BUCKET BRIGADE

Alison at The Polohouse threw out quite the challenge for her monthly party, Favorites on the First, for February.  We were to blog about our favorite container.  As I looked around our house, I was overwhelmed with containers.  Guess we have been  accumulating more than our share of containers over the last 55 years - all vintage or antique.  There are scads of baskets and  totes.  Then there are the tool boxes, tackle boxes, tin document boxes, wooden graduation boxes, metal candy boxes, writing boxes; even two ballot boxes.  There are huge old trunks, children's suitcases, and blanket chests; plus a vintage Coca Cola cooler, a chicken coop, and an egg carrier.  Then I saw all of the old drawers and small drawer units that I use for display and storage.  PLUS, there are the soup tureens, pitchers, bowls, crocks, and apothecary jars.  How can I choose my favorite container?  In the end, I decided to go simple and show you my five wooden buckets.

Here they are marching down our dining room table -- not containing anything at the moment!

They are workhorses, however.  At Christmas, they contained an amaryllis, a poinsettia, and a wonky, Charlie Brown Christmas tree.

They have been known to hold fabric scraps, utensils, fruit, or our loose change.

The little red one below usually holds my clothespins; and the lidded one on the left held my mother's clothespins.

I had to throw in the following picture that was taken 42 years ago of our son when he was three.  He was helping his 'Grammy' (my mother) with the laundry - his job was hanging up the cleaning rags to dry.  See the bucket with the clothespins!

I love the patina on every single one!

In addition to The Polohouse I'll be displaying my bucket brigade at the following parties.  Please check these blogs out and thank them for hosting.

From My Front Porch to Yours for Treasure Hunt Thursday
Have a Cup for Share Your Cup Thursday
Common Ground for Be Inspired Friday
The Charm of Home for Home Sweet Home Friday
Jennifer Rizzo for Fabulously Creative Friday
A Stroll Thru Life for Table Top Tuesday
Knick of Time Interiors for Knick of Time Tuesday
Vintage On a Dime for Welcome Home Wednesday
Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesdays

WICKER INDOORS?

I've been enamored with wicker for years.  Consequently, we have wicker on both our front porch and our screened-in porch.

Lately, however, I've been thinking about a wicker chair for inside.  The search began -- since I really didn't need it, I set my sights high on natural wicker in EXCELLENT condition thinking I would never find one to my liking.  Also, I wanted one with some sort of skirt on all four sides.

A couple of days after Christmas, we were killing time looking through the local antique shops; and I spied it.  Even though the skirt was short, it did go around on all four sides. The price was right, so home it came.  It didn't have a cushion so that was my project for this week.

I chose a black corduroy upholstery fabric from Hobby Lobby with a plaid cording.  I wanted to keep the cushion cost under $10.

I'm pleased -- something a little different for us.  Our house is getting more casual in our old age!

LINKING TO THE FOLLOWING:
Common Ground for Be Inspired Friday
Miss Mustard Seed for Furniture Feature Friday
Funky Junk Interiors for Saturday Nite Special
The Dedicated House for Make It Pretty Monday
Creative Cain Cabin for Budget Decorating Party Tuesday
Cozy Little House for Tweak It Tuesday
Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesdays
The Vintage Farmhouse for Creative Things Thursday
From My Front Porch to Yours for Treasure Hunt Thursday

MORE BEAUTIFUL BROWN TRANSFERWARE

See that big brown transferware platter on the top shelf?  It was a surprise gift from a friend recently.

 It's huge.  It's heavy.  It's old.

 It is beautiful in its simplicity.

What's not to love?

Thanks Maryvonne.  I was surprised and thrilled beyond belief.

I'll be showing off my platter at the following linky parties.  Check them out for more inspiration.

Common Ground for Be Inspired Friday

Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday
The Charm of Home for Home Sweet Home Friday

The Dedicated House for Make It Pretty Monday

Cedar Hill Ranch for Cowgirl Up Tuesday

A Stroll Thru Life for Table Top Tuesday

Primp Junktion for Primp Your Stuff Wednesday

No Minimalist Here for Thursday Open House

The Vintage Farmhouse for Creative Things Thursday

PYROGRAPHY

Pyrography is a craft that involves burning designs into wood or leather with a wood burning tool.  It was popular in the early 1900s to make decorative objects for the home and as an artistic pastime.  The Flemish Art Company produced a pyrography kit that contained various flammable fuels, brushes, carving tools, burning points, and practice boards with a prestamped design.
We have a couple of examples of pyrography that we picked up at yard sales about 20 years ago for a couple of dollars.

This coat rack has a poppy design that was colored with water colors.

It has really pretty copper hooks.

The other piece we found was this handy little table.  It's a great size to move around when a place to put a drink is needed.

It is Moorish in design, but the wood burning pattern is cherries.

