Pampering Myself

I decided to pamper myself and visit one of my favorite shops.

The Flower Barn

It is an indulgence for me when I visit.

I almost never leave empty handed.

Beth, the owner has everything wonderfully displayed, lovely smells, soft music and on a hot day like today she even brought me out a mug of cold water.

I enjoy myself so much when I come to shop, and really I feel like it is more like visiting a friend.

Today I was surprised, amazed to say the least when I walked in the door and what should greet me but.....

clothing by none other than

Magnolia Pearl

My jaw dropped.

You have to understand, this is a small suburb of Buffalo, not the big city, 

not even Buffalo has Magnolia Pearl clothing.

I am so happy for Beth that she has such a wonderful opportunity to sell this line of clothing.

As beautiful as the clothing is in the pictures, they are even better in person.

You have to feel the fabrics and see all the details.

Just look at all those ruffles.

These pictures are from Magnolia Pear Clothing found here.

I will have a post soon with pictures from Beth of the available clothing she is selling.

But, if you can't wait until then.

Stop by and visit Beth.

The Flower Barn 

7716 Rochester Road

Gasport, NY 14067

(716) 772-2099 or 800-231-0281

I could not resist, I bought myself another candle.

I can never have too many candles.

Snickerdoodle by The Swan Creek Candle Co.

They have the best smells.

A cute little numbered bucket.

And

A new line Beth is carrying, TOKYOMILK/DARK by Margot Elena.

I bought Tainted Love lotion.

I am absolutely sure Mr. M. is going to like how it smells on me.

She offers a variety of collections in lip balm, body souffle, shower jell, roller parfum.

I have a feeling I will be going back to get Bullet Proof for him, it has this smokey smell that I just loved.

Oh, yeah,
I also bought this AWESOME CABINET!

It is a vintage medicine cabinet

Look at that key hole.

DETAILS!

I have mentioned on several posts what a wonderful boutique this is.

There are none like it around in this area.

Not only does she make beautiful floral arrangements,
 Beth also offers such a variety of home and gift items that are both old and new and just so unique.

Thanks Beth, I had a wonderful visit today and I can't wait to come back.

Time Away

No need to send out a search party, I'm not lost in the gardens either.

I spent the weekend in Pennsylvania visiting my BFF from high school.

To say that I had fun would be an understatement.

I laughed so much!

It fed my soul!

I wish that I did not have to wait another year until I go back.

Oh, and we shopped, and shopped and shopped, until we were both exhausted.

I found some wonderful treasures that I thought I would share with you.

I was able to find plenty of WHITES to add to my collection.

In fact, it seemed that we found almost everything we were looking for, and it became kind of a joke.

Some pocket watches for me to make some neat necklaces with.

I found lots of great architectural salvage, self brackets and corbels.

Pitchers, platters, buttons and wood oh my.

A cheap matching set of tureens just waiting for me to put my plants in.

I just love the little pitchers.

The column base is not too bad either.

I am thinking the shutter will work great for a new sign.

I think this pair is probably my favorite find. 

Don't you think they will look great in my gardens.

One thing I kept looking for was a swan at a reasonable price. 

No luck.

BUT, look what I found in my back yard yesterday a beautiful white goose.

Way better than a swan any day, I have this sinking feeling Mr. M. is not going to let me keep him.

PLEASE, PRETTY PLEASE!

 Oh and I found out that you have to go through some interesting towns to get to Paradise.

I hope you all are having a wonderful summer! 

I wish I could come and visit more, but my son's birthday is this weekend and I have so much to do.

Happy 4th.



A Day of Winning

Ok girls it's a HAPPY DANCE DAY!

I won! 

I just got back from a GREAT!!! day of shopping at my favorite places, Salvation Army and Goodwill. 

 I will show you my treasures in a moment, first I want to say thank you to Mimi from Vanilla Haven.
 You see, the first thing I look at when I open my blog is my new comments because I just love hearing from everyone.  To my surprise Mimi commented that I won her first giveaway; a gift of $35.00 to shop at CSN Stores.
YEAH!!!! This is the first time I have ever won a giveaway.
Thank you so much Mimi it just made my day even better.
 If you have not come across Vanilla Haven yet, then you must go and visit, Mimi has a wonderful blog.

Now for my treasures.

Ignore the tree in the background it jumped into my car when I wasn't looking.

I was going to start my my post with
 "Dear Chairs Anonymous I can explain......well maybe not."

  If you have not read some of my previous posts about my chair problem you can here and here.

 In my defense it is ALL MY SISTER'S FAULT, she is the one who told me that Goodwill has some chairs I may like.  See, now how can I fight that, and I could not split up the twins, aren't they just adorable? 

Now just imagine them with a coat of white paint to cover the blue and some white duck covers to make them even better.
I also picked up some silver ornaments, a cream sweater to make stockings for the fireplace and shirts to make pillow covers.

Did you notice the LAMP!
 Oh my gosh, I was walking out the door of the Salvation Army when I spied the lamp sitting on the donate floor, shoppers are not supposed to shop in the hallway of donates, but I could NOT leave without at least asking. 

YES!  They were in a good mood and priced it for me.

  Skipping all the way to the car, I had tingles I was so excited about the lamp.
 It has the look of  PB or Anthropologie, either way it is mine and I love it.

Today I am making happy trees.

First the trees get put together in the kitchen and then we give them lots of twinkling white lights to make them happy.  They will reside in the dinning room until after Thanksgiving when they will be put into their proper spots and decorated. 

I am going to make you wait and see how MANY I actually put up in my house.  In fact I just thought of a good idea for a giveaway, check back in a couple of weeks and I will give the details.

