Old Cupboard, Old House and Memories

This is a picture I found at a yard sale more than a year ago. It was painted in the 1950's. I thought it would be great to use for a winter decoration so I finally got around to painting the frame and I'm using it in the keeping room redo that I've been working on for several months now. I'm also posting a couple of pictures of an old cupboard that I've been waiting to get settled in.

Isn't she beautiful?

I hope to have her cleaned up a bit more and decorated soon; that is if the temperature ever gets above freezing in that room again. I don't know why but the snowy, icey weather and the bitter cold that we have had this weekend has brought back some wonderful memories of my Uncle's (that helped raise me) family farm. We spent a lot of time there when I was small. I remember it so well. The log smoke house, the barns and corn crib. There were mules for plowing, well loved and well cared for. I remember Bob and Don, two sweet, beautiful liver spotted bird dogs. There were free roaming  chickens and lots of chicks in the spring and always kittens around the barn and the house. I remember the huge ancient oaks that shaded the porch and the great hand stacked stone chimneys. The house itself sat on pillars made from the same stone culled from the land when the fields were cleared for farming. It was a true house that grew from the very land it sat on. It is gone now and there are very few like it left. It had housed that family for generations and it is a sorrow that more and more we see the rural landscape change, never stopping to thing what is lost in time. 

Maybe old cupboards and hand made items are all that I can save of those wonderful memories.

I also have a picture of a sweet little red childs chair that I found a few months ago. I love red and she'll be just perfect once she is cleaned up and has a doll to keep her company.

One more picture of my old cupboard and then I'm off to prepare for work tomorrow. I'm not sure how that will go with the icey roads but for sure our office will be open. I think I will be late though; I'm waiting till the streets slush up, I'm not going to be sliding in on ice! Stay warm everyone.

 

Just a Quick Sunday Post

Wow the last two weeks have been rough! First I came down with a really nasty bug and at a time when I could not miss work. So off I went everday only to come home and crawl into bed. Of course last weekend was our seminar Saturday which meant I had to work 9+ hours on Sat. This past week I've felt much better but had several evening appointments so this weekend I've spent trying to dig myself through two weeks of housecleaning I'm behind on not to mention a 100 other things. Anyway it has been warm here today and while I have tons left to do I did get a few things in order and managed to get some much needed sleep and rest.

On the way to work one morning I saw the back of on old chest that had been thrown out by the street. That evening I asked Mr. K to drive over and pick it up. At first I thought it might be a lost cause as all of the drawers were missing but the old chippy finish was just brealing my heart. We cleaned her up and Mr. K is going to put shelves in where the drawers were. I'm looking for some mustard and black checked fabric for a curtain over the front and this girl will be just perfect for storing my fabrics, sewing and painting supplies.   

I'll have to get better pictures of this, it really is quite sweet. I'm still slowly working on the keeping room and  making slow progress but this week I plan to be back blogging some of my creations and with better pictures of this old girl and another old cupboard that will be finding her way into the keeping room.

I think this may be my favorite corner when all is said and done, I love this old rocker. Have a wonderful week!

                                                                              

Happy New Year and Old Scissors

Hello Everyone !!

Just a short post to wish each of you a safe, warm, and prosperous New Year. I haven't posted in a couple of weeks but I have tried to pop in and visit all of may favorite blogs. I enjoy your posts so much and I really want to thank all of you that visit, comment and follow me in my little corner of blogland.

I love hearing from you and I read every comment. I hope that in this new year I will be able to spend more time doing the things that make me smile and visiting with  my new friends that I have met through your blogs is one thing that definately makes me smile.

It's been freezing here! This old house does not lend itself well to cold weather and boy the last few weeks have been cold. I've been giving a lot of thought to my future here and I'm still not sure if I will continue to live here or just give up and try something else. One day I'm sure I'll choose something else and leave this old house with it's leaky roof and cold floors behind and the next day I think about all of all of the plans I've made for her and possibilites to bring her back to life as a warm, safe (however in this city safe is another subject altogether) , comfortable  and inviting home.   What to do ? What to do?

There was one estate sale yesterday and I just had to go. I found some great old treasures. One was this dress.

This dress was made in the 60's; 1960's when our city celebrated it's centennial. Nearly every business and chuch joined in the celebration dressing as Southern Belles and Gentlemen.  I was really pleased to find this dress and matching bonnet. I also found four massive volumes of The Century Magazine, these books date from 1884 and 1887. They are so interesting.

There were  a few nice old linens that I picked up and last but certainly not least I found a plastic bag with two pair of antiques scissors. I couldn't believe my eyes.   

It doesn't show in the pictures but these actually have the old makers mark on them. I'm sure that this is a sign that soon the sewing corner will be warm again and I'll be back to stitching before I know it.

