What happens when two sisters and one husband combine households and build a house together? Well it could be like the Waltons and the sisters who made the "recipe" or my favorite - The Big Love House - (no no no...they're good Catholics!) What you have is a place where girls rule and everyday is: Pink Saturday!!! Lets head upstairs to their bonus/craft/play/nap/ tea room for a visit.Look! We're all set for a cup of tea but it's 100 degrees outside so Let's have ice tea.
Grab a craft suitcase (aren't they organized?) and we could do a little crafting or work on the doll house (they need to join Club Littlehouse!)

Pretend it's Christmas or we could have a doll tea party. I think I'll take a nap...nope this bed is too small (said Goldilocks) so I'll just watch a little tv on that heavenly pink couch (hate me? why didn't I get a better picture) How lucky are the grandkids? Look at this little corner .

Isn't it just the cutest coziest and pinkest little corner??
I guess I should show you a picture of the three of us. Our sons named us "Tres Chics" (pronounced trace chicks not trey sheek!). So here we are
Judichic, Barbichic, and that's me in the background - Nancichic! We decided to go outside and play cowgirls. Actually I'm sneaking back upstairs to take a nap on that pink couch! Thanks for inviting all the pink ladies to your pink room, sisters.
Now let's continue our tour of all the other pink places. And thank you Beverly at How Sweet the Sound - you are the pink hostess with the pink mostest!

A Little Makeover

Changes, changes. I'm doing a little blog makeover...and I'm wondering what you think of this new header and background??? The girls are still having tea with you! They just decided to add a little more color around the tea table.
Have a wonderful, colorful week. :)Nancy

Happy Pink Saturday! A few weeks ago I showed you my little bunny and her cousin felt left out so she wants to be on here too!

She's a working bunny...the sweetest little lamp that I bought about 15 years ago from a ceramic artist - Sherry Smith. I love Sherry's work and this lamp was about $85 and worth every penny. She paints the shades to match and they are always in shades of blue and pink. (That little heart shadowbox is in my store.) Usually nothing is there but I put it here for a picture! Every time I'd go to a Country Peddler show I'd find something else I needed. Like this switchplate.
I also bought this lotion dispenser from her. I love that she makes such beautiful functional things.
So this week I stopped by the Goodwill store and found this huge vase of someones almost finished craft project that I knew I'd find a good use for so I picked it up.... turned around and there on a shelf....across the room was..... This!
And it was marked $6.00!!!! (Notice I talk in italics when I find a deal!!!)(Wow! I sure use a lot of these ! and say I a lot!!!) Anyway I was so excited I could hardly breathe. It was just made for my dressing table! by Sherry Smith!!!
It is really hard to get pictures without uplugging and moving everything - and I wouldn't want to do all that work!!! I just love Goodwill and Sherry Smith and Pink Saturday!
Have a wonderful day!
Beverly is so sweet to host this show and tell for us all so visit her at How Sweet the Sound and check out all the Pinkness on the other blogs.

Remember in my last post I mentioned I had received some fabulous ephemera. I recently was fortunate to be in the Vintage Ephemera Swap hosted by Cupcake D D and was really lucky to have my new friend Rhonda as a partner. I've admired her work on Flickr and her etsy store Rhondamum and was thrilled to be paired up! Just look at this wonderful cigar box turned work of art. Every inch of this was

embellished with old papers, ledgers, trims and ribbons. An "N" for Nancy! And it was full of beautiful old buttons, cards, tickets and receipts from years and years ago.Even the bottom was papered and gilded and given little feet! Where do you girls come up with these treasures I never find anything like this....she whined! Old buttons on cards - what a treat.Rhonda sells these tags in her store. She's a Parisian connoisseur having traveled the world and incorporates this love of all things French into her work. Isn't that old seam binding beautiful?I was just fascinated with these old cancelled checks..... and ledger pages. (I wonder if 70 years from now anyone will find our online check registers equally as interesting!)

This is just the cutest old icebreaker game. I think the little games on the back will work equally as well today and I plan to use them at a party next month! Well copies - I'm hanging on to the original. I love this little box that was filled with even more treasures. I do believe Rhonda's stint as a fashion model shows through in her wonderful sense of style.I just love looking through these old things - thinking of new uses for them. If you have never been in a swap I highly recommend trying one.
It's a wonderful way to make new friends - I never would have expected to connect so closely with people online - through the written word. I guess pen pals have known that for a long, long time! Merci, Rhonda. I loved everything.

Now I need to thank Lisa for giving me this Brillante Weblog award. I've been thinking and thinking and I'm just not sure I can single out seven blogs like the rules state! So I'm going to go ahead and post this and look around lest Lisa thinks I'm ungrateful!

Thank you Lisa for thinking of me - you just made my day.
Here's some rules:

Put the logo on your blog:

1. Add a link to the person who awarded you
2. Nominate at least 4 other blogs
3. Add links to those blogs on yours
4. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs

So I'm passing this on to these four talented women:

1. Shannon at Faith and Chocolate
2. Heidi Dreams Intertwined
3. Rhonda at Rhondamum
4. Cupcake D D

Thank you all for being an inspiration to me. Nancy

I have a lot of "stuff" but vintage paper is NOT among it. My swap partners Rhonda, Heidi, Shannon and Lisa have all sent me wonderful old ledger sheets, music, tickets, bingo cards and much more - if not for them I'd have a hymnal and a dictionary and some old books. So what I'll show you today are things that I feel I've been entrusted with to use only for certain reasons....so here's my story of how these things came to me.

When I first started altering books I thought why not do one for the Mardi Gras fundraiser at church the youth have every year - dinner and a silent and live auction. So I asked the secretary if the church had anything equivilent to a "junk drawer" and of course they did. I was hoping for some old bulletins (which I got) but she said let's go look in the walk in safe because there was lots of old stuff needing to be cleaned out. (Hey! Wake up - I can see you're nodding off - so I'll get to the point!)

Here's my book I made. I tore off the "leather" of a hymnal to make a soft cover I could sew. I got a medal from the 150th anniversary,

and some old communion reminder postcards, pictures of the first church that burned, and the second church that burned! An original constitution in German and an old flag made during WWI with star representing the parishoners who went to war. It practically fell apart in my hands but I saved the stars!
I stitched and sewed and glued and added prayers and poems....
Took it to the auction and prayed someone would place a bid! They put it in the live auction and a bidding war started and it sold for $120.00.
That's a whopping amount for those frugal German Lutherans! Here's a few things I still have to work with for another church fundraiser... This is a book they gave to members during Christmas many years ago. It's just full of

gorgeous pictures and stories - all in German.A postcard from the pastor!Since it was so well received a school board member asked if I'd do a book for a fundraiser for them. So they gathered up some old local ephemera and I got to work. This report card is from the 1920's I think.Look at some of the things required on the home report. Milking! Sewing! Sweeping! What a hoot. Well just read the list. (maybe we should bring back a few) Anyway, I used an old algebra book from one of the Pflugers,and graduation announcements and old envelopes and report cards and picturesand put in a lot about the Panther's football glory days in the 50's and 60's. I think they won 54 games straight - a record at the time - and the coach was even on "To Tell the Truth" t.v. show. I had his expense record CBS sent him $200.00 for hotel, air fare and food in NYC for three days! Again, I sent the book to the auction hoping it would bring at least $100 and again it was put in the live auction and ...guess what it sold for???
$1350.00!!!!!!

and here's my letter to prove it because I couldn't believe it so why would You!

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Now go take your nap! But first go by all the other blogs showing their old papers for Show and Tell Sunday. Thanks Cerri for hosting.