Friday Photo

My favorite bouquet, fresh Italian parsley. One bundle of fresh parsley from the local grocery store resides on my kitchen windowsill, brightening up a gray winter landscape. Later a handful of the same parsley brightens up a bubbling dish of scalloped potatoes at our dinner table. You can't beat that with a bouquet of roses, can you?

The Twelve Days of Christmas

This cowboy santa is part of my middle son's ornament collection. I do believe it's my favorite of the santas. Do you notice anything strange about it? Well, it made it through two Christmases before part of it bit the dust. And around here, that's kind of a record!

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Today I want to show you one of my favorite ornaments. Every year I give my four year old daughter an angel ornament. This one was actually given to me but she immediately requisitioned it for herself since it was, after all, an angel. It's an unusual ornament, I think that's what I like so much about it. Simple and rustic but elegant at the same time.

The Twelve Days of Christmas

I put this together yesterday using a thrifted tin box and tray, glass ornaments my mother-in-law gave me years ago, pine branches from my neighbor's tree and holly from my yard. What do you have around your house and yard that can be made into new Christmas decorations? Be creative!

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Every day from now until Christmas I want to show you a little Christmas something from my house. I am going to start off with this simple ornament. It belongs to my middle daughter, every year I give each of my children a themed ornament and her theme is stars. Quite fitting for her calm bright personality. This soft, cream colored, wool felt star was her ornament last year and I love the contrast between it and the green texture of the tree. Just lovely!

February Cheer

Not really too much cheer happens for me in February. Gray cloudy skies for days on end, kids trapped inside for days on end, all the Christmas chocolate is long since gone. I have found that any cheer has to be intentionally searched out and celebrated. One thing that I love to do is iron my growing collection of hand embroidered linens. They are pieces that I have picked up at garage sales or flea markets, a few have been gifts from my mom. So I get them out, spray on some heavy starch and iron away. After they are folded in a neat stack, I display them in their chosen place.

I love this one on my bedroom dresser. It covers the whole top and looks lovely against the light colored wood. Entirely hand embroidered, I am amazed by the delicate work of this cloth. That some homemaker took what she had, fabric, thread and a needle, and made this beautiful work of art that has probably outlasted herself is thrilling to me.

My sideboard is where this scarf resides. The creamy linen is a perfect contrast to the warm colors of the cedar. I picked it up the same day I found the sideboard at a little shop down the road from my house and it is a rare find in that is in pristine condition. Seeing these lovely things, nicely ironed, as I move through the general chaos of my day makes such a difference in my outlook. If you are feeling a bit blue lately, try finding something you can do or change in your home and see if that helps you a bit. Or do what my mom always recommends and make yourself a big plate of pasta. Or do both, I think I just might!

La Petite Artiste

My three year old daughter has started drawing portraits. On our art line you can see her two latest masterpieces. The portrait on the right is of her mom and baby brother. I am the "one with the big head". What amazes me are the expressions of her people. Her pupil placement especially evokes a certain feeling. Also note the birds, sun and clouds. It just cracks me up. I have a feeling I will have a more difficult time weeding out her artwork than I have had with her big brothers various robot and monster truck drawings. Be still my heart!

Collections

I have several collections of old things that I love. Cookbooks, old and new, pottery pitchers, mostly old, antique books, definitely old, and rotary egg beaters. I just love them.

All of them have different handles and mechanics. They are surprisingly sturdy and efficient, especially considering that some are from the 1920's. I don't use these, they are stored away for someday when I have a great place to display them. There is one I keep in my kitchen and use nearly every day, a good friend of mine almost past out one day when I whipped it out to use. She had never seen anyone actually use one.

The yellow handled one is my favorite, I have a thing for yellow. Mostly I love thinking about the woman who used to use each one. Did she have a variety to choose from when she bought it. You can almost imagine her excitement at having such a cutting edge kitchen tool to make her life so much easier. She probably set right out to make an angel food cake from her fresh eggs just to get to beat the egg whites with her modern gadget.

Things have come a long way from the rotary beater to the KitchenAid but keep an eye out and if you see one of these at a flea market or antique shop or in your Grandma's kitchen, give it a try. You might fall in love with it. Just ask Grandma first before you take it, okay?

