~A Yummy Yankee & A Recipe To Share~

Hello everyone! I know I know....don't fall out of your chairs. ME....blogging again, so soon!!?? :) Just wanted to make a quick post and share a couple of things!

The first thing I want to share is my new Yankee Candle. The other day it was a cold, misty day. Perfect day to stay inside and finish up my Fall decorating. I lit my new Candle.....and boy was I NOT dissapointed! I am usually a loyal Spiced Pumpkin or Harvest Yankee fan...but I decided to try something new. It is called Cozy Home. If you try it you won't be dissapointed if you like these kinds of Autumn scents. To me it is almost like all of my favorite scents rolled into one~

The next thing I want to share is a "recipe". Well....I don't know if you can really call it a recipe. Some of you may already make this but for those of you who don't it is a VERY simple treat that is a staple munchy in our home beginning in October! It is just a bag of candy corn and a large jar of salted peanuts. And there you have it....it tastes like a Salted Nut Roll candy bar! Our family loves it. Obviously this snack would not be good for small children, both of these ingredients could pose a choking risk, but all of our children are old enough to dig in! We just leave it out in a big bowl, it doesn't last long and it is very addicting! Enjoy~

You all have a wonderful day! Next time I will share more Fall decorating photos and a Spicy Chex Mix recipe given to me by a very special friend that we make EVERY year in the Fall and Winter months! SO yummy! Until
next time take care. ~Sarah~

~Fall Decorating~

Hello everyone! Fall is in the air!! It is cold and windy today.....there are even some leaves blowing in the streets! I love October!

I have been busy decorating for Fall. And decided I would make a post that is mostly pictures! I am finishing my Fall decorating today. There is nothing quite like the colors of Fall. All of the leaves, bittersweet, pumpkins and gourds compliment the wall colors in my home! I can't help but decorate nearly every room! So there will be more Fall decor pictures in the near future!

This first picture is a wonderful Fall Sampler that I bought from Lisa I just LOVE it! Her work is amazing and I am so proud to have her prims in my home~





My dough board made by my Dad with fabric gourd, pumpkins and acorn from a great prim store called Primitive Treasures~

These next few pictures are above our kitchen cabinets~

Our foyer~

The top of my toaster cover (also made by my Dad)~

Candle shelf made by Kim with Fall wreath~

The shelf above our deck doors~




Close up, I love faux bittersweet~

The bowl rack that my Dad made with a touch of Fall~

Living room shelf, this is my $5 garage sale makeover shelf! Notice Kindra's wonderful Fall Welcome blocks~

This is my $10 Goodwill table makeover also with a touch of Fall~

And my $20 Antique Store table makeover~

I hope you are all enjoying whatever kind of Fall weather you are having! For me...this is IT! The weather, the colors, all of the sights and sounds and smells of Fall make me SO happy! The other morning I woke up to the most perfect Autumn morning.....Cool, Crisp and the Highschool band was practicing! It just doesn't get any better than that!

This weekend we will be heading to the Pumpkin Patch for our son Owen's 4th Birthday and I can't wait. One of my favorite places to go!

Until next time....take care! ~Sarah~

M.I.P.A... I've Been "Missing In Prim Action"

Hello everyone! It has been soooo long..... toooo long! Where do I start? First, I need to thank each and every one of you that I got emails from! You are SO sweet to check up on me. So many of you (because I haven't blogged in so long) were making sure that everything was o.k. with me and my family. I appreciated these emails more than you will ever know. And I am happy to report that I just haven't been blogging because I have not had time, nothing more serious than that.

And I say "happy" to report. I am not really happy about it. I missed blogging terribly! And I missed my blogging friends/followers as well. I didn't even get on the computer to comment on any of your amazing blogs either. MANY of you asked about my makeovers. I have not done a makeover in so long and I miss that too! But have NO fear...I have a shelf FULL of things just waiting to be made over!! I can't wait to get back at it!

I am hopeful now that school has started and Fall is approaching that there will be much more computer time and time for makeovers!

I do have to tell you that a lot of my time has been "ME" time! I have always tried to take care of myself and my health to some extent. But I decided now was the time to really pay attention to what I eat, how I exercise and what I am putting in my body. I did start seeing a personal trainer/nutrition expert. I am learning SO much and I have to say it has been both interesting and fun! I have always loved Yoga and have started back up with it again! I won't bore you with my complete LOVE of Yoga but if you ever get the chance TRY IT! It is amazing for the mind and the body! I am doing Yoga along with strength training, cardio, and mixing in some Pilates here and there as well. The increased energy that I feel is wonderful! I have lost 10% body fat and it feels amazing!

I was asked by my trainer on my first day "Sarah, why are you here"? And my answer was simply...I want to get healthy, I have five children and I want to be able to keep up with them and do things with them for a long time to come! And now is the time to do it! I was ready, willing and able! So that is just a little update on what I have been spending some of my time on.

We also went on a couple of little family vacations, had a family reunion. Summer baseball etc. We have my nephew's wedding coming up on September 12th. I have been going to bridal showers, it has been SO fun! So as you can see, I haven't been home long enough to do a makeover or do ANYTHING with my house for that matter. My house is in desperate need of some rearranging and Fall decorating. Because Fall is my most favorite season!

