Happy Thursday...

Alice and Elsie (aka "me") is setting up at it's first antique (junk) show in September so I've been busy accumulating vintage goodies and making business card-handout type things for my booth.

The show is a "juried" one which means that I have to be approved before they'll let me in to sell my wares...the "jury" is still out... (ok, I'm still waiting to hear if I've been approved). As soon as I hear I'll give you more details to the show...and if I'm rejected then I'll be too humiliated to ever mention it again!

I ordered some scented geraniums and they arrived yesterday...I was instructed not to transplant them just yet, they apparently need to get over the stress of traveling. I got Chocolate Mint, Grapefruit, Lemon Meringue and Lady Mary (which is sort of a citrusy-minty scent). I'm so excited and damn they smell good!

Ancestry Fun...

I started tracing my dad's family tree a few months ago...I wasn't sure how to go about it but got a membership to Ancestry.com and jumped right in. I found that it's easiest to split the "branches" so I'm basically tracing my Great Great Grandfather's family and his wife's, my Great Great Grandmother's, family. Surprisingly the tree is very very clean...French Canadian all the way back to the immigration from France (except for my Grandfather who muddied up the water by marrying a full-fledged Swede...who also happens to be the "Elsie" in Alice and Elsie...and of course I'm joking, my Grandmother was an exceptionally wonderful woman!) And I have to mention that it's clean to the point that they appeared to have all been from the same two cities in France before immigrating to Quebec.... I wonder why?

Obviously it was very beautiful...this is a picture of "Old Quebec City"...which has been touted as being the Canadian version of our Ellis Island, probably why they all ended up there right?

The tricky part, I'm finding, is the change in the spelling of the last name when they then move from French speaking Quebec to the English speaking US. It becomes a "phonetic" spelling which makes it very hard to find death records. My Great Grandmother's name was Marie Celina Dauphinais according to her (French) birth record. Her Father's name was Godfroid Dauphinais and her Mother was Hermoine Rivard. Those names, on the tombstone inscription in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, now read Lena Duffina (Carpentier-married name), Godfrey Duffina and Ermie (Rivour) Duffina respectively. Lucky for me I found the cemetary in which they were buried and will be heading there to find the Duffina family (although I prefer the Dauphinais spelling). I will post pictures if I'm successful in finding the grave markers (I believe Lena's husband, my Great Grandfather, Hercules Carpentier is also buried there) but it sounds like there was some moving of buriel sites so I may not have any luck.

(Old Quebec City pictures nabbed from this website: http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotos-g155033-w3-Quebec_City_Quebec.html#1604479)

I keep teasing my sister that if I go back far enough in France we may find that we are related to King Louis or one of the King Henry's? Wouldn't that be something...better polish my crown!

A New Adventure...

I've been trying to get my house in order...I think it's coming along nicely. I've mainly been painting everything in sight, like this old mirror...

and this old little cupboard (love this color!)...and...I've decided that it's time to turn Shelby's room into my official studio because Alice and Elsie is growing...(or at least I hope it is...)

I've been working the same job for 16 years, I used to absolutely love it but now I'm really just burnt out...so...Tom and I have been working on a few ideas that will hopefully allow me to cut down on hours and eventually quit altogether so I can once again do something that I absolutely love! I've got the ball rolling and am busy doing all my homework and applying for all the stuff I need to have to operate an "official" business in Minnesota. I'm a little anxious and a lot excited about this, it may not pan out but I'll regret it if I don't give it a try. I'll tell you more as soon as I feel that it's a little more "real" ...so...if you don't see regular Trash to Treasure posts or my Etsy store goes empty, you'll know why! Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Busy, Busy, Busy

{SIGH}...we've had such a busy day! I was up at 6:30 to make Matt a big carb-filled breakfast before his track meet. We got him out the door and headed to the State Fairgrounds for the Spring Flea Market...we wanted to get there by 8:00 so we'd have a least 2 1/2 hours to "pick" before having to head to Stillwater for the track meet. Matt wasn't in his usual two events due to time constraints (today is his High School prom) so the one and only event he was participating in was taking place around 11:30. In order to make it across town in time for the race we needed to leave the flea market by 10:30. Here is the loot I scored while quickly browsing through all the vendor booths...I was quite pleased with my findings despite the hurried pace!

A girl can never have too many religious items right?

Lots of vintage trims, an old honey? jar and a trolley car ticket book...

Love these old pins...and I have to tell you a quick story about the metal childs cupboard in the background...it was marked $2, couldn't believe the price...the vendor had another one very similar marked $24. Why the difference I thought to myself. I went to pay and the vendor was horrified at the price, he got it at a garage sale for $2 but meant to change the price to $22...he gave it to me for $5. Boy did I get lucky!

We were out of there promptly at 10:30 and quickly drove the 30 miles to Stillwater High School. Matt's 8 x 200 took place around 11:45 (I was so nervous that I would miss it!)...that's him just finishing handing the baton to his teammate. As soon as he finished we high-tailed it back to Woodbury so he could eat lunch and get ready for prom. We were supposed to be at his date's house by 1:40 for pictures...well, that didn't happen.

