Gray And Pink At Pottery Barn

All Pottery Barn stores seem to have their own "in-store" display designers. 

It's my experience each Pottery Barn seems a whole lot different from the other ones because of this, even though they carry the same merchandise.

Dining Display At Pottery Barn, On Knox St, Dallas TX

My favorite Pottery Barn store is just a little north of downtown Dallas on Knox Street, just west of Highway 75.

The whole area is lovely and old with well-kept, tree-lined streets and beautiful homes built before World War II. 

This store's entry opens into the dining area section of the store, and it was love at first sight for me and their dusty-gray-and-pale-pink dining room display here!

They also had a front room display set up next to the dining room display, which carried on the pinks and dusty grays.

I was in the area to buy a long planned for couch at a Weir's Furniture store across the street, but I never miss an opportunity to stroll through this Pottery Barn store and soak in the lovely displays. 

I once took a vow to never ever again use the term "Pops Of___" but I'm breaking my vow here because there's no other way to say it except the pops of dark pink in just a few areas really made the displays come to life!

It's still Low-Spend January for me, so I didn't buy anything here. 

But I will say I longed for, lusted after, and (hang my head in shame) even "felt up" every soft throw and pillow in the place!

How about you? Do you like the dusty grays and pale wood that seems to be coming out this year? 

I saw a pretty bed painted in a medium dusty gray that actually made me want to go home and paint something gray instead of my usual white.

Hope you'll join me at the Amaze Me Monday Party over at Dwellings, The Heart Of Your Home.

Thanks for dropping by!

Painting The Kitchen Wall Section

Our kitchen cabinets have a distressed finish that was done by the builder 7 years ago. 

Paint Finish Appears More Yellow Over Time

I'm a big fan of the distressed look on furniture and cabinets, but over the years our cabinets have yellowed with some sections worst than others.

To take away the yellowish hue, I decided to start with a small section of wall below these glass cabinets. 

This wall section was originally painted with the same finish as the cabinets and is one of the yellowest parts of the kitchen. 

With the under-counter lights turned on, the wall finish looked really ugly yellow next to the brown granite countertop.

Several Shades of White For Comparison

I've planned for over a year to add some bead-board and corbels to the wall area like shown in this picture from a 2016 issue of Cottage magazine...

Plan: Add Wood Like This 2016 Issue Cottage Magazine

2016 Issue Is The Best Ever Of Cottage Magazine!

I chose the creamier white shade from my samples and painted two coats on the wall section. I used a bright-white bread box to show the creamier white on the wall compared to a really true white color.

Photo Filtered To Show How The Cabinets Would Look With Less Yellow

I put some white dish items and a black chalkboard next to the wall section to see how the cream color on the wall looked against black and white. 

I didn't really like the creamy white compared to the bright white and black. The creamy white just kind of faded away...

Looking at all the white dishes with the black chalkboard made me realize the gingery brown color of the cabinets looks better contrasted with bright white and black like the dish towel laying on the counter.

I actually bought this dish towel a few years ago to use as an inspiration piece for the kitchen.  

I guess I got lost in my disease called "Paint Decision Trauma" and forgot about my inspiration piece! 

I'm scratching the creamy-white paint color and sticking with the colors in the dish towel as I think this is a better option. Maybe.

Dish Towel Will Be My Inspiration Piece

I'll be painting more samples on the wall section...first some white paint, then some black paint...before adding bead-board.  

I want to know exactly what color I want to paint the bead-board before we put it up as I only want to paint the bead-board once!

Won't you join me at the Keep-In-Touch party at Let's Add Sprinkles, the Feathered Nest Friday party at French Country Cottage and Best of the Weekend at Ms Toody Goo Shoes. 

I sure hope I don't get any more paint color ideas over at these parties.

Thanks for dropping by!

When Harry Met Sabra At The Harvest Table

There's a vision in my head of a true farmhouse table that I've been searching for a long time now. Not everyone's cup of tea I know, but I really love the long, narrow old wooden tables.

In the olden days, they were known as "Harvest" tables. They were very narrow and at least 6 foot, but usually 7 or even 8 foot long.

