BLACKBIRD BOOKS: NEW ARRIVALS

check it out!

THE 5 YEAR DIARY: OMG THAT'S LIKE A LONG TIME!

5 Year Diary

in blue or black

DETAILS: The five year diary can be started on any day of any year. Just turn to the current date, fill in the year and write a few sentences about your day. When you get to the end of the year move down the page to the next section.  MEASURES: 6 5/8 inches tall x 3 3/4 inches wide x 1 inch thick

$24.95

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BLACKBIRD BOOK CLUB: RUSSIAN CRIMINAL TATTOO

Russian Criminal Tattoo Vol. I or III

$32.95

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Dinner In The Library At That Old House

Only . . . Dinner is not in the Library because A) we don't have a Library, and B) I could call our Study a "Library," but there still wouldn't be a table in it.

So what we have is our Dining Room pinch-hitting for a Library. If I were going to set a table for two in a library, it might look like this. . . .


I'm joining in Tablescape Thursday, at Susan's Between Naps On The Porch blog, and also hooking up with Tales from Bloggeritaville, for Leigh's Thrifty Thursday party! Just click on the highlighted words, or on the icons at the bottom of the post, to flit on over to these great, fun blog parties.

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Yesterday I moseyed on down to my daughter Anne's college, where she is in graduate school. She wrapped up her day at 5pm, and we headed off to Goodwill; Anne needed to shop for some pieces for a play she is costuming.

On the way we stopped at Dollar Tree. Need I say more?

Here, tucked at the end of our dining room table
(so you can't see the dishes waiting to be put away at the other end -- reality check!)
is a Tablescape for Two.
(Another reality check; that poor ivy plant is half dead. Ivy doesn't thrive indoors.)

We can dine by candlelight, although that

makes it hard to read the books in the library. :-)

What's in it? I popped the pieces into a mosaic.

And they are . . .
**Dollar Tree dishes; they were in the Christmas aisle, but they don't look particularly Christmas-y to me.
**Dollar tree tea light holders; I have seen these on other blogs, and I am such a copy-cat.
**The white porcelain "parakeet" I featured yesterday, a Giveaway win. Here.
**A couple of boxes that look like books.
**Dollar Tree placemats and napkin rings; I love the khaki and red together.
**T.J. Maxx bowls.
**Home Goods napkins.
**Crystal Pilseners -- can't remember where we got them, but they pre-date my dedictated thrifting days, so they may have come from (gasp!) a regular retail store.
**And my trusty century-old Georgian pattern silverplate, from Ebay.

Oh! Almost forgot. That candleholder, the one that looks like mercury glass with
a twisted glass stem? $2 at Goodwill. There were two for sale.

Ask me why I didn't take the second, and I can't give you a good answer.

That's it!

I know I didn't need those red and white plates, but aren't they adorable? -- Cass

P.S. I am taking a week off from blogging; see you October 3rd unless I can squeeze in a quick post now and then. Play nice while I am gone! ;-)

Books

I love books. I love decorating books, cook books, autobiography books, fiction books, non-fiction books, books about organizing, books about homes, books about people, books about books, children's books, you name it. I love to have books displayed throughout my home. To me, it is comforting to be surrounded by books.

I also love to give books as gifts. I try to buy my nieces and nephews a few books every year. A great gift for a little one for their birthday is a cute set of pajamas and a few good bedtime books.

Above is a wooden basket on my desk where I keep books I am currently reading, refer to often, read daily or just want at my desk.

I also love bookends. I am always finding cute and unusual bookends at TJ Maxx and Home Goods. I should be getting paid for always mentioning those stores, huh?! At the top of my blog there's an adorable frog bookend, a lucky find at Home Goods one time. Then just above, I found these cute Mother Goose inspired bookends. They are metal, painted white and distressed.

I also have a cute cast iron Scotty dog door stop I use as a bookend for a few cook books I have out in my kitchen.


This week one of Martha Stewart's Craft of the Day ideas was to make handmade bookplates. I love the idea. I am going to make some up for my books and also make some up that I can put in books that I give as gifts.

If you don't want to make your own bookplates, but you love the idea, you can check out this Etsy shop >The Little Chickadee<>

I really love this one with the fox and crow. So sweet.

Be Inspired! -Karol :0)

500 Bungalows

Need a great Coffee Table Book? Do you like bungalow style homes? Then this is your book.

I was recently in the hospital for 3 days (viral spinal meningitis, terrible). During my stay my husband surprised me with this lovely book. My husband had actually seen the book in one of my Cottage Living magazines that he perused one day (which he normally doesn't do) and had remembered seeing this book and "filed away" the idea for a later gift. He went to the book store and picked up this book for me on his way to the hospital one of the days I was in. I didn't have to share all that to tell you about a great book, but it makes the book even more special to me because I was really, really sick and he was so worried about me. At the time my dr.'s weren't sure if I had the viral or bacterial meningitis. They did a spinal tap and started me on antibiotics and we had to wait several days for the results. Everyone that came in to see me had to wear masks. My kids could not even come up to see me for fear it was the bacterial kind and dangerously contagious. Thankfully, it was the viral kind. But, anyway, he went all the way to the book store, remembering how much I would like this book and got it for me. Of course, even feeling so badly, I was so happy to receive it. I still love to look through it.

I really love the craftsman bungalow style home. They just say "Home Sweet Home" from the front porch and all the way through.

The craftsman bungalow reminds me of the homes I grew up in and around as a child in Indiana and Illinois. There were tons of bungalows in town and farmhouses in the country, but they had the bungalow style.

This book, 500 Bungalows takes you t0 California, Washington, Tennessee, Minnesota, and Nebraska. Featuring the Prairie Style, Spanish Style, Craftsman, Craftsman Eclectic, and finally Bungalow Bazaar. Each page is a front front view of each bungalow and the city and state it is in.


Text and photographs by Douglas Keister, published by The Taunton Press. <--- (That link takes you right to the page for 500 Bungalows and 500 Cottages). Douglas Keister also offers 11 other books on Bungalows, as well as Cottages, Storybook-Style Homes (ooooh!), Spanish-Style Homes, and Cemeteries.

Here's the cover of 500 Cottages. Click on The Taunton Press link above to visit and purchase, if you wish.

This one's on my Christmas wish list!

They're also available at www.Amazon.com.



Be Inspired! -Karol :0)