The Apple Street Cottage

Hello again and Happy New Year!  I hope your holidays were happy and the new year brings you peace and joy.  We all need a little more of that, don't we? As many of you know I make it a habit to not look back as we begin a new year.   That being said, I must confess I DID take a tiny peek at my posts from last year. Why, you ask? To see what posts were loved the most, of course! So what were they? ..........  My recycle/upcycle posts.  If you search  ' recycle/upcycle' you'll find them.   You also were pretty enthusiastic about my This & That posts where I inevitably shared my estate/yard sale finds. For those 2 reason, let me share this sweet little footstool recycle and then share some treasures I found over the past couple of weeks. This post may contain affiliate links. It was late in the day last summer when I saw a yard sale sign and turned onto the street 'just to see what they had left'.  I spied this pretty little needlepoi...

  There are 3 things I want to mention... First, whatever you celebrate, I want to wish you peace and joy this holiday season. Second, I have two new finds to share. A sweet little pedestal plate. I do mean little!  It's just big enough for some cookies at tea time! And this sweet little lamp that showed up on Marketplace for $2. The shade had something spattered on it, but it cleaned-up nicely! Third, I want to ask you to save your tissue paper from your holiday gifts and some packing paper from your deliveries.  I have a project in mind (for after the holidays) and leftover tissue/packing paper is needed if you want to give it a try. That being said, I'm signing off until January! Happy Holidays!

  Christmas will be here in less than 10 days and if you're still 'decking your halls' or anyplace else in your home, I've got just the thing for you. I shared these mini salt & pepper shakers with you last time and also said I have plans.   Are you ready?  Here's what I've done with them... This post may contain affiliate links. After giving them a good cleaning, I decided they'd be adorable with some small bottle brush trees. Easy-peasy!  Just drop the trees in the shakers and add a few pinecones around them.  I tried adding a bow to each shaker and didn't like the look.  This is a classic case of 'Less is More'.   Next, I grabbed a little silver dish found this summer at a yard sale. Believe me, it wasn't this shiny when I found it.  Actually it was black with tarnish...3 cheers for silver polish! I added the (larger) bottle brush trees ... Placed them in the dish with some fairy lights and polyfill . After dark, they looked so...

It's December. The holidays are here and so is my last This & That for the year.  The last one was sooo long that I thought I'd better catch you up before the year ended.    This post may contain affiliate links. Thanksgiving was lovely with lots of laughter, food, wine, and Moscow Mules !  This time they were Cranberry Mules.  Just like the Apple Cider Mule I shared about a month ago, except substitute cranberry juice for the cider.  Delish! Rosie decided on a more sophisticated look for the holiday and was thrilled to be wearing her new hat - a yard sale find! Rosie has been pretty quiet lately and if you don't know about her, she has her own page at the top of the blog.   October and November were unusually mild this year.  The leaves on the trees really didn't know what to do and since the weather was warm, there was a fabulous estate sale nearby.  The property was large and included a house and an old hair salon.  Bot...