This Harvest table online, at a company called Chairish, has a lovely patina and is less than 31 inches across, but it's way out of my price range! 

I also like the tables that have legs set further in so the tabletop overhangs the legs. If it doesn't have an overhang, a narrow table makes it hard for someone to sit on the ends.

Chairsh

My grandparents, Harry and Sabra, probably met over a Harvest table in Nebraska when Harry came to work the harvest.

I like to think of Sabra pitching in with the rest of the women to help cook and serve all the extra food while quietly checking out the man who had recently arrived in town. 

In my mind, I see her glancing across a long and narrow Harvest table and spotting short, dark and handsome Harry on the other side. 

Rustik Magazine

Sabra was a spinster daughter of the owner of a large farm. Harry, who had been a drifting cowboy, was a new farmhand in the little town. Harry was dirt poor, but Sabra's father was not. 

It probably didn't matter to Sabra that the new man was short, not tall, because she was only 4 foot 11 inches herself.

Harry And Sabra's Wedding Picture Postcard

On the day Harry and Sabra got married in 1912, I'm sure everyone at the celebration was fed at a Harvest table. 

Feeding large crowds was the purpose of the Harvest table after all! The long narrow tables were used to feed large groups of farmhands and neighbors during the short periods of production when the harvest was brought in on one farm after another.

My dream Harvest table would be no more than 36 inches across and 72 to 78 inches long, with overhang at each end where a chair could sit. While we're dreaming...make it within my price range.

The trouble with most tables I find is that they're either 40 or 42 inches wide. That's too wide for a true Harvest table like the one in my mind.

Thanks for dropping by!

Joining the party:
WOW Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

Truly Is The Last This Winter

I'll bet you can't believe I'm still talking about Christmas! But, yes it's true. 

Rather than a Christmas Post, I like to think of this as a Crafts Post. 

And honestly, if you wait until next December to start thinking about making Christmas decor, it will be too late! I learned that lesson the hard way...many, many times over in fact.

As I said in this post, I plan to make more "Chair Bows" for my counter stools based on the one I bought a few years ago. 

I've been looking at the After-Christmas sales for unusual items to add to the bows, like the bells on the original Chair Bow.

I was able to find sets of bells exactly like that set. These sets of bells were on sale for $1.99 each after Christmas. Originally they were priced around $10 each.

I found this cute candy cane, with rusty bells attached, which is made from red and brown twine and a leaf made of stiffened green burlap. The original price was $6.99, but on sale after Christmas for $1.50 each.

I was thinking it would be easy to make additional candy canes to use on a wreath or such, but if you can buy them for $1.50 that's probably cheaper than making them.

Here's another cutie that I thought would look good hanging on a Chair Bow with some greenery. It's one of those things that can be described as "...so ugly it's cute..." 

I bought it before Christmas for around $7 knowing it might be cheaper after Christmas, but maybe not!

As it turned out, they were all gone when I checked during the After-Christmas sales. I only needed one anyway. I'll use the snowman with a set of the bells and some greenery to make one of the Chair Bows. 

Now that I've gathered up all the Christmas-oriented items I needed at the After-Christmas sales, I'm putting it all away until maybe July when some of the TV channels show Christmas movies for their Christmas in July month. 

Right now I'm more interested in organizing and renovating. I've been doing a little painting around the house that I'll be sharing with you soon. By July I'll be back in the Christmas mood again and making Christmas projects will sound like a lot more fun then.

How about you? Did you get any bargains in the After-Christmas sales or were you totally done with all things Christmas as soon as the new year started? 

Thanks for dropping by!

Joining the party:
Share Your Style at The Essence Of Home

Crafty Home Cottage $25 Amazon Giveaway!

Over at Crafty Home Cottage, Connie has announced a giveaway. 

Yup...a $25 Amazon Gift Certificate Giveaway! 

Connie also makes some pretty cute crafty stuff...just like her blog name implies. So if you don't win the giveaway, you'll at least get some crafty inspiration!

