ShabbyKat Primitive's Blog

Prim Sunflowers in a bath

2012-01-12T21:42:00.011-07:00

When I redid our guest bath, I wasn't too sure 'what' I was going to do, I just knew it was going to be prim!

As I decided on the colors I was going to focus on, browns, greens, mustards, I started to buy things or find things around the house that I'd say "hey, that would go in the guest bath!"

As the room developed I saw 'sunflowers' becoming a part of it, I had some already, and then purchased more 'prim sunflower' items to complete the room.

Here is a 'before' pic...my theme used to be 'apples' for many years!

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

And here are more shots of sunflowers around the bath:

And lastly, I love my green rimmed enamel pot that I use to hold the TP in!

Health, Happiness & More in the New Year!

2012-01-02T19:19:00.005-07:00

I want to wish you all the best 2012 ever! We here are hoping for a healthy year for both of us! We are both committing to losing weight and getting active!

We have a wedding in Florida the beginning of March and another in Vegas the end of March. Those are 'extra' encouragement for me to lose the weight, want to be able to wear some fun, pretty summer outfits at the weddings!

So any of you who have made resolutions for the New Year, here is a ton of encouragement thrown your way!

Maybe the video of our cat Bella will add to your encouragement! She did not give up until she got in this box!!

Selling Blog SALE!

2011-12-28T23:58:00.002-07:00

Head over to my selling blog ShabbyKat Primitive's Sundries 'n Such for 25% off all Christmas items and 10% off all other items!

Sale goes for the next 2 weeks and ends on January 12th.

Recovered old Books

2011-12-19T22:39:00.005-07:00

I recovered some books that we never read anymore.

I LOVE using old keys on my crafts.

A prim friend had sent me some fun graphics that I incorporated in the recovering of the books.

A grubby candle, old key, rusty pin and heart added here. Graphics of Clara Bow....

Tea stained cheesecloth and pieces of old music sheets are always fun to use.

New Items at Selling Blog!

2011-12-10T22:12:00.007-07:00

I have added another Christmas item:

And another type of "Battery Worn Candle":

To my ShabbyKat Primitives Sundries 'N Such blog.

P.S. the Give-A-Way there ends on Dec. 14th!

GIVE-A-WAY winding down!

2011-12-08T06:33:00.002-07:00

We are down to 6 days left to my GIVE-A-WAY at my selling blog, ShabbyKat Primitives Sundries 'N Such

Remember, it's winner's choice at the GIVE-A-WAY.....and it's for 2 prim items!

A GIVE-A-WAY!!

2011-12-07T09:17:00.004-07:00

Be sure to check out and enter my selling blog, ShabbyKat Primitives Sundries 'N Such

Americana sign re-dos!

2011-12-03T17:04:00.019-07:00

I re-did some signs for our "Americana Room". This room is generally used for my crafting. But if we have guests, it's also used as one of our guest bedrooms. It has a futon, a small TV and welcoming Americana decor.

This tin sign I orginally had in my living room. It blended in too much with the white wall and I had a different sign I wanted to hang there, so decided to re-do it in a red, white and blue wash.

BEFORE

AFTER

Even though I love all my 'cat stuff' I had some I was just 'tired' of.

BEFORE

So I made it up into my "Betsy Ross" sign:

AFTER

I also found a neat Besty Ross picture that I framed and hung next to the sign:

The next sign is one I used to have in my kitchen years ago:

BEFORE

With this one, I just painted a simple American flag:

AFTER

I then looked for another Americana picture and found this one to frame and add next to the American flag sign:

This "Welcome" Pineapple sign was not necessarily a 're-do'. I found a piece of square wood in my husband wood-working shop and did this up. I decided to hang it in the Americana room, a nice 'welcome' to any guests who may stay the night here.

I painted the wood a navy blue. It's a bit hard to read in the photos, but it reads on one side "Welcome" and the other side "Friends". I painted a pineapple and a couple gold stars. I rubbed some stain on the entire piece and wiped off a few minutes later.

My last re-do was on the sign below. I absolutely love the quote on it, but the blue that it was I did not have really anywhere in the house anymore.

BEFORE

I decided to paint this all red and add pictures of both George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. I rubbed it with stain and added some old cheesecloth, rusty keys, stars and pins.

AFTER

As long as this post is about re-dos for our Americana room, I'll throw this one in too! I can't believe I did not get a 'before' pic. This was a brown letter holder of my husbands. It had a ceramic disc glued on the front of some goose. Not a prim goose, some really ugly one! LOL!

So I decided to make it into a small plate holder. I tore off that ugly goose disc & painted it red, added a "Union Soldier" label and stained the whole piece.

I added 2 plates I purchased, one reads "Liberty" and the other is our flag with some stars. I also added a set of my prim spoons. These I did in Americana colors and covered in spices. It has a piece of homespun wrapped around them which has stars on it & added rusty pins and bells. I hung it up on one of walls by our window. I draped part of my prim curtains over the plate holder.

So much to be THANKFUL for!

2011-11-26T01:01:00.014-07:00

I hope you all had a wonderful turkey day! Can you believe another Thanksgiving has now come and gone?

Well my husband and I both had ALOT to be Thankful for this Thanksgiving....We are both incredibly thankful for his health.

My husband has been through alot of health issues his whole life. He was born 46 years ago with a

called Tetralogy of Fallot. He endured many, many open heart surgeries his entire life to try to 'fix' his broken heart. His first open heart surgery was at 6 months old. He is very lucky to be a

Almost 2-1/2 years ago on July 12, 2009, Jim was blessed with a new heart. We are so incredibly thankful that he is doing so well after this surgery. We are forever grateful to the donor and their family. Jim is very lucky to say

Recently, about 6 weeks ago Jim had his tonsils removed. Along with them a tumor we were unaware of, a Squamous Cell Carcinoma. Our world nearly fell apart, how can this happen after all he's already been through?

After multiple scans over a couple of weeks, we found out the cancer had not spread yet to other parts of his body, one down, another surgery to go!

Almost 2 weeks ago, Jim underwent a right neck dissection. This surgery was about 3 hours long and all of Jim's lymph nodes on that side of his neck, 43 in all, were removed. Those were biopsied to look for further traces of cancer.

We just found out this week, none of the lymph nodes had cancer! We both are so, so, so very thanksful again!

Jim will go for monthly cancer detection appointments the first year. After that, the appointments will be spread out a bit further from each other.

My husband is now luckily

Jim is a very laid back, nonchallant type of guy. If he were to scream and yell his happiness at getting past the cancer scare, I bet he would say

I lost my dad 9 years ago to cancer. My mom beat endometrial cancer 5 years ago after surgery and 7 weeks of radiation. I hate cancer, cancer is a jerk, cancer is a total A-hole.

I know there are alot of you fighting right now and your fight can be going on for quite some time. We are very thankful, again, that this all got resolved in about 6 weeks for Jim. Some can fight for months, even years.

I want to say to those doing the fight to keep

Love, hope, strength, prayers and good thoughts to all of you. Kitty & Jim

P.S. our cats have something to say to cancer too.....

Pineapples, Bee Hives & Grapes!

2011-11-21T22:24:00.008-07:00

These are the mold types I used to make my pantry cakes and sugar cones!

The bee hives I used my 'sugar cone' recipe. Here are the cute molds I got on Ebay, the hearts I'll try for Valentine's Day!

And the finished 'sugar cone' bee hives! I wish the hives pattern turned out better....

For the Grapes and Pineapple I used my pantry cake recipe. My finished product on both had more cracks in them then I liked. So I melted some of my soy wax, dyed it to the colors I wanted and waxed the grapes and pineapple.

First the molds, got these cheap off of Ebay too!

The waxed grapes:

The waxed pineapple. I want to put a hang tag around the neck reading "Welcome"

And all of them!

Breaking Dawn #1 ~ TOMORROW!

2011-11-17T01:14:00.013-07:00

For those of you who are Twilight lovers like me, we all know Breaking Dawn part 1 is in theaters tomorrow!! Come Friday November 18th Bella Swan will become Mrs. Edward Cullen!!

I can't wait to see the movie, not sure when I'll go though, I hate crowded theaters so I may wait a week or so to see it......if I CAN wait!

Well my best friend of 24 years and I started our "Annual Best Friends" vacation last year. We are both TwiHards and took a trip to Forks, Washington where the book series Twilight takes place in.

You can view my blog post about that trip and all the Twilight things we did here:
Twilight Trip 2010

We re-did our trip this September! It was great! Since we did all the "Twilight" things last year, this year we focused more on the other natural beauty around the area of Forks.

DRIVING TO FORKS ~ THE OLYMPIC PENINSULA ~ WASHINGTON STATE

KALALOCH BEACH

The Pacific Ocean

I'm a DORK!!

Me and my BFF Elena!

RUBY BEACH

NEAH BAY ~ THE MOST NW POINT IN THE CONTINENTAL U.S.

We also hit a few cute towns on the Kitsap Peninsula: Brainbridge Island, Poulsbo and Port Gamble, Washington.

We did a stop in one of our favorite Olympic Peninsula towns, Sequim, the lavender capitol of the U.S.

And then made our way over again to Victoria, BC Canada, we simply LOVE IT there!

PS ~ Don't forget to check out my shopping blog which officially opened Nov. 15th! SHABBYKAT PRIMITIVES SUNDRIES 'N SUCH

It's Time to Prim Shop!!! YAY!!!

2011-11-15T16:53:00.004-07:00

ShabbyKat Primitives Sundries 'N Such has opened it's doors! (Finally!) I have been planning this for quite sometime and it has fallen to the wayside.

Well I'm happy to say I have opened the shop and am inviting you all to come shopping here!

Hurry though....look at the line already!!

ShabbyKat Primitives Sundries 'N Such

Love my 'ol screen door!

2011-11-14T04:34:00.008-07:00

This summer we finally got a screen door for our front door. I don't know, maybe it's common, but I thought it was weird that our subdivision, when building the houses, did not include screen or storm doors (???). Growing up in the midwest, all houses around us had one or the other.

It reminds me of an 'ol farmhouse screen door...

Love to be able to open up our wooden door now and let fresh air in, the kitties love it too!

The red sign hanging next to the door is a sign redo I did. I don't even remember now what the old sign was, but here is what I re-did it to!

What the heck, here are more photos of the house this summer.....but can't wait to decorate it for Christmas!!

