Around the House

From a small bookshelf I use to display some of my favorite things in my Etsy room.

I love old glass knobs. That snail print was a gift from my mom who got it on Etsy.

 I have to say, I was teased endlessly about the spring in the picture above. I found it on the floor in the garage of an estate sale, scooped it up, yelled "A Spring!!!" and promptly asked how much it cost. The next time I went to an estate sale run by the same people, the man in the garage saw me coming and let me know he had searched high and low, but had not found any springs yet. :-D

Turtles! Gifts from Allie :)

This Turtles tin is full of wonderful antique buttons. I have an amazing button collection that I'll have to share with you one day. I have tins and boxes and jars full of them. I keep my absolute favorites. Last year for Christmas, Allie gave me a box full of amazing old buttons. It was one of the best gifts I have ever gotten.

Fawn Baby- so sweet. Love the colors and illustrations in the book.

My dad got me the pink/purple dice from a consignment shop. I have a jar filled with cool old dice, but these deserved a place on their own. The little turkey cookie cutter was given to me by one of my favorite estate sale owners- Ginger. She is the most wonderful person. I love going to her sales and seeing her. Once we bought so much stuff at her sale that we accidentally took her reading glasses home with all of our loot!

More gifts and purchases that make me so happy. :)

I truly believe you should surround yourself with people and things that you love. It may mean that your home decor is a bit eclectic at times, but as you continue to collect and reorganize, it becomes much more cohesive and really shows who you are.

Hope you enjoyed!
Annie

Fresh Finds

There was a lovely estate sale in the historic district here a few weeks back.  The home was filled with beautiful antiques and art, most of which was already sold since we were unable to be there at the start of things.  But we managed to dig around in the garage and basement and come up with a few delightfully shabby pieces.  Several of these are already in use in Annie's home,  if the sun ever shines here again perhaps some photos will be taken and you can see the results-  it looks great!

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Fresh Finds

Some fresh finds for this blustery day.

Pardon the terrible lighting in these first two pictures- the sun was setting so you can see the shadow of my front porch railing. :) Oh well!

Estate Sale Finds!

I managed to find a pile of numbers at a warehouse sale- they were originally gas station numbers but were used in the warehouse for numbering crates of stuff. They were so dirty, but cleaned up very nicely. I have a zillion of them and plan on dragging them to Junk Bonanza next year!

Lots of rustic stuff at today's sales. I love the industrial look of the stools; they have great bones. The lighting in the next picture is much better as it was taken inside. Still from the same sales- I always find great things buried in people's garages and I'm a sucker for old fixtures. :)

Work Day!

It's a good old fashioned work day around here today. Everyone is headed to our (Annie and Mike's) house to help with painting, raking, hauling leaves, and mulching. Thank goodness I have such a wonderful family that is always willing to help us out.

Here are some pictures of last year's priming and raking festivities. The house was new for us and painted every color you could imagine. Since last year's priming party, we've slowly been painting all our rooms, and working on re-doing bathrooms, building a retaining wall outside, planting things, etc. It's been a busy year!!

I wasn't lying about this house being every color you could imagine. I could show you more pictures that would make an interior designer faint with fright. This was almost two years ago now- when we first bought the house. You can see our front door at the edge of this picture. So, you walked into a crayon yellow hallway and to your left was a lime green dining room- straight ahead, yellow and green hallway/kitchen, and a red, olive, and tan living room. Depending on where you were standing you could see the teal laundry room, pink bathroom, and the office that had over six different paint colors in it including purple, mauve, lavender, and yellow....... I think I just heard an interior designer gag a little.

We'll be working on this beauty of a room today. In case you are wondering, yes, that is silver, textured paint. The second floor rooms were a myriad of colors as well- fire engine red, powder blue, light yellow, aqua, dark blue, and of course the shade of blue in the picture above with silver stripes.

Disclaimer: All carpets have been cleaned since this picture as they were so gross I almost died upon seeing them. Sometimes I wonder why we chose this house when we saw so many beautiful "finished" and CLEAN houses! Sigh. :)

Just a very small portion of our backyard when we first bought the house. We have lots of trees in the front yard too, so raking each year is super fun. Well, that sounded negative. It actually is kind of fun. Plus I love having so many trees!!

Someday I'll have to post pictures of all the changes we've made on this house as it looks a zillion times better (and cleaner!) than this now.

Have a great weekend!

Around the House

More from the shelves of my Etsy room.
Annie

A jar of polished rocks (some of which I did myself!), a bowl of ornaments, and a pretty picture.

Love this old cast iron horse. He sits by my fancy horse but feels no competition.

This is one of my favorite paintings.

Grandma Minna's Apple Dessert

The best recipes in the box are the ones that are full of spots and splatters!

Apple Dessert

Crust
2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 cup butter

Mix together until mixture is crumbly.  Press half into an ungreased 9 x 13 pan and set aside.

FillingPeel, core and slice 6 cups of apples and set aside.
In a large heavy saucepan stir together
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
3 tbls. of cornstarch
Boil until thick, stirring constantly then add
1 tsp. vanilla
and the apples.

Stir until apples are coated and spread over crust.  Top with remaining crumbs and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.  Tastes especially delicious when warm.

I love my apple peeler/corer/slicer.  It took my mom and grandma so much longer to make this dessert without this wonderful tool.

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The only drawback is it splatters.  An old towel on the floor is a great solution.

Perfectly peeled, cored and sliced with the turn of a handle.

Half of the yummy crumbled mix is pressed in the pan as the crust.

Stir and boil as directed until the mix goes from this to the shiny clear one below.

The apples are stirred into the above mix and placed on top of the crust, then covered with the remaining crumbles.

Enjoy!

More Pictures of Decorate!

Decorate! Holiday Market has been so much fun. One more day to get there and shop! Lots of merchandise has been sold so everyone is bringing in new items. It's worth the trip there, trust me! Open today from 10am-5pm. Hope to see you there!

The pictures below are from all different booths- some of Bonnie's creations, things from Viv and Lisa at Farm Girl Art & Antiques (Lisa has an amazing shop in Milwaukee- in the Third Ward, definitely worth checking out!), Cindy's adorable creations, ChiPPy SHaBBy's amazing bird cage, and some of our items as well.

Decorate! Starts Today...

We spent all yesterday setting up our booth at Decorate! Holiday Market. The event is taking place this weekend at Hawthorne Hill Farm and is featuring some amazing sellers. I think this is going to be the best show yet!!

Here are a few pictures of our booth. We are working hard at being a bit more cohesive when we vend, so for today we will have lots of chippy, shabby chic whites with silver accents and hints of color here and there from our ornaments, antique skis, etc.

(Also, we are all kicking ourselves for not taking one "big picture" of our booth before the sale started.... sigh.)

We'll be taking lots more pictures so stay tuned! Hope to see you all there, admission is free and the studio/house, shed, and three story barn will be open from 10am-5pm this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Hawthorne Hill Farm is located near Hwy. 43 and The Ridge Cinema at 16370 West Small Road in New Berlin, Wisconsin.

Here are some pictures of the other vendors at HHF. 

This year ChiPPy SHaBBy! is vending and I literally want everything Jeanine sells. More pictures to come from this booth tomorrow!

 I need to take more pictures of Viv's booth- it's just amazing!!

 Some of Bonnie's wonderful sparkle and glitz!!