she's got legs...

...we were recently gifted with a beautiful table once owned by my hubby's grandmother.   After a flood in her home in Minnesota the table was taken to the table hospital and refinished.  Later on it traveled to Nebraska to live with his Aunt and Uncle.  You may remember the Uncle and how he gifted us with a 'pig.'  That pig is still in my dining room!  Recently his wife, my hubby's aunt moved to a smaller place and we found ourselves gifted with a few beautiful pieces of history that she once owned.  This table being one of them;

love the turned legs, the little shelf and the intricate moulding.  I have yet to make a home for it but am currently updating the dining room so I am sure it will go in there.  (excuse the wires, indeed!)  Once I finish painting the accent wall, hang the new drapes, and create a plate wall while mixing in a mirror and a pig then, I will show it off.  I am doing all this on $0 budget, having shopped the house for everything I needed.   Now won't that be exciting!  Soon we'll be dining in the dining room.  Happy Weekend y'all.

a plethora of bumbershoots...

...is what you have if you live in the wonderful Pacific Northwest.

that

and sunglasses.

the day may come when you have sooo many

umbrellas

that you don't know what to do with them.

sometimes they break or bend,

sometimes they turn

inside out

and sometimes you just lose them.

I came up with a new idea.

get out your old bumbershoot,

a few greens

and silk flowers,

maybe a birds nest

or two

a funky old 'hippie chick' scarf

and some pins or hot glue.

here you go:

 (don't know why the alignment is acting up but I totally blame blogger...moving on)

without opening up the umbrella loosen it up by untying the little tie.  wrap your funky scarf around the middle and cinch.  I used an umbrella that had two tiers and tied the scarf between the two.  this leaves several pockets in which to add your adornments.



adding some tulips and other little flowers and using a spot of hot glue to hold in place.

then I added some greenery,

and a little birds nest with eggs,

played around with it for awhile and took it's picture.  THEN, I hung it on my yellow front door.

 really, it was so simple and fast.  I used things I already had around the house, the scarf I've had forever, the flowers were from an old pot that I pulled apart so was the greenery.  The birds nest was from my yard and I glued in some eggs that I bought for another project.  Of course the bumbershoot was one of many that we have in the car, house, closet...well, you get it.  Throw it all together and hang it on the door.  

just a little something different for Spring.

take care friends,

choose happy,

get your craft on!

A minima Chrsitmas...

a few years ago when I decided to start a blog

(what was I thinking?)

one of the decisions that had to be made was the blog layout.

At that time there were few choices so I went with

stretch minima.

No particular reason except I like the sound of it

s-t-r-e-t-c-h- minima.

Did you know that minima is the pleural of

minimum?

An abundance of minimum all stretched out.

That really does seem to fit me don't you think?  There really is no point to all of this except that I wanted to use minima in a blog post and this surely seems

like a minima kind of Christmas.

from my lone wreath in the foyer (above)

and my barely dressed mantle

we are celebrating in a

minimal sort of way.

Our tree is up yet unadorned,

we call this

Maude decorating.

I have a lone Poinsettia sitting on the hearth

soaking in the late winter sunshine.

(and apparently a camera that can tell the future!)

and a few baubles on the window pane.

This is as ready as we are going to be this time around.  Not that we aren't counting out Blessings but more of a

stop

look around

feel it in your heart.

The things that spend all year in a tote in the attic

are not what makes our Christmas.

It's the love and joy we carry for those who touch our lives all year long.

We just added a little sparkle and glitter here

and there

this year but

Jesus is always our reason.

Wishing you Joy and Peace during this Christmas season.

May you find the blessings of your heart

and share them with each other.

Merry Christmas

Happy Hanukkah

Happy Holidays

Those sneaky little elves...

...Oh, it started out innocently enough.

One morning I woke up and there were a few Christmas totes in the dining room.

A few days later there was a tote containing the Christmas tree.

All seemed well for a few days after that

but then;

it was as if Christmas had exploded

all over the dining room, with all kinds of toys and decorations filling

each and every empty space.

(why yes, that is hubbys arm)

Then it moved on into the kitchen and nothing was safe.

