For the price of a tank of gas....

I scored this beautiful pine bookcase....for $50! I'll take that deal anyday. I have no idea where it's going right now, but for that price, it came home with me. And I got free delivery since they had a truck and offered to bring it to my door.
It will more than likely be painted black and since the back of it is just a thin particleboard, I think I'll have a piece of beadboard cut to fit. That will look great! Then a new coat of paint, since I don't have pine in my house. The lady said it's made by Hooker, which is one of my favorite brands of furniture. My hubby thinks I paid too much for it, but he hasn't priced bookcases lately. It stands 6' tall.
Another special bunny found it's way home with me too....$5.
This pretty green floral runner by Williams Sonoma was 50 cents. I really didn't need it, but for that price, I'll use it outside when we are entertaining.
Have a great week!

Chicken Divan

Doesn't that name sound fancy? Chicken divan...

If you're from the South, you grew up with your share of casseroles. Made with cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup, is there any other kind of casserole? You see the 1984 church cookbook above that came out of my Pastor dad's church at the time. The Women's Ministry ladies decided they needed to do a cookbook for a couple of years and I'm so glad I snagged them. It is full of well-loved Southern recipes, good ole' down home cooking and many of them have the above-mentioned creamy soup as a main ingredient. I'm quite sure there are probably some major differences between a church cookbook in the North and the South.

I'm just sayin'. So, are you ready for this Chicken Divan? I have no idea where the name came from, if anyone knows, please let me know. I can see this on a Southern restaurant menu where little ladies go to lunch and chat up a storm. Have any of my Yankee friends (sorry, we just still call ya'll that, old habits die hard you know!) heard of this recipe?

This recipe was contributed by my sister, Renee. I've made it quite a bit over the years. Main ingredient, chicken of course. And cream of chicken soup mixed with mayo. My hubby is not a casserole lover, but he does like this one a lot.
Broccoli layer goes first. Shredded chicken on top of that
Creamy mixture next
Sprinkled with shredded cheddar cheese and bread crumbs mixed with butter.
I serve mine with brown rice cooked in chicken broth.
And it's a cheesy, yummy meal. Your kids would probably like it too. Comfort food at its best.

Here's the official recipe:

Chicken Divan

1 pkg. frozen broccoli spears (I used fresh broccoli & steamed it lightly first)

3 chicken breasts, cooked & shredded

1 can cream of chicken soup ( I added a bit of the chicken broth the chicken cooked in to this)

1/2 cup mayo

1/2 tsp. lemon juice

1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1/4 cup bread crumbs, soaked in 1 T. melted butter (I used Italian breadcrumbs)

Cook broccoli and drain. Arrange in a baking dish. Place chicken on top. Mix together soup, mayo, and lemon juice. Pour over chicken. Sprinkle with cheese. Combine bread crumbs & butter; sprinkle over chicken. Bake at 350* for 25 minutes covered, 5 minutes uncovered.

Eat and enjoy!

Meet Eleanor

Let me introduce you to Mz. Eleanor (with Chi-Chi the Chihuahua)....

You've all heard about Grandma Eleanor and her little cottage house that will be up for sale soon, so I thought I'd show you around their house, where she lives with Peter's mom, Barbara. They've been living together for about 5 years now and they both moved from full houses, where now they are sharing. And that means, all of the stuff that each has accumulated over the years ended up here. They live in a nice new brick ranch garden home in the outskirts of Birmingham. I went up to the attic and took some pics of all the stuff that's stored up there. You've seen the aqua chair, now I'll show you what else is up there. It's a treasure trove.
Pretty little side table, I really like this too.
A few old vintage chairs line one wall.
Original artwork going up the stairs. Eleanor has been an artist all her life and has painted some really pretty things. She has given us a few pieces of her artwork and I have them hung at our house. These are unfortunately wasted in the attic.
More original art. She also has some very nice pieces from her former instructor, who is well known here in Birmingham, from what I understand. That one sitting on the floor was done by him. I have one watercolor painted by him of pears in our kitchen and I love it. Eleanor did the one on top.

An old coat hangs up here and I spy some sort of dresser with mirror way back against the wall in here. I spy her old sewing machine too. You can just see the top of the aqua chair here.
Other side, with a French Provencial dresser and lots of other stuff. So you see, some people really do have treasures in the attic. No one else I know, but definitely Eleanor does. I'd love to really dig through this whole attic and see what else is hiding. We'll go downstairs now and I'll show you some of the pretty things in their house.
This looks to be a Victorian folding screen. Eleanor said her aunt gave it to her. I imagine this is quite old. I love this piece too.
Peter's mom brought this Oriental screen with her. They've both been collectors of antiques for a long time.
As well as this cute pair of chairs by the frontdoor. I of course, love the black and white polkadots on this. I told Barbara I'd love to have these chairs one day. Check out the matching teddy bear. Grandma E also has an obsession with teddy bears and they are all over the house.

