{Sweet Finds}

Tis' the season for garage sales and antiquing! We're only one week into June and yet we've already scored some great deals over the past few weeks! 

 Recently painted and re-covered bench $10
Our first garage sale Saturday of the season left us with this lovely addition to our bedroom! I even thought Chris was going to need to haggle for a deal, but when it was marked at such a great price, we decided to snag it as priced.

Antique kitchen scale $24
Exactly the piece I've been looking for to add some vintage flair to our breakfast nook. Found at a cute vintage shop inside a local nursery.

Over-sized Mason jar $9.96
After borrowing one just like it from a friend for my baby shower, I was determined to get my own awesomely large Ball mason jar! After scouring Ebay and finding a few with outrageous shipping, my mom stumbled upon this one at an unlikely place: Walmart!  Who knew? While not exactly a garage sale or antique find, it's equally thrilling to happen upon that exact item you've been dying to find!

How about you, find any awesome deals lately? I love hearing about great finds!

Summer Fun

It turns out, we're creatures of habit, because this weekend last year we did the very same thing: had a garage sale and attended the state fair! And I'm happy to report that both were just as fun and successful this time around! Plus it feels so wonderful to have purged a bunch of old junk we no longer need and de-clutter our "extra" rooms! And now we have a little extra money to put towards the nursery. You can't beat that!

Hope you're having a merry Monday!

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Summer Weekend

Happy Friday, lovelies! Any fun happenings this weekend?

Our plans include:

Date night at our favorite sushi place and Toy Story 3 (that boy sure does know the way to my heart!).

Having a garage sale, which is so not as fun as going through other peoples junk. But the extra cash and de-cluttered home are always a bonus! Plus, Mom and I might try to sneak away for a bit to hit the farmer’s market.

Then, the State fair! We are indeed braving the brutal triple digits and the crazy crowds on opening weekend since it's our only free weekend for a while.

Not that I'm complaining because the next few weeks include a trip to San Francisco and Napa for Mom's birthday, camping with the extended family and a visit to the Midwest for my cousin's wedding. I love this time of year!

Have a lovely, summer weekend!

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Great Finds

Happy Tuesday! What's up with my lack of a Monday post these past weeks? Man, oh man, I've been busy! And I don't like being one of "those people", you know, the people who are always too busy. Thankfully this is only temporary. But on to other fun...

This weekend was a blast! Garage saleing was officially a success! I really wanted to take some pics of the cool stuff we snagged, but alas, there was no time. We spent a grand total of $27 and got some things we have really been wanting such as, Eat, Pray, Love. Remember me talking about wanting to read it before seeing the movie? Well, $1 later, I can! We also bought this brand new Verm wine holder from Ikea (also $1) that we say we want everytime we shop there, but never buy. It is currently filled with Pellegrino as our Pottery Barn holder is storing all the wine we have at the moment. It looks quite lovely if I do say so myself! We also found a stemware holder for under our cabinet to hold our most used wine and champagne glasses (instead of them being stored in our laudry room!), an apparently awesome Christmas tree stand (Chris is super excited about this one), a step bench (yes like the ones in an aerobics class) because it's useful for at-home weight workouts and it stores easily under our bed, and a bunch of other goods I can barely recall at the moment.

Sadly, I was unsuccessful finding any vintage green Pyrex, but the season has only begun and I would say we more than made up for it!

Happy Weekend!

Happy Friday Lovelies! I am full of cheer and ready for the weekend to begin! Why all the excitement you ask? Well, tomorrow is officially the beginning of garage sale season! If you have been reading for any amount of time, you know I LOVE garage sales. Tomorrow is one of three weekends of the year our surrounding neighborhood puts on a huge coordinated cluster of garage sales. There are literally several per street!

I am still on the hunt for a few vintage pyrex pieces to add to my small collection. Remember this post? Otherwise, I'm just lookin' for a good deal on hidden treasures. Can't wait!

And speaking of being on a hunt, lately I am dying to find a great chai dessert recipe. I was thinking brownies or muffins of some sort. Ever since Pinch My Salt announced she was baking up some banana chai muffins the other day, I've had a huge craving. And since she says the recipe needs some work before she posts it, I'll have to wait to try her creation.

In the meantime, have you got any outstanding chai recipe you would like to share? I would love if it could be semi-healthy... :-)

Have a positively delightful weekend!

Off to a Great Month!

Merry Monday to you, Lovelies!I hope you had an extraordinary weekend!

Ours was quite event-filled, but absolutely full of wonderful people and fun! As I told you Friday, we had Jeff and Becky over for homemade pizza and Gran Torino. Great night, despite my minor fisaco with the pizza dough:) It is so refreshing to have people over who love our pup as much as we do:) I think she bonded with them while they dogsat her the week we were in Hawaii for our wedding. This picture makes me laugh! All night she was attacking Jeff with kisses! I'm so glad you two are dog people!! We had so much fun!