Where did the year go?

2011-11-10T11:17:00.008-07:00

Geeezzzz...my last blog was February! How sad! Well alot has gone on this year, good and bad. I just can't believe in about 6 weeks, this year will be over!

My year included a trip home to Chicago in the spring to see family and celebrate my MIL's 81st bday.

The summer hubby and me had alot of fun exploring new places in Idaho by going to many of the summer fairs. We also crossed over the border into Oregon and discovered wonderful towns such as Baker's City.

In early Autumn I got to see my best friend again who lives in California. Last year we started our "Annual Best Friends trip". This year we hit a few cute towns on the Kitsap Peninsula of Washington state, returned to the Olympic Peninsula and Victoria, BC Canada. It was 9 days of pure bliss! I'll post pics in a future post.

Then late fall, just several weeks ago, my husband has his tonsils removed due to the right one being extremely swollen. Unfortunately it turned out to be a Squamous Cell Carcinoma tumor. His tonsils were actually fine, but were removed as a precaution. He had a PET scan a week ago and grateful to say, they found the cancer had not spread to any other parts in his body.

He is due to have a neck dissection this Monday, which will remove the lymph nodes on the right side of his neck. They will then be biopsied to check for any traces of cancer in them. If so, Jim will have to have radiation and possibly chemo. We pray they will find none and he can continue on with his life.

He is now almost 2.5 years post heart transplant. This year he finally was able to say "I feel GREAT" and begin doing things he has not done in years or was never able to do! So this happening to him seems just so wrong. He is strong, we are stronger together and WE WILL GET THROUGH THIS!

Ok, back to blogging, I really, really want to keep up on this again! I am working on the pages of my shopping blog and that should be ready to go very soon!

Here are some prim items I've put in the kitchen over this year:

My 3rd rooster from one of my fave Ebay sellers:

I made this candle board out of an old, small cutting board we had. Painted it red, stained, added nails and some grubby candles:

This pitcher and the butter ladle/spoons I purchased at the prim shop out here where I live:

None of these items are new, but I put them together for a prim look. On the hook of our half curtain for our patio doors I hung an old wooden plate and a red ticking fabric towel:

Have a wonderful upcoming weekend!

Another holiday gone by....

2011-02-18T11:54:00.014-07:00

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day this past Monday! We went to the movies to see "Black Swan"...wow, what a movie, Natalie Portman definetly deserves Best Actress!

I thought I would share my Valentine's decorations for this year and also what I made and received for a V-day prim swap I was in!

First, here is what I made for the V-day swap:

I repurposed a pillar candle by covering it with spices and then rolling it in bits of cloves. I added some old cheesecloth and rusty wire wrapped around the candle. A rusty heart was attached to the rusty wire and then a round hang tag. I then tied some red and white homespun around the wick as this candle is for display only.

The other hang tag is a bit hard to see, but it's a little girl and boy smooching, the tag has been sprinkled with red candy sprinkles.

Here is a cute star pan with fixens I made. I scuffed up the pan and added my bag of cinnamon/applesauce heart ornies with dried fixens of orange and apple slices, cinnamon stix, cloves, allspice, cranberries and cherries. I tied the bag to the pan with old cheesecloth and a small piece of cinnamon stix.

I will be selling these on my Selling Blog ShabbyKat Primitives Sundries 'n Such which is to open soon!

Next is this fun tealight jar I made! I recycled an old jar and painted it red. I sprinkled it with red candy sprinkles and made an old label for the front of the jar. I also put some pieces of old music sheet around the jar. I painted and sprinkled up the lid and put an old, rusty heart on the top.

Along with the jar you see one of my hang tags, a little girl and her doggie, and a plug outlet cover-up I redid by painting it red, sprinkling it with mica, wrapping a rusty wire around it, added a rusty star and a round hang tag. I included a tea light inside the jar:

Here are the WONDERFUL prims I received from the swap!!

Look at all these awesome prims!!

Yummy cinnamon fixens and this cute V-day block!

Love, love, love this kitty and heart and the stitchery!!

These 'hugs 'n kisses' are so cute and prim and even smell like chocolate!

A cute V-day card and REAL Hershey's hugs!! YUMMY!!! I'm embarrassed to say I ate this whole bag in one day!!

And finally, my home decorated for V-day....I always love looking at other prim lover's homes for the holidays, just great decorating ideas you can get! I hope I can inspire some for next Valentine's Day decorating!

KITCHEN

Here is my stove top:

Old strainer filled with faux V-day cupcakes and heart cookies. There is a cute V-day tag attached to one of the cupcakes with pink cheesecloth:

Cute red bucket filled with fabric hearts and small dried roses sprinkled with gold. The hang tag I had made with a vintage V-day graphic and filled in the hearts with red glitter and put some mica flakes on the tag:

This is on one of my kitchen counters:

An old bowl filled with more faux cookies, some "X's 'n O's", glittery red lips and some old love letters and roses I made:

I added a shiny red star to Mr. Rooster:

Another of my hang tags I added to my lighted wine bottle. Vintage couple graphic, strips of sheer red fabric sprinkled with silver glitter, torn piece from a music sheet and lots of mica!

FAMILY ROOM

This is on our TV stand, one of my favorite prim V-day items I had purchased from a talented seller on E-bay.

A distressed red box with a old photo of a group of girls. A garland of hearts strung from the box, with a hang tag glittered in gold. Another tiny hang tag with a heart and 1 primmed up heart is in the box:

I added some of my prim roses to the box:

This prim plate is on the opposite side of our TV stand.

An old bobbin (sorry can't actually see it!) with a hang tag I made:

FIREPLACE MANTEL

"Love Potion" bottles with simple red and white shiny pipe cleaners I shaped into hearts:

And then 'of course' some more of my hand made V-day hang tags!

Don't 'cha love Prim Shopping!?

2011-01-30T16:31:00.014-07:00

I wanted to share some of my Primitive purchases I've made over the last several months.

These first items I purchased from Judy at Fannie Mae's Old Barn and Primtastic's Blog.

PRIMITIVE BLACK LADLE RE-DO WITH SPICED SALT DOUGH PINEAPPLE ORNAMENTS

GORGEOUS PRIMITIVE STYLE TOWEL

These next items I purchased from my favorite Idaho primitive store called Heritage Reflections

CINNAMON DOUGH CROW ORNIES

BLOCK KITCHEN CALENDAR

STAR PIPBERRY WREATH AND HOLDER

LOLLIPOP BOX WITH RAG BALLS, NUTMEG LIGHTS AND PRIM TOWEL

SHEEP PLATE AND HOLDER WITH GRUBBY CANDLE AND CANDLE WREATH

LARGE TRENCH WITH FIXENS AND LOG CABIN MAPLE SCENTED ORNIES
that is a partial old bed 'n breakfast door I had my hubby put over our tub....it just collects too much dust! I still need to paint it. :)

BIG 'OL PRIM CROW

TRENCH WITH FIXENS

Prim Craft'in

2011-01-27T22:22:00.003-07:00

I have been soooooooooooo blog lazy!! I don't know why, I really hope to get better. I had not been crafting in awhile either, but I started up again and now I'm on a roll and enjoying it!

Here are a few things I've done:

PRIM WREATH

BEFORE
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ADDED HOMESPUN AND PIPBERRIES

PRIM STAR AND KEYS

CROW AND PIPBERRY WREATH HANGER

THE FINISHED PRODUCT!

PRIM DRIED ORANGE SLICES

I soooooo love these and they were so easy to make! Slice up your oranges and put on a baking sheet then sprinkle with spices. I used cinnamon, clove, allspice...be creative! I baked them at 200 degrees for several hours.
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I added whole allspice, cloves and nutmeg to the mix!

I found this jar on clearance at the World Market store:

I replaced the regular lid with a silver one I had which has holes in it so all the yummy scent spills out!

REINDEER FOOD JAR

I wanted to share this even though Christmas is behind us and we are all wishing for Spring to hurry up!

Dear Jenn "busybee" from The Olde River Road Forum (see right sidebar for icon) sent me a Christmas card with a wonderfully prim "Reindeer Food" label!

I adhered it to a recycled jar and attached jute, rusty bells and safety pins to the neck of the jar. I super grubbied up the lid with spices.

I filled the jar with oatmeal (NOT cooked! LOL!) and a bunch of different glitter and sparkles....red, green, iridescent white, blue and pink!

Vintage New Years......

2010-12-31T13:44:00.003-07:00

Wow, 2011 will be in several hours! 2010 seems to have blown by!

Wishing you all a safe, happy and prosperous New Year!!

I found some fun vintage New Year's pics I thought I'd share with you! Enjoy!

YEAR: 1899

YEAR: 1922

YEAR: 1923

YEAR: 1927

YEAR: 1929

YEAR: 1938

YEAR: 1939

YEAR: 1940

Oh, bring us a figgy pudding!!

2010-12-26T22:15:00.012-07:00

Figgy pudding is also known as Christmas pudding or plum pudding. It's a traditional English dessert that's actually more cake-ish than pudding-ish.

And I made my very first one today!! Yep, a day late for Christmas...but I was determined to make it this year! On Christmas day we ate so much other stuff, I could not bring myself to make it!

The pudding, a steamed cakelike treat that's usually a chockablock with dried fruits such as figs, raisins, plums, apple, lemon and orange peel together with butter, sugar, eggs, milk, rum, nuts, cinnamon, cloves and ginger! Sometimes the pudding contains suet, a raw beef or mutton fat. The pudding can also be saturated with brandy, dark beer, or other alcohols.

If you'd like to flame the pudding, warm 1/3 cup of brandy, cognac or rum in a saucepan over medium heat. Pour the warm liquid over the top of the pudding, and then, taking every precaution that Smokey Bear would, set a match to the alcohol. When the flames die out, cut the pudding into generous pieces.

Now....the recipe I made I did not flame and it did not contain any figs, plums, fruit peel, suet or alcohol....sounds boring huh? Oh but it was sooooo good! Now since this was the very first time I've made AND tasted Christmas Pudding I had nothing to compare it to, but I thought it was delish!

I got my recipe from AllRecipes.com and the author of the recipe states "This is just like traditional Christmas pudding, but with less fat. You can also line the mold with pecan halves or cranberries before filling."......That's what I think I'll try next time...the cranberries!

