Drop Cloth Chairs

See my beautiful chairs?


OK, so in that state they are a bit dated. Perhaps the gold velour upholstery is not exactly my cup of tea and the dark wood is a bit...dark. But I love the caning and the shape of these chairs. I spotted them for sale by the side of the road. I stopped and knocked on the door to find out the price but alas, no one was home. Fearing that someone might grab them before me, I left a note on the door with my name and number. Later that day I got a call from the owner. It was an older lady (maybe late 60s) and she was so very sweet. She started in telling me that they had belonged to her mother and that she had purchased them about 4 or 5 years before for $200 a piece. She explained the sturdiness and quality of the construction. All I was hearing were the red flags flapping in the breeze. I just knew she was going to be asking at LEAST $100 for the pair, so I was shocked when she told me she would take $40 for the pair. I grabbed some cash and headed right over.

When I pulled up the husband was out front. He came over with a big smile on his face, shook my hand like I was an old friend, introduced himself, and called toward the open door to let his wife know I had arrived. She came out looking so delighted that I was there. In fact, I thought she might hug me. We all chatted for a while about how long we had lived in the area, our families, the weather. I absolutely loved them. I can't even describe what a delightful experience it was. They were thrilled to know that the chairs were going to a family with lots of kids. The husband was so helpful, in such a gentlemanly way, with loading them in my SUV. And they obviously adored each other. Seriously, the most pleasant couple I have maybe EVER met. They live just across a field from our house. I was very concerned later in the summer to see an ambulance at their house. I wish I knew why it was there. I sure hope they are both OK. I love that I have this little connection with them, a little piece of their sweet and positive energy, a little glimpse into their lives. I'll probably never meet them again, unfortunately, but they truly made my day and left a lasting impression.

So- here is the first chair completed. I must confess, I am still in the process of pulling the second one apart. It was actually a more complex process then I thought it would be, and the staple pulling is never fun.


I put rosettes at the corners. The original plan was to go all the way across the top with them. Opinions? Should I still do that? I still think I might.

Obviously, I painted the frame in an off-white, and I used a drop cloth for the upholstery. I was too lazy to do the tufting. Actually I liked it that way, but I may make an attempt at the tufting with the second one, just to see if I like that better. But I don't like the thought of pulling the other one apart again if I DO like it better.



Here's what it looks like in the room.


Hopefully soon(ish) I'll have the other one done! I have lots of projects I'd like to get done before our annual Valentine's Day party. I guess I had better get busy!

I'm linking up to Meet Me Monday

Living Room Shuffle

So the folks in my home are a bit under the weather. My nose is getting a bit tender from wiping and I'm getting sick of hearing myself sniffle. I can't imagine how everyone around me must feel about it. But none of us are just flat out sick...yet. I fear I may be down and out this weekend. Maybe it will just improve from here. Here's hoping.

On Wednesday I had the carpets cleaned. The guy was scheduled to come at 9:00 am, so as soon as the kids left for school I started moving furniture out of the way. I emptied the living room of everything but the piano, moved all the toys in the boys' room onto their beds, and cleared the family room as best I could. Then I quickly vacuumed through each room. I made sure the bathroom was tidied up in case he got a glimpse in there, and then I proceeded to clean up breakfast and tidy the kitchen. By this time I had worked up quite a sweat. It was after 9 at this point, so I finished up what I was working on and decided to take a break and check Facebook. When it was almost 10 and he still wasn't here, I decided to give them a call. Turns out, in the process of switching over from the 2011 appointment book to the new 2012 one, my appointment did not get transferred. I really did not want to put all the furniture back and do it all over again another day, so I reluctantly took a time slot later in the day for about an hour before my kids were due home from school. Not ideal. Five kids, wet carpet. None of this is really relevant to this post, except to tell you that they were so sweet and apologetic. They gave me a big discount on the cleaning and even let me use the big fans for drying the carpet overnight. What IS relevant, is that having all the furniture moved out of the room meant that it was very easy to put everything back in a different place. I think that's really the key with rearranging furniture: take everything out and start with a clean slate.

A week ago my living room looked like this:



Today it looks like this:


We are loving the new furniture arrangement. I pulled in the lamp from the guest room, put the curtains back up, pulled the throw pillows back out, and shuffled shuffled shuffled.

A few months ago I painted the room in the two tones of gray and painted the trim white. Now I'm agonizing over what color to paint the stairway and the hallway. (And the dining room too, for that matter.)



