Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens...

... Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens

Brown paper packages tied up with strings

These are a few of my favorite things...

When the dog bites

When the bee stings

When I'm feeling sad

I simply remember my favorite things

And then I don't feel, so bad...

Okay, so maybe those things aren't exactly my cup of tea, well, except for perhaps the whiskers on kittens, who doesn't love that?!

After yesterdays post about all the Kijiji treasures that I couldn't have it made me think of the 'treasures' I have in my own house that I'm in a perpetual love cycle with. These are a few of my favorite things (Or, shall we say, 'Good Things' - Thanks Martha)

First up today, freshly acquired for the landpretties yesterday:

a Victorian Parlor Table, complete with coordinating cat (Yes there is also one in the window):

This cupboard doesn't get nearly enough attention around here, it's an old jam cupboard (we use it to store Little People ;)) that we bought at Aberfoyle two summers ago:

Telephone table we bought from an antique yard sale in the county, complete with eight legged stool we bought from the landpretties:

Old decrepit barn window without the glass (who needs glass?!) that I got from a flea market:

Victorian chair we were given by the landpretties:

Antique dresser with tilting mirror, wooden knobs, and wooden casters (This is being cremated with me. Seriously. I had someone offer me $90 for it the other day and I turned them down, Mr. Pretties wasn't thrilled) I was gifted this from the landpretties. You can also sneak a peek at my pocket door, I love that thing, that's the only reason we live here:

This is a corner cabinet that I got from a barn sale. Literally a sale where things stored in a barn on a farm were pulled out for people to dig through. LOVED it. It used to have a mirror in it but it was all peeling and needed to be re foiled, so, I pulled it out. Who needs a mirror, or, umm... glass for that matter? Not me.

The lady wanted $20 for this peeling piece of crap (The paint was majorly peeling and gross). I said $15. She said no. I walked away. I came back and I said $18. She said hells no, she'd already lowered the price for the day and I was lucky to get it for$20. I said what a bloody rip off for such a piece of crap and stalked off in true b!tch fashion. On the way to the car I handed Mr. Pretties $20 and told him to go back and buy it for the $20. I'm such a loser. :

* Say Hi to Grandma and Grandpa Pretties, they hang out in that cobalt jar up there, once in a while I take the jar down and give them a shaking, you know, so they don't get bored in there.

Lastly is my antique washstand. This was the first piece of furniture Mr. Pretties and I bought together. We bought it at a garage sale for $20 and thought we were getting hosed large (we didn't know what it was) but as it turns out it is far more valuable than that. Please note, it used to have two doors as well. Mr. Pretties doesn't comprehend that antiques may be delicate, thus slamming them is clearly a stupid idea. Honestly, would you go about body slamming a 90 year old man?! I thought not. Thus commenced the lesson if you slam antique doors they crack in half and are irreplaceable. Uh huh. Let me tell you, that happened five years ago and he stills hears about it...:

Check out how fab the original hardware is, it looks like a mask:

So those are a few of my favorite things. I seriously could have posted a million more pictures, but, again, I understand you're humouring me and I've done this to you two days in a row. Sorry about that.

Hey now, if anyone does a 'favorite things' post on their blog PLEASE comment with the link so I can see your favorite things, this one sided relationship is hardly fair!

I also have a new quote:

"aww, the inside of your brain would be so cute...like little dancing squirrels, cartoon unicorns, and pink sprinkles..."

Aww... Thanks... I think...

I Think I'm In Love...

... with this Fantastic Website.

A great commenter left me the link for it and I love it! I have never actually seen a tin type album, so although wedding pictures may be the creme de la creme of black and white photos, tin type albums are the be all and end all of all photos. Love them! Mr. Pretties and I will be having a serious discussion about my birthday present that I still haven't received from him, and how I think a tin type album may possibly make up for it... And what's better? They ship worldwide. Doesn't get much better than that! I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to bid on some marvy old thing only to find the every popular 'Ship with USA only'. Crap. I think this pretty much signifies that it was meant to be, no?

We'll cover abandoned houses tomorrow, okay?

Cupcakes, Roving, and Sales - Oh My!

