A New Rug: Before and After

Now that we have cork flooring in the family room we needed a rug to make it look homey. I have searched online and looked at rugs in stores but never saw what I wanted.

Today we went to Plymouth, MI to buy a vintage coffee table at a warehouse sale. We wanted it for our flatscreen ROKU television which was a Christmas from our son. Our last century Sauder tv stand was too high, and well, dated and ugly and beat up. I figured a vintage piece would be real wood and cost less money than a fake wood new one.

We liked the table and took it home. We moved out the old tv stand and set up the tv on the new table.

The room still looked barren and empty. I suggested we go to Leon & Lulu's here in town. We looked at their floor displays of living rooms then made our way to their rug corner. Flipping through the rugs we both gasped: there was the perfect rug! It had the colors of the kitchen and the family room, was NOT a floral or a geometric that will later shout "2015" and was all wool. 

It is a tweed with blues, greens, and navy colors. It also comes in a luscious green, light blue, and red tweed from Company. It is hand made in India.

 They bundled it up for us to bring home and try out.

It was PERFECT!

We spent the rest of the afternoon rearranging the room and now it looks homey and pretty.

The view into the kitchen with the coffee table tv stand. The room is on a cement slab and the cable cord was stapled to the baseboard. With all new baseboards I wanted to put the tv near where the cord comes into the room.

I am not finished but the major pieces are in place. We think.

This is what the room looked like several years ago after I inherited the house:

The ancient blue rug, the off white walls, the vertical blinds...and the cast iron chandelier my grandfather Milo made many years ago!

 Grandparent's sofa before reupholsering!

We have to finish all this redecorating and rearranging and clearing out...some year. I am badly behind with my quilting projects, and am even struggling to keep up with NetGalley books!

But our forever home is coming along very nicely!

Kitchen Remodel Update: Putting Things Back

This past week we have been unpacking and arranging things in the kitchen. That also means giving the new dishwasher a work out. And the whole house needed cleaning due to deconstruction and construction dirt and dust migrating everywhere.

Our contractor Jen Czach this week installed the Quartz top on our half wall and finished other little jobs. Next week the glass front cabinet doors and built in organizers will be installed.

We put our tea pot on the cute little shelves.

We picked up this vintage set of canisters at a local antique shop. Spun aluminum is a motif! We have the spun aluminum pendant lights, too.

We have had this stainless steel bread box for many years.

I am trying different things on the shelves that will have the glass doors.

When the project is completed Jen is bringing in a photographer to take photographs! I will have to 'stage' the kitchen!

My Newest Handkerchief Finds

I have added to my collection these past weeks. First a friend notified me of a local garage sale with 4 for a $1 hankys! I bought eight. Then I bought two from an antique mall while vacationing 'up north'. Last of all I brought home three shared by one of the gals in my quilting group.

 The brown floral is a heavy cotton fabric.

 The checked above is linen. The concentric squares below is 8" and cotton.

This "F" initial handkerchief was hand appliqued and hand rolled. She used white thread for the hand rolled edge. The fabric is linen in a dark navy. The white is the background showing under the camera light.

This cotton pink floral one has a hand tatted edge. I find quite a few printed hankys that ladies embellished with tatting. Most common are white cotton or linen with fancy, deep crocheted edges.

This sweet cotton hanky has a hand appliqued, scalloped border.

 A cool graphic linen hanky is likely from the 1960s.

 I bought four sheer nylon hankys. I have below the three printed ones; the dotted Swiss didn't photograph well.

 And this one below is hand painted silk.

 This 1986 hanky came with a paper lady holder.

The summer is still young! Who knows what yard sales, flea markets, and thrift shops await!

Ladies in Hats Go Places: A Guide with Illustrations of What to Do... and What Not to Do

 Late for a show one day in New York, I hurried into a cab, exclaiming, "Could you please take me to the Plaza Hotel as quickly as possible?"

"Lady, with that hat, I'd take you anywhere!" the cabbie grinned. 

In her 1968 book I Haven't a Thing to Wear Judith Keith writes ecstatically about hats making the difference between drab and stunning.

A hat lends an indefinable magnetism that draws people. The lady looks elegant, distinctive, individual, important, regal, chic, well-groomed and very very special.

I love hats! I have always loved hats! In high school I had floppy brimmed hats and straw hats. I had pill box hats to wear to church in junior high. I have a big straw hat and a little brimmed straw hat today for sunny days and a knitted cloche for winter.

I look absolutely horrible in them; always did. Any kind. I have a round face and straight hair and glasses. I don't worry about my hair, or how the hat fits. I don't worry about standing out. All the excuses Keith attacks don't apply to me. I just look lousy in a hat.

