A Couple of Things and Sangria Sunday

It's a beautiful summer day; a great day for lounging on the patio and drinking Sangria made from white Zinfandel, Cointreau, Triple Sec, peaches, lemons, oranges, cinnamon sticks and soda. It's chilling in the fridge right now.

I'll share with you soon last night's dining adventure, but for now I wanted to show you:

My Improved Blaze roses are blooming along our garage!



And, my husband painted a Tiffany blue tray for me. To see my Hermès orange tray, go here.





Finally, our newest home project. My husband and I were walking to the Farmer's Market yesterday morning, when we were diverted by several yard sales along the way. The first treasure to tempt us was a Victorian settee for $100. The wood trim was in generally good condition but it direly required re-upholstering, and I already have a piece-of-crap sofa and I don't need another. So we moved on.

The next yard sale was down the street, at an old church that has been used recently as a home. I always pass sales that have a lot of kitsch--I don't need anything more to dust--but this one had a bunch of furniture out front in the grass. My eye was first drawn to an old mirrored wooden dresser, but then my husband pointed out a buffet-like chest of drawers. You see, I've been looking for a piece of furniture to store my sewing supplies, yarn and fabric. I didn't want to spend a lot of money and so had been considering this or this. But I was game for a much cheaper piece that I could spruce up with a bit of paint. And this yard sale dresser was a very good candidate, well priced at $15.

I stepped inside to pay, where I met the owner of the furniture. "You know," he said, "there's a matching piece out there; have you looked at that?" Now this is cheap furniture and my house is already full of hand-me-downs and cheap furniture, and I really am not looking to continue down that path. But when he showed me a matching glass-doored hutch, I couldn't resist. Our baby house has little storage, and my beautiful china and glassware is crammed into cabinets from which it's often too much effort to extract them and they are shamefully neglected. So, for $30 bucks and some glossy Chinese-red paint and new hardware, I think this hutch may be alright. Anyway, here are my yard sale finds:



I'm thinking I want to paint the cabinet for my sewing storage blue like this.


(I'm sorry, I can't remember where I found this. I will be happy to credit it if someone knows--also would love to know the paint color!)

We never made it to the Farmer's Market. We spent the next two hours getting our three new household items home. The big bureau went in the backseat of our convertible (top down, of course), where it towered over the car. The glass door shelf portion went on the roof of our Volvo, and the smaller buffet went in the trunk of the Volvo (sticking out outrageously). I wish I would have taken photos of this; picture the Beverly Hillbillies and you will have a very good idea of how we looked. Great fun!