Our Advent

Last year was the first year our children were old enough to read through an advent book and we enjoyed it so much we decided to celebrate it every year. It's a wonderful tradition for kids and not so young kids so today we begin. In the summer I picked up this beautiful book called The 25 Days of Christmas at a homeschool book fair and stashed it away for December. Thankfully, I was able to remember where I put it. The artwork is beautiful and the daily readings talk about everything from God knowing us from the beginning to the meaning of gifts. Everyday we will read the devotion and sing a carol or hymn. I especially love the daily page for parents that offers ideas to make this busy season more meaningful and less stressful. This is a book I highly recommend, it would be great for any age child and something that could be used each year.

Another tradition we are starting is a miniature Advent Christmas tree. This tree is about a foot high and we have it set up in the dining room. I picked up a couple of sets of tiny ornaments and some felt to make a few more and every night one of the kids will get to choose an ornament to put on the tree. They are so excited for their turn and have several ornaments picked out for their night. I am excited to have such a fun way to share the joy of Christmas and teach them why we have that joy. Let Christmas begin!

Sideboard

Sideboard: a flat-topped piece of furniture with cupboards and drawers placed along a wall and used for storing dishes, glasses, and table linen. Also known as my favorite piece of furniture ever! Two weekends ago while Joe held down the fort, I combed all the flea markets in the area for something to hold our school supplies in the dining room. Considering my long held addiction to dishes, there just wasn't enough room in my kitchen cabinets for the beloved dishes and the growing collection of school supplies and books. So I found this.

It's a cedar sideboard, some call it a buffet but I'm calling it a sideboard. It seems to be handmade and has glass drawer pulls. The cabinet doors have old clasps that are mounted crooked and that makes me love it all the more. I love to think about a man making it for his wife to put in her farmhouse dining room to hold her china and hand embroidered linens. Linens much like the one shown here, oh it makes my heart sing!

Tightwad Living: Storage

I am not afraid to call myself a tightwad. Something about that word makes me feel connected to my grandparents and the "depression mentality". Not to say that I dry and save used paper towels and collect the last bits of bars of bath soap like my sweet Mamaw, but I like to come up with creative solutions for problems with what I have on hand. Now, you may recognize this photograph from my true confession about my chocolate hoarding issue. In this photograph you can view two of my favorite Tightwad Storage items. As you can see, I like hot tea. Some of my preferred varieties come as individual packets and I was always annoyed to have a bunch of loose packets or keep a box with only two tea bags in it cluttering up my cabinet. I was also annoyed by this tin jello mold that I loved but didn't use (we eat way more jello than that at a time!) and could find a place for. Thus was born my tea caddy! I love it, when I open this cabinet it makes me happy.

On the next shelf you can see the coffee jar. Personally I avoid caffeine, except for the occasional Dr. Pepper my mother-in-law sneaks me. However, the man around here likes a cup of leaded coffee to start his day so I made this coffee jar for him using an empty peanut jar and some scrapbook paper. Not a solution to a life threatening problem but still it's a little something extra from what I had that makes our home a bit more homey and fun.

I have lots more Tightwad Living ideas to share with you so start collecting up old jars and stray dishes and used paper towels and get ready! It's cool to be a Tightwad!

Trash to Treasure

One of my latest projects has been this simple clipboard. My mom gave it to me and when I turned it over, my name was scrawled on the back! I remember using this clipboard for my grade school projects. That memory reminded me of how much I loved clipboards as a kid. The years had not been kind however and the front was pretty rough. Inspired as usual by all the great Trash to Treasure project at Reinvented, I grabbed my handy can of spray paint and got busy.
A week before I found this cute scrapbook paper on sale at Hobby Lobby and picked up a couple of sheets. It was the larger size so I trimmed it down using the Exacto knife that stays hidden at the very back of a very high cabinet. Living with boys will eventually teach you something about precautions. By the way, concealed under the clipboard is the big broken piece of my cutting mat. What did I tell you about precautions, this took a licking before I learned to hide things.
After decoupaging the paper on the board and letting it dry, I attached a piece of braided hemp trim under the clip and with some very professional masking tape to the back so I could display smaller things on the board. Feeling very Martha-ish, I found some silver leaf beads in my bead stash and put them on the paperclips. Now as I stand at my sink I can read my verses and bits of encouragement. Makes me happy. Makes me want to raise my right hand in the air and give myself a pat on the back like my first grade teacher taught us to do.

