Old Man Winter Chair Makeover

I painted this chair last fall. I forgot to take a "before" photo, but it was a plain ole brown chair. It had already been  painted over with brown paint, which had worn down. Sometimes wear is pretty. In this chairs case, it wasn't.

I spray painted it with a burgandy paint, not sure what I was going to do with it afterwards. But as soon as the paint dried, I knew.

Look at the face in the middle of the chair back! When the chair was brown, I hadn't even noticed it. The burgandy paint really brought it out. It made me think of an angry winter cloud, breathing down fierce, biting winds, whipping snow across all the land.

You know - Old Man Winter!

I finished painting the chair, took it to our shop, and posted it on our Facebook page. It was sold within hours, to someone who saw it on the page. 

We were having a somewhat mild winter, with spurts of bad weather here and there, but plenty of nice days in between. But we are making up for it now! It's been bitterly cold for several days now, with several more in the forecast. When the temps hit negative numbers at night, with highs in the single digits, our water at the shop froze up. We had to have it turned off, and decided to just leave it off until the weather warms, hopefully next week. So, I am home, crafting. I hate to close the shop, but honestly, hardly anyone comes in when Old Man Winter is rearing his head. So, I'll take advantage of this unexpected time at home, and get more inventory ready. Spring is just around the corner!

Vintage Doilies and Linens

I bought a box of beautiful doilies at a recent auction.

 Just look at those colors!

When I was young, I thought doilies were a bit embarrassing. SO old fashioned & grandmotherly. I have never thought of myself as "hip". But doilies? Even I knew those were horribly out of date.

Then, as the years went by, I started seeing them in a different light. The work that went into them! I inherited my moms & grandma's when my mom passed. And we also have some that had belonged to George's mom.

Once in while, I would open the boxes, tenderly looking through them. And admiring them. And even getting a couple out to use.

And, of course, owning a crafts & antiques shop means having ones I pick up at auctions on hand. To sell to those of you who appreciated them sooner than I did.

I have now reached the older & wiser point in my life. I love doilies, and am not afraid to say so.

I was so excited to buy this box of them. They actually were divided up into 5 boxes at the auction, and sold as choice. I won the first bid. When the auctioneer said, "How many do you want?", I said, "All of them! I want all of them!" And a few people in the audience groaned, because they had missed out on getting the beauties for themselves. Before the evening was over, I did sell 4 purple ones to a man who said he was going to be in trouble with his wife if he didn't take those purple ones home.

I usually think of doilies as setting on a table, with a vase on top.

Or maybe some silly chickens.

Whoa! Bright colors! That silly chicken is almost camoflauged!

But they are also beautiful when used to drape over edges.

I love how they soften the harsh lines of the box.

So pretty mixed in with china plates.

 

They add so much charm anywhere you put them.

I love these turquoise ones!

I wish I had the patience skill to embroider.

How sweet is this?

As much as I like these ones from auctions, I did not take any of them home. I will enjoy them while they are in the shop, then be happy when I see someone buy them, and give them good homes. Anytime I want to decorate with doilies in my own home, I will pull out the family ones. 

How about you? What are your thoughts on vintage (or new!) doilies and linens?

A broken furnace

This could have been me one day last week. I got up, and the house felt chilly despite the wood stove cranking out it's heat. I looked at our thermostat, and the house was 67 degrees. The furnace was not running.

Oh no.

I went downstairs, pulled the filter out, and it started running again. Whew! Just a dirty filter!

That evening, George met me at the shop, and instead of going home, we decided to go out to eat, and see a movie.

Our nice evening came to an abrupt halt when we got home though. The furnace was off again. And the fire in the woodstove was out.

We discovered the batteries in the thermostat had corroded. We cleaned that up, put in fresh batteries, and turned it back on. Yes! Heat!

But this morning, I got up. The house felt chilly. I looked at the thermostat. The house was 67 degrees. The furnace was off. I felt like I was in a real life Groundhog Day!

Oh no.

When George gets home from work, he will look into it further. Hopefully we just missed something. Like a mouse. In the fall, he took the furnace door off to do a little checkup before winter, and discovered a couple mice had climbed up into the furnace guts where they.........well, let's just say they met their Maker right there inside the furnace.

It's relatively warm for winter right now. 30's today. 40's tomorrow. But we are supposed to be back in the single digits by the weekend.

The woodstove is great, but it only does so much. We need that furnace! 

Vintage baby treasures

How precious are these vintage baby clothes, and quilt? Say it with me now... "Awwww".

A little closer view of the quilt. I always wish these treasures could talk and tell their story. Who made the quilt? Mommy? Grandma? An aunt or close family friend? Was it a boy or girl? What was the baby's name? What year was the baby born? And wouldn't you love to see a picture of the baby?

Ah. Well. We will just have to use our imaginations I guess. 

All we know for sure is that they are absolutely precious.

All of these are for sale in our shop.

What sweet decorations for your home!

Farm themed display window

One of our display windows has been filled with farm decor.........

The tin signs and canvas pictures are imported items. 

I love how bright and colorful the tin signs are! 

I painted the wood signs, using some scrap lumber.

The Farm Life sign in the bottom right is a piece of barnwood.

A friend made the fabric sheep on the stand.

The vintage pump is missing it's handle, 

but still makes a cool decor piece.

In fact, just about any vintage item from a barn

makes a cool decor piece!