Another Eleanor original hangs over the sideboard in the diningroom. I told you Eleanor has a LOT of stuff. Much of it is in the diningroom. Lots of glass and dishes. She doesn't believe in getting rid of anything.
It's sitting on the floor, cause there is no more room to put this stuff away. There is no telling how much valuable stuff she has, as well as a lot of junk.
Every cupboard is stuffed with things. See all the original artwork just leaning on the floor. It's all over the house like that.
Blue and white china and another corner cabinet that is full.
Another screen behind the sofa with yet more leaning artwork. This is Eleanor's art gallery. No more room to hang things on the walls, so it leans....everywhere. And this is ALL original art, not prints.

More art....
Sofa and chair are old Baker pieces that she picked up 2nd hand years ago. Baker is very good stuff. That's a Pembroke table in between.
Another pretty pair of side tables flank the other sofa. Eleanor also loves gardening and is always cutting her roses and bringing them inside.
An old washstand is in the kitchen. So that's a few of the pretties at their house that I thought you might enjoy seeing. My hubby told me his family was colorful when we got married. And boy, he was not kidding?! LOL It's always a circus over there. Our families are polar opposites in every way.
Here she is giving it to Peter about what all she is going to do with HER little house. She wants to go over and spend some time in her little house and she'll decide when to sell it. Yada, yada, yada...you can see he looks really worried about it, ha-ha. Eleanor is very hard of hearing now and wears a hearing aid in one ear, so it's a challenge to communicate with her. She's got a very nice house to live in, so she certainly doesn't need to move over there or stay over there for that matter, but convincing her is useless. Peter's pretty good about keeping her in line though. I'm going to get over there more often now that her car keys have been taken away, to get her out and staying active.

The first time I met Eleanor she told me the funniest story about my husband, Peter. She was keeping him while his parents were out one night. He was 3 years old at the time and she asked him to go and pick up his toys before his parents got home. He looked at her with the defiance of a three year old and said in his little boy voice, "Gammah, I gonna beat yu a$$". Can you imagine...wonder where he heard that one?! I laughed my head off. I can totally see him saying that to her and she has never forgotten it. He still doesn't like to be told what to do.

Like I said, Eleanor is a character.

Black & White Plan & the Aqua Chair

Black and White....LOVE it!

You'll see that I've been busy with the yardsale lamps I found recently. After seeing some rub-on transfers that Manula, at Pleasures of Homemaking, found at Hobby Lobby for her white pumpkins, I got a couple of packages and went to work on beautifying these lamps and they worked like a charm. I'm still deciding on lampshades, but I'm leaning towards covering some drum shades with a black/white fabric...still to be determined and I'm looking for some inexpensive lampshades.

So, that guestroom redo is definitely in the planning stages now. I have been collecting a few things that I think are gonna look fab in there with the black/white damask. You saw the cute little pillow I found at the yardsale for $2 (down too, by the way!). Picked up 2 zebra plates at TJ Maxx for $4 a piece. And a blue pillow sham from Tuesday AM. I think it will go in front of the black/white shams and the accent pillow in front of that. I don't think I'm gonna go overboard on pillows in here. Wall color will be similar to the pillow sham color or in between that and the blue bowl...still to be determined. I was browsing in an antique shop and found the pretty vintage painting for $9. Loved the colors in there & will have to find the right spot for it in the room, it's not very big. And the aqua planter with lime green inside was a Homegoods clearance find for $5 & perfect for my color scheme of mostly aqua accents, with a smidge of lime green. This room is gonna be SO much fun to put together! Just thought you'd enjoy a sneak peek. I'm going to work on it slowly though & not get too much in a hurry. I like to let things come to me. I also snagged some original oil paintings that Grandma Eleanor did of beach scenes, so I think I'll use those in this room.

I still don't have the aqua chair here at my house...gonna have to work on that one with Grandma Eleanor. But I did go up into their attic and take a sneaky pic for you to see. Isn't it the cutest? You see, she still thinks that this chair is going over to the little cottage once the work is done and that she is going to stay there for awhile. That is not the case (she'll get to visit, but no way is she going to move in there), so I'm going to have to tiptoe around this one and not rile Grandma up over it. She was recently talking about how she is going to plant some roses over there. Oh my, the delusions of grandeur! She's almost 90 years old and has no business trying to plant flowers over there, especially for someone else to enjoy.