Crafty Home Cottage

Crafty Home Cottage

She's doing the drawing on the 20th, so hurry on over to Crafty Home Cottage soon.

Thanks for dropping by!

Throwback 70's And Love Never Dies

A good many years back, I happened upon a photo of these curtains. I wasn't crazy about them, but there was something about these curtains that was so familiar!

Source Unknown

I  rummage around in my mind a bit, and then I rummaged through an old box of photos. 

OK...I have to admit this. I once had some brown and white bell bottom pants in 1971 very similar to those curtains! 

Do you remember bell bottoms and pinball?

So sorry for the bad photo here!  It's an old black and white instant photo from 1971. I had just returned from Clark AF Base in the Philippines after a year and a half overseas. I couldn't wait to get back and buy some stylish clothes! WooHoo.

That's my mother on the left and my little brother and sister playing pinball. Do you remember pinball? When I was a little kid, I was a pinball wizard along with my cousins and next older brother. 

My cousin Doug and I were fanatics. Later in life, Doug's older brother Dale (nickname: Einstein, one of the first computer professors) wanted to surprise Doug with a refurbished copy of Doug's favorite pinball machine. 

Soon after he secretly ordered the pinball machine, Dale died unexpectedly right after surgery, due to a blood clot. A while after the funeral, Doug got a call out of the blue that someone named Einstein had ordered a refurbished pinball machine for him, and it was ready to be delivered. Love Never Dies!

Notice the cigarette machines to the left of the pinball machines? Anyone could buy cigarettes back then! 

I remember going to the liquor store by myself when I was 8 or 10 and buying Tiparillo Cigars for my father for a "surprise" birthday or Christmas present instead of the usual socks. No one batted an eye back then. 

Geesh, in re-reading this I don't know what was worse...that a child would be completely fine walking into a liquor store alone, or that they would sell a child a pack of "Ciggies" or cigars without a moments hesitation! Trust me, life was much simpler back then.

And, P.S. I've never smoked, but I still love the smell of cigars. Whenever I smell someone smoking a cigar outside, I try to get as close as I can to them without looking like a stalker.

How about you? Have you got any 70's or 80's pictures and stories you're brave enough to share?

Thanks for dropping by!

Joining the party here:
Share Your Cup with Mrs. Olson

Bits Of News And Ideas

Happy Saturday! We're staying in and trying to stay warm since it's down in the teens here in NE Texas today. 

I like to read blogs, especially ones where I can find good tips and ideas. I thought I'd share two of my favorites today:

Recently Katie at Let's Add Sprinkles started hosting a new Tuesday Link Party for bloggers to connect. It's called Keep In Touch and starts at 4 p.m. every Tuesday.

Katie is always up to something, whether it's dyeing her leather purses to trying out a new bed and mattress in her newly refreshed guest room. 


Do you ever wish you had more square footage in your house, but have no plans to move? Drop by Harvest Lane Cottage and try Laura's idea of gaining more square footage in your home...RIGHT HERE. 

Laura has lots of cost saving tips and inspiring ideas to share with you so just hop on over and watch your square footage grow! For a more current post of Laura's you can find it HERE.

Hope you'll have time to visit with Katie and Laura today if you're trying to stay warm too. And thanks so much for joining me here from time to time, I always appreciate your visits and enjoy your comments.

Thanks for dropping by!

Use It Up: No-Spend Low-Spend January

Our family and friends "group" has done well with the No-Spend/Low-Spend January challenge for the first 10 days of January. 

In fact, I'd say we've all gotten pretty good with the "Use It Up" portion of Grandma's favorite quote!

Use it up, Wear it out,

Make it do, Or do without

Five households are participating in our group. We've been creating menus from what we have in our cupboards and freezers, packing lunches, making our own coffee drinks as much as possible and trying to buy only necessities like basic staples and cleaning supplies. 

Eating down the cupboards and freezer this month also provides an additional benefit of reducing the possibility of food items going bad soon and needing to be discarded. 

The first thing I did this month was check the "Use By" dates on all our boxes and canned goods up in the cupboard. Items that have expiration dates within 4 months were put on the lowest shelf to be used first.  

