A new entertainment center for the den gave me the chance to do some re-arranging in there recently. In addition to moving around the furniture and artwork, I realized we needed another lamp to really make the room work, ideally a floor lamp. I just so happened to have one in the basement I’d been wanting to work in somewhere up here, but it needed a new lampshade. I have this habit of finding cool old lamps for a song (or less) and then topping them with some uberly expensive lampshade – Exhibit A in this would be the very cool lime green ‘gloworm’ lamp in the living room found in the basement of a college boyfriend’s apartment building back in the day currently sporting a three figure silk lampshade. I assured my dear husband this would not be the case in this particular lamp, one that my friend Bonnie had sitting by her front door one day, awaiting drop off at Goodwill. Because I cannot walk past a free lamp without bringing it home, I grabbed it of course. I had a shade that had once been custom made for a lamp that had been mine as a girl, that is currently housed in Edie’s room. The shade had seen better days but I knew, with some love, would work fabulously on the floor lamp. Take a look :
Category: the house
DIY Furniture Polish
Contraire to popular belief, I do actually clean my house, it just happens to be low on the to-do list, especially this time of year when I’m up to my elbows in produce (just had a bag of zucchini and another one of cucumbers dropped off as a matter of fact) that needs to be dealt with. I prefer to use as little chemicals as possible in cleaning my house – even when I’m not pickling everything in sight, I go through a substantial amount of vinegar on a regular basis. I use it to mop floors, in my laundry in lieu of bleach and fabric softener (and no, our clothes do not smell like vinegar as a result) as well as to spray down the showers after using them to help keep the funk at bay. Continue reading
About that cabinet.
This blog post is dedicated to Abigail, who suggested it.
In my small kitchen with limited storage, where every single item save my cherry pitter have multiple uses, I have an entire half cabinet devoted to Koozie storage. Yes, Koozies, those wonderful little insulators that keep your canned or bottled beverage cold. I did not set out nor intend to have so much of my precious kitchen space devoted to these items, but like other things in life, sometimes that’s just how it goes. Continue reading
It starts with a walk….
Late last summer, I stumbled across this lamp on a walk around the block.
Abandoned by the curb, it had a broken lampshade perched on top. Recognizing mid-century modern gold, I quickly grabbed it, ditching the broken shade and brought it home. Pat rewired it, I found a burlap shade at the Habitat store, that while not ideal, was $2 and so therefore will work for the time being. Continue reading
The Dog Days of Summer
Anyone notice it took me more than a week to get around to responding to your comments on my last post? That’s right, I am the sort of blogger who dares to unplug for days on end and then ever so slowly dips her toes back into it because man, being unplugged and avoiding the noise of the internet is delightful.
The view of the Cow Pasture River from behind the cabin where we stayed.
While the cat’s away
The first week of camp has gone quietly here at the homestead. While I’ve yet to wade into the princess lair for the annual “she won’t miss it” purge, I have done some reorganizing. Continue reading
It seemed like a simple plan.
With Pat gone for a few days to a conference, I thought I’d take advantage of the beautiful weekend weather and mow the yard. It had been a bit since it had been mowed – between the weather and our schedule, mowing was a task that just seemed to fall through the cracks. With the weather being sunny and dry on Saturday, I thought I’d mow the lawn, then move onto canning all the cherries I’d picked from our tree this week. Also on the docket was a little bit of house cleaning. Continue reading
Well hello there!
It’s been a while, hasn’t it? True to form, May has kicked my ass on every level imaginable once again this year. How is it Memorial Day weekend already? I’m still not done getting the gardens in, the only batch of strawberry jam I made was at last night’s Happy Cook class and when people ask what our summer plans are, I have no answer. None. Continue reading
Springing.
Spring, with all its glorious blooms and colors is still a marvel after last winter. The blooming pink dogwood has transitioned to green leaves, with the breeze sending petals to the ground in spring’s version of snowfall. Continue reading
The front yard in a jar.
Easter Sunday evening, Kitchen Intern & husband had popped by for a drink. Sitting under the gloriously blooming pink dogwood, they couldn’t help but notice our yard was a carpet of violets in bloom. They inquired if I was going to do anything with them – like make violet jelly. The idea had not occurred to me, but later in the week, Pat mentioned he needed to mow soon, so if I was going to pick those violets, I needed to get on it. Continue reading
Chicken Wire & Paper Flowers 