maybe vintage, definitely cool

When I was at the Red Shed this past weekend for their Saturday sale,

I stumbled across these jars.

They were selling them filled with old vintage buttons.

I like the size, shape and design of them.

They are square with fluting and have

that little flared flange at the bottom.

I think they are interesting.  The buttons are cool too.

Do you want to know why they really caught my eye?

Look closely.  Do you see the etched writing on the bottom?

"Woods"

That's a family name. 

My great-grandmother was Mamie Woods.

My grandmother was Myrtle Lou Liza Woods (before she was married).

I know you all will want to write down that unique name 

for any future little girls you may have :)

I'll probably keep one of these jars and give one to my cousin for Christmas.

The lids on the jars are new.  I don't know much about the jars but 

it doesn't matter to me.  They look vintage and bear a family name.

That makes them especially cool in my book.

I think I've finally decided on a blog name.

I'm kind of excited about it.

I'll probably share it this weekend.

old pickle jar

I have a large old pickle jar my aunt gave me.  It's been sitting around here and there but I never really knew what to do with it.  I have nothing on my coffee table in my den in progress so I thought I would use the pickle jar to top off the coffee table.  I like it and it gives some height to the area and stands out in a good way.  I added some pea gravel and small stones (less than 3 bucks a bag at HL) and a simple white candle. 

Simple.

favorite things part 1

For years, I collected little salt and pepper shakers.  Why?  I have no idea but for some reason I liked them.  I only liked the ones that were old and made of glass, silver or aluminum.  I also would only buy sets under $10.00; preferably under $5.00.  Believe or not, for years I found a lot of cute little sets for just a few bucks.  Slowly, the prices began to rise and my fascination began to decline.  I no longer add to my collection but the ones I do have are among some of my favorite things.  I keep my most favorite ones in an old medicine cabinet I found at an antique mall.  The rest remained in a box for awhile until I saw an idea in a magazine (it had to be Country Living or Country Home since those were the only magazines I read for many years).  Their idea was to use a large old jar to hold a collection of things.  Well, I had a couple of old large jars so I picked one and put the rest of my salt and pepper shakers in it.  It looks pretty good.  It sparkles a bit when the sun hits it which is kind of nice although I'm not really much of a "sparkle" person. The occasional natural little sparkle is great but too much sparkle just isn't my thing :)   

Below are my grandfather's keys.  I never met him.  He was born in the late 1800's and died in the 1930's.  He was 50 years old when my father was born and died when my dad was three.  I keep his key chain hanging under my fireplace mantel.  That's where my parents kept it in their house so it's as good of a place as any.  Let's call that a tradition.  I love a good tradition.  The interesting thing about this set of keys is that there is a little metal tag on them.  I couldn't get a great picture of it where the writing was clear but it says "if you find these keys, please return them....and get a reward".  Then, it gives the address to return them to along with my grandfather's last name "Leonard".  Now, I don't know for sure but I'm guessing that one of these keys is a house key.  By the way, the date on the tag is 1930.  I guess homes were a little safer and people a little more trustworthy back then. 

still working on those photography skills

Lastly, here are pictures of our puppies.  They are a huge part of our family.  Since we only have a son, we refer to them as "our girls."  We got our first one, Ballou, in 2002 as my anniversary present to my husband.  His dream dog had always been a chocolate lab.  I snuck (is that a word?) a few bucks out each month for several months to save for her so he wouldn't notice a big hunk of money gone from our account.  She is now 7 1/2 years old and the best behaved little lab in the world.  Our other one is Bella.  We got her for free (she was about 2 months old) when a family with very young children thought she was little too much to handle.  She's an interesting little dog with a unique personality.  She's now 4 years old. 

Ballou

Bella

(all photos by my neighbor Kim because she takes better pics than I do)