Not the counter tops

or the breakfast nook.  Not the desk or the chairs.

It .was.everywhere.

Then they left.

Not to be seen again.

It's been days and days and still my house looks like this.

I just may have to do something

about it myself

soon.

Are you ready?

Maybe I can craft...

when I made my music page paper wreath awhile back..here...I had cut the paper into 3 1/2" squares and also had cut some at 7".  I used the 3 1/2" for that project and with the leftover 7" I decided to make another wreath.  Only larger.  After I got started I realized that I didn't have enough of the music paper to make the entire wreath so I spaced them out and scratched my head and wondered...what to do?

You might recall that I have a fully loaded craft room.  Full of lots of projects I will only complete in my mind or if I life another fifty years that is!  Anyway my solution was to try scrapbook paper.  I really liked working with the weight of the paper compared to the sheet music but beware that the risk factor for paper cuts is increased by the thousands.  Round and round I went making paper cones and gluing them onto the wreath.  (I used a piece of lightweight cardboard again only slightly larger than the last one.)  And  voila!

To finish off the center of this one I took a piece of coordinating scrapbook paper and wrapped it around a canning jar lid (without the ring), then glued it onto the wreath.  Then I added a little hanger in the back made from twine and hung it on the mirror in my foyer.  I'm really pleased at how it turned out..sorry for the bad lighting in the photos, it was late in the day.  I am going to spray it with a light coat of clear shellac and then hang it on my YELLOW door!   What will I think of next?

The paper chronicles...

...so, I've been seeing a lot of fun paper crafts on the blogs lately and have tucked them away in my little head thinking "I can do that!"  Really, I didn't think I could.  Some of them appear to involve math skills and I am sorely lacking in those very types of things, so I did my usual.  I bought all the supplies I would need, set them on the craft table or somewhere thereabouts, and then promptly forgot about it. 

A few weeks ago I decided that this was becoming a foolish habit and something had to give.  So I chose to try making a wreath out of paper cones.  Sounds strange but it ended up being so easy that I'm embarrassed, well almost embarrassed, to admit it.  There are many tutorials out there on how to make these paper wreaths and I won't bore you with details. I'm pretty sure you know how to Google if you want details.

I found a book of sheet music a few months ago at the thrift and proceeded to tea stain them.  This was for another mislaid project but worked well here.  The pages were about 10 1/2 by 7 inches, so I cut several, many, 7" squares.  Then with the leftover piece I cut it in half which was 3 1/2 inches.  Basically you need a square sheet for this project and I don't think the actual size matters....as you will see!

Next I rolled the squares into cones and adhered them with clear tape, I think you could use tacky-glue but I didn't want to sit holding the edges together all night so I opted for tape.  You won't see it later.  In the above picture you can see I rolled all the papers but am only using the smaller 3 1/2 inch cones for this wreath.  After all the cone rolling, which is mindless fun, really, I cut out a piece of light weight cardboard.  I used a cereal box and cut a circle 5" in diameter.  I then found the 'middle' of the circle and marked it with a pencil.  This will be the center point in which all the cones come together.  Taking the small ends of the cones, one at a time, I glued the bottom half of the cone on the underside and attached it to the circular piece.  Around and around fanning the cones out until you have something like this.

When the cones were all attached and dried I then added a little Spanish moss to the middle to cover up the center spot.  I've seen other people use rosettes and other types of bling on theirs but I decided to go more natural.  Also, some of the examples had glittered edges, slightly torn edges, and/or curled edges to add to the aged look.  Then all you need to do is glue on some ribbon, string, or twine to the back and let it dry.  I also cut another sheet of music paper in a 5" round to cover the back side.

It isn't perfect but it was easy and fun and besides perfect is highly over-rated!  I have mine hanging in the kitchen and from a distance it reminds me of a giant Dahlia.  So what do you think?



Let's make a deal...

...I remember that game show so well.  With Monty Hall as the host and all the contestants dressed up in their most imaginative outfits, deal or no deal, and finally at the end, the three doors.  What awaits the winner behind door number 1, number 2 or door number 3?  I was always quite inept at picking the correct door ending up with a years supply of chicken soup or a frying pan.  Do you remember?

