Ms. Jillian is Moving

We've moved! We've packed up and moved to another blog, Bella Rosa Antiques.

If you're a faithful reader, family member or friend, please add this new link to your favorites list...we'd love to have you continue following our adventures. If you're hand typing it is:

http://www.bellarosaantiques.blogspot.com

It may have a new name which will incorporate Jillian into the mix... still deciding! The url address remains the same.

Thanks so much for following. I've enjoyed writing on this blog and I felt so torn about combining my two blogs but with a toddler who's very active I've come to the conclusion... it is time!

See you on the other blog!

Champagne & Roses with a Little Romance

Since February is a month to celebrate romance, the items I've listed this week fit in quite well!
This satiny rose fabric is great to have on hand for those special projects. I love the champagne color tone.


The first illustrated page of this antique book titled "Lucile" reads: "The Duke bowed his lips o'er her hand."

I don't know about you but that sounds pretty romantic to me!

And the cover appealed to me with the lovely pink and green flower motif on gold.

For that special night out... a pair of prong set rhinestone hoops.

The dollhouse furniture is also up on the site now for the miniature collectors.

Also, a big shout out "THANK YOU!" to those who are on FACEBOOK and became a fan of our new Facebook page for Bella Rosa Antiques. You'll get ten percent off your next order as well as you'll be the first to see my latest finds and hear about upcoming sales/events.

I'll be making the transition soon to just one blog. It is too difficult with Dear Bebe being so active to maintain two blogs. I'll provide a link over to the Bella Blog when I finally do. Working on a few different graphics to incorporate "Jillian's Pages" and "Bella Rosa Antiques" into one.

Hopefully I'll be able to go antiquing this weekend...we've had so much snow I haven't been going on my weekly hunting trips. And speaking of snow...another big shout out to TEAM USA during the Olympics. Whoooo Hooooo! Great job!

Have a great weekend!

Shrunk in the Dryer Cute

Recently I came across this vintage doll furniture. I fell in love with it immediately. So cute. To quote an old friend they are "Shrunk in the dryer cute!"
How great my LuRay dinnerware would look on the table. Tee hee!

That gives me an idea... make mini LuRay dishes!

What this furniture is really making me think about is getting a dollhouse for Dear Bebe someday. How much fun it will be!

But I think for now I will imagine sitting on this patio set with the sun shining on my face. The snow is still here but spring is only 32 days away! THIRTY TWO DAYS, people, 32 days! It's do-able. Think I can make it!

Along with some vintage rose fabric, books and jewelry, I will be adding these cute vintage pieces to the Bella Rosa website tonight. Think I'll start a new "Vintage Toys" category. Fun!

Are you a dollhouse person? I'd love to hear about yours!

February is For Parties

We like to party. Birthday's, reunions, babies, weddings and holidays are reasons enough for me to break out the party gear.

This weekend we were partying it up! I'm exhausted. But it was fun!

Friday kicked off the festivities with Dear Bebe's friends's birthday party.

Here he is contemplating the cupcake. (Do I eat that thing on top too?)

She was enjoying all of his toys... wheeeeeeeeeee!

We don't have a firetruck at home, Mommy!

Oooh the alphabet letters are fun!

Giving presents can be just as fun as getting them!

Saturday we had a whirlwind shower to attend. It was over in a flash, but as all hearty partiers know, it's all about the good food and goodies!

Then for Valentine's Day Dear Hubs and I decided the best restaurant in town was right in our own living room! We have this awesome view of the town below and seated our selves for dinner right in front of the window.

Dear Hubs made chicken marsala with angel hair pasta and I made a heart shaped cake.

Hmmmm... I think the Bistro is open!

A Valentine's Day Wish

May you give those you love an extra hug and kiss and enjoy sweet treats! Dear Hubs and I treated ourselves to a box of Belgian chocolates... not to be opened until Sunday!

Here is my sweetpea... in her warm and snuggly hearts. She loves watching her Da-Da plow away snow.

A Happy Valentine's Day this weekend to all!

B- B- B- B-L-I-Z-Z-A-R-D!

Last week I thought we received a lot of snow. We were all excited... a snow storm, a snow storm! It's fun to be snowed in! Whoo hoo!

We did the staying in and baking thing.

We ate soup.

We took pictures. We bragged about how much snow accumulated.

We thought we had received the big one.

I've changed my mind after today. THIS is a lot of snow! I think we had sixteen inches today on top of the twenty-one inches we had last week.


Our front azalea bushes were pummeled. They don't resemble ANYTHING.


Our car is barely visible!

The front landscaping looks like a scene from a movie. I haven't seen this much snow in YEARS.

At least we've been spending good quality family time together.

Ha! I'm ready to get out of here!

Cabin fever will be setting in!

We'll be digging out tomorrow. Er, I mean Dear Hubs will be out there with his snow plow tractor thingy.

I'm going to be praying this is the last of the big white storms.

It Came, It Saw, It Conquered!

The big blizzard of 2010:


The snowstorm hit, we were covered with a big fluffy blanket of snow. Probably about 2 feet!

I've never seen so much snow on the back railing of our deck!

Turned our birdhouse into a skyscraper...

Off to go dig out and have fun!

Pending Snowstorm

Our area of the country is all a buzz with talk of a snow storm. I've seen it on the radar and this one is a BIGGIE. A friend of mine wrote on facebook how she had seen a local headline read: Mid Atlantic Region to be Mauled by Snowstorm.

Mauled? I'm not sure about that one. A little too dramatic don't ya think?

Well, the pantry is full of soup, so we're good.

I'm kidding.

We actually do have a ton of soup. I'm not sure what we were thinking when stocking up. But it's there.