I didn't think I would get as emotional for his prom as I did for Shelby's but standing out in the yard taking pictures, well I have to admit, I teared up quite a bit...I didn't actually shed a tear but I sure had to fight them back. We went to his date's house for pictures (we were only about 15 minute late...not too bad.) Her parent's are pretty well off, their house was unbelievable and they let Matt drive their BENTLEY (yes, I said they let a 17 year old drive their BENTLEY) to the school for the Grand March. Her father assured me he drove very slowly (it sounds like they may have followed behind him in another vehicle). I love his date and her parents are wonderful. They'll be eating dinner tonight in her father's restaurant in Minneapolis (hope Matt doesn't spill on his tux!)
After the Grand March Sebastian went to play at a friends house so Tom and I ran back to Roseville to finish looking through the flea market goodies we didn't get time to look through this morning...here's what I picked up in round 2.

I am completely exhaused (as is Tom)...we were supposed to go to our neighbors 50th birthday party but we graciously declined the invitation...the only thing we're going to do tonight is plop down on the couch and watch The Hurt Locker.
Oh, and one more thing...Happy 15th Birthday Jordan, we love you!

Trash to Treasure Tuesday #7

This week's trash to treasure project is something I've been wanting to do since last spring. We found this adorable little table/desk at a garage sale for about twenty bucks. It was in terrific shape aside from the water marked and worn finish. We orginally bought it thinking it could be Sebastians "art table" since he's always doing his thing at the kitchen table...well it's been a full year and we still haven't managed to migrate him to this space...

I decided on a nice antique white satin finish...it's Glidden Quiet Light to be exact. I put on three coats to make sure it looked pretty... And here it is all finished sitting nicely in the family room...

I love the antique hardware...

Do you think we can get Sebastian off the kitchen table now? No, you're right, probably not. That little project turned out so well I decided to paint this little cabinet pink...Benjamin Moore Soft Cranberry...

Wonder what I should paint next?

A Quick Break...

This weekend Tom and I really got to work on the house and yard...I had a list longer than my arm of things I wanted to do and I think we probably got half of them done. Saturday morning Tom ran an errand (went to get Modano's autograph) and I ran an errand (went to Bachmann's in Minneapolis for the "Gathering of Friends" antique occasional sale...love those kinds of errands!) My bff Jane told me about it so I thought I'd check it out...so so so much cute stuff, there was an old cupboard type cabinet that I wanted for (maybe) a TV stand...I wasn't sure it would work and it was a little pricey so I wanted to get Tom's opinion before I decided so I headed home with this pile of goodies...

Tom was working on replacing the hardware on the front door when I got home...told him about the cabinet I saw and let him know I wanted to go back with with him later to check it out... In the meantime, I got to work replacing the floral draperies in the family room with some lighter, airier Rachel Ashwell curtains...what a chore that was! Patching holes, measuring, drilling, painting...whew! I sure wish I had thought about getting "BEFORE" pictures...
I painted a shelf, painted an old table we bought last year at a garage sale (you'll see pics of that on Tuesday), patched and painted more holes in various places throughout the house (thanks in part to my constant "re-decorating", washed all the bedding and put away the flannel sheets (don't think we'll need those again until December), washed the couch cushions, raked some leaves...THEN...we jumped back in the car and headed back to Minneapolis. By this time I had thought about the cute cabinet so much that I KNEW I wanted it, figured I could talk them down on the price a little bit and was so excited to get it. When we arrived I started leading Tom to the booth, as soon as I got it in my sights I noticed the cabinet had been SOLD! Argh! I was so disappointed...we found it up on a dolly ready to be loaded into the lucky ladies truck. Oh well, I guess it wasn't meant to be, Tom tried to make me feel better by telling me that it was too tall for a TV stand...maybe I'll find something like it somewhere else right?
By this time we were so exhausted we stopped for pizza (how strange it is for us when it's just the two of us) then went to the movies. I figured since I had Tom working so hard all day I'd let him choose the movie...alas, we saw Hot Tub Time Machine. I guess it wasn't so bad.

Today I finished painting (Tom slept until 10:00) and tried to clean up some of my mess. Tom finished raking leaves and put out my birdhouse...now all I need to do is paint the pole to match the fence.
Lucky Tom took tomorrow off work to go to the Twins inaugural game at Target Field...hope the weather is nice! I'll be back at my list after work...still trying to figure out what I'm going to do with the huge vintage screen I got a Mustard Moon a few weeks ago. I think I have an idea...

Home at last...

We're back from our Florida vacation...much tanner than we are in this picture (this is only day two of the eight day trip). I'm sorry to say, for those of you looking for a "Trash to Treasure" post it won't be happening this week...I've been much too busy with 784 loads of vacation laundry and trying to get myself back in the swing of sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day to even think about a trash to treasure project. Hopefully next week???
Another reason for my lack of a trash to treasure project is that I've got this uncontrollable need to re-decorate my house. I'm hanging new curtains in the family room (which means plastering holes and dragging the paint out to retouch the repairs), I'm replacing all the rugs by all the doors, I'm painting furniture, re-arranging furniture... AND...I'm driving the hubby nuts! The biggest problem I've run into is finding a rug I like for the front entry way...I've got piles of them here that now need to be returned to their respective stores because they didn't work out for one reason or another. Anyone got any good ideas where to get an informal shabby sort of rug for an entry way?
I'll be posting more pictures this week of my journal (and yes, I actually journaled daily, surprise, surprise!) and of the fabulous shells we found on Honeymoon Island...you know, shells really stink...even the ones without the little critters. We've got all of ours soaking in a bucket of bleach. Can't wait to get them all cleaned up!
That's all I've got for now...vacation was absolutely fabulous but it's soooo nice to be back home!