Recently, at the height of my 'duffiness,'  I began to notice our front door.  Blah, blue.  Nothing wrong with blue but it was painters grade fifteen years ago and was starting to look rather shabby.  So I did what every DIY (in her mind) girl does and perused all the wonderful home improvement blogs that I could find.  Oh my, that it itself is a post for another day!   Such talent and beauty as far as the eye can see.  But, I digress....

I wanted something different, something no one else in the neighborhood had, something bold, that screamed "that nut J lives there!"  And well, well...what do you think?

old tired blue door begging for a make-over

first of two coats of primer.   And then after three coats of paint and another coat of a different colour paint we have:

a YELLOW front door.  Technically it is called "Squash Blossom" by Dutch Boy.  It has the primer built in but It wasn't enough to cover the blue.   Not only that but this job was done by me...on my duff, with a paint stick in hand and the help of a sponge brush.    (Oh yeah, and I totally remembered to take the making tape off around the lock.)

History lesson...

...my hubs collects insulators.  Old insulators that you usually see on the top of telephone poles along railway lines through the Midwest.  I noticed today, while I was dusting, that he likes to line them up like little soldiers!  We do have quite a few and some of them are very unique not only in colouring but also in size/shape.  We have a few that are crackled as though they couldn't stand the heat any longer.

A little history;   *from the Wiki*

Insulators have been around longer than most people realize. The first rudimentary telegraph line was built between Paris and Lille, France in 1793. The need for insulators to insulate the wire from grounding out soon became apparent. There were a number of early experimental lines in Europe and the United States before Samuel F. B. Morse finally developed a fully functional and commercial system using his particular code. He built his first commercial line between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. in 1844.

Insulators were first used extensively in the mid-1840s with the invention of the telegraph. They were necessary to prevent the electrical current passing through the wire from grounding out on the pole and making the line unusable. The first insulators were a beeswax soaked rag wrapped around the wire. They worked well in the dry laboratory but soon broke down when exposed to the weather. The next concept was a glass knob, which looked much like a bureau knob one might still find on antique furniture today, mounted on a wood or metal pin. From this evolved the pin style insulator, which had no threading inside the pinhole. It was cemented to the pin by driving it down on the pin with a mallet on an asphalted rag. This was not a perfect answer because the weather worked on the rag and eventually the insulator would work loose and pop off the pin allowing the wire to contact a grounding surface. Inevitably, however, as telegraph lines traced the westward expansion of railroad lines across the states, glass manufacturers began to create many new designs in an effort to secure a niche in the rapidly growing insulator market.

Thus, by the advent of the Civil War in 1860, original insulator models could be found in both porcelain and glass. While glass was more common from the beginning for telegraph and telephone line insulation, porcelain would later gain a firm foothold as the preferred material for insulating high voltage power lines. Over time, glass manufacturers would produce hundreds of designs; millions of insulators were made of glass and porcelain, then later of rubber, plastic and other composite materials."

Another article speculated the reason for the different colours.  Supposedly the insulators were made at the end of the day with the leftover glass, so if the company was making green glass bottles that day then the insulators would be green.  Most of the ones we have are clear, although we do have two porcelain ones, a brown and a white.  They don't seem to be as sturdy as the glass ones.

Do you have a collection with an interesting history attached to it?

Heirlooms...



...last summer

(it seems so very long ago)

after a visit to his folks house,

my hubby brought home a shoe box.  It seems his mom was 'cleaning out' some

old family heirlooms and thought we might like to have them.

Like???  does she not know me

after all these years!

The best part,

besides her thinking of me,

was that she included a little note

on each item with regards to who it belonged to and where it came from.

Want to see?

this came from Goldie and Vincents home in Huntsville, Indiana

(not sure who they are exactly but this is from my Father-in-laws family) 

this came from my Mother-in-laws grandparents farm on her dad's side.

the note says...

"dad's mom used to set Jello in this bowl out by the big water tank in the pump shed."

Obviously it was well used

and has been repaired many, many times.

here is another piece from the Indiana folk

passed on from

my husbands grandmother's grandparents!

there are a few more pieces and when I figure out which goes with what little piece of paper I will share them with you.

