kdottie designs

ROSE BOWL FLEA MARKET - REVISITED

We went to the Rose Bowl Flea Market while we were in LA attending Dance Ex and packing Ashley up for her move home for the summer.  I titled this "revisited" because we have attended before and I blogged about it, so I didn't want anyone to think they were reading the old one.  Whew!  Did that make sense?

 

 Al-righty then, are you ready?  Let's go!

Actually, I must confess - I didn't take very many pictures because I was so caught up in the whole thing!  But here are a few:

 

I looked all over the flea market for egg cups but couldn't find any!  Either they are really popular and they are all sold out or they are really NOT popular and no one carries them anymore.  I don't use them - I just collect them.  But not this time!  So I had to buy other things.  

But before showing and telling you all that,I'm going to show you what Ashley's car looked like when we loaded it all up.  Isn't it funny when you are buying things you think your car is bigger than it's actual size? I think the three of us rode back to Ashley's apartment with something or another poking us in some part of our bodies!

And a closer look - can you guess what we bought?

After the drive, we unloaded the "goods" in the garage at Ashley's apartment.  This is Ashley with the wash tub I bought to plant flowers in to put on our deck.  It's great because it has a drain and a stand that it goes on.  (See blue object in photo above).  In this picture, Ashley has it on her "grocery -getter". That's what we affectionately named the basket that she used in NYC to carry her groceries home to her apartment - remember NYC= no car!  Who knew it could be a "flea market getter" too!  I can't wait to plant beautiful flowers in the wash tub!  I'll take pictures to share.

The next picture is the chandelier that I am going to hang in the gazebo in the back yard:   in the car - in the wash tub. Hey, space was at a premium!

And in the apartment garage on the very dirty floor:

The next things I want to show you are stools that I have been looking to find for a long time. I have even thought about painting them myself, but just couldn't get up enough nerve to actually try. But now, no worries - I found them!  They were painted by an artist for a interior designer who had them in her home.  But, as we all do with things, she got tired of them and now they are mine.  And I got them so CHEAP!!!  I took these pictures after I got home.  The legs need to be cut off a smidge because they are too tall for our bar in the kitchen.  So, they are just random pictures.

Here are the painted tops:

 

A close up of the leg:

After buying all these goodies and shlepping them plus Ashley's bags of things she bought and Mark's stuff he bought through the flea market at CLOSING time, we just happened on the greatest find ever!

Glistening in the sun and calling my name ("Caren, Caren, come over here, buy me and take me home") was the MOST beautiful carousel horse.  I hesitated, but with the encouragement of my favorite (and only) daughter, I broke the silence and asked the lady - "How much for the horse?"  Holding my breath, the lady hesitated and said, "Normally she is $140.00" (I was about to say, I'll take her) but then she continued, "but it's the end of the day, you can have her for $40.00".  I screamed 'SOLD" as Ashley and I jumped up and down like 5 year old school girls - uh, make that 3 year olds.  Mark just stood there, smiled and shook his head.  His reply was, "it's a good thing we have a moving van coming".  So the horse joined in our parade of "wonderful things found at the flea market".

I must say, I wrapped her in so much bubble wrap - I'm sure the bubble wrap cost twice or maybe three times what the horse cost.  My parting words to the moving men was to protect that horse with their lives....no harm better come to her.  Enough said!!!  I waited until she arrived at home and was freed of her bubble wrap to take pictures.  Hold on to your hats...she is soooo pretty and what a price!!!!!

The only problem is she needs a name!  Can you think of one?  I'll send you a little something if I pick the name you enter.  Wouldn't that be fun?

I had to take a picture of Ashley's carousel/rocking horse we gave her for her second birthday.  Her name is Julie:

And then of course, the rocking horse we found at the Ventura Flea Market on another trip to visit Ashley couldn't be left out:

How many more horses do we need for a complete carousel?   Hahahahaha! 

 Don't forget to comment on a name and also sometime between now and Sunday, I will be blogging about my other random giveaway!  There is no reason for it, it's just because I want to.  So now you have two chances to win - well, at least two.....one for the horse name and two or MORE chances on the random giveaway.

