What You Might Find on a Sidewalk in Berkeley

Remember our trip to Berkeley several weeks ago?  We were walking down the sidewalk between antique stores and saw a sign that said, "FREE".  Behind it was a stack of furniture and 4 black shutters.  I couldn't believe that someone was giving all that away.  It's a good thing I didn't have a truck or a garage or lots more would have come home with me, too.

Today I cleaned them up a bit, took off the hinges, & added hangers to the back.  Jordy helped me hang them.

BTW, what do you think of our bench?  lol...  The table is new.  We had to take the back seat of the van out to get it in.  Then when we moved the table in we sat down & decided to leave the van seat there so everyone would have a place to sit until we found more seating.

So let me know if you have a bench for sale.  Maybe I should go back to Berkeley and see if I can find a free bench on the sidewalk!

MORE of my Grandmother's Yarn!

 We've done some spring cleaning & rearranging the last few weeks.  I changed the comforter & pillows on our bed to our summer bedspread & linens.  I even changed the painting above the bed... part of my "bad art" collection.  I'll have to share that in another post!

The curtains are a little dark.  Last summer I just took them off, not sure what I'm gonna do this year.

Even though it's spring the nights are still cold and I need a little something more over my feet.    Plus the cat likes to sleep on the bottom of the bed & I don't really want her to lay on the white bedspread.

None of my throws really went with the new colors and the afghan I made last year had a lot of dark colors & it looks more fall-ish than spring-ish.

Then I got Romantic Homes magazine in the mail...

This afghan inspired me to get out my box of yarn.  Yes... I still have yarn from my grandmother's box of yarn!  And other skeins that I have collected along the way.  This afghan is the same idea as the ones I made last year.  Just stripes of colors & some different stitches.  

 Here are the colors I came up with.  I do think I need to get a different red.  My grandmother LOVED bright colors and this red may be a little too bright for my color scheme.

So far I have two rows crocheted.  Y'all keep asking me how much I have done so I'll keep going.  lol...

All photos taken on my iPhone!  I was too lazy to get my camera out.

The Fall Fairy Came!

I think it's funny that I've run into people this week who have told me their actually waiting for me to post these photos!  Actually, when I look around I don't think I decorated as much as usual.  Some of my decorations where old & I just threw them away when I took them down last year.  So here's a little tour of our home, along with ideas & (when I can remember) where I bought the items -- especially for Grace!  

This is the kitchen table.  I'm reusing the green tablecloth that I used on St. Patrick's Day, all spring & summer, & I'll use again for Christmas.  My favorite color & seems to be a basic that works with a lot of themes.  The flowers I bought at Safeway... can't remember what they are.  They look fake, but they're real.  The pumpkin candle was a gift for my birthday last year.  The dome I bought at a thrift store & painted.  I think the apple came from Dollar Tree.  I've had the salt & pepper shakers several years.  I bought them at either the dollar store or Walgreens.

The sofa table has my silver tray that I painted with chalkboard paint.  A candle from K-Mart, more flowers, and a pumpkin on a candle stand -- I've had them a long time, too.  Think they came from a thrift store.

 Here's the vignette on the old icebox -- my old typewriter (thrift store), pumpkin candle (gift), jar of fruit & small candle (can't remember where these came from).

 I think this is Jordy's favorite area -- the checkerboard table that Glenn's grandfather made holds the candy corn dish (Walgreen's), flowers (90% off at Beverly's last year after Thanksgiving), pumpkin candle holder (can't remember where I got that), and "Harvest" sign (I made that).

 I made this garland several years ago.  I found leaf outlines online & traced them onto felt, cut them out & put a string through them.  Simple, but one of my favorites.

 Our mantle:  real white pumpkins (Lucky's), my dollar store hurricanes (I made them, but everything came from Dollar Tree), candle (?).  Notice there are loose leaves everywhere.  They're good for filling in areas.  These were a centerpiece at our choir banquet a few years ago.  Natalie was going to throw them away but told me if I cleaned them up I could have them.  Yes, they do make a mess, but they're pretty.