Dad and I (in a hat) Easter 1958. 

Perhaps I just never learned the RULES.

So here is Keith's advice on HOW TO CHOOSE A HAT.

Prepare Thyself

• Have your hair set the way it will be when you are wearing the hat. 
• Make sure the design is scaled for your frame, balancing your overall proportions as well as complimenting your face.
• Chose colors that are kind and set a mood.
• DO NOT BUY A HAT until you check it out in a three way mirror.

Meet the Hats

• Small brims and tall-crowned hats look best on little women, lengthening their silhouette.
• Berets and flat crowns add elan to long hair. They shorten a long face, but don't look well on short hair or pulled back dos.
• Soft brims and profile hats look best on women who wear glasses.
• Turbans are for those with perfect features. Stuff it to keep it high and full. (A good place to stash an extra pair of nylons in case you get a snag). A widow's peak looks exceptionally good in a turban.
• Pill boxes and up turned brims are for lovely hairlines and happy faces.
• Round, bubble types and bowlers are best for long and slender faces.
• Chin straps and helmet type hats are for youthful faces and figures.
• Flowered hats seldom look elegant. 
• Big floppy straw hats look beautiful on most women.
• Black hats are best in fur, velvet, and shiny straws. It drains color from the face and is harder to look young wearing one.
• White felt is a basic hat that can be worn year round.
• Rain hats in vinyl or leather can be spiffed up with a tie or link chain.
• Hats sometimes look better worn backwards.

things you can do with a simple sailor type hat

Slip cover a hat with a scarf for a new look.

Women on the run can use a scarf in glamorous ways; don't wear it babushka style.

I guess I never learned about not wearing a babushka.

Me around age six

Me at age 20; I wore the babushka backwards.

When I was a girl we wore hats for church. 

My family at Easter in early 1960s. Grandma in a fur pill box hat.
 I have a floral headband. Mom in a pill box with flowers. And little brother a cute boy's hat. Dad didn't wear hats. Ever.

Mom and Dad's wedding in late 1940s; Mom and Aunt Nancy in fancy hats.

Now when I was a girl we all wanted to be cowboys. Even the girls wanted to be cowboys.

Me about age six at Frontier Land in New York State

My role model, cousin Linda, sporting her cowboy hat. I am in the babushka.

 Here I am around age 14 wearing a knitted hat and trying a hat out on a friend.

Somehow the Northern girl pulled it off but not me.

And yet, after reading this advice perhaps I will still find the elusive hat meant just...for...me...

Kitchen Remodel : Nearly Over!

Just a few things lef to do...glass doors and half wall top, organization pieces.

 We used  blue paint in our hallway last year. It went perfect with our kitchen!

 A few of the roses we cut before the Japanese Beetles ate them.

These lights are so perfect but the arm had to be modified to fit the pendants.

It's hard work fitting things into a new space. But hard work that is exciting.

Some missing doors and top of half wall...but nearly finished!

A Year With the Fairies: The Insect Orchestra

The Insect OrchestraWhen we with our horns and out trombones appear,
All the birds gather round us to see and to hear;
While we're scraping and squeaking an picking the strings,
They applaud us all loudly by flapping their wings.

When the music begins they shout "hip,hip, hurrah,"
As they hear Strauss's waltz that goes "tra la la la,"
And the grasses enchanted are bending and swaying
To the swing of the music our orchestra's playing.

from A Year with the Fairies by Anna M. Scott, 1914

+++++

It is that time of summer when the insects have taken over.

We have been deluged with Japanese Beetles, especially attracted to our new beautiful yellow rose. The buds and flowers of the second flowering have been eaten away. We also found the Japanese Beetles eating our flowering quince and apple trees.

The other evening a giant Stag Beetle was settled on the screen of our patio door. Lightning bugs flit about in the dusk.

It's hard to believe we are halfway through July. The kitchen remodel, and consequent trips to get away, have caused time to fly so quickly.

It's time to stop and listen to the insect orchestra. Apparently they play Strauss.

Kitchen Remodel - Just a Few More Days!!!

This week has been exciting. We have a sink and the dishwasher installed. The back splash tile behind the range is up. The undercounter lighting and one ceiling fixture is up. The pendant lights are giving the electrician problems; they cost a pretty penny but are from China (I didn't know this when I ordered them) and have plastic parts that are already stripped. Tomorrow the hood and range will be put into place, and Saturday painting will be done. It is looking SO GOOD!

Just a little glimpse....waiting now for the big reveal!