The living room, kitchen, dining room area used to all be a neutral tan-ish color. There was so much beige/wood tones/tan going on in this house it made me crazy: carpet, cabinets, walls, piano, furniture, trim. So I don't want to turn around and just paint everything gray now. Suggestions? I have a whole palette of neutral, lighter colors picked out. I think any of them would work, actually. But I'm finding it hard to commit. I actually think it's easier to work with stronger colors, but I'm loving how the lighter colors brighten the place up.

Linking up to Feathered Nest Friday

Food Storage Solution

In my wanderings around blogland I see so many beautiful images of pretty pantries peppered with eye-popping paper, perfect parcels, and pleasant paned doors. I think about how fun it would be to organize and beautify my OWN pantry closet. Then I remember that I don't HAVE a pantry and I get sad. But only for a minute because #1 I have PLENTY of spaces that need organizing and beautifying and #2 I have something even better than a rinky-dink pantry closet. I have a pantry ROOM. It may not be pretty, but it is absolutely a hidden, unassuming gem in this home. It is down in the basement, so another big benefit is the extra exercise I get running up and down the stairs, especially when I'm putting away groceries.

So here it is; a concrete storage room.


Not beautiful to look at, but very functional. The shelving came from Costco. These are super heavy duty. I think each shelf can hold up to 400 pounds. Um yeah. They are also very easy to assemble. No screwing, they just slide and lock together. The only tool you'll need is a rubber mallet to tap them into place. I believe they were $60 each? I need to buy at least two more, and maybe another for the garage.


So let's talk logistics. I know it doesn't sound very convenient to store all our pantry items in the basement...a looong walk from the kitchen, but it works pretty well. I do keep some items in my kitchen cupboards. I have a cabinet and a drawer with spice type items, a corner cupboard with cereal, bread, and school lunch supplies, a cabinet with pastas and one can each of commonly used items like soups, corn, peanut butter etc. I also have two cabinets designated as baking supplies areas. I keep a large Tupperware container of flour and one of sugar there. I keep all the baking staples (baking soda, baking powder, salt, vanilla, powdered sugar, brown sugar, oils, cocoa etc) there.


In the basement I store my home canned items (tomatoes, pickles, grape juice, jams, salsas, carrots, green beans, relishes, applesauce, tomato sauce, etc), bulk items (wheat, additional flour, beans, sugars, oats, rice etc), extra pantry items (cereal, granola bars, cups of fruit, olives, soups, lemon juice, salt, ketchup, etc), bulk paper goods, toiletries and cleaning supplies (toothpaste, toilet paper, Clorox wipes, Ziploc bags, paper towels, shampoo, toilet bowl cleaner, etc), and my canning supplies. I also keep my coolers down here. Our potato bin is down here where it is dark and cool as well.

(Those are Hubbard squash in there with what is left of the potatoes we grew this year. They were given to me by some friends. I need to process them...)
So basically, I stock my kitchen cabinets from my storage room in the basement. It works well.


Another benefit of having the food stored down there is that I can kind of ration the food in the kitchen a bit. The kids do NOT like to go down to that section of the basement, so I can store things down there that I don't want them to get into. Believe me, with 5 kids who are apparently always STARVING, this is handy. As you may have noticed in the picture, I also have water stored down there. I try to refill beverage containers with water and keep them down there. It never hurts to store water if you have the space. I need to get a shelf for the water. (I also need a shelf for our sleeping bags and camping gear that are heaped at one end.)


Just a few steps away, just outside the doorway of this storage room, is our chest freezer. When my Mom was here visiting this past summer she installed an outlet in this corner for me. I had envisioned a freezer in this spot when we first moved in. I eventually got the freezer, but it was another couple years before I had it settled into its permanent home.

I love having this space for storage (and as a great tornado shelter) and I love seeing my shelves fill up- especially with items I have grown and canned myself.


So that's my concrete pantry--and I love it!

Linking up:
Remodelaholic

This Blog in 2012

Well, here we are in 2012. Why are we not living on the moon yet? Or at the very least, driving around in hovercrafts?! I was so sure...

So with the start of a new year, I've been contemplating what I want to accomplish in the coming months. I've considered my health, my family, my self, and of course, my home. But I'm also doing a lot of thinking about this here blog. I enjoy blogging, but I get easily distracted and busy with other things and suddenly realize I haven't posted in a while. But I think I'm ready to try to grow it a bit. Here's the catch: I am SO clueless when it comes to technology. I fear that I don't know enough about those mysterious things I hear whispered around blogland like, "code" and "format" and "link". I'm kind of a "if Blogger doesn't walk me through it I can't do it" kind of gal. So, we shall see where this goes. Maybe nowhere. But I know I shouldn't let fear hold me back. Right? Isn't that what everyone always says? So here's to another year and learning something I'm afraid of.