 Our mantle goes around a corner.  A little strange, but gives us more room for leaves & pumpkins.  I think I bought these pumpkins at Walgreen's a few years ago.  Candle from T. J. Maxx.

 Here's the view from the TV side of the living room.  I LOVE my red wall!  Thanks Glenn & Mark!!!  I found the white cones at a thrift store a few years ago.  They're tied on with orange seam binding & filled with little bits of flowers, berries, & cones collected from many different places.

 And here's the opposite side of the room.  Still need something on that wall.

 This is the full view of the fireplace.  Glenn's grandfather also painted the picture hanging above.

 This little vignette is at the top of the stairs on my $5.00 thrift store table.  Letters from JoAnn's.  Most of the other items are from thrift stores.

 Upstairs on my desk is a stack of books with a candle & another Scrabble art piece.

And to finish up our tour, this is my dressing table.  I just stuffed all the leftover leaves into jars to add some color.  (Yes, there were LOTS of leaves.)  The ring holder was a high school graduation gift (wish I could remember who it was from), and the glass tray was my grandmothers.  I use it to hold jewelry & all the other little things I take out of my pockets.

Hope you enjoyed my tour!  If the Fall Fairy has come to your house, let me know.  I'd love to see your photos  I need more ideas!

If you want to see more, here's my post from last year... and the year before.

Thrift Store & Antique Show Finds

I almost forgot about these photos already.  Sunday after church, Angie & I went over to the Shadelands Antique Show for about an hour.  We found some really good buys!  I had wanted some old rusty keys and found a whole box full, also lots of cabinet cards with gorgeous frames.  
Take a look at the detail on this one, and the rhinestones on these gloves!
Then today I dropped off several boxes & bags at the thrift store.  I always go in when I do that.  Luckily I usually leave more with them than I buy.  :-)  I thought this tray was great -- "How to Preserve a Husband."  Glenn got a kick out of it.  I told Jordann I'd display it here and give it to the first daughter who gets married.  :-)

Pretty good advice, huh?  Here are the pumpkins Jo & I painted last week.  I made the tablerunner by cutting felt with my pinking shears.  The easiest thing I've made in a long time!  

Oh, our guest star must make an appearance.  She's not in a good mood, can you tell?  She wants me to open the door for her.  Then she'll go outside and stand in front of the gate & stare at it, wanting us to open it for her, too.  How'd she get so spoiled?
One last thrift store find.  I found these about a month ago.  I really wish I had taken a before shot.  They were that ugly gold, antiqued plastic that must have once hung on everyone's grandmother's walls.  They were really cheap so I bought them & spray painted them black.  They were supposed to be for one of my swap partners but me, Glenn, AND Jordann liked them so my partner will get something else -- just as good, don't worry.  It's not often that all three of us agree on a home decor item.  I just have some pumpkins stuck on them for now.

The Fall Fairy

It's a lot cooler today so Jordi decorated for fall.

I love this candle I found at T.J. Maxx.  It has fake candy corn floating in the melted wax and smells DELICIOUS!!!
Had to take a photo of the candy bowl FAST... these won't last long.  I love the pumpkins!

I Bought My Grandmother's Couch!

(NOTE added later Sunday:  My sister says she doesn't remember our grandmother's couch looking like that.  If I am remembering correctly, our grandmother's couch was a solid brown, right?  But the lines were similar -- at least I think they were.  I think it was longer, too, but maybe that's because I was smaller?  It's been a while.  Anyone else remember?  Maybe I scanned a photo of it in all those I did last time I was in TX.)

Our furniture buying spree continues! Remember I told you that our couch was hurting Glenn's back and he wanted a "new" one. We picked out many that we liked. We wanted the straight arms to save space in our small living room. So far, my favorite couch was ONLY $1695, but not a sleeper (which we also need). The girls and I went thrifting again yesterday and came up with this one. It's only 70" long AND a sleeper!
It has everything we were looking for. I wasn't too sure about the pattern but everyone says they like it so far. We'll live with it for a while and then decide if we need to recover it. It's really comfortable, no smells, very little wear, and the mattress is pretty comfy for a sleeper. We'll probably still put the air mattress on top when Nana comes to visit. Grandma & Grandpa... here's another option if you can't find a hotel.

