Easter Egg Hunt

We hosted our annual Easter Egg Hunt this past Sunday. Eight of the grands came and brought along their parents. We shared a feast and lots of yakking. Then, some of the crew hid eggs and the younger grands hunted them. For the first time, I just sat in the rocker and watched. I didn't snap a ton of photos or point out overlooked plastic eggs. I just sat and enjoyed watching. 

I always love how they all are chomping at the bit to get off the porch and scoop up the brightly colored eggs that are scattered all over the yard. They run right past some to get to others. It was a wonderful afternoon that I think everybody enjoyed. The Mister had the grass manicured and everything outside waved with springiness. 

We always start off the big hunt with a photo on the front porch steps. This year, I posed with the grands instead of standing at the foot of the steps and snapping the photo. 

Some of the adults meander across the yard pointing out overlooked eggs and peeking into baskets. Other adults sit or stand on the porch and look out over the festivities. Tradition sort of requires that when somebody finds a golden egg they shout it out and hold it up in the air. Golden eggs have special prizes of money inside. The colorful eggs have candy, tiny puzzles, stuffed toys, tiny rubber duckies, compasses, dominoes, and such inside. 

After the eggs are harvested from under shrubs, beside fence posts, between the roots of trees, and nestled into the grass, everybody sits down and empties the treasures out of the plastic eggs and into their baskets, buckets, or bags. The empty eggs are stored away for use next year and the treasures are counted and examined. Then, the swapping and bargaining begins.

The photo above shows an intense swapping and bargaining session in progress. I wonder who walked away with the best end of the negotiation...

Today I noticed...The promise of a violet's blooms makes me happy.

This is a violet baby. I separated it from the parent that came in a dish garden that was sent to my Granny's funeral. There were other plants in the basket with it and after a while they needed their own space. The parent violet had beautiful pink blooms - one of my Granny's favorite colors. So, I always refer to it as my Granny violet. 

I separated the baby from the parent a couple of years ago and neither plant has bloomed since. I left the parent plant in front of the same window in our bedroom where the photo above was made. The baby plant came downstairs and is set on the front of my desk. I've watered it religiously and monitored it's growth. Each time I see it and the parent plant, I think of my Granny.

My Granny was a woman with a green thumb. She could grow most anything and her plants generally thrived. When I was a young woman, Granny had loads of African violet plants. She even set up a grow space with fluorescent lights in the basement of their home at one time. She had all sorts with different leaf shapes and bloom colors and styles. Some were frilly and looked like they had ruffled leaves. Some were pale pink, some were lavender, some were so dark purple that they were almost black. I loved seeing all the different kinds. She would tell visitors all about the different plants and often would gift them with one. I remember keeping some in the windows of our basement apartment when I was wrapping up my Bachelor's degree from The University of Tennessee. 

Granny died twelve years ago during the month of April and I still miss her twinkling blue eyes, smiles, and southern drawl. So, when I came downstairs today and sat down to do a little work, I was excited to notice that this violet has pushed up several buds that will bloom soon. That makes me so happy! 

Just 3 Things | #24

Spring has sprung and I guess I am springing a bit as well. I've stuffed eggs with candies and treasures for the Easter Egg Hunt, and mapped out our Easter feast, and ordered groceries and, have recipes tagged with sticky notes. I plan to mark my list tonight as I plan what I will stir up and when I will stir it. Then, I'll dive into preparation tomorrow by making some cookies and go from there. We've had a busy week here. The Mister has spent quite a bit of time at his Cemetery Managerial duties. He is anticipating that people will visit the burial sites of their loved ones so having everything look nice there is paramount for him. He's also cut our grass ad manicured things around our house as well in prep for the children and grandchildren coming to our annual family egg hunt and feast. 

- What I've Been Reading -

One of the projects I worked on this past week had not satisfied me completely. I don't like to think of myself as a perfectionist but for some things, I'm pretty picky about how I want my work to turn out. This stool is one of those things that has me dissatisfied.

Oh, I'm pleased with how nicely the fabric covered it and how it looks with the chair and most all the things about it. However, there is one little part that irks me a bit.

Where the leg screws into the solid wooden bottom, the fabric is sort of pushed out and down the leg. So, the raw edge of the fabric underneath the stool looks a bit shaggy around the legs. 

It is readily visible when you zoom in and look where I've added the red circular shape. I know that most people will never notice this. I do, though. I look at this every day. So, I'm pondering a solution. 

