Sneak Peeks

There were a few things accomplished this week, and one was getting the martin gourds in the pasture for the martin scouts looking for housing for next spring.

I found the spot for my old painted buckets atop my big brown painted cupboard.

Placed all my antique bowls in my blue painted cupboard in the kitchen with my pastel wooden carnival ducks on top.

Made a reading nook in the living room.

Placed my vintage elk print, which I found at a yard sale in PA many years ago, atop my mustard painted shelf and old apothecary bottles on a wall near the kitchen.

Then there are what I call my "sneak peeks" at projects started that will take time to finish.  This is the door to my potting shed.  I decided to switch to painting that in order to get all the gardening things off the farmhouse porch and in their place before the weather turns.  Lord Roman is guarding the shed!

Inside is a lot of space and shelves already in place, it's just dark and ugly right now, so this will all be painted a glossy white to make it clean and bright.  The floor is concrete and may just be cleaned and left plain.

This is to give you an idea where it is located, at the other end of the breezeway across from the front door to the house.  Roman loves getting his picture taken!

A lot of nice wood, very well-constructed, but tired of so much wood, so white paint it is! Princess Maile is outside this door.

This week I will finish the shelf area and start bringing up all the garden tools and pots and various garden things from the farmhouse porch  and placing them on the shelves.

I finished painting the opposite wall from the shelves so we brought up the potting table from the farmhouse porch.

Another sneak peek.  This is a sample of bark which is very popular in this area of NC.  There is a town called Linville where the houses and other buildings are all clad in this bark.  A book was written about it called Bark House Style by McCurry, and what I plan on doing with it is using it as my backsplash for all my counters in the kitchen.  It will have to be sprayed with a sealer, but the look is very rustic and pretty and very cost efficient, much less than if I tiled.

It goes really well with my countertops.

Another sneak peek is the blackish-brown paint called "Clove Brown" by Benjamin Moore being used in the garden viewing room.  You can see the original gray color to the right of the painted wall, and what a difference it will make when finished.  It is a nice backdrop for my scenic oil paintings.

Last, but not least, is the "curtain" I am making for the window in Bob's shower.  I have at least 50 of these antique globes that once hung on a chandelier, and they will now be hung with fishing line and made into a glass curtain.  They look so pretty when the sun is shining through on them.

So these are just some of my projects right now, there will be many others, all done in bits, but will all come together in the end.  I'm working hard to get a lot accomplished before the fall cool air comes when I want to get out and start hiking some of these mountains!

A Busy Weekend

Blooms down by my mailbox, a nice surprise.

A lot of the week was spent scraping, a little painting.  Hard on the old hands.

I had a gallon of "Fig" left from my other home and thought I could use it on the garden viewing room's ceiling.  Too dark, it will have to be white.

At one time it had water damage, and you can see the bubbles in the paint.  I will tackle this slowly, but it will be pretty when finished.

Thursday I decided enough was enough with the very long and bleached out hair, and I found an Aveda salon in Hendersonville, and my hairdresser had just moved to the area, like me, so we had lots to talk about.  She did a very nice job.  Sorry, don't do photos of myself!

This is Bliss, the inside shot.  Everyone is so friendly in this town.  I liked it more than the salon I went to in Atlanta.

I like it even more because a new coffee shop just opened down the street from Bliss called Appalachian Coffee and it is delicious.

A one-room old brick building they renovated, turned out really cute.

Love the wood slab counter.

Saturday we were going to be a tourist and work hard on Sunday, but that didn't happen.  We did go to Asheville Saturday to the Screen Door, an antiques mall recommended by my friend Linda, and I did find a few things I liked.

What else!!  A charcoal portrait of an entire family, and I think the boys on either end are twins.  Only $28!  I was so tempted, but, no, Jacqui, I did not buy it.

I am looking for a cupboard for the boathouse to store all the supplies and get them off the table.  I really liked this one, and if I decide to buy it, I hope it is still there when I return.  All shelves on the inside.

Bob treated me to a nice lunch at a Caribbean restaurant in Montford, the historic district of Asheville. Mine was so unusual, cheese pasta with bananas, apples, grilled pineapple, currants and pumpkin spices.

We walked some of the streets and looked at the beautiful old homes.  Needed a good walk after that lunch!

Then came the call that Amber, our friend at Chowland, was having trouble with the two new chows just pulled from a shelter trying to get her cats and they had to go to Atlanta.  So Sunday we went to Charlotte, which is a 90-minute drive from our home, and brought them back to our farmhouse for the night.  They're names are Turnip & Tulip.

They were very good girls and I would have kept them if not for having six already!  Sunday afternoon was a luncheon at our neighbor's house and we had a very nice time, met lots of people, and ate some really good food.  Bob was off to Atlanta this morning at 5:30 am with Tulip & Turnip, and Alisha has already taken them to the vet and they are doing great!  Linda just left, she finally got to see the place, and next week I am going to her house on the lake to see her booth set-up for her Adirondack show, which is always neat to see.  So now I can get back to work, but where to begin????

One Room Finished, A Dozen More To Go!

Remember the ugly, mint green, moldy bathroom before being gutted?  

Lovely drapes to go along with the ugly wallpaper?

And all the rust on the metal casement windows?  Which I must say is my least favorite job and very time-consuming and I have dozens more in the house to do!

Now clean and freshly painted in Oyster and the first room I have completed (except for painting the baseboards).  Finally, something to post!

This is the "spooky" bathroom as my dear friend Jacqui likes to call it.  Since Bob was also not a fan of my antique charcoal portraits, I decided to put them in a room where no one would see them, but me, unless they wanted to.  You either love them or hate them, and I find most people hate them!

The two on the left are a pair of Victorian charcoals done in colors, which is unusual.  The top right is a mourning charcoal of a man and his baby.  The bottom right is actually a photograph that I bought from my friend Linda who lives on the lake and is an antiques dealer.  I am a big fan of faux bois, and the gate in this photo is a beautiful example of that.

The other wall has a charcoal of a boy standing on a beach in his knickers, and two smaller charcoals to the right.  The couple was purchased at a flea market for $3!

Mrs. Flippin, as I like to call her, was my first charcoal about 30 years ago.  Bob and I went to a barn sale in Flippin, GA, and hence the name.  Mr. Flippin is on the other side of the room.  The blue painted magazine rack, originally a plate rack, was purchased from a friend's garage sale and holds my magazines.

Some of the old blue boards came from my friend Dixie, and the others were from old doors I collected on antiques sales. You can see in this photo my unpainted baseboards.  Sorry!

Here is Mr. Flippin on the other wall, has a "beard" thing going on. 

Even though Bob does not like my charcoals, he bought this one for an anniversary gift.  I love the ornate frame that came with it.

My old grain bin has been brought in from the potting shed to be used to store bathroom toiletries since I have no drawers or cabinets in this bathroom.  It also doubles as a work surface.

My smaller charcoals. I just noticed the two women have the same hairdo, and the man has some major facial hair going on.  He looks like a sea captain.

My old wire soap holder for the tub.

A great place to put a votive while taking a bath!

This is my Bradley and Hubbard wrought iron light fixture I have been taking from home to home for the past 30 years.  It always looks good over a clawfoot tub.

My tin duck has a place to rest now.

Outside looking in.  I finally have a place for all the things I have collected over the years, and it's coming together nicely.  Not so spooky after all, huh, Jacqui? I told her Bob's bathroom is scarier, and he doesn't even have the portraits in there!