~Tis a Blessed Bed!~

It is finished - after two years, painting a half dozen pieces of wood for color samples, sanding, painting, moving kids out of the house, moving kids back into the house, more sanding, making a canopy frame, sanding, painting, and even more sanding, last night we slept in our NEW (used) $17 thrift store bed. I kid you not - I found this solid hardwood, no veneer, colonial four-poster bed at a thrift store for $17. (Really, it was $24.99, but I had a coupon.) Not a whole lot of reading this blog, just a few photo explanations:

Bed right out of the thrift store - I had my DH help me set it up in the garage so I could make sure everything fit together and all the pieces were there. It definitely needed to be refinished, scratches, dings, dents - it was just a nightmare:

Then the bed got taken apart and stored in the garage for a year. After a year it got hauled up to the bonus room so my DH could make the canopy frame for it -

Then I took over with sanding for eternity, and painting in near zero degree temps in the garage. The final step though was applying the antiquing medium - if that stuff doesn't get wiped off within the right time, gets too cold, or the wind dries it out, too bad - gotta start all over again:

Then it finally got moved back upstairs in our room and assembled. Saturday late afternoon my DH was able to start putting it all back together, drilling:

and lining everything up:

And then he took a nap:

But I think he deserved it:

~'Tis the 'New Bed' Eve~

I promised it was coming. It has been way below normal temps here. I am refinishing this bed in the garage. Very chilly weather, highs in the mid-20's. So cold, that I was afraid to put my last coat of paint and then antiquing medium on our bed, so I am a day or two behind. Tomorrow morning it should be warm enough to put last coat of antiquing medium on, and then tomorrow eve it will be moved into place after dear husband can help me move it from the garage to upstairs. Getting so excited. Thank you all for being such dearhearts and showing an increased amount of patience. This bed has been two years in the making - from the thrift store find, to sanding, to having children leave an empty bedroom long enough for me to claim again, to now the final refinishing. Photos coming.......... but this is how it looked right out of the thrift store for $17:


And the next photo will be posted Saturday or Sunday Morning of the final end result. 'Tis a bittersweet time for me. I am so excited, I can't hardly stand it. 'Til Saturday, then. Blessings on your evening...........


Shanda

~A Coverlet Pick Me Up.....~

I went to my favorite store yesterday, Heritage Reflections in Meridian, to spend some money my mother had sent me for my birthday. I just LOVE that place. Anyway, I came home with a woven coverlet square for my dining room table. They really didn't have any left, BUT one of my kindred spirit friends works there and she had one set aside for herself in the back. SHE GAVE HER COVERLET UP TO ME! A true patriot and primitive decorating friend. I love it and I thank Debbie for her sacrifice. What a gal!!!!!!


This is a short post, I am working on a few other projects that will be coming in the next week. I have been busy working on my colonial pencil post bed. Yes, finally, the one I found at the local thrift store for $17. It is being painted and will be set up, photo ready in the next week. I cannot wait, it has been such a long time in the making, bedrooms to be switched around with two kids off to college and rooms to be painted, but the wait for my colonial bed is almost over. Patience is golden they say, so I must have quite a stash being built up somewhere.

Check back in a week for some some photos of before, during and after. Until then, make a pot of your favorite soup today. It is a blustery one in the Pacific Northwest!

Blessings on your day -

Shanda

~home-bod-y. noun.~

home·bod·y n. pl. home·bod·ies One whose interests center on the home. Homebody - A person who seldom goes anywhere: one not given to wandering or travel.

All I want to do anymore is stay home. Be in my pajamas. Quilt. Do laundry. Clean my fridge. Finish projects. Be domestic. Ponder a bit while I am stitching. Does this make any sense to anyone else? Am I 'letting myself go?' Does this mean I am getting soft? Am I turning into a couch potato? I can't be doing that because we don't watch or even have a TV. I just 'reflect' a lot and am trying to be the person I was meant to be. I am being mindful of my existence and making the best use of my time. I love being home and I try to run errands or do my limited shopping either on my two days of work, or every other week. Saves money and time to be at home. In colonial times, so much work was done at home - even to light their evenings they had to set aside several days a year just to make candles. While I don't have to do that, I can rejoice that I have an inside bathroom to clean. That I have running inside warm water for laundry. That I can just walk over and flip a switch on the wall for heat. That I have a great OTT Light to see to stitch at night. AND that I have a crock-pot to cook my dinner for me. All this. Wow - all this! And I get to choose to be a homebody.

With that I am going to go read. With a good bedside lamp. Curled up underneath a warm quilt. AFTER I say my nighttime prayers - thanking my Heavenly Father for these blessings in my life. I am blessed to be a 'homebody. '

~Tis My Colonial Hearth~

Colonial hearths, like the one pictured above, have fascinated me for many, many years - ever since I was a little girl. I was afraid, as a child, that when the fire crackled and popped, embers would fly out onto the floor and start a house fire. Yet, I loved to sit near a open flame, whether in a home or around a campfire, and just take in the ambiance of the flames. And to think that the early colonial hearths were open and people cooked in them, and sat around them at night for family time, and really, were the center of their lives and survival, just really fascinated me. There was always one added element that signified safety, security, and self-reliance, and that one element was the black powder rifles that hung above the mantle.

I have always wanted a black powder rifle. I don't know anything about them, really. I liked the romantic coziness they gave to the hearth, the look of stately belonging. I knew that both revolutionary and civil war reenactors today use them, but I couldn't tell you anything about the different sizes, makes, or anything about how to tell how old a gun was. I knew from the Little House on the Prairie books that Pa had one hanging above their fireplace mantle, but I didn't know what all they took to fire - the amount of black powder to use, or the size of 'ball' needed to fire it. I just knew that some day I would like to have one. That 'someday' came Christmas Morning for me - bless my dearhearted husband!

Our hearth before:



Our hearth after:


I have a very understanding husband who made a purchase for me that I will always treasure - and while some wives may think me a bit off - I am a simpleton. I may live in 2011, but my husband knows that at times I wish I lived during the early days of our nation, and he tries his best to get me there.


It is lightly snowing outside, and I think I may get my copy of "Woman's Life in Colonial Days" by Carl Holliday, pull up my settee by the hearth, and read.

Blessings on Your Day!

~It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas!~

The decorations are out............






Packages are being delivered......





The gifts have been started - everyone was making a mad dash to get those loved one's items made.........
And even our missionaries were there for a baked potato bar and moral support..... one even ironed for me, but I missed his picture..........



Now the countdown to the Eve of Christmas begins.......