Prep Time: 30 Minutes
Cook Time: 2 Hours 50 Minutes
Servings: 12

Ingredients:
4 carrots, peeled and grated
2 apples - peeled, cored, and grated (I used Granny Smith apples)
1 cup raisins
1 cup fine bread crumbs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (Since I'm trying to avoid refined white flour, I used wheat flour, I would have used almond flour, but was out of it!)
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt (I used sea salt)
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground allspice
2/3 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar (I used Sucanat since I'm trying to stay clear of refined white sugar)
4 eggs

Directions:
1. Combine the carrots, apples, raisins, and bread crumbs in a bowl. Sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, and allspice in a separate small bowl. Cream together the butter, sugar, and eggs in a separate large bowl; stir in the flour mixture. Add the carrot mixture and mix well. Transfer mixture to a lightly-greased, 2-quart mold.

2. Place a steamer rack in the bottom of a large, deep pot. Set the filled mold on top of the steamer rack. Pour enough water into the bottom of the pot to cover the bottom 2/3 of the mold. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to low; cover. Simmer for 2 hours 45 minutes, adding water occasionally to maintain the water level. Remove from water and allow to cool 10 minutes before turning out of mold onto a plate.

I then topped with a Plum Pudding sauce which was very yummy!

Prep Time: 5 Minutes
Cook Time: 20 Minutes
Servings: 4

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons margarine (I used butter, I try to stay away from margarine)
3/4 cup white sugar (I used Sucanat instead)
1 egg
2 cups milk (I used fat free milk)
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour (Used wheat flour, 1st choice would have been almond flour, but I am out of it)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
1. In a small saucepan over medium heat combine margarine, sugar and the egg. Pour in milk and cook until mixture begins to bubble; be careful not to scald. Stir in flour and vanilla; mix well and serve.

Here is the pudding in the pot steaming:

It's done!

After 10 minutes, it came out of the mold:

The first slice!

Topped with the Plum Pudding Sauce:

References:
Apple & Carrot Christmas Pudding

Plum Pudding Sauce

NPR

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Have yourself a Merry little Christmas!

2010-12-23T12:13:00.010-07:00

Can't believe Christmas is in 2 days! Wow!! I feel like I just put up my Prim Christmas decorations! Well, they will stay up still probably January 8th, and I'll take them down that weeked and I guess pull out my prim Valentine's decos!

Here are some shots of my decorations in the house. I have taken alot of pictures so to see them all you can go to my Webshots album....otherwise this post would be a mile long! LOL! My webshots album link is after the last pic on this post!

Have a wonderful Christmas!!

To see all my home's Christmas decorations, go to:
KITTY'S WEBSHOTS

Christmas Swaps

2010-12-12T00:04:00.005-07:00

I've been so busy with getting ready for Christmas, alot of shopping and decorating...and cooking and baking! I've been really enjoying it!

I got some wonderful gifts from the Christmas Swaps I participated in! Check out the goodies I received!

Pack the Thanksgiving Prims Away.....

2010-11-26T20:13:00.008-07:00

Well, today we are having Thanksgiving leftovers, by the time Monday comes, I'll probably of gained 10 lbs!

Well this weekend I will pull out the Christmas prims....how exciting!! So I thought I'd give you a glimpse or what I will be packing away ~ my Prim Thanksgiving decos.....

Primitive Autumn Crafts & Decorations

2010-11-20T06:06:00.016-07:00

I thought I'd better post some of the Autumn Crafts I made before winter is upon us!!

I made these for a Autumn swap at one of the Prim Forums I'm a member of.

PRIM HANGTAGS***:

ALMOND SPICE SOAP***:

GRUBBY PUMPKIN ON OLD BED SPRING:

GRUBBIED SPICED TAPERS***:

GRUNGED GOURDS AND PUMPKIN:

PRIMITIVE SPICED SPOONS***:

OLDE MASON JAR LID WITH SPICED TEALIGHT***:

***To Be Sold @ My Selling Blog: SHABBYKAT PRIMITIVE'S SUNDRIES 'N SUCH

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The following pics are the decorations, some prim, some not that I had up for Halloween!

KITCHEN:

DOWNSTAIRS HALL:

OUR FAMILY ROOM:

And The Winner Is......

2010-11-08T19:14:00.003-07:00

Leslie from ~ Crafty Mom~.....where my ideas and creations are made from my ♥heart♥.

Congratulations Leslie on your win! I'll be emailing you shortly!!

Give-A-Way for having 100 followers!

2010-10-24T01:37:00.008-06:00

As I stated in my post prior to this one, when I saw I had 100 followers, it was time for another Give-A-Way!

RULES FOR GIVE-A-WAY:

- You must be a follower of ShabbyKat Primitive's Blog. New followers are welcome!

- Please leave a comment on THIS POST and that way I'll know you would like to be entered in the Give-A-Way.

- If you do not have a blog, please be sure to leave me your email address so I can contact you if you win! :)

- It is not mandatory for you to put this Give-A-Way on your blog, but if you do, please LET ME KNOW because I will then enter your name twice into the entries.

- I will collect comments on THIS post until Sunday, November 7th 2010.

- The name will be drawn and winner announced/contacted on Monday, November 8th 2010

Here is the item you can win in the Give A Way!!

It is a ShabbyKat's Primitive's lighted prim bottle!

BACK OF LIT BOTTLE

PRIM HANG TAG, RUSTY KEY & BELL

OLD MUSIC SHEET

GRUBBY CHEESECLOTH, RUSTY PINS AND MOSS

UNLIT FRONT OF BOTTLE

UNLIT BACK OF BOTTLE

As a small token of appreciation, I would also like to give a small gift to MICHELLE of GRANNIES PANTRY BLOG, who was my 100th follower!!

Michelle, if you could email me at catzluvr AT yahoo DOT com with your mailing address, I will ship off your goodies!

SMALL SET OF GRUBBY PRIM SPOONS

SPICED ALMOND SOAP

100 Followers!!

2010-10-17T15:19:00.006-06:00

I admit I have not been faithfully blogging in the last several months and my Prim Blog Shop I keep postponing the opening, but I just realized I have 100 followers now at ShabbyKat Primitive's Blog!! YAY!!
Well I think that calls for a Give-A-Way....don't you??

Now to go ponder about what that will be! Promise to blog that within a couple of days so stay tuned!!

My Twilight (Forks, WA.) & Victoria BC, Canada Trip!

2010-09-16T12:22:00.042-06:00

Wow, after starting to plan this trip in February, I can't believe it's over now!

My besfriend Elena and I (we've been friends for 23 years!) had not seen each other in 7 years!!! I know, crazy, but Elena lives in Califoria, last time I saw her was February of 2003 when I was living in Phoenix, AZ. Between alot of my dear hubby's health problems, moving to Idaho, Jim being put on the transplant list, moving to Utah for his transplant for 2 years, Jim recovering from the transplant and us returning to our home in Idaho this past March....it's been crazy and the years have flown by.

Elena & I in 1987 (I'm standing):

Elena and I on Sept. 21, 2010 having lunch at a restaurant on the wharf in Victoria BC, Canada (I'm on the right):

Thankfully we have one of those friendships where you CAN go for years without seeing each other, and when you finally do, it's like you have not skipped a beat! We mostly stay in contact via email...I so am not a phone person and neither is Elena...but we did speak twice on the phone since February of this year! LOL!

So we started our trip by meeting in Seattle, Washington on Sept. 17th. Got our rental car and did the 3-4 hour drive through the Olympic Peninsula to the tiny town of Forks, Washington, where our favorite books, the "Twilight Sagas" take place. We are both such "TwiHards", I am Team Edward and Elena is Team Jacob. I even got us each necklaces, mine reads "Edward Prefers Cougars" and Elena's reads "Jacob Prefers Cougars"! LOL!!

During the drive up to Forks, we stopped in Sequim, Washington, what an adorable little town!! We wish we could have spent more time there! We did get to go to the Purple Haze Lavendar store. We would have loved to go to their lavendar farm, but the last weekend the farm is open to visitors was Labor Day weekend. We hit a few other cute stores and then continued on our journey.

Click the picture below to go to the Purple Haze Lavendar website!

Our next stop was in Port Angeles, Washington. For those of you who have read the Twilight Saga books, you know Bella and Edward's first date was at the 'Bella Italia restaurant' and Bella ordered Mushroom Ravioli. So yea, you guessed it, that's where we stopped for a late lunch! We had a 4pm reservation so before that we checked out the: "Dazzled By Twilight" store, stopped into "Port Book and News" where Bella purchased the book about "The Cold Ones", check out the "Lincoln Theatre" (where Bella and Jessica went to the movies in "New Moon" and also Bella, Jacob & Mike Newton went to see "Face Punch"). After our bellies were full we continued for about 1.5 hours to Forks.

Our room at the Pacific Inn Motel was WONDERFUL!! The motel has several "Twilight" themed rooms and ours was BOTH a Jacob and Edward theme...just what we ordered!! It had beautiful black and red decor throughout the room, Twilight towels, Twilight nightlights, lightswitch covers and Twilight character/Twilight Saga movie framed posters. Edward was right above my bed! (sigh....)

We hit The Twilight Lounge for a couple drinks and laughed at people doing karaoke (and it got funnier the more drinks we had!) We then went back to our Twilight themed room to watch the first movie of the Saga "Twilight".

While in Forks we did alot of shopping, went on 2 "Twilight" tours and saw: Charlie and Bella Swan's house, The Cullens house, Forks High School (what's left of it, they recently demolished it, but the school facing is still standing along with the school sign), The hospital where Dr. Cullen works, the Police Station where Charlie works, and amazing Riatlo Beach.

Our Saturday evening tour we went to La Push Beach (this is now the wolf's territory!...unfortunately we didn't see Jacob!!) but we did see his 'house' which is a vacation rental and I swear, looks JUST like the house in the movie, even backing up to the gorgeous woods! That evening in our room and we watched the 2nd installment of the Twilight Saga, "New Moon".

Our last day in Forks we went to explore all by our little selves! We went to see the magical Hoh RainForest and it's spectacular! We only did one trail, The Hall of Mosses, but wow! What beauty!

After the rain forest we did another return to 1st beach in La Push, and stopped at a different point, which was near the harbor for the Quileute Indian tribe. Boy was it cold and windy at that point of the beach! But no matter if it was rainy, foggy, overcast or sunny in Forks/La Push, it is absolutley stunning!!