Favorite Christmas Stories

I've posted on my Christmas blog about some of our family's favorite Christmas stories, but I thought I'd make a list here as well of some of our favorites. My husband thought I was a little cuckoo when I wrapped up several of the Christmas books we already owned and put them under our living room tree. The idea was to open one each night and read it together. I also wrapped two brand new ones so there would be a couple mixed in that would be a fun surprise. Despite Lincoln's doubts, the kids have really enjoyed this. Here are some of the stories we have read together:

What Think Ye of Christmas by Esther Rasband


Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost illustrated by Susan Jeffers


Christmas Day in the Morning by Pearl S. Buck


The Very First Christmas by Paul L. Maier


Paul's Christmas Birthday by Carol Carrick


Moosletoe by Margie Palatini


Father Christmas and the Donkey by Elizabeth Clark


The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski

A Christmas Prayer by Rian Anderson

(Sorry, this is the link to the Kindle book. It is also available in hardcover.)

Cranberry Christmas by Wende and Harry Devlin

(I LOVE this writer/illustrator husband and wife team!)
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

(A classic! So funny and heartwarming. We *big heart* love this book!)

My very favorite is Christmas Day in the Morning, but all of these rank up there on our favorites list. We have tons more than this, but these are the must-reads as a family.

Rustic Country Tree

If you read my last post about my mantel, you got a sneak peak at the Christmas tree. As we've done in the past, we put a big family tree down in the family room, but upstairs in the living room, I get my very own smaller tree to decorate. This makes me very happy.


I've never been great at decorating a Christmas tree, but it's fun to play around with it anyway. I always do all white lights on the tree but this year I kept it very simple. In the past I have used the regular small white lights, a string of clear C9 lights, the rattan ball lights, and some faux candle lights. This year you will only see small white lights and the rattan balls. I love the rustic, natural element the balls add.



I put the wooden, handmade ornaments that Lincoln's step-dad has made us on this tree.


These are such a treasure to us! They are absolutely stunning. I also put on the wooden bead candycanes we made last year,



as well as the vintage/antique ornaments I have collected.



There are a few pops of red here and there, and just a few other ornaments and berry picks.

For a tree skirt, I just wrapped a large piece of plaid fabric around the base of the tree. (This is the same fabric that I used on my table decor.)

I love my antique wooden crate, and with its red letters and rustic feel it is perfect for holding our collection of Christmas books under the tree. Tucked behind/on it is the little wooden sled I found at Goodwill a couple years ago. When I found it, it was 1980s country blue and I think there may have even been a goose painted on it. A new paint job, some sanding, a new jute twine pull rope, and a few pinecones have really brought it into this decade...and century!


The whole she-bang is backed by my old screen door, the perfect backdrop. And the tree is topped by my (new) old rusty star.


I LOVE it! And I love to stand in the kitchen and look over to the living room. So cozy and inviting!


I can't seem to get the pretty button below to work, but I'm linking up to the Christmas Tree Party at Thrifty Decor Chick.

Rustic Country Mantel

So if you've been around here for a while, you know I don't have a mantel, but I have two fantels. I use the top of my piano upstairs in the living room, and a long ledge downstairs in the family room. In the family room, I did the same thing I did last year. My yarn wreath and trees are the stars with the old shed door as the rustic backdrop.

Upstairs was not so easy. I reworked the piano top several times. I've learned that taking pictures along the way really helps me get a vision of what it is looking like. I knew I wanted to use my willow Christmas tree that I got at the barn sale.



I also wanted to put in the candy-cane-striped candle sticks I got last year at the same sale, and I was sure I wanted to use the little bird. In keeping with the rest of the decor, I wanted to stick to reds and natural elements in a rustic country style. But I had originally used this pepper berry garland. It just wasn't right. At all. Then I remembered my barn wood frames that I made last year. They had been dropped and fallen apart, but it was a quick fix. This added the rustic look I was after, pulling in some reds and whites.


But it still had no warmth. I tried adding in something else on top. Yarn trees.


Nope. Glass dish of ornaments.


No way. Then I remembered the fluffy pinecone garland that had been placed on the TV stand without much thought. Last year it had been one of the pieces that for some reason I didn't like that much. This year it is the perfect addition to the "mantel" and I love it! Isn't that weird how that works?






Linking up at Meet Me Monday