Hand-Me-Downs

A while back, middle daughter Jaysa said she was looking for a new dresser for the baby's room.

I offered up a vintage dresser I have been hauling around for a life time. 

Jaysa wanted a dresser that would double as a changing table. Yep, this one would! It had a nice large top. I just needed to paint it.

Wild Bill and I hauled it up to Illinois with us just before the baby was born. We used Swiss Coffee (with a satin finish) in Behr's paint and primer from Home Depot.

Jaysa and I looked for "baby-type" knobs everywhere. Nothing worked. But, once the final coat was done and we put the old knobs back on, Jaysa decided they were perfect.

The knobs are from Hobby Lobby. I bought a whole bunch of them a couple of years ago, for a couple of dollars each, when they were 50% off.

We decided to paint the inside of all three drawers a raspberry color. The only color we found that qualified as raspberry was a little too much on the red side. We put it on anyway. But if anyone out there knows a sweet raspberry paint color, please let me know!

Jaysa loved the dresser and wondered how old it was and how long I'd had it?

I truly don't remember when I bought it second hand, but it was already vintage back then. It even has the original wheels on the bottom of the legs.

I just remember that back in 1993 it was in my "single mom" bedroom holding my very large boom box, which was a 6-CD changer -cassette tape player -- and radio combined!

Yeah, go ahead and laugh. I know you want to.

...Anyway, back in the late 80's, the hot color of that time was forest green. 

Being a savvy DIY stylist back then, I painted all my used furniture in my bedroom forest green. I think I painted all my mis-matched dining chairs forest green too. WOW. Imagine!

So the dresser was forest green until I re-painted it in 2011 with Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint in Old White. And then apparently I started to paint it a yellow color instead. 

Well there it sat, part-way painted and holding painting supplies, until Jaysa mentioned needing a baby dresser.

Here's the before: 

I'm so glad it has a new life with a purpose.

I'm so glad it's not forest green any more.

And, I'm so glad I still have my early 90's boom box.

Come join the party over at French Country Cottage.

http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com

Favorite Lamp

One of my favorite blogs, The Polohouse blog, does a "favorites on the first" post each month. This month the feature is on lamps.

I immediately thought of the bird lamp I love that has been put up in a closet every since I got it.

Why the closet? It has no shade.

Four and a half years ago, I stalked it at my favorite shop down in Salado TX when we lived close by.

The price was "high-dollar" as Wild Bill would say. Too much for me.

Then it went into the clearance section of the shop because another customer ruined its shade!

Well, I thought it would be easy to find a shade similar to the oddly shaped one it had, which was kind of rectangular.

That was 4 years ago! It has been in the closet ever since.

This morning I decided to show it anyway, so I brought it out and moved the lamp below so I could put the bird lamp in its place on the side table.

The more I looked at the other lamp's shade, the more I wondered...hmmm?

Might the shade fit my bird lamp?

Yay! It did!

So...thanks to The Polohouse blog and her favorites on the first party, I'm finally able to use my bird lamp!

Here's a link to her blog party. If you have a thing for lamps, you should join up too...or at least come look.

http://thepolohouse.blogspot.com

The Ties That Bind

It's funny how fast a baby can grow on you. Even with her "Danny Devito" hairline on top, Olivia quickly won over everyone who came to visit.

 

She is a hard baby to burp, but for some reason I developed a super burping ability with her.

 

So everyone handed her to me to burp. Thinking back, maybe they just duped me into doing the hard part!

 

As you can tell in this picture...I didn't mind at all.

Home And Garden Show

 

We really love the Home and Garden shows that start up in February each year. How about you? Do you attend them?

 

Last month, we went to one near Dallas on a Friday afternoon. We spent hours just talking to the vendors and looking at displays.

 

There were several landscapers with booths that had some interesting displays. My favorite was this rustic looking planter with rock border. The middle was a fountain, but apparently due to my fascination with the rock, I cut the fountain out of the three pictures I took.

 

 

This was a temporary display. That's why it's set up in a parking lot. I think this type of rocked-in flower bed would look great with a tree in the center, or the rocks and flowers could line a planting bed. Either way, it got my vote for best at the show.

Number 5

Our newest grand baby was born on 3/7/13... all my lucky numbers! 

Olivia Lula (Livvie Loo)

She's number 5 here with us (and one little angel waiting in Heaven).

Our Nest

Our 4-year-old granddaughter Lily is all into pink and sparkles. On a trip to Hobby Lobby last week, I found a few things to put together a fairy-type nest that reminded me of her.

My mother-in-law rode shotgun and we left the guys at home. We were on a mission.

Here's a few things I found at Hobby Lobby to build a nest.

The sparkly colorful eggs tied with a shimmery pink ribbon reminded me so much of Lily. I decided to use the bag the eggs came in under the nesting material. This meant I didn't need as much of the nesting material, and I would be able to find the bag when I was putting Easter decor away! Yeah...I'm a little forgetful. I even tied the ribbon to the top of the cloche to pretty it up.

The bag of eggs was originally around $5.60, but the Easter decor was 40% off. The bag of nesting material was $2.47, but was 50% off in the floral department. I only used about half the bag.

All the rest of the items I had on hand...I used two birds, an artificial nest, a tarnished silver tray, and a small glass cloche.

I got a kick out of the pictures when I noticed the "Our Nest" pillow on the couch was right behind the Easter egg/nest vignette.

Here's pictures of the pillow up close. This is a new favorite I bought at a home and garden shop in McKenney TX last month.

Only one week from today our fifth grandbaby, a second girl, will be born!  Hope the Easter Bunny brings you such a special delivery.