We should all be so proud. My cupcakes arrived as I said, and I made them into clips ;) Only two though. We'll see how they go on Etsy because I spruce up the other two. I think they're cute... but I'm not buying them so my opinion is neither here nor there. While I was in create mode at 3am this morning (Mr. Pretties is working nights and I cannot make myself go to bed at night, it's becoming a problem) I thought I'd try to felt an alligator clip. Why you ask? Who knows. It was one of those random thoughts like 'Hey... if I felted this here alligator clip I bet it'd look all cute and felty like! We could pretend it's 'earthy''. So I break out the hot water and dish soap and I try to cover this thing in moss green roving. Do you know what it looked like when it was 'done' (Read: When I was tired of trying to make it look cute and earthy)? This: No. That is not a hair ball regurgitated by Wilma (aka 'The Boss'). She's too good for things like that, didn't you know? No, it's actually a funky/earthy hair clip, can't you tell?! Yeah, just looking at the picture is making me feel a little nauseous. Both because it's a really bad picture (Have you come to the conclusion my camera sucks yet?!) and because it's super ugly. It does however smell like lavender dish soap... possibly the only thing going for it at this point. Note to self: No more 'creative' thinking past, say, 1am. The results are not pretty. I sort of feel bad for it, and kind of responsible for it's grotesque appearance so I can't seem to throw it away...



I have this old window/mirror frame (Not really sure... if anyone knows drop me a line)

and again, if anyone knows how to fix this sideways picture issue, other than expecting me to remember not take pictures this way, let me know. So, I have this old mirror/window frame. It had no glass or mirror. It's only about 2'x2.5' and was $5.00 at a flea market a few months ago. I had no use for it and nowhere to hang it, but I just couldn't leave it behind. It's been moved around my house numerous times since then, never finding a spot that felt 'right', several places that felt 'mildly acceptable until further notice' but just not 'right'. 'Right' is important.




I was discussing this piece on the Etsy chat lastnight and there's a shop owner there who sells really cute vintage/antique stuff like this at http://www.mountainvintage.etsy.com/ :

Honestly, how cute is that?! I could marry it! Anywho... she had this great idea to use it has a bulletin board! Did you hear that?! What a great idea, why didn't I think of it?! It'll be so easy too and very unspendy. I just need some cardboard, foam/batting, staples, some black satin ribbon, and some black and cream toile. It will be stunning and then it will go in my kitchen and serve a purpose. I haven't done it yet, I need to obtain myself some black and cream toile first, but I just know it will look 'right' and I'll be able to sigh a sigh of relief. I really hate it when I have cute things that don't seem to work anywhere. I tried to explain this bulletin board concept to Mr. Pretties. You can pretty much imagine how that went. Something to this effect. I love it because you can really feel the love.

Me: 'A girl on Etsy gave me this fantastic idea about what to do with that old frame on the mantel'

Mr. Pretties: 'Throw it out?'

Me: 'Uh... No. Don't be rude. She said I should make it into a bulletin board! I could cover it with black and cream toile!'

Mr. Pretties: 'What's toile?'

Me: 'It's fabric don't worry about it. but-'

Mr. Pretties: '- I don't have time to go to the fabric store today! I have to sleep you know, I have to work tonight!'

Me: 'Did I say we were going to the fabric store today?! At what point did I say that?! And you have to work? Do you know how much work Etsy is?! Do you!? Pshh... never mind, when you wonder why I stop telling you things this is why!'

Mr. Pretties: 'You're going to stop telling me? Why didn't I think of this before! I'm a genius!'

Uh huh. Whatever, that's what I was thinking. As I said, it's all about the love. Some how Mr. Pretties has a brain wire malfunction that we're working on that makes him think when I say something it means we need to be doing it immediately this second or the world will come to an end. It's a little bit annoyingish. But we're working on it. But, my bulletin board will be fabbity fab, I can tell because I can see it in my head ;)

I added more new clips to Etsy lastnight and this morning and out of that came 15 sales! FIFTEEN. I'm so glad it's for clippies I already had made and just have to make the packaging and cards (Have I told you I really wish my clip cards were here already?!) tonight and send them out in the morning which is awesome! I'm so glad customers liked my new clips as much as I did. I have to say I'm a little bit sad about the pink and brown scrapbook series going. I sort of had a personal attachment to them. I'm sure their new owner will love them as much as I did. She bought all of my pink and brown clips in fact, atleast I know she appreciates the whole pink and brown thing as much as I do :) That's sort of important. I personally like these new shiny ones:

