~Tis Simple Summertime Sharing, Makeovers, and Other Blessings!~

 

 Boy, Howdy!

Isn't summertime just busy?  Garden is in and growing, although everything is about 2-3 weeks behind.  And this evening I hung a bunting on my chicken house - just in time for the automatic sprinklers to go off!  Whew!  Our son and some of his college friends are coming home for the 4th of July Holiday, so been moving things about and 'tweeking' ~ some in our family call it putzing.  Anyway, here goes:

Anybody know who Arnold Friberg is?  Very famous painter who painted Prayer at Valley Forge?  I recently discovered he had another sweet painting called Winter at Valley Forge.  Found it for a very reasonable price and hung it above the pie safe......

Also discovered a Civil War clothing 'suttler' in my area - could hardly stand walking into his workshop.  I was jumping out of my skin at all the reenactors clothing, leather goods, and amazing civil war accessories he had for sale.  I have always wanted a 'cartridge case' to use as a kind of purse......  found one.  Can check that off my bucket list......

I did some shuffling in the spare bathroom getting it ready for company..........

This shelf was actually a made over thrift store find .......  see the star at the top?  It is covering up a cut out (shhhhhhh! - it's an 80's thing)  heart. After painting and antiquing the whole shelf that was (again, shhhhhhhh!) pink,  I just put some fabric over the 'hole', nailed it down with old upholstery tacks, painted a primitive star ivory, and antiqued it.  TaDa!  My new .99 shelf.  But my new super fun find I got last weekend at my FAVORITE store, Heritage Reflections, was this cute little red shelf.......... it really looks so much cuter than this, I just need a better camera........

My mother loves cabins, and I found this gem for her at the local thrift store.  She lives in Illinois, so this one is going to have to wait for alternative shipping, like when she drives out West this Fall, as I am fearful to ship it.  It is heavy resin, and that lamp shade I feel could get crushed.......

I am also working on my civil war quilt.  In fact, I was awake at 3 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep, so up I got and went in my sewing room and worked on it.  Here is a sample block.......

Now remember, I haven't blogged for almost two months, so I need to get caught up.  I prefer to blog once a week and not have quite such a gap in Posts.  This is my new 'vision'.  Weekly, not quarterly, Posts.

Anyway, two more topics and I will be done 'for a week.'  Remember my settee that I got at the thrift store over two years ago?  The one I have been scared to death to tackle?  You remember, this one?

It is finally in the upholstery shop!  Can you believe it?  But first, I had this old chair done........  I am in awe.......  I so wish I had a before photo, but alas, I have searched to no avail.  It is not 'in place' yet and all decorated about, but tomorrow I am cleaning before the weekend company comes and will make it all cozy.  Simple beauty:

See, I have been quite busy.  Tis good to stay occupied, but I also have been reading in the evenings.  Reading history, which I love.  I am always studying about the War for American Independence and the Civil War.  I truly believe I was born at least a century too late.  Currently I am reading a book on Johnny Appleseed.  I just finished the classic 'Farmer Boy' by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  I skipped over that one in the series when I was little, and, wow, I am wondering, 'why'?  It was so inspiring. 

So what are my plans for next week?  If you could only take a gander at our family room upstairs, you would see this mess.  We are painting white walls a dark ivory, and I can't wait for the finished product:

You can kind of see the darker ivory in the corners and on the back wall to the right of the window, old color to the left.  I think I will just love it!

In closing, I know we are all busy.  Kids to raise, gardens to tend to, laundry piling up, day to day responsibilities.  But remember what it is all for.  Make good choices.  Be the person you are suppose to be, not who you have become.  I am an avid Glenn Beck fan, and he has inspired me to think, question, and act.  Be kind to your family, and enjoy the 4th.  It truly is a blessing to live in these United States.  It really is - don't take it for granted!  Please.  Don't take it for granted. 

Oh, and one more parting photo for my Aunt Lynn of my clematis - I think the vine has hit the mother load for fertilizer, it has just taken off!

Blessings on your holiday weekend!

