MARIGOLDS

"Open afresh your rounds of starry folds, Ye ardent Marigolds."

                                               ... John Keats

HOBBY LOBBY COAT HOOKS

Coat Hooks from Hobby Lobby

After blogging about the metal sign letters that I found, I went back to Hobby Lobby last night to get something unrelated to the farm and I found these!

They are coat hooks (or whatever you want to hang on them), with the same single letter design as the signs we got the other day.

Yes, those are the initials of our first names.  I figured we could mount these either near the front door in the entryway, or near the back door in the mudroom.  That way, we will each have our own hook for our coats, hats, keys or whatever we want to hang on them.

PINK STAND WITH ROSE BUSH

Shabby Chic Stand with Rose Bush

Wednesday, when I posted about the patchwork bear, some of you noticed this in the corner and asked about it.


They are another couple of things I picked up in the storage unit last weekend.  A shabby chic pink metal corner table, and an artificial rose bush.  The pink table is cool because the design style mimics the bed.  Of course, we're going to be decorating that room in pale pink and pale yellow, along with the white, so we figured this was a perfect accompaniment for the guest room.


The artificial rose bush is an odd item to be sure, but it was something I was always fascinated with that my Mom had.  When my parents lived in Louisiana back in the 90's, there was a store that was going out of business and she picked this up.  The store had new stuff and handmade stuff, so we're not sure if it was made like this originally or if someone altered it.  Either way, it looks JUST like a real rose bush, with flowers in full bloom, buds just starting to open, even an old flower head with petals faded and missing.  Some of the leaves are colored like they are new growth and old growth.  Heck, it's even in a pot that looks like it has soil in it and has moss growing on it!  It's just a really neat thing that I'm so glad we kept.  I think it looks pretty neat sitting on that stand and it fits the corner of the guest room perfectly.

And slowly, the decorating begins...

NEW BATHROOM VANITY AND SINK

Bathroom Vanity and Sink Area Before

Here is the one and only bathroom...which you have seen from the other angle, but here is what we did last weekend.  While 2nd Man cleaned the floors (even though they are new, the workers tracked footprints all over as they were finishing up), I put the vanity together and mounted the sink.  It's not our first choice, we'd rather have a pedestal sink, but this one
looks like it fits and more importantly, gives us storage, which, in a small house such as this one, we need.

Bathroom sink and vanity after

Here it is finished.  There is of course a spot above it for a mirror and the vanity actually came with one.  However, when I took the previous mirror down for them to paint the wall, there was a piece of plastic covering the original hole of a medicine cabinet.  We've measured and it seems an odd size (probably an "old" size that's not so common anymore).  I'm going to keep looking for something that fits, but if we can't find one, we have another mirror that we saved from an antique dresser that would fit perfectly in that spot.  It even has that old farmhouse feel.

I'll share pictures, whichever way we go.

Glacier Bay Faucet

Here is a closeup of the faucet we chose.  It didn't come with one, I guess because they figure it's best to let people choose their own.  We chose this one from Glacier Bay that has a retro feel to it.  We love the ceramic handles with "Hot" and "Cold" on them.  My Grandparents had a sink with the same kind of handles, and I always thought that was so neat.  Now I have my own.

It feels like coming full circle!

 

40000 PAGE VIEWS

40,000 Thanks

Just a simple 40000 THANKS for 40000 page views!


WOW.  Thank you again.

INSPIRATION THURSDAY

Butterfly Garden

This is just so pretty.  It's a picture I found once of a butterfly garden, complete with a butterfly house right there in the middle.

I love this kind of combination of color and height.  This inspires us to choose the right plants, and the right colors to make it look as bright and colorful as it can possibly be.  I just LOVE color in a garden.

Have a wonderful day, it's our blog day off, but as with every Thursday, we'll see you back here tomorrow morning!

Enjoy!

PATCHWORK QUILT TEDDY BEAR

Patchwork Quilt Teddy Bear

This is a favorite of mine.  My Mom found it somewhere, we're not even sure of it's history.  One of her many travels to an estate sale or a tag sale or a thrift store or who knows, but somewhere, she found this cute stuffed bear.  She always had it on the bed in her guest room, and so we felt it appropriate to have it on the guest room bed at the farm.

