This and that.

Other than a photo for Mother's Day, I haven't published a blog post
 in almost 6 months, and how quickly those months have flown by!

I will say, it was rather freeing to unplug my laptop over the summer.

In August I held my very last garage sale.  I no longer change things up for the seasons

to the extent I have in the past, so it was high time to get rid of all that stuff.

Now that summer's over and there's a chill in the air, I brought out what remains

of my autumn decor.  I knit up a few more mini acorns and strung them across

the dining room fireplace for a little pop of color.

During my hiatus from blogging, I finally got around to painting my dry sink.
  The drawers are stuck shut, but I'm hoping a coat of clear wax will remedy that.

The woven tray sitting on top was one of my last purchases at our local

Salvation Army before they closed their doors for good last month.

Sad, sad day.

The pale bluish-green paint on the dry sink brightens up the corner of the room

which I'll appreciate even more when the gloomy gray days of late autumn settle in.

Can you spot a new treasure in my secretary?

My sister made the adorable felted wool sheep for my birthday in June.

She's knitting a wee little scarf....with toothpicks!

I haven't joined up with my knitting group all summer long,

but now that it's too dark and cold for evening bicycle rides,

me thinks it's time to start again.

The old straw hat is another recent Sally Ann purchase.

How I'm going to miss the best place in town to shop for

vintage straw hats, baskets..........

......and purses!

I've actually been known to use these purses, much to the dismay of my coworkers.

They have no sense of style.   :o)

I've made some progress upstairs.

Terrible photo, but all that's left to do is sand and paint the trim

and I've got a blank slate to work with.

I'm in the middle of building a piece of furniture for the room,

but until I uploaded this photo, it hadn't occurred to me that I installed

the 2nd vertical divider backwards with the big knot front and center.  ugh

It's a good thing I'm styling it after a primitive piece,

because there's no way I'm taking it apart to fix that particular boo boo.

Our kitchen looks pretty much the same as it did last fall.

One small change is the simple sign I painted to fill the empty space

over the kitchen doorway.  Next up is to paint the rest of the walls, and if you 

look closely, you can see a sample of the warm white color in the corner

right above the clock.  I just have to figure out which gallon of white paint it is.

Hmmmm....

The sky is blue and the sun is shining, so I'm headed outside to enjoy

one of the rare warm sunny days of the season.

Also, I hope Mr. Sun will work his magic on my bad DIY hair color
before I have to face the general public at work tomorrow.
I never learn........

Thanks for visiting and I hope you're enjoying the autumn colors, too!

Vickie

 *Joining:

Katie at Monday Social Address Party

Simply white.

It's moving day!

A little more than 3 months behind schedule, but the dollhouse is done

and on its way to Mack and Maggie's playroom.

When we asked our daughter what color to paint the dollhouse,

she said white.  Since she recently painted all the rooms and the dark trim

in their bungalow Simply White, it's only fitting that the dollhouse
wears a coat of white paint, too.

It resembles the new 2 story homes that are replacing the single story dwellings
 in our daughter's old neighborhood.  Instead of shutters, we chose to embellish the windows
with chunky craftsman trim, inside and out.
 

It's got a little Mr. T bling going on with the bright brass door handles and hinges,
 but brass is back, right?

The flokati rugs and oversized chalkboard fit right in with their uptown style.
The chalkboard was pilfered from our youngest daughter's garage sale boxes.

I stitched up 2 comfy beanbag chairs for the children to recline in while

they watch movies and cartoons.

Oops!
 In my haste to take photos before loading the dollhouse into our car, I mistakenly placed

 prematurely-gray-haired Father in the chair instead of Brother.  hehe
(Building a house for his demanding wife really aged him this winter.)

Mom and Grammy sit in their thrifted chairs while they discuss the kitchen appliances

 that have yet to be purchased.  The table and chairs were 50 cents at our local thrift store.