I do think that eventually she'll let me use it in my room, I just have to let this play out with the cottage and not try to rush it so my redo may take longer than I expected. I took a bunch of pics at their house, as well as more in their current attic and I'll share those with you next. Talk about the stuff, they have got it! While in TJ Maxx, I couldn't resist this big fat monogrammed mug for $4. Always need another to sip something hot from in the coming Winter. That's me and my niece, Lauren, in the pic on my office shelves in case you are wondering.

Just a sneaky peek from me!

Treasure Hunting

Once again, I was out on Saturday looking for treasures. I sometimes try to talk myself out of going, but usually wake up rarin' to go and so out I went again. I'll show you first the things I saw but didn't get. This wicker vanity and chair was $75. Not a bad deal.
And this wicker chair with cushion was $60. A dealer swooped in right after I took these pics and offered to buy them all. I imagine she got a pretty good deal on it. Extra blue/white fabric was on a bolt too.
This pretty old mirror was $10. I passed it up, cause I have mirrors in my closet that I'm not using right now.
I really hit a good sale with about 4 ladies who went in together and they had some really good stuff. I didn't see a price on this little chest, but it was cute.

And at the same sale, here's what I bought:
You know when you have a wish list of things you'd like to find? Well, as usual if I wait long enough a deal will come to me and this weekend I scored on a couple of things on that mental wish list of mine. I almost bought a firescreen at Tuesday AM at their last sale for $50, but decided to wait. Boy, am I glad I did. This heavy iron screen was $5 and I love the simplicity of it. All it needs is a fresh coat of black satin paint and it will look lovely in my livingroom.
And since I happened to have some black satin spray paint around, I got it done in time to show you. It's a great addition to the livingroom.
This really old vintage suitcase was $2. I snatched it up fast for that price. This thing has to be really old.
Check out the inside. It's a very cool piece! I decided to add it to the top of the entertainment center along with the globe I found last year at a yardsale. That vintage travel thing...
This little square planter was $1, a vintage tin look.
And check out the black/white shade that will go in the new guestroom redo. It was brand new with the tags still on and I got it for $3. I wasn't sure it would work with my current lamp in there, but it does! Now I can figure out what to put on the other 2 lamps I found at the yardsale last weekend. I will probably cover my own shades.
Pretty blue pillow was $2 and will also go in that room. Much prettier than this pic shows. It has been so much fun to see what I can find at the yardsales to redo this room on a budget. I'll show you on my next post some of the things I have found for this room so far. The hunt has been fun!
Now, this looks like a jumbled mess of fabric. It's really several large pieces of fabric which someone used for curtain panels (hemmed on one end), I have no idea how much is here, but I'd say about 10-12 yards at least. It needs a good washing, but I got it all for $5. And what will I do with it, you ask? Well, I may end up doing a slipcover for the chair and ottoman in that room so this will be perfect if I do have to do that. For that price, I couldn't pass it up. And if I don't use it, I can resell it later. It's a creamy white with an embossed pattern of squares and has sort of a lineny texture to it. I will be showing you Grandma's aqua chair in my next post and I'm still hoping to use it, but this will be my backup for a slipcover just in case I need it.

Now, wait til you hear the next story! I saved the best for last. On my wish list was an outdoor fountain to put on the brickwall next to our new patio space in the backyard. I know those fountains cost a lot of money, but I figured one of these days, I'd save up and find a deal on one. Well, this weekend was the deal. And the BEST PART?! It was free...yes, you heard me....FREE! You can't get any better than that, people. I went to one last sale on the way back home and these 2 ladies had some really great stuff. I didn't need any of it, but I was looking at this fountain and it said "make an offer". So we chatted about it, I asked how it all went together and I kept looking around. She came over to me and said, listen...if you want it, I'm just going to give it to you. I was going to ask $25 for it, but I am moving and just need to get rid of it, so if you can get it home, it's yours! Didn't have to say that twice! It's VERY heavy, some sort of cast concrete product and the back part where the lions head will mount is copper. It's got some age on it, but is just gorgeous.

I went home and got my big, strong hubby...he was gracious enough to drop what he was doing and come with me to get it. I have SUCH a good hubby. So, now it sits near the patio and I will work on getting this fixed up for next spring. I have plans to landscape this area next year. Can you say WOO-HOOOO with me?! I am SO excited! I got him home in plenty of time for the Alabama/Ark. game. Roll Tide, we won!

Needless to say...it was a very good thrifting weekend!

If you get Better Homes and Gardens, do not miss the article on one of our very own, blogger/designer, Joni of Cote de Texas. There's a really nice feature on her house in the new October issue. Take a look at French Texas. Congrats Joni!