Back Hallway and Hoosier Cabinet

I really thought that I might wow you all and put up two posts in as many days, but it just wasn't meant to be!

I did have a very enjoyable evening out last night with a bunch of other homeschool moms. Yes, we are still technically homeschoolers, even though Cammi is taking 2 classes at the high school this year.  

So one of the things that I have done along with the overall painting downstairs was paint a chalk board strip on my back hallway. 

This is what greets most people when they enter the house, since most use the back door. You can see, it is also where all of our "stuff" gets dropped when we come home.  I actually cleaned it up some for this shot! 

I knew that we had to have places to hang coats and such here, so when I started talking about what to use, DH remembered the coatracks that were in the old church.  So we contacted the new owners and sure enough there was still one there.  There were originally at least 4, but no idea what happened to the rest of them.  

I'm not great at fancy handwriting, but it's fun coming up with things to write on the chalkboard.

Part of the reason that we wanted to make the kitchen larger was to be able to move my Hoosier cabinet in there.  This originally belonged to my great-grandma.  

Since this is meant to be a kitchen piece, I thought that I would fill it with kitchen items.

The red recipe box was my grandma's and has her recipes still in it. 

Yes, the chocolate chips are a temptation. ;)

Love cookbooks!!

Blessings,

Ronda

Linking to:

Craft Room Update Again...

I realized I haven't given you an update since hubby finished the closet reno. The closets in this room have never been terribly convenient.  They are shorter than normal and all the shelving in them was next to impossible to get to.  So I had him cut out the wall and put shelves all the way across so that I would have a place to store all of my paint supplies.  Since taking out the wall left an ugly spot on the floor, he decided to rip out the carpeting in the closet and put in flooring left over from my daughter's bedroom.  This is a temp fix until we save up the money to replace the carpeting in the entire room.  I'm kind of liking the way this flooring looks, though :)

I would like to figure out a way to hide the mess, but the shape of the closet kind of prohibits that.  I would welcome ideas...

Hadn't shown you any pics since I got all of my craft "stuff" put in this room, either.  My daughter thinks it may be tough to get to the thread that I want! Ah, well...it's cute, right?

Some things I found in my grandma's sewing box...

Which is actually the box down there on the bottom shelf.  I still have a small collection of paper patterns that I can't bring myself to get rid of, even though I doubt I will ever use them again.  

Haven't decided yet what I will put in the picnic basket...but I thought it was a nice addition to this room :)

And to answer the question in all of your minds....no, the kitchen has not made any progress!  Still living in a mess!

Blessings,

Ronda

Curtains Take Two

I have been SO Stinkin' lazy lately!!  

The last project I did was completed over a week ago.  I know I say this often, but I was waiting for the right time to get a good pic! Do you have any idea how tough it is to get a good picture of curtains?  I'm sure that I just need to work on my camera skills, but I get overwhelmed when I start reading about all the technical stuff on my camera.  I know, just do it and quit whining...

Anyone else ready for Spring????

Anyhoo...a couple of shots for fun...

Some things that belonged to my uncle. 

As I have been debating what to put on the walls in the music room, I decided that I couldn't part with my little Amish boys.  But not liking the oak frames, I painted them with black milk paint and distressed them.  

If you google painted curtains, you will see that my idea to stencil my music room curtains was not all that original.  Ah well, who cares.  I LOVE the way they turned out.  I think it looks like expensive designer fabric, but in reality they were pretty cheap.  Basic panels made with utility osnaburg fabric. 

I used a mini foam roller to stencil.  I did end up totally cleaning off the stencil about half way done.  The thing I hadn't anticipated was the little fibers from the fabric stuck in the paint and gradually built up enough that the small holes were almost covered.  

Blessings,

Ronda

This Post Should Probably Be Rated PG

 Hmmm....this may be a night of many of those "random thoughts!" With the wedding on Saturday, I will be heading up to pick up my folks at the airport on Thursday, then on up to Ft. Wayne.  So for these first few days of the week, I am determined to do as little as possible! :)  Of course, some things have to be done... like cooking dinner.  So during my dinner prep tonight I realized that I was missing a key ingredient in the recipe I was concocting-- a can of enchilada sauce.  So what did I do?  Create my own, of course!  A can of tomato sauce, some onion salt, garlic powder, cumin, chipotle chili powder, and voile!  Enchilada sauce! And it was good. Great as a matter of fact!  

So here is a shot of my bookshelves since I unloaded all of my boxes again.  The top shelf is not necessarily done.  I am still looking for the perfect item for the top...I'm thinking architectural salvage in nature, a window or a gate maybe.  But...got to be the right item at the right price!  There is about half the amount of stuff on these shelves now!  

Here is a reminder of what they looked like before....

Yuck...

Ewwww....

Double ewwww......

THE DETAILS NOW.....

Among the finds that I added to the shelves was a vintage-look wire basket from Home Goods.

 Some of you may be wondering why on earth I am displaying a tackle box on my shelves!  No, I am most certainly not a fisherman, nor do I have any kind of weird fascination with fishing paraphernalia. That tackle box was my great-grandmother's sewing box! Awesome, right?!  It had been in the attic since my mother gave it to me.  When my hubby brought it down, it was fun to go through it again to see what all she had in it.  Among the expected threads, needles, snaps, and a darning egg, were a few unexpected items.  What looked like a little coin purse held the an upper plate from her dentures, made out of metal.  Wonder what kind of metal it is?  And...hmmm...what is this????  A bag full of....condoms!  What?  No, my little, tiny 80-something year old, long-widowed great-granny was not using those for what you might think.  Those of you who are accustomed to hand-sewing probably already know the answer to the riddle...she used them to pull a needle through a quilt!  Today I use a piece of balloon.

Blessings,

Ronda