AHHHHHHHHHH....memories! And what a journey it has been! I remember all the things mentioned here. Each time I thought I had another one...someone came up with it. I'm more "hippy" than hippie...LOL! Scarlett, I know the feeling! Those hipster jeans just don't fit right anymore! One thing I did learn to do back in the 60's and didn't see mentioned here were "Christmas Spiders". From the small glass Christmas balls and pipe cleaners, with sequin eyes. They looked like this...of course you've got to remember this one has been around for a good number of years now! LOL..ugly thing, isn't it? With new products and vintage jewerly, they now look more like this example. I made dozens of these every year..and sell most of them these days. We still use the Christmas ornaments like this. I'll never forget the year we decided to make this the family Christmas project! Neither will our 2 daughters! We all had such sore fingers. But, they treasure these ornaments now, and like myself use them every year. Let's not forget Santa and Mrs. Claus made from dish detergent bottles. With the dime store (then Ben Franklin) faces and hands, etc. They are still part of my Santa collection but I don't seem to have a picture of them anywhere in my on line albums. I still make a few of the old things...most often with a bit of a modern twist...using some of the easier to use products. The pasta angel is a good example of evolving pasta art. I do have problems finding the metal thumb tacks used for the candle in these. Someone mentioned the crochet covered clothes hangers. I'm just old fashioned I guess...I still do them. Along with little sachet bags to go with them. I love collecting the old crochet patterns and making stuff from them. These are the vintage pattern projects that I have recently finished. The shaded pansy thread colors are almost impossible to find these days. You can see some of my spiders in this basket...they are not Christmas Spiders. I call them my illusive, almost extinct pansy spiders! I wanted some really pretty silk pansy to put in this basket and couldn't find any...so I used the next best thing. LOL I think I should stop now! I don't think the "old" crafts will be completely lost...they will just evolve. Be Safe, Rach Here is a link that might be useful:

I love arts & crafts and mission styles too so I was drawn right into this post. Since you have a budget and say you won't (ever?) have more money to put into the decor I think you need to sit down and think about how to spend the money. Which things do you expect to last "forever" and which can you see replacing down the road? Put the bulk of your money into the forever stuff. I think as long as you keep things simple you can mix art & crafts/mission with other styles with great success. Puffy recliners are no good though so get rid of that thing! Just kidding. Sort of ;-) We'd all like to a houseful of Stickley and Van Erp but most of us can't afford that. There are "no name" antique mission furnishings out there at reasonable prices (because they are no name) that are solidly built. Someone like my father, who hated mission furniture, would use them as work benches or whatever. Now they need refinishing but they're still good pieces. Keep your eyes open for those diamonds in the rough.

Not sure I should step back into these waters but after a lot of time, decision making, holdups with other parts of my house-my Ikea cabinets are currently being installed. They should measure for the (non Ikea) countertops later this week so we are close. The delay did allow me to take advantage of the Spring sale and save about $1000. Because I'm far from a store and had problems using the design software. I used a local service to design and deliver which has been horrible. Rude, missing pieces, wrong things ordered. But my contractor and I are slowly figuring out. We've removed EVERYTHING from the backsplash which will be slab marble-all of the lighting will be under cabinet and the outlets, plug mold. We also ended up removing the window as it was small and would have needed to be rebuilt because of leaks. The only decision I have left concerns a peninsula overhang which I'm leaning away from. Hopefully I will be able to post a picture of the completed soon.

I have 4 very large 48 X 95 inch cellular blinds from Blinds to Go. I did not get top down. Mine are white but appear slightly gray because they are black out blinds and lined inside the cells with silver. I have Hunter Douglas in my other rooms. The difference I have found is in the strings. The Blinds to Go use white strings for the pulls and they get dirty, Hunter Douglas uses ball chain and is a continuous loop. The Blinds to Go have had to be repaired. The blinds got shorter and shorter over time and uneven. It seems the strings inside were catching or shrinking. I must say that the company repaired them and quickly, but I had climb up 12 feet to take them down and put them up again several days later and in the mean time I had no window covering in my bedroom. For me the price difference was worth buying Hunter Douglas. I purchased them through Home Depot. Also the Blinds to Go installer was horrible and they had to send me someone else to fix the initial install twice. Also the first batch of delivered shades were incorrectly measured. The Home Depot installer was very professional and timely.