Granted we don't have the mattress yet, ha, but I just had to grab the bear out of the storage unit when I stopped by.

Stuffed bear in his new home

And here he is sitting in his new home in the country.  I guess we need to hurry up and get the mattress, he looks uncomfortable, ha.

MORE GLASS JARS FROM THE PANTRY

Cracker Jars for Pantry Storage

2nd Man was refilling some of his pantry jars today and I said "whoa, wait, let me take some pictures!".  I'm not sure he still understands this whole blogging thing, but whatever, I took the pictures anyway.

As you can see these are the jars we use most often for storing dry ingredients in the pantry.  In this photo, we have two of the large ones, with jasmine rice and brown sugar, a medium one with oatmeal, and a small one with corn starch.  I used one of these Dymo Label Makers with the clear label tape cartridge...

Dymo Letra Label Maker

...to make the labels on the jars.  It's quick and easy and easy to replace if we change out a jar for something else, and gives them all a unified look.  These label makers are awesome little gadgets to have around.  You can buy a good one and just about any big box store like Target or WalMart or office supply store like Staples or Office Depot.  I would highly recommend one if you are trying to get things organized around the house, they can be used all over the place.  They are also pretty inexpensive and since you can use them forever, you'll definitely get your money's worth out of them.

Based on suggestions from some of you, the awesome readers of our blog, I am going to add canning jars to our mix of storage containers in the pantry.  Those will be perfect for some smaller items .

As you can tell, we just love using glass as a storage method.

ZINNIAS AND A QUESTION

I was recently over at Donald's Organic Texas Garden Blog and he had some beautiful photos of a type of flower that he grew.

(Actually ALL of his photos are beautiful, please visit his blog for inspiration).

It is called a Zinnia, and is probably familiar to many of you from the South as it is a pretty ubiquitous flower down this way.


Here are some examples I found online of what a Zinnia looks like.  As you can see, they come in many color combinations.

Zinnia Flowers

Seeing his posting reminded me of something from when I was younger.  My Grandmother used to plant flower seeds by the thousands every season.  She loved her flowers.  And her favorite was one she called her "ZINNY'S".  Even her neighbors called them Zinny's.  I was probably in my 30's before I discovered that the flower she was talking about was actually called a Zinnia.

More Zinnia Flowers

So that got me to wondering, now that I have a blog and can ask an assortment of people, I will ask: 

Are there other flowers or plants out there that have one name "officially" but are called something else by you or members of your family?  Or did you grow up thinking one plant was called one thing and found out later it was actually called something else?

I can't wait to be able to say I have my own "zinny's" sometime next year.

WHITE CORNER SHELF

This is one of those things I grabbed from storage and put in the back of the car just because it was small and fit.  Now it's at the farm and we're not sure how we're going to use it.  I wish it was a bit taller.  We found it at a yard sale once upon a time, and painted it white for my Mom.  Now it's found its way back to me and it's time for us to use it.  For now it's in the dining room corner, but it's one of those things that can really go just about anywhere

(well, anywhere with a corner, ha).

It will be fun to see what becomes of it.  But again, that's why we started this blog, to share in the process from the very beginning.

ORCHARD RACK BUILT AND IN PLACE

This is the orchard rack that I blogged about HERE.  As you can see, it's all in pieces in a box.  It looked fairly intimidating when I first opened it until I realized it was already mostly assembled. 

It went together very easily...it's just a matter of installing the sides via cross bars across the top and bottom, and then front and back.  After that, you just slide the drawers in place.  It couldn't have been easier.  I'm considering adding wheels to the bottom to make it easier to moved around, especially when it's full, so that might be a later modification.

And here it is in it's new home.  We were originally going to have it next to the other shelving.  But because it's the same type/color wood as the shelves, it looked strange, almost like an unfinished set of shorter shelves.  So we traded places with it and the water cooler and we think it looks much better this way.