Should I put a skirt on the stool? That would hide the shaggy edges next to the legs and would camouflage that the legs/feet on the stool are simple and the ball and claw feet on the chair are more ornate as well. 

Should I add a trim all around the bottom of the stool where it would not be seen? Should I just add trim at the top where the legs are screwed into the bottom of the stool? I'm pondering...and I am looking through decorator books to see what others have done to trim out footstools. So, this week I've been reading and searching through three of the James Farmer books that I keep on our den ottoman. 

 

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I've enjoyed reading different parts of each book and examining each photo. They provide such inspiration for creating a beautiful home but they also inspire me to want to share my home more with others. Plus, I just see such practical and truly southern things in each of them and it makes me appreciate how blessed we are to have the beautiful home where we live. Shouldn't most of the things we read make us feel grateful and bring peace?

- What I've Been Loving -

I've been loving the fact that my time is my own this week. Retirement is worth all the days of rising early and rushing off to work. I strongly encourage everybody to retire as soon as you possibly can! 

On Monday, I got a call at about 11:45 in the morning. The Mister's cousin had sent me a message a few minutes before and I didn't respond, so she gave me a call. A friend's father had passed and she wondered if we knew about it. We did not. She apologized for not contacting us sooner but let me know that the visitation with family was from eleven till one and the funeral was scheduled for one o'clock. The good news was that the services were to be held at a church about two miles from our house. So, I jumped into some more presentable clothes, combed my hair, added a bit of mascara and dashed out the door. I arrived in time to stand in a line that was snaking out the door of the church and down the sidewalk. Yet, I still had the opportunity to acknowledge our respects to our friends. I also had the opportunity to see some folks that I had not seen in years and years and give them a brief hug. If I was still obligated to a school or school system, I would have missed out on that opportunity and had regrets. 

I also scheduled a last-minute doctor appointment this week and glided in to get a diagnosis and treatment the next day just before noon. Again, since I had no rigid schedule, I could rearrange my days suddenly and without inconvenience to myself or anybody else. 

I have been thinking of purchasing a new sewing machine. So, one day this week, I just jumped in the truck and went to a sewing machine shop that is an hour drive from our house. Once again, operating with abandon and no obligation to anybody allowed me to do something I wanted to do and spend as much time as I wanted looking, asking questions, and learning about different sewing machines.

Maybe for the first time in my life I am feeling like my time is my own and I can do what I would like at any moment of it - or not do anything at all - and I can tell you that I am truly loving that!

- What I've Been Working On -

Despite the fact that I have been jaunting off willy-nilly this week, I have spent quite a bit of time working in my office. I've been pulling furniture away from the wall for cleaning. I have been clearing out and throwing things we don't need or things that are outdated away. I have been organizing so many things in there. Each little corner and every little space seems to better serve its purpose. 

I've been making a list of projects that I need to take on and adding notes about how I will best accomplish those tasks. I've also really enjoyed all the spring-like progress that I can see out those double windows of the office. I don't really have many photos to share because I have been focused on progress and getting things done. 

I relocated the file cabinet and the printer to make it more within reach when I am working at my computer. I never thought I would print much at all when I embraced digital technology and my job as an instructional technology coach and then digital designer required almost no printing. However, the rest of the world still seems to like a hard copy. So, in my volunteer post as the Cemetery Association Secretary, I am tasked with printing certificates of ownership and letters. I scan, save, and print old cemetery documents and send them out to folks. Therefore, I use the printer/scanner every now and again and having it right within reach of my desk is nice. 

Hopefully, I will have some more photos to share soon but right now there is still quite a bit of organizing going on and that is sort of the messy in-between. I am still working on getting things streamlined as well as making the room look presentable. So, sometime soon I may have a bit of a reveal.

I hope today is truly a good Friday for you and all your loved ones and I hope you enjoy the weekend and feel the renewal that only this time of year can provide. Thanks for stopping by and come to visit again soon!

Projects - I Tackled Another One

I guess this might be another Domino Effect situation. 

When my Granny passed, she stipulated that her stuff could be given away but not sold. So, as my Mama and Aunt Mary went through Granny's estate, they took some furniture and various items home with them and gave some to relatives. One of the things I was given is a wingback chair. It is super-comfy and in its day was a really fancy chair I guess.

