Farmhouse Christmas

Between the painting of rooms, listing of items on Etsy, shipping items, and being a good mom I have been trying to get my house decorated for Christmas. This year I am trying to go for a more subtle and rustic look. I was thrilled to find this sled at the thrift store last month, I have been looking for an antique sled for awhile now. I love that it is black, shocking I know:)

The lantern and the cobbler stand were both $1 flea market finds. The little  picture above the sled is a framed pencil drawing of a house that is remarkedly similar to ours, it even has the giant weeping willow out front like we do.

These small antique pearl colored ornmanents are festive but subtle and look pretty in a little shabby bowl. My mom and sister are coming to visit tomorrow so that we can all go shopping at Romantique Boutique in Erie. I have been going on about it so much that they are both dying to go. I can't wait to see what the boutique looks like for Christmas, I always leave there so inspired. Isn't that the best feeling?! 

One Man's Garbage

 Well I brought some pretty exciting things back with me from Brooklyn! On Thanksgiving day I carried the recycling down to the basement of my in-laws apartment building and saw this chandelier in the garbage! Can you believe that?! I was beyond ecstatic!

       Isn't it beautiful?

I finally bought my very own block of french soap at the amazing shop Moon River Chattel in Williamsburg Brooklyn. They have amazing things! I pretty much want everything in the store.

                          And I have begun my Christmas decorating!

                     More to come!

White Cupboard

This is the amazing cupboard that I just got at Romantique Boutique in Erie PA. It is funny because I had been asking my husband to build me a cupboard just like this for our dining room. I didn't think that I would be able to find an old one that would fit in this little corner but turns out I did! This awesome cupboard is a perfect fit and is exactly what I envisioned in this space. I wanted something tall and skinny with doors so that I could put all of my entertaining dishes together. Plus this wall is right off our kitchen so it is easy to grab the dishes should I need them in there.

They all fit in there perfectly along with my linens, my hotel silver and some old crocks. I have been trying to buy furniture with its original white paint (along with the rest of the world I know) because painting an old piece white doesn't ever have the same effect. This wonderful cupboard has its original white paint and has a great "vintage" look. Oh I could go on for hours....I have a cupboard obsession clearly.

I love the look of open shelving, but we have lots of that in our dining room already. I don't like rooms to look too busy so this cupboard helps to balance the room and give it a beautiful simplicity.

Keep It Simple

  I picked up a new piece of ironstone recently along with this new but made to look old "Pumpkins" sign. My son picked the pumpkin on his school fieldtrip to a farm. Sometimes simple is just best!

Ironstone and Tyvek

I am trying to build on my ironstone collection without spending lots of money...and that takes patience. Well it paid off because I recently found two great deals. I bought the bowl shown above at a great price at an antique store in Corry Pa. And the tureen I found at a thrift store for only $7!

I like discolored ironstone pieces better than the pure white ones. Both of these pieces have a wonderful discoloration.

As far as renovations go we are making great progress on the screen porch. We have the Tyvek up and Neal started removing the roof today...hurray!

Don't worry it will not be this ugly for much longer.

Some Things Pretty Others Not So Much

The hot weather is officially here...which means I spend just about all of my day outside (even as I write this post I am outside). Evenings are absolutely beautiful here and I love to set up a pretty spread to take outside and enjoy.

And on the not so beautiful side of things we took out the ugly kitchen windows yesterday!

I can not even begin to tell you how happy that makes me because I have hated those windows from day one of owning this house! There are a lot of things that I am obsessed with making better in our old farm house but I have a "must address soon list" and those were at the top of it! Don't worry they were not original windows, they were ugly 1970's windows that were painted shut. Another must address thing is that screen porch roof you can see in the picture above, but that can't come off until we get the side of the house covered in OSB and house wrap. Neal, my husband, got the new windows in after buying them, returning them and buying them again. Why you ask...because when I opened the box I didn't see any grille/mullion holes. And we bought the kind of windows that the grilles snap onto. I absolutely did not want windows that did not have grilles or mullions on them. I was dissapointed enough that we couldn't afford the special order windows with the muntins actually separating the window panes. So Neal headed back to The Depot to return the windows and buy the ones that do have holes for snap on grilles, just to find out that you can put grilles on the ones we had already bought. See this is how things go for us, we never get through one project without a hitch! But all is well that ends well.  Pics of the new windows to come!

Old windows exterior view

My Parents Beautiful Yard

I wanted to share my parents beautiful yard with you.

It took many many years of them working very hard....

but clearly so worth it!