Vintage Thingie Thursday: Vintage Dachshund Thingie

Hello Everyone! Welcome to this weeks segment of Vintage Thingies Thursday.

Thursday is the day to showcase your vintage treasures and to share your special things with everyone.

If you are visiting and would like to join us, please do. It is very easy!
All you have to do is:
(1) do a post about something vintage.
(2) Visit all the participates and leave a comment.
(3) Link in with the Mr. Linky at the bottom of this post.
(4) Be sure to refer back to my blog so everyone can see who is participating today, and if you like include the VTT button in your post. Please be sure to have your post up before linking in. Thanks so much.

I am very exciting to show you my very unusual, quirky, whimsical, something you may never see again.....dachshund. Vintage Dachshund to be exact.

How cute is this? Now, without scrolling down the page too quick to get a better look, what exactly do you think this is anyway, other than a dog? Any guesses? Don't worry if you guess wrong...heck, I may not even know what this is to be used for......

Here is my new to me, little vintage "Sophie" dog. I purchased this from an Etsy seller. She has some really cute and unusual vintage items. Click here to view her store. The seller had this titled "Far Out Dachshund Pitcher" and at first glance, the title fits. And really, from the picture, I could see how this could be a little tea pot with the little tea cups. And let me say, I had to have it....HAD to have it!

This came with 5 of the 6 original cups. Too bad all of the little cups were not there, but that did not stop me from purchasing this cutie. After it arrived in the mail, I am second guessing its purpose. It really may not be a tea pot at all.

OK seriously, is this not hysterical. Sorry, but without the little cups, this looks like the poor pup has it's teats on backwards. Did I just say that? Teats? Sorry, but if you can not see it, check your glasses!

The little hat comes off and the bottom part is cork. Upon closer inspection, I am seriously thinking this might be a liquor decanter. Just pop the hat off, add the booze and put the hat back in place. What do you think?

What ever its purpose, it is old and vintage. It does have some crazing, but the charm of this unusual little dog was too much for me to resist. I just love the polka dot hanky around it's neck and the little hat with the red bow, you know how I like red.

Did any of you happen to notice the fabric I used for the background? I purchased this at a estate sale for $2.00, and really thought it was just a bundle of fabric. When I got it home and had time to inspect it further, I discovered it was a curtain panel. I think the print is so cute. I am saving this to maybe make something out of...what? I don't know....it is going on my to-do pile. We will see what I can come up with. Any suggestions from any of you crafty girls?

Have a great week everyone! Thanks for stopping by and sharing all of your wonderful treasures and vintage finds here with us today. I just re-read this post and realized how many questions I asked. Don't worry, you don't have to answer them, just answer them to yourself. What was I thinking?

Love on Wednesdays: Pint Size Love

This is the final installment of Love on Wednesdays for the Month of February. I would like to thank each and everyone who participated in this every week and thank everyone who visited every week to see what all the Love was about this month! I enjoyed reading every one of the post and some of them really warmed my heart. Thanks again...It was great fun.

Use the Mr. Linky to link in after you have your post up, and please link back to my blog. I will have the link and post up on Tuesday nights, so our friends in different parts of the world can participate if they like.

This week, I want to show you just how much love you will find at our house and it comes in a pint size. Don't let the size fool you...the love is abundant.

If you have been reading for a while, I told you the story last year how I acquired my first dachshund. If you missed that story, you can read the long and the short of that tale Here. Sorry...I could not resist. But to sum it up..these two little pint size dogs at our house are loved by everyone and the love they bring to our lives is so much more than that.

Alisha, my beautiful baby girl really is the cause of all the dog business around here. When she went off to college.....well, you remember the story...I was so sad....that it took a wee little pup to cheer me up. Alisha is a shining spot in my life for sure and I love her dearly. So it seems fitting that she is behind somewhat of Sophie having found us.

Shortly, Dora came along....you know how it is....one is never enough. At least that rings true around here. She originally was going to be Alisha's dog...and I suppose for all practical purposes she is...but I can assure you, she will be Alisha's dog living here with me...for always.

Now, when I say that everything revolves around what these two little dogs want or don't want around here...I really mean that. They are the center of attention.....they demand it. It would never be any other way. Remember they are the princess and the queen of the house!

