Feeling Inspired

I love to thrift shop, create, cook, design, garage sale, craft, buy junk, shop.  And I love to blog about it all, which I haven't had time to do lately.  I've been doing some of the things I love and I'm finding I need to do more of them in order to stay happy and creative and in love with my work.  Here and there I'm catching bits of inspiration and I certainly visited a place this weekend that is jump starting my desire to get more creative.

I introduce Minster's latest shop, Lucy's.  I don't have the full scoop on the who, what, where and when of Lucys and I don't know owner Holly Bertke's whole life story.  I don't know who the heck Lucy is (daughter, gal pal, dog, imaginary friend?) But I do know that Holly is super nice, super talented and has created a beautiful new place to shop. 

Holly refinishes furniture, will do light upholstery, and repurposes items.  Also for sale are some great smelling candles, paintings by various artists, really cool-looking rustic (but chic) wood tables hand crafted by her uncle.  

It's a bright, pretty fun place.  The first thing I spotted was the pink couch (LOVE).  Then there is an upstairs loft which has less frilly and bit more masculine offerings.

Visit Holly yourself or check out her facebook page https://www.facebook.com/HomeofLucy

In other news, I haven't exactly been withering away in the office.  Had some fun, eaten at some new places and have some designs going that I really love.  Not a bad summer.

NASCAR

Okay, I'm not a Nascar fan (Adam is) but when you get free tickets to something you go.  Thanks to Adam's buddy Ty and Maggie who gave us a reason to get outta town.  As a bonus the next day we went to the Florence Antique Mall!!

Here we are at the track in Kentucky

Georgia Peach themed Shower

Pretty peaches, coral and mint

Love a matching envelope

The host Caitlin had various southern sayings in frames incorporated into her decor.

Another cute one.

Organization

My old boxes were boring.

Handwritten labels. Worst of all some boxes were black, some blue - horrors!

Mod Podge Strikes again!

I had a old children story book (thanks Kathy for that donation).  It was falling apart so I used the colorful pages to cover the boxes.  

Fun and entertaining graphics.

Labels

I've been doing a lot more labels lately.  This bride, Jenn, purchased her own chevron bags and we designed a blush colored label to dress up the bags.

Mission Commission Garage Sale

When you know of a reception hall bursting with treasures you go to the sale.  When it's across the street you go multiple times.

A box of vintage trim and lace.

Vintage Doctor style bag

Also a silver tray (in bad need of a polishing, vintage boxes of vintage (mostly boring though) stationery.

Mirror Score!

Awesome mirror and one of those fussy "make up table" chairs.  I'll probably ditch the pillow and make a plant stand.

A perfectly good projector screen

Adam and I argued about one. For $1.00 I wanted it.  I thought maybe a friend would want it but if not I'd do something with it (someday).  Adam said we had one in the shed at home.  I didn't believe him.  Turns out we now own two projector screens.  Two.  I'll say it, "Adam WAS RIGHT!"

My favorite

When this guy was sitting on the table at the tail end of the sale I owed it to him to take a second glance.  I even picked him up and he had a lot of heft.  He was a nice solid piece.  For $0.25 I couldn't say no.  Mom said, "what are you gonna do with that thing?"  Even she admitted that he looks great on the kitchen counter.

Excited

Another design getting me excited for fall and invitations in general.  I'll be sharing more of this one after the event.

Living Simply Soap

A great shop in Tipp City, Ohio.  Please visit!!  Tanya has tons of great scents, handmade in her historic building in downtown Tipp.  These cute little guys are perfect wedding/shower favors.

Good Eats

Enjoyed lunch at Dickies BBQ in Columbus.  Not a fancy place by any means but we couldn't stop eating the delicious ribs.  We couldn't even find room in our stomaches for the free ice cream at the end of the meal.

A better photo of Adam

A favorite photo of my husband.  Taken at the Green Thumb in New Knoxville.  Delicious food there too!!!

Garden!!

Jenkins poses near my basil bush.  I'll probably be selling tomatoes, hot peppers for the brave and bouquets of basil here in the next week or two.

Family

And finally, what makes it all worthwhile.  Spending time with these crazy people.  A fun day at my sister-in-law's birthday party.  (I think this was the "normal" photo of my in-laws - lol)