Monday morning the 20th we checked out of Forks and drove to Port Angeles to board the Coho passenger/car Ferry over to Victoria, BC, Canada. Neither of us have ever been to Canada, and the pictures and all we've read about Victoria was absolutely wonderful!! I've never been out of the country so had to get my Passport! How exciting is that?

We stayed 3 nights at a wonderful boutique hotel called the Magnolia. Our room was fabulous and so was everyone working there! We had plush robes and slippers on our beds upon entering and every night had a turn down service with yummy chocolates!! Our hotel was within walking distance of most everything in Victoria!

We again did alot of shopping, had wonderful food, tried Canadian lagers and 100% fell in love with Victoria. It is so beautiful, clean, historic and filled with wonderful people!

While there we visited the Craigdarroch castle which is super cool.

The Parliament which is gorgeous lit up at night:

And beautiful inside:

One day we took the 'Scenic Marine Drive' up to the beautiful Buchart Gardens! What awesome beaches they have, so many places to stop and do photo shoots!

About 5 minutes before the Butchart Gardens is the Butterfly Gardens. Both gardens were so breathtaking!

The last afternoon in Victoria we had High Tea in the historical neighborhood of James Bay.

Thurs. the 23rd we left Victoria via Ferry and landed once again in Port Angeles. We made it just in time to go to the Lincoln Theatre and see The Twilight Saga's 3rd installment, "Eclipse". That was Elena's 3rd time seeing it and my 2nd....I can't wait to see it again! LOL! We went back to Bella Italia for a late dinner, it was soooooo good the first time, we HAD to go back again!!

We then had to drive about 2.5 hours back to Seattle. We finally arrived, exhausted and got a goods night sleep.

On our one day in Seattle we went to Pike Place Market, we didn't get through the entire place, it's huge and was super crowed. We then went over to Pioneer Park to do Bill Speidel's Underground Tour. This was really neat to discover how Seattle was 'orignally' built before the now Seattle was actually built onto of the old city.

Our last thing was hitting the CheeseCake Factory then headed off to the airport. We had such a marvelous vacation, it was soooooo great to see Elena everyday for 8 days in a row and do and see such wonderful things!! We loved Forks and Victoria BC so much, we are already planning a return trip next year! This time with the hubbys....figure they could do a day of fishing while we do our 'Twilight" things in Forks and we know they would love the beauty of that part of the country.

We missed things we wanted to do in Victoria BC, like the BC museum, Hatley Castle and Gardens, seeing the seals on Fisherman's Wharf, doing a boat tour around the harbor......boy, we are already building a list of what we'll make the boys take us to there!! LOL!!

Primitive Dolls

2010-08-16T20:24:00.000-06:00

So I love this cute lil' prairie doll, prim watermelons and mammy I bought!

The Mammy and Watermelons were made from the same seller at Ebay, she sure knows prim!

The watermelon pieces are so great! I love how she grunged them up and the colors!

My plan is to stain the picket fence box they are in so it is not so stark white.

The little prairie doll I purchased from The Ragged Fence. They carry the cutest prim items!

As you can see, the prairie doll has now moved out...LOL...I've moved her to a different spot in the living room. I added some moss to the bottom of the box and made a grubby 'ol shoo-fly for the box.

TWO Give-A-Ways!!

2010-08-03T10:36:00.008-06:00

Be sure to head over to the new Blog for Crow's Creek Primitives Primitive Gathering Forum! Deb has posted not one, but TWO Give-A-Ways!!

Primitive wins, gifts and swaps!

2010-08-01T23:22:00.013-06:00

I wanted to share the prim goodies I have received!! They are all sooooooo wonderful!!!

First I had won these gifts for winning BINGO at the Crow's Creek Primitives Primitive Gathering Forum. Look how pretty everything was wrapped!

Next are some FABULOUS prims from my friend Kristy, the owner of The Olde River Road Primitive Forum. Kristy sent me all of these gifts for making some banners and icons for her forum...I could not believe it, she sent me so much and she so knows my taste!!

This wonderful coverlet covers up a so-not-prim leather chair in our loft!

Look at these adorable hang tags! I hung them on my kitty bookends!

A wonderfully prim stitched pillow!

Love this prim cat, my hubby named him "Blue"

Errrrr....miss Juju is not digg'in Blue....

My favorite, Kristy makes these ditty bags herself. They are soooo primtastic and smell wonderful!!

Here are pics of some swaps I received some great prims from that I haven't posted yet.

Prim Pals Primitive Forum Garden Swap:

Crow's Creek Primitives Primitive Gathering Forum Outdoor Swap:

An adorable "Cat" Garden Flag:

A very prim crow plant stake:

The Olde River Road Primitive Forum Summer Swap:

Wrapped nice and prim!

American Prims

2010-06-29T13:08:00.013-06:00

With the upcoming 4th of July holiday around the corner, I thought it would be a good time to show you some prims I made for a Americana swap and what I received in return!

My swap partner was Donna from the One Simple Country Girl Blog who I just adore! She is sooooooo sweet! Here is what I had done up for her:

AMERICANA DITTY BAG WITH GRUBBY TAPERS

PATRIOTIC WOODEN SPOONS

AMERICAN SMALL PANTRY BOX AND ORNIES

SHE'S MY YANKEE DOODLE JOY CANDLE

Here are the fabulous gifts Donna gave me!

FLAG BOWL FILLERS & HANDMADE AMERICANA KITTY

STANDING AMERICAN HEART FLAG

LIBERTY SIGN

TRUFFLES (YUMMMM!!), CAKE CANDLE, ADORABLE CARD!

Laundry Room Jar Re-Do

2010-05-28T23:35:00.007-06:00

I had this tall glass jar with a cork lid for the longest time. I finally decided what I wanted to do with it. Since I decided to 'prim up' our laundry room, I incorporated the jar into it!

Here is the plain jar and I filled it 1/2 way with detergent. The jar already had some rust markings down the one side, so I liked that look.

I took some homespun fabric in navy blue with white stars and wrapped it around the cork lid.

I wrapped the middle of the jar with grubby cheesecloth and made a hangtag that reads "Washing Soda"

And here is the finished product displayed in my laundry room!

Old Cookie Cutters

2010-05-22T21:59:00.006-06:00

I won 2 bids on Ebay for old cookie cutters. I love the ones with the red handles the most.

I had an old jar that had a wooden 'apple' lid. I got rid of the lid and used the jar for the old cookie cutters!

I put some grubby cheesecloth over the open hole and tied it with some jute.

I grubbed up a round hang tag and wrote 'old cookie cutters' on it.

Historic Idaho City

2010-05-16T20:26:00.014-06:00

Wow! I am so behind on blogging! Just have been so busy with returning to work full time at our work's office...no more working in my Pj's from home! LOL!

I wanted to share some cool pics from our trip yesterday to Idaho City, Idaho. It is about 1.5 hours from Boise. It is like an old, western town with the wooden walkways and historic buildings. Unfortunately due to the recession most of the shops have closed down since this past winter.

It is very dusty and dry in Idaho city, the population is like 468! It was interesting to see and here are some pics of some cool things we saw!

OLD WELCOME TO IDAHO CITY PIC:

This house below is actually a home people live in, not one of the stores...isn't it cute?

OLD ST. JOSEPH'S CHURCH PIC:

OLD BOISE BASIN MERC. PIC:

OLD BOISE COUNTY COURTHOUSE PIC:

These next set of pics are some of the pretty scenery we saw:

Me and my honey...

Some info on Idaho City if you are interested:

Idaho City Historical Info

Experience the Queen of the Gold Camps...

The year was 1862. In the eastern United States, brother fought brother in the bloody battles of the Civil War. But in the Idaho Territory, men had something different on their minds.

Gold had just been discovered in the Boise Basin. Drawn by the lure of instant wealth, prospectors poured into the area by the thousands. Towns sprang up everywhere, like mushrooms. The development of the State of Idaho was underway.
Almost overnight Idaho City became the largest town in the territory. It was a beehive of commercial activity. In its heyday the city boasted more than 250 businesses, including such amenities as opera and theater houses, music stores, tailors, breweries, bowling alleys, barber shops and bakeries, pool halls and drug stores. And, of course, numerous saloons.

It was a bawdy, lusty town where whiskey was cheaper than water. Life was cheap, too. Men went armed at all times and were quick to defend themselves. Winners in disputes often spent time in the stout log jail. Losers were carted off to Pioneer Cemetery.

Despite the atmosphere of lawlessness, Idaho City flourished. Within three years of its founding, the city had surpassed Portland, Oregon, as the most populous in the Northwest. And no wonder: during the gold rush more than $250,000,000.00 worth of the precious yellow metal was taken from the Boise Basin.

From boom to bust...

Within a few years of the strike, the gold had become harder to find and more difficult to mine. With fortunes no longer to be made, the prospectors left in droves.

Fires also ravaged the community. The first, in 1865, wiped out eighty percent of the buildings in town. Others, in 1867,1868, and 1871, were similarly destructive. Luckily, due to the extraordinary wealth of the gold strike, the town was speedily rebuilt each time. Today some of the best examples of early brick work and wooden architecture still exit in Idaho City. Many structures erected in the 1860's remain standing and represent some of Idaho's most important historical buildings.

Doing The Happy Prim Dance!

2010-04-29T12:56:00.014-06:00

Yippee....I've been able to purchase some of the things I've been wanting!!! My poor hubby was probably tired of seeing me pout!! I'm such a brat...that is not good! I certainly need to work on that!

I was able to purchase 2 sets of curtains, some braided rugs and a shower curtain for the guest bathroom I'm re-doing!

FOR THE AMERICANA CRAFT/SEWING ROOM

FOR THE LIVING ROOM

SHOWER CURTAIN FOR GUEST BATH
I decided on a different one then the one I had put in the post below. I was going to redo the guest bath in dark green, beiges and browns, but decided to go with dark green, beige and mustard!

Here are the shower hooks I got:

I also didn't have braided rugs on my wish list in the post below...but realized I needed bath rugs for the Guest Bath redo, so I ordered these which are mustard and beige-ish:

I had 2 of this pattern rug in our kitchen in the Utah apartment and decided to put them in our master bath here at our home which is black, red and green. But since I only had 2, one for in front of the shower and one for in front of a sink....I needed 1 more for in front of the other sink.