In our house, what we don't eat on that shelf during January will be donated to a local food bank as -- if we don't eat it this month -- we probably won't eat it before it goes bad.

Reducing waste pays off! One of the daughters commented to the group that she had used a package of ground turkey in her freezer that she had been avoiding. 

A while back she bought a couple of packages of ground turkey, cooked one, but found she didn't particularly like ground turkey. 

Because of the challenge to reduce buying during January, she cooked a meal with the ground turkey and used up what probably would have gone bad.

What if you don't like the taste of something? There are alternate ways to use up food if you think about it creatively. 

I think our daughter said she made Lettuce Wraps with her ground turkey. Other ideas to use up ground turkey (or meat that's been in the freezer a while) would be browning it for a soup, or mixing it equally with ground beef, bread crumbs and spices to make meatballs or a meatloaf. There's always some way to use it up!

Source and Recipes

So for us this month, as far as spending goes...so far so good! How about you? Are you avoiding spending this month too?

Thanks for dropping by!

Winter White Mixed With Green And Brown

We finally took down most of the Christmas-related decorations in our house and left our twinkly lights, whites and rustic decor up for a Rustic Winter White look for January. 

The little platter by the sink is Christmas-related, but the dish and hand soaps cover the words so it stays.

I'd planned to pour the Watkins dish soap into the little decanter, but I like the black lettering on the white label and how it matches the hand soap pump dispenser so it stays. 

In the entryway, our snow boots are just waiting for some snow to fall! We need them when we visit the kids in Illinois, but here in NE Texas we only get snow once or twice in the winter.

When we do get snow though, it's really handy to wear them to keep from falling down. I was happy to have them in 2015 when the snow really fell here and then decided to stick around a while.

I wanted to leave the red and white in the entry, but the long plaid pillow was a problem. 

Luckily all I had to do to de-Christmas the entryway was to turn the red plaid "Merry Christmas" pillow around so the words don't show.

 Don't we wish every problem was just that easy?

Thanks for dropping by!

Joining The Party Here:
Share Your Style at The Essence of Home
Keep In Touch  at Let's Add Sprinkles
Talk of the Town at The Interior Frugalista

January 7th...The Neighbor Called

My favorite neighbor called today to ask: Do you know your Christmas lights outside are still on? 

She hasn't been over recently or she would know our house inside is still lighted up like we're expecting Santa any minute too!

Right before she called, I had just told my daughters by text that the other house that still had lights yesterday took theirs down, and so now we are no longer fashionably late, but just look lazy! 

While I think about those lights, I'll show you the other pieces that got painted when the coffee table got another layer of Fusion Paint the other day:

This little reindeer guy is a metal candle holder and was originally a dull gray when I bought it. 

I first painted him with another chalk paint, but gave him a final coat of Fusion Paint in the Casement color I used on the coffee table HERE if you missed it the other day.

In case you thought I was joking about our inside lights, as you can see...the lights are still in full glory over on the Hot Cocoa/Tea bar too! 

I'm loving the reindeer and won't be putting him away with the Christmas stuff!  Instead he's going to hold hearts for Valentine's Day. 

I tried one on him the other day in between painting him and the other things.

Besides the coffee table and the reindeer, I painted two wood pieces and an Ikea Wooden Lazy Susan.

Both the wood pieces hold cloches and are inter-changeable and can be used together.

I'm letting the paint cure a little on these pieces, then in a few days I'll give it a coat of Miss Mustard Seed's Tough Coat, which will give them a little more protection.

By the refrigerator, the Lazy Susan I painted holds a glass drying rack from World Market with our Super fancy pint drinking jars.  

I've lost count of how many things I've painted with my jar of Fusion Paint in Casement. It amazes me how far that jar has gone! And I still have 2/3's of the jar left, so I've got a lot more I can paint with it.


I'm joining Cindy's party at Amaze Me Monday this week. Hope you'll hop over and check out all the links.

Thanks for dropping by!

Note: I do not receive any compensation for using products from Fusion or any other company whose products I like and use.