Thanks for sticking it out to the end of this very long blog.....it was a good day at the flea market!

Have a good night and a better tomorrow!

xoxoxox,

caren

I'M A LUCKY GIRL!

Usually I am not lucky at winning things with the exception of the $9.70 win on the penny slot machines in Las Vegas (see previous post).  However, I did win BIG the other day when Kris from tresbelle-tresbelle.blogspot.com e-mailed me to say I had WON her giveaway for her 100th post!!  

I was over the moon!!!!  How could that be, I never win anything.  But I did and what a win it was!  She sent me the most absolutely beautiful book, "JUL".  I love it to pieces.  However, it is written in Danish and I can't really read it but I don't care - I love it anyway!

I thought the Bon Ami flag was appropriate since Kris loves all things French and she is my friend!

Here is a close-up of the front cover:

Want to take a peek inside?  Sure you do!

Hope you don't mind I added a few things of my own on these pictures - I didn't know I was so cool and had a lot of the things that were in this book. Wow, Kris!  Thanks for showing me I really am "with it" - at least in Denmark and where ever else they speak Danish!  LOL

Beautiful mercury glass:  (I added the acorn)

Great little glass vases for beautiful flowers:

Jomfru Maria - Virgin Mary:

This is my favorite since it has a rocking horse in the picture.  I love rocking horses and carousel horses which one day soon I will post about the horse I bought at the Rose Bowl Flea Market:

 Isn't she pretty?

This next picture is about the Fuglen.  Fuglen means bird.  For some reason, I decided to translate (thanks google) the words on this page.  In short - Fuglens are seen as a messenger from God.  It also said that for some "CRAZY" (yes, that's what it said) reason, fuglen ornaments have recently become popular again.

I hope to someday have time to translate the rest of the pages. In the meantime I will just look at the pictures and make up what I think it is saying.

Kris also sent Ashley and I some of her wonderful French tags.  She knows Ashley will be going to Paris to study in the fall and added them in with the book.  Isn't Kris the sweetest most thoughtful person?

Please visit her blog - she also have gorgeous hat boxes in her etsy shop!

Thanks again Kris and the random generator for making me feel lucky!

xoxox

Caren

p.s. If you are feeling lucky or would maybe like to take a chance on winning something - keep checking back this week for my giveaway.  I will post pictures soon!

PINK "VIVA LAS VEGAS" SATURDAY & upcoming giveaway!

HAPPY PINK SATURDAY!  I am so excited about returning to PS after being gone for awhile (business trip, moving daughter home and cross country road trip)!

I decided to blog about all the PINK that is around Las Vegas....we stopped there on our way home from LA. So, hold on to your poker chips....I have a lot of pictures of an amazing amount of pink found in Las Vegas.  Every time I found something, I would yell "PIIINKKKK" - Hubby and Ashley were ready to disown me!  I finally got them into the spirit of things and then it became  - well it became just stupid!!!!!

We'll start off very angelic - we stayed at the Venetian and this is the ceiling in the lobby:

Don't you see the pink?

 

Just walking down the street (That's Ashley and no, she didn't know I was crazy Pink Paparrazzi)

You see:

Beautiful flowers everywhere:

Of course after just a bit of walking, we were hungry and had to eat at Serendipity - which just happened to be PINK!  They have one in NYC which is not quite as pink.

They are known for their frozen hot chocolate - it is yummy!

and BIG!!!!!

Let's go inside, okay?

I guess this is Queen Serendipity herself - at least that's what I named her.  Looks like she's sitting on her tuffet!

It's soooooo PINK in here!!!!!!

Pink Lamps:

Pink Chairs:

Pink stripped wallpaper and the GREATEST CLOCK EVER (p.s. it was always 3:00 in there)

The waitresses even wear PINK:

 

Remember that HUGE frozen hot chocolate?  Ashley had one! I had a little bit of it......oooooooh, so good and tasty!

Please notice the lady's arm at the other table - she was kind enough to wear PINK too!  Thanks, lady! How did she know to dress like that??

I think it's time to go outside and see what other kind of "Pinks" we can find!