So yes, you guessed right....since I am moving the old kitchen rugs to our master bath, I now was in need of kitchen rugs! So I got 3 of the ones below...1 for in front of the sink, 1 for in front of the stove and 1 for in front of the back doors. Our kitchen is in black/red.

When I Wish Upon A Prim Star............

2010-04-13T16:09:00.023-06:00

Ok, so I'm being all down on myself. After moving back home a couple of weeks ago, after being gone from the house for 2 years, there is so much I see that I would like to paint, replace or get. The problem? Hubby is putting the 'kibosh' on me getting anything that I guess he deems 'not needed'. I love my man, but his needs are definetly different than mine!

We got into a stupid disagreement the other night about me wanting to get new curtains for the living room and replacing the curtains in our craft/Americana room because when I recently washed the ones that had been up there for 5 years, one of the panels busted apart. :(

I'm probably just being a brat, but I'm so excited to be home and to decorate 'OUR HOME" again, that that is what I want to do....and do alot of!

I 'eventually' would like to get new living room furniture, but considering it's Johnston Benchworks or similar, that will be very pricey....so I'm sure it will be quite some time before we get that.

So below are all the things I'm 'wishing' for....someday.....

CURTAINS

Here are the ones I would love to get for the replacement of the busted curtains in our craft/Americana room which of course is red, white and blue:

They have a mini red and white check pattern....here is a close-up:

Here are the ones I would love for the living room, I think they would go with about any kind of decor & colors:

A close-up of the calico print on the curtains:

I would love to put some prim curtains up in the laundry room to hide the open storage shelf we have where you see all the detergents, mop bucket, rags...etc. and also to hide the pole that goes across & above the washer/dryer where we store our hangers. If I could, I would get these for this purpose:

I think this valance would look super cute in our office. We have mostly black/browns in our office and we have brown vertical wood blinds that match the lighter color in this valance, it's a "Lover's Knot" patten.

Our family room curtains I would also like to replace one day. Right now we have a creme colored, kinda puffy roman shade kinda curtain. I would so love something with a different design and color, here's what I would love:

I think I would go with a different pattern though, I was thinking this red ticking one:

FURNITURE
Here is the style of Johnston Benchworks furniture I would love one day for our living room. Probably not these patterns, but the styles are "Walkers Ford". Here is the Settle:

And here is the Wing Chair:

BATHROOMS
We currently don't have any soap dishes for our master bath sink. I found this style online and liked the rustic look...I would take off the little flower thingy though....

Our guest bathroom had an 'apple' theme in it for 5 years, prior to that the apples were in bedrooms in 3 different houses...a total of about 12 years all together! So I have officially retired the apples! I am going with a primitive green, brown and beige decor now. I have alot already that I am just taking from other rooms in those colors that I can put in the bath (like a willow tree, candles, prim pics), but I do need a shower curtain, rugs and a couple new towels. I think I kind of like this shower curtain....it has green, brown and beige in it...the exact colors I need!

PAINT
I have a list of things I would love to repaint from the coffee table in our living room, the wooden stereo cabinet & cd holder also in the living room, the coffee and end table in our family room, our kitchen table and chairs, etc.....Here are some of the distressed paint colors I would love to use:

Navy/Black distressed -

Olde Mustard/Black distressed -

Barn Red/Black distressed -

MISC.
Here are a few more items on my "wish list":

Tall Stacking Boxes -

Red and Black Kitchen Light -

Mat For Inside Our Back Door -

Pip Berries...I Love! I would love some for our office, fireplace mantel, laundry room, Americana room, guest bath and the upstairs hall....I think that's it!

BARN STARS
I would love about 3 big red barn stars for the front of our house to go with our red front door. Then I would like some little to medium size ones for inside the house....mostly to cover up country cut-out hearts I have on some of my wooden pieces.

Home Sweet Home

2010-04-10T02:20:00.005-06:00

Isn't our home above majestic? Well...that's actually not our home, but I sure bet it is super cool inside!!

But we are Home Sweet Home after being away from our house in Boise, Idaho for 2 years while we lived in a 1 bedroom apartment with our 4 cats in Utah waiting for my hubby Jim to get a heart transplant. Jim is now 9 months post transplant and doing super, it surely is a miracle!!

I need to start crafting in a few weeks as I'm running low on alot of my tarts and candles! Plus I'll be opening my selling blog
ShabbyKat Primitive's Sundries 'N Such sometime in May, so I have to get some prim products ready!

Well, I have been away from blogging and my favorite prim forums for sometime, I apologize, but I'm finally getting back into the groove of things!

My Favorite Prim Piece

2010-03-22T01:39:00.012-06:00

I love this old wooden crate we use as a coffee table. I purchased it from an antique dealer off of Ebay, it was my birthday present in 2009.

The top you see is actually the bottom of the crate. The top is open, but we use it upside down as the antique dealer displayed it this way at her store on Ebay.

The crate is from an old mill out East. The bottom (which we use as the top of the table) was the part of the crate that would slide through the warehouse with the product it carried inside of the crate. I believe it carried some sort of spindles.

We currently have it in our living room at the apartment we've been renting in Utah. We move back to our home this Saturday and when the table gets there....hmmmm...it will either go in our family room or in our bedroom's sitting area.

Some of the fun primitive things I added to display on the crate table is a "SIMPLIFY" table runner, a scoop with rosehips and a battery lighted votive candle, a old wire bowl filled with potpourri, grubby tapers and a small wooden "Family" sign and a distressed frame with one of my grubbed up candles on it. Here it is with just the candle light:

Here are close ups of each of the primitive items:

Prim Pals Forum

2010-03-18T17:33:00.004-06:00

Another great prim forum has been created and it can be found by clicking on the little graphic I made below. Check them out, it's alot of fun!

Enter the Give A Way!!

2010-03-09T19:22:00.004-07:00

Head over to my selling blog, ShabbyKat Primitive's Sundries 'N Such to enter my Give A Way there! It goes through Tuesday March 16, 2010!

Hey Primmies! Follow Us To The Give A Way!

2010-03-02T12:49:00.006-07:00

My selling blog, ShabbyKat Primitive's Sundries 'N Such is having a "Going Home Give A Way"!!!
(Read about our 'going home' story in the post below!!)

The Give A Way begins today and goes through March 16th!

Some Misc. Prims & Stuff......

2010-02-23T19:34:00.011-07:00

Hi Prim lovers! This is just a post to share a few of my 'miscellaneous' primitives. The first is an Ebay win, an extremely cute, long checker board sign that reads "Olde Star Quilts".

Next is ANOTHER Ebay purchase. A reproduction of an old candle mold. The color is very cool, it's aged tin with a bit of green patina throughout. It came with the 3 grubby candles and the rusty wire, key, stars & 1776 hangtag.

The next two, I guess are not 'prims' but 2 of my 4 lovable kittys. The first 2 pics is of my boy Simba. He is truly my soulmate, always by mommmy's side. I loved the way he looked in the glow of my little prim lamp.

Here is our biggest kitty and our 2nd to youngest, even though she will be turning 10 next month. This is Bella investigating an empty 12 pack Coke box. She likes to attempt to get into things that only her tiny head could possibly ever fit in and not her 18lb. body!

This will be my last post for about a week. I need to get prepared for our trip up to Boise, Idaho this weekend to visit our home we have not been back to in nearly 2 years!! We are going to clean and restock the fridge and stuff in preparation for our March 27th move back home!!

For those of you that don't know, we had to move to Utah in April of 2008 to prepare for my hubby to have a heart transplant (they do not do them in Idaho). At that point he had already been waiting a year on the transplant list. The surgeons felt it best in April 2008 we move closer to the hospital. So off we moved with our 4 cats to Utah to a 1 bedroom apartment!! We then waited, and waited and waited and could not go further than 1 hour from the hospital in case we got the call a matching heart had arrived for Jim.

Jim got weaker and more sick over the next year and in May of 2009 he went into the hospital and this time, did not come out. Over the 2008 year we had plenty of trips to the ER and overnight stays in the hospital due to complications of Jim's failing heart. When admitted in May of 2009 he stayed in intensive care until, by the Grace of God and the generosity of an organ donor and their family, Jim received his life saving transplant. A new healthy heart on July 12th 2009. Jim remained sedated for 2 weeks post transplant, that probably was the worst part, all I wanted was for him to wake up to talk to him. After slowly being weaned off of the sedation, he remained in post surgical intensive care for another week. He then was moved to the regular cardiac floor, but at this point still could not stand or walk by himself, his body was so decompensated from being in a hospital bed since May. He was on this floor another week and then moved to In House Rehab to regain his strength. It's incredible to think back now of him on the In House Rehab floor going from a wheel chair, to a walker to walking by himself. After a little over a week on the In House Rehab floor, he was finally able to come home & that was in August !!

Now nearly 8 months later, Jim is a brand new man! He endured 3x's a week of Cardiac Rehab for 5 months.....he would go to that and it helped also in regaining his strength and muscles. He went from walking a few minutes on the treadmill to doing nearly 2 hours of exercise each session filled with treadmill, weights and the elliptical machine! Since Jim is now back to working nearly fulltime (30 hours a week) remotely from the rented apartment here in Utah, he can't make it to Cardiac Rehab anymore ontime. Jim feels he still has some what to go to get to 100% but it is amazing, truly a miracle to see how far he has come, how healthy he is and I am so very, very, very thankful and grateful to God and the donor, who I call our angel and their very generous family. There are no words that we could ever express to let them know how much this has been appreciated.

If you are interested in knowing more about Jim, the heart condition he was born with and his journey to transplantation, please visit him at Jim's Site.

I'll be back next week to post!

MakeDo Chair

2010-02-16T17:50:00.014-07:00

I've had this old small 'cat chair' for about 10 years. I Finally decided to retire it and make something prim outta him! So here is my version of a MakeDo Chair. Here is Mr. Kitty chair "before":

First I took off his tail, his arms and whiskers, then the homespun bow around his neck and the little red wooden heart.

I then took cardboard off of a flower box I had and used a piece of that to make the back and the top of the chair tall & square:

I measured and cut other pieces of the box to make the complete top and sides of the chair and hot glued all into place:

Next I filled up the holes with hot glue. These holes are where the arms of the chair used to be posted into. I painted the seat a nice prim black.