Here is my wonderful son Jeff, whom I love dearly. He is the apple of my eye and has the biggest, warmest heart of any one you will every meet. He is special to me in every way. Sophie thinks so too. She would not even let him open his Christmas presents in peace....she was not giving up her spot in his lap for nothing. It takes a special person to grant this little queen her every wish....or at least a smart one!

See how much love Sophie gives my son?....you can see it in her eyes. She is such a sweetie and she loves Jeff. The funny part of this relationship between my son and Sophie is, he is the Alpha dog.....and with everyone else in the family....well, Sophie assumes that role. Maybe, we have a small problem.....

The saying we have adapted around my house is: Have dog's will travel. Here is Steve driving last summer on our way to Colorado. Luckily, these two are small and he has room for both in his lap. It might be a problem if they weighed more than 8 lbs. You know, men for the most part like large dogs...masculine dogs and Steve falls into that category of men. He does like big, bold, rough looking dogs.But he has a heart as big as gold and he loves these two little dogs as much as I do.
And to me, nothing is sexier than seeing this:

Seeing this manly man I married, walking two of the prissiest little dogs you can imagine down the street like it is nothing. I tell ya' it is a very sexy sight to see. I am so glad, Steve does not think anything of it...because we might just have a little problem if he did. This is love to me....seeing my two little dog's walking down the street with my husband.....it warms my heart like nothing else.


Here is another shot of two vacation dogs. Alisha and Matt could not even take a picture without these two hams joining in. Sophie was asking Dora if she was smiling for the camera, and I snapped the shot too soon!

Yes, Sophie and Dora are the shining lights of our household. They stand watch when someone leaves, worried they might not return, I am sure, or worried about their safety. Begging them to stay and not go. Devotion. At it's finest.

And they greet us at the door when we come home. Happy to see us, and wanting to take a peek into our grocery sacks to see what treats we brought them. See how excited Sophie is watching Steve take bags out of the car? She knows that plastic sacks means treats.

And along with the love we give and receive from these two pups, they have a unique devotion and love between the two of them. They are like sisters in every way....in fact, my husband's nick name for them is "twin girls" They might not have been born of the same litter, but the were born with each other in their hearts and are the best of friends.


Love for me....is the pitter-patter of four paws scampering across the floor, wanting belly rubs, hoping for treats, and eagerly wanting to lick my troubles away.....it just does not get any better than that. ~Good Stuff.


Love on Wednesdays Participants

1. Karen :o) 2. Sally 3. Gin

4. Knitty 5. T Lee 6. The Blue Birds Nest

7. Marjorie

Powered by... Mister Linky's Magical Widgets.

Mirror..Mirror..On The Wall.....

In case you are wondering, we are almost finished with our bathroom remodel. It has taken longer than I had hoped, but that mainly is due to the fact that I could not get it in gear and get things finished up. I don't know what the reason was for this major slow down was on my part...call it tired...call it not focused....call it...call it overwhelmed....call it getting older....I sorta would like to not think the about the last option. But anyway, here is a glimpse of the almost finished remodel. The only thing left is putting the final touches in this room and I will be done!

Take a look at the frame we made for the mirror to go in this bathroom. I had the old standard flat, plain mirror on the wall before and could have put it back up, but it just did not look right to me. We used the left over wood (which was barely enough) to make the frame for the new mirror.

This was the same process in making this frame as was for the vanity. You can see once the polyurethane was applied, how red the wood turned. I put 3 coats of poly on this wooden frame and had the mirror cut to fit and set in the new frame.

Here is the mirror after Steve and Matt installed it on the wall last Sunday. What do you think? Please ignore the brush and hair clip on the vanity in this photo...only explanation I have is that it was an essential tool in the installation of the mirror....had to make sure this looked good for brushing my hair...essential tool, I swear!

Now, remember when I said to wait until you saw the mirror with the cabinet? I think they compliment each other rather well. Not matchy-matchy but a nice compliment.

Here is another look. For the life of me, I can not get the coloring on the walls to turn out right in these photos. The wall coloring is a deep tan color and the paint color looks really washed out in these photos. I am determined to get the coloring right in at least one picture before my last post about this project so you can see the true colors.

Here is another close-up of the cabinet with the mirror in the background.

I know the new bathroom look really has a lot of masculine touches. In most people's eyes rustic does indeed equate masculine. I have a few ideas up my sleeve to soften and hopefully add a few feminine touches in this room. Notice the light fixture. Rustic design for the most part.....

