Craigslist Finds

Last week I was cruising craigslist and came across an ad for vintage 1950's lawn chairs nearby. I responded to the ad and picked these babies up Saturday morning for $15 each! A quick check on eBay listed them at buy now prices of $25-$95!


They're a little rusty, of course, but totally resoreable. I told Kevin on the way to get them I wanted to paint them turquoise, my new favorite color. Would you believe underneath the white paint on them, the original color was turquoise? Hah! You can just see it peeking through where the white paint is chipped off.....

 

These join my other cragislist find, a vintage "spindle" (Jenny Lind style?) bed. I got if for $20! I don't have a before photo, but it was drab, fake mahogany stained. I painted it white. Just a note: I started painting it with basic white wall paint, and no matter how many coats I slathered on, the varnish underneath showed through as pink blotches. Finally I went and bought "Killz" paint and one coat did the job of covering the pink blotches. Then I top coated it with shinier indoor type paint. So, if you decide to paint old furniture, "killz" it first and save yourself a bunch of surplus painting hours. BTW - this spindle bed is just until I can find an iron bed at a reasonable price. I just missed one for $75.... SOB. :( I love iron beds; so old-fashioned!

Treasure....Cabin?

'Member the cabin I mentioned in my last post about treasure hunting in our woods?
Kevin marked the trail, and this weekend, Abi, Lexy and I hiked back there.
Down Kevin's "Left Road," which takes you off into the hardwood portion of the farm...



....on the side of the path, is a stone foundation from another cabin; even older than the one we were after. It's walls have long sense rotted, or burned away, leaving only a square formation of moss-covered stone, barely visible in the trees.



We walked and walked, and suddenly, there it was, just coming visible through the trees!









I don't know for sure, but as a student of history and one who pays attention to architecture and objects from different time periods in American History, I am assuming that it was built around the first part of the 1900's. There is no evidence of plumbing of any kind, or electricity ever being wired there. I saw no well; but it could be there, with a seal on it, covered in leaves. Since our home on the same farm was constructed around a late 1800's cabin, and the work was done in the early 1920's, this makes sense; I think.

The items we discovered around the cabin suggest this also...





I discovered this jar with ferns and moss growing inside. I thought it was pretty, and took a picture of it that didn't do it justice. The style of some of the jars we found is from the 20's; some were the cork stopper kind they used before screw top lids. We found a glass baby bottle as well. We also found a bunch of screw top jars, which indicates someone lived there up into the 30's, at least.

Walking around, I saw this peeking out from the leaves at my feet, ten or twelve yards from the cabin -



I started digging......



After cutting tree roots away, I pulled this little goody out of it's hiding place under the dirt - an intact- all be it bent and corroded- turn of the century-ish iron bed!



The bed rails were down in the dirt even deeper- and, I assume, the other half of the bed as well. I am planning on going back to dig a lot more, and find out. I wonder what all could be found if a true archaeological dig were conducted in the area? I know they did that at one historic home site in my hometown, and found many clues about the history of the place, as well as many buried artifacts.
This be will look cute in my flower garden next year, with climbing roses rambling all over it.... *sigh*.
What exciting fun it was! I am "stoked" about it. ("Stoked" is a new slang word I heard somebody say last week. "Stoked." Hum. that is an apt description of excitement, no? My excitement is "stoked." Whatever............)

Treasure Seekers

Our farm holds many mysteries. One is an old abandoned cabin we never knew about until Kevin discovered it while hunting just this past winter. He only saw it beacuse the leaves were off the trees. Deeeeeep in the hardwoods, I cannot even find it without Kevin there to guide me. On the back side of our 170 acres, in some dense trees down the ridge from an old barn, Kevin and I discovered an old - very old - "trash pile". Most likely from the late 1940's - 1950s when the "back house" was built, it is buried in leaves and dirt. (There are two houses on the farm, the older farm house, which we live in is at the road frontage side of the property, the "back house" is on the "back 40", extremely far off the road. We would prefer to live there, but it is really disheveled and needs way too much work to live in it.)
This past Saturday, my brothers Eli and Noah were paying their usual visit to our farm, and helped Kevin with a tractor in need of repairs.....