And here's the chair I bought last week all cleaned up and in the living room. I really don't like how our end tables & coffee table look with these pieces, so I'm on the lookout for more 1950s-60s pieces!

And here's one more piece of furniture that I haven't blogged. In order to keep my crafting supplies from taking over the dining table I really needed a flat surface upstairs. This fits in the little window niche in our bedroom. You can see a few crafting supplies laying around on the floor still -- gotta work on this area a little more. Also needs a lamp. The markings on the desk say "Solid Mountain Oak, L. A. Period Furn. Mfg. Co." and "A 1961 SO 159 DESK". This was my best buy of the week! It was marked $45.00. When I brought the tag up to the cashier she said, "Oh, this is a pink tag. It's 75% off!" Woo Hoo!!! Everything I bought that day added up to $13.00!
It's supposed to be 100 degrees again today. I think we're going to head over to IKEA after church and walk around in the air conditioning! And hope that it's cooler in Oakland than here.

The Story of My New Chair

I'm going to make a short story long.... :-) Glenn has been having back problems for a while and he thinks part of the problem is our couch. It has lots of soft, fluffy pillows all over it. And, he love mid-century modern furniture. So we've been on the lookout for chairs & a new sofa. Meanwhile, we were doing our back-to-school shopping last week and L & I got distracted by a sign that said "HUGE Garage Sale". You know how that goes. When we pulled up this yellow chair stood out to me. But the closer I got to it, the dirtier it looked. The price tag said, "1961 Leather Chair $15". But we bought the 2 chairs behind it in the photo and something to ship down to Aunt Sue & David, too, and got a deal -- all for $20! For that price I'd take a chance that it wouldn't clean. Here's what it looked like after we cleaned the back section:


Cleaning that made the rest of it look even dirtier! I wish Blogsvertise would ask me to write about Mr. Clean Magic Eraser! That's what I used to clean this. The box said it could be used on leather shoes so I though I'd try it. We kept saying over & over, "I can't believe this...", "Look at that...." It was pretty amazing!


If you know anything about this chair please let me know. I'd like to know if it was really made in 1961. There are two tags on the bottom. One says "Property of Wells Fargo" and the other says "Knoll." I couldn't find anything exactly like it online, but did find similar chairs made by Knoll and designed by Saarinen. They all had metal legs, though. I like the wood much better.



Disgusting, huh? So next time you see a dirty chair at a garage sale, go ahead and give it a try.

Once it was clean Glenn has been sitting in it every night! Lauren has some great photos for the letter "L" but they're on her computer. I'll try to get them up tomorrow.

D is for Designing with Words!

Here are a couple of our projects from last week. I love decorating with words! Not only my collages & paper crafts, but also our house. "Eat" is in our kitchen -- notice I just photographed from the window up. The sink was full of dishes. "Tatum" is in our living room. I didn't mean for them to be finished but this is as far as we got. But everyone has liked them like this! (Notice the little tin man climbing the A? Jordann made that.)

The apron giveaway drawing was today! The winner has been contacted and I'll post who it was as soon as I hear back from her. Thanks to everyone who participated. I'm going to do it again when I find -- or make -- something else to give away.

When Dad's Away the Girls Will Play!

For some reason whenever Glenn goes on a trip we start doing little home projects. He never knows what our house will look like when he gets back. So here's what we did while he was in Turkey:

First project: Painting the kitchen door with chalkboard paint. Lesson learned? Don't listen to the teenage sales clerk at Ace when he says, "Sure you can spray paint indoors... no problem." The good part is now my kitchen is cleaner than it has been since we moved!

We also commissioned a talented, young local artist to do some paintings for us. Not bad for a 13-year-old, huh? I gave her an idea of what I wanted, bought colors I liked, and let her go.

The first cross of our collection.

New curtains:

My kitschy art collection. I started this by going to thrift stores looking for paintings on canvases for Jo to paint over. I really liked the landscape and Lauren liked the flowers. I don't think Glenn likes them too much. So they're tucked back in the corner under the stairs. The one on the left we bought on our anniversary from a street artist in SF.

Lauren put this collection together. Anyone look familiar?