A Little Palate Cleanser

After Wednesday's bunny postcard I felt I might owe you a little palate cleanser.

How about a little bunny romance? How sweet!

Or a chick romance? Ahhh, young love at work!

Cross species romance? OK, they're just flirting, what could it hurt? It's not like this is going anywhere.

I stand corrected. I guess it may have gone somewhere. Is this even possible?

BTW, have you seen that the President is on Pinterest. You can find him here. Wonder if he'll follow my boards?



       

Mutilated Bunnies And Other Easter Whimsy

I was so excited when my niece recently gave me some Easter postcards that my sister had collected over the years. Since my sister died last year, I have enjoyed having things around me that she cherished. I had almost forgotten about this particular Easter postcard that she had bought on ebay a few years ago. She was fascinated with it, because it's a little quirky. We shared the quirkiness gene, I guess.

But it is a little gruesome for an Easter postcard though, don't you think?

You have a bunny on crutches with a mangled leg, another bunny with a bandage on his head (is he missing an ear?), a bunny pushing a wheelbarrow (hurray, he appears not to be hurt!) filled with his bunny friend that is profusely gushing blood from a wound in his chest, a bunny with his arm in a sling and walking with a cane (behind the wheelbarrow) and then you have a very tired bunny leaning his head on what appears to be a tombstone. What the heck?

I know it can't be easy to deliver eggs to all the kids of the world, but seriously, who knew it would leave the bunnies fighting for their lives.

The card is postmarked March 20, 1910 (Easter was March 27th that year) and it says "Hope the bunny is good to you" on the back, so I'm pretty darn sure it's an Easter card. You might think it was a reference to soldiers returning from war, but WWI was from 1914-1918, so this card is prior to that. So I can't figure out what the wounded bunny theme is all about. Any thoughts?

BTW, you're welcome to use this postcard in your Easter crafts. You know, if you want to really scare the kiddies on Easter morning. It will give a whole new meaning to biting the ears off the chocolate bunnies.



       

Reproduction Tin Toys

I've been spring cleaning in my son's room and, like I said on my last post, I've taken quite a few things to Goodwill. Just couldn't get rid of these ones though.

Most of these are Schylling toys. My sister started buying these reproduction vintage toys for my son when he was a baby and I still love the look of them.

I suppose when my son turns 21 or so, and needs an even more grown-up room, I'll have to move the toys into my bedroom.

You never know when a death ray will come in handy.

       

Spring Peat Pot Craft

This week I have been bitten by a huge case of spring cleaning fever! Nothing in the house is safe. I've taken two car loads to Goodwill and will probably have another car load by the end of the weekend. It feels strange to drop things off there and not run in the front door to check out the new arrivals (I'd probably be tempted to buy back my own stuff anyhow).

So, while I'm vacuuming the cat and before Easter sneaks up on us, I wanted to replay one of my favorite spring craft posts from last year:

For Peat's Sake - April 2011


While perusing one of my favorite vintage/crafty blogs, Musings From Kim K., I ran across a post that showed how to turn peat pots into little Easter decorative baskets.

All of a sudden a light bulb came on in my head. I had seen things like this at gift shops and antique stores, but had no idea they were made with good old peat pots.


I found mine at the local grocery store, but I have seen them at Home Depot, Lowes and Big Lots too. Just about anywhere that sells gardening goods.

I did a couple versions of the little baskets just to show the versatility of what you can do with them.

A little bit country (image used was from Vintage Holiday Crafts)


a little bit rock 'n roll Pottery Barn-ish (image used was from The Graphics Fairy)


and a little bit cottage-esque (image used was from who knows where - I've had it for years saved on my computer)


I'm sure I could have been a little more creative on these, using buttons, flowers or lace to bling them up a bit, but since I'm not a normally super crafty gal, I thought it better to stop when I was ahead on these.

Do you ever do that? Make a craft that is OK, then you start messing with it and before you know it it is in the trashcan. Then I won't show you the Mod Podged sheet music one that is currently buried beneath coffee grounds and banana peels.


I thought I'd get a little wild on the handles though, so for this one I used wire that I had wrapped about a pencil to make a springy handle.


This handle is a tea dyed bumpy chenille stem.


And on this one I thought a tinsel stem that I had left over from Christmas was a good fit (matches well with the snowy glitter).


Now I just have to buy some Cadbury eggs to fill them up.


Go on over to Kim's blog and check out her post with a easy to follow tutorial HERE.



Linking with Centsational Girl's Spring Link Party, Funky Junk Interiors' Saturday Nite Special and Eclectically Vintage's It's A Cinch Party.

       

A Caged Bird

Do you ever fall in love with an item at the store. Pine over it. Have dreams about it. Go back to visit it a few times. Want to have its babies.

Then finally go ahead and bite the bullet and make the big purchase, only to bring it home and feel sort of silly about all the hoopla you made about it?

Meet my large wooden lantern.

This baby is 2 feet tall, made to look like it's fashioned out of reclaimed barn wood

and has a salvaged looking metal roof.

I bought it right after Christmas and it has been flitting about from spot to spot in my house for months. It's not that it doesn't match anything, but more that the stupid thing is huge. Just visually larger than a lantern has any right to be. Slap it on an island and you could call this thing a lighthouse.

I finally decided that I either had to use it or take it back to the store. So now I have it on my dining room table. (OK, confession time - I lost the receipt.)

I popped some shredded sheet music in it and placed my burlap bird on top of the nest. At last check, she has not laid any burlap eggs in there!

So what started out to be the buy of the century, turned into the regret of the century, and then morphed into the what-the-heck-I-might-as-well-use-it purchase of the century.

Let me out of here, this lady is nuts!

Have you ever made a purchase that looked better in the store than at home?



       

On Top Of The World

I've had people ask me what I do with all my thrift store finds.

Right now, I am using my thrift store items in my own decor. I sort of rotate things in and out of my decor all the time. Use the "new" finds for a while until I find something else that I like better and then switch things around.

At some point, I will probably get a booth to resell some of the stuff that I tire of. Or be on an episode of Hoarders. My husband would probably prefer that I go the booth route.

These are some more items that I've added to my stash this week.

The globe ended up on top of my TV armoire.

It's sitting on a couple of Britannica's Books Of The Years - 1961 and 1963 to be exact.

BTW, have you heard that they will no longer be publishing the Encyclopedia Britannica. Since this whole internet thing is catching on, there's not a real need for parents to buy the books for home use. I'm not sure that Wikipedia actually killed it as some suggest, but I'm sure it didn't help.

Anyhow, I thought the globe looked vintage, but it turns out that it's from the 80's. If you ever find a globe and want to figure out the age of it, you can go to this website by Replogle Globes that tells you, based on the country names, how old your globe is.

The chicken ended up on my kitchen table.

He is extremely chippy and the paint is pretty worn, but I thought he was sort of cute. I'm calling him Mr. Chips.

Mr. Chips is telling me that it's time to start thinking about dinner. I don't think we'll be having chicken tonight.



Linking with Coastal Charm's Nifty Thrifty Tuesday and Savvy Southern Style's Wow Us Wednesday.