-
The Painting I Rescued From the Trash
Here’s some advice to live by: always go for a walk around the neighborhood the night before garbage day. Trust me! You never know what treasures you might find just sitting on the curb waiting for the garbage truck to be discovered. Earlier this fall I took one of these walks. It was late afternoon. The air was crisp. The leaves were still glorious. There wasn’t a soul in sight. That’s when I spotted it. Do you see it? A painting sitting with a pile of trash at the end of someone’s driveway. They’d left it there to be collected by the garbage truck. Or me. Their intent could have gone either…
-
Halloween Mantel That Will Transition Into Thanksgiving
Last week I briefly explained that I enjoy the festivities of Halloween, but I’m not super into decorating for the holiday. However, I do a little to keep my kids happy. I do like decorating with pumpkins, mums and other items that give me all the fall feelings and a big bang for the buck by easily transitioning from Halloween into Thanksgiving. This fireplace is in our piano room and it’s hard to tell from the pictures, but it is a big one! The mantel is about 5-feet off the ground. The piano is directly to the right of the fireplace. I used black card stock – again – on my…
-
Fresh Take On A Rattan Swivel Chair
I’m sure like many people, I lay in bed at night and scroll through Facebook Marketplace searching for unique finds, diamonds-in-the-rough, pieces with potential and other such items. Wait. You guys do this too, right?! Never mind. Let me have this moment. I do this Facebook Marketplace scrolling late at night because I don’t want to be tempted to jump in my car right that second to go retrieve an item I don’t need. I also like to overthink my purchases and this tactic enables that behavior. Wait. You guys overthink your purchases too, right?!?! Never mind. Of course you do. One night as I was scrolling I saw this…
-
3 Thrift Store Finds and 1 Garbage Find
A couple of weeks ago, I was on a thrifting roll. Six new-to-me items came into our home. SIX! I don’t usually have that much luck on a regular shopping trip, let alone while thrifting. That is why I will never make it as a fashion blogger. Here are the items that caused me to open my wallet and one that was garbage and I had to spray with bleach. First up is this brass mantel clock made by Bombay Company. The angels started singing when I saw this beauty, but I walked away from it. I did. I was so strong. I made a loop around the store and…
-
Wood Paneled Piano Room
I was messing around with my camera because I need to improve my skills and I happened to shoot a few sort of not blurry photos in the darkest room in our house – the wood paneled piano room. It’s actually the living room, but when you have a ball and chain baby grand piano, you sometimes have to get creative with your living space. I didn’t intend to show you these photos because this room isn’t “done” and I really was just messing around with camera settings. Also, I didn’t dust. Or wipe my children’s fingerprints off the piano. Or remove the crumpled kleenex. Or tidy my piano books.…
-
Makeover: Dresser with Brass Details
My love affair with my local Habitat ReStore is still going strong. In early August I found a small dresser with brass accents at the ReStore. When I spotted those brass accents it was like the heavens opened up and angels began singing. Honestly, I need to have this sort of reaction when I find a piece of used furniture in order to go through the herculean effort to get it home and refinish it. We all have our barometers. Mine is angels singing. Totally normal, right? As you can see, the dresser had a hutch on top that I still do not understand. It has the same brass edging…
-
Happy Thrifting: The Nest at Farmstead Farmers Market
Ready to go thrifting with me? Virtually speaking, of course. Oh, good! The benefit of these one-sided conversations is that you always say the correct thing. I like that about you. The kids and I were recently driving through Palmyra, Pennsylvania, and decided to stop at an antiques co-op called The Nest at Farmstead Farmers Market. Actually, I decided to stop. My kids just whined, “Hey! Why are we stopping?” Where’s your sense of shopping adventure, kids? If you and I were actually going thrifting together, I think there’d be far less whining. I like that about you too. Enough about my glamorous life. Let’s step inside. My eagle eye spied that…
-
Wood Dining Chair Makeover With Fabric Tape
A new dining table calls for new dining chairs. It’s a law or something, right? Shhh. That’s what I told Handy Husband. I wanted something completely different from what I’ve been sitting on for the past 15 years. FIFTEEN! It seemed like a good time to mix things up. I really wanted these chairs, but they wouldn’t push under my new table and space is at a premium in my dining nook. Instead, I found a similar style with a higher back. It’s the TMS Angelo Home Hermosa Dining Chair from Wayfair. I loved the blue color, but not the yellow. At least, not for my space. I bought the…
-
Update: Vintage Key Project
Over a year ago I shared the vintage keys from our house in Ireland. Yes, the doors of our Irish home actually opened with vintage-looking keys. It was super cool and also a wee bit tricky to get in the house. Details, details. The reason I have those vintage keys now is not that I kept a set when we moved back to the United States. I can’t speak for Handy Husband though. It’s that the doors to the home were replaced while we lived there and those keys no longer worked. I thought they would be the neatest memento of our time living in Ireland. While taking a therapeutic…
-
The $9.60 Table That Almost Broke Me
To clarify, I did not break a table. A table almost broke me. Emotionally speaking, of course. Our current house (I need a name for it because I’ve had a lot of ‘current’ houses) has a good-sized kitchen with a bump-out for a dining table. That bump-out is directly next to what I’m assuming was intended to be a proper dining room. Since our family functions best with an open concept floor plan, I’m making the ‘dining room’ into a living room. However, my table that I love (not as much as my children, but close) is the wrong shape for the dining area IN the kitchen. It’s rectangular and…