These Dahlias are like a kiss from summer:)


We spent Saturday morning with my in-laws:) We went to Awful Annie's for breakfast (YUM!) and then did some garage saleing (no surprise there!). And that evening Chris and I had the best date! We had dinner at Sarritella's, one of our favorite restaurants (with much history for us) and enjoyed some delicious pasta, wine and the best bread sticks that come with peanut butter on the side! And for part two of our date night we packed up dessert, champagne and some blankets and headed to "our park" to watch Charade on our portable DVD player:) Talk about a great, romatic night with my husband! We were up on a hill that offers a spectacular view of the sunset as well as the lovely Saramento evening breeze:)

My hubby at Sarritella's:)



Our yummy dinner!


Excited about our dessert and movie in the park!


The lovely hilltop sunset:)


Strawberries, mini cheesecakes and champagne!



And finally, Sunday was spent in San Francisco with my darling friend, Lael. While we hung out, Chris went to the Giants game with some guys:) Basically it was a great day for all parties involved:)!

We started the morning at a wonderfully delightful bakery called Tartine, where Lael and I both ordered the Almond crossaint and a latte! I must say the 30 minute wait in line was so worth the delectible sensation our taste buds received when we took our first bite of this pastry in the park! No lie, the best almond crossaint I've ever had! So worth the "splurge" calories!! With all the walking we did though, I'm sure at least half of it was burned off;)

We spent a good amount of time at Anthropologie, where I FINALLY bought this dress I've been wanting for several months now and it finally went on sale! I'm still giddy about it:)

We ended our day at Golden Gate park with more walking:) Our intention was to rent bikes, but by the time we got there, the Giants game was over and Chris was headed to pick us up...bummer, but I cant say we didn't have a lovely time together.

Oh, but I can't forget the other treat we had! There is an ice cream shop called Humphry Slocombe that serves some really unique flavors like Breakfast surprise (Bourbon and Corn Flakes) and Salt n' Peppa. After trying several, I ended up getting Pineapple 5-spice and Coconut. I know, compared to some other flavors, mine were so boring, but absolutely delicious!

I don't know what's wrong with me, but again, I didn't take ANY pics of my time with Lael. She is sending me some from her camera, so those to come soon:)

I am so lucky to have spent time with two of my closest friends the last few weeks!

And on a semi-random note, my Mom is finally coming home tonight after visiting our family in the Midwest the last 2 weeks!

I hope August has started out wonderfully for you!

Bargain Hunters

Who doesn't like a good deal?

Doesn't matter the source, a good sale, coupons, and my personal favorite, GARAGE SALES!! For as long as I can remember, my parents and I have been huge fans of garage sales. We used to wake up early on a sunny Saturday morning, stop at a local doughnut shop and head off in search of some unknown treasures! I think half the fun is finding stuff for practically nothing, even if you don't particularly have a need for the stuff you buy, which happens on more occasions than I care to count:) More than anything though, it is the whole experience of it. I just love being with my family. And now that Chris has joined the clan, there has been a whole other element added to the kinds of things we look for and I love it! I'm pretty sure it was a requirement that the guy I married enjoyed them as much as we do:) I sure got lucky!!

While the deals were far and few between this morning, I still came home with a few good things and I only spent $17!

*I got an awesome decanter for only $3!!
*A bundt pan (which I have been wanting to buy for a while) for $0.50! Used maybe once or twice.
*A cool painting of an Orchid for our future guest bathroom:) Oh yeah, for $2.
*A fun pineapple shaped votive holder for outside. (Chris really wanted this)
*A few fun books, candle holders in a fun green color and the cutest half pint milk jug (I'm gonna use it as a vase in my kitchen!)





You know, now that I think of it, many of the big pieces in our house are either from garage sales or Craig's List. I could seriously make a business of it:) Not to brag, but I have a talent for finding cool pieces and fixing them up. Well, at least for telling Chris how I want them fixed:)

As I write this post, my darling husband is planting our herbs:) I had a difficult time figuring out which ones I wanted this year. We just don't have a ton of space. After spending about an hour at Lowe's this afternoon, we finally decided on basil, mint, chives, rosemary, cilantro and Chris threw in a red bell pepper:) Man, I can't wait to have my own little herb garden, and lemon tree and ... basically I can't wait for a house!

Here's a pic of one of my pots. The others are scattered in their own pots on our patio.



Well guys, I should probably go help my hubby:) Enjoy the marvelous sunshine!! Much Love!