My Favorite Things, part 5

When we lived in Littleton my favorite, favorite haunt was Savers. It was a thrift store in walking distance. I would visit this place weekly and ALWAYS find great bargains on household goods, kitchen supplies, shoes, toys, and especially clothes. This lamp was one of my favorite finds from there. I snatched it as soon as my eyes caught sight of it. The brass is heavy so I knew this was no cheap-o lighting fixture. I decoupaged the lamp shade using book pages and then a tea stained it.


The rocker was a desperate-gotta-have-can't-live-without-why-did-I-spend-so-much buy. There used to be a cool used/antique/consignment furniture store across the street from us, here in Sparta. It's now an abandoned building desperately needing to be torn down. I went through a stage of decorating when I thought I liked and wanted to go all mission-style. This chair was my first and last attempt to build up our mission-style furniture collection. Don't get me wrong, I love mission-style. I just don't want a house filled with it. I've recovered this chair three times already and like this transformation the best. Toile and pleather. To me it's a marriage of of the masculine and feminine. And I think the black and rich oaky brown complement each other nicely.


Moving into the dining room you are greeted by the hutch. Shortly after moving back to Colorado from Canada I was driving through Littleton and slammed on the brakes at a Yard Sale. Sitting in the middle of the lawn was this hutch. I've wanted a hutch for sometime and was hoping, hoping, hoping I could afford this one. It wasn't completely my ideal hutch but hey, it was right in front of me why not ask what it's going for. "$25." I blurted out, "I'll take it! " without thinking how am I going to get this home (in our Jetta sedan) and where am I going to put it (in our small apartment). All I was thinking was (jumping up and down in my head), "I got a hutch for 25 bucks, I got a hutch for 25 bucks!" It stores my Country Days transferware, various wedding presents of platters, trifle bowls, wine glasses, and napkins. On top sits a brass plate (a gift from Tricia from Morocco) that I've made into a clock, paintings from my brother-in-law and hand-blown brown glass candle sticks I bought for my sister and then decided to keep for myself!

Finally we come to our wine rack. Ann, Shane's wife, the most talented and able-bodied woman I know, made us this. I was blown away when she presented it to us. It's a clever design, her own, and holds lots of wine bottles. But isn't this the saddest photo - a wine rack with no wine! Ann didn't finish the piece, leaving that design decision to me. What better color to paint a wine rack then Cabernet. So that's the color I choose. Along with the paint I stained over the paint to give it an antiqued-look. On top I decoupaged wine labels that I had saved for months. It took a while to perfectly peel off labels, flatten them ready to be glued on and stained.

So there you have it...my favorite things around our house. I hope you enjoyed the tour.