When I got the chair, it was already a bit faded and somewhat dated. The flamestich print in beige, light blue, and a pinky mauve had fit perfectly in Granny's house back in the late 1980s. It didn't clash with anything in our house, it just looked a little dated. I didn't care so much, though. I was just glad to get a comfy chair that had been my Granny's. I scooted it into our primary bedroom and it became a great place to read, watch the seasons change through the bay window, or just sit and relax.

In the twelve years that it has anchored the corner of our primary bedroom, it has been well-loved. I noticed a year or so ago that the piping had become threadbare and the cording was even peeking through in spots on the arm rests. So, when I located a good upholsterer during the Sofa Shuffle  and the domino effect of the ottoman update, I had a yen to also have this chair recovered as well. When the upholstery guy had the sofa, I began to think about what might look good as a new fabric for my Granny chair. I thought about using the remaining checked fabric from where I covered our dining chairs and I know it would have looked good dressed in that fabric. I even went digging through my fabric stash to get the checked fabric out and drape across the chair. That is when I found a piece of linen upholstery fabric that I had picked up years ago at Sirs Fabrics, a wonderful store that sold remnants and flat folds of fabrics at a discounted price. (The store burned in 2018 but was a regional staple for over fifty years.) I think I paid $1-2 per yard for the five-and-a-half yard piece of material. I saved it all these years not knowing what I would do with it but knowing that I love the print and the colors. 

I searched a fabric chart to see how much my Granny chair might need to have a new cover and saw that it would probably require seven yards. After thinking about it for a day or two, I decided that I would look online and see if I could be lucky enough to find a couple more yards. Soon, I was deep in online fabric store inventories searching. Finally, I took a photo and used Google Lens to search. Bingo! Several options popped up. The first one I saw offered a yard of the "vintage paisley" for a cost of $100. I kept scrolling. Finally, I found a two-yard piece for $40 and I quickly added it to my cart. The fabric arrived on the same day that the upholstery guy said the sofa could be picked up. So, I asked him if I could bring the chair and leave it with him. The Mister helped me load it up and off I dashed.

After a while, I got a message from the upholstery guy telling me that he needed another yard of fabric for the bottom of the chair cushion. So, I quickly went to Google Lens and searched again. I found a couple of yards that were listed at $20 per yard. So, I bought them, paid about the same amount to have it shipped to me and took the fabric to the upholstery guy. After a while, I got a message that the chair was ready for me to pick up. 

I trekked across town and picked up my Granny chair and when I got home, our grandson, Levi, helped me scoot it off the truck and into the primary bedroom. Again, the domino effect began...

A photo of my Granny chair made by the upholsterer at his shop

Another photo made by the upholsterer

I love the look of the chair from all angles. The fabric is really beautiful and the design has so much to look at and admire. Plus, the upholsterer did a wonderful job of centering and matching the pattern where it would enhance the chair. I sort of wish I had a place that I could just set it out in the middle of a room so that all the angles can be admired!

My Granny chair 'installed' in her space here at our home.

If you give a gal a newly upholstered chair, she's going to want to cover the stool beside it...

I looked at the scraps of fabric that the upholstery guy gave me and there was not a piece large enough for the footstool. Again, I searched the net for more fabric, found a reasonably priced yard, and ordered it. That piece of fabric came this past week. So, the next day I took it downstairs and pressed the creases and wrinkles away.

Then, I brought it upstairs and began to undress the footstool. The first step is to remove the staples holding the tired, dingy, sad fabric onto the stool. 

I like to use a screwdriver to pry the staples up out of the wood and pull them out with a pair of pliers. It is a bit tedious because there are a lot of staples and I didn't want to damage the wood bottom of the stool.

Once I had all the fabric removed, I laid the fabric out flat, right side down, onto the surface of our kitchen island. Then, I carefully laid the stool upside down onto the fabric lining it up to center it on the design. This is where the photo making stopped because I needed both hands to pull the fabric up around the stool and staple it to the bottom. At the corners, I folded the fabric much like the cover that was still on the foam was done. Then, I trimmed off the excess fabric. I wound up screwing three of the legs off of the stool to get a good close trim of the fabric. 

Now, my Granny chair has a mate that matches her beauty. I've used this stool with the chair for years. It was thrifted and had been a project fourteen years ago! So, to finally have the pair matched up, I feel is really an accomplishment. That corner of the primary bedroom is not only a comfy place to read, gaze out the bay window, or relax, it is also a bit of a jewel with the update. 

I could not be more pleased with the outcome and I think my Granny would like it as well.