Apron Strings

This is a project I did before I started blogging so you will have to imagine a before picture. Imagine the whole thing turned upside down with the chalk rail on the bottom (the top used to be the bottom) The rectangles were for photos but only one side had glass. Got it? When I spied it at a yard sale, my rusty brain cogs started to turn and I realized I had found the piece I needed for my apron rack.

You see, I had inherited two red and white gingham aprons, then one day when the stars aligned I came across a whole rack of vintage aprons at a thrift store. I almost knocked this lady down to get to them but she moved on before I had to resort to desperate measures. Four beautiful aprons came home with me and then I had the problem of how to display them. Enter the chalkboard/photo frame thingy.

I took the chalk rail off with a hammer and after sanding it glued it to the middle. Then I spray painted it "Heirloom White", the best color around! Using the glass as a guide I cut out cardboard to fit the photo opening and modge podged some pretty paper on them. Several years ago our Nana gave me all her old clothes pins and in the mix were there antique ones with spiraled wire instead of the usual spring thing. I've saved them all this time in an old mason jar for just the right project and for me they really make the whole thing sing. I hung it in my laundry room where I can see it often and easily reach which ever apron I need to feel Cleaverish that day! Be sure to check out Trash to Treasure day at Reinvented. I am very sorry there is no link, I'm unable to figure that out just yet

Kitchen curtains

I love my kitchen curtains. Whenever I feel bored with the way a room looks or if it just feels dingy to me, changing the curtains is the first thing I do. Sometimes all it takes is washing and ironing them. My kitchen curtain, pictured above, is actually an extra long table runner. I picked it up at a thrift store and then it was too long for my table. After languishing in my linen closet for a month or so I had a lightbulb moment and made it into a curtain. It's kind of a stretch to say "made", all I had to do was open an inch of the hem on one side of the runner and slip the curtain rod into the hem using that as the casing. Several times a year I run it through the laundry and starch it really good, then hang them up again. You wouldn't believe the difference it make in the room.

Today we have a wonderful cool breeze so all our windows are open. It's 69 degrees at 10:00 in the morning! I am working on canning a 5 gallon bucket of tomatoes from our neighbor's garden and feeling pretty cute in a vintage gingham apron from Hubby's grandma. The kids are playing relatively peacefully in the back yard so I going to seize the day! Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Trash to Treasure

I love a little Trash to Treasure demonstration and remaking things is my new hobby. There are tons of blogs that feature the amazing ideas women have when they see a beat up dresser or really ugly thing and remake it into a beautiful piece for their home. www.reinventedkb.com is one of my favorite sites for inspiration. Decorating is one of my goals for this year and since I love a challenge, reinventing is the decor method du jour. It's exciting to decorate with something you made, at least made part of and some projects are as simple as a coat or two of spray paint.

Above you will notice a lovely gilt picture frame with one of my favorite paintings in it. I've loved this painting since I saw it in a book as a young girl so when I found this at a yard sale I picked it up. As much as I love it, I don't love the gold frame or the weird double mat action. Why would anyone choose that mat for that image? Maybe I'm just not artsy enough to get it but oh well.
For this I took out the image and the weird mat. After painting the frame black, I rubbed over the detail with a paper towel while the paint was wet to show some of the gold. I had to redo the painting and rubbing several times to get it to the point of not looking like a mistake. Then I chose a photo of me and my husband from the olden days (that's what our 6 year old calls it.), trimmed it a bit to fit the mat opening. In my scrap box I found this brown fabric with a hint of gold that I attached to the backing then put it all together. Not earth shattering but it hangs in my laundry room over the washing machine and everyday I can look at it as I joyfully launder our clothes and think about the olden days when four loads was our laundry for a week not 2 days. Then I think about how much more we laugh and smile because of the five reasons I have a jillion times more laundry than in those not so olden days. Boy is it worth it!