~Shanda~

~Tis National 'Wear An Apron Day'!~

Now this is a holiday that I can get into! Clean or dirty...... store bought or handmade....... frilly or simple...... aprons are just the best!!!!!! They have so many uses, but two of my favorites are to snuggle little children in when they come to you with little 'ouchies', and the articles that one can find in the pocket of an apron. These are better than what you could discover about someone by going through their purse. Pockets of aprons carry so many telling things. I have an apron I wear all the time when I am home. In the pocket of my apron this morning is a semi-clean tissue, some Chapstick, kernels of chicken scratch, and a quarter I found on the road out to my mailbox a few weeks ago. Must mean that I am boring - nothing but common items in my apron pockets.

My mother recently gave me a treasure that I will always cherish. 'Back in the Day', when she was in high school, apparently they gave out pins for 'homemaking' class. When she was a senior she earned this pin for attending all four years of homemaking education. The pin attaches in two places - and creates a chain in between in which two other charms slide - a key charm and a scroll charm. This is one of my favorite earthly possessions and I let it reside on my apron. I just love it!
Call me sentimental, old-fashioned, or just a plain simpleton, but I wish they had these programs still. Our children need to learn these things at home, but there are some that would benefit from homemaking classes during their schooling years.

So go put on an apron - and celebrate 'National Wear an Apron Day!' You might just feel a little more domestic in your duties today!

Blessings on your apron wearing day ~ Shanda

~Living Civil War History Quilting Class~

I am just so excited!!!!! Starting this Fall 2011, I am teaching a Living History Civil War Quilting Class. I am 'commissioned' to teach two battles each year at my local quilt store. This fall will be the Battle of Bull Run along with the quilt pattern "Prairie Bound" from Country Sampler in Spring Green, Wisconsin (oh, and by the way, I LOVE this quilt shop!). I am working on a quilt for each of the classes, have been researching 'hardtack', and am sewing on a civil war dress as I am going to be teaching this quilting class in period costume. The fabrics above are for the first quilt. Aren't they yummy? The dress I am working on 'tis the one on the left.

I finished quilting a quilt that my mother has been working on for sometime and mailed it to her today for Mother's Day. She cross stitched all these blocks and embroidered family member names on each square. Quite the project. She stitched, I pieced and quilted, and now she will finished with the binding. She lives in Illinois, so God bless the mail system!!!!!


Also, short post I know, but I have a 'find' to decorate. Pewter? Redware? Crocks? Quilts? These are delimas that must be solved. What do you think? Suffice it to say that this has found a home in my dining area, and I am so pleased with it that I can't bring myself to decorate this work of art. It is beauty in itself.



Enjoy your bounty this evening in the sunset and blessings on your slumber!

~Shanda~

~Pantry Boxes, Cookbooks, and Projects - Oh, My!

Boy, have I been going through the sponge brushes!





Whew! These are my latest project to get done - I have had these unfinished paper mache' pantry boxes sitting in my laundry room for nigh unto 8 months. I painted, sanded, and stained them and they are now ready to put away. Let's see where they were placed around the house.....

In a grouping on the dry sink:


On top of the pie safe in the Entry:


On top of a dresser in the spare room:


Near a night light in another bedroom:

In the kitchen sink window area:



And on top of my dresser:

So glad they are all done and not taking up space on top of the washer anymore!

I also imbibed in some interesting cookbooks on Amazon - they are really interesting, if only for the verbiage they are written in and description of ingredients:


And last but not least, this evening is my monthly 'Finish-It-Friday' Night with the girls - we all plan our projects so carefully to get maximum benefit of serious sewing time. I have three projects that I may work on this evening - finishing the quilt binding on my log cabin quilt (notice Abe Lincoln as my backing - get it? Abe Lincoln/Log Cabin? - I thought it went together nicely):


Or possibly working on a counted cross stitch project started in 2008!


And last, I just started this wool rug hooking kit - this is my first, so I am learning:


So much to do and so little time. BUT, I have finished a bed and all my pantry boxes, plus a dozen other projects since the beginning of the year, so I am making some headway.

Blessings on your day and hold your family ever so close - practice patience and understanding and we will all be the better for it. I wrote our son an email this morning, wished my Aunt a Happy Birthday, and now I think I will go call our daughter. All live so far away, wish I could have them for dinner. Nice weekend expected here in the Pacific Northwest - I may just plant my peas tomorrow!

~Shanda~

~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