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…
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…
Happy List: #132
Hello! Thank you for all the wonderful feedback on our front porch and dining room this week. I hear from folks in a variety of ways and it really does make my day when you take the time to comment or like something I’ve shared. When someone does that for me, I know it didn’t cost them anything, but it did take a second of their time and that’s worth something! So, thank you. Here’s the Happy List! WOODEN SPOONS Well, this is a fun use for a collection of wooden spoons! Photo by Chris Snook – Search home design design ideas COLLEGE This is originally from 2014, but someone…
Our Colonial Farmhouse Dining Room
Today is an exciting day. You get to see where I eat breakfast! And lunch. And dinner. Sometimes a snack or…three. That’s right, it is Colonial Farmhouse Dining Room Day. If you are new here, two months ago we bought a really, really old house. Old houses are quirky. Ours is no exception. This house has no formal or informal foyer space, which would drive me nuts if I didn’t have a thousand other things that were already doing that. When you walk through the front door of our Colonial Farmhouse, you are walking into the original room of this house (circa late 1700s). The previous owners used it as…
$20 Outdoor Dining Set Makeover
One of the things I was really glad the seller of our home left when he moved out was all the outdoor furniture. Most of it was dirty and gross and not my style, but we would definitely use the furniture until I found something better…after I cleaned it all up. Okay, fine. We sat in it before too. It was an immunity-building experience. Of the three outdoor dining sets (yes, three!) that were left here, the one I liked the most was the one that was in the worst shape. Of course. It is a classic metal outdoor dining set and you really can’t go wrong with those. This…
Happy List: #131
Hey, hey! All my friends in the Southeast have sent their kids back to school and I love those pictures! We still have a couple of weeks before school starts, so plenty of time to procrastinate on getting school supplies. Right?! This week I shared the new and improved pictures of our backyard. I do not miss the fence we took down one bit. I just need to try to sell or giveaway the fencing material now, since Handy Husband was very careful about how he took it apart. I also shared a neat place you need to shop at if you live in or are visiting New Jersey. It…
Happy Thrifting: Smalltown Antiques
I’ll happily admit I’m the type of shopper that judges an antique or thrift store by the stuff they have outside. If it looks like “good” stuff – whatever that means – I’m more likely to want to stop. Do you do that too? Smalltown Antiques in Flanders, New Jersey, had all sorts of good stuff outside its front door when I visited. I’m guessing thieves don’t steal old crocks? Not only was the outside packed, but Smalltown Antiques the kind of shop that is brimming with interesting finds inside too. It’s not big space-wise, but there’s a lot to take in. I loved the bookends on this table and…
Removing Rotten Trees and a Chainlink Fence
Last week I shared how we cleared a sight line to the pool and in that post I mentioned another section of our property that we’ve also been working on clearing and cleaning up. This was the back of our house when we moved in. There was nothing wrong with the back of the house, but there were some areas we knew could be improved upon fairly easily. The chainlink fence is what really bothered me. It wasn’t the prettiest fence ever built. It also made that space unusable since we don’t have a dog and don’t have plans to get a dog. The trees are what really bothered Handy…
Happy List: #130
Hello! We’ve reached the part of the summer where my kids are “so bored” that they started reading a dictionary. Then I heard my son say, “Wow, Mom. This is really educational.” I’m sure Daniel Webster himself wouldn’t have the words for this situation. I just shook my head. This week I wrote about how we cleared a sight line to the pool. Come back on Monday and I’ll explain where we found the rocks to make the paths. I also wrote about how I fixed the stretched out toe post on my plastic Birkenstocks. My foot finally healed after that incident and I am still ridiculously pleased that my…
Plastic Birkenstock Repair Hack
If you are the .01% of the population that needs a plastic Birkenstock repair hack to fix the stretched out toe post on your Gizeh-style sandals, you’ve come to the right place! I fear the following disaster has only happened to me, but on the off chance it has happened to another Birkenstock fan, here’s what happened and the repair hack I used to fix it. I was wearing my plastic Birkenstocks and walking through the yard carrying something large and bulky. Does it matter what it was and where I was taking it? No. Fine. I’ll tell you. It was a Culligan water dispenser and I was taking it…