We will be getting new carpet in the next week which I am excited about..I know that will inspire me to change things up a bit around here! And you can be sure that there will be pictures to follow! But it will be after the wedding in September. We will also be putting the little boys together in the same bedroom and making a MUCH needed office! Our poor bedroom is the "catch all" for anything anyone doesn't know what to do with! We are being over run with mail and papers and magazines...we HAVE to do something about it. What we need is a bigger house but we will make the best out of what we have!

So I am sorry that this post has nothing to do with anything primitive. But I will be back I promise! I hope that you will stick with me....and again, for those of you that contacted me...thank you! I promise Prim goodness in the months to come!! So stay tuned!

And please don't forget to stop by A Primitive Place! It is growing by leaps and bounds! It's a wonderful place for Prim eye candy.... inspiration and ideas! Come visit...you will be glad you did!

Take care everyone...until next time (which I promise won't be so long)!

~Sarah~

~A Trip Down Memory Lane~

Hello everyone! It has been a while since I have blogged! I have been SO busy these past few weeks! No time for thrifting/garage sale-ing and no time for makeovers. Sad face~~~ :( I have been planning a 20th class reunion of sorts... No one put anything formal together so when we all caught up with each other on Facebook.... I created a page for our class and the rest is history! Turns out SO many of us wanted to get together...so we are doing just that! In our hometown...down by the lake! I can't wait to see some of my best friends from "back in the day"!

I thought this post would be a trip down memory lane for me. I graduated in 1989! I LOVED high school....totally carefree days. Days of staying up late~~sleeping until noon (or sometimes later). Getting up just in time to put on a swimsuit and head to the lake....float on a raft all day until I had to head to my job at HyVee.

Those were the days when my best friend Anne and I used to get "all pretty" just to go "scooping the loop"! Of course we had to have our hair and makeup done...just in case we would come across that certain group of totally cute guys! Notice I used the word TOTALLY. :) C'mon girls..you ALL know you used Aqua Net...admit it! This hairspray had the staying power of super glue. And with all that back combing.....it took me days to brush it out!

So many great memories...and I am so excited to re-live them all over again with friends I haven't seen in 20 years! 20 years...I still can't believe it! People tell you that time flies and you can't possibly think that they know what they are talking about.. but I now have a daughter that is a freshman in high school... Yikes! Time does fly..right out the window!

Junior Prom~

Senior Prom~

The faces and names of my dates have been cropped out to protect the innocent! :) Haha! Oh those were the days... big hair, big poofy dresses...the bigger the better! So I am off to go "back in time". But I will be back to reality next week! And hopefully back to makeovers...I have SO many things that need re-doing! It's probably a good thing I haven't had time to buy more...hmmm?!

I can't end this post without mentioning the passing of Michael Jackson. I am truly saddened by his death. He was a HUGE part of my past. He was my idol...he was my "wallpaper" in my bedroom when I was in Jr. High and High school. I have been contacted by family and "old" friends who knew how much he meant to me.

He was in my opinion a musical genius. He was an amazing dancer. There will never be another entertainer that is so gifted. His life was full of struggle and pain and confusion.... but now there is no more suffering for him, no more ridicule and no more pain. This is how I will always remember Michael Jackson....May he rest in peace.

I am heading to my hometown tomorrow and Friday... I am making the trip by myself....so you can be sure I will be jammin to Michael on the way there! My own little karaoke tribute to "The King Of Pop"! :)

But I will be back with my own little family for the 4th to take part in our town's festivities! Fireworks everywhere you look! The skies are beautiful! Grilling out and just spending time together! I LOVE the 4th!

I wish all of you a very safe and fun 4th of July holiday. Let's keep in our hearts and minds all of the brave men and women who are fighting for our freedoms everyday. Until next time. Take care. ~Sarah~

Had Time For A Makeover

Hello everyone! I am sitting here listening to it thunder and rain! I LOVE IT! It's just a nice rain with a little lightning mixed in. We are all home and cozy inside. So let Mother Nature do her "thing"! Everything will be even more green and beautiful tomorrow.....

I thought I would share a makeover that I had time to do over the weekend. I showed this little seated bench in a previous post. I got it at Goodwill for $9.99. I went and bought some new fabric for it....which cost me all of about $2.00. I just LOVE making something out of practically nothing!

Here is the before picture~

Here is the After picture~

Here is a close up of the new fabric. I just love it...It looks old, tea stained and "vintage". It has tiny dotted black and sage green swirls on it~

And here is where I set it...in our master bedroom~

I would like to find a little garden themed pillow to sit on it. I just haven't found the perfect one yet. And the back isn't very tall so I don't want one that is so big it covers the back of the chair up. I will keep looking. Or if any of you have any other ideas...I welcome them!

I also wanted to share this wonderful primitive shaker candle ledge and peg rack that I purchased from Palmer Falls Primitive If you haven't ever visited their website make sure you check them out. They have so many amazing prim items~Each piece is made to order. I definitely have my eye on some other things.

