WWII Love Story...

These sepia hued pictures are of my grandparents, Maupin and Catherine Cantrell. My grandmother was from Tamworth,England.
She and my grandfather met while he was stationed there in WWII.
They married at Tamworth Catholic Church. Grandpa was wounded during the war and spent time in hospital in Scotland,where he said the nurses were quite lovely! (This was before they married) After the war grandpa returned home to Louisville,KY to be discharged and to save enough money for Grandmother to sail across the Atlantic into his arms. All 4 of their children were born and raised here but with an appreciation for all things English. All of grandma's siblings came to visit or live at one time or another. And I have sweet memories of the Cadbury candies that my Aunt Frances sent my brother and I until her passing. Chocolate buttons, Flakes and Pastilles-all things that you can now find in our local Irish gift shop or order online!
What wonderful memories...

Santa Claus is coming to town...

                                                                                                                                              
Hey everyone! Only a week and a half until Thanksgiving but I can't wait to decorate for Christmas!
I have been working on adorable baskets that you can use as centerpieces or hang on the wall or front door.

This Jolly Old St. Nick sits in a beautiful St. Petersboro basket surrounded by candy cane striped ribbon and ornaments.

Check out the new Country Living Home Collection. Shop online with Kmart Design.

Check out the new Country Living Home Collection. Shop online with Kmart Design.

Trash to Treasure

My husband found this bathroom cabinet along the side of the road. When I first saw it I couldn't see the potential. But then I thought-ok-I'll give it a coat of shiny black spray paint. And I started to see what it could look like when it was done. I remembered that I had this great fabric leftover from another project-just enough to staple to the inside of the doors! Yep-I was lovin it now! The candlesticks on top are from a house built in 1871 in Georgetown,IN (you guessed it-free). I epoxyed china plates to the top and then placed a candle on each one. I found antiqued tags at a local store that I love: Past and Present by Michelle in Salem,IN (50 cents a piece) added a rusty star and rusty jingle bell (from PPbyM) and then placed rag balls on top of greenery from my yard into a basket!
Voila! All done and I love it! It makes me happy each time I look at it! All together I'd say there is less then $20 invested in this piece!!

Vintage Cameras are fantastic!!

I LOVE anything with a history...
Each time I find just the right camera at a tag sale or flea market I get so excited thinking about who it once belonged too. Whom they took pictures of? How much it cost to buy it new? How cherished a piece it must have been...

As you can see from this photo I love to make vignette's! A silver tray,antique books and a picture of my grandfather and his family from the 1920's on my 1914 pedal Singer sewing machine table is just perfect.

Celebrating Home with Style

Celebrating Home with Style

Handmade Ornaments

My friend Lisa and I had a great time making ornaments
last Saturday. We let our creativity go wild!!
Polka dots,stripes,rub-ons.rhinestones,paint and paint pens! And the ribbon-couldn't you just buy a roll of every color,pattern and size! My favorite to work with on any project is wired ribbon!
We will be selling these and handmade gift tags and center pieces at an upcoming vendor show!

Milk can and baby carriage

When I saw this old milk can at a garage sale a few weeks ago for $5.00-I nearly knocked over the lady next to me to grab it! I had found these great branches for a $1.00 the week before! (It was meant to be!) I placed bittersweet pieces onto the branches for a pop of orange/fall color.Then the following week I found something that I had been wanting forever! An antique doll carriage!!! Since Halloween was around the corner I decided it put 3 (LED) candles inside and a sprig of just picked bittersweet. Creepy...

Vintage Vignette

This vignette is on top of my entertainment center.
I bought 3 bottles at a yard sale and added Martha Stewart labels to them.A beautiful pumpkin ($1.00 at a garage sale) sits atop a collection of antique books.
A shabby candleholder has the perfect gourd on top.
And a silver skull is surrounded by greenery! An antique baby shoe rounds out the scene...

I copied this idea from Martha Stewart. I saw it on her show years ago

and knew I had to try it. I bought a gourd at our local farm stand, scoured it with a bleach and water solution and dried it off. Then my husband used a dremmel tool to make the opening. I bought rub-on scrapbook letters and applied them to the opening! A black crow from the dollar store makes it perfectly creepy!

I also elevated it on a cake plate. I love cake plates and stands for everything!

