ballard's designs. But at $39.00+shipping, I have had a hard time making the purchase.

I have tried to make them on my own, but they just never seem to look as nice as the ones you can buy. Plus, hot gluing something that is hanging while standing on a ladder.....trouble!

Low and behold our trusty Hobby Lobby carries this item. For $17.99 and 1/2 price when lighting is on sale you can get one of these wonderful covers for the chain on your chanelier.

They have many colors to choose from and they snap, so you are able to remove them to wash or change your look and color for the seasons.

The Junk Mammas

William-Sonoma

Just received my new William-Sonoma catalog and they have the cutest valentine stuff. Check out the wreath above made out of vintage looking valentines or these double cherry pop suckers.

I love to look through their catalog for inspiration, they also have some great stuff and delicious recipes. If you don't receive their catalog you can sign up now online http://www.williams-sonoma.com/ .

The Junk Mammas

Family Embarrassment

Ok- This is not actually my car, but it could of been the other day. I dropped my 1st grade son off at school and while his principal was helping him out of the car he had a McDonalds bag stuck to his foot.


Talk about a family embarrassment, I knew I had to change my habits. I have been in a really bad way about the car for awhile. It has been extermly cold here and sometimes at night we don't get all of the artwork out of the car or we eat dinner on the way home and leave the wrappers behind, you know how that goes, don't ya?

I was searching the internet and found this artical about not letting your car get out of control. http://www.creativehomemaking.com/organizing/messy-car.shtml I was thrilled to know, I wasn't the only one and there was hope for me.


The Junk Mammas