A Southern Belle with Northern Roots/Junkflirt

How is your magazine habit?
And...has it been effected by Pinterest?
I love magazines, I have some favorites saved from years ago.

I keep a stash of my favorite food ones with my cookbooks. Food Network, Bone Appetite and Tea Time are a few I have a hard time getting rid of. Many special issues from Taste of Home are also nestled in.
I have found over the years some publications get better and some get much worse, at least acccording to my tastes.




As time goes on my piles actually get smaller and more specific.



My husband has his pile and I have a place for currant issues.
We get most of them at very discounted rates, with Coke rewards and refusing to pay top dollar. I find only a couple I would pay $20 a year for- the rest I can live with or without.
Especially since Pinterest hit the scene!
I can look through a magazine and quickly decide weather or not it will have stay power, it better wow me or it is going back on the shelf.
With all the recipes and decorating tips, photos and blog posts, I would say my magazine habit has been reduced by 75%.



The one place I find I will spend the money is a good bookazine! Those $10-$15 no ad publications that fit exactly to my life style. Vintage Style and Flea Market mags are the best! This latest Spring 2013 is full of ideas, even compared to Pinterest.
I guess I would rather have a good lightweight "book" than a years full of ads and half interest articles.

So the question I would like to know is
Has Pinterest effected your magazine, book, or cookbook buying? If so how?


My favorite mags-
Flea Market Style
Vintage Style
Mary Jane's Farm
Food Network
Taste of Home
Romantic Home
Food and Wine
Tea Time

Yours??






blessings and thanks for visiting

We just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary!



Our daughter threw us a surprise party with our friends and what a wonderful surprise it was!

That same daughter is as of today, 74 days away from her wedding....so we are planning and crafting.
Going with the vintage theme....what else?! I was so glad she decided to go that route since we can pack up half my house for decor.



Buttons are one of the themes, we are using collections we came across at garage sales and new ones at Hobby Lobby. Not my treasured Grandmother's buttons though.
 Here is the bride to be, crafting away.




 And here are some of the button flowers we are making.



We worked hard on collecting pins, broaches, earrings etc to make her bouquet and her bridesmaids, we have a few more touches and the mounting left to do.




Is it a wonder why my shabby room looks so shabby and messy!
We will be using large displays of over sized coffee filter flowers in washtubs, since the venue is a large open space we will need to create smaller eye catching areas. Ours will be more detail oriented than big over all wow factor. We also have some old doors we plan to make a photo booth out of and are still searching Pinterest for ideas.



For corsages and boutonnieres we are also hand crafting, since we are not going with real flowers we were pretty open on what to do. Once again at Hobby Lobby I came across calla lilies that were on clearance. Walked by them a couple times over a couple weeks.....and when it hit me I needed to make boutonnieres I ran back hoping they would still be there, and they were, woohooo!
Already sold as boutonnier/corsage, I had to disassemble them because the style just wasn't the look we wanted.  The above shows what we are going with.

Here is the interesting part....those same flowers that were on clearance....are now full price in the bridal aisle. Yep, same flowers, same maker- exact same- were full price and clearance in the same store at the same time! It saved us over $135!!



The white and gray pillar displays were bought on clearance too, at the same store and will be used for cake table display, so now....they are on the mantel.....

so....wedding is slowly taking over my house and my life, but that is ok


because before you know it, it will be their 25th! and God willing our 50th.



  Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 1 Cor 13:4-7



If you have a wedding post with tips, tricks and decorating would you include a link to it in your comment, or share it on facebook page!






Open House Party
Feathered Nest Friday
Vintage Inspiration Friday
What's It Wednesday
WOW Us Wednesdays
Vintage Thingy Thursday
Time Travel Thursday
Treasure Hunt Thursday
Creative Things Thursday
Share Your Cup Thursday 
Home Sweet Home
Funky Junk
Home and Garden Thursday
Shabbilicious
Simple and Sweet Fridays
Potpourri Friday
Be Inspired
Cowgirl Up
Tabletop Tuesday
Show and Tell Friday
Sunday Showcase
Old Time Party
Rustic Restorations 
Nifty Thrifty Tuesday
Lovely Crafty Home





blessings and thanks for visiting

Hey Everyone!
If you have a minute, click on this link to see the first of two cake making installments I filmed with Tracy Briggs of the Forum. In this video we made a peanut butter and jelly cake that looks more like a sandwich than a cake, and the above popcorn cupcakes.
Next Thursday we will talk about home made fondant and the center cake above.

Video Link



If you haven't checked out North Dakota Kitchen I would love to have you stop by.
An combination of ND Kitchen and a touch of Southern Belle w/ Northern Roots can be seen at Vintagenorthdakotakitchen.areavoices.com
and you can friend me or and on Facebook!!







blessings and thanks for visiting

It may not be crate and barrel, but wire baskets and wooden crates give my home the comfy decor I want without much expense.


I use wire baskets on my cookbook shelf to break up the solid "book shelf" look.


Tucking in treasures like vintage blue Ball jars....




 and giving a textural element, this introduces an industrial or commercial feel. The basket above can also hold your favorites and when it comes time to search for a recipe, you can simply grab hold and tote it off to another area of your home.