Today is a beautiful day, so I am hoping I can talk Mr. M. into putting new lights on the outside tree before snow comes and we have to do it in cold weather.

I hope you are having a wonderful day too!

My Couch Dilemma

Some of you may remember I had posted last week about getting a new mattress delivered. 

Well, I wish I could say I am sleeping better, I AM NOT, but my husband is.

In fact this new foam mattress is like sleeping on a

ROCK!

So, I told him since I am now SLEEPING on the couch, we need a new couch. 

Off to IKEA we go.

I am not a crazy wife, I can go and buy almost anything without his approval, but a couch is not one of them.

Mr. M. sat, laid, flopped and then made the whole family try out both the regular sized couch and the over sized couch in two different styles.  He is still not convinced that we should get a new couch.

  I am not giving up yet.

  I did manage to leave with a few treasures for our home.

Off to Pottery Barn.

You see, he is feeling guilty that I am sleeping on the couch while he has the WHOLE king size bed, well somewhat guilty, we still have the mattress.  Now, I must tell you that our trip to IKEA took over 2 1/2 hours round trip, we had to go to Canada and back and I have to practically beg, plead and promise anything to get anyone to take me there.  Oh and we took the kids, hahahahahaha, insanity has settled in because Mr. M. did not bat an eyelash when I said lets go to Pottery Barn now and try their couches because they are the only other company that sells slipcovered couches that I like.  Meaning in WHITE of course.  Back in the car for another 45 minutes.  We have already gone to the bathroom no less than 5 times and the kids have had snack, lunch and another snack.

ARE WE THERE YET?

ARE WE GOING HOME NOW?

I AM HUNGRY AGAIN!

HE'S TOUCHING ME!

We are now at the Galleria Mall and Mr. M. is trying to find a parking spot at 4:00 on a Saturday, anyone who has shopped there is laughing, kind of like the needle in the hay stack situation.  Finally parked and dragging the kids to the mall.  A smile lights up my face, I see Pottery Barn, oh sigh, I do love the store, even if I only came to LOOK.  All dressed for Thanksgiving and most of the Christmas decorations already displayed.  I try to soak all of the ideas in amongst the pleas of my children that they are hungry, tired, and have to go pee AGAIN.  I made Mr. M. sit on each of the couches.  He says "well of course these feel better than the ones at IKEA, I am exhausted."  Of course I reply "but are they THREE times as better than the IKEA ones?  Because they cost that much more." 

He gave me the look. 

 Time to go home.

I bought some ribbon to decorate for Christmas, gathered a couple of catalogs for the ride and we were on our way home.

So do I make the 6 hour round trip to Pittsburgh and get an Ikea sofa cheaper than the Burlington one or do I stay local, pay three times as much for a Pottery Barn sofa? 

That is the dilemma.  What would you do?

I Found A WHITE Shop!

Oh, girls if we were talking you would hear the excitement in my voice.

I went shopping!!!!

And

  I found a shop just for ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Flower Barn
7716 Rochester Road
Gasport, NY 14067
It is located only minutes from the Lockport Country Club.

White, white and lots more of white.

I picked up my little guy from school and my original intention was to go antiquing and look for a desk for him and a new chandelier for me.  We hit a few Salvation Armys and I got lucky on the desk for him.  Then with the help of extra snacks that I packed for him, I was able to talk him into going to ONE MORE SHOP.

A friend had mentioned that I should stop in this shop because, knowing I love white I will like the shop.

Like it, no, more like I LOVE IT!

When you first drive up the first thing you notice is that the shop in located at the front of an old barn.
 Then you see all the wonderful decorations outside, an vintage buggy, dried floral, white bows, an old bench holding this beautiful OPEN sign and so much more.  I am trying to remember how it all looked because I know my words are not doing it justice.  Of course I did not have my camera with me, but I had an impatient 4 year old. 
Come on mom let's go inside. 

Now inside was even more amazing!
 The details are what make it a shop that you want to stay all day just taking your time looking at EVERYTHING!

I handed my son my purse so he could dig for gum or mints and it would keep him occupied for a few minutes while I looked.  The smell of the candle burning in the shop was so wonderful I bought one for myself and it is filling my home up with the scent of pumpkin vanilla as I type this post. 

Just to list a sampling of what you can find in this shop, beautiful hand crafted jewelry, Swan Creek Soy Candles, custom hand painted signs like you have never seen anywhere and the gentleman also makes one of a kind cabinets and furniture.  Hand painted floor clothes, WHITE and more white china, platters, plates and pitchers.  Homemade jellies and jams.  An array of beautiful things that I always love to be white, frames, mirrors, tables and chairs, lamps and linens.  Oh, and I can't forget the burlap pillows and she even has stenciled burlap drapes.  Flowers, I can't forget to tell you about flowers.  Not only is there a shop but Beth the owner is a florist and she makes the most amazing floral designs both fresh and dried.  As you can tell I am very excited to have found this new shop and I am only telling you about what I CAN remember, a 4 year old can only stand so much time in a shop like this.  Mom where are the TOYS?

Have I peaked your interest? 

Well, there is more!
I am going next week to take pictures to share with all of you.
This time I am going by MYSELF so I can take a better look.
 Seeing as I am my own best Christmas gift shopper I want to make sure I get a few things under the tree that I love. 
I have already informed Mr. M. that he can shop there from now on for all of my gifts, birthday, anniversary, Christmas and those JUST BECAUSE I LOVE YOU moments.

Here is what I bought today.

I found an adorable Christmas decoration.

Did you notice the cute bag and the black ribbon.
 I am an attention to detail person and this just speaks to me in volumes. 
Being a former shop owner I am picky about what I bring into my home and I have not found a shop that is so me, UNTIL NOW! 

Happy dance everyone!