12/19/2008

When winter sets in sometimes our Homeschooling gets off to a slow start in the morning. It's chilly and no one seems to want to leave the warmth of cozy blankets. Recently, the kids woke up and held a  dog party on my bed. . Hubs is not fond of having a dog on the bed, let alone all THREE at once! But we waited til he was off to work.

Below is a little treat that God blessed me with recently....Just after Thanksgiving I was driving down one of our country hwys and a glint of COLOR flew past my periferal vision.  I turned the car around, pulled over and dug around in the glove box for my scissors. "What are you doing, Mom???" Me: "I think I saw something..." Usually, the kids know better than to ask too many questions. The last time I stopped on the hwy they saw me get out and chase a purple crinoline rolling down the grassy median like a fluffy tumbleweed! (But that's another story...)

I got out of the car and sure enough, there were 2 or 3 separate vines of Bittersweet growing twisted among the bare tree branches. It took about 5 min for me to snip away with my scissors but I managed to gather a good bit.

Even though it was almost time for Christmas decorations, I couldn't resist spreading the berries throughout the house for one last touch of Fall.

October-FEST! 10/19/2008

Fall is so beautiful in October! My 2 apple trees are just bursting with apples! The branches were so heavy with fruit that they almost touched the ground. We've made apple cobbler, applesause, apple butter and more. 

 

I put a sign in the yard that read "Free Apples, U-Pick" and we had lots of takers. I hung a canvas bag full of sacks and recipes from the trunk of the tree to make it easy. By the end of the weekend there were only a few sacks left in the bag and a couple of recipes left. One person even stopped by with his own ladder.

Fall also means it's time for the Applefest in one of the neighboring towns. They have a great flea market and lots of food!

It was a beautiful day to be outside! Eva spent some time with the shetland ponies. There was one pony that was SO small, barely bigger than our golden retriever!

October also means it's time to break out the Halloween decorations! I like to do this on my birthday, but I was in Calif. at the time. But as soon as I got home, the decorations came out.

Here are some of my favorite things. I have pared-down my collection quite a bit this year, but I always manage to find room for my Dia De Los Muertos eskeletons.

I "church" them up by adding some plaques with verses from Ezekiel Ch. 37 to remind us how great God is and that death cannot hold us. We will rise again because of what Christ has done for us. God breathes life into what was once dead. I am so thankful for Jesus.

While I was visiting in Calif. I was able to make my nephew's Halloween costume for him. He wanted to be R2D2! I had so much fun doing this! My brother even helped out a bit with the silver duct tape.

Happy Reformation Day as my DH would want me to say!

New Porch! 09/04/08

We are working on the porch! It is not complete but here are some photos of it in progress. The ceiling still needs to be replaced; new cement steps will be pored and the rails still need a little work. But notice the nice little corbels that my 85 year old uncle made especially for me! :) It will all be so homey with a coat or two of white paint! 


The above two photos are "before" pictures. There were two "posts" which consisted of 1x4 boards nailed up around existing rotten posts. When we pulled off the boards we found what looks like original posts.  I'd  to have them displayed or used somewhere inside. 

When I was working on the house last week, I noticed a car come by. Twice he just sat there, once in front of the house and then on the side street (we are on the corner.) As I looked closer, the sign on his car door said County Assessor... Boy, with all the activity on our little place, the tax-man is chompin' at the bit! Anyway, I went out to say "Hi" and see what was up. He was nice and said he was just making the rounds in the neighborhood. (Uh-huh...) He let me look at the file he had on the cottage. It said the place was built in 1902, not 1904 like the realty info said. It also showed a small barn on the property. Well, that's no longer there but they were still assessing taxes on it! We took care of that mistake pretty quick! He said, "Well, there go your taxes!"

More Work done! 08/17/08

We spent the weekend doing more painting and papering at the cottage. Take a look at our progress!

Before: Mustard & Plum walls with peel and stick tiles on the floor (and on the backsplash!)

