Where should I begin?

This past weekend was absolutely wonderful.  I went to go visit my parents and I must add that it is always a great time!  My Mom and I went through every single box, every single plastic tote and weeded through goodies among goodies and I of course filled my totes up to the top.  Uh yeah, there was no room for lids (lol).  I mentioned to you in a previous post that my Mom was going to give me an old trunk that belonged to her parents and I received that this weekend.  I love it and it holds so many wonderful things inside.  I also received an old doll that belonged to my Grandpa’s Mom and I am told that it is probably well over 200 years old.  Here is a picture of the doll.  My great great grandmother (the original owner of the doll) made the dress.  She was also the doll dress maker for Lazarus until the factory started making the dresses.  Pretty neat – huh?  Gotta love the detail that was put into her dress.  She certainly was talented.

Here are a few other things that I found in the trunk.  Precious keepsakes that I will treasure forever!!  Do any of you know how to make a keepsake box for a flag?  That is my Grandpa in the picture below.

This is my Grandma…. isn’t she beautiful?

This is a pretty neat story.  Here are some very old marbles that belonged to my Grandpa.  He actually won a marble championship competition back when he was 13 years old and these are the marbles that he won with.  Pretty neat – huh?  Like I said…… this trunk was full of lots of interesting and great memories!

Here are just a few old family photos that I thought I would post as well.  Who doesn’t love stuff like this?  I know that I love it!!  Thanks Mom for allowing me to have all of these wonderful treasures.  I will forever treasure them and take care of them.

This picture was of my aunt on the left and my Mom in the stroller.  Wasn’t my Mom just the cutest baby?

This is a picture of my Grandpa (Jack), my Grandma (Clara), my aunt (Susie) and my Mom.  Gotta love my Mom’s little belly shirt.

The last picture that I share with you all today is a picture of my grandparents.  I believe that this was their engagement picture.  Aren’t they a beautiful couple?  A beautiful couple that created a beautiful daughter, mother and friend in my Mom.  Thank you Lord for blessing me with such a wonderful family and sweet memories of my grandparents!  Another neat thing that I am sharing with you today is that I found in some of the albums that today is actually the Wedding Anniversary for my grandparents.  They were married on August 31, 1937.  Pretty special.

I hope you enjoyed some of the wonderful treasures that I shared with you today.  I know that I enjoyed them so I hope you did too.  My next post which will probably be shared tomorrow will feature some prim goodies that I received from Mom.  Oh ladies…. too bad you all don’t live close to my Mom.  She will be selling alot of prim goodness and other items in her garage sale.  Thanks for looking today.

Until Next Time……

A Thrift Store Purchase

Today has been a nice and peaceful day here in our home.  I don’t take care of any children on Friday, so it is just a Mommy & Cameron day.  I love it when I can just spend time with Cameron.  We have such a close knit relationship and he is my thrift store shopping buddy.  Yep, I have him set to go thrift store shopping with me every Friday and would you know that we haven’t found any goodies lately!!  I found a pewter pitcher a couple weeks ago, but that is about it.  Hmmm, perhaps I found and purchased everything (lol).  I did see an old antique type of table on Tuesday, but when I went back today, it was gone.  I thought it had GREAT potential, but I just didn’t have the money for it then.  Disappointing – huh?  I was pretty upset, but then after I thought about it….. I had no idea where I would have put it.  They did have some very old and neat trunks there, but I have one from my husband’s Mom and I am getting one from my Mom this weekend, so I didn’t need another.  They also had a hope chest, but I didn’t need one of those either.  I just wish they had some smaller items for me.

So, we are leaving to go visit my parents tomorrow morning and I can’t wait.  I enjoy visiting with them, but Mom plans on putting me to work, so I am just not sure I am super excited about going this time (lol).  Mom wants to have a garage sale within the next couple weeks so we are going to help her weed through her totes and get stuff ready for the garage sale.  She told me that I could have anything I wanted and the other stuff I didn’t want would go in the sale.  I am taking 3 empty totes with me in hopes of filling them up (hahaha).  My Mom also told me that I am able to take her parents old trunk home with me and I am absolutely thrilled about that.  She told me to just take anything and everything in it which really means alot to me.  It has tons of old pictures and a few antiques and a flag that my Mom received when my Grandpa (her Dad) passed away.  I am sentimental so when it comes to me receiving those items….. well, I am just touched beyond measure.  Have any of you ever made a keepsake box for a flag that was given to you?  I would love to make a box for it and display it, but yet I want the box to be prim and match my decor too.  I can’t wait to share some of these treasures with all of you.  I personally can’t wait to get the trunk full of treasures and memories and just spend hours going through them and enjoy looking at everything.  Nothing better then reminiscing about your family.

Well, I had to post a picture of my pewter pitcher that I purchased.  It was only $2.29 so I thought that was a pretty good deal.  Hopefully I will be able to find some more goodies soon.  I just hate going there and leaving with nothing (lol).  Have a wonderful weekend my prim friends!

By Special Request…

Thank you all so much for your kind comments about my re-finished ladder back chairs.  I myself was so pleased with them and was anxious to share them with you.  Many of you requested pictures of my chairs with my farm table so, I am happy to oblige and share with you some pictures.  Take a look!

