My sister in law came to visit last week.  We had a lot of fun visiting a nearby antique mall in hopes of finding some “stuff” for my house.  The antique place was HUGE!  Overwhelming in fact.  With really no idea what I was looking for I found it nearly impossible to actually find anything.  I did pick up a few things to hang on the walls.  Here are my “treasures:”

Yes.  Everything I found goes on the wall.  I had been looking for some botanical prints to hang in the entry.  I thought a grouping would look nice and almost look like wallpaper.  I bought a book with frameable botanical prints but didn’t like them that well and was having trouble finding frames I liked that weren’t ridiculously expensive.  I stumbled on this set of nine.  They were marked $10 each but I paid $4.  I am  not sure if they will be my forever solution but they are up in the entry I am happy with how they look for now.  They sort of mimic having wallpaper up without having scary bird wallpaper!

I also found these pictures but haven’t figured out where they belong yet.

This one I decided goes in the music room:

And these I have no idea where to put but these but knew they belong somewhere in a home once owned by John Willys!

I was feeling inspired getting the entry way prints put up and decided to get my sunflower tiles unpacked and hung in the kitchen.

The sunflower tiles were the color inspiration

This is my third kitchen that the sunflowers have been hanging in.  I purchased one at the Ann Arbor Art Fair many years ago from an artist who came each year with her tiles from California.  I added a few each year and Matt contacted the artist and surprised me with new tiles for Christmas a few times.  I often pick up pieces at antique shops or art fairs that I like and after I get home never really like them as well or am able to find a place for them.  Not the case with these.  I still love them and they make the kitchen feel like home.  When we were still in our first house in Toledo (off Willys Parkway which I find funny now.  First we lived off the road named for him and now we live in the house he lived in!) I remodeled the kitchen around the sunflower tiles.  I painted the cabinets the blue in the tiles and had counter tops that were the cinnamon color in the center of the sunflowers.  I am seriously considering painting the current cabinets that blue color again, or maybe yellow. In our last house I picked yellow cabinets for the island to go with the sunflowers.

Youngest daughter has been feeling blue since the Christmas decorations came down and said the house still doesn’t always feel like home to her.  Hopefully getting some things up on the walls will help her feel more at home.  I think having those personal touches are what will make this house feel like it belongs to us.