One woman's quest to salvage the world's castoffs, lock, stock and bauble
Old, unwanted chairs have a way of finding me. This one was waiting for me on the curb outside of my son's apartment building in Milwaukee. Here's what it looked like when I found it. The hunter green was a little dated, but otherwise the chair was in great shape, so (much to my son's …
Hello again, blog friends. To anybody who read Part 1 of what I promised would be a two-part story about our adventure on Grand Cayman back in the spring, I apologize. Somehow, half a year has gone by since I wrote that post. If anybody is still curious about what we did (besides drinking all of …
Continue reading "Vacation | Cayman Islands, Part 2 (More than Margaritas)"
Welcome to Lisa and Jim's Caribbean Vacation 2017. This year's adventure took us to Grand Cayman. Why Grand Cayman? Because I wanted to go to Cuba, and Jim wanted to go to The Bahamas. After 27 years of marriage, we've learned to compromise. Occasionally. Grudgingly. After we've been going eyeball to eyeball for six months …
Continue reading "Vacation | Cayman Islands, Part 1 (Booze and Beaches)"
So I was supposed to be packing and shopping and generally getting ready for vacation today. Instead I made newspaper flowers. Why? Because newspaper flowers don't make themselves, people. Plus, I had this little tray full of silver baubles sitting on my coffee table, and every time I walked past it, I would think, "This …
Meet my new state-of-the-heart bulletin board.This is what it looked like when I bought it (at a thrift store, of course). It had a nice beefy frame that was painted in a neutral cream color -- and the paint was chipping in spots, so there was a little bit of mint green showing through here …
Continue reading "Valentine’s Day | Wisconsin bulletin board"
Valentine's Day decorations are generally not my thing. Most of the mass-produced ones out there are way too saccharine sweet and frilly for me. So this year, I decided I'd make my own Valentine's Day decor: something with a vintage industrial vibe that I wouldn't mind actually hanging in my house. I started with these …
Continue reading "Valentine’s Day | Hearts on a string decoration"
Because all the other bloggers are doing it, I felt that I, too, should offer a Year in Review for Wisconsin Magpie ... So here it is. Let me start by saying, I don't have a whole lotta posts to choose from when compiling my "Best Of" list because I fell off the blogging bandwagon …
For reasons that aren't entirely clear to me, my son decided he wanted a Wisconsin State University shirt for Christmas this year ... which posed a bit of a problem because, as those of you who live in this neck of the Midwestern woods know, there is no such school as Wisconsin State. Apparently there …
Continue reading "Stenciling | A (fictitious college) shirt"
Here's a little train case I picked up at a thrift store ... Except when I bought it, it looked like this ... Cute little case, right? Except for the tragic 1990s floral tapestry. I like to use old suitcases for storage (because a shelf full of vintage suitcases is much nicer to look at …
One of my favorite things to decorate at Christmastime is the hutch in my dining room. Mostly because I get to open this suitcase... Â ... which contains all of this. Nothing says "Christmas" like a suitcase full of shiny baubles. A few of them end up on our tree, but most of them go into …