I still have to make clippies tonight, I was wrong. I bought a whole whack of new stuff to incorporate into some OOAK clippies. I tried to get some really fun pictures but my camera is having major attitude and didn't want to. That's okay, it'll look cuter when I'm done. As a preview I have tiny pink glass tiles with initials (think monogrammed clippies), silver tiles with initials that look really fancy, bees, flowers, blue rhinestones, and some new ribbon. I have a vision for the pink tiles (Both for a furniture project as well as a clippie!) and I'm anxious to get on it. That wont be happening until Mr. Pretties is off to work and The Little Pretties are off to bed. So, let's say sometime tomorrow. Or never. I'll work something out. I'll try to stop crafting before 1am though. No one should have to suffer like that again...

Who Needs More Old Furniture?

Certainly not me. But, since when does need matter? I scored some pretty great old stuff this weekend, but we'll get to that in a little while.

I want to share a couple shops I came across today that I thought were really nice. This first one http://www.tannerglass.etsy.com/ really cheered me up this morning! I wasn't my normal cheery-silly self while I was lurking the Etsy forums and came across this shop. There's something about these vases that just make me want to smile. They're just so sweet and cheery, I can picture them sitting on my window sill in my kitchen making me smile all day long. Well, not all day long... despite popular belief I do not spend all day eating. I know that idea may not be easy to dispel after letting you all know that I split my pants. Trust me though, it's really only like 3/4 of my day.... Suzanne also makes the cutest blown glass Christmas/window ornaments, you know, the ones that look like witch balls (Not to be confused with felty balls, totally different feeling) or friendship balls, or whatever. They're just so pretty and whimsical and give you that cutey-sweet feeling all over. Love them. I will show Mr. Pretties her shop at Christmas time and let him know he can pick anything from there. He will then pick something entirely different from an entirely different shop (non-Etsy at that) that I've never in my life expressed an interest in. Men.

Another shop that made me smile today was http://www.signsbydiane.etsy.com/ Her stuff is so shabby chic, it's just exactly my style. If I had my way I'd have one of these signs in every space in my house. Okay, we all know I have no spaces in my house. But I would make one. I love things like this. I don't know what my attraction is to things that look old and worn, but they just feel 'right' and cozy. I could look at something like this everyday and never get tired of it. I think I get tired of new shiny things way too easy because they have no charm, no story, nothing. They came off a conveyor belt in China and sat on a shelf. That doesn't really sound like something that deserves a lot of attention or appreciation to me. I think you need to at least sit around for 80-100 years, get all cruddy looking, peel a bit, fall apart a bit, and then can you be appreciated. If you can't manage that, then at least pretend and go for the 'shabby' look. I can handle that.

So as I was saying. Remember that garage sale the land people were having at that ungodly hour? The one I was cursing? Yeah. Well it didn't really go so good. It went so poorly in fact that they were so fed up of carting this same stuff back and forth to the antique market that they were either chucking, or donating a lot of this stuff. Have I mentioned I like donations? I really do. Alot. So this sweet little baby has parked herself in my dining room now (I'm an idiot, if anyone knows how I can flip these pictures without photoshop or anything, please, do us all a favor and let me know). It's really beautiful and much shabbier in person. I even need to epoxy the drawer pulls because they're striped. Love it. The mirror is all nice and filmy from being old like. Who needs to see themselves?! It's actually not quite that bad. She's such a beauty... not to mention a free beauty. That makes me love her so much more. Not to mention I loved her last year at the antique market and almost bought her for $60 then which was a great deal. But I didn't. Thankfully no one else did either ;) Mr. Pretties brought her in from the rain on Saturday (Garage sale got rained on) and I just stood in the kitchen and stared in appreciation. Both of the fact that she's such a beaut, as well as the fact that I got her for free. What a great feeling!