Here it is with drawers pulled open a bit so you can get the idea of how it works.  This is a place to store onions, potatoes, apples, squash, and any number of other fruits and veggies that need to be stored in a cool, dry place.  It allows for air to circulate around the produce so that it lasts longer.  We hope to put it to good use by this time next year, that's for sure.  Click on the link above to my original blog entry all about it.  You can see pictures of them with produce in them.  They come in three sizes, 3 drawer, 6 drawer and 9 drawer...this one of course is the 9 drawer.  I figured why not plan ahead and plan big!

NON SLIP DRAWER LINERS

Drawers are lined

It's the little things...I was also able to get all four drawers in the kitchen lined with the rubber non stick stuff like we have in the city house now.  In the city, we use a beige, since i figured this was going in the bright white freshly painted kitchen, I'd get white.

White Non Slip Drawer Liner

We love this stuff.  It's great for the bottom of your drawers (and shelves) because it keeps things from sliding around.  It also keeps utensils and such from scratching the paint in the bottoms of the drawers and acts as a bit of a cushion as well.

Best of all, it's removable...it doesn't even stick, it just stays down by itself and doesn't move around.  You can find it just about anywhere, hardware stores, Walmart, Target, etc.

So, we got this done in all the drawers.  Now we can start putting stuff in the drawers as we get it.

MASTER BEDROOM BLACK BED FRAME

Well, as you know, the other night we made a "during the week" trip out to the farm to get the Lillesand (that's the name of it) bed frame out there.  It barely fit, maybe an inch to spare, but it fit, that's all that matters.

Master Bedroom Before

Above is it before, with the parts all laying around ready and waiting.  This one was even easier to put together that the white one I blogged about last week.  So about ten minutes after I started...

Master Bedroom After

...here it is finished.  Super easy to assemble.  It does fill up the space, so I'm not sure we'll have room for end tables here, but we're thinking some sort of vintage style floor lamps, one on each side of the bed.  As for the color palette in this room, we're thinking white, blue, gray and black.  For the blue, we're thinking of a mix of cobalt and light blue.  Something that looks relaxing and works well with the gray.  We've always liked bedroom colors that are relaxing and calming.  Ironically, we have never had a blue room, but we saw this picture online once...

Blue, White, Black Bedroom

...and it really inspired us to try for a look like this.  So that's why when we found a bed frame that looked very much like the one in this picture we had to have it.  It's a start and gives us a point to create from!  That's always a good decorating tip, get your largest piece, the focal point of the room, then decorate off from that.  When we get two chairs for the reading area, we might even find some like the one in this picture too.

So now it's shopping for blue accessories, starting with the bedspread/quilt!

BACK FROM THE FARM

Back from the farm, well, back last night and then out again early this morning then back again tonight.  A renovator's work is never done, ha.

Took this picture when we got ready to leave today.  Notice how things greened up?  Of course, some might be weeds, but hey, I'll take the green.  It's a color we missed most of this Summer.  Color from any source is welcome.

It's also nice seeing the porch without all the construction stuff laying around.  For those wondering, the porch railing and stairs were built using pressure treated wood (lasts a long time and is termite proof), and it has to cure before we can paint it.  Side note, never use pressure treated wood in your garden, the chemicals used can leach into your soil around your veggies.

Alas, that tree there in the middle of the photo died in the drought.  It's fate was always up in the air because it had several things going against it.  Now that we have the new stairs on the front moved over a bit, the tree was a little close.  It's also more of a "trash tree", like something that just sprouted up and kept growing sort of wild.  And lastly, even when green, it wasn't very attractive.  So, the drought decided that it wasn't to make it, and as soon as I can get a chainsaw out there, it will come down.  I have a rule though, whenever I cut down a tree, I must replace it with another one, somewhere else on the property.

We got everything done this weekend that was on our short list.  The long list, well, that's a long list.  That might just last for years.

From assembling all the things that still needed to be assembled, to installing cabinet knobs, to lining drawers, to taking measurements for window treatments, to pulling a few things from storage.  In other words, we got stuff done.  I'll be sharing them in the days to come.

It's a slow process but every little step is a step forward.

