It is my last chance and responsibility

When you read about downsizing they always recommend keeping what you "really" love.  Well I "really" love it all.  Now that the move is in progress I lay in bed thinking how can I use this or that at the new house.  A good example are two simple but very large benches in the gazebo (like 9 ft. long) I had them stacked and used them as shelves.  I must find a place for them.  They are 2"x 12"s  nine feet long and old growth lumber...worth their weight in gold.


I have a good-sized collection of old shutters and not to mention piles of fabulous well-weathered old wood. The largest set of old shutters I have found a use for and luckily I had four of them.

 I used to collect porcelain knobs and painted on them and had a box full left.  I have now been using them mix-and-match in the new kitchen.  I even have some clear antique cut glass ones that I must use somewhere.   I also had a large seed bag filled with funky stuff to donate to Habitat for Humanity  like brass and glass door knobs, old hinges, etc.  I may give it a second look....  It's amazing that now that I have the new house I am looking at all this old stuff with a renewed interest and thinking of new and different uses for it.... It is my last chance and responsibility to give these things a new life.

Several times lately I have walked by this old shelf in the gift shop from the nursery days.  I hand painted all these tiles 30 years ago and it would be a sin to just abandon them...right??? At first I was thinking of using the gazebo benches near the front entry in the new house until I measured them and knew they wouldn't fit.  I could never cut such rare old wood.... but now I think the tiled shelf could be used there.  Actually there are two tiled shelves.. maybe both. They're a bit grungy but should clean up easily enough.

  Our realtor was a bit worried about all the stuff I had to get rid of. ...solution...take it all with me.  Definitely taking ALL my garden angels...And OMG how can I leave my marble stepping stones.  I have been collecting marble cutting boards and cheese boards for years to use in my paths...................And all my hand held power tools - sanders, drills. saws, staplers, air brush compressor, nail guns. etc.  On second thought I really shouldn't be using skill saws or power sanders  any more.

the bathroom is coming along... now

I had a pretty clear image for how I wanted to do just about every room in the new house except for one bathroom that everyone will use. To begin with it had grey floor, grey countertops and a mirror with grey trim. Too grey.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I loved the wallpaper border that I had in the farmhouse bathroom. It was wide and die-cut and country but funky.   But they don't make it anymore.   I've searched and searched and I finally bought this die-cut border but it just wasn't quite what I wanted. Then my  granddaughter Leigha in Alaska sent me an email that she was sending me a thrift store shower curtain for my new house. I couldn't imagine a shower curtain worth shipping all the way to Spokane.

 

 

 

It came today and what a treasure!  It is beautifully  embellished with ribbon embroidery and old lace.  This photo does not do it justice. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I hung it today and put it next to the wallpaper border and   it was a match made in heaven. Once I get the curtain pressed, the wrought iron braces up and a few more finishing touches the bathroom is going to be just great.

 

 I took down the gray mirror and brought a white one from the barn but it's the wrong size so I  have another one I'll bring from the barn the next time I come and I think it will work. What would I do without my barn.  It is better than Lowes and Home Depot all rolled into one. 

 

 

 

  I just need a piece of artwork in place of the cupboard the wall .  I think maybe I will frame a piece of crazy quilting .

 

 

 

 

 

I brought the little gray angel  and with the pink flowers it livens up the grey  I think I'm going to have a winner here.  I do wish the bathroom had a window.  Maybe I need to put a faux window in there....

Where there's a will there just might be way.

 I have enjoyed doing the blog all these years but it's getting harder and harder to handle the type on the computer and I was thinking I was going to have to give it up. But I have that will and I might have found that way.

 

 Last summer I learned how to use the voice feature on my phone to send texts and emails and because I couldn't see the letters on the phone.   It worked great. So I was wishing that there was some way I could talk to my computer to do my blog and I think I found it. So today I'm "talking" my post to my phone and sending it to me in an email and then I can cut and paste it from the email to the blog. The only problem is the voice feature doesn't always get some words right so I'm hoping all of you will be a little forgiving if there are more errors doing it this way.  When   I was just out of high school I worked for a law firm and one of my jobs was transcribing from a Dictaphone.  When I said Dictaphone to my phone it came up "dick to phone."

 

 I'm trying to get as many hours as I can  at the new house getting all the little touches done that I love done before we actually  move in. My main goal  is to  add as much color and as much light as I possibly can to my  new house. I have also ordered several storage units to help with the problem of space and getting  room for all my kitchen stuff  and this included a island cart and an extra pantry.  They are here and I'm trying to paint them both unassembled at the same time. It is a challenge to keep all the pieces separated and I'm hoping when I start to put them together that I end up with what I wanted.  The cart has 8 pages of instructions.

 

We went to see Tom Hanks in Mister Rogers and I really enjoyed it.   Especially the little song about the neighborhood. Now when I'm at the house and looking out the window I'm thinking that it's a lovely day in "my" neighborhood. I never felt I had a neighborhood at the farm

Not my home without a sampler

Anyone following this blog over the years has seen my collection of samplers show up in photo after photo.  Most were stitched in the 60s and 70s and have moved from house to house over the years.  I have given most away and this fall sent one to GD Leigha and gave two more to DIL this last visit.






They were hung here and there as I did not have a wall large enough for all of them   in the farm house but I do have a lovely large wall in the new house.












So last week I took them all down and cleaned them and made any necessary repairs to the backing,  Then I loaded all my favorites  in laundry baskets and spent the day rehanging them.

I always start organized when I do this and lay them all out on the floor like I would like them on the wall.  But as always, after the 3rd or 4th one goes up the plan goes awry but somehow it works out in the end.

Years ago I learned the best thing to hang them on with the least amount of damage to the wall are sewing machine needles.  They are strong and if you need to move them the hole is almost invisible.  And it does takes several tries on some of them.

















 It to almost three hours and they still need a bit of straightening and tweaking but they are up. Most of the time was spent getting up and down the ladder.   But this is the last time I'll move them and they're an important part of what makes a house "my" home.  I did also get another wedding ring quilt up on the living room window this time. Today I am off to get some additional base cabinets and start looking at possibilities for new countertops.  This will be my biggest splurge.

Going gypsy chic!!!

 I can't believe I didn't blog a picture of my little drop leaf table when I finished it about a year ago but have searched photo files and blog to no avail....   I had some problems with using the tiny stencils but since I was going for an "well-used" look, it really didn't  matter. "Well-used" is my go-to-look for everything now that the vision is such a huge problem.   I posted a photo of the top but not the legs when I finished.


I didn't really have a plan and made it up as I went along.  It is very light weight and easy to move about when I have to vacuum.  Mostly DH has his reading material and wine on it but it is small enough that it doesn't get out of hand.

I started with this small drop leaf table from the barn which had seen better days.  I did have to modify some hardware from Amazon to work with the leaves on  such a small table.

And my basic color palette was rust, sage, and mustard and I was really happy with it....so happy
that it is the basic palette I am using for the new house and many items have been ordered ... storage cabinet, bathroom cabinet, kitchen island cart, etc. and they will all follow this palette and have decorative painting on them. They all have to be assembled so I will do most of the painting before I put them together.  It will be at least 2 months before we can actually move so there will be time to do a lot of fun stuff.

I have always been in love with gypsy wagons and now this is my last chance to go "gypsy chic"

But mine will have a lot more white included.  I want lots and lots of patterns and color but enough white for light... Now doesn't this sound like fun.