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!

My Ebay Kitchen

Co workers are having their 2nd annual "National Beer day" celebration, and asked me to do the invitations for them ... here is the front:



And the inside:
I guess I get an invite for an added bonus!

More of Guki the Moon Boy

Guki the Moon Boy decides to pose for a few pics ...

He's a wonderful boy!

Jewelry storage solved

Jewelry Dilemma!

I have tons of jewelry ... not that I am complaining about this, mind you. But it was a MESS, even though I have one of those jewelry "armoire" thingies in addition to a drawer devoted to it. I tend to use the drawer more than the armoire, and the problem was that all of my earrings that hang were getting tangled up amongst the other crap, and I also needed a place to hang necklaces. Found a vintage tie rack for some of the necklaces ...

so I decided to figure out something for the rest of the crap. Talking to the Jakester (hubby) and he disappeared into the garage and came up with this! And I LOVE IT!
It just works so well! I plan on painting it - but I honestly couldn't wait to try it out!! Decided the painting can wait until the break from school next week! I will post pics of the finished product when I finish. It's just an old shelf that he put heavy duty wire through, but it is awesome! EXACTLY what I wanted. Well, I wanted one that I saw on the Internet that cost about $200 ... but this is perfect ... and best of all, FREE! It even got me to arranging the drawer a little better, although I still have to work on the "rings" section.

Doesn't take a lot to make this girl smile : ).

It has been awhile ...

I haven't been posting - not that anyone has missed me much, LOL. I see that I do have one follower! WooHOO!!! I guess I just get busy ((sigh)). Anyway ... we have a new grandson! Lucas Alexander was born on DECEMBER 30th ... and is a little angel! He weighed in at close to 9 pounds, and both he and Mommy are doing remarkably well. She had an emergency C-section, but is feeling surprisingly well. Luke is nursing very well too, although it did take a few weeks for him to really "get it"! His mom is so patient; I know I would have thrown in the towel.