Just Random

I have finally gotten my suitcase and it's contents put away. Got the house a 'little' more in order than it was when left to the 'boys'.
First, I wanted to show you some pictures from Chicago. We didn't get much, because we were not anywhere very 'cottagy'. We did get a few pics from a cool antique mall near the hotel. We didn't find much we LOVED, at least not in our budget, but I was encouraged with some gardening ideas and am determined to find a junked out funky chandelier to use for candles. My pal, Daryl, got a cool angel that played Silent night that reminded her of her childhood.
This first photo is of a really AWESOME gazebo that was in the island of plants in the middle of a parking lot. I wanted this picture to remind me you can do BIG things in small spaces. It was crammed with plantings (the island) and the gazebo was NOT overwhelming, but you would have thought it would be.....

The next picture is an awesome gate and what looks like an 'deceased' garden area behind it. I love the stone driveway and the gate and the trees..... Again...HUGE statement, not as overwhelming as I would have expected. Another thing I saw that was thought provoking for me was railing around the BIGGER gazebo (no pic sorry) that was just old banister painted with outdoor paint. Cool, doable and something to consider for a later date.

So we didn't score much of anything, go some good ideas and we even went to a flea market that had some crap, some stolen crap and a few good finds. Unfortunately MOST of the booths with anything good had HIGH prices and we were looking for DEALS! We had hoped to find each other's Christmas gifts and save Maine-Indiana shipping and v/v. We did not. Daryl did get me a pair of cherubs and a single cherub for 50cents each.
Here is the Cherub (left) with a dollar planter I bought at a yard sale last week. We did, btw, name the Cherub, Cherry...aren't we originals?

Here she is after....I actually did do one more 'white wash' coat on her ater this picture, because she was TOO pink for me. I also redid the planter and will be on the lookout for some sort of cool small growth type plant that hangs down a little. He isn't the prettiest thing but I really like having plants in "atypical" plant containers: Old vases etc....

As for the "how" portion. I sprayed them both with several coats of satin spray paint in white. Then I used Rub N Buff on the planter and pink diluted acrylic on "cherry". Cherry is going in the spare room with all the other pink goodies on the bed. The other will go wherever I feel the plant looks best. :-D

Other things: I got a few early Christmas gifts at Goodwill, a TEN DOLLAR chenille bedspread (Full) and a few other things I will show later.

Hope you all have a wonderful night!