• happy list

    Happy List: #135

    Hello! We all made it to Friday! I think that deserves a pat on the back. This week on the blog I shared a mushy story. Scratch that. I shared TWO mushy stories. This one about DIY and love and this one about flea market finds and love. The two most important men in my life each had a starring role in these stories. As it should be. Here’s the Happy List! PIONEERTOWN MOTEL I’m dead from the cuteness. (image: Pioneertown Motel) This is the registration office for Pioneertown Motel in California. Back in the day Pioneertown Motel housed movie stars like Gene Autry while they were filming. If you love…

  • The Best Flea Market Score brass ash bucket
    thrifting

    The Best Flea Market Score

    Not only did I recently find the best flea market score EVER, it happened twice at the same flea market. I know, I know. I don’t think you can technically have two “best ever” declarations in the same sentence. Alas, it won’t be the first or last grammar violation on this blog. Now, while I’m still riding the high of the moment, I am well aware that the best flea market score to me is not the best flea market score to someone else. And thank goodness, right? Otherwise, they’d be walking home with my finds and I’d be walking home sad and empty-handed. Actually, I’d be driving. New Jersey…

  • when diy equals true love
    DIY

    When DIY Equals True Love

    A friend messaged me last weekend and asked if I was doing anything fun. Well… I guess that depends on your definition of fun. If fun means taking down the ugliest fluorescent lights in your kitchen before they actually fall out of the ceiling, then it’s practically been a party at our house. And I’m not joking about the part where one of them was falling out of the ceiling. Taking down the lights meant that we had to deal with the world’s worst drywall job and, honestly, that hasn’t been so fun. Of all the home improvement jobs, drywall sanding is the thing I enjoy the least. “No, kids.…

  • happy list

    Happy List: #134

    Hey, hey! It’s Friday! The 13th! This week on the blog it was all about the exterior of our house. I shared the surprising way we had a whole bunch of brush removed from our property. That alone probably raised our property value. I also shared my newly painted front gate and how long it took me to paint it. It definitely wasn’t an hour. In other news, I’ve been trying to do more stories on Instagram. I even showed my face this week. Twice. Crazy stuff. If you’re on Instagram, I’d love to connect with you there too. Here’s the Happy List! SWEET POTATO SAUSAGE BREAD KNOTS It is…

  • painted white gate
    colonial farmhouse,  gardening and landscape

    I Painted Our Front Gate

    Try not to be jealous, but we have a gate to nowhere. Well, not nowhere. If I walk from my front porch straight down the uneven sidewalk (thanks a lot, tree roots!) to the gate it leads to my mailbox. Two steps past the mailbox is certain death. People drive way too fast on country roads! I could also walk around the driveway to the mailbox and never have to use that gate or trip on the uneven sidewalk, but where’s the fun in that? I suppose if you want to get technical about things (apparently, I do today,) it really isn’t a gate to nowhere. It’s just a plain…

  • clearing the bushes
    colonial farmhouse,  gardening and landscape

    The Surprising Way We Cleared 75 Feet of Bushes

    When we bought the Colonial Farmhouse it wasn’t visible from the road. This is saying a lot about the amount of overgrowth happening on the front of our property because the Colonial Farmhouse sits only 20-feet from the road. It should be visible to the naked eye. To further illustrate how overgrown the bushes had become, we didn’t need window treatments. No one driving by at night could peer in the front windows – at least not on the main level. I don’t even have a good picture of the overgrowth because there was nothing photogenic about the situation. Here’s this one though… Can you see the road? Or the…

  • happy list

    Happy List: #133

    Hello, everyone! I hope September is treating you well! We’ve survived school thus far. There’s only been one forgotten snack, one forgotten Chromebook, one forgotten Chromebook charger, and one lost form, so I think we’ve really got this school thing nailed. Ha! This week on the blog I shared my trip to Elephant’s Trunk Flea Market in Connecticut. I also shared the 1971 MLS Listing for our Colonial Farmhouse. Here’s the Happy List! UNDERWATER DANCING I was mesmerized by this synchronized swimmer’s underwater dance to Chopin. She can hold her breath for 4 minutes! LEATHER WREATH You know I love a good leather project! Go check out this neat wreath…

  • The 1971 MLS Listing For Our Colonial Farmhouse
    colonial farmhouse,  decorating

    The 1971 MLS Listing For Our Colonial Farmhouse

    I rarely answer my phone for numbers I don’t recognize. Half the time I don’t answer my phone for numbers I DO recognize. Therefore, it must have been fate calling one sweltering summer night when my phone rang and I decided to answer. After all, every once in awhile I do need to make sure I remember how. The person who sold us our home was on the other end of the line. He had found the 1971 MLS Listing for our Colonial Farmhouse in some papers he was sorting through and called to see if I wanted it. Do I need air to breathe? Do I need shoes that are…

  • elephants trunk flea market
    thrifting

    Happy Thrifting: Elephant’s Trunk Flea Market

    Have you ever seen a faraway place on TV or in a magazine and thought that it would be a cool place to visit someday? That’s what I’ve always thought about Elephant’s Trunk Flea Market in Connecticut. It is often the backdrop for the HGTV show Flea Market Flip. It has also been mentioned in magazines the likes of Architectural Digest and by interior designers like Emily Henderson. As it turns out, I can now drive to Elephant’s Trunk Flea Market in about two hours. I’ve been stuck in traffic jams in Atlanta for longer than two hours, so driving this long to potentially score some unique treasures at a…

  • middle school lockers
    Family

    Last Week Before School

    My kids start school at the end of this week! I can’t decide if this summer flew by or was unbearably slow. Maybe a little of both. I’ve decided that in a mother’s mind, these two realities can exist at once. And that’s okay…as long as it doesn’t drive her completely batty. And look how little my son used to be. Time really must be flying because I swear he was just 4-years-old and now he’s going into 4th grade! AGH! To that end, I’m taking this week off to spend time with the kids, so that I will really, really miss them when they head back to school. Plus, I…