 A sturdy old milk crate is shown here holding firewood.



 outside planters turned vegetable wall art- practical and pretty.


I use crates for storage in plain sight. Some like the ones below are purely decorative,


    while others have a purpose. In our small bathroom I use them for extra storage of soaps, toothpaste and tp.


This combo is a book rack, a towel rack and the underneath holds extra items that are stored away unseen.


One of my personal favorites is my crate wine rack.





What do you use crates and wire baskets for?


Open House Party
Feathered Nest Friday
Vintage Inspiration Friday
What's It Wednesday
WOW Us Wednesdays
Vintage Thingy Thursday
Time Travel Thursday
Treasure Hunt Thursday
Creative Things Thursday
Share Your Cup Thursday 
Home Sweet Home
Funky Junk
Home and Garden Thursday
Shabbilicious
Simple and Sweet Fridays
Potpourri Friday
Be Inspired
Cowgirl Up
Tabletop Tuesday
Show and Tell Friday
Sunday Showcase
Old Time Party
Rustic Restorations 

























blessings and thanks for visiting

Back to the simple. With the holidays over, the sparkle set aside and the baking resting peacefully on my rear, Winter sets in.
  I remember when I was a kid, that countdown for the holidays.....
we could still have a Christmas tree in school then. We could sing Away in a Manger, we knew Good King Wenceslas, we even exchanged gifts by drawing names in our classroom.
Santa came every year to the VA Center and we all got a bag of nuts with an orange and an apple, and we were thrilled to get it.
 Families gathered and meals were shared, distant relatives stopped in for a visit, it seemed to last such a long time. It was a Christmas Season, with New Years nestled in, everything seemed to stop and say....celebrate! Get together. Rest.




I wondered, what is it that makes it seem so different now.
so fast
gone in an instant
Is it just that I am older? That my kids have grown? Did I loose the anticipation?
The joy of Christ's birth is to be celebrated daily, not just in a day....I know this. Yet, I long for that feeling of being a child enveloped in the holiday magic. What is different?


Do I perhaps glamorize a by gone day?
 A day with down town shopping, rather than malls, small local shops with bells that rang when you entered. Displays in the window about Christmas, not merchandise and sales, stomping the snow off your winter boots and shaking the winter chill before setting out from the five and dime to the local hardware store.



 Was it knowing you had to get everything for dinner before the grocery store closed because you sure couldn't get it Christmas Eve.
Perhaps living in a place where so few relatives are, I miss aunts and uncles, cousins and grandparents gathering to the smell of bacon while the rustling of wrapping paper tries to drown out conversation.

Did I forget to slow down?
Did I focus on wrong things?
Am I just expecting too much?
It is not the let down of holiday blues, not even the dread of cold, gray winter days ahead, or even as much the willingness to be caught up in commercialism that wears on me so. It is the seeming loss of a simpler time.
Things just moved slower, more deliberate, thought out or with purpose if you will.
My grandmother may have said..."what?" Maybe it was all fast for her too.
Yet I can't seem to shake the thought that we all move too fast now.
We have so much to do and seem to accomplish so little.
My grandmother worked harder than anyone I knew, generations of past did. It isn't to say people don't work hard today, they do.
I just wonder why we fill so much of our time here, on the computer, looking at things that soothe us, inform us, waste our time even.
Why we fill every day of the calendar with something to do as if life itself had nothing to offer of it's own.
I am the worst waster of time, and I hate that.
Maybe that is why the season of Christmas passed so quickly. Did I forget to hold on to all it had to offer by filling it with things I had to do?


How does life get simple?
Go ahead and laugh here.....what a concept. Life is never simple, but how is it more peaceful, more satisfying? How do I find the magic again?



I could RESOLVE something new. I know- another New Years resolution to be but broken.
Funny how that goes, always something to better ourselves, the world around us, our time, diet and money.
All broken
tossed aside
forgotten
when life sets in.


I could resolve to rest. Not physically.
I could resolve to rest. Not emotionally.

I resolve to rest....spiritually.

To be still and know that God is God. That all things are in his hands and that he offers more than I could ever plan for my day.
You see, I forget that in life, crazy life that moves so very fast, my only rest and peace is in God. Did I know that as a child? Not really.

 But as a child life happened around me and I experienced it. I was caught up in what the day had to offer not in what I had planned for the day.
Now as an adult I can rest in what God has planned for my day, I can chose to be caught up in seeing his glory in all things.
Even in slow, silent things.
Even in things I would not wish for.

I can be caught up in the majesty over the magic.

Open House Party
Feathered Nest Friday
Vintage Inspiration Friday
What's It Wednesday
WOW Us Wednesdays
Vintage Thingy Thursday
Time Travel Thursday
Treasure Hunt Thursday
Creative Things Thursday
Share Your Cup Thursday 
Home Sweet Home
Funky Junk
Home and Garden Thursday
Shabbilicious
Simple and Sweet Fridays
Potpourri Friday
Be Inspired
Cowgirl Up
Tabletop Tuesday
Show and Tell Friday
Sunday Showcase
Old Time Party






blessings and thanks for visiting