(My husband is the taller of the three.... :))

I gladly entertained the kids. Abi and Lexy had spent the night with me, and for breakfast, I fed them Kevin's "griddle" cakes with chocolate syrup, in my still-being-remodeled kitchen. They would need a good breakfast for the things I had in store for them to do for the afternoon.



After dress-up and lunch, I told them we were going digging for treasure! You never saw such an excited bunch of kids. We loaded up digging tools, buckets, and a trusty can of hornet killer, and after a search for the missing truck keys, we headed off to the "back 40". We drove as far as we could, then hiked the rest of the way down a winding trail Kevin is building in the woods there. We located the pile, and started digging for buried "treasure" underneath the dirt and leaves.













We found all kinds of bottles, jars, saucers, broken china, canning jars, a silver salt shaker;milk bottles, zinc and porcelain jar lids, even a coveted blue canning jar, intact. It is very old, as it doesn't even have a screw top on it. We are guessing that it required a cork. We cleaned them all up and took a photo of some of our "loot" on an old table we found in the old barn that day.



What fun it was! I love sharing my love of old things and history with my nieces and nephews. Plus, it kept them very well entertained for the afternoon.next time, we'll go in search of the hidden cabin, and see what we find hanging around there. I am simply itching to go "treasure" hunting again.

Whose kids these are, I think I know....

 

 

 

 

Weekends are such fun at my house. Most weekends my brothers come over and bring their kids.
This past weekend I spent a lot of time doing all kinds of goofy things with my nieces and nephews.
Here are some sneak peeks at them. I am totally ticked off with blogger right now, not showing the photo previews in the posting field, so I am stuck with explaining who's who after the fact. First is Lexy, fixing OJ in the early morning sun in my kitchen window.
Next is Abi, looking cute in a vintage dress of mine. (There was much dressing up this weekend........)
Then we have Brendan, enjoying a lime popcicle while watching the men work on a tractor; and last is Ethan, taking part in the dress-up with a Chinese Darth Vader get-up.
Once I sort out all my other photos, I'll tell about digging for treasure and chocolate syrup on pancakes. Among other things we did....

Hard times, Hard times, come again no more

With nine of these..............


And two of these.............


And four of these................


Money can be kind of tight these days, especially with gas being expensive. Tractors are not known for getting good gas mileage, not to mention two 3/4 ton 4x4 pickup trucks, one of which we are still making payments on.
These days, we look for all kinds of ways to save money wherever we can. So I take less trips to town, use coupons, shop sales, etc. etc.
But today when we pulled into the gas station with our truck and horse trailer to fill up, I was inspired by a sight I saw.
I realized that there was a way to save on gas, after all!



The only problem is figuring out a way to haul groceries, horse feed, stall shavings, and all my other shopping bags on it. And, how to take Kevin along with me. Maybe we could make a sidecar for it; or a little trailer I could ride in while Kevin drives.........
Or maybe we'd better just suffer with our trucks, after all.

pink porches: Salome's Spoons

pink porches: Salome's Spoons

This is so touching. (Click the link above to read the story.) It made me tear up to read it; even though it was made up for the most part.
"Old things" are not just cast off junk.... they have a past; a story; and untold memories. Yes, stuff is stuff.... but stuff can hold such a deeper meaning.
Even though I love auctions, I always find them sad events; the selling off of someone's things; their stories forgotten, often forever. Makes me think twice when I buy an antique thing - even something so simple as a silver spoon........ *sniff*

.... and another home re-fashion for today

 

 

 

 