Saturday we were supposed to be on a mission to obtain another window shaker. We got two blocks away and spotted a street sale. We pretty much stopped garage saling when we got the Buick (No, not a nice Buick. An 11 year old Buick Park Ave that's like a really big luxury thorn in my side). For some reason the Buick makers (Yes, I said Buick makers because I'm not looking up who makes them, you can though) are under the impression that persons who drive Buicks do not 'do' garage sales. Or flea markets. Or antique shows. It does however have a very nice peek-through hole thing in the back seat that would be splendid for, say, skis, or golf clubs... apparently we are not well matched with our vehicle. But, to get back on track here, we went to this street sale. As soon as we turned the corner I saw this: complete with this:

This cute pair had no price tag to be found. I do not ask prices at garage sales, it's part of my person-phobia or something. I just assume it's too expensive and move on. Mr. Pretties was feeling generous and said he'd go ask for me. Sweet. The man told him they got it from his wife's grandfather and that it was... $25. With the chair. Are you kidding me?! You had me at 'my wife's grandfather' but for a mere $25?! Clearly we need this. I especially love that it's that great pukey green colour! We of course, being the knobs we are, had no cash on hand. For some reason garage sale people don't accept debit. So we made out way up the way too crowded street to the bank where I probably walked as fast as I have in the past three months. I got my monies and we sped back to the sale. I see the man putting a sticker on it. Crap. It's sold. I was just going to walk away and assume it had been sold. I'm ambitious like that. Mr. Pretties insisted I go check. Totally not sold! Just a price tag! But there is a woman admiring it and waving over the man. Oh no. She's concerned that it appears that this piece should have a mirror on the back and doesn't... she'd give him $10 for the damaged goods with the chair since he's clearly going to have to haul it to the dump otherwise. Who is this woman?! Obviously she has no taste at all. So I pipe up with 'I have the $25, I'll take my set right now!' to which the man was very happy about and the woman gave me dirty looks. Sucks to be her. She only wishes she has this extra piece of furniture taking up valuable space in her house! My 'swank' tv stand is going to Aunt Pretty's this month so I'm going to use it as a tv stand. It'll be cute and it'll match the rest of the decor that Mr. Pretties hates so much. Love it.

I also got this really pretty satiny pale blue fabric from the land people. It's at least vintage, if not nearing antique (ignore Little Pretty's feet, they're neither vintage nor antique, although they are pretty cute). I'm not entirely sure what I will do with it. There's a fair bit there, like, five or six yards. Sweet. I think I might make some fancy pillow case dresses. Hmm... something about fancy and pillow case dresses in the same thought doesn't go well... They'd be super cute though, and I'd have to line them. I do not like lining. I'd also have to use my sewing machine because of this... on second thought I might rip it up and make some blue and brown ragamuffin flip flops instead, those would be cute. Did I mention this fabric was also free? Yup, I cleaned house this weekend. I feel so proud! I also feel so cramped since I have three large pieces of furniture dominating a very small room that already is housing a fireplace, a small wardrobe, and an arm chair. Notice this is my dining room and I have yet to mention a table or chairs. They're currently hanging in the basement. I have no room in my dining room for dining apparel currently... I can't figure out why... I wish Mr. Pretties would stop insisting we allow all these pieces of antiquated art live with us... he's such a soft heart!

I got my cupcakes today!!! Yay!!! I like that kind of mail (You know, the kind that doesn't come with the opening line 'you have a balance owing...'). I also completed three new sets of clips that I'm pretty partial too. The pictures are really bad. My camera was running out of batteries and simply did a half-rear-ended job. Then died before I could do the third set. Or get pictures of them in actual hair. I listed them anyway, I'll change the pictures later. They're actually pretty in real life.

They're both pink grosgrain on a wide chocolate brown satin ribbon. The one on the left says 'Cherish' on a shiny silver plate with clear rhinestones and the one of the right says 'Princess' on a silver metal heart with a pink rhinestone. Can't wait to get better pictures because they look really garbagy here while they're actually so cute. They're part of my 'scrapbooking' theme. I have a nice purple set too that's neat, but we'll have to wait for them. Wow. I can't believe how horrible these pictures are. They didn't look this bad when I uploaded them to Etsy. Maybe they did and I was in denial. Stupid batteries!