Father and Daughter movie night.  hehe

One of the unfinished bonus rooms on the third level is ready

for fun times with the addition of a glittery disco ball (Hobby Lobby Christmas ornament).
Or maybe Sister would like this room as her bedroom.  They'll have to sleep
on the floor until they buy bedroom furniture, but not to worry, there's plenty of
flokati left over for makeshift beds.  Also, we've seen how Maggie plays with the house.
She empties out the house and fills each room with a large stuffed animal.
And covers the house with a blanket.

Father and Gramps discuss politics in the living room.
Let's get out of here!

We'll let Maggie open up the box with fixtures for the bathroom.

I'd like to be a mouse in the corner when the dolls use the facilities.  :o)

Partially furnished house.  It's just right for a 3 year old and her brother.

So long Rangers!  Minneapolis, here we come!

Thanks for visiting and have a wonderful weekend!
Vickie

Coat Check

Just over a week ago, I wore a winter coat and gloves when we took our daily walk
and this past weekend it was warm enough for shorts and sandals!
Typical Minnesota weather.

I planned to stain window sashes and sew curtains during my vacation,

but I had a bit of a setback while staining the windows,

so I put the whole business aside until the noxious odor subsides.

Imagine you're standing on a ladder, carefully staining window muntins,
(they're part of the window and not removable), humming along to the radio,
 and enjoying the pleasant breeze coming through the window,
when the pint of dark walnut stain you're using somehow

  drops to the floor!!!

Yup.  That's it in a dark walnut nutshell.

*FYI, Minwax oil based stain can be removed from:

freshly painted walls
recently painted doors
crisp white trim
brand new windows
repainted furniture
refinished hardwood floors
human legs, feet, and hands

All it takes is plenty of patience and a gallon of mineral spirits......
  and a window left open for the next month or two.

Well, after that fiasco,  I set my sights on transforming
 a different kind of window.  I almost chucked the project out of sheer frustration,
 but being stubborn by nature, I was determined to finish it no matter how long it took.

I picked up this door/window? a few years ago because I liked the

beautiful wood finish and thick beveled glass, although in the end
I chose to display the honey colored finish on the back side.

Here's the inspiration photo for what I wanted to create:

Reverse painting on glass by the Griffin Sign Company.

After several unsuccessful attempts with paint markers, stencils, and spray paint,
I resorted to hand painting the letters with a flat artist brush.  I painted a reverse image

of the letters on the back side of the glass with 3 coats of metallic gold craft paint

followed by 2 more coats of harvest gold paint to make the letters opaque.

The last step takes a leap of faith.  After the letters have cured a day or two,

paint right over them with black craft paint.  Don't work the paint too much on the 

first coat or you'll pull up the letters you've painstakingly painted!

If I get tired of it, the paint can easily be removed with a razor.

How do I know this?   Because I've already done it
3 times!!!

No display is complete here at 911 without adding an item
with questionable wiring, so I propped my deer lamp on the shelf.
I glued leftover fabric from the kitchen onto an inexpensive shade from Lowe's
to dress it up a bit and covered the raw edges with rick rack.

The black baby shoes belonged to an old neighbor.

I think this was the very first alarm clock I ever bought,

way back in the early days of our marriage.  Speaking of.....

we celebrated our 35th anniversary yesterday!  We spent the day in Duluth

on Saturday and I came home with 2 new pets.

I don't think the cage is old, but it's cute.  The birds?

My guess is vintage Christmas tree ornaments.

Look how happy they are basking in the sunshine!

Well, I tested out the lamp last night, and...............

It works!

I won't go into detail about what happened to the first light bulb when I plugged it in,
but from now on the cord will be safely tucked behind the sign.



Thanks for stopping by!
Vickie

*I'm joining the parties at:
Mod Vintage Life Mod Mix Monday
Cozy Little House Tweak it Tuesday
Savvy Southern Style Wow us Wednesday
Revisionary Life Thrifty Life Thursday
Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson Share Your Cup Thursday
Funky Junk Interiors Party Junk

Autumn Welcome

I'm ready to say goodbye to watering flowers and hello to...

