Everything Old is New Again...

My handsome hubby made this birdhouse table...

Happy Monday! Because Monday morning (today already?) I am starting my first day at my new job, I thought I would post something relaxing. This bird-house table was built by my husband, as a gift for his mother. Isn't it beautiful? He made it several years ago. He built the fence on the back rather than buying one, as a way to save money. She had cut a picture out of a magazine and asked him to make it, and she loves it!

Some of you might already know this, but we do not have television. We have A television, and we do watch movies. But we don't have fios or cable. And tonight was Superbowl night.

AND even though we didn't watch it last year, we really wanted to see it this year.

AND my mother-in-law is out of town. Yes. Out-of-town. With no cell phone.

So... we made all sorts of yummy food and snuck over there to enjoy the game! LOL. We actually did try to call her, I'm only kidding about that, but we were unsuccessful, so we went anyway. This is what we left her when the game was over:

This is a hand-made card done with fabric and paper Mod-podged to card stock, and we wrote a little thank you note and left a homemade brownie with homemade chocolate frosting (Hershey's recipe!).

So, here's the thing with my mother-in-law.

She and I don't really share STYLE tastes, but we share a love of homemade crafts.

And she is the QUEEN of homemade. She moved up here a few years ago and bought a little cottage and pretty much everything in it came in off of the street.

LITERALLY, the garbage.

Yup, the drawers are from someone's trash. The mirror and ceramics and doily are ALL from a flea market or Goodwill.

These plates above the handmade birdhouse table? Yup, from a flea-market. The lamps are from Dollar General. The embroidered table cover and pink candle holders are both from a consignment shop.

This bookshelf was in her neighbor's garbage. It WAS a barrister's bookcase, missing one door - so she ripped them all off and painted it white and turned it into a bookshelf. The vase? Goodwill. Painted platter? Consignment shop. Cat? The Humane Society. (haha I couldn't resist).

The shelves are old boards she had my husband put up. The dishes she picked up at flea markets and consignment shops. The green spice rack (I forget what it really is) is actually turned & hung upside-down to hold the spices. She picked that up at a flea market.

Her basic cabinets in her little cottage kitchen. One of her daughter's painted them white, and she added the rose cabinet pulls and painted the pink stripe herself.

Other than the couches and rug, this is the only other "new" thing in her living room. This is a child-sized armoire she bought from the children's section and painted it white. It holds her television and other things. You can see the top decor here (ceramic pitchers are all from Goodwill or Salvation Army):

Much of her decor is white on white. And she sews curtains and tablecloths that she changes with the seasons! After my father-in-law died, she went out and bought all sorts of new household things, but she always preferred creating her own personal style, reusing old things. We like to say she recycled before it was cool. But anyway, when she moved here it was her chance to decorate fresh. So she sold her place, got rid of pretty much everything she owned, and started from scratch - having fun all the while.

Talk about creative inspiration!

Well, I thought writing all this would make me less anxious about my new job tomorrow, but I was wrong. But I'm going to try to go to bed anyway. Tomorrow I will show you what I made this weekend!

I hope you get the chance to be creative!