It is rather crudely made probably out of basswood.  Pyrography kits often came with premade designs for picture frames, glove and handkerchief boxes, and bookcases.

It's interesting to think about a homemaker 100 years ago doing a craft to beautify her home -- what would she think about the blog world and all of our projects?

As a child I always wanted a wood-burning kit, but my parents wisely never bought me one.  They can be quite dangerous -- I probably would have blown the house up or maimed my fingers.     I'll just enjoy the two vintage pieces that we have.

I'm linking up to the following:
Funky Junk Interiors for Saturday Nite Special
Coastal Charm for Nifty Thrifty Tuesday
Knick of Time for Knick of Time Tuesday
Vintage on a Dime for Welcome Home Wednesday
Have a Daily Cup for Share Your Cup Thursday
Common Ground for Be Inspired Friday

CHECKING OUT CHECKS AND OTHER REVISIONS

The year, 2012, was full of expensive projects around here -- a new roof, new outside paint job, partial fence replacement; then the washing machine, water heater, my sewing machine all decided to wear out and needed replaced.  Plus, my faithful recliner was declared threadbare, and needed reupholstered.  Hopefully, this year will just involve some small things to keep our home updated.  

First, on my list is new bedding and window treatments for the guest bedroom.  I can't decide what I want, so right now I'm checking out how I feel about checks.  It appears everything out there is white, light, and minimal.  Am I the only one craving color, dark, and layering?

Just auditioning at the moment -- so I brought in Bob's 1960's wool jacket and my mother's 1940's beaver cape.  (Told you that we hold onto everything!)

  One 30-minute project I did complete this week was a new pillowcase for my neck pillow on my reupholstered recliner.  I used this piece of menswear cotton flannel check from my stash.   There isn't a before picture - it was too horrible to photograph! This little baby pillow was a shower gift to my mother before I was born.  It has traveled the world with me, and I'm rarely without it.  It makes a great airplane pillow.  Do you think I am attached after all of these years?

 In an effort to update the little things, I also did this 1-hour project this week.  This chandelier provides great ambient light in our living room, but poor thing was stuck in 2003.

It was a bit 'frou-frou' for our now more casual style.  So, I removed the cord cover; cut the beads off the shades; then spray painted the fabric with ordinary flat black paint.

I have more small updates planned around the house, but for now I'm involved in another revision.  If any of you have been involved in publishing, you know that deadlines are usually short -- as in "drop everything else, and do it now" short.  I have one of those deadlines, as I edit a condensed version of one of my books for publication into a booklet form.  I'll be back when I'm done pouring over the book!

I'm joining the following:

Between Naps on the Porch for Metamorphosis Monday

The Dedicated House for Make It Pretty Monday

Cozy Little House for Tweak It Tuesday
Creative Cain Cabin for Budget Decorating Party Tuesday

Vintage on a Dime for Welcome Home Wednesday

Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesdays

No Minimalist Here for Thursday Open House

Common Ground for Be Inspired Friday

AFTER-CHRISTMAS THOUGHTS

The Christmas season is almost over for another year. 

I'm afraid that all of my Christmas decorations and trees are still up, which is unusual for me.  I'm always ready to take them down the day after Christmas, but haven't begun yet.  Hopefully tomorrow I'll begin the chore before they gather any more dust!

Our son is still here visiting, and the grand kids have been in and out; so I'm still in a semi-cooking mode.  I'm anxious to give the kitchen a break - it needs a good scrubbing to dispose of all of the cookie sprinkles and crumbs.

   Our son goes home tomorrow to prepare for another semester of teaching school, but the grand kids will be out of school for another week.  That means a trip to the city for our annual ice skating excursion, plus several more days of in and out of our house to raid the refrigerator and freezer.  That's a good thing as I don't need to eat any more of those cookies!

I do love this time of year when everything slows down for me giving me time to sew, clean, and organize.

Christmas was good; it's all good as I cherish each day that I'm given!

I seem to be blog-brain dead at the moment, so I'm taking the easy way out by reviewing my most viewed posts for 2012.  

#1 -- The acquisition of our industrial cart - a steal at $20.  View the post here.

#2 -- My first experience with making a penny rug, and now I'm hooked on wool applique.  I'm working on a new project, but it's labor intensive; so won't be finished for another month or so.  For the original post, click here.

#3 -- Finishing up a small renewal of our screened-in porch.  Check it out here.

 #4 -- Colorado Farmstyle Christmas - read about it here.

And #5 -- The renovation of this record cabinet - here.

Hopefully, I'll get my blogging mojo back soon, and will have something new for you to view.  

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I just realized I need to do something about my Christmas header -- another project for tomorrow.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

The decorating is done; the shopping is finished and wrapped; and now I'm in cooking mode.  Everything is leading to the reason we celebrate this glorious season - the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

I'm going to take some time off from blogging, so I can fully reflect on this GREATEST GIFT OF ALL!  May you all have a joyous Christmas week.

