The barn and Amazon - what a combo

Morris has his bench at the farm where he can see out the window and watch the birds . He keeps trying  to look out the window at the new house so one of my objectives today was to find something I could  put a cushion on  so he could see out the window in the new house.

I had to go out to the barn anyway to look for wood and I found this old trunk   in pretty bad shape. It is quite large and very heavy.  I had to pry the lock to even get in into it.  It was lined with paper that was a little yucky but under the paper the wood was fine. It is made of wood covered with metal that was quite rusty in spots. So with some steel wool, elbow grease, and bleach I should be able to make a perch for Morris with it. I believe it is an old metal military foot locker... probably from WWII.  I have no idea how long it has been in the barn or how it got there. But I really need it about 4 in higher so I went on Amazon and found some wooden legs for it.    It will fill the bill until we actually move in February and it's free.....free is good.

 

  And I liked the look of this piece on Pinterest  that had iron work on it  and filed it away.  I do have a piece of old wrought iron fencing that I could use but if you put the iron in the front you can't have a shelf and if you put the iron in the back you can't see it. Since this has to have storage value I have to have the shelf.  So I thought if I could find some decorative iron metal legs and some decorative metal shelf supports  I think I can come close to that look.  I love the old boards on top but I love my tiled board more.  So I once again went searching on Amazon.

 

The nice thing about Amazon is that they show you what other people bought or things that are similar and I always find things just about the same  but cheaper which appeals to my thrifty nature.  First I had just looked at one shelf support for $30 t and then I found four for the same price and then four for $15. I spent a little more than $30 for four legs and four supports and I think it's going to work.

I'm still cleaning the tiled board and I found some old boards for the ends and the shelf.  I may even be able to work in a shutter or two.  When it is all done it will definitely be a OOAK entry piece...

 

Many irons in the fire!!!!

I'm not all that keen on the open concept that is so popular now. In every home makeover show they knock down the wall between the kitchen and the main living area... In earlier days only the wealthy had separate dining rooms and everyone else just ate in their kitchen. Then when people became more affluent they had separate dining rooms like the wealthy.

 

 Now everyone wants to eat in the kitchen again. Personally I like having my eating area separated from my kitchen when I have company. Maybe it's only me but when I am doing serious cooking I make a big mess and I'm glad to sit someplace where my guests can't see the kitchen.  In the new house when you walk in the front door you have a clear sight line to the kitchen counter. I'm going to try to break this line of sight with a divider of some kind using all my stained glass I gathered together.

 

That old tiled shelf from the barn I hauled over the other day is going to work just fine near the entry area when I figure out how I'm going to add a shelf.  At least it is the right length and depth.   And the shutters that I was going to use in the big open hole in the bonus room wall  are also going to work nicely just as well.  They are just 1/2" from being a perfect fit... lucky me. I salvaged the shutters from a display unit we used when we did a booth at shows. I love to be able to repurpose something I already have.   So things are going along quite well on all projects. I really wanted a door on that bonus room but the opening is 36" wide and such a big door would be awkward.  I originally wanted to bring the bathroom door from farm but it is only 30" wide and using it requires some extensive framing.  So I have settled on using a bi-fold closet door and will paint on it....maybe a farm landscape with sheep!!!  It will be delivered next week.  Hopefully by then the kitchen island will be done.

 

 I finished  painting the drawer fronts of the island today and I'm happy with all the little bees. Since painting is difficult now I have to settle for a more rustic (folk art) look to my work. The end of painting on the kitchen island is in sight and I will soon be able to assemble all the parts.  It has turned into a much larger project than I envisioned....which  seems to be the norm as I get older. 

 

And today when I put up a white mirror in the bathroom the counter did not seem as gray. It actually looks more steely blue. After it was up I realize I put it at a comfortable height for me....5'1" so a really tall person is going to have to stoop to see themselves because I am not changing it.  "short person revenge".  I still haven't got the border up in the bathroom as I'm a little nervous about being there by myself on a ladder. I'm waiting for someone to come and hold the ends of the wet border for me and hand me what I need so I don't have to climb up and down so many times...... 

I have really done nothing in the one room that will be my workroom as I am waiting for the internet to be installed in there.  I did assemble two storage cabinets except for the doors as they are easier to move without the doors.  I have started to bring some stuff over but it is still in baskets in the closet.  CenturyLink has made two appointments to install the internet and did not show up for either.  So any real progress in that room is on hold for now.

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.

Extraordinary Thanksgiving

We had an extraordinary Thanksgiving as son Steven and DILVivian treated us to tickets to warm and sunny Phoenix to spend the holiday with them and our granddaughter Madison and her husband Ryan.  We stayed in a lovely hotel which had bagpipers playing in the courtyard every night at sunset. On Thanksgiving day we ate traditional fare at a restaurant that had a panoramic view of the whole area.