The Domino Effect

Why is it that once we make a change in a room, other changes need to take place as well?

Around here we have experienced that sort of domino effect when it comes to furnishings. First, we had The Summer of Chairs where I was on the lookout and replaced almost all of our dining chairs. 

The chairs we had before - nice, serviceable, but not very comfortable.

Some of the new-to-us chairs that are sturdy and comfy.

The season changed but The Chair Project - Continued. Since there was two sets of chairs and they were similar but just enough different, Plus, the cane-backed chairs had two different seat covers and the urn-backed chair seats made there be three different seat covers. I needed there to be some cohesiveness and I guess I needed to put my stamp on the new purchase.

I had long admired chairs with a buffalo checked seat that I saw in blog posts and decorator books. So, I ordered some buffalo checked fabric in a neutral color. Then, spent a little time and a bit of muscle to cover them all.

I still smile when I walk through the house and see all of our new-to-us dining chairs. They are exactly what I have wanted for eons and the checked seats give them that finished, consistent, planned, southern look. I have them scattered all throughout the house and they look wonderful in every single room.

The next domino effect occurred when I picked up our new-to-us sofa from our family friend's estate. It looked a bit dated and didn't really fit in with our other furniture. So, this time, I contacted an upholsterer and had the sofa recovered. 

When I brought it home, we had the Sofa Shuffle.  I knew that new upholstery would really made it look refreshed and fit so much better with our other furniture. Well...except having that bold buffalo check on the sofa sort of conflicted with the ottoman that we use as a coffee table. Plus, the ottoman was sort of looking sad after eighteen years of use. So... the domino effect again.

Eighteen-year-old faded, thread-bare ottoman

I first thought about just making a slipcover for it. I ordered what I thought might be something similar to the striped fabric and the Mister let me know that he didn't think it would be appropriate. I stumbled across a grain sack type fabric and even began measuring and figuring out how I would stitch up the slipcover. Then, one day I was looking through some decorator books that I have here and noticed a different sort of fabric that I thought might let us keep the animal print but be somewhat more subtle and not fight with the checks on the sofa. I began searching online for fabric and found just what I thought would work. So, when I went to pick up the sofa, I dropped off the ottoman and fabric.

The cheetah print is almost exactly the same colors as the checked sofa. Yet, the print is such that it is still somewhat a neutral. Animal print - check. Neutral - check. Enhances the new-to-us sofa - check.

To me it is always surprising how a more modern fabric on an antique piece of furniture makes it look fresh and updated. All of this may have come as a result of the domino effect but every single bit of these updates, changes, and additions were fairly inexpensive. The fabrics for all of these pieces of furniture (chairs, sofa, and ottoman), the cost of upholstery work on the sofa and ottoman, and the cost of the thrifted chairs still totaled less than an new sofa or a new set of chairs. 

All of these pieces are quality pieces of furniture that are sturdy, well-made, and fairly classic styles. So, I think they will hold up well to our wear and tear and last us for many years to come. Sometimes it is like that children's book, If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, and becomes a circular tale where one thing leads to another thing and you wind up right bac where you started. This time, though, I think the domino effect we have implemented will be something that leads to a longtime and lasting part of our household.

Today I noticed...Wise words seem to come to us just when we need them most.

I tend to gather what I call wise words. Sometimes this might be a pithy little statement. Sometimes it is a meaningful or inspirational quote. Sometimes it is just an observation that rings so true.

Since I have been tackling some projects that I've procrastinated about getting into, I am struggling at times, lately. Often, my project doesn't seem to turn out precisely like I have envisioned. Sometimes I call it a fail and move on to something different. Sometimes I give it another try. Sometimes I add a simple update or revision. Of course all of this takes time. 

I don't consider myself a patient person at all. Oh, as a teacher, I was often told that I am so patient but that was a different mindset for a different situation. At the least, I'm rarely patient with myself. So, when  I was in the midst of a project, the wise words framed above happened to pop up in front of me online somehow. 

The statement is one I often would tell teachers when I worked with them. Yet, somehow it is one that is more difficult to apply to self. I hope you are patient with others and especially patient with yourself. All things tend to work out better when one is focusing on progress and not perfection I have noticed.