I made the two top pillows from vintage linens. First I embroidered monograms on them. My fave is the first one, the white-on-white. I am loving white on white and tone-on-tone embroideries. I picked out the monogram from a book or something, scanned it, blew it up, traced it onto the linen, and away I went. The other one I also got from a book. It's not my monogram (it's an "A", I think) but I liked it and used it. I use all letters in my embroidery. Certain letters just lend themselves to elegant embroidered linens, I think.
And speaking of elegant: There it nothing like Mommy's bed, full of cushy embroidered pillows, for my Precious Princess Splat Pun'kin to take her required feline beauty rest in high style on a hot afternoon after eating her kitty lunch from one of mommy's vintage Blue Willow saucers. Yes, that is my "baby"......

Sewing Machine Vanity Box: Another Home Re-fashion

Even though my house is in a state of "utter ruin", (well, not really)I can still do little projects here and there. (Yes, my kitchen and bathroom are still in "drywall" stage, and all remodeling has ceased until we can sort out why the sinks and toilet are leaking water all over the sub-flooring all the time. At least it is the sub-flooring,and not nice new wood floors that have not been installed yet..........)
Anyway, today's project was easy and simple! I saw the idea in some romantic, Victorian magazine I read, and thought "By Jove! I have that on hand....."
If you try this at home, you will require:

Cast-off old-fashioned sewing machine drawers from one of those old sewing machines. I just happened to have a couple that I found when I moved in.



You can paint them to match your decor. I am undecided about my bathroom decor, so I did not paint mine yet.
You will also need four vintage, or new - small drawer pulls. I purchased mine new at Hobby Lobby for about $2.50 each.



Next, you will need a trusty husband with an array of convenient power tools. Mine chose to use his cordless power drill. He drilled a hole in each corner.



Next, simply remove the nut off each drawer pull and screw them into the holes in the corners.



I lined mine with a scrap of leftover drawer liners I saved





Just for the purposes of taking a photo of it, I put some of my vintage bottles and toiletries in it for display. You can use it for anything: in the bathroom for cosmetics and toiletries; in the bedroom for trinkets; in the living room for remotes; for sewing notions, and for just about anything. I plan on painting mine to match my bathroom decor, and maybe adding a little stencil or decoupage. Cute! Oh, and thank you, dearest Kevin, who is always lending me a hand for all my little projects. He did it all; all I did was pick out drawer pulls and point to where I needed holes drilled. It was all Kevin.....

Classic Disney Plots: Condensed Versions

I am an adult who appreciates a good cartoon. I love all of the Pixar movies, especially. But it has been a super long time since I have seen a "classic" Disney film. Here is what I can remember about a few of them.

Beauty and the Beast: A beautiful girl gets kidnapped by a monster with an anger problem, and is kept against her will in a morbid, dark old mansion that is infested with enchanted household furniture and dishes. A bunch of stuff happens after that.

Little Mermaid: A gorgeous teenage mermaid falls in love with a hot guy on dry land who doesn't notice her because she's a mermaid. She runs - no, swims - away from her strict, mean father, and gets tricked by a giant squid in a black dress into trading in her voice for a pair of legs.

Snow White: Seven short miners protect a hot chick from a youth and beauty obsessed stalker who talks to mirrors.

Sleeping Beauty: A king and queen place their infant daughter in foster care to protect her from death via spinning wheel. Growing up sheltered in a secluded Forest hut and raised by three absurd foster moms, her only friends are birds, squirrels, bunnies, kittens, puppies, fishes, bugs, and little foxes. She falls in love with the first guy she meets, who just happens to be a buff and blond princeling who sings well, to boot.

Peter Pan: Three siblings in their Pyjamas are kidnapped by a kid in tights with a bad attitude. They are stalked by a clinically insane pirate wanna-be with one hand, and his crew of equally crazy ship mates. Things get really complicated when Wendy's mothering instincts threaten the jealous, uber cute pixie, Tinkerbell, who happens to have a crush on the immature punk in green tights.

