Turquoise

I love turquoise, it is my favorite color! I do not believe that you can ever have too much turquoise anything. I am constantly buying turqoise jewelry , as evidenced by my own personal collection below. I am always drawn to anything in a store that is turquoise. Some of the turquoise items I own; fiesta dishes, retro drink glasses, milk glass and too many other things to list here.

Turquoise Jewelry, real or costume, I don't care!!!

I haveturquoise sets of necklaces and earrings.

Turquoise Earrings

and.... Turquoise Bracelets and Bangles

Turquoise necklaces

Turquoise rings

Obnoxious maybe, But I don't care, its Turquoise and I LOVE it!!!

Coral

After I graduated high school my dear friend Elizabeth invited me to go with her family to the Cayman Islands. It was on this trip that I had my first interaction with coral. Of course, we were snorkeling and scuba diving and the rule is "DO NOT TOUCH OR YOU WILL KILL IT!!!" The coral and the island was beautiful and the trips was an experience I will never forget.

A few years later I really, really wanted some coral as decoration for my home. At the time all of the real stuff was way out of my price range and they really weren't making any reproduction coral at that time. Eventually I found this beautiful piece at Marshall's, and I was happy and content with my fake coral.

Then while driving to Dallas, my mom, sister and I stopped in Salado to look around. They were having an outdoor flea market (with all of 3 vendors) I bought this small piece of real coral for $1 dollar.

Then a few months later while at Round Top I got this piece for $10.

And just this past weekend my mother and I stumbled upon the tail end of an estate sale, where everything was half off. Mom bought a ton of silver serving pieces, and I got some more coral.

This brain coral was marked $10, but paid $5.

And these two peices with their stands were priced $5 each so paid $5 for both.

The Guild Shop

One of my favorite places to pick up unique pieces of jewelry, glassware or home decor is The Guild Shop of St. John the Divine in Houston. This charity/resale/consignment shop located in the heart of Houston, carries almost anything you could imagine. Because it wears so many hats, taking donations and consigning items, the inventory is constantly revolving, which is good and bad. Good, there is always something new to see when you go in, and bad because if you don't buy it when you see it, it will probably be gone the next time you go in. They also lower the price of items every few weeks and the lower price is listed on the tag. So lets say there is a great armoire but right now its $450 but in a month it will be $375 and in 2 months is will be $199e. If you can wait and you are lucky you could possibly get the armoire for half of its initial price.

The Guild Shop carries, furniture, kitchenware, home decor, art, clothing, linens and jewelry and tons of everything else in between.

Some of my guild shop purchases.

Gold elephant plant stand.

Yellow necklaces.

Gold wheat sconce.

Bull horn.

Art.

"good" Junk

I LOVE "GOOD" JUNK


I love junk! Now when I say junk, I mean the good kind, slightly worn items of furniture or home decor. Finding "good" junk is a gift of mine. It may be genetic, inherent or learned, in my case I think a little bit of all three, but for some reason my entire family is great at finding "good" junk. My mother has deorated her entire house with it, my older sister has transformed many homes as well. My younger sister, well she has a tough time picking out things that don't cost a lot, but we love her anyway.


I do believe that this gift is directly descendent from my grandmother. I remember being maybe 8 years old and going to the Mcallen flea market to look for Blue Ridge and Fiesta pottery. When we would leave the flea market I would sit in the front seat, little sis relegated to the back, and look up all fo the plates we bought in the Blue Ridge book to "see how much they were worth".




This chair was found in Dallas at a store that may have been run by crackheads = $30

In Houston my older sister found this woman who we affectionatley call the "furniture lady", this cute little chest was bought at her store. = $20


Houston Goodwill off of 290. = $70

Table - Houston Mana Thrift store, the ottoman was something my mom had that we recoverd with this pretty magnolia fabric. = $12

Table and chairs from Craigslist, then had them recovered. $200

Houston Salvation Army on Washington Ave. =$200

I Have A Lot of Jewelry

I Have A Lot of Jewelry


It's not fancy stuff. I have some sterling silver pieces that were quite affordable (since I grew up on the border of Mexico and had access to the good ol 925). I have some really nice pieces of gold jewelry and some semi-precious stones jewelry, all of these items are relegated to the "fancy" jewelry box. What I have a lot of is costume jewelry.

When I first moved to Houston my older sister introduced me to HARWIN. For those of you who are not familiar with "H-Town" Harwin is actually a street that runs parallel to 59 S.
A good portion of the street (miles and miles) is lined on either side with import shops. Practically anything you could want or think of can be found down this street. The basics; perfume, jewelry, handbags, luggage, furniture, rugs, shoes, saris, fabric, sunglasses, bedding, and of course dollar store items.

My large collection has forced me to find some innovative ways to store my pieces.Purchased a shabby chic looking hat rack from Marshall's or TJ Maxx.


Another TJ Maxx purchase... this was actually a pewter color tall branch looking candlestick. I painted it peachy pink to match my bedroom decor, and then stacked my bangles on it.

To the right of the stack is a velvet store bracelet display bought in Harwing for 6 bucks.




When I bought the bracelet display I also purchased a ring display, for my collection of large rings.

Music Lyrics as Art

Music Lyrics as Art


A few years ago I was reading an article in In Style Home that was showcasing actress Molly Sims NYC apartment. Not only did I really dig the all gray color palette, but I found great inspiration in a screen print hanging in her dining room.

Here is the inspiration.

(photo scanned from In Style Home)
Now I don't remember the artists name or what lyrics were painted it could be an INXYS song or The Cure???
Anyway....

One night when i should have been working on my graduate course homework I got it in my mind to try and replicate this print with my own favorite song lyrics. Since I did not have the first clue how to screen print (nor the space in my small 1 bedroom apartment) I had to figure out a different way to achieve this look. On a limited budget and doing all of my art supply shopping at Wal-Mart this is what I came up with.

I looked up the lyrics for a song from one of my all time favorite artists - Ray Lamontagne from his song Jolene off the album Trouble. I copy and pasted the lyrics then chose a font and color I liked then printed them. I decoupaged them onto the canvas then very carefully painted around the letters.

I also bought the frame on clearance at Hobby Lobby, hot glued the decals around the frame and then painted the plain brown a metallic blue gray. For my first try I think it turned out ok.

Have begun working on a new piece using some lyrics from lil wayne, when it is complete will post an update.