VINTAGE POSTER SUNDAY

Vintage Victory Garden Recipes

Wow, this is a really cool thing I found while doing online research.  I'm not sure if it's from a magazine, or was a poster or what.  But it's sponsored by the Heinz companies, I think this might be Heinz 57 Cider Vinegar

(since it is mentioned in the recipes).

It was telling people how to use the results of their hard work in their Victory Garden.  I don't know if there were other ads with recipes for other vegetables, but this one focused on making healthy salads.  A "Panama Radish Salad" and an old fashioned "Potato Salad".

I told 2nd Man that we need to grow these ingredients and makes these next year following the recipes.  I think it would be a nice nod to the past.

MASON JAR OIL LAMP

Canning Jar Oil Lamps from Lehman's

Our latest catalog from Lehman's had something that caught my eye and you all know about my obsession fascination with Mason Jars.  Of course, I always say "Mason" but this includes "Ball Jars" and "Kerr Jars" and really any cool jar that you can re purpose.  This neat, retro looking item turns an ordinary jar into a nice little oil lamp.  Simply fill with lamp oil, screw the top on, and then just light the wick.

They come in a gold color or a rustic zinc, and are only about $5 each.  This might be an easy DIY project too.  I'll have to do some Googling about that.

Until then, enjoy!

TODAY AT THE FARM

.

This will be me at the farm today, tools and building furniture and putting things together...

...and this will be 2nd Man, he'll be cleaning windows, the tub, the counter again, the floors again, and so forth...

We know it's work, but it will still be fun.  It's ours now, ours to do with as we please and it's very rewarding.  I have a whole list of things to do, and I really think we can get most of it done.  And I'll take lots of pictures as usual!

BLACK METAL BED FRAME

So, remember the drama I wrote about of not being able to fit the black bed frame in the back of the Jeep?  Well, I measured it again and believed it could actually fit.  I remember my Dad always used that old adage, "measure twice/cut once", so I guess the same could be said of moving stuff in the back of a car.  Measure twice/load once, LOL.

It had to be taken out of the box of course, but I was pretty sure it would work.  So last night, we headed off to Ikea after work, and bought it.  We took it out of the box there in the parking lot and carefully loaded it in.
With about a 1/2" to spare, it fit!

Lillesand Bed Frame

So picture this bed...in this room...haha.


UPDATE: Click HERE to see it in place.

Master Bedroom

I would have taken pictures last night, but it was a last minute trip and I didn't have my camera with me.  I'll get some pics this weekend of course.

But it looks really good.  We love it.

This was also, coincidentally, the first time we had seen the house since all the stuff was done, at night.  I mean, like really dark of night.  Thankfully the moon was full and bright so we could see to get onto the front porch and open the front door, but then I when I turned on both of the new porch lights, wow it was SO nice to have light out there.  We want to get some lanterns at some point for a more subdued light, but it looked great.  The lights in the kitchen were great too, it was well lit and will be great when 2nd Man is cooking.  We didn't stay long, only dropped off the bed and put it together, and then headed back to the city.

All in all, it was a productive evening.  We are SO glad we were able to get the bed frame out there.  It's much easier to decorate a room when the major "space hogs" are in place.  Then you can decorate around them.

Lots more pictures this weekend! 

11/11/11

I think I noted this milestone last year on 10/10/10.  I guess we only have one more year that this will happen in our lifetimes...12/12/12 next year!

HAPPY VETERANS DAY

Happy Veterans Day and a huge thanks to all those who are currently serving, have served, or know someone who is a veteran.

In my family, I would like to thank my Grandfather, who is still here at age 94,  for having served in WWII.  I'm always fascinated hearing his stories, even to this day.

My father, who passed away 10 years ago, was in the Air Force for a tour of duty, and always spoke of how much he enjoyed his time.  So Dad, wherever you are, thank you.

And finally, thank you to an amazing young man whom I've known since he was little.  He is currently an active  duty soldier, along with his wonderful wife I might add.  They have seen time in both Iraq and Afghanistan...I just love the man he has become.  I've often thought of him over the years as the son I wished I could have had and I just couldn't be prouder of what he and his wife have done.  Thank you Josh and Liz, I think of you both every day!

Thank you everyone, everywhere...