Friday, September 30, 2016

Five On Friday: Lost and Found



Friday again! I'm joining Amy at Love Made My Home for Five On Friday and Dwellings for Amaze Me Monday. Here's the things I lost (sold or donated) and found this week.

1. The downsizing of "stuff" continues. I posted an ad on Craigslist for our counter stools and sold them. We met at Costco and found each other by texting (it's a big lot) and it felt like old friends. An hour later I received another text: "Thank You! Love them."  It included a picture of the stools in her house. I cracked up seeing she had the same floor color and wall color as we do. Birds of a feather for sure. 
Our House
Her House
2. Made another trip to our local charity thrift shop to drop off a box of stuff and a large, duffel-type suitcase. We bought smaller ones a year ago, but still held on to our old ones. Wild Bill donated his so now I need to clear mine out too.
3. We donate at a place called The Re-Sale Barn. You know we're country, right? Anyway...this little charity has provided over $3M to the local community over the past several years. They also have a food bank which provides free food for those in need. I love this little shop! I drive 10 miles out of my way (far past the local Goodwill) to give my donations where I know they will help the local community. Our Goodwill puts donations right into a big truck trailer that sits next to the donation area and ships them out of town.
4. Here's the first "found".  A little chalkboard-like sign for the kitchen pig's chalkboard. It's the easy way to pretend to "chalk" the boards this way. 
This one cracked me up and I thought it was perfect for the small chalkboard the pig holds. I tied the twine that holds it around the pig's neck and hid it with an orange ribbon made into a tie.


 5. The second find is a larger sign for the wall chalkboard. Since the FALL banner is on top, I just wanted a few words to show.
Being true to my motto of "complicate the hell out of it" I really made it gaudy.

Yes...if you're thinking I even broke out the Christmas lights you would be right.




Thanks for dropping by
and don't forget the Texas bloggers
home tour next week!
















 

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

Downsizing For Fall



Unpacking the fall decor is almost as much fun as shopping for new stuff.  While pulling out pumpkins and sunflowers, I found this Fall banner that was a gift from Carol at Art and Sand a few years ago.
Even though it's fall, I'm still working on spring cleaning. While unpacking the fall decor I've had stored, I'm weeding out the excess. This means everything comes down out of storage, but only half of it will go back up.
That's because the one thing I really took to heart from Marie Kondo's book, The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying-Up, is to reduce, reduce, reduce! 
I used to be fascinated with storage solutions. Yep, I just knew the perfect box was out there and I was going to find it! 

Ms Kondo's book helped me understand that life is easier with less stuff to store.
Since thrift shops try to sell items from the current season, I'm trying to make the hard decisions now and then box the donations up and take them right down. 

Truthfully, this is as much for me as them. Otherwise I might change my mind and hang on to that box.


Thanks for dropping by!






Saturday, September 24, 2016

Fredericksburg Sightings





Fredericksburg Texas is an early German settlement in what Texans call the Hill Country, which is above Austin a ways. Many of the original buildings are still in use having been maintained and/or restored.
Wikipedia States:
The History of Fredericksburg, Texas dates back to its founding in 1846. It was named after Prince Frederick of Prussia. Fredericksburg is also notable as the home of Texas German, a dialect spoken by the first generations of German settlers who initially refused to learn English.


You can spend days just looking at the old structures and trim. To hear Wild Bill tell it, I'm unusually fascinated with trim it seems. Maybe so, I just can't pass up old doorways and windows, can you?

Here's a few shop windows and sidewalks with unusual stuff just waiting to be stared at. Willkommen indeed!
This stepstool in the window seemed to be made of several pieces of furniture such as dresser drawers and chair pieces.
 I loved the way it was painted in several different colors. I took quite a few pictures to put in my "future projects" file, thinking I might use the inspiration to make one like it one day.
I guess I am just a junk lover at heart. But you already guessed that, right?

One store had several ice coolers made from vintage toys, like this old red truck. The back lifts up to put ice and soda or beer in.

 And here's a vintage toy Volkswagon van that the top lifts up for putting the ice into the body of the van.


And it comes with quite a hefty price tag at $699.99!

Of course there were the usual painted signs among all the one of a kind pieces. This one is in front of the dog lovers store.
While this one for the gift store gave a nod to Johnny Cash...
If you get tired, you can use the bench made out of an old wagon wheel and parts of the wagon.


So if you're ever wandering around Texas, stop by Fredericksburg and get to know the town. Not too far down the road is Dripping Springs, where Willy Nelson tends to hang out. I don't think he's moved to Colorado quite yet.



Thanks for dropping by!


Partying Here:
Monday Social



Thursday, September 22, 2016

Featured At Amaze Me Monday





Just taking a moment here to thank Cindi, from the blog Dwellings - The Heart Of The Home, for featuring my recent post on her Amaze Me Monday link party here.
I was so happy to learn that she and others enjoyed reading about the old family things I treasure. If you missed it, I wrote about those treasures in my post here.




Thanks for dropping by!






Saturday, September 17, 2016

White Whites Versus Yellowish




Fall is the best time for decorating at our house because all the colors in the house have a decidedly "yellowish" cast to them. Have I mentioned I dislike yellowish?
I dream of painting this vintage cabinet something other than yellow. When I asked what color recently, some said leave it as is while others agreed it needed a change. 

To give you an idea of the whole yellowish thing, here's a picture of the kitchen taken when we were thinking of buying the house. By the way, that unfinished cement floor was terrible to walk on!
The wall and upper cabinet colors are pretty much right. The island color looks a little pink in the picture for some reason, which is not how they are in real life. Here's a close up of the island in this picture.
After we bought the house, we added wood flooring to cover up those ugly brown, unfinished, cement floors. The builder reduced the price of the house by $30K because he wanted to sell it as-is, without finishing the floors. Looking back, I wouldn't buy a house that way again. 
Adding dramatic colors around the yellowish cabinets seem to help tone down the yellow. I've dreamed of having the cabinets painted white, but we're planning to sell the house this year so that's out.

While ruminating about painting the vintage cabinet, I noticed Katie over at Let's Add Sprinkles just painted her kitchen cabinets white...not once...but twice. 

The first white color came out too yellowish for her. It made me happy to see someone take on their yellowy cabinets and win! If you're planning on painting your cabinets take a look at her post HERE.
Let's Add Sprinkles

Katie is a busy woman. She's organizing and hosting the Fall In Love With Texas blog tour coming up in early October, along with painting all her cabinets and stuff. I love a woman who gets things done. Meanwhile, I'm back to ruminating on that yellow.


Thanks for dropping by!






Thursday, September 15, 2016

Fall In Love With Texas



Down here in Texas...We Are A Fixin' To Have A Party!




Hope you will join us starting October 3rd.

Here At Rivercrest Cottage, the pumpkins and scarecrow will be coming out of storage. Here's some pictures from the last few years. The little orange striped pumpkins from 2013 were my favorite. I haven't found any in recent years, but I keep looking for them.

Even the top of the cabinets don't get spared around here. I usually like to start at the top and work my way down.
 It always drives Wild Bill crazy when I start climbing up to the top of the ladder. In true Texan fashion, he politely comes and stands below to hold the ladder for me. I think he'll make sure our next house has cabinets up to the ceiling so there's no room to add decorations at the top.


Thanks for dropping by!