Ashley and Hubby just "chillin" after eating that frozen hot chocolate:

Oh, and here's Ashley and David Spade - he has a Pink background!  Did you know he is the brother-in-law of purse design diva - Kate Spade?

What are you looking at - shame on you!  I was photographing that little girl on the left in the pink jacket!

Meanwhile, back in the hotels - we have manequins wearing their pink evening gowns.  Don't you always stand in that position?  I know I do!

On to the swinsuits - they were just $800.00 a piece.  I think that's reasonable for that amount of material, maybe I should buy them both!  After all, that one is PINK and I think anything cut all the way down to your, ummm...past your belly button would look stunning on me, especially at my age.  NOT!!!

Are you tired yet?  Hope not, we have more to go!!!  Let's finish window shopping:

A few pretty pink plates:

Some pink tissue paper flowers - I just love to make those :) in the window surrounding a shoe that is entirely too big for her ankle!  I'm not judging - just stating a fact!  See for yourself:

A pair of PINK Christian Louboutin shoes:

I guess they really aren't a pair - but you know what I mean.  Cute, aren't they?

A pink shoe poster - I believe they were Gucci or maybe Louis Vuitton.  Sorry, I can't remember which one.  Actually, this was the second picture I took of this ad....

because this guy decided to walk into my picture just as I snapped it - HAHAHAHAHA - that's what he gets for messing up my picture - the shoe is kicking him in the crotch!!!!!!!

DO YOU THINK I HAVE A ISSUE WITH SHOES???  Yes, I do and I'm proud of it!

There are plenty of PINK buildings inside buildings:

And plenty of pink umbrellas:

There was even some rain made from lights amongst the umbrellas:

You might say they were having a light rain shower - LOL!  

But the best was when Ashley and I decided to stand on the balcony over looking all the umbrellas and act like she was Mary Poppins holding onto the umbrella.  You see - that umbrella was soooooo far away from her - it took a lot of moving her hand up, down and around to get it to look real.  What a commotion we caused - every body kept saying "how great, how creative, wish I thought of that, etc." You would have thought we invented sliced bread or something!

My last picture :( is from the PINK store.  This is one of Hubby's favorite stores to buy shirts and ties. Can you believe they named their store PINK but it's not even in the color PINK.  Hubby says that is the owner's name - Thomas Pink!  I knew that!!!  I just thought maybe he should make the sign PINK.  I guess that would intimidate some men - PINK.  Don't they know REAL men wear PINK - while they eat their quiche!

Whew! It's late and I am very tired after all that PINK!  Now for the part you were all waiting for - drum roll please......

I'M HAVING A GIVEAWAY!!!!!!  

You are just going to have to keep checking back all next week to see when and what it is.........

Happy Pink Saturday and I'll see  you soon!

xoxox

Caren

TODAY IS NOODLE'S BIRTHDAY!!!!!

NOODLE TURNS TWO TODAY!!!!!!!! At our house that is reason to celebrate - party hat included!

 Ashley putting Noodle's hat on her:

Not really embracing the festive hat!!!

If looks could kill!!  "Get the stupid hat off of me, now!"

Even if she doesn't like her party hat, she does love to read her birthday card!

She was really liking what it had to say inside....just had to get a little closer to read the fine print:

It was telling her we love her to pieces (even if she didn't care for the party hat - lol)

After opening her presents she wanted to play catch with her birthday cake (don't worry, it's a toy)!

That's another present - a fortune cookie - the fortune said, "you are barking up the wrong tree".  Wonder who thought of that clever saying!

Noodle wanted to pose for you with all her birthday toys:

Notice the Wonder Pets on the card!

Finally, I wanted one more picture of her on her 2nd birthday but she wasn't having that!  She let me know that although she was thankful for the wonderful presents and card and she knows what an ABSOLUTELY AWESOME, WONDERFUL FAMILY she has......she was "done" with the pictures.

I think she had a good day - it started with a trip to the Spa (we call the groomer that so Noodle thinks it is special to get her hair shampooed and cut and she also gets a mani and a pedi).  What a great thing to do on your birthday.  After that we had the presents and then she got to spend the day with her mom (Ashley).  They have been apart for a very long time and they needed "bonding" time.