After: New floors installed, wainscot primed and a .25 cent roll of pink vintage wallpaper covers the upper half. We still need final paint, backsplash, tile countertops and sink but we are making progress!

Before: Another angle

After: That little place on the wall where it juts out is an enclosed chimney. It would have been used to vent a wood burning stove.

Before: Blood-red living room, looking into bedroom.

After: Creamy butter Yellow with white trim. I had to mix the final color myself. When it comes to yellow, I always pick out the wrong shade and then have to tone it down.

Before: Looking into the tan bedroom. Note the lovely mattress on the floor and the wolf-print blanket over the window.

After: Painting in progress

Another "before" of the same room. The previous tenants left all this junk for us. Trash.

It's hard to see the pretty blue color but it is Laura Ashely's Pale Sapphire #1. 

Before: Inside the bedroom looking out toward the main room.

After: Same room, different color.

My slave labor :) They are hard workers and never complain. All they ask is for dinner at Lehman's, the Mennonite restaurant down the road. 

New Roof 07/03/08

Things are looking Up (on the ROOF)!

Yes! The rain continues BUT we DO have new roof, praise the Lord!

From THIS...


to THIS! :)


Isn't it lovely! Click on it for a larger view. After three months of rain and waiting, I hired someone else to finish the job that Brian the roofer refused to do. (The house is less than 900 square feet... 3 months? Please!) The second roofer did the job in 2 days, one in the pouring rain! Brian badgered me with phone calls accusing me of stealing his tools (none were left at the job) and making a multitude of threats including one of personal injury..."A guy did this to me last year and...well...he's still in the hospital." We have hired a lawyer to set our minds at ease and have since found out that Brian is a criminal with a laundry list of felonies....Thank God we haven't heard back from him in a while!

Well, this week the kids and I did some more painting, fixed a little of the bad drywall jobs done by the previous owner and worked in the kitchen. Here is Eva pulling up yucky "peel 'n stick" tiles in the kitchen. STICKY!

Here is Ben working on pulling out staples along the perimeter. Also, here he is working to remove the old stainless steel sink.

While pulling of the old flooring we found an old newspaper shoved into a crack dated 1943.


Yesterday, my fix-it guy laid new subfloor which I am plan to paint soon. So things are looking up! Plus, my POPPIES are in bloom!

Just a couple more stories...

I had a couple of undersized paintings that I kept swapping out on this main wall in my living room, but it needed something with more "weight" to it. Well, lookie here! An entire gallery of floral prints from the 40's, 50's & 60's! I got six of them at one garage sale last month for $5 and got the two on the far left today at another sale for .50 ea. It's a lovely "floral arrangement" for $6.

Now check out this "freebie" I got curbside. Its a 6.5 ft white Christmas tree, pre-lit, like new and still in its original box! It was amongst other junk and furniture ready for trash pickup. It will be perfect this Christmas!

Garage Sale Season 06/11/08

Those of you who know me, know how I love garage sales! The following pictures are from the opening weekend of the garage sale season. The buys were incredible. The treasures you see in this photo cost me no more than $20  and I even came home with a bit of change in my pocket!



The priciest piece was the 3-tier what-not shelf at a whopping $5. There are 3 copper buckets that fit in 3 holes on the bottom shelf, for plants I think.

The old market scale was $3, lamp .50, tin toy $1, spool .10.


I got 2 sets of vintage lemonade pitchers with matching glasses for $1.25 each. All the nic-nacks were .05-.25 each.

Awesome leather cowgirl boots (a perfect fit!) $2.00! And a gorgeous, vintage plaid taffeta prom dress with crinoline, .50!

Vintage golf purse, $1. Pastel cottage painting, .25. Lot of vintage ribbons and hankies, .25.

Large paint-by-number hunting scene, .50. Silver-toned floor lamp with marble base, $2. Large silverplate compote, .75. Rusted blue metal childs garden chair, .50.







A week of garage sale-ing with my beautiful mother.....PRICELESS!!!!