.....But just how rustic can it be with these cute little crystals accenting the iron in the fixture? I looked and looked for the right lighting in this room, and when I saw this one, I knew it was the right one. I love the iron feel to the whole light piece, and the little crystals are a nice unexpected touch...and yes, they are really crystal not plastic. And this was on sale and discounted.

Light Fixture: $34.79 discounted & sale price- huge savings
Purchased from Lowe's Home Improvement Store.

Taa-Daa.... here is the mirror with the vanity. See those very unique faucet handles..they are still one of my favorite elements I found for this bathroom.....I just love how they look like little water well pumps. So cute.

I think the mirror turned out great. Looks very nice with the vanity and very custom made....even if the custom made was right out of my own back yard. See the little screws in the leg of the vanity....those are about to disappear.....I will show you what I am going to do to get rid of those screw heads soon.....promise.

Simple Sunday

The flowers of late winter and early spring occupy places in our hearts well out of proportion to their size.
~Gertrude S. Wister

~~See this daffodil? I told my husband this past fall that if these flowers did not bloom in the spring, I was going to pull them up. I have had these planted in my front flower bed for well over 15 years and for the last 13 of those years they have not bloomed once.....imagine my surprise this week when I discovered this wonderful bloom. Simply Beautiful.

Bathroom Remodel: Trash to Treasure Bathroom Cabinet

Finished for Friday is hosted by the very crafty lady at Lit and Laundry's Blog. She always has something wonderful to show that she has finished in time to post on Fridays. I am going to participate this week, it is my first post for Finished for Friday...and if you are wondering why that is...it is very simple...I don't finish much around here these days! There.. I said it.

Many of you have been following along with our bathroom remodel....and no...we are not finished. But I did want to show you a project I have been working on and did finish for today.

I knew I did not want to purchase a new cabinet to install in the bathroom. A new cabinet just did not have the look or charm I was looking for. I have been searching online for older, wooden cabinets, vintage cabinets, or something that would fit in our new decor for the bathroom.

Oh, believe me when I say I found plenty of cabinets that fit the bill....however...the bill was just more than I was willing to pay. Remember, I am cheap. I was not willing to pay the steep cost of getting "old, vintage, charming, unusual"... even for the one cabinet I did not think I could live without. But once the builder emailed me the price of $385.00 for the dimensions I provided, the price was way out of my budget. Now, granted I am sure some of you think that might not be a bad price, and believe me, it was a real hard thing not to go ahead and purchase the cabinet but something just would not let me do it.

Little did I know, the perfect...well almost perfect cabinet was waiting for me to discover it just a couple of weeks ago.

I was at a local estate sale two weeks ago and stumbled upon this beige colored cabinet sitting in a hall at the sale. There was no tag, so I figured this was either sold, or was more than I was willing to pay.

The cabinet was old...just like I wanted.

The size was so close to being the size I was looking for.....it was ironic.

This was most likely handmade...although, really not my style at first glance.

This had vintage hardware......just what I wanted....and it was in perfect working order.

The price....$20.00......SOLD.

Now, on the drive home, I questioned my purchase and was worried this was not going to work out....thinking I should have just spent the $385.00 on the cabinet I wanted originally. I was worried that I might not be able to make-over this cabinet to my liking. And I knew I would have to hear about it from my husband. He has little faith as it is. When I showed him the cabinet, as you can expect...he just looked at me and shook his head. I was scared to even start the project. The cabinet sat in the spare bedroom for two days. Untouched.

Then, one afternoon I was looking at a candle holder we purchased at Canton last summer and that was it...the look I wanted for my new cabinet.....Perfect.

I know you are thinking how cute these little doggies are...they are salt and pepper shakers and look just like Sophie and Dora. OK sorry...back to the cabinet.

The first thing I did was remove all the old hardware and carefully put it away. Next I sanded the whole cabinet with a hand sander. I kept the original paint just sanded it down to the original wood in some places to rough it up.

Next, I applied a coat of Valspar Woodlawn Charm Blue paint from Lowe's. Let dry. Sanded. Then painted with a coat of Valspar Homestead Resort Moss paint from Lowe's. Let dry. Sanded.

I sanded at the edges, corners, and behind the hardware areas. Remember, I was looking for a rustic finish, so there really is no right or wrong in the process.