Also, Noodle says " HAPPY BIRTHDAY" to her sisters - Olive and Matzi. " I would have been with you today but I think since we have spent the last few weeks together, it is best we are apart for awhile!  Love you lots!"    That's just typical girl stuff.

Thanks for sharing her birthday with us!

One Week of Hard Work & Lots of Fun!

I'M TALKING ABOUT:

                                         

We took 50 kids and 30 chaperones from our studio to Dance Excellence in Los Angeles for a week!!  We have attended for approximately 18 years.  Every year the Dance Ex Director picks one studio from each 50 states and many international countries to represent their state/country at this wonderful festival celebrating dance.

It is so much fun and such a rewarding experience for all but it is also A LOT of work!!!!!  Ha, and you thought I was on vacation!   LOL!

We did have fun too - after the kids attended kick a** dance classes for three days, we had a evening at "Mama Mia", a day at Disneyland, the performance boards and then the awards banquet.  The performance boards are a time for you to showcase your studio (or I should say state or country).  It is not a competition because you are not competing against each other  - you only compete against yourself.  So, you could all win Excellent, Superior or Outstanding or everyone could get nothing!  Does that make sense?  Anyway, we entered 3 dances and got Excellent on them all.  Yeah, Us (whoops, I mean Missouri).

I'm just going to show pictures and try to explain as I go along:

This is only half of our group - sorry, I had the wrong lens on to take the whole group - just imagine twice as many more!

I didn't take pictures during the classes - again, wrong lens!  However, I did snap a few pictures of Ashley teaching tap to the children from Japan and the Philippines.  It was the first time she got to teach at such a huge festival and guess what?  They didn't speak English and had never tapped before!! What a great test of her abilities!  She did an awesome job, learned to say 5,6,7,8 in Japanese (because you know all dancers start with 5,6,7,8), learned to use the thumbs up sign for "do you get it", and received many hugs and little presents from the kids after her classes.  Oh, I forgot to mention - she had to teach 3 of those classes each being an hour long.  :)

Sorry I didn't have more photos of classes but I do have DISNEYLAND:

I love this sign as you enter the park:

Ashley's favorite Princess.....yes, she was out!  We can never find Snow White.  I think she hides out with the Dwarfs!

The flowers are always beautiful.....why can't mine look like this?  Oh, I forgot I don't have professional landscapers at my house!

We did go to California Adventure too and rode my absolutely favorite ride of all times - Soaring Over California!  Have you ever been on that ride?  We go every time we are at Disneyland/California Adventure.  Don't have any pictures but I do have a picture of Ashley while we were waiting for our fast pass time - we were a little early, so why not take a picture?

Three of the girls decided to get their faces painted.  They are supposed to be leopards.  I thought they looked more like peacocks.  What do you think?  

That's all from Disneyland.  I took some other pictures but they were mostly close ups of architecture. Because we have been there so many times over the years I have about all the pics of rides, etc. that I really need.

So on to the performance boards:

Like I said before, we entered 3 dances.  Mark choreographed one to "I'll Cover You" from "Rent" - it was a tap number - they were supposed to be homeless (that's why they are dressed so weird).  All the pictures from the performance were taken by Mr. Brad Powell, Dance Ex staff member and photographer.  Thanks, Brad!

The second number we entered was choreographed by Ashley.  It was a lyric/contemporary dance "1941".  The music was "The Dance" by Charlotte Martin.  The concept is a little hard to explain, but it is about the boys being at war and the girls being home - each wishing they could see the other and at times start to believe they actually can.  It was beautiful, very moving and had gorgeous lifts in it - however there were no pictures taken of the lifts or if so, they must not have turned out. :(  The final two pictures tell you the ending.  Please note, we tried the best we could to make the boys  be dressed as if they were in the air force in the 40's - in honor of my Dad - he would have liked that.

It was sad, but beautiful!