Below are some images from our collection of  antique Christmas postcards.  Hope you enjoy their sentiments and wonderful artwork.

A TREE OF TRADITION

I debated about posting about our main Christmas tree this year as some of you have already heard its story.  The tree now basically looks the same year after year with just a couple of new ornaments added.  But, after five Christmases of blogging; I decided that the Christmas tree post has become part of the tradition.

This is how the tradition started -- our first tree in our small apartment in 1958.  We were poor newly-wed college students and paid a couple of dollars for the live tree plus we bought one red ball to paint the year on.  Those red puffs were some net I had, and we strung some popcorn as garland.  

This is what the tree has grown into today.

This is our 55th Christmas as a family -- consequently there are now 55 red balls on the tree, each with the year painted on.  Some of the years have run together in our minds, but the years of new babies, new houses, or memorable trips are refreshed memories as we hang the balls on the tree each year. 

It's seems that everything on the tree has a story -- part of the tradition!  This is one of the Barfy twins.  Yes, there are two of these elves -- one for each hand of a sick 2-year-old on a VERY rough airplane ride.  I'll spare you further details; but, the Barfy boys have been frolicking on our Christmas tree for 42 years now.

The popcorn garland has always been the domain of Bob, the kids, and the grand kids.  I'm the seamstress of the family, but I don't sew popcorn!  Some years we save the popcorn from the previous year by storing it in the freezer.  This year was time for all new popcorn.  Even the grand kids are getting too busy, and no one was around to help Bob this year.  He sat for three days stringing popcorn while watching the History channel!!!  
Bless him!!!

There are a lot of Hallmark ornaments on the tree.  Who would have thought when I bought the first of the series on Nostalgic Houses and Shops 28 years ago, that Hallmark would STILL be enticing me to add to the series each year.  So, O.K. Mr. Hall, enough, already -- can we stop the series now, so our complete set of houses and shops will be finished and worth a million dollars?  Then I can stop thinking about (and participating in) the commercialism of Christmas?

There are so many other ornaments with stories on the tree - handmade gifts from talented friends; reminders from trips; and memories from family.  

I must save some of those stories for a Christmas tree post next year.

Are you growing a tree of tradition at your house?

I'm linking to the following:
The Dedicated House for Make It Pretty Monday
Cedar Hill Ranch for Cowgirl Up Tuesday
Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesdays
Have a Daily Cup for Share Your Cup Thursday
Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday

VINTAGE ORNAMENTS AND BOTTLE BRUSH TREES

Like a lot of people, I became interested in vintage Christmas when I inherited ornaments from my parents and grandparents.       Then, I started picking them up at garage sales, etc.  None of them are particularly old or valuable --  the value is in the memories and tradition.

When Christmas comes around, I change out brown transfer ware for some red; and add some of my bottle-brush collection, tree toppers, and ornaments.

I'm partial to the bottle-brush trees that have the little red wooden bases - most of these belonged to my grandmother.

I always look for ornaments with the cardboard hangers, which date them to World War II when metal was scarce.

This tree is decorated with all glass-blown ornaments, some are new that we have purchased when traveling or have been gifts.  But, it also includes some of my parent's Shiny-Brites and some of Bob's family's glass ornaments.

 I'm particularly fond of the yards of tiny glass-beaded roping that was my Mother's.  They are so fragile, I'm surprised they have survived.

Still to come -- our big tree that is full of our family traditions.

 I'm linking to the following:
Have a Daily Cup for Vintage Christmas Decor on 12/13
Thrifty Decor Chick for Christmas Trees
Delightful Order for Delightfully Inspiring Thursday
Common Ground for Vintage Inspiration Friday
Boogie Board Cottage for Masterpiece Monday
Knick of Time for Knick of Time Tuesday
Vintage on a Dime for Welcome Home Wednesday

PINE CONES AND PLAID

I'm finished with the decorating for Christmas.  The trees are up and the pine cones and plaid are in place.

We don't have a fireplace; so, alas, no mantel.  This cupboard that hides away our living room TV is a good substitute.  

  On the sofa table, the dough bowl is filled with pine cones, walnuts, chestnuts, dried pomegranates, and some California acorns.  

In the next post, I'll show you my collections of vintage ornaments, tree toppers, and bottle brush trees -- stay tuned.

I will be linking up to the following blogs.  Please go by to check out all of the inspiration.

The Dedicated House for Make It Pretty Monday

Cozy Little House for Tweak It Tuesday

Fishtail Cottage for Natural Christmas Decor on Tues., 12/11

Vintage on a Dime for Welcome Home Wednesday

Common Ground for Vintage Inspiration Friday
Everyday Home for Better Late Than Never Blog Hop on Wed., 12/12