You'll find me at the following party:

http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com

Changing Title Of Blog

You'll note I've changed the name of my blog to:

 At Rivercrest Cottage

Why?

As The Other Me Is Sane, the blog gets a lot of hits from mental health links.

I thought if I changed the name to reflect my home and DIY projects, I might attract people with interests more similar to mine. Not that I don't like to do crazy things and share a good time. Just don't want to disappoint.

Starbucks Knockoff

Like all of you, I love the experience of Starbucks. I've never had a cup of coffee (don't feel sorry for me, I don't even like the smell), but I do like their hot chocolate. 

Starbucks no longer gives you a nice cup unless you ask. Why pay the price they charge just to get a drink in a paper cup? And, frankly, the last couple of drinks I bought weren't that good. Too watery.

I decided to make our own Starbucks. I bought two of their mugs and got out my electric kettle.

The electric kettle sits on a heating pad and shuts off automatically when it reaches boiling. The English lady at a tea shop I used to go to highly recommended it. She said to raise it up high and pour so that it aerates the water.

I used Swiss Miss no-sugar-added mix, Nesquik syrup (the only one I've found that doesn't contain high fructose corn syrup) and a can of whip.

Why use no-sugar-added? Because I was going to drizzle chocolate syrup on and wanted to reduce un-needed sugar.

There are many homemade recipes for cocoa mix in blog land. I'm sure it would be cheaper still if I had used one of those, but this was quicker.

Starbucks here charges about $4 for a grande hot chocolate. A cup of homemade comes in under $1.50 a cup.  Plus, I got to use a real cup. I don't mind washing dishes.

I Can't Wait Any Longer

I've stewed on this for a week, waiting to give you a chance to view "it" if you're one of those few people who can resist sitting glued to your seat on Sunday night.

And now I just have to say that Downton Abbey's third season ending sucked! Sucked big time. How could they???

The Rest Of The Kitchen

After I got through putting numbers on everything in the kitchen the other day, I added some things I bought when I was in Canton Texas.

I swear I just get the counters cleared off and everything jumps right back on them! Does that ever happen to you?

Here's the rest of the kitchen all junked up.

I bought this plate rack at Laurieanna's in Canton.

You're probably familiar with her great blog and lovely home. I'll put a link down below.

Wild Bill and I finally brought the old industrial center island in from the garage.

Half our household stuff has been out there since we cleared out the great room for the installation of the wood floors.

We have too much time on our hands to get anything done! You'll understand that once you retire.

It's hard to get a good picture of the kitchen since it's in the middle of the house, without any direct sunlight.

I'd turn the flash on, but you know what problems that brings...

I'm loving this plate rack. It evens has room on top for my spices.

They say spices should be kept in a dark place to keep them fresh, but these are about 5 years old and probably long past their expiration date anyway.

You know I don't cook much!



 

 

 

hmmm...where were we?

 

Oh, yeah...LaurieAnna's blog about her home and shop:

 

 

http://laurieannas.blogspot.com



 

Texas Trade Days

The idea of adding numbers to things has been around quite a while, and I love the look!

Last weekend, Wild Bill and I went to Canton Texas for "Trade Days". Trade Days are the Texas version of a big flea market in each town. 

Among other things,  I bought several wooden tags with various numbers. As soon as we got home, I quickly added them to some things in the kitchen.

A few days later Wild Bill asked me if I was "...fixing to sell some things?"

Huh? ...What? ... I wondered: why would he think that since I'd just bought some of it?

Then I looked at the counter again and...ohhhhhh..

I guess he thought I'd moved up from stickers on garage sale items!

I think these would be real easy to make. I just bought a few so I could use them as a pattern.

Thanks for stopping by. I really appreciate your visit. Hope you'll follow me to the blog parties listed below.

http://www.savvysouthernstyle.net
http://nominimalisthere.blogspot.com
http://www.primpjunktion.com
http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com

A Little Snow In Texas

There's a lot of news about the snow storm that is due to hit the East Coast today.

While we don't get those two foot snow banks they do, we do get some snow here at the top of Texas.

Here's our house a few weeks back.

And here's the street we live on.

Not a lot of snow I know, but enough to remind us that the hot summer sun is still some months away.

The newscaster said we may get some more snow early next week...yay!  Hope you are snug and warm wherever you are this chilly weekend.

New Year's Train Ride

Now that I finally figured out how to upload pictures to the blog again, I'm going to catch up on the last month...

I don't know how you spent your New Year's Eve Day, but at our celebration we got a train ride.

Little Ben was the conductor; his parents and I were the passengers. He strictly enforced the rules and wouldn't let anyone off the train while it was moving.

Ben lined up all the throw pillows in the house and gave us each tickets for the ride. We had taken a real train ride just a few days before, so the conductor's job was fresh in his mind.

Ben wore this top hat in revelry that night, but he turned it backwards for his conductor job.

As you can see, Mama -- riding the caboose and 7 months pregnant -- was the first person to nap on the train. Daddy takes the real train to downtown Chicago most days, so he knew how to use his time constructively...

We were able to end the ride when the conductor decided to take a nap, right on the job, by pulling his hat right over his eyes!

Good times, good times.

The Last Stand

It's not getting much hype, but Arnold's new movie -- The Last Stand -- is really a better movie than most that are out these days.

I was expecting the movie to be a run-of-the-mill "over the hill" type movie, but found it to be refreshingly believeable as far as Arnold was concerned. The one negative is that the FBI hopefully is a little smarter than the movie would lead you to believe.

Wild Bill and I both gave it a "buy the ticket" recommendation as opposed to the "wait for the video" one we usually feel about movies.

Can't Post Pictures

I'm not able to post pictures like many of you. Hope this clears up soon.