New Years clean up---day one

By golly I am going to start the New Year with a lovely and clean house! Here's what I did today...

• Clean out the fridge, inside and out!
• De-clutter those kitchen hot spots, basically this is every flat surface in the room.
  
• De-clutter back of stove and give it a good wipedown.
• Cull any old spices from the spice cabinet and make a shopping list for fresh jars.
  
• Wash up the oilcloth cat mat and give that part of the floor a good scrub.
• Take down all the notes, numbers, and recipes, file them away.
• Re-cure the cast iron skillet that Christy lovingly saved for me!
  

I took some time to repurpose the Christmas flowers, I weeded out the old tired ones and put them in some new containers. The red carnations are in a new and fantastic milk glass vase from Janet. It is a really great addition to the collection! Thanks Janet, I love it. The other flowers (I have no idea what they are) are in a recycled pizza sauce can I used for Maddie's 11th birthday party last week. I just had to buy that sauce because of the bright, colorful label, Don Pepino's Pizza Sauce, and the great illustration on the brightly painted label! Perfection. Don had put his clipping of a passion flower vine in it a few days ago, I added the pretty white flowers to spruce it up a bit.

I could spend a whole week in the kitchen but honestly that ain't happenin'. Maybe I will do some fly lady stuff later but for now I have other rooms to get to!


After a long lunch I got to it again! This time I hit the dining room from hell. Clutter, holiday dishes, and Legos EVERYWHERE! Yikes. At least Don was kind enough, or fed up enough, to remove the leaves from the table. That is a big help.

• Dishes, time to pack up all those fun holiday dishes that I love so much.
  
• Aidan moved all the Lego's to his room!
  
• Finally put way all the birthday banners and decorations from Maddie's B-day.
• Maddie was supposed to wipe down all the chairs but my TWEEN coped some "tude." I'll get her to do it tomorrow instead of skate boarding all afternoon. Hee, hee.
  
• Cleared off the counter top that separates the dining room and kitchen--that's a real treat!
  
• Grab paper bag and colect all the recycling laying about the house from presents.
  
• Finished dumping out my oilcloth owl tote that has been all over the dining room table for days. I filed all the receipts into my "file pile."
  
• Cleared off the dining room desk and tided up the drawers a bit.
  
• Dusted like a mad woman.
  
• Vacuumed floors and baseboards.
  

I left up the holiday display on the ledges because I love them so very much. The ornaments on the wall are from my childhood, the white garland is from Ikea (I regret not buying tons of it), the ornaments in my fab punch bowl are from here there and everywhere and are all vintage.

Next up was the living room!

• Bag Attack, take two bags, one for recycling and one for trash, and don't leave the room until all the crap is gone!
  
• Kid pile up--put all the kid stuff on their side's of the couch to go upstairs, and don't allow any PS2 gaming (Cute Hubby brought out his "mistress" to share alongside our Gamecube as a way to delay the inevitable Wii purchase) until all of it is put away in their rooms.
  
• De-clutter the hot spots.
  
• Dust and Vacuum.
  
• I took off the couch's slip cover and shook it off outside, then put it back on all nice and straight!
  

And I save the worst for last, the front hall. This is where all the real junk ends up. All the piddly stuff that needs to go up stairs but never seems to make it there.

• Remove all the Christmas cards from garland (hugh difference!).
• Take 500 trips up the stairs (good exercise).
  
• Tidy up bookshelves.
  
• Put Beth's tablecloths in my van so she actually gets them someday.
• Vacuum hall and steps.
  

Now I am off to get pretty(ish) for out New Years Eve tradition, Bowling! Silly and fun.

Happy New Years everyone!

Atlanta Booth Junies!

From left to right, Suzanne Vinson, Tasha McKelvey, Suzanne Wieringo and Kirsten Schueler

Meet my 4 of the 5 Atlanta Booth Babes!! Along with Tiffin (pictured below) these Junie temps rocked my Modern June Boutique Booth last month at the Atlanta Country Living Fair.

All five ladies worked hard to set up a mighty pretty booth, cut a mountain of fabric and lovingly took care of our customers. Friday and Saturday was super crazy! We are talking you are lucky to go to the bathroom crazy. Lucky to take two bites of your lunch crazy. Sunday was lovely, we all got a chance to wander the show and enjoy the lovely of it all.

This was the line on Friday!! Tiffin and I started taking exact cash sales just to keep the line from blocking the road. WOW!!! 

This show was kind of a dream come true. For years and years, heck since the beginning of Modern June, I've wanted to have a little online boutique where I carried all my favorite handmade goodies, cool vintage finds, and cool kitschy kitchen goods.

Inspired by fellow business owners like Feathernesters, Nicola Flora and Strawberryfields. I decided to take the plunge. I went to the ladies above and asked them to share their crafty goodness and to come and work the booth. I then went to my bookmarked sites that sell cool kitchen gear and made some orders. The result was wonderful!! 

Below I have a ton of photos of their work. Please check out their websites and do some shopping! Knowing that someday soon you'll be able to pick it up at the new ModernJune.com!

Please know just how dreamy I think Tasha McKelvey pottery and jewelery is!! I own 2 bird bowls, one tea pot and a whole lot of her jewelery and it's not enough! (Hint for my hubby)

Tasha was the first to come to me this year and say let me come and help you in Atlanta! T's a Country Living Fair veteran that spent this summer and fall jet setting so she didn't have her own booth this year. How lucky am I?! I got to host her pottery and I got her love and care at the show. Tasha's the kind of girl that remembers that you forgot your book light from home and surprises you with one from Target!! Love that girl!

Gnomes, Birds and Owls... Oh mY!