Others of you have complimented me on my new profile picture.  Thank you for those nice compliments!  I was lucky enough to get my hair cut the other night.  Oh yes, there is nothing better then having a little pampered time for Mom.  So, I am posting a close-up of my new do and also a picture of my sweet boy.  Cameron is doing great with potty training, but he is now getting into the habit of screaming bloody murder in the middle of the night and telling us he has to pee pee.  Ah, yeah – imagine being in a deep deep sleep and he screams out “Mommy, I gotta go pee pee.”  So, basically I feel like I am taking care of a newborn again (lol).  You gotta love it even more when you take him in to go potty and then all he wants to do is give you more excuses as to why he can’t go back to sleep.  I think I liked it better when he was in a diaper.  Anyway, enjoy these pictures!

Oh – one more thing.  Have any of you started to decorate for Fall yet?  I am so anxious to get started, but was curious when you all start to decorate.  Let me know.  ~ Hugs  ~

Watchya Working on Wednesday ~ My Re-finished Ladder back Chairs

Well, the time has come to share with all of you my re-finished ladder back chairs. I found these on Craigslist for $30.00 total and was thrilled with the price. I personally thought that was a great deal. They looked sturdy and just what I was looking for to add to my my farm table. Now I just need to find some more. I would eventually like to have enough to go around my table, but they can sometimes be hard to come by and if you do find them then they are outrageously priced. So, I will just keep looking and see what I can find. I will be sure to keep you all posted on my hunt for more chairs.

My goal behind these chairs were to make them look a bit older. I didn’t want them to be so old looking that they didn’t quite match my table, but I wanted them to have a little wear on them. I think I accomplished what I was aiming for. I knew from the get go that I wanted them to be black so I did a little sanding here and there and added my coat of black paint. Once the paint was dry then I did a little bit of sanding. I was thrilled that I had that tan undercoat from where they were previously painted because when I sanded the chairs…. the tan was peeking through. They really look great! After all the sanding was completed…. I added my dark walnut stain for a little protection and a more worn look. Yep, they turned out perfectly. Let’s take a look. Here are a couple BEFORE pictures……

Here are the AFTER pictures.

So, what do you ladies think? Did you notice anything different about the cane seating? Well, I personally thought that it needed to look a bit older to fit in with my table so I simply put some dark walnut stain on an old rag and just rubbed the seating until it was dark enough to where I was satisfied. Yep, I am satisfied!! Go ahead and leave me your comments because I would love to hear what you all have to say about these beauties.

So, what is my next project? Ah, I have no idea, but I am definitely thinking which can be quite dangerous at times (lol). Until Next Time……

A Make-over & A Loss to the Prim World

Let me first of all start off by saying that the prim world will never be the same.  Ruth Rochelle passed away yesterday.  I am not sure if you know her or not, but she was the owner of “A Primitive Homeplace.”  Ruth and her husband were both very talented and have a beautiful home and a wonderful shop.  If you haven’t had the chance to check out her picture trail site then hop on over there and take a look.  You will be amazed by her beautiful saltbox home, her shop and so much more.  Please keep her family in your thoughts and prayers!

On a much happier note…. I am here today to share with you a make-over.  Do you all remember that ugly trash bin that I purchased at my local GW store?  Well, I bought it for $5.99 and here is a BEFORE picture.

and…….. here is the AFTER picture!

I wasn’t too sure if it looked ok, but my Mom thought it looked great and so did my hubby so we are going to go with it.  Hey, for $5.99 and a little elbow grease and a paint job….. it looks pretty good to me!  Hope you enjoy the pictures and keep watching because tomorrow will be the make-over reveal for my ladder back chairs and trust me….. it is worth the wait.  Oh ~ here is another shot of my trash bin in my kitchen and I guess I will go ahead and give you a tiny sneak peek of one of my chairs (lol).  Enjoy and have a blessed day!!

Textures of My Home – Part 2

I had so much fun with this challenge that I decided to post Part 2.  My camera just kept snapping pictures and I couldn’t get it to stop (lol).  Actually to be quite honest with you…. I probably got out of hand with taking my pictures, but I always do.  My husband tells me all the time that I am obsessed with my camera, but I can’t help it.  Anyway, as promised there are more pictures of textures from my home that I wanted to share so, that is what I will do tonight. 

If you haven’t yet had a chance to hop on the bandwagon then you better join in on the fun.  Trust me….. it is so much fun and addicting too.  Well, here are my pictures.  Enjoy them!!

Hope you all enjoyed the pictures.  My favorite had to be the candle shot.  I thought that turned out so neat!! 

On another note…. the temperatures have been UNBELIEVABLE here in Ohio.  It has been so mild and much cooler and I have enjoyed it tremendously.  Nothing better then  nice 70 degree temperatures over the past couple days.  Yep, I think I could have this weather year around and not be disappointed at all.  With these temperatures that we have had, it allowed me to get so many prim projects completed.  I finally finished that trash bin and my ladder back chairs are complete as well.  Oh – I can hardly wait for you to see all of it.  So, be patient just a tad bit longer and be watching for another post.  The re-finished trash bin will be posted probably tomorrow and the re-finished ladder back chairs will be either Tuesday or Wednesday.

Until Next Time ~ Lisa