I'll be working on a few items for Easter and then on to an early start on Halloween things this year.

Be healthy and safe because before we know it Christmas will be here again!

                                                               Bright Blessings !

Cats and the Red Theme

Hi everyone.  I just wanted to pop in for a quick post. I've been enjoying all the beautiful Holiday decorating on your blogs. I try to get in each day to look at all the beautiful pictures and the wonderful stories of Holidays past and present. Now the largest tree that I put up each year has a white and silver and gold theme. I still plan to get that tree decorated but it will go into the newly painted keeping room. I still planned to have a couple of smaller trees in the living room but I also remembered that I have a still young baby kitty, named Sugar Bee that is into everything. I could imagine her climbing the tree and playing in a rubble of crushed glass ornaments while I was away.  So  I decided to decorate the trees anyway but with non breakable ornaments. Anyway I'd seen these beautiful red pinecone ornaments at  the Crackle Barrel when we ate there a few weeks ago. I started with a few of those and ended with this sweet tree all decked out in berries, birds and pinecones. I even found a couple of birdhouses and lots of cardinals. I mixed in a few other non breakable ornaments and ended up with a very nice tree. Can you believe she has not even noticed it?  Not once has she climbed it or even swatted at an ornament. Well I love the tree anyway and just in case she changes her mind I know there isn't anything here that she can break and get cut on.

                                                                                

It willl be here soon! Have a great week!

Time is getting away from me!

                                                                              

WOW, time is really flying by. I usually get my decorating done the weekend after Thanksgiving but this year I've barely gotten started. I'm posting just a few pictures of what I have gotten done so far. Painting has gone well in the keeping room but I won't  get finished until next weekend. Then the larger tree will go up. In the mean time I have everything from that room scattered through my house so I haven't been able to get my other decorating done.

I did get a little  Christmas tree on Brother's tree. I wish the pictures had turned out better, the tree is straight but it looks as if it's tilted in the picture.

                    

                                       I bought two of  these trees from a sale that was an antique store that had gone out of business. She had used the trees for decorations in her store. It has vintage copper bells, pieces of vintage jewelry and old buttons with little square mirrors that are glued on to the end of the boughs; they catch and reflect the light. Sometimes when the sun hits it just right the mirrors just shimmer in the light.             

                                                                                                                                      

• 
  
  
  
  
  

You can't see them in the picture but there is a little bike, a teddy bear and lots of cute things.

I managed to decorate the mantle anf get the big Santa and a few wreaths up. Hopefully I'll be able to post pictures next weekend of the tress decorated and the keeping room finished.

We had a terrible storm right after I got the wreath on the cross and it blew it down and lots of ornaments were broken. That's OK I've been wanting to replace them with some prim ornies so now would be a good time to do it.

Have a safe happy week.

Do You See Him There ??

Do you see him there??

Years ago Brother had a big yellow cat. He named him Yellows & Yellows. Yep, Yellows & Yellows.

That was when he was maybe about 25 or 30 years old, long before our parents died.  Now he'd had other cats but all of his life he fondly remembered Yellows & Yellows and talked about that kitty all the time. He loved all of the cats that I had rescued over the years and I still have his Wallace who is now 12 years old. Anyway, a few months after brother passed away this gentleman started visiting me. He won't allow me to get more than about 3 feet near him but he's not a shy one. He peeks in the window at us from the porch. He has no problem letting me know in a quite a loud howl that his bowl is empty and he wants food.   He is a beautiful boy and I've named him Yellows & Yellows. I worry about him. My neighbors are not cat lovers but I can't deny him food. Sometimes I see him over by the tree where Brother was attacked. I always feel that Brother is still close to me and watches over me. Who else would he send to care for me while he's off visiting places that I can't even imagine but Yellow's & Yellows.

 

Happy Beautiful Thanksgiving and the Aprons I Promised

It has been a beautiful mild day here and I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving just as we did. I never started out to collect aprons; it's just that I seem to run across them quite often and I love them. When I was young every woman had an apron or more likely a half dozen or so.

My aunt's wore aprons when they cooked Sunday dinner after church. They had plain and fancy aprons which they wore depending on who was coming for dinner. My Grandmother and Mammie Roger's wore aprons all day, everyday. Their aprons were longer. They always wore long mid-calf length dresses, always. It was not the proper thing for women to wear slacks or jeans. I remember that all of the house cleaning was done right after breakfast at Mammie and Grandmother's.

                                                                 

The meals and house cleaning were done in pretty print aprons but at Grandmother's when lunch was finished she would put on a proper apron as she called it. A proper apron was a long white apron with pockets large enough to hold her crochet thread or embroidery, She made all of her aprons on a treadle sewing machine and the pockets were always trimmed with lovely crochet lace.  The afternoon was time for stitching. I don't think she ever spent an idol moment, except when she slept and I'm sure she dreamed of the next sewing project that she would be starting. Thus began my love affair with aprons and linens and quilts.