........the low maintenance variety.

I bought this book a few weeks ago and found a similar arrangement pictured inside.

 

When I look at the magazines I've saved from years past,

 a large number of them are autumn issues,

and this book will no doubt join them in the cupboard when winter rolls around.

The hanging basket was a birthday gift from a friend just waiting to be filled.

So, I went out to my cutting garden (JoAnn Fabrics) and found some

fresh berries and flowers to tuck inside.  :@

I tied it on a piece of rope to center the basket on the door

and voila!  Three hours later (yes, that's how long it took me to get it right)

I've got a new autumn welcome basket on my door.

Have a great Labor Day weekend!

Vickie

Joining the parties at:
Savvy Southern Style Wow us Wednesday
Funky Junk Interiors Saturday Nite Special

Summer Camp is not just for kids.

Around this time last year, Bill and I were scouting for a cabin to rent

for this year's family get-together.  It proved to be almost impossible

to synchronize all our vacation schedules, but a few months ago we finally agreed

upon a time and place to spend a long weekend with our girls and their families.

 Paul Bunyan Camp

• Electricity
• Running water
• Indoor toilets
• Air-conditioning

It had all the amenities on my list.

Oh, how I love to rough it in the wilderness!   :@

We actually decided to spend the long weekend at Megan and Dave's

country home.  With two babies under 2, it seemed like the best choice.

They live near the Headwaters of the Mississippi River,

 home of Paul Bunyan and Babe the blue ox.

There was plenty of wildlife with 2 dogs, 2 kitties, and 2 babies.

Fishing, golfing, bonfires, games, all-you-can-eat fish fry, swimming (in the blow-up kiddie pool),

and comfortable beds at the end of the day.  Ahhhhh.....

Anyhow, I made the camp sign to hang on the Z family's house

 in honor of the occasion.  The idea for both the screen porch sign in my previous post

and the camp sign came from this book.....

  Here's the inspiration photo for the camp sign...

Isn't this a fun room?!

I made the sign in a couple of hours using a small piece of plywood,

some twigs, a short piece of rope, a few brad nails, and craft paints.

There was no shortage of branches to pick from after the storms we've weathered in July.

I drilled pilot holes in the branches with our smallest drill bit and tacked the

branches to the dark green painted board with small brad nails.

At first I tried cutting the branches with a miter box and hand saw,

but I discovered Bill suggested a much easier way to make some angled cuts.

I used my handy pruning tool that's meant for cutting dead branches.

I don't have a lot of hand strength, but this tool makes the job easy!

I tried to pick branches that had right angles to decrease the number of pieces

needed for the letters.  I then haphazardly dry brushed red craft paint over the letters.

I drilled 2 large holes through the board and threaded a piece of rope

through the holes.  To finish, I just tied a knot in each end of the rope.

Once again the sign cost me nothing, using only what I had on hand. 

Here it is hanging under the shelter of their wrap around porch.

Megan and Dave got their "craft on" by making a themed bean bag game.

The red "Paul Bunyan" team.

And team "Babe the Blue Ox".

(The pictures were taken at dusk after the kiddies went to bed.)

The beanbags also work well for juggling contests

as demonstrated by Megan and Jeremy.

I'll be practicing my beanbag skills (or lack of) before next year's event.

Summer camp also proved to be quite educational for us city folk.

We learned it's best not to befriend the neighbor's barn kitties.

It's quite possible Gunner has 2 new feline brothers.

It's perfectly okay to lock the neighbor's unattended 4 month old

puppy in the outdoor kennel......

especially when I so carelessly left my chewy leather sandals outside.

Unlike kids at camp, nobody had to tell us when it was lights out.

By the end of the day, we were all exhausted!

So long from this happy camper,

Vickie

Join the parties at:

Funky Junk Interiors Junk Party

Hot Fun in the Summertime