treasures: before & after

i obtained this cute, yet weathered little table from my grandparents a few months ago. i have been looking for a bird cage stand for months now and never could find what i was looking for. when my sister and i saw this table at my grandparents, she said, "why don't you use that as your bird cage stand!?" she's so smart.


although i liked the table a lot, it needed a little tlc. my husband secured the top as it was a bit wobbly, and i gave it a little make over with some white paint.

since we've had our cute little birds, they've sat atop these black benches.

say good bye to the benches, and hello to the new bird cage stand



please don't mind all the bird food everywhere. they like to throw it out of their cage. and i'm sorry but i wasn't going to vacuum it up just for this pic. i'm too lazy for that.

treasures: wine cooler

we didn't register for a wine cooler when we got married. we weren't big into wine then. shame on us.

so i was real happy when i got this piece a few months ago...hand-crafted by my grandpa's sister. so, now we too have a wine cooler. and it's got a lot more heritage than this one.

ps. i also love how it matches our new tureen.

treasures: ceramics

we love to eat soup. soup of all kinds, but particularly home-made soups. my grandma knows (and appreciates) our passion for soup, so i was touched when she passed down this beautiful ceramic tureen to me.

i have yet to use this inherited vessel but i can't wait for fall to come so we can try it out. it is the very first tureen for this soupy-family. can you believe that?

do you like soup? what's your favorite recipe? do share! i would love to try it out. (although i will ashamedly admit that i will probably change a few ingredients. i'm a little silly like that).

treasures: bird cage

don't let imperfections postpone time with loved ones... the quirks are what make it memorable.

i heard that quote from something on tv yesterday. it was referring to the home and i thought it was so good. i need to remind myself of that more often. nothing will ever be perfect. there will always be something i want to change/fix/etc. but i can't let those little things steal away from what is most important... family, friends, life, love, memories... it's just not worth waiting until you have the PERFECT home in order to entertain and live fully and happily. it's just not worth it. who knows what will happen between now and then. life throws crazy curve balls and i am learning that more and more. so don't let the little things, the imperfections, postpone time with your loved ones. those are truly the most valuable treasures in life.

as for tangible treasures, today's treasure is something i found about a year ago at a local antique shop in visalia. i was planning a baby shower with some friends for my sister and her 3rd bird. i mean baby, yes baby. since it was her 3rd, the theme, 'another little birdie joins the nest' was a given. with that kind of theme you would obviously expect to see bird houses, nests, and possibly birds? ah, yes, real birds. real, cute, sweet, little finchie birds. oh, sorry. back to the treasures. so, i went on a hunt for fun bird houses/cages for the shower. i found a lot of really cool antiquey bird houses at one antique store but they were a little too pricey for my liking. so i kept looking.

one day as i was driving to work, i decided to turn down a different side street (i like being random like that. i like to switch things up. especially when it delivers such an excellent outcome as it did in this story.) as i turned down the street, i noticed an antique store i had never seen before. it's nestled back off of main street and i fear often missed because of its odd location. i immediately noticed multiple birdcages. of course i pulled over. this lady had treasures goin' on for days, let me just tell you. it was extremely cluttered, but then again, what antique store isn't?? i found some not-so-good birdcages that i was considering, until i came across these. how many cages do you see there my friends...?



four cages in one? yes please, i will take them all thank you very much. i think the lady was asking $45 for them and i walked out spending $30. ahh, the joys of antique shopping. these were exactly what we needed for the shower. and four for the price of $30? $7.50 a piece...not too bad if i say so myself. :) i have recently given these bird cages a make over for my spring decorating. can't wait to show you.
if you haven't read the story of the real-live-birdie's from the shower, you must take 2 minutes to do so. it's a heroic tale of a husband that loves his wife so much that with some determination and a steady hand, he became a bird-catcher.

treasures: mini bowls

more precious jewels from my grandparents. :)


i saw these little bowls at my grandmas a couple months ago and fell in love with them. i like 'em a lot because it's one of those styles that was popular when my grandma got married and is now popular again. i saw bowls really similar to this at crate & barrel (or somewhere else, can't remember) in the last year or so and loved them. well now i have some of my own, but with more meaning and heritage.



the other reason i like these? my husband and i have a serious problem with collecting sauce bowls, or as we like to call them, dipping bowls. we have an addiction to sauces of all sorts, so these added nicely to our collection. (right now the bowl is filled with a yummy snack from winco. :)

i really love how the bowls almost look like they were made from flower petals.

treasures: little things

i am a sucker for all things small and precious, so when my grandparents gave me these, i squealed for joy. not that i will ever use them (or shall we say drink them), but i find them sweet and charming. plus, they are a fun conversation piece in our dining room...it's not every day you see barbie-sized alcoholic bottles on display (unless of course you live on an airplane).


these silly little bottles remind me of how adventurous my grandparents are and how they have always loved to travel, whether it be by car or plane. i hope i am like them when i grow up. i don't think anything can hinder their love of traveling. in fact, right now they are on their way to their favorite coastal beach for 3 whole weeks. i don't know many 80 year olds that can first of all, drive themselves to the beach and second of all, get around by themselves the entire 3 weeks that they're there. i think they're really swell.


