Anticipation

The countdown begins!

opens on June 28th in the Lebanon Valley Mall.  I have already signed up for the mailing list and email notices.  Can you tell how excited I am?

Big weekend!

Several years ago my sister and brother in law put a huge addition on their home.  They hired someone to take up all of the patio paving stones since that portion of the yard was going to be displaced by the addition.  They have had about 1000 pavers sitting on pallets in one of the outbuildings and want to get rid of them.  They offered them to me.  I am in the process of bringing 400 of them to my house...slowly.  My other BIL is building a patio for me.  Originally it was going to be very small and very different.  The patio is now taking on a life of it's own.  It will be roughly 10' x 16'.  The treated lumber for the surround has been put in place and dirt has been brought in to level the area.  Next a couple of yards of "crush & run" and a yard of sand will be put down, tamped and then the pavers will be installed.  I am hoping that we will be able to work on it this weekend so that I can use it over the Independence Day weekend.  I am really excited about the prospect of having a place to sit with my laptop and coffee in the morning and a glass of wine in the evening.  The back of the house gets lovely early morning sun and is totally shaded in the evening.

My daughter-in-law is arriving on Sunday afternoon with my oldest granddaughter.  Em will be staying with me for 2 weeks.  This is something we do every year and is the highlight of the summer for me.  She is 12 now and I don't know how much longer she will want to do this so I am going to enjoy every moment that I can with her. She is signed up for two "camps" - first week is a sewing camp and the second is a cooking camp.  She sews pretty well (did a sewing camp also last year) so she is looking forward to making a "flirty skirt" this year.  Em also loves to cook (and is an excellent baker!) so cooking camp will also be great fun.  I will work at the office in the mornings and then spend the rest of the day with Em.  I can hardly wait!

I am going to finish planting the very last of my perennials this weekend and get down 3 more bags of mulch. (I think I am going to put my DIL to work!) That will be it for the garden except for maintenance.  It is hard work building a garden from a nasty patch of grass!  I think there will be one more "building" year and then I hope to be reasonably satisfied with it.  Everything I planted last year came back beautifully with the exception of my bee balm.  It looks terrible.  I think it has some sort of mildew.  Anyone know of a good home remedy for that?

More thrifting

Last weekend a nearby town was having their community yard sale.  The name of the town is Stouchburg and it is a darling little hamlet with some really beautiful homes.  My sister’s friend is beginning to collect items for her daughter’s first apartment.  She is hoping not to spend too much money so a big yard sale was just the ticket.  I really had so much to do at home (and I haven’t cleaned house in weeks) so I thought about backing out…but changed my mind.  I am so happy that I did! 

I have wanted some antique shutters to hide the laundry area in my kitchen.  I have seen some that were priced reasonably but were not as tall as I was hoping to find.  At last!  I have a pair!! One is right side up and the other is down but aren’t they great?!  Chippy old white and green paint.  They stand about 6’ tall.

And just because I can’t leave well enough alone, look at the hinges.  Can you tell – they make me swoon!! 

I am not going to tell you what I paid for them because if I did you would hate me! 

 

I also found a sweet little table that I will use in my dining room.  I can’t decide if I am going to refinish or paint.  Either way, the “faux” leather tabletop will have to be replaced.   

I also found more silver plate flatware.  Sorry for the glare off the silver.  They really are so beautiful and shined up just like new! 

This is the back of my sister’s car.  Looks like a pretty successful day, doesn’t it?!!

Once again, I am linking up with Rhonda’s blog, Southern Hospitality.

Thrifting treasures

I have had incredible luck at yard sales in the past few weeks.  The first Saturday in May is a huge community wide yard sale in Wernersville.  I have gone for years and always have found some great things. 

All the silver flatware in the avocado tray was $5.  The hand held vac was $5 and I got the box of attachments at another house for $3.  Perfect for vacuuming the carpet on my staircase!  The silver gravy boat had never been out of the box.  Mine for just $1.  The silver plates and other silver plated flatware totalled roughly $8.  Not too shabby!  I polished all of the flatware in the tray and discovered that it is a complete service for 8 (including seafood forks and parfait spoons) and all the serving pieces.  I went on line to do a little research and found several sets for sale.  The lowest asking price was ... drum roll please ... $279!  

This Saturday was the community yard sale in my parent's neighborhood.  I only have photos of the "big score" items

I have been wanting a trunk for the longest time.  This one was filthy and had been stored in a barn.  The canvas (over wood) was in pretty good shape and all the brasses are intact.  The leather straps were in pieces on the front and back and leather handles were missing.  In an antique shop, I would have expected to pay anywhere between $65 and $100.  I took it home for just $15!  Whoo hoo!!

This sweet mahogany table was in rough shape but I was thrilled with the $5 price tag.  I have already primed and applied two coats of Heirloom White paint to the table.  I need to do a light sanding, one more coat of paint and then a coat of poly and she will move into the living room.

Here is the truck after I scrubbed, rubbed and re-hydrated the wood strapping a bit.  I don't want it perfect.  I want it to have a bit of beat up charm.  I love it in my living room.

Hope you got out there and found some treasures for yourself!  I am linking up to Rhoda's blog!

Surprise!

Finally, a post from me!  I am starting to work on projects since it is warm enough to do things outside.  There is little I can do during the winter since I keep the house so cold paint takes FOREVER to dry!

Here is one project that I recently completed. 

I had white cotton cafe’ style curtains with window blinds in my bedroom.  I have had sleep issues for months and finally figured out that the amount of light coming into my room at night was a factor.  Out in blog land, everyone is using painter’s canvas drop cloths for curtain, slipcover and upholstery fabric.  I thought – what the heck?!  - and purchased 2-9’x12’ packages.  I washed them twice, rinsed with fabric softener and threw them in the dryer.  They came out soft and very workable.  I cut 1 panel down the length for each window and only had to do minimal hemming.  I am making a quilt for my bed and have a lot of extra fabric for shams, borders, bed skirt, etc.  I had originally planned to make drapes with the Chocolat fabric (Moda 3 Sisters) but just used some for the valences and I made a couple of matching shams.  I was very pleased working with the canvas fabric and would do it again in a heartbeat!  As a side note – because of the positioning of my bed there was no way to get a better shot of the curtains.  They go to the floor and because I have such high ceilings, I took advantage of that and positioned the valances as close to the ceiling as I could reach. 

Today is the huge yard sale in Wernersville so I am off in search of treasures.  Hope you have a great day!!

If I could just retire...

I could stay at home and get my decorating done!  I honestly intended to have all my Christmas decorating done in time for Southern Hospitality's Christmas Home tour.  I took the button off my blog because I still have only one thing remotely "Christmasy" in the house.  My annual Christmas Tea is next Sunday (the 13th) so it will all have to be done this weekend and I am not looking forward to the 30 trips to the basement.

So, stay tuned.  I promise there will be something pretty to see in a few days!

I am an Army brat and I can do ANYTHING!

That has been my mantra for the day.  This morning I moved the deadbolt strike plate at the front door and now my door closes tightly up against the weather stripping.  No more drafts!  I am one happy woman.

I did have to get out the drill, power screwdriver, regular screwdriver, measuring tape and a pencil.  I love tools. Yesterday I cut dowel rods to use to bunk the twin beds in the guest room.  I used my power finish sander to just take a little off the rods as they were a little too snug in the holes.  To cut the rods I used a little hacksaw only because it was too small a job to bring out the jigsaw.

I covet other people's power tools.  It's a character flaw.  Don't hate me for it!