One afternoon we relaxed by the fire pit where my son lives and he grilled us mini portions of filet mignon, foie gras, lobster and king crab.  Another day we went to an ice cream shop which made your ice cream to order as you stood and watched.

Each evening we ate at a different restaurant but the first night was special because it was our 43rd anniversary and the waiter brought a special flaming dessert to the table.

We hadn't all been together since Madison's wedding in 2017.  It was a fun, loving busy four days but it turned out that warm and sunny Phoenix was anything but warm and sunny and was in the mid 40s,drenching rain, flash flooding  and even 3 tornados wreaking havoc.  But this morning as we  boarded our plane temps were returning to normal.

Does it really matter whose hands?

When we moved into our old house almost 40 years ago one of the things we learned the first winter was this old house was cold and drafty in the winter. Eventually  I found this Arch quilt at a thrift store in very good condition and hung it on the window to stop the draft.  It worked so well I started collecting them for every window and then I kept on collecting them.

The pieces are machined stitched of reproduction fabric but all the quilting is done by hand.... some rather crude but on some Arch quilts it is very nice indeed.  They were mass marketed from China to the US in the early 90s,   This one has been machined washed repeatedly and is still lovely and is now hanging over the slider at the new house.  It immediately made it feel like "my" home.

The fad passed and I seldom see them at thrift stores anymore but I do see them at garage sales, Etsy and Ebay and often proclaimed to be antiques or family heirlooms. 

But if you are familiar with them, they are easily recognizable as Arch quilts even though the label is long gone.  They had a limited number of patterns and a "look" that can't be missed. 

I have 7 of their wedding ring quilts and about that many of their other patterns. The  quilting is certainly not competition quality but it is obviously done by hand...somebody's hand...and I for one  appreciate and value their efforts.

I've seen them described as inferior, poor quality and  worthless.  All mine are used and all have been washed in the washing machine repeatedly and are still lovely and  treasured....besides helping us to keep toasty warm.... I send a big hug to the persons whose hands stitched these quilts.

My love affair with stained glass....

I have always been mesmerized by light coming through lovely colored glass and I have a fair amount of it.  And now that I started thinking of not having surround me I want to move it all.  Some will be easy as it is small but other pieces will take some thought.

 

 

A few times I have found small pieces at thrift stores such as these and I just prop them up in a window and let them brighten my day as they are...

 

But occasionally I have found larger pieces and tried  to do something special with them.  I used to incorporate some  in backs of benches... one of my favorites was this clear glass piece and I think it will be over the kitchen window in the new house.  But some of my glass came from the most unlikely places. 

 The oddest  was this glass I salvaged from a dilapidated railroad dining car in North Dakota.  While visiting family I spotted this relic of a railroad car in a field with sheep wandering in and out of it.  We stopped and was dismayed that most of the glass sections had fallen out and were broken.. But a few were mostly intact so my BIL knew the farmer and asked if I could salvage what glass was left.  Luckily he thought I was a bit daft and told me sure. I made this large overhead light fixture with part of it.  It will stay with this house.  It was over the door at the end of the car which determined the shape.

 

 

Genuine  antique glass has a special quality that can't be replicated in new glass.  This   glass was salvaged from an old chapel in a Catholic hospital. that was demolished in the 60s.  I was delighted to be gifted some of it about 30 years ago.  Some of it I used in a little hot house I built years ago.  I still have some pieces and it will definitely go with me  for a very special project....that is in the embryotic stage of planning. 

 

At some point I tried to do some pieces on my own.  I loved doing it but I have always had arthritic hands and cutting glass was just too painful  My first attempt were these small panels for little windows in the entry way.  They will go with me.

Then I did a piece for the gazebo and one for the tea room in the barn.  Not sure what I will do with them.  Probably will take the hummers.

The last stain glass I designed and cut was the chicken panel over the sink in the kitchen and it will stay with the house.

 

 

But now I get to the glass that is the purpose of this particular blog post.  This is a piece I bought at an antique store about 30 years ago and even though I had to hang it vertically when it was meant to be horizontal, it is my very favorite.. But as I have auditioned every single window in the new house there is nothing that would do it justice no matter how I fussed about it.  It is quite good sized (1' x 4') and an awkward shape.  Then last night about 1:30am I had a vision for it and was so excited that I had to get up and work out the details.  It will be the focal point for the whole house and will fit right in with my style.... shabby mismatch...

 

Now that I have sorted glass out I have to move on to a bigger  challenge ...all the rusty stuff...especially old rusty iron stuff...