Happy New Year!

I sure hope you enjoyed your holidays with your family and friends!  I was in full swing with the Etsy.com shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/AffordableAdornment and really had fun selling and shipping many of my great finds.  I've had 60 sales in my shop since I opened and I am so excited about the growth and potential it has.  I feel so proud when I get feedback from my buyers who just love the treasures as much as I loved finding them.  To me, that's what it's all about...finding homes for lost relics that were in a dusty, dank, dark basement and bringing them into the sunlight and spotlight again.

This year, like many of you, I have lots of New Year's resolutions...most are "business" related as I am still building, working, and dreaming big with this fun hobby-turned-job I call Affordable Adornment for your home.   I set goals know I can accomplish like:   improving my photography on my Etsy.com listings, posting more regularly on this-here-blog,  increasing the number of item listings in my Etsy.com shop, getting to know my new iMac and utilizing more of it's features, Tweeting more often (and building my list of followers - @AffordableAdorn from just 2 of you)  and becoming more active on Pinterest.  (Oh, by the way, if you do visit my shop on Etsy.com and see something quirky, interesting or particularly cool, please pin it on your board in Pinterest!  Don't you just love that site!!)  I will not be disclosing my personal resolutions, but since they are just the same as yours, you know they have been broken already!  But, alas, I'll focus on attainable goals and relish in small victories.

I have not been out on the prowl much for new ideas and new treasures since December had me busy and knee deep in shipping supplies, but I did get out on Friday and I picked up some interesting things...here are a few of the cutest items I've found.  What can you do with these pieces?  Remember, my "thing" is to encourage and inspire you to toss an old object into the mix with your newer decor items, create a vignette, or persuade you to do something creative at your home.  These items are cool on their own, but they need you to finess them into your space.

This cute drink caddy can do just about anything...well, within reason, I suppose...it could work as an actual drink caddy for your garden party, or could be a cute centerpiece holding flowers, or a craft caddy, art station, or whatever you can imagine!

Dress up a cute vanity space with some fun old fashioned fashions.  Cute clutch, opera gloves, and a party hat make a darling vignette.

I've sold all of my suitcases on Etsy.com because they make great layering pieces.  This is a smaller leather box that is actually a Trav-L-Bar.  You could carry your booze on the go, but instead, I think it would be cool stacked on your bookshelf.  

Set of 7 vintage frames would be so cool with sepia prints, black and whites of your last trip to Europe, or some cool hand made paper as artwork.  Create a wall collage with these matching frames or line them all up next to each other like they show in the Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware catalogs!

This cool old plastic shelf would make a great canopy for a princess bed!  Spray paint it white or a cool color and drape some fabric from it and hang it like a crown over your bed.  Check out this blog posting for more pics of a similar idea:
http://affordableadornmentforyourhome.blogspot.com/2011/09/oh-drama-in-bedroom.html