The final coat was Valspar Waverly Classics paint in a Bangkik Rust color. I painted the inside solid and distressed the outer perimeters with sanding and dry brush painting the blue and green and red again in layers.

To give this the aged look I was after, I brushed on a coat of Black Valspar Antiquing Glaze. Brush on, and wipe off with an old t-shirt or um....an old pair of your husbands undies....sorry, that is what I used. Let completely dry. Finally, I sealed this with three coats of a matte finish polyurethane.

Here is a close up of the front of the cabinet. What do you think?....does this look old to you or freshly painted? Truth.... please.....you won't hurt my feelings. If too many of you think it does not look old....I will just have to buy the one my heart was set on to begin with....not really. I know some will not care for this look...my daughter is one of those people...and that is OK. You will have to see the big picture of everything together and then, you will understand what I was looking for in this old cabinet. But I am happy with the way it turned out and the price, even if some folks I know say I should have purchased a new one.

Here is a look of the inside before I painted the final interior coat of paint and sealed it.

Here is a close-up of the wonderful vintage hardware. I just love this about the cabinet. It works wonderfully, and I love the look.

Yes, I finished this by today so I could show it off. Imagine...going from this candle holder to the cabinet below. I think it is a close resemblance and I like how it turned out.


Total cost for the cabinet:

$20.00 for cabinet at estate sale
$15.00 for paint and glaze
$ 6.50 for sealer
Total: $41.50

Hope you enjoyed my Finished for Friday post....check back Monday for more of the final stages of the remodel..we are almost done...promise! I will show you what we did for the mirror, and how this cabinet looks with the mirror and lighting.

Be sure and visit Lit and Laundry for more great items Finished for Friday.

Vintage Thingie Thursday: Vintage Tea Towels

Hello Everyone! Welcome to this weeks segment of Vintage Thingies Thursday.

Thursday is the day to showcase your vintage treasures and to share your special things with everyone.

If you are visiting and would like to join us, please do. It is very easy!
All you have to do is:
(1) do a post about something vintage.
(2) Visit all the participates and leave a comment.
(3) Link in with the Mr. Linky at the bottom of this post.
(4) Be sure to refer back to my blog so everyone can see who is participating today, and if you like include the VTT button in your post. Please be sure to have your post up before linking in. Thanks so much.

This week, I thought I would show you some of my vintage linens. I purchased most of these at a local Antique shop and from an estate sale last weekend. I use a lot of my vintage linens as backdrops for my photos I take for my blog. I had a comment on one of my post about the linens in the background of one of my pictures, so I thought I'd show you some of these terrific finds this week.

These two are vintage tea towels. I love the embroidered edges. I like the fact these have brightly colored flowers, and the cherries on the other towel was an added bonus. I am guessing these to be dated around the 50's. I acquired these from a local antique shop, and paid $2.00 each.

Here are a couple more from the same shopping day. I just love the Mexican inspired linens. The teal towel has the crocheted border and it was purchased for $2.00 also. The other brightly colored towel was in a sack for use as "cutters", however, I like them just the way they are. The bag was $1.50 and it was a steal in my opinion.

Here is the close-up of the teal towel, it is very pretty and in very good condition.

This little gem was in the bag of "cutter" towels. You know this is dated by the inscription "Love, Honor & Obey" Seriously folks...can you imagine giving this as a bridal shower gift in this day and age....Obey???
Wait....
Oh, I get it.....this is referring to the husband obeying the wife....sorry, now that makes perfect sense to me, and yes, I can imagine giving this one at a shower now! Silly me!

This is a beautifully embroidered runner. I love the blue birds and pink ribbon and was drawn to this instantly. I purchased this at an estate sale for $1.00. I only found one tiny spot, that I am sure I can remove when I find the time! Ha!

Now, this little bunny is so sweet. I don't know if this was intended to be a tablecloth or a baby blanket. It is rather large to be a baby blanket, but for a hefty sum of .50 cents, I had to have this. Oh, and yes, I do love vintage linens....they are so charming in their own way.

Hope you enjoyed a glimpse of the vintage linens I use as backgrounds for my pictures, they are some of my favorite things and always brighten my day.

Please, feel free to link in after you have your post up on your blog for Vintage Thingies Thursday....it is fun to share your vintage finds. I can not wait until next week to share my vintage finds from this week....I am busting at the seams....kind of can't wait....but I must.....wait that is!