A sprig of fresh picked bittersweet spills out of the opening...

To complete the vignette I placed beautiful ceramic pumpkins on 3 white (garage sale) candlesticks,put a piece of silver and a glass paperweight on to finish it off!

Hoosier Cabinet dressed up for Halloween!

I used antique mason and ball jars filled with orange and yellow Halloween candy to get the pops of color that I wanted. I found these great placemats in Madison,IN with a reversible black/white stripe and orange candy corn on them! I hung a grubby candle on the door, put up a spooky Halloween menu and added leaves and gourds. My favorite thing is the wire wheel-barrel (50 cents at a yard sale) filled with gourds and Jack-be-little pumpkins!

Flea Market Finds...

I recently found this adorable vintage tricycle planter at a flea market for $12! It's so cute I can't stand it!

Cinnamon Rolls-need I say more?

Celebrating Home with Style

Hi everyone-

I have changed the name of my blog to reflect both of my passions. Selling Celebrating Home and finding and fixing up vintage finds.
Today I am going to show you more of my finds and share a recipe!

First, I'm so excited that I have a new recruit for my business! She is going to do great and I'm excited for her to start making money and filling her home with beautiful things! If you'd like to do what I do please contact me. You can start your own business for $149! And be making money within a week!

But back to my latest finds:
This beautiful wrought iron two tiered planter was just $15 at an antique store in Louisville. I knew right away I wanted to fill it with moss and faux Easter eggs! When the weather warms up I'll move it outside and fill it with petunias.

This piece has been with me for along time. Matt found this in the trash years ago. It was brown and had a horrible fabric on top. I gave it a white wash treatment. (Watered down paint) I took off the top and recovered it in this raspberry toile (I love toile!!!!). Then I added this raspberry trim with a hot glue gun! I tossed on needlepoint pillows and set antique china on a double cake plate in the same color scheme to complete the vingette! It makes me happy just to look at it and it provides extra seating when needed! You can do the same thing with a similiar find!

Well, I will leave you today with my famous Banana Pudding Recipe:

2 pkg. instant banana pudding

2 cups whole milk

2 cups half and half

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 small container heavy whipping cream

2 cups powdered sugar

1 box vanilla wafers

2-3 bananas sliced

*Mix pudding and both milks on high until blended add vanilla.

Pour this mixture into a separate bowl. Into your cold mixing bowl pour heavy whipping cream and beat on high until stiff peaks appear-add powdered sugar slowly until incorporated. Fold whipped cream into banana mixture. Slice amount of banana you prefer into the pudding and fold into mixture.

Line a beautiful bowl with vanilla wafers. Pour in pudding and top with a layer of sliced bananas and then a layer of vanilla wafers. Place plastic wrap on top and put into refrigerator for 4+ hours.

This is banana heaven!

Enjoy! And remember:Celebrate Your Home Today...

Shannon

It's snowing again!

It's snowing again. Not good news! School buses don't do well in snow and ice. But I made it just fine this morning.


Here's that pot roast recipe:

2 1/2 pound chuck roast (any roast will work)
1 bag of peeled baby carrots
1 8oz. pkg. of mushrooms
1 onion finely chopped
36oz. of beef broth
1 packet onion soup mix

*Turn your crock pot on high and put in a crock pot liner (I LOVE these things-no clean-up)

Place all above ingredients into crock pot and dinner is done when you get home from work! (8 hours)

I always serve mashed potatoes and yeast rolls with this dinner!
Always a favorite!!

I am pricing yard sale items today. We are going to the Georgetown Optimist Club on Saturday (we will have a booth) for their yard sale. Starts at 8am!!!!

The Weekend...

I went to see Shutter Island with my mom and Catie Saturday night. Really boring...Was hoping it would be suspenseful and scary! Yesterday I played bingo (Celebrating Home) and won some great prizes (I'll post pics soon). Then I went to the funeral home. My friend Ann was my next door neighbor growing up and her father passed away. It was very sad...

On an uplifting note, I am making pot roast tonight. Another family favorite and I will post the recipe later today. Gotta get back out there and drive that school bus! Yee-hah!

Have a great day...

Oh P.S.- The yard sale was rescheduled to March 6th that was supposed to be this past Saturday. Bummer...

TGIF!