The third number we did was a medley of songs from "Godspell".  Mark choreographed this one also.  The kids were all dressed in "hippie" wear.  It was great.  Not so much for my ego, since we had to explain a lot about what that was and that we actually used to wear such things.  Yes, the good old days!  lol.  They have not posted any pictures of that dance so far but I am sure they will in the next couple of days.  When I get them, I will do another post.  I do have this one picture I took of the kids in their costumes after it was all over.....

Like I said before, we received Excellent (the highest) on all three dances.  We are very PROUD!  I have some pictures of the awards banquet that I will post later.  One of our boys received a scholarship to return next year at no cost to him and was also asked to join The Young Americans (the group Ashley was in).  However, he is only a Junior in high school so he cannot go now.  But what a great honor!

It is really late - I didn't mean for this to go on so long.  Got to go to bed!

Watch for more posts of our trip......pictures from "Vintageweave Interiors", the ROSE BOWL FLEA MARKET (I got some great things), Las Vegas (that will be my Pink Saturday post) and a few pictures of things I think were scary!  STAY TUNED!

Have a good night and a better tomorrow!

xoxoxo

Caren

WE'RREEE BAAAAAACK!

After 17 days we are finally home again.  Guess what?  Dorothy is right, "There's no place like home".

I absolutely love to travel but after such a whirl-wind trip, I am so glad to be home.  We got home yesterday (Saturday) after 26 1/2 hours of driving straight through from Las Vegas (change of plans) at approx. 5:30 p.m., unloaded the car into the living room (see pic), got back in Mark's car (Ashley's car needed a rest) and went to my sister's house to pick up Noodle!

We changed our plans about taking three days to drive back from LA because none of us wanted to unload the car so many times at night (lame - yes, we know) and we all just wanted to be home!  So, after the moving van came on Wednesday we decided just to stay in LA one more night and then on Thursday go to Las Vegas for one night for a little R&R after the hectic Dance Ex week and then packing up her apartment. Sounded like a great plan!!!!!  We weren't going to Vegas to gamble (I did win $9.70 on the penny slots) but just to relax.  

We did that in fact, it was nice.  However, (and there is ALWAYS a however in life) we (Mark and I) failed to remember that we are in our early 50's and Ashley (23) forgot she is a Princess. Probably driving 26 1/2 hours straight in a luggage and things that were forgotten to be packed in moving van, very crowded car was NOT a grand idea!  Everything we R&R'd (?) about was totally undone - if it could have been done in ONE DAY - not!  Ashley said in order to sit in the back seat you had to practice your Yoga positions - LOL!  Very sore, sleep deprived, extremely tired and slap happy we arrived safe and sound! 

We experienced all kinds of weather on our drive - sun, a snowstorm (who knew?) outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico, unbelievable fog (Amarillo, Tx to OKC, OK) and cold (burrr)!  Now it's raining here in STL.

I have a TON of pictures to share of our 17 day adventure, quite of few PINK pictures from Las Vegas for PINK SATURDAY, a few pictures of our students from Dance Ex, loads of pics from Vintageweave Interiors (thanks Kathy) - even a picture for Kris of tresbelle-tresbelle.blogspot.com

of her beautiful hat boxes that she makes and Kathy sells in her shop.  Plus a few more miscellaneous pictures that you might enjoy!  But.......I am too tired to blog right now and I have dinner to fix and laundry and more unpacking to do.  Check back in a few days and the BLOGFEST will begin (if I get all my work from work done).  I need a vacation!  

But for now, I think I will join Noodle - she is very tired too from her extended playdate with her sisters! 

I missed all of you and hope to hear from you soon!

xoxoxo

Caren

SOMETHING FOR MY FELLOW BLOGGERS

Just a little "somethin', somethin"" I want to share with all of my fellow bloggers who many of you I feel as if I can call my friends, or as my family lovingly refer to as my "imaginary friends".

My daughter, Ashley, gave this to me a few years ago and I thought it was a good thing to share!

A little closer look:

Since I will be holding on to my balloons and flying west for a few weeks, I won't be blogging for a while.  But no worries, I will have my laptop so I will be checking up on YOU!

Sending you good wishes, Happy Easter, Passover, Spring, April Fool's Day and Happy Pink Saturday since I won't be participating for a few weeks, but I'll be back!!!!

xoxoxox,

Caren