These are some salts I picked up at an auction I attended last weekend. I was so taken by the silhouette (spelling?) in the middle of them. I have seen many salts in my day but not like these. Perhaps they aren't even salt dishes. Does anyone know? I believe them to be but am not sure. I found them scrounging in some box lots and kept praying no one would take that box lot before the price came down. By the time they got down to $5.00 a box they were still there so I grabbed them. I also got a cut lead crystal heart, a green pressed glass toothpick holder, two small dishes with silver metal casings, a chamber pot with lid (damaged and glued) and two old books. It was a deal in my book.

Below is a chair that I found at that same auction. They described it as a French Provincial chair however, the carvings look more victorian to me than French. Either way, I love this chair and plan to have it reupholstered and possibly whitewashed to make it fit my decor. I haven't picked out the material but I love all things white and am thinking a white brocade fabric with antique whitewashing would be delightful to me, since I'm planing on painting my living room a very pale blue before the fall weather sets in. By the way, this chair was only $10.00. Can you believe it? I had a hard time with the excitement of this deal.

Thank you for stopping by my blog. I love receiving comments as they help to motivate me to work on these projects and also to follow others blogs as well.

Well bloggers, I've been busy just like everyone else but finally found some things I wanted to share with you. This is a gourd birdhouse I finished painting today. I grew the gourds in my garden about 5 years ago and haven't done a thing with them since other than store them in my garage.

Of course I had to eventually clean out my garage and I must say I have moved these from the garage to the house and back to the garage a few times. This time I decided to finally make a birdhouse for a very nice friend of mine who loves birds and has all kinds of feeders and drip bird baths (that he heats in the winter). You get the picture. Tomorrow is his birthday so I decided this would be a nice gift (provided he likes my design). I stained the top half and just varnished the bottom with polyurethane. Then added the paint and reapplied polyurethane to finish. I hope by keeping it natural looking (minus the paint of course) the birds might actually inhabit it.

If you have never done this I have to tell you that when I drilled the hole in it the edges were very rough and the inside was very dry, but it sanded very smooth with my dremel tool. Probably would be very easy with regular sandpaper too. The seeds when they came out also brought with it a very soft and silky membrane that I'm sure the birds would love to use as their nest. When I felt inside it was like a cushion, so soft and silky and dry. A wonderful nest. I shook out the seeds and left most of the membrane as their mattress. I thouroughly enjoyed this process and am happy with the results. Now, to see if we get any takers. I'll let you know.

Hope your holiday was wonderful and you have found time to do the things you love.