Hersey is My Baby is owned by Kirsten Schueler!! Her work is so delightful. She's also become our newest Junie stitcher. We call her Warrior Junie, since she sewed through her finger while sewing up party banners. Ouch and YUCK!

 

What she does with felted sweaters is amazing! Her felt wreaths grace the pages of the new Design Sponge book!! 

Here are Kirsten's sweet babies loving on a Sew There kitchen chickens! I love these girls!! Recognize the eldest from Sewing with Oilcloth? Their visits to the show were a welcome bit of home-- I miss my own kids so much while I am on the road! They have the best grandmother in the world for taking care of them while Kirsten worked the show.

A Sew There Chicken meets Hershey is My Baby duck and lovie!

The Linwood Avenue shop is filled with such loveliness I can't even tell you! I first "meet" Tiffin, an Atlanta girl, via Design Sponge. Her before and after piece is killer!! AND, she loves milk glass!! Dreamy!! What I didn't know then was that she had shopped in our Atlanta booth months earlier. Small world!! I was so pleased to have Tiffin come and help up on Saturday, she also graced the booth with her pretty hoops and aprons!!

Suzanne from Silver Tree Art brought along lots of her pretty necklaces and earrings and spent her days in ATL cutting oilcloth, laminated cotton and chalk cloth. 

... and her other lovely loot.

I also brought along some other fun handmade goodies from other lovely vendors!  Check out all the pretty cards from Zou Zou's Basement! 

 Sew There's Kitchen Chicken of love!

 Booth Babe Table!

The Cupcakery sent us to Atlanta with some delightful kids items. Don't you lover her super cute skirts and tooth fairy pillows? 

Love the owls!! 

My favorite boyfriends from Feathernesters sent some of there very Modern June loot. I love these prints that they made up for the Columbus Country Living Fair.

Spring Bada-Bing 2009!!

Last but not least, let me introduce you to my dear friend Suzanne W!! She is the coolest and most wonderful gal around, you're very lucky if you have a friend like her!!! She's the kind of person that comes to the hospital when your giving birth and your husband is really sick, this is why my kids lovingly call her Aunt Sqz! She earned that title! Suzanne was a new boyfriend perk, she just happened to be the wife of my hubbies BFF. We've been best pals ever since. 

You won't see any of her handwork here in the booth, she has a fancy job at The Martin Agency. Now don't be me wrong she's handy, the girls got mad skillz when it comes to cake decorating!! I can't thank her enough for coming along to ATL and wo-manning the check out table with Tasha!

Let me not forget my my girls at home, two of my sweet Junies kept the home fires burning. Kathie the Junie shipping goddess kept emails answered and fabric flowing out the door all fall while I was gallivanting around the south this fall. And Nicole, my in-house stitching diva kept up with all the custom tablecloths. 

I can't thank everyone enough for having my back!!! I am sending you all lots and lots of love!

Adventures in Thrifting!

It was all about the embroidery in Lakeside, my go to place for kitschy-kitchen goods.

The two new milk glass pieces were found south of the river, there was a lot more but I have to picky at this point. If you need punch cups I have got the place for you, Good Samaritan in Southside Plaza. I have to find a use for punch cups, I just can't let those cuties sit there collecting dust! 

This was the find of a decade, vintage cookbooks. The exact same editions that I grew up with. Published in '67, a year before I was born.  My mother probably received them as graduation gifts. I have been looking for my own set for years and years. When I as young I used to flip through that Betty Crocker for hours, enjoying all the cool mid-century drawings of happy woman entertaining happy people. I have no doubt this helped start Modern June!!! It's all about making memories.

New pretties!

Check out a couple of my new pretties. My mother-in-law, Jackie, gave me this fabu deviled egg dish for Mother's Day. And the bottom piece was a treasure I picked up on a recent girl date with friend Dawn. What an incredible find! The pretty footed cake plate only stands about 3 inches off the table.

I just love Milk Glass, it goes with everything else that I have, it is inexpensive and easy to find fun pieces or multiples if you wish. Thanks to my dear friend Janet, my great mother-in-law, and my own excursions I have a fun collection in the works!

great idea!

Photo Credit:  Kate via Design Sponge

You know I am all about milk glass, so how perfect is this project for me!  I found a link to the Design Sponge tutorial via Craft Gossip!  Man, there is A LOT of crafty goodness out there!!

Spooky Displays!

My house is looking spooky and sick! Today we have 2 out of 3 under the weather. It is just a cold with a wicked cough but we are taking that as a chance to stay in our jammies and decorate a bit more for Halloween. Can you tell that it is a big deal around here?

So the spooky flowers are up. It looks so bare to me after so many months with the Trays and Fiesta Ware, that was so nice and cluttered. I might add some mini pumpkins and then use them for November too.


I love the eyeballs in the bowl! Does any one know what these were to begin with? They are from Taco Bell Straws. About 10 years ago Taco Bell gave them out for Halloween and Don insisted that he keep them I hated them until I realized you could remove the eyes and decorate with them! Too funny!


This is what I did on the ledge that had the milk glass vases. The silk gerber Daisies are retired to the attic till spring.

Going Vertical

 

I am so in love with every bit of this before and after project that was featured on Design Sponge earlier this month. I have found a kindred spirit in Linwood Avenue, she loves vintage fabric, collects milk glass and she makes aprons! Sounds a little familiar, doesn't it?

Anyway, I was totally inspired to pick up these three wall shelves and to recreate her lovely piece. I'll combine the vintage fabrics that I bought on-line a few days ago with some oilcloth. I am thinking I'll need some Pyrex to add into the mix!