I'm working hard on getting information out there about my Celebrating Home business. I've been spending about 2 hours+ a day on it. Hopefully I will see something start to happen soon.

We are off to my mom's tonight for dinner. She's making my favorite:
salmon patties! And broccoli casserole-Catie's favorite. I'm bringing a yummy salad with all my favorite things:eggs,cheese,bacon and homemade croutons from fresh bread! All of this is low cal of course (wink).

Tomorrow we are hitting a yard sale at Georgetown Elementary School! Come on out-it supports Relay for Life! I'll post pics if I find any good bargains.Next week there is a yard sale at the Optimist Club in Georgetown. I am planning on setting up a booth there! Watch for pics.

Well-I'm tired and need a little rest before dinner. I'll let you know the recipes soon. I've been asking mom for years to write them down!!

Hoping the stinkin snow melts soon!

Shannon

Will it ever stop snowing?

We have about 8 inches after last night's snow on top of Sunday's. We are off school today-I think this is our 5th snow day since January. But, we still have to eat so I put on chicken and rice in the crock pot yesterday. My family's favorite!

Recipe:
3 to 4 boneless,skinless chicken breasts
2 cans of chicken broth
Place in crock pot on high for 6 hours (tear chicken with a fork)
In a bowl combine
1 can evaporated milk
8oz sour cream
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
stir together and place in crock pot
*let the mixture heat up (about 30 minutes)
then add 4 cups of instant white rice
It will only take about 20 minutes more to be done
Enjoy a steaming bowl of this creamy,hearty dish!


Well that's my tip for today! A nice comforting meal.
I am also going to share some trash to treasure pics of things that my husband and I have done around our home. I'll start with a couple today!

Our beautiful china cabinet was found at a garage sale about 2 miles from our house. The lighting even worked inside. The back is mirrored and one piece (the middle) was cracked. Matt made a template on butcher paper and took it to our local glass store. Guess how much for the new piece of glass? $18. So, for a total of $21 we have space to store my mother's wedding china, wine glasses and so much more. (Matt installed the new piece of glass)

I had been wanting a table big enough that we could have my whole family over. But we just were'nt having any luck finding the right one. Matt found a "top" from an old desk at a local Salvation Army for $15 and he already had legs that he had found during one of his trash picking forays. We painted it solid black. We also painted my great aunt's chairs she had given me. I then recovered the seats and made little slip covers for the backs. I used 2 Waverly napkins per chair (from Target and Ebay) with a simple straight stitch. Then-you won't believe this! Matt found a pew bench in a dumpster a few weeks later and you guessed it we painted it black and use it for seating at the table!
Let me know if you'd like any more details on either of these projects!

Decorating in the snow,

Shannon
            

Day 1

My name is Shannon Dorgay and I adore so many things about decorating! So many ideas run through my head each day that I thought I'd share them with you here and see if I could find some friends. Friends that share a love of yard sales, flea markets, antique shops, history, gardening, family, cooking, crafts and so very much more. My first love is digging for those hidden treasures that I can turn into the next great piece for my home.

I just joined a fabulous company called "Celebrating Home". It lets me use my creative side on my own time and terms! Visit my website at

www.celebratinghome/52281318 to see some of our fabulous items!

My goal each day is to surround myself with beauty, creativity, wonderful smells (whether it's a cinnamon candle or chicken and rice in the crock pot)! I try to do something creative each day- scrapbook a page or two or make a card for a friend. But my absolute passion is decorating my home near the Ohio River in Southern Indiana! The thrill of the hunt really gets my adrenaline going...

Let me tell you about my wonderful family! My husband Matt and I have been married for 16 1/2 years. We have 2 great kids, Catie who is 14 and helpful and talented at tennis and art. And Drew who will be 11 in a few weeks, he is into sea creatures and mythical monsters (Lochness for instance) and he is such a talented drawer as well. I am blessed beyond measure that I have a loving supportive family.

I am going to post pictures of my home on my blog, share my favorite receipes and little helpful tidbits. My friends call me the Martha Stewart of Southern Indiana but more on the low budget,do it yourself,trash to treasure end of the scale!

I want to hear what you would like to hear about my life. So please post comments! Be gentle-I am very tender hearted!!

For today-"Home is one of the best words in ANY language"

Hugs-

Shannon :)