 

I found this little beauty a few months ago, the apron  has a row of sweet Christmas trees across the hem. It doesn't show well in the picture but the tress are cross stitch, topped with a green ribbon bow.

I'm always amazed at the work that went into these aprons, even these newer machine made ones can be very intricate.

I guess the red ones are my favorite but I collect any color or pattern that I can find.

I remember Mammie and Grandmother using the hems of their aprons to open the door of the wood stove. I do wish I had some of their aprons for my collection.

And now this next picture is a little bit off of the subject.

Please pop over to my autumn Halloween blog at Familiar Sprits http://familiarspirits.blogspot.com/ to see the story and more great pictures of this fantastic stock car. You won't want to miss this it is incredible.

Have a wonderful safe weekend; it's back to work for me tomorrow but if all goes well the keeping room make over will start on Saturday.

Thanksgiving blessings to everyone.

 

                                                                                

Happy Thanksgiving

Wishing everyone a safe and Happy Thanksgiving

Bright Blessings

Happy Sunday before Thanksgiving

Can you believe that we are just days away from Thanksgiving??

There was very little treasure hunting for me this weekend. I had to work all day on Saturday! It was our companies very first log home seminar and I have to say it was a beautiful day and I really enjoyed getting to spend time with clients that had traveled from as far away as Arkansas and Ohio.

The event was quite a success and we will be offering more of these seminars next year. I did get out to one sale on Friday and picked up some neat old bottles. I don't have pictures of those yet but I guess by now you are all wondering about this little gem of a truck. No it's not mine but I would love to own it. That truck is an antique lovers dream. Oh to think of hitting the estate sales and auctions behind the wheel of that little beauty. Rumor has it she is for sale, I honestly dreamed about her last night. Anyway I know the owner so if you are interested just drop me an email and I'll pass the information along. I also took some pictures of a stock car that was all decked out for Halloween. Yep I know it's over but it's just a little over 11 months until it's here again. I'll be posting those pictures later in the week and believe me you will love it. I'll also be posting pictures of some of the aprons in my collection. With Thanksgivng day almost here I'm reminded of how important aprons were, maybe that's why I love them so much.

I'll cose with another picture of my dream truck.

Great Week End Finds and The Perfect Chair

Can you believe that Thanksgiving is almost here?

It seems like just yesterday I was wishing for the first signs of autumn and suddenly it is almost Thanksgiving.

I went to an estate sale yesterday and it's a good thing that space and money are limited here or I would have had to make 10 trips to get everything home. Anyway I found some great treasures and I'm posting pictures of just a few today.

 

This is an old print of the first Thanksgiving. I fell in love with it. It will hang in the dining room over the mantle I think. We are starting to redo the dining room. It won't be ready before Thanksgiving since most of the projects get done around here on the weekends but it will be done by Christmas.

This chippy robin's egg blue chair also came from the sale. I can't pass up an old rocker and this one was just my color and I had to bring it home.

.

And this sweet little piece of Pfaltzcaff is holding sweet scented vanilla candles on one of the cupboards.

Maybe my favorite find was this beautiful hand crochet bed cover. I love old linens and this just had to come home with me.

Then there were boxes and boxes of sewing kits, most from the 80's. I bought 7and it's so hard to decide which one to start on first.  I'm thinking it

will be this cross stitch runner but there is also an Amish quilt wall hanging that is calling my name. I may start them both, sometimes I like to have several projects started at once. I don't get bored and since I have no patience at all I seem to stay more focused on getting them finished.

This old milk can found it's way to my porch too, where will I find places for Christmas decorations??

My dear friend Fran stopped by and gave me this adorable set of kitty placemats. Fran is a cat lover too and such a good person. I am blessed to have her as my friend.

I unpacked one woodland Santa, just to see if he could survive my little Sugar Bee and he's made it a week and she hasn't touched him. I'm wondering what's going to happen when the trees go up. She does love sparkly things.

And speaking of trees, I also found this tree at the sale.

Now I'm a primitive lover but when it comes to Christmas I do love a bit of fru-fru.

This was such a delighful tree with the glistening gold net ribbon and the gold angels. It has dried baby's breath which is old and yellowed so I'm replacing it with new snowey white and adding maybe some soft white birds to spruce it up.

I almost forgot, I also got a fantastic old quilt top. I didn't get a picture but I'll get one next time. I hope to be back later in the week with a link to a wonderful site. My daughter's company has started a line of garden planters that are just out of this world. You'll love them.  And I'm also starting some luminaries. If they turn out good I'll post some pictures. I hope you all have a great week.