I realize now

just how important it is

to cataloug those things that are

treasures.



True confessions...

...I am beginning to think that maybe, just maybe, just a little bit that I may have a touch of the hoarding syndrome.  Now let me explain before you sign me up for an intervention.  I don't have 'stuff' everywhere, you can see all of my floors and counter tops and you will not catch any unwanted diseases from using our bathrooms or fixing meals in the kitchen.  phew...What I do have are many, OK several unfinished projects around the house.

Some of these are just your usual upkeep...painting, deep-cleaning types of things.  These projects are not scattered all over the house but for the most part reside in our spare bedroom/dressing room/sewing/craft/ironing/let's put it here room.  You know, we all have one.  Thing is I never really get around to finishing these projects, or even beginning them.

I don't know when this started.  I can only guess that it was a few years ago when I discovered HGTV and blogging and realized that I could buy things at flea markets and transform them into something beautiful and useful.  In my mind at least.

I have overloaded myself with so many projects.  I've bought all the necessary items to refinish, repaint, buff, wax, distress, well...maybe I do need an intervention.

Here's where you get to help me.  I am going to list some of the more pressing projects and post them as I go along.  This will help you to keep me in line and it will help me to realize that I need to make time for the things I love.  You can help me keep my feet to fire otherwise I will be embarrassed that I have confided this in you!

I've got frames to paint and distress, sort through and remember what I was going to put back in them.  (I have a problem buying old frames!)  Also, painting this plant table and putting some sort of scrolly design on the top. 

Paint and recover these great chairs that we found at a city-wide garage sale for $5.  There were six of them but someone bought three before I saw these.  I didn't want three, I wanted four or six...so I settle for two.  Now we will all have our own chair around the dining room table.

And this door.  This door has puzzled me for several years. Yeah, I think it was the beginning of my disorder.  Now that I have it and it's beautiful crystal doorknob, I need to decide what to do with it.  I've been leaning toward a headboard for quite awhile and think that is what will eventually come of it.  What would you do with an old door?

I also have a front door to paint, the one that leads to our house.
A back hall re-do.
And a few Christmas surprises.
I am setting my goals on the easy, lazy, side but hope to have them all finished by years end.  So, I'd better hop to it and make sure I show you all my progress weekly.  But first, FIRST, I must start here and see what I can uncover in the 'craft' room.   Happy thriftng y'all.

Dining in the dining room...

This is a repost from last week...
 ***edited to add***  I am joining Melissa at The Inspired Room gallery wall linky party.  Be sure and check out all the other fabulousness.  Also, forgive me, I don't know how to add her cute little blog button to my post page...hey I'm new..it's a process people!  Also, also, this is my very FIRST home decorating project so please be kind!  Thank you all for visiting.




...picture it...small town-medium sized state...circa 1998, we have just moved into this house after downsizing from our 'family' home.  Our children having had the audacity to grow up, leave home and have lives of their own. 

Our dining room is small, very small.  My mothers' china cabinet and our little round table with four chairs is all that can fit in there.  Although the room is open to the living room and has a large window it is still very dark.  Trying to have a holiday dinner in there is difficult as I can't use the table extension and there is not enough area to move around in.  It's o.k. though as it is more of a place for stuff than a real dining room.  Until now...

 (note to self, make sure all the crap is off the dining room table before you take a picture of the mirrors.)

Recently I have had the urge to make some changes around here and I decided to do over, make over, the dining room.  It didn't need painting as it was done a few years ago and still looks good despite the myriad of tiny nail holes. Formerly this wall had a small plate rack with three plates in it which I have changed out to include the mirrors, a small collection that my daughter left behind, and the frames which are thrift store finds painted white and distressed.  The only cost was the large mirror which was intended for a different room and was $20.  The mercury glass was a gift at Christmas as was the little birdie mirror.  The only thing that doesn't feel right is that little birdie mirror but I will keep it up for awhile and see. 

Yesterday I painted an old shutter  French Blue and after it is distressed I will show you what I have planned for it in here too.  So what do you think?  Too much?  Too busy??  be kind!