Poking through a small flea market seemingly a million miles off the beaten path, I stumbled across a cache of stationary, pens, and notepads from the 1930’s and 1940’s. With each vintage notebook cover sporting a classic design, and each priced under a dollar, I scooped up the whole pile and began making plans!…
In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to use paper bags, wrapping paper, or recycled packing paper to produce this fun paper doll garland. My pattern is loosely styled on a primitive doll or gingerbread men, but feel free to use make modifications to my basic template- a printable PDF which you can download for…
This is a little outside of my typical wheelhouse, as this blog is more about crafts, DIY, and occasional travel post than it is about scrapbooking and genealogy research. But I love old photographs and I am excited to share a new way I discovered to more meaningfully organize mine. Initially, I discovered this application…
Classy floor lamps are expensive –like, very expensive. As I priced sturdy lamps for my new Seattle apartment, I couldn’t find a single sturdy tripod-style adjustable lamp for under $250. Target and World Market had non-adjustable options in the $80-$120 range, but I’d been tricked into buying cute-but-fragile lamps there before and always ended up…
I felt equal parts fascination and horror the first time I walked into a goodwill outlet. Although I’d heard about the outlet by word of mouth, I found myself there by accident. It wasn’t until a GPS instructed to “take us to Goodwill” routed us to the outlet instead of the Goodwill mega-store a…
Setting your prices can be one of the hardest parts of having a flea market booth. How you price determines how quickly your inventory will turn over, which impacts how customers experience your booth. If items catch the eye but the pricetag turns them away, the customer might not stay in your booth and shop!…
“Free inventory.” At the mere mention of the phrase, you might think of curbside finds or perhaps a way to rid yourself of bad Christmas gifts. However, over the years that I have maintained a flea market booth, I’ve located a surprising number of consistent sources of free inventory for my flea market booth. Below, I’ve…
Vintage C Clamps are great for adding a bit of a not-too-harsh industrial vibe to your home or office. Once only used for woodworking and similar construction projects, C clamps can be used to support shelves, add hooks, or secure items where you need them. C-clamps blend well into interior decor and can be a…
In the Midwest, cute vintage luggage can be a rare score in flea markets and thrift stores, but in Seattle, it’s been easy enough to find that I can be a little picky. When I’m buying a vintage suitcase for marker storage, I try to only buy luggage that smells nice on the inside.…
It’s no secret to anyone who visits my home or business that I love equestrian decor. Even so, I used to be surprised when my birthday rolled around each year and casual friends seemed to always think the perfect gift for me was a picture or painting of a horse. It made logical sense, I…
I’m almost as excited to share this project with my readers as I was to complete it for myself! Creating this vintage train case turned marker holder has been my goal for a while, but it’s taken some patience to find the perfect train case and marker holder that fit without wasting a lot…
Last Updated: From 2010-2015 Hawk Hill’s stable was inhabited always by a horse or two and I ran a tack store out of a warehouse building on the property that was designed to look like a barn, so it seemed appropriate for both my use of the property and the design of the buildings themselves…
Confession: I have a Pottery Barn taste on a Target budget. I lust after expensive linens but used to convince myself to settle for something cheap, instead. Until recently. In 2010 I fell in love with the anthropologie rosette quilt, and though it was far more that I was comfortable spending on a quilt, I loved the…
Last Updated: One of the most frequently Pinterest pinned images from this site is this photo, above, from my chicken coop / barnyard, taken in the summer of 2013 (give or take a year), showing an old leather horse halter that I converted into a hanger for a galvanized bucket of Calibrachoa flowers. The noseband…
Within a week of signing the lease on my tiny studio apartment in Seattle, I had one of my favorite vintage chandeliers shipped to me from Missouri. Determined my new life had to have at least one chandelier, I converted it from a light fixture to a lamp with a plug and set about finding…
Though I only make it to Ikea about once a year, I’ve been eyeing the Emmie Blom duvet for a while. Finally, I grew tired of my Anthropologie Rosette quilt and decided Emmie Blom might be an inexpensive makeover (and make up, just a little, for my previous splurge on Anthropologie bedding). Paired with a…
I don’t often tackle a room remodel by myself- I tend to stick to small projects. Not too long ago, however, I took a deep breath and dove into one of my biggest projects: remodeling a tiny bathroom that was cursed with peach tile, peach walls, and an 80’s vanity. Lacking the tools, funds, skill,…