My calendar is also turning into swiss cheese. It is full of holes now!

We have our annual Valentine's Day Tea at the antique mall where we have a booth on Sunday. It also happens to be Super Bowl Sunday! We were hoping to go to a get together but this may not happen either. Not because of the snow, but because we can't find a baby sitter yet.

So, more on the Valentine's Day tea later. I've got to get my snow gear ready. And make these yummy cookies to serve.

Blogs, Facebook, I'm All a Twitter!

Think it's all too much? Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, Passwords, Cell Phones, Debit Cards, Pin Numbers.... ahhhhhhkkkk! What happened to the simpler days?

I twitter but my tweets have become far and few between. Could I be tweeted out?


I just started using FACEBOOK for my website, Bella Rosa Antiques. FUN!

Did you ever stop and think....remember when life wasn't so complicated with passwords, URL's, HTML's, pin numbers, cell phones, etc?

Think this is why I appreciate antiques!

Anyway, check me out on FACEBOOk under Bella Rosa Antiques. I'd love it if you'd become a fan, too. (Facebook account is necessary.)

His N Hers

This past weekend I decided a change was in order for my office area. First, let me say I share an office with my Dear Hubby so my space is limited.

So we have "your half" and "my half" going on.

It helps if I can let Dear Bebe in the office with me so I can work occasionally on orders for my website or answer some of the emails I receive.

Sounds good? Not if you have antiques on open shelves in the room. Nightmare with a toddler with grippy hands.

So I decided to buy new shelving that would fit in the closet and store everthing where the doors can be closed.

That left my current shelving available for other items! I hadn't thought about it until the new space was created and I love what I've decided to use it for. My shipping supplies, boxes, ribbons, etc.

She loves to play with the boxes and ribbons which can easily be wound up again and put back on the shelf. Nothing to break there!
This is the other half of the room. It doesn't help we also have an antique booth and end up with lots of excess stuff, bins, boxes, containers waiting to be taken to the antique mall.

Even Dear Bebe thinks it's a mess.

Goal for this year: Work on this room as well as our dining room. We had big plans when we moved in four years ago to paint and put up crown molding, etc in our formal dining area.

Ha! We'll see. I've got 11 months left.

Maybe I'll just start with organizing the rest of my shelves.

Those Were The Days!

Recently I came across a few photos on the internet while Facebooking (is this a term?) The photos stopped me in my tracks and my eyes opened wide:

I've always been drawn to the spotlight and back in high school I auditioned for our high school musical. That year (1984) we did SOUTH PACIFIC. This play was so much fun to be in.

That's me, the red head third or fourth on the left and whaddya know, I'm not facing forward like I should be and my arm isn't with all the other dancers. And look at that funky 80s hair!

But it was great seeing these old photos... I don't think I had ever seen these before. Someone loaded them onto a reunion page on Facebook and I'm so glad he did.

This was a photo taken during the song "Nothin Like a Dame." Looks pretty good, eh? I haven't gotten the song out of my head since I saw it this afternoon.

And WOW! The entire cast photo. I'm the first girl on the left. Boy do I look like a skinny minny there.

Those were the days!

Chocolate Museum & Factory

Who doesn't love chocolate? Okay, I know there are some who don't, but most people I know wouldn't turn down a piece, or two....or three!


Last weekend I encouraged Dear Hubs to take us for a family outing. As Dear Bebe gets older, this will get more and more fun to do.




He looked up some things to do online and found a local chocolate factory had a mini museum inside. I did not protest.

They make these cute little (and very tasty morsels) called BUDS. They look like KISSES but they are not. Which came first? The KISS or the BUD? Tee hee.

Either way these are delicious. I'm halfway through the bag of them already.

The museum was really neat, but small.




Just as I was about to take a photo of their gorgeous display of porcelain chocolate pots... my camera battery died. Ahhhhhhh!



Here are all the chocolate molds they've collected as well as other neat items used to make chocolate.

But we had fun and we look forward to more family outings! Especially if they involve food!

Leap Year : More Like Leap Frog!

My friend and I went out for a girl's night and we chose to see the movie, Leap Year.

Amy Adams again in a starring role. I like her. I really do.

But maybe not in this role. Here she is hoping to receive a proposal from her doctor boyfriend and instead receives a pair of diamond earrings.
She spends the rest of the movie stomping (in high heels mind you) through the rest of the movie up and down the hills of Ireland trying to get to him on February 29th, to propose to him during a rare Irish Leap Year tradition.

Then of course, she meets another guy and they seem to like each other despite hating each other. (And haven't we seen THIS scenario over and over before?)

Okay. So, it had potential.

The biggest problem was a lack of chemistry between any of the actors.

I won't give the rest of the story away in case you'd like to rent it...which is the only way I would recommend it. The price of a movie and the six dollar popcorn just isn't worth it!

See? No sparks.

You'd think the casting director would have seen that during early script reading.

I give it 2 and a half popcorns. Maybe a three if I didn't have to buy the ticket or the popcorn. Like if I just sat on my couch, made microwave popcorn and had rented it. Now there's a tradition I can leap to!

Winter Blues

It's almost the middle of January. And I've got the winter blues really bad! The cold arrived eons ago and it didn't seem like it was going to lift....but I'm thrilled to say today we had warmer temperatures! Like, no longer frigid.

I know it is not spring, but it was enough to motivate me.


So now I can start thinking about future days when I can go to the local farmers market and see these....


And even sooner when I can bring these home to brighten up the house.

For now though my trusty crockpot is here. What's your favorite "beat the winter blues" recipe for the slow cooker? I'd love to hear about it.