Here are my Summer blocks that I purchased from Kindra. I asked her if she would make me a spare block to use when I didn't have my Americana decor out. So she did and I couldn't be happier!

Here they are Americana style~

And here they are with the Penny Flower block~

And surprise surprise...I changed the shelf above my deck doors again... Kindra's blocks inspired me to put a little Americana in my kitchen~

Here is one area above my kitchen cabinets~

And here is my kitchen table. I was going to tuck a flag in here too but I didn't want to get too "flag happy". :)

Well that is about it for tonight. I am hoping to get some more makeovers done this week. I have the ambition....... there just isn't enough hours in the day to get everything done that I want to. I hope you all have a great week. Until next time. Take care. ~Sarah~

Never A Dull Moment & A Thrifting I Will Go

Hello everyone! I have missed you! The title of my post says it all....Never a dull moment at our house! Our four year old Alex broke his arm. Let's just say...Alex + Exercise Ball = Broken Arm. Him and his big brother were both trying to jump onto the ball....or maybe one of them was already on the ball...the details are still sketchy....anyway.. they both went flying off..and Alex tried to brace his fall with a stiff arm. He ended up with a fracture near the elbow. He is a trooper and quite the tough little guy. The doctor ordered a full arm cast....and it isn't slowing him down one bit. I stopped saying "Alex slow down" because it just wasn't doing any good!

He will have the cast off before the 4th of July so that is good news...but that sure sounds like a long ways off. Especially when we have to keep telling him..."don't get it wet"...and then we are wrapping it in a garbage bag for every bath. Woe is me...boys....will be boys!!

I have had no time to blog..and boy do I miss it! I miss all of my blog friends and I miss reading all of the sweet comments that you leave me! I was looking at my pictures...and trying to decide~what have I shared and what have I not. And then I thought it's been so long...I think I have been thrifting a few times since my last post... So I will be sharing some of my new found old treasures.....and also some wonderful family treasures that I got from my parents when I went back to my hometown to visit! Keep in mind I haven't posted in a while...so I have quite a few goodies to share~

Let's start with a couple of weekends ago. My Mom and I got away together for a bit....to sneak downtown to a couple of antique shops. I saw lots of goodies I liked....but I picked a few favorite things. We had a great time!

Then when we got back home....my Mom and I went hunting down some family treasures around the house! I am SO excited to have these items! The Chinese Checkerboard was my Grandmas....we used to play it whenever we went to her house! I am so glad to have it...it brings back wonderful memories. The berry baskets are also family treasures...they are very used and I love that!! The table was one that my Mom had started refinishing years ago..and just never got it completed...so now I get to finish it up! I can't wait! And the spools...well... I just love them all! Thanks Mom and Dad...I will find special places for everything!

Here are my thrifty finds from last weekend! My sweet husband drove me around to different thrift stores and we found a new antique store too! Yay! I am on the hunt for more end tables to re-do for the basement..haven't found any yet. I think garage sales may be my best bet for those. But in looking for end tables I did find these goodies!

This little old chair! I love it....It was way up high on a shelf and I asked the guy how much it was....he pulled it down and he said "It's $10"....and I looked the chair over for literally two seconds and he said "will you take it for $7"? And I said heck ya...In my head I was saying I would have taken it for $10!! Haha! For right now I haven't painted it...and I can't decide if I should or not... Isn't it cute?

Here are the rest of my finds for that day! Don't you worry...that clock will be getting a makeover....It was only $2.98....the unfinished spoon rack in the back was $1.98. The long peg shelf was also a whopping $2.98....I think I spent a total of $25 this day..including the little old chair!

I am just itching to do these makeovers...because I have plans for everything in these pictures!! There are just not enough hours in the day right now! I am sure you can all relate! For me doing makeovers is relaxing..so I am hoping to do some this weekend!

Oh yea..here is my last thrifty trip....I sort of got lost on the way to the grocery store one day this week..Oops! :) The bench seat is a funny story...when my Mom and I were at the antique store we saw one JUST like it...refinished for $30! I didn't buy it....well lo and behold I walked into Goodwill and there was the same bench seat for $9.99!! Now I can refinish it and choose my own fabric..! Another little chair for $5.00...the picnic basket is HUGE and in great shape...and a set of three wooden stack boxes... The little wooden gameboard...is going to get a makeover too!

So I guess I should say...stay tuned for makeovers! I better get busy!! I hope you are all doing well! Until next time. Take care. ~Sarah~

We Have a Winner!!

Hello everyone and happy Monday! I am announcing the name of my very first giveaway winner! Thank you to everyone that entered! I used a random number generator and it worked slick as a whistle!



The winner is~~~~~~ CindyLu of Mountain Hollow!! Congratulations Cindy!! I will be sending you an email to get your mailing address so that I can get these goodies sent out to you A.S.A.P!! :)




A big thanks to all of my followers! I appreciate each and every one of your sweet comments! Be watching....I am planning on doing another giveaway for my 100th post! This was fun! :)

Have a wonderful day! Until next time. Take care. ~Sarah~