I took clumps of polyfil and hot glued them all over the back of the chair. This was to make it 'comfy' looking for when I attach the muslin fabric over it.

Now time to sew! If you read my blog, you know in several post I declare not to be a good sewer, but I just do what I can. So I took a piece of muslin and tucked in where it needed to be, then I took a big 'ol needle and sewed it in place. I give you permission to laugh, especially the pic of the back of the chair! But I'll put it against a wall anyways! Tee-hee!

I took the piece of homespun the cat chair had around his neck and tied it around the bottom of the chair, just above the seat. The red wooden heart, I glued near the top of the chair...and it's done!

I eventually want to make a Prairie Doll to sit in the chair. I've had her pattern cut out for months now....just have not made....ya know...it's a sewing project! But when I do, she'll have her own little chair now!

Johnston Benchworks Dream

2010-02-11T19:14:00.005-07:00

Sorry I have not blogged in a couple of weeks...I did not realize it's been that long, and I think I got into a 'lazy' funk.

Well what I'd like to share iS my dream to one day have new living room furniture and that would be Johnston Benchworks. We are moving back to our home in Idaho come the end of March, but I find it highly unlikely I'll be able to convince hubby into investing in this for 2010.....maybe 2011??

I would love to hear from those that have Johnston Benchworks furniture and how you like it. Also if you wouldn't mind...I'm curious on the prices since any sites I can find that sell this brand, do not list prices in honoring Johnston Benchworks wishes.....but from what I can gather....they are rather pricey.

So here are the 3 designs of Johnston Benchworks I'm seeing myself gravitate to:

MILLERS FALL

MILLERS CREEK

WALKERS FORD

A Small, Prim-ish Bath.....

2010-01-31T21:06:00.021-07:00

So we have 1 small bath in the apartment we have been renting for almost the last 2 years. Our home in Idaho that we will be going back to in 2 months has 2.5 baths so a big difference. I barely brought any decorations from the home, because we never dreamed we would have to live out of state for as long as we have. So I ended up 'acquiring' some cute things and making some prims for the apartment bathroom. Maybe these ideas can help others looking for some primitive ideas for their bathrooms!

So here is the bathroom....the shower curtain looks so short because I did not bring one out here and did not want to purchase one, so I used 2 blue curtain panels I was not using at the house and used those. I connected the panels in the middle with green and purple buttons with safety pins. I also tied purple fabric pieces around each loop at the top of the curtain. I did buy the inside shower curtain, but only paid a dollar since I bought it at the Dollar Tree Store!

The part of the toilet seat you see, I did bring with us! I had just ordered it before we moved from "My Adeline's Place". So I wanted to use it and brought it with! :). The purple basket I had just gotten for Easter from my mom after we moved...I think it was filled with bath products. I put a green gingham cloth in it with matching buttons on 2 corners like on the shower curtain. The "Antiques" sign I brought from home, it was in our bedroom there. I purchased off of Ebay (which I found & became addicted to while living here in the apartment!!) the green pip berry wreath and I handmade the prim hang tag hanging from it.

One of the things in the basket, beside toilet paper rolls and kleenex is the Oh-So-Yummy spray I found at "Big Lots". It's Vanilla Cream scent and is absolutely delicious!!

Here are 2 pics of the prim hang tag hanging from the green pip berry wreath (It's actually a different one than shown in the pic above...I decided I didn't like the one in the pic above so made this new one)

On the sink I have this cute little noodleboard. It's very dark green and I had it made to size by Ashley at Ashley's Primitives. On the noodleboard I have the prim toothbrush holder I made, the fabric covered soap dispenser I did up, the cute green mason jar I got off of Ebay and I filled it with our swabs. I burn my homemade tarts in the tartwarmer that yes, got off of Ebay!

On the other side of the sink is my "Sundries" enamel bowl I brought from our home's 1/2 bath. I put purple matching fabric from what I covered the soap dispenser in into the bowl. I filled it with bath products like lotions, body butters and sprays. Behind it is the antique washboard I got this Christmas from my sister-in-law Peg.

On the wall to the left of the sink I have my hanging praire dress I made. It's branch hanger is hanging from a white hook that I had at home in our master bedroom bath. I tied a purple piece of fabric around the hook...the same kind that I have wrapped at the top of the shower curtain. The plug-in tartwarmer was in our laundry room at home, and I brought that to add to the yummy tart smells in this room. The cute "Button 'n Such" sign is one of my first Ebay purchases I made out here at the apartment. If you can see, I have some purple and cream pip berry garland going across the top of the bathroom mirror. I got that at a cute little shop out here in Utah.

In front of the sink and toilet area is this distressed white shelf. This was in our living room at the house. I have books on the bottom shelf, a small enamel bowl that reads "Soap" on the middle shelf. I have filled it with fixens that have little clothespins in it. On the very top shelf I have an old mason jar filled with cotton balls. Next to the jar is a little black plate that has the grubby chocolate spice tapers I made. They are wrapped with jute and a prim pick of a little boy shaving. There is also a purple bar of soap that I adhered an old ad to that speaks about Baths and Lavatories. The bar of soap is also wrapped in jute. Under both of them is some aged cheesecloth. The cute braided rug next to the shelf is from Ashley's Primitives and there is a matching one in front of the sink.

Above the distressed white shelf is a cubby hanging on the wall from Ebay. I have alot of fun goodies in and on this one! The first cubby hole has some pf my prim bars of soap, then some washclothes wrapped in raffia and then the grubby waxed clothespins I make. On top is a cute gameboard & dark green pip berry tree both I got off of good 'ol Ebay. Then the frog lid mason jar with my oatmeal soap balls and prim label I did up. The last is an old bobbin I brought from home and I made a prim hangtag for it. It shows an old time pic of a lady by a tub. I wrote the words "Bath Time" on the tag.

Lotion Jar Re-Do

2010-01-26T21:44:00.012-07:00

I had purchased this 'mason jar' lotion dispenser a few years ago. It never really worked well pumping the lotion out, so then I tried it with anti-bacterial gel and that worked until about 1/2 was left in the jar, then the pump again would not work.

I first broke off the pump dispenser and then removed the homspun wrapped around the neck of the jar and the brown star that read 'Lotion'. I grunged up the jar with mod podge and cinnamon then sealed.

I painted the lid and the star all black:

On the black star I wrote the word 'Suds' and framed the star with little dots:

To cover up the hole, from where the old pump dispenser was, I placed a rusty star I had from my craft supplies:

I found a cute old vintage picture of a laundry truck with a little girl sitting behind the steering wheel. I added that to the front of my "new" jar:

I added some different homespun around the neck of the jar (green) with the painted 'Suds' star and added a rusty bell and a couple rusty safety pins. Then on went the black lid with the rusty star!

When we get back to our home in Idaho this spring, I'm going to put this jar in the laundry room which I plan to prim up more than it was before we left 2 years ago!

We're Head'in Over To The Give-A-Way!

2010-01-22T19:51:00.002-07:00

Yea! ShabbyKat Primitive's Sundries 'N Such has posted the Give-A-Way info! We are going over there now! You should too!

Giddy Up Now!

2010-01-21T18:41:00.003-07:00

And be sure to get on over to ShabbyKat Primitive's Sundries 'N Such Blog tomorrow night, Friday January 22nd! The delayed info on that blog's Give-A-Way should be posted by 8pm MT Friday(which is 7pm PT, 9pm CT and 10pm ET).

We are to get our computer back tomorrow which has all my info on! Thank goodness we did not loose anything!

Aggravation, Delayed Give-A-Way......And then some Prim Eye Candy 4 U

2010-01-19T13:46:00.011-07:00

Sorry I have not posted in several days. Our computer has decided to stop working and of course that is where all my pictures I'm needing to post on my blog are at!

I'm typing this off of my DH's school laptop and it's the worst laptop in the world! Never buy a laptop from PC laptops in Utah! Their products, customer service and everything is beyond bad. So I'm attempting to do this post off of this icky laptop with much aggravation! arghhh......

If you have been reading my posts at my other blog ShabbyKat Primitive's Sundries 'N Such you'll note the Give-A-Way I was planning on doing has been delayed due to our computer being down! But you mine as well sign up as a Follower there if you were planning on participatng in the Give-A-Way, because we always know that is a Give-A-Way rule! As soon as that dang computer is working again, the Give-A-Way info and pics will be posted.

So since I don't have any of my own pics to post, I found some Prim Eye Candy for you to oggle over.....Enjoy!

ps... I hope to post again soon....if we get the computer fixed....this laptop is the pits!

Pictures courtesy of The Rusty Bucket

Making a Small Kitchen Prim

2010-01-13T17:19:00.023-07:00

Since we have been renting for almost the last 2 years, we've had to adjust to a VERY small kitchen. Our kitchen in our Idaho home is so nice and I miss it so!
We will be returning there at the end of March since it is now ok for my post-transplant hubby to return home! Yippeee! But in the meantime, I adjusted to the tiny kitchen and tried over the last 2 years to make it 'prim'. Here are some of the little ideas I incorporated:

BRAIDED RUGS
I love these and purchased them from Ashley's Primitives . She has a variety of braided rugs for great prices! Some dishtowels were added to the stove handle and cinched in the middle with some homespun. These really add to the 'prim' look.

LIBRARY BENCH AND ANNIE
This great bench I also purchased through Ashley's Primitives. I told her what I wanted and she designed it to my specifications. She now fully sells these on her site. The cute Annie doll I got for a clearance price at Back In Thyme Primitives. I think when we get home she may have a different spot to live besides the kitchen, but not sure where.

STOVE TOP PRIMS
I acquired a few prims for my stove which include a noodle board (yes, an Ashley's Primitives purchase!), old strainer and a coffee pot (from Ebay). On the top of the stove is some rolled up dishclothes with a prim tag and rusty bells. Some grubby battery tealights I made are wrapped with aged cheesecloth and connected by a row of rusty safety pins.

I had made some grubby tapers & wrapped in homespun. I waxed a pillar candle and inserted a grubbed battery candle into it. I then wrapped aged cheesecloth, homespun, jute and rusty bells around the pillar.

