hearts

 a recent gift from Michelle,

 two thrift store finds from past years (above and below),

 and a couple of broken heart-shaped Christmas ornaments

still hanging out with some stray buttons waiting for a place to go

(or someone to put them there).

girls just want to have fun

 It was impossible for me to pass up this piece of needlepoint

at the thrift store last week!

Why would anyone go to the work to finish this

and stop short of framing it?

I had a white frame all ready for SOMEthing--

and my husband did a great job of stretching the

needlepoint canvas over a board,

inserting it into the frame,

and covering the back to look quite professionally done!

Girls just want to have fun.

wooden fruit

...currently a centerpiece

 in a wooden bowl on our kitchen table.

Fruit gathered from various thrift stores,

unrelated to each other except by category and material and source.

always evolving - never static

 While reading the August 1993 issue of 

House Beautiful last night,

 I came across THIS sentence, and my heart leaped:

 "The farmhouse seemed a retreat far from the world—a  place where an ascetic aristocrat

 might retire to read philosophy and reorder his soul."

 Ours is not a farmhouse;

 nor am I an aristocrat...

 but in every other way,

 I believe this is the inner ideal that I have long held

 for my surroundings.

 I look around me and see bits and pieces of just such a

"retreat from the world".

Like me, our house is a work in progress--
a place AND a soul reordering itself.

Always evolving.

Never static.

 

my magnificent obsession

Thrift store finds - one and all.
Apparently at ONE time I had quite an obsession.

I stumbled on most of them in a closet while hauling out this

assortment of frames for a recent painting project.

I've found a few spaces in which  to tuck, hang, or stand them.
It's kind of nice to be able to change out a picture or two...

an abigail update

Energized by my almost daily Abigail Fix

 (which today featured Simple Tricks),

I photographed the trio of living things around my house today.

It was empowering somehow to know that I had accomplished

at least two of her simple tricks...

that is groupings of three and live plants. 

Truth is, I do not find it easy to keep houseplants alive, 

but I seem to be on a roll with these three!

my rooster lamp

 This morning, I cleared out the bottom right cupboard of our kitchen island.

 I helped my husband place the rugs underneath it 

so we could slide it without 

 scratching the floor.

 Enter the electrician who drilled the hole in the floor

 and lots of other dirty work in the crawl space below it 

 which I had no interest in documenting...

 I confirmed the placement of the electrical box...

 and it was installed - enabling the placement and lighting of this rooster lamp.

(My husband wrote the check for what is my belated Christmas and birthday present.)

I'm thrilled.

The lamp was painted by my grandmother years and years and years ago.

It is a treasure to me and fits right in with my "fowl" decor

in our kitchen and dining area (see previous post).

winter mantel

 With the orphaned wise men and a few straggling shepherds

packed away and labeled in a Charlie Brown popcorn tin,

 I fell back on a fowl display for our winter mantel.

 I'm not sure there's anything new here...

 probably only the placement of various birds has changed from prior displays.

 The predominance of white fits in quite nicely with 

our exterior scene these days!

Everything here was a thrift store purchase with (perhaps)

an occasional garage sale find thrown in.

Slowly, I'm moving into 2014.

snow day projects

 Home-bound yesterday meant projects...

like bread-baking,

 tweaking the painted mattes of these

soft-blue vintage pictures,

and adding a few more touches to the dollhouse.

Thrift store and garage sale finds for me

usually require some type of repair or finishing touches...

and there's No Day like a Snow Day for getting them done.

better yet

"Not perfect, but better" was the title of my last post.

THIS one would have to be "better yet"!

My husband spent New Years Day transforming the exterior

of the doll house -- all with paints and brushes that we had on hand

(and all of them garage sale or thrift store finds).

All that remains to do is the interior.