Projects - Updating Frames

As I am 'reclaiming' the basement, I am working through the trial and error method on most things, I guess. During the past sixteen years, our basement has been a space where we used it primarily for storage. Then, we put some work into it and got it fully furnished and it was a space for us to use in an emergency (like when the upstairs cooling unit quit working in the heat of summer). Mike's daughter, Laura, and her family called it home for about six months. It was guest quarters when his cousin, Jeff, lived here for a while. It was home for his mother for about eight years. Furniture has been moved in and out to accommodate each of those dwellers and for us to have it as a finished space. 

The present work-in-progress is the basement bedroom. Last week I decided to spend a little time updating the artwork above the twin beds. My favorite inspiration photos featured botanical leaf prints as part of the decor. The one with two blue beds and green pillows, linked to its source, has leaf print artwork on the wall above the bed. The James Farmer look with the patchwork quilt and red gingham pillow has a botanical stitched onto a pillow. 

     

I found some pretty oak leaf prints online and, since our farm is called Twin Oaks, I thought they would be perfect. I have been admiring pretty bamboo frames and decided this was where I would splurge and put a touch of bamboo on these 11" x 14" prints. I thought the bamboo would sort of tie in with the mirror that I had done a DIY on previously. I am thrilled with how they turned out. The frames are sort of fancy looking to me. So, I think it gives some of that high/low feel that is needed in every room.

They look really nice above the beds but I just thought they looked a little lost on that big long wall. Since the basement bedroom is not a space that we use on a regular basis, I am determined not to spend a fortune on it. So, I decided to add a couple more leaf prints to add some substance. Sticking with the nature and botanicals theme, I ordered some inexpensive, unframed fern leaf, prints online. 

I have a stash of frames left from when I took down a family portrait gallery wall in our upstairs hallway. At that time, all the frames were black. I didn't think black frames would go well with the gold bamboo frames on the oak leaf prints. I had seen bloggers showing off their DIY skills with Rub 'n Buff for years. So, I decided to give it a whirl. I pulled out a couple of pairs of frames that are simple. They all came from the thrift store. One of the frames is shown below in a 'before' state.

I watched a few YouTube tutorials and it was suggested to wear gloves and use a soft cloth to smear the Rub 'n Buff onto the surface. So, I gloved up and went to work. I was amazed at how good they looked. I had a couple of different shades of Rub 'n Buff and tried a bit of each. I wound up using the one called Gold Leaf for these frames. True to the suggestions, a little bit of the product goes a long way.

I wound up rubbing a bit of the gold off to give it a sort of motley look because I liked that antiqued look better than a shiny solid gold look. I applied the look to four frames and let them set to dry for an hour or so. Then, it was time to frame my leaf prints that I had ordered online. That was when I hit a snag. I had not noticed but one of my frames had a bow in one side. I broke two pieces of glass, stuck a sliver into my finger, and had tiny shards drop all over my ironing board. There may have been some colorful words uttered as well.

Look closely at the right side of the portrait frame shown above and you can see that it sort of bows or curves in. Thankfully, I had another pair of frames and I quickly rubbed them with the Rub 'n Buff. They were both dry by the time I had framed the first two prints and hung them on the wall. So, I could finish up with the two newly rubbed frames by adding glass and the prints and hang them as well. The two frame styles are slightly different but they look alright together since they are the same color, I think. The print shown below shows the style of one of the pairs of frames. The image below that shows the other style of frames. Again, similar but not exactly the same in any way besides color.

Another thing I learned is that if you should get Rub 'n Buff on the floor, a magic eraser and a little elbow grease will get most of the gold off the floor. Don't ask me how I know... 

I think the three framed botanicals hanging together presents a much better look than the single print and I love how they all work together. The only cost for framing the inexpensive prints beyond the broken glass and a smear of blood from my finger was the Rub 'n Buff and I still have an almost full tube of it left to use on other projects. This was just the touch I think was needed.

Like the oak leaf prints, these fern prints are just enough different to make the wall interesting but similar enough to make it cohesive. The fern prints were a set of four 8" x 10" that I purchased via Amazon but I noticed they are currently unavailable. This set is similar, though. I'm please with how the project turned out.

I have a few other projects planned for this room. I have fabric to make curtains and cover pillows. There are a couple of chairs in the room and I will want to update them a bit if I decide they should stay. I'd like to camouflage the switch box that is in the corner beyond the beds somehow, too. I have ideas for what to do with the wall opposite this one as well but just haven't landed on exactly what will work best there, yet. Maybe I will move a bookcase into the room to be along that wall. Again, it is a work-in-progress but I sort of like the progress I'm making thus far.