I also painted and distressed up some wooden spoons and secured those together with cheesecloth. I glued a rusty star to them and added a prim hangtag. Inside the old strainer is some grubby waxed clothespins I made up and 2 of my prim soap bars. One is painted black and sprinkled with spices. Red gingham is wrapped around it and secured with rusty safety pins. The other soap is an almond bar wrapped in cheesecloth, homespun and a bit green moss. The 'believe' candle is also battery operated. It has been covered with spices and the word was painted on. I placed it in a rusty candle plate with some spanish moss placed under the candle. Lastly is my poor-boy shoo fly, hangtag and pantry cakes I made.

Since I have many candles on the stove, here it is lit up by 'candle light'.

The only thing I may change when we get home is retire the painted stove grate covers (seen on the left side of the stove...I brought those out with us when we had to 'temporarily' move to the apartment here in Utah) and get a much bigger noodle board to cover the entire stove top. I then may take the red noodle board and use it on the counter top of our bathroom vanity or paint it and use on the top of my washing machine in our laundry room to display some fun primitive items. hmmmmmm...decisions!

MISC. PRIM COUNTER ITEMS
By adding a small braided rug to the kitchen counter, it instantly said 'primitive'. I primmed up a picture frame of me and my hubby by adding a rusty heart, homespun, button and a hangtag I made with a vintage couple on it. A small tart burner (one of my many!) adds yummy scents throughout the small apartment.

On the other side of our picture frame I have a really cute reddish strainer that I filled with fixens. Under it is a candle wreath with small blocks of words that read "Simplify", "Believe" and "Wishes".

PRIM REAL CANDLES
This is the one 'real' candle I have. I don't have alot because I'm always afraid of a fire. Plus I melt so many tarts that I don't think I need alot of burning candles too. So what I did here was take a mason jar tartwarmer I had and turned it into a 'candle holder' instead. The insert for where the tarts would melt, got all chipped up inside (no idea how!) and the tarts would just not fully melt in it anymore. I received this OH-SO-YUMMY 'chubbie' candle as a 'freebie' from A Primitive Glow when I ordered Christmas gifts from them. Let me tell you it is DELICIOUS smelling! It is their 'Christmas Cookie' scent in case you order from them. I recently ordered more "chubbies" from them and this is where they will be burnt....in my converted mason jar tart warmer a.k.a. 'candle holder'!

I soooooo can't wait to get back to our home in Idaho and finish primming up that kitchen! I had just started getting into primitive decorating when we had to move. So stay tuned for pictures of that this spring!

Primitive Valentine's

2010-01-11T15:01:00.012-07:00

Happy Monday!

Normally I wait until about January 14th to put out my Valentine's decorations, but I jumped ahead of myself and put them out already!

These cute Valentine's Day cupcakes I purchased off of Ebay last year. They are so yuummy looking! The cute Valentine's hang tag came with them. I added the cupcakes to a plate that I already have some everyday prims on.

I filled one of my prim bowls with a bunch of Valentine's goodies. I have a couple more cupcakes, a "Love Potion Bottle" (also an Ebay purchase) that reads 'XO XO - Hugs & Kisses', an actual 'hugs 'n kisses' with an "X" and an "O", 2 big mica dusted lips, a small red fabric heart and 2 heart 'cookies' that read "Cutie Pie" and "True Love". Actually everything in the bowl was purchased off of Ebay last year, including the cheesecloth! (but I grunged that up with my cinnamon and coffee mix). I did make the hang tag though...yipppeee!

Here are a couple more 'cookies' and my handmade hang tags I have scattered about.

In my off-white prim bowl, I put some spanish moss. I put the last of my "X's & O's" and then...drum roll....the roses and love letters I MADE!! whoo-hoo! They were one of my few sewing projects I did last year. If you read my blog, you know I only dabble in stitcheries here and there and other sewing once in awhile, I'm just not that good at it!

This was one of my favorite items I purchased for Valentine's off of Ebay last year. It is a primmed up red box with a fun vintage label, gold sparkly hang tag and a rusty wire with red fabric hearts and bells.

Here is another one of the "Love Potion Bottles". This one I put in a rusty bed spring and placed a 'cookie' alongside it.

All my Valentine's Day primitive decorations are from last year, I didn't get my butt in gear to order or make any this year. Here are 2 more Valentine's hang tags I did up along with hearts I made using sparkly red and silver pipe cleaners.

Last but not least is the old secretary desk. It's the first thing you see when you walk into the apartment. So I added the last "Love Potion Bottle", cookie and 2 letters with our wedding picture.

A Post-Holiday Prim Re-Arrange

2010-01-08T15:13:00.009-07:00

So after taking down all the Christmas decorations a week or so ago, instead of putting back some of my 'everyday prim' things where they were before, I changed things up. So let me share!

This stack of cool prim bowls, I normally kept the white and black ones up above my kitchen cabinets and only used during holidays to put bowl fillers and ornies in. I recently read (and forgive me I don't recall where!) that adding height to certain things in your room with prim items is a great way to add to your primitive decor.
So I now have the black, white and an existing red bowl piled high with my star plate that holds the Sugar Cone I made and grungy tapers on my kitchen table:

My wonderful prim rooster I got for Cmas, I did not want to put in my kitchen with my other prim rooster I have. That is not the look I was going for in my kitchen...roosters, plus there's no room in there for him! ha-ha! Our apartment is so small, i'm running out of places for things, so I propped him up on the box that covers the thermostat. I think he'll do fine here until we move back to our Idaho home in the spring and I'll have alot more places I can choose to put him.

Here it is just in 'candle light'

The little wire basket shown below that is on top of my prim sieve....that's another item I normally just displayed during the holidays with holiday goodies in it. But I like it so much, I decided to keep it out this time. I put a bit of fixens in it and a battery operated grubby small pillar candle I had done up. Around the bottom of the candle some grungy cheesecloth is wrapped. I propped it up on the sieve to give a bit more light to the sieve and "Mercy" the cat that sits in it.

On the old secretary desk we have, I put my new grapevine tree on that I got for Christmas. I kept our wedding pic on the desk and the candle warmer and plate, but switched them up from where they were on the desk before the holidays.

It's funny how bare things look after all the Cmas decorations are taken down. This is the little divider between the kitchen and the living room that I had primitive Christmas decorations on. The only thing different I did here is the 2 black bobbins with the grubby battery votives, those used to be in the kitchen and now they are up on this divider. And, it's hard to see, but I left the 2 rusty springs on the divider that I had propped Cmas decos in as make-dos. I planned on putting something 'everyday prim' into them, but don't have anything at this point. Hmmmm...does that call for more Ebay shopping??

Have a great weekend!

Homespun White Lights

2010-01-05T19:53:00.016-07:00

First of all I LOVE white lights! I keep them out all year round! I have a fake potted tree on our front porch (it looks real though...it's wispy) and I have white lights on that. Going up our staircase inside there are white lights draped in sheer fabric, which when we get back home in April, I will take pics to show you! yea!

So the project I worked on yesterday was wrapping pieces of homespun around the cords of my existing bare white lights.

The photo below shows a homespun white light draped around my kitchen sink wreath. This homespun white lights I purchased about 2 years ago. Just recently the strand blew out and after checking each light, no luck. So I thought I'll just put the fabric on a new strand! Welllll..duh, of course I had NO idea how it was put together and did not like the fact when I found out I had to untie each piece of separate homespun to get off of the blown out strand & then to tie each piece onto a new strand! (honestly, how I thought the homespun was attached...I really have no idea!!) Then my hubby says...mind you when I'm all done..."You could have just replaced each bulb instead of un-tieing each piece of fabric." So then comes my Charlie Brown yell "ARRGGHHHH!!!" But it all worked out because I found out how these are made and then wanted to make my own!

So now here are the 2 I worked on yesterday. First my living room one. Here is a before pic of the plain strand of lights:

Here is all the fabric I had chosen to use all cut up into pieces. I chose a light blue print, a red & white gingham and some muslin. I did not measure them, most are around the same length and width. I just 'eyeballed' when ripping them...I did not want them to be 'perfect':

I'm making progress!

Here it is finished and hung up!

If you notice, I 'dressed' the little angel doll (in the 'plain' lights photo..she's naked!). I had received her as a gift from a prim friend and just decided to make her some clothes while I was playing with fabric! I made her a little hang tag too with her name "Angel" and, I don't believe you can see, but made a little halo with rusty wire and it has a few rusty bells on it.

The 2nd strand I made I hung up in our bedroom. Here are the colors I had chosen for this one: red, a printed dark green and a printed brown fabric:

My fingers were aching by this point...what exercise! ha-ha!

I draped the homespun white lights around an existing pipberry garland above the bedroom window. Here is the before pic...kind of bland:

Here is the 'after' result:

And a close up of the lights and homespun, I think the colors are very 'warm' feeling:

2010 Primitive Oatmeal Soap Balls

2010-01-01T12:04:00.010-07:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year's Eve & a Happy 2010 from here on forward! We had a fun and relaxing evening. We had corn dog appetizers (remember those from when you were a kid?), french bread pizzas and mini eclairs for dessert! We then played some Wii, what a blast we had, watched some TV and I made some oatmeal soap bars, primitive soap labels and then grunged up 2 mason jars that have frog lids.

Here are the oatmeal soap balls I made. I rolled some in cinnamon, some in nutmeg and others in clove. These are just going to be for display. If you add spices such as I did, you should not use them if you get rashes on your skin from the spices. I had already started to get a rash on one of my hands while making them.

I then did up some handmade primitive jar labels. The graphics program I use is Paint Shop Pro.

I sealed the labels to the jar and rubbed one jar with a bit of cinnamon and the other a bit of nutmeg just to give a slight grungy look.

Here is the view of the oatmeal soap bars through the top of the frog lid:

I put one jar in the bathroom on the hanging wall cubby:

The other jar I put in the kitchen sink soap holder:

Primitive Cutting Board "Vision"

2009-12-30T21:58:00.016-07:00

I've had a plain wood cutting board laying around for several months. My plan was to paint it mustard, distress and add to the kitchen counter with my 2 other distressed cutting boards. But a couple of weeks ago I had a 'vision' of doing something more with it! As I stated in the post prior to this one, I am fascinated, obsessed, addicted whatever you'd like with depression era photos. They so intrigue me, that these people lived through these horrible & hard times, in the conditions that they did, it's amazing.

