All About Our 240-Year-Old Pumpkin Pine Wood Floors
I have been unabashed in my utter love for and devotion to the original pumpkin pine wood floors in our Colonial Farmhouse. It was love at first sight. In fact, I might have discounted the problems our Colonial Farmhouse had because those floors were the rose-tinted glasses through which I viewed this money pit. Can you blame me? Look at these floors! Hubba hubba. The oldest part of our Colonial Farmhouse dates back to the 1780s. Additional rooms were added on in the early to mid 1800s. I’ve been so used to living with modern (1930s and after) hardwood floors that I didn’t realize how much I had to learn about…
Happy List: #159
Welcome to this Friday’s edition of the Happy List. Do all your days feel like Friday now? If they do, I’d say that’s a good thing. It is way better than all the days feeling like Monday! This week I shared my tips if you want to sell a live tree from your yard. That’s really a thing! If you’d rather cut down the tree in your yard, then you must have really liked my live edge side table post on Wednesday. Ha! I didn’t even realize until just now how I basically shared two sides of the same coin on this week’s blog post. There are times when I’m…
Modern Live Edge Side Table – Target Hack
This story of how I created a modern live edge side table has the perfect old meets new plot line. Get ready to feel a flutter deep down in your sentimental soul. This story starts a long time ago in a land not so far away. A huge tree used to stand tall and proud about ten steps away from the front of our house. The diameter at the base of this tree was over 6-feet wide. Had this tree stood sentry over our house for one hundred years? Maybe more? Was it here before cars were mainstream and the county road was paved? I don’t know. I was told…
You Can Sell a Live Tree From Your Yard
Did you know you can sell a live tree from your yard? That’s a thing! Make sure it’s actually your tree growing in YOUR yard though. It might not be super common to sell a live tree from your yard, but it does happen. Determining if this is a viable option comes down to different factors. Is there demand for your tree? Is your tree healthy? Is your tree accessible or worth the effort of digging up? I recently embarked on a tree selling adventure, so I thought my experience might help you. We have a very mature Japanese Maple growing right next to our pool. The tree seems to…
Happy List: #158
Hello! I truly hope you are all staying healthy. We have had an interesting week with everyone at home, but still trying to do work and school. While I am very much aware of and sensitive to what is going on in the world, the blog will continue with business as usual. This is my happy place. I come here because I enjoy writing, sharing our projects and engaging with you. I need that more than ever and I hope you do too. We’ll see how long I can keep things up if we run out of DIY supplies. This week I shared some updates we’ve made on cleaning up…
Painting Ceilings is Super Fun
Painting ceilings is super fun. Said no one ever. Here are some things to keep in mind when painting a ceiling. Who knows when this advice might come in handy? Truth #1: Painting a ceiling is great “me” time. Need some alone time? We all do from time to time. If you need some alone time just ask anyone if they want to help you paint a ceiling. Poof! Just like magic, everyone will disappear. Truth #2: Remember, painting ceilings is super fun. Just keep repeating this mantra over and over. If you say it enough times, you might even start to believe it. If you don’t say it enough,…
Winter Yard Clean Up
Today I want to talk about something I’ve been avoiding for months – winter yard clean up. I’ve been avoiding this task for so long that in my part of the world it’s not really wintery, but it’s not full on spring either. It’s win-pring. Or maybe wint-ring. Let’s just call it early spring like a normal person would. We do have a few flowers poking their heads out of the ground, but the trees and shrubs have not budded or leafed out yet. That means I still have a narrow window of time to tackle winter yard clean up before things get really bushy. Oh, goodie. Our property was…
Happy List: #157
Well, happy Friday the 13th! It sure is a weird time in the world, isn’t it? I hope you are all staying safe and well. This week I shared how I’m decorating with my mom’s thimble collection. I just love to hear the stories you’ve shared with me about the thimbles you have that belong to your moms and grandmothers. I also wrote about our trip to Avery’s Beverages in New Britain, Connecticut. We love fun, quirky travel experiences like that and I hope you do too. It is Happy List time! I don’t know about you, but I need a big dose of happy! MINTY This home in Mobile,…
Decorating with Thimbles in a Modern Way
My mother, who sewed her own wedding dress, is getting a laugh from heaven today. Can you hear it? Despite all of her attempts (and there were many) to teach me any type of sewing because it would be a handy skill to master, I never really took to it. I still have dang it had a stubborn streak and very little patience for detail-oriented work. I definitely have not had the need to pick up a thimble in my adult life, but there’s still time. Therefore, the fact that I’m writing about decorating with thimbles today would be a wee bit laughable to her. The moral of this story? Mom is…
Travel: Avery’s Beverages
“You’re not from New England, are you?” Well, there went my attempt to blend in. What gave me away? My accent? No. My style of dress? No. My mannerisms? No. The slogan “not from here” on my t-shirt? No. I outed myself as a visitor to New England (specifically, Connecticut) because I didn’t know what birch beer tasted like. I thought this was an innocuous question since we were touring a beloved Connecticut institution, Avery’s Beverages, which sells a birch beer soda. Apparently, if you’re from New England (and possibly not living under a rock like me) you’ll know what birch beer tastes like. Spoiler alert! It tastes like a…
