Ice Candles

And MORE ...

My Art

More art ... compliments of my grandson, Michael!

Fun Deck Furniture

This was fun ... my daughter's friend was throwing
some ugly dark pine chairs away, but I said NO!!!

a little sanding ...
a little white paint ...
a few whimsical garden friends ...

some added details ...

replaced all of the seats with colorful vinyl ...

and it became a fun place to sit and enjoy!

The Farm

Decided to post some more photos for Kim - she and her husband are restoring an old farmhouse, and I know how much they are loving it. It takes lots of time, love, and hard work, but I know they are up for it. Maybe she will start her own blog! Here are some additional photos of the farm ...

This was once an old attached woodshed, which quickly became our favorite room. NO television, just comfy furniture, a table for games, and binoculars for bird watching! There was a loft above (you can see part of it in the photo above) that was accessed by a ladder ... with a great view of the valley, which is why we added the diamond shaped window in the peak.

We always had a variety of birds at the feeders, so needed a big window.

These old rockers came from the DelView ... we had an old guy reweave the seats and backs.

Game table and plenty of shelves for the endless collections we seemed to acquire.

This was a fun room to decorate during the holidays!

Women's Right to Bare Arms!

I love this!
http://current.com/items/90029412_sarah-haskins-in-target-women-obama-arms.htm

TIP JUNKIE

Luke

Lucas Alexander ~ alias Lukie Fahookie ~ 3 weeks

I've been sooo bad about posting photos of the newest
little grandbaby ~ and he is such a little charmer!
I am going to attempt to catch up here!

With his sweet Mommy ... 3 weeks

Luke at 2 months!

and 10 weeks ...

With Mommy in Hawaii

They make Baby Crocs?!

At the Dole Pineapple Plantation (he was not impressed!)
4 months old

Haven't been here in a while!

I still don't see how people do this every (and I do mean EVERY) day! I am so caught up in the day to day doings, it seems. Well, that .. and there was that short trip to HAWAII. What a nice timely break, to get away from the cold weather ... yes, it was breathtaking. And I promise to post more photos soon!

Wall Art

Someone asked me recently about affordable art, so here's a thought. I found a large vintage frame and had our grandson create a fingerpainting in the colors of our bedroom.

I loved the way it turned out.

A note on the headboard - it originally was my husband's baby crib - which, being circa 1944 makes it officially an antique! The handpainted scenes on the crib cannot be viewed in these photos, but my side has a little girl, and his a little boy ... he just "hooked" the headboard and footboard together to make it work for our queen sized bed. Definite conversation piece, LOL!

The boys!

Baby Luke

I have the cutest grandsons! Luke just turned 8 weeks old, and is such a sweet baby!
Michael is nine, and just adores his new little brother ....

Big Brother Michael

Ice Fence

A cold day

Transitions ...

Looking at Simplicity Cottage's post with the darling photos of her kitchen has made me a little nostalgic. Don't get me wrong, I love my new kitchen - but I also LOVE old stuff, and it is so hard to incorporate antiques into my contemporary kitchen! The only old items I have right now in it are some vintage canning jars. Everything else is still packed away. The move from over 20 years in an 1830 farmhouse with land and barns, to this tiny cape has been quite a transition. In many ways, it is wonderful to not have all of the upkeep and rooms to clean, but I do miss the SPACE! And I really miss having room for the grandbabies to run around, even though they seem to be happy wherever we are! I will figure it all out eventually, or at least I hope I will! To give an idea of where we came from, I will post photos of the old place. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, right? So here are a few thousand words!


My husband found that old hardware store "island" at an auction on his 40th birthday! It was so ugly - painted completely black, filthy, and topped with layers of linoleum. I could have died when he brought it in, because he put it in the middle of the family room that I had JUST cleaned in preparation for his "surprise" party! Of course after he refinished it, it was my most prized possession. It was huge - 24 drawers in all, and I knew just where everything was in each one of them!

This side of the kitchen led to a deck - and the previous photo had a covered porch. The kitchen had SIX doorways - two went to porch and deck, one to family room, one to the dining room, one to hallway and the last to a staircase leading up to the bedrooms.

We found this old cupboard in the remains of an old burned out and abandoned camp. Left the original paint as it was, and I punched the tin inserts. It was a great place to hide the microwave!

Old clock was a gift from my cousin - it came from the elementary school I went to!

This is kind of dark - window above the sink, looking out onto the covered porch and driveway.

Lots of good meals on this old stove! The center lifted off to reveal a griddle.

Now THIS was FUN! A bit of whimsy! I got these old VCT (vinyl composition tiles) tile samples for FREE from a flooring store - they just get rid of them when new samples
arrive. Since this counter was not used for food prep, I decided to tile the top, and just used regular flooring adhesive.

It kind of looked like a quilt - and it was fun to do!

The most relaxing part of the kitchen in the winter - pull up a few rockers & let the world go by.

A Gift from Michael ...

I forgot to post this - my Christmas gift from my grandson, Michael. He was so proud of it, and I just love it, too! He couldn't wait for me to open it, and had to make sure that I knew that it was "adjustable" so it would fit me for SURE! It does fit, and I wear it proudly!

The heart shaped box


And the GORGEOUS ring that he picked out himself!

No Grampy Soup???

Our son-in-law is traveling this week, so we had our daughter and the grandsons over for dinner last night - a beautiful roast ...
Michael was appalled that there was NO GRAMPY SOUP! Because we never run out of Grampy Soup! He even searched the freezer, where there is ALWAYS a reserve. I heard him say to Jake "Grampy, when I get bigger, will you teach me how to make your special soup?" ... or something to that effect. And then he turned to me and said, "Grampy won't be around FOREVER, you know!" Toby (our daughter) asked him how long he wanted Grampy to live, and he said "about 110 years old" would be good. This morning, I found this addition to my grocery list ...

My best buy on EBAY!

Moved into a new place and it needed a kitchen in the worst way!!!
Believe me now? Well, working with a small budget, I decided to check out eBay. Found a complete kitchen - and I do mean COMPLETE. It came with all appliances, even down to a garbage disposal and under the cabinet radio (didn't use those). Still have "extra" cabinets in the garage that we didn't have room for. The guy we bought it from delivered it from another state, too! He had bought a house with this kitchen and his wife didn't like it. I never thought I would like anything so contemporary myself, but the price was right and I really do like it now. Grand total? Two thousand dollars! My best buy on ebay so far!