I didn't make cupcake clips today like I intended. It was crafting time (aka nap time) when Mr. Pretties showed back up at home... an hour after he left for work. What the?! He was supposed to work nights this week (God help us all) but switched for afternoons because he does not do nights. Plus with being in the two week wait of birthing the Little Boy Person I don't like being home alone at night (I have middle of the night babies) and the thought of bringing a newborn home while trying to keep two toddlers quiet so Mr. Pretties can sleep is even less appealing than ripping out my own toe nails. Plus, Mr. Pretties isn't so... pretty? when he works nights. In fact it's been discussed that he should remain in a hotel for the entire week since he makes the rest of us horribly miserable. So. He had switched so we could avoid this whole issue. He went to work for 2pm. Work changed the schedule and 'forgot' to inform Mr. Pretties and he is in fact on nights. Oh.My.God. So he's trying to get a few hours sleep before heading into work for the night. The Little Boy Person has been strictly informed that he absolutely cannot make his debue this week at. all. I hope he doesn't take it personally. It just wouldn't work. Mr. Pretties hasn't worked nights in over a year. We are not used to this and it has not been pleasant so far. The pretties do not understand the concept of 'quiet'.

So Here We Are...

Hi There!

If you're reading this Blog then you must have heard about my 'No-Slippy Clippies'! Here you can read a little about me, what I'm currently creating, and what crazy things are going on in my house. Lucky you, right? Nows your chance... you can still turn back...

If you're still here then here's a little bit of info about myself. I'm a mom to two little girls and soon to be little boy (August will be a crazy month around here!).

I torture my girls daily by experimenting with new hair clips, and it is a known rule that unless there are dire circumstances we do not leave the house without having hair pretties. I used to be able to convince my 3yr old that we needed these hair clips because her hair 'looked like a birds nest' (Poor thing inherited her father's milkshake-thick/brillowy hair) now when she seems me coming armed with the brush, an ouchless (yeah right) elastic, and a the hair clip box she quickly runs away screaming 'No birds nest mom! I'm fine!' And ofcourse my 2yr old sees this and has also decided hair pretties are not to be had unless you go down fighting first. The neighbours probably think I issue morning beatings on a daily basis the way they go on about it. Once they have their appropriate clips in place they'll be the first to see 'Look Dad! I Pretty!' No thanks to me ofcourse. And we'll still have to have this fight tomorrow. Oy.

I have a blast making MMPretties but, I have a hard time selling the pretties because I form attachments to them all. Yes I form attachments to inanimate objects. This is just the tip of the iceburge here. We definately keep more than we sell, but I take the time to put love and personality into each clip, especially when I'm making it for a specific person, I want them to love it as much as I did. Sort of like finding a home for a beloved pet that you simply cannot keep because Animal Control is already high on your tail about the urban zoo you're already housing. I love getting feedback on these guys, so any ideas you have to change them up or improve them please don't hesitate to let me know, even if you think they suck. Someone has to, this isn't a perfect world and neither are my clips. Sometimes the fact that they're all hand made is lost on people. I'm not a robot, I do not have machinery that is set up for a clippie making assembly line and I just push the bottom. I try to make each clip as perfect as humanly possible, but again, I am human so it wont always be perfect, but it'll certainly be pretty!

In the next few months I hope to add a few of my other hobbies on here as well. I hope to be able to stock my 'boutique-style' burp cloths, trendy wipe containers, and frilly tutus. At some point I may punish you all by incorporating my scrapbooking fetish as well.











In addition to torturing my kids with fancy hair thingies I'm also obsessed with the antique market and all that entails.
In a perfect world I would spend my weekends garage saling to find beautiful old things that exude character followed by hauling them all up to the antique market where I would single handedly pair each beautiful old item with a new owner who will love and cherish them even if their paint is all full of things like lead and they've been hanging out in someone's basement for the last 60 years. It's would be a very noble practice if you ask me. But in reality all that leady/musty/chippy bunch of antique goodness would end up in my house. We would have to move because there would be no room for us. Thus, I am not allowed to make the antique market my business.

I think that about sums it up for now, especially since I just spent over an hour tweaking the layout of this post and it's pictures. That was a lot of work. For future reference my future posts may not be nearly as colourful or interesting (Or not?) as this clearly eats away from hair clippie making time!

Hopefully I'll have MeaghanMariePretties.Etsy.Com up and running shortly and that'll take care of the pictures aspect of my posts!

Thanks for taking a look and I hope to be supplying you with something ridiculously cute to adorn your little ones head! (Hmm... is that weird?)