Bambi: A baby deer's mother gets harvested by hunters in the woods and is left to fend for himself. He makes friends with other forest animals like bunnies, and skunks. The other deer bully him, but he grow up to be big and tough and gets his revenge.

(I don't know about anyone else, but I am a little disturbed about the amounts of kidnapping and stalking in these films.)

My grand passion!!!!!!

Those of you who know me know that I love a great many things; and do a great many activities in my full, rich life. (NOT rich as in $$. Rich as in -fulfilling.) But of everything I do and love, horses remain my grand passion. I never out grew that horse-crazy little girl stage of my life. No matter what setbacks I have encountered, I always stay thoroughly engrossed in horses and riding.

This weekend, I took one of my green OTTTBs (Off-the-track Thoroughbred x-racehorses), "F Major", to a CT clinic in Reidsville, NC. (CT=combined training/eventing.) He is only just 4 years old, 10 months off the track, and three months into schooling. I decided three days before the clinic to go, and started learning a USDF (US dressage Federation) Intro level test. I also decided to do just ground poles with him, as I have not yet begun teaching him much jumping beyond that. He is ready now, though!

Except, it was the wrong test and I screwed it up. But the clinician was understanding, and my horse was ultra green, so all was ok. I did the test twice and kept the better score. It was my trusty guy, Kevin, who took all these photos (not bad, is he?) and was also Major's groom for the clinic. It is so convenient to have a trusty horse loving guy like Kevin around for these events. He even rushed into the arena to try and take a photo when I came off Major..... I was walking him in a warm up session and he laid down with me....doesn't sound too bad, but it can actually be a big hairy deal when a horse suddenly lays down on you. More often than not, your leg snaps...... mine didn't. I was lucky. And Kevin didn't get a photo of it, either. Aww, darn.

Major was an angel, and handled himself very well for his level of experience. I am such a proud mama! I was bursting when the clinician commented that he had an "incredible mind" for a horse just 10 months out of racing; and that every OTTTB she ever had took a year to 18 months before she could take them anywhere. Yet here I was, three months into schooling, with a horse so green, at a clinic! With our combined scores, Major placed sixth out of eight. Yay!!! Thank you for bearing with me as I rant about my horse. For more details, check my horse blog (Link in the sidebar) in the next day or so. I'll detail the tests, scores, judge's comments; all that juicy horse stuff.

Re-Fashions for my Home

I love re-fashion. Basically, it is re-cycling vintage "stuff" into cool, new "stuff"; whether it be clothing, or in this case, things for the home.
I decided that my pantry needed some dolling up, so I gave it a little makeover this week. (I love my pantry. Even if we buy or build a different house one day, I want a pantry. They are so cool. It is one of my fave things about farmhouses...besides the porches.)
To begin with, my niece Abigail and I took all of my vintage Blue Willow, pink American transferware, ironstone, family silver and other misc. vintage silver that I collect out of the small white china cabinet they were in. Later this weekend, I am getting a new china cabinet! Yay!
Then we moved a black plastic shelf out of the pantry and Kevin and I moved the white china hutch in it's place; on which I placed a lot of my vintage kitchen collectibles. (I collect those too, and have boxes and boxes.) This white cabinet used to be my Mom's when we lived in Florida. First she painted it lavender when we lived in Miami (yuck!). Then she painted it avocado green when we lived in Gainesville (Gross!). Then I painted it "shabby white." Better.



Then I took out one of my vintage linens from my hoard of those and made a curtain from it.


I think it must have been some sort of piano cover, or mantle cover in it's former life; as it fit perfectly across my piano keyboard.


I pinned it up for a two inch ruffle.....


I sewed it up by hand. I don't have an electric sewing machine - but I have the old pedal kind that way my grandma's.


All finished! Are those spiderwebs around that window?! It seems as if even if I destroy them one day, the spiders just put them back then next. Oh well.


I have done a few other re-fashions for the house; I will share them soon also.