just to give you a relative idea of how small these bottles really are...

treasures: old fridge

going to my grandparents as a little girl was a treat. they only lived 45 minutes away, but it was still so special every time we went! some of my fondest memories at g&g's house is grandma sneaking me slices of grandpa's velveeta cheese and having canned sodas from their extra refrigerator in the garage (they had every kind of soda imaginable). i loved that refrigerator as a little girl and i grew to love it even more as i got older.


when i heard a couple years ago that my grandparents were thinking about getting rid of the fridge, i made sure to tell them i wanted it with all my heart. :) my husband immediately cringed at the idea, because the first thing he saw when looking at it was $$$ signs. running a 50+ year old refrigerator is expensive. and in his words, "why do we need an old, expensive refrigerator when we have a brand new one?!" oh honey, so many things to learn. :)

i wasn't willing to lose this awesome fridge for the sake of money, so i came up with a better idea. the fridge would act as a pantry instead of an actual refrigerator, therefore we wouldn't need to plug it in. we save money, get the old fridge i've always wanted, and we're both happy! so, a couple years later and the fridge/pantry lives in our new home.


this is our everyday pantry. we have another (more traditional) pantry that holds all the canned foods and extra items, but this pantry holds opened items like cereal, breads, and snackies. the only things that are not opened in here are the drinks (simply because there isn't room for them in the other pantry).



aren't these produce drawers adorable? i love them. and they fit our bread and snacks so well!



the "frozen food" section actually acts as a storage space for all our ziplocs, foil, some paper products etc...it's snug, but fits a lot!


the original metal ice cube trays are still in the top!


old-school handle. gotta love it.


ok, so here's the deal. we are going to paint the fridge. don't worry, this is not the original color. my grandma painted it back in the day... ahh, how crafty she was. :) anyway, we have gone back and forth between colors. because we love the retro look (hence wanting the retro fridge), the two colors high on the list are black and silver. i think silver would be awesome, but black could be cool too since our entire kitchen is yellow and black. my other thought is to paint it something totally different like teal or red. it would add such an awesome pop to the room, but i just can't decide. today i am really leaning towards the teal idea. i am thinking of a teal along these lines from this shower...but don't be fooled, my ideas could totally be different by tonight. :) so what color would you paint this fridge if it were in your house and you had these yellow walls (see 2nd pic from the top)? please leave a comment...i would love to know your thoughts! :)

thanks for joining me today on our little treasure adventure...can't wait to share more with you!

treasures: a new series

growing up i didn't appreciate antiques. no, actually, i hated antiques. and even worse, i loathed antique stores. they were dirty, cluttery (yes, it is a word in my vocabulary), musty, and OLD. to me, antique stores were like big garage sales only worse. and i didn't like garage sales either. i liked order. cleanliness. new things. organization. and antique stores were (& are) the opposite of all those things.

somewhere along the way, things changed. i can't tell you when it was, where i was, or why it happened (maybe my mom finally got through to me), but one day i woke up and loved antique stores. i actually enjoyed walking through them instead of feeling like i was going to have an anxiety attack. i found pleasure searching through piles of "junk" only to find that one perfect piece. best of all, i learned that i find a ton of inspiration when i walk through antique stores.

now don't get me wrong, i don't have a home full of antiques. i do love new, bright, and shiny things. but i also have a fond love for treasures. and treasures just really aren't found in new stores. because in my opinion (and my mom's), treasures are old and valuable and have history. treasures are one-of-a-kind pieces that you "happen" to find (and you should feel lucky when you do!). so, while i don't decorate A LOT with antiques in my own home, i really like them. and i have used lots of special finds from antique stores at parties. often times i have found one single piece at an antique store that inspires hundreds of ideas.

well, we can all use inspiration, right? so i thought i would start a series on treasures that i love. some of these treasures have been passed down to me and some i have bought in antique stores. some were purchased because i knew one day they would be THE PERFECT ITEM. others were purchased specifically for one party. i need to make one thing clear though. although these items were purchased from antique stores, many of them are not necessarily antiques. (so don't worry about correcting me if something is not a true "antique" :)

in this series, i am going to post treasures that i love and/or treasures that bring me inspiration. i don't have a set plan for this series (how many posts a week or how long of a series) because well, i just don't feel like setting a plan, but i hope you will join me! maybe you hate antique stores and don't get what the big deal is. or perhaps antique shopping is like therapy to you. maybe you just don't give a flying rip either way, but you still want to read my blog because you are very sweet. well...whatever the case, i hope i bring you inspiration or help you find new ways to look at old things. most of all, i hope you enjoy. :) i find inspiration in the silliest of places. (kind of like this umbrella picture below).


(please feel free to email me ::rachel@raeevents.com:: treasures you love or that bring you inspiration. i would love to see them and even feature a piece on them if you'd like.)