So here is my 'vision' come to life. I first painted the cutting board black:

I then put several top coats of mustard over the black once it was dry:

I sanded it down to give it a distressed look with my little sanding block:

After sanding and nicking up some with a hammer, I applied my walnut stain. I left it on for around 20 minutes, then wiped off. It settles nicely in the nicks and I like the subtle overlay of sheer color it gives:

Here is the depression era picture I had chosen to use. It shows 4 children around the dinner table eating the scraps they have. You can see how dirty the kids are, how badly in shape their living quarters are. To my amazement, there is a little cat in the lower left of the photo. After all these people struggle with and for, they still are able to have a pet to bring joy to their world. I used Mod Podge to adhere the photo to the board.

I painted on the bottom of the cutting board the word "HOPE" with little "x's" in between the letters.

After using clear sealer on the entire board, I sprinkled some cloves over it and rubbed into the board while the sealer was still a bit damp. Here is the back of the board:

As you can see I added a little prim button to the picture and a thick piece of jute holding a rusty key was tied around the cutting board handle:

Here is a close up of the picture & the word on the finished project:

I decided to hang it on the side of our microwave. I draped the cute prim towel I received from my J*S*P*F* secret Santa over the top of the board:

I'm really happy with the way it turned out!

Prim "Memories" Box Make-Over

2009-12-28T17:14:00.012-07:00

This box below I keep on my jewelry armoire and has everything in it from my old highschool locker padlock to sunglasses to makeup waiting to be opened.

I decided it needed a "PRIM MAKE-OVER"!! First I painted the entire box, inside and out black:

I am fascinated by old pics of the depression era and found this one of children standing on a dilapidated porch. I am assuming they are brothers and sisters. I slid it into the pre-existing picture slot that came on the original box.

I then slightly distressed the box and lid all over with sandpaper:

I painted on the front side of the box in red the word "Memories" with some prim "X's". I added small white dots in the "X"'s:

The top I painted with 4 words: "Family, Love, Live, Faith" and added more prim "X's":

Here is the finished product displayed on my jewelry armoire filled again with all my 'stuff'!

Primitive Christmas Gifts

2009-12-27T02:31:00.011-07:00

I hope everyone had a WONDERFUL Christmas! We did! We had both a relaxing Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Opening gifts, eating, listening to Christmas music and watching Christmas movies! I can't believe another Christmas is over and done with!

I wanted to share some of the exciting prim Christmas gifts I got! They are so much fun!

This book I ordered off of A Primitive Journey Community forum that I'm part of. I told my hubby it would be a Christmas gift and I would not look at it until then. So when it arrived in the mail, he hid it away...let me tell you...it is so WONDERFUL!! I've gotten about half way through the book and the photos of these primitive homes are to die for!

I've been wanting a lighted grapevine tree for sometime now. So, as I was doing some Christmas shopping on Ebay, I saw this one, bid on it and won it! So again...told my hubby it will be one of my presents...so when I saw it 'in person' on Christmas, yippeee! It's so cute! The plan is to put it in our laundry room which I want to prim up more once we move back to our home in Idaho in the spring!

And of course I found this gorgeous grubby rooster from one of my fave Ebay sellers. I already have one of her roosters....so...ahemmm...yep, another 'gift from hubby'...hey...I 'thought' I was 'helping' him....errrr....but isn't it cool!?

This old bobbin with thread spools I got from my sis-in-law Jan...I simply love it!

One of my other sis-in-laws, Peg, got me this old antique washboard! It is so grungy and old! I put it in our apartment bathroom for now. Once we get back home, it will be added to the prim decorating in the laundry room!

My good friend Sharon gave me this adorable birdhouse! Check out all the rusty bells, rusty tin roof and more!

Primmed Up Soap Bars

2009-12-23T22:18:00.004-07:00

This is a super easy project to prim up your bathroom or kitchen. I took some Ivory soap bars and sealed the top with clear sealer. I then painted the tops of each bar with craft paint and sprinkled with spices. I only did the tops of the soap bars with paint & spices because if you plan on using these to wash your hands, use from the bottom up and the paint & spices will stay until the end! Tie with some grubby homespun or any torn fabric and secure with rusty pins.

This black bar I have displayed on my stove noodleboard in my kitchen:

The yellow and green bars below I have in my bathroom cubby shelf:

Our Crazy Christmas Videos

2009-12-21T20:48:00.009-07:00

I can't believe it's the week of Christmas! I have 2 more gifts I would like to get for hubby, then just need to wrap his and the cats gifts. :)
Most of you are probably familiar with the "Jib Jab" site, below are 3 'videos' I made there that I hope will make you laugh! The first one is me as an elf doing a hoe-down, then my hubby Jim singing as an elf, it's hilarious! The 3rd is Jim and I having a snowball fight with 3 other people...they came with the video. :) Click the links below to check each video out. ENJOY!! (pause music player here on blog first)

Kitty as an Elf

Jim as an Elf

Our Snowball Fight!

Necklaces....The Easy Gift!

2009-12-18T23:33:00.008-07:00

I used to make jewelry as a craft....not so much anymore as primitives have taken over my life! ha-ha! I did want to share with you some necklaces I have made in the past that are super easy to make! You can find most of these supplies at craft or bead stores. Here is what you will need:

Colored fabric ties
Assortment of beads
Glass charms

This first one I used a black colored tie, and a really pretty glass charm that had greys, blues and black in it. I added some silver, clear and dark irridesant beads. The fabric ties just tie in the back to secure the necklace. You can tie them so the necklace hangs low or tie so the necklace is more of a choker!

The brown/green necklace below has a round glass charm. So I just looped the brown fabric tie through the hole to secure the charm. I added only a couple brown, green and silver beads. The large brown charm in the middle is actually from an old bracelet that had broken on me...so I incorporated that into this necklace. As you can see, the fabric tie is tied tighter on this one so it hangs as a choker style.

I really love the glass charm on the one below...it has blues, browns and dark reds throughout it. I used a brown fabric tie and added clear, dark red and light blue beads. This one is shown with the tie tied loose so it is a longer necklace.

Purple is one of my favorite colors, so when I saw this glass purple/pink charm, I had to make a necklace with it. A purple fabric tie, purple, pink and silver beads complete it!

More.......Prim Framed Art Work!

2009-12-16T23:42:00.005-07:00

If you have been following my blog, you know I have a couple of posts that show what I like to call my "Prim Framed Art Work" (click my label called 'art' to see the others). Well, I've made 2 more tonight...one is a Christmas gift for one of my good friends in California and the other a birthday gift for another good friend who lives in my home state of Illinois.

Here is the Christmas gift:

And here is the birthday gift one:

A Primitive Glow

2009-12-15T13:20:00.008-07:00

I have found a WONDERFUL online Prim shop that I wanted to share. It's called A Primitive Glow . They are located in the mountains of West Virginia. I sure wish I lived in that area, because I would frequent this shop ALOT! I ordered some Cmas gifts online from them. It took quite sometime to get...a month...so I don't know if that is their normal timing or if it's just because of the holidays. But it was worth the wait because the products are wonderful!

Here are pics of some of the things I ordered for myself (HAD to do that!). This is a mason jar with a rusty frog lid filled with 'Christmas Cookie' scent Hips & Sticks:

This is their 'Snow Cream' fixens. I placed them in a cute reddish colored strainer I found at the "Home Goods" store for only $5!

They even sent me some 'freebies' that I was soooo excited about! 2 refresher oils....yummmm!! And a large grubby "chubby" 'Christmas Cookie' candle:

So if you check out the A Primitive Glow site, you can see the other gifts I ordered. Besided the frog lid mason jar Hips & Sticks, I ordered their "Primitive Fixen's 6 Cup Box with Inspirational Label" & "Primitive Fixen's 3 1/2 Cup Bag".

Everything was so carefully packaged and wrapped up safely. I would highly recommend them and look forward to trying their other products.

ShabbyKat Primitive's Glow Jars

2009-12-11T23:26:00.010-07:00

These are what I am calling my 'glow jars'. I use recycled jars in my 'jar' projects. For this primitive craft I found some fun vintage Christmas and winter pics to adhere to the jars. I used my 'secret snow recipe' to coat the jar. Jute wrapped around the jar holds some painted rusty bells in place and from rusty prim safety pins hangs round grubby hang tags with holiday cheer. I painted the lids of the jars and sprinkled with glitter. When a tealight is placed in the jars, a soft glow shines through the 'snow' and the vintage pic. I am giving a few of these as Christmas gifts this year (and I kept some for myself) and hope to sell some on my future selling blog which I hope to start selling on next year.

This one I gave as a gift to my Secret Santa pal at J*S*P*F* forum:

The next 3 I kept for myself :)

Here are some of the painted, glittered lids:

Prim Goodies from my Secret Santa!

2009-12-09T22:10:00.008-07:00

There was a Secret Santa swap at one of the great primitive forums I belong to J*S*P*F* (Just Simply Prim Friends). I wanted...or HAD to share all the wonderful gifts I received today from my secret Santa who had gotten my name...I just HAD to show ya! I love EVERYTHING and am soooo thankful for all my wonderfully prim gifts below!
So in the pic below, these are my FABULOUS PRIM gifts:
A HUGE plug in tartwarmer (I'm a BIG tart warmer fan & user!), 2 adorable ditty bags (one filled with cute Cmas decos...these are my very 1st ditty bags!), A super prim dishtowel (how cute is that!?), Aged cheesecloth (I love this! looks so nice and grungy!!), Some oh-so-cool "Never Melt Snowballs" (I actually saw a pic of these just the other day and WANTED THEM!!), 2 cute 'lil pantry cakes (so grubby!!!), an adorable stuffed mitten, a "jack frost" tart, 3'gingerspice' votives (all smells sooooo good...can you imagine it! yuummm) and a crow and star hanger (so LOVE crows and stars!!)

Here's the cute kitchen towel hung on one of my cabinet doors:

The plug-in tartwarmer with the 'jack frost' tart in it...yummm!!

Doesn't it look pretty lit up?

I had to show one of the cute bags that had my prim crow/star in...isn't the bag even cute!!??

I hung the crow/star on one of my prim little lights:

Look at these pantry cakes! Placed on the nice and grubby cheesecloth!

I love this Cmas ditty bag! Hung it by some of my white lights!

The other grubby ditty bag is hanging in the dining room/kitchen area:

I put the 'Never Melt Snowballs' and the cute mitten in one of my old metal strainers with some star paper: