Thinking Fall

  Even though we are experiencing some of the nicest weather we've had so far this summer, which means it's not raining here, my mind is wandering towards thoughts of Fall.
 

Maybe it's the nice cool evenings we're having or the change in the foliage I'm seeing on my daily walks.
 

Whatever it is I find I'm definitely looking forward to it!
 

I've got a feeling I'm not the only one, so I am going to share some of  Fall pinterest finds with all of you.
 

I mostly have chosen decor that is made with finds from nature or objects you might have around your own home.

google.com

junkgardengirlblogspot.com

 

hoffmanmedia.com

 

heynowwhoanow.com

 

riversrecipereview.blogspot.com

 

Oh my goodness, I have to comment on this one.

Isn't this little girl adorable?

I could just see my little g'daughters in this  Fall toque.

I definitely need more advanced lessons in crochet.

 

 

And lastly my own Thanksgiving tableware.

 

I hope you found something to inspire you  for

FALL!

I know I did....



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

Can You Help Me Identify This?

 

No, I don't need help identifying the flowers.

I just wanted the first photo to be something pretty

for the eyes.

This is the bouquet Tim picked for me on his walk today. I didn't do any rearranging to them at all.

We just found a vase, filled it with water and plopped them in it.

Not bad for random picking!

But the flowers are definitely screaming Fall to me.

Would you agree?

Now, down to business.

This is what I need help with.

When we bought our home we inherited a china cabinet full of old dishes and crystal.

This set is especially pretty.

It has a thistle pattern etched on it, gold trimmed, and has a knobbed stem.

This is the best shot I could get of the pattern.

It was taken looking inside the glass out.

I am hoping someone else may have this pattern of crystal and can tell me the name and the maker.

I have spent hours searching, but have come up empty handed.

I know a lot of you ladies are great collectors of crystal and china!

There are also some odd and end dishes of these three sets.

The bowl is Johnson Bros Tulip Time.

The plate on the left is Somerset Excel and the one on the right is Royal Doulton Greenbrier.

I am going to sell all of these since I have too many dish sets already!

I wish I had something exciting to report, but it is has pretty hum-drum around here.

I'm just enjoying the last of those 'lazy-hazy' days of summer!

Are you already thinking about Fall?

Blessings-Kimberly







I Tried It and It Worked

  Have you ever seen a smart tip or idea on Pinterest and thought, 'that surely can't work'?

Well that is exactly what I thought when I read that you can re-grow romaine lettuce simply by placing the remains of the stalk in water and placing it in a window.

But look, it's working!

I'm especially excited because the lettuce in my garden appears to be stunted from all of the rain and no sunshine for so long.

We did have a reprieve from all the rain last weekend so Tim and I headed to the lake.

This is a bay off of Lake Superior about an hour from our home now.

It does seem a little strange to have to drive to the lake after living on it for so many years!

But I do have to have my fix every now and then.

 

I've still been concentrating my efforts on decluttering.

Excuse me a minute: Mary Wells is singing, 'My Guy' and I can't miss it.

Do you ever watch those Doo Wop shows?

I do occasionally, but what I really got hooked on was, 'Il Volo'.

 I think I've seen those young guys eight times now.

I did draw the line when they came on tonight with a Christmas special.

There is no way I'm listening to Christmas music before the U.S. Thanksgiving!

Would you?

No, it is just way too early.

 

Oh, I really got side-tracked, didn't I?

Must be the hour.

If you'd like more info on how to re-grow your own lettuce I have it pinned under

'A Green Thumb Garden'.

Take a look, it's amazing.

Blessings-Kimberly





 

I Got a Little Side Tracked

  I really had the best of intentions when I started the kitchen project.

I would complete it, then move on to work on the spare bedroom.

However, since I was taking far too long puttering in the kitchen Tim  decided to move on to the spare bedroom ahead of me.

Here is a bad picture of the flooring he laid.

It was 11:30 PM when I took this shot!

Another not so good shot of the floor.

This is the same flooring we'll be using in the kitchen.

 

 I didn't have anything at all to do with the laying of bedroom the floor.

But, of course, when Tim moved the three stuffed full dressers out of the bedroom I thought this would be the perfect time to whittle three dresser down to two dresser.

I'm happy to report I did just that!

I have a box full of size ? clothes that I only dream of ever fitting into again that I'm getting rid of.

I have to be honest, it was hard ladies, so hard.

I felt like getting rid of them was like saying I was giving up-like I had lost hope of ever losing the weight needed to wear my jeans again.







But I'm determined to let go-finally.

Besides, if I do lose the weight then I deserve some new clothes.

 Right?

 





 

 

Meet My Favorite Tool

 

Do you have a favourite tool?

Well, this is mine-the sander.

I use this tool so much that I own four of them.

I should say we, hubby and I own four.

Every time I turn around there is something crying, 'sand me, sand me'.

Look at the old china cabinet I found in the basement and painted.

I loved the turquoise colour, but it was way too bright and way too perfect.





Take a look at it now.

See what a difference a little sanding can make?

It looks like it's been sitting in Grandmother's house getting nicked and worn from  years of use.

Another example is this mirror.

I painted it with craft paint.

Honestly, the beautiful details were lost in the paint.

Now isn't this much better?

You can see the the swirl details and the bevelled edges of the antique frame now.

At the most, this may have taken five minutes-tops.

 

This is a tool I wouldn't want to be without.

I bought this sander on sale for about fifteen bucks.

I can't begin to tell you the hours it has saved me.

I've tried hand sanding, but I just don't have the patience for it.

I want to see results now!

 

I'm no expert on refinishing furniture, but this has worked for me and I wanted to pass it on in the hopes it might help someone else who likes to see QUICK results.







Mosaics Monday

 

Today for the first time I am joining Mosaics Mondays at

 Mary at Little Red House.

and

Make the Scene Mondays

at Alderberry Hills.

The mosaic is a collection of my kitchen re-do.

Creative Cain Cabin Has Moved

I wanted to let you all know that our friend Dawn of

  CREATIVE CAIN CABIN BLOG

has moved to Word Press.

 

In doing this she has found that her blog is not
automatically showing up on her blogger followers Reading List.

So if you are a follower of Dawn's blog and want to continue following her-I know you do!!

Please go to your Dashboard.
Look for Reading List located on your left sidebar.
Do you see Add?
Click on this!
Now here is Dawn's new URL:
http://creativecaincabin.com/
Put this in the box  and then click Follow.

If you have any problem doing this just
click on Dawn's new URL and it should take you right to her new blog and you can ask her for help by leaving a comment there.
If you aren't already a follower, you'll want to be.
So check it out!

If you have a chance watch 39 Steps on PBS
It's so..good!

Snippets

 

My peonies have finally opened up!

I have one small bush in the back yard.

And I have waited, and waited,

and waited and I am now finally blessed

with their blooms!

Now I know you might think I've been lazing, but just to prove you wrong I'm going to show you 

 a few snippets of the kitchen...

 



Do you recognise the patterns in my curtains?

I made them from a vintage sheet that I liked and an old gingham chicken scratch table cloth I had bought in the Yukon last summer.

I could've done more with them, but I was going for  a simple country look.

These are shelf brackets that my Dad made for me many moons ago.

I decided to play with them and put them back to back for decoration over my little windows.

I know he would be happy to know I'm using them again....

Here's some of my wall fodder ladies.

I hope you'll check back soon and see how I plan

to put these pretties to use.

With any luck it won't take me a whole week

to get this project done.

Blessings-Kimberly







Inching Towards the Finish Line

  Yes, I am finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel on this little kitchen project I started!

 

I am hoping this will be the final week and we can be done. You know how it is, you start a project thinking it will take a week or two.

HA!

Here are a few shots of what we've gotten accomplished  so far.



Surprisingly, this home had an old wall phone left behind. Lucky for me Tim had bought me this beauty for Valentine's Day many moons ago.

I had an old shutter I've been carrying around for many years. And also tin leftover from an old back splash.

This might look like an easy project but it took me hours to get this hung. I had to get the phone matched perfectly with the innards of the phone box.

This was the old one. I bet you haven't seen one of these in a while.

For twenty dollars Tim installed this for my counter back splash.

Here it is with just the primer coat on it.

To be honest I am liking this sort of pickled look and I'm thinking of leaving it this way.

After all I can always come back and give it another coat of paint if I decide I don't like it after all.

This is by far my most favourite piece in the kitchen.

It is one of the many item my Dad gifted me with.

After he retired he spent many hours in his woodworking  shop building all of his children, grandchildren and even great grandchildren handmade gifts.

I can't even begin to list all of the items he had made over all of the year!

I love it that I can walk into any room of our house and find something that was made from Dad's own hands.

 

I've really missed visiting all of you!

Hopefully after this week I can make time for blogging again.

BTW, are you getting that cool front where you live?

It was 36F here yesterday morning and 48F yesterday afternoon.

Unbelievable for almost the end of July!

And nothing but rain, rain ,rain.

I'm afraid I'm losing hope for reaping much from my little garden. 

How are your gardens doing?

I bet you're already eating tomatoes while mine are only an inch in diameter as of yet!

Tomorrow is a day of rest so I'm going to pop over and see how you're all doing.

I hope you're getting sunshine....







 





Sneak Preview

 

I wanted to show you a few sneak preview photos of the kitchen.

The cabinets are finished!

 

How do you like the hole design I had  hubby add?

Here is what I'm working on today.

This will take two primer coats and

then two or three top coats.

Whew!

 

Back to work for me....

 

 



 

A Busy Week or Two

 

This last week Tim and I were fortunate enough to have two of our g'children here visiting with us.

Javan is our oldest g'son, belonging to our oldest son Jefferson.

And Starlet is our only daughter Emily's daughter.

We spent most of our time fishing!

These kids are pretty serious fishermen (fisher people).

Lake Manitouwadge is where we did most of our fishing.

Pretty, huh?

We had moved to a site under a bridge where the water was flowing from the big lake to a smaller one.

It wasn't good fishing, but I thought it was a good place for a photo shoot.

 

I got this photo of Javan and had Starlet on her way to sitting beside him when the wind picked up two of our lawn chairs and blew them into the lake!

Forget the picture!

 I jumped into the lake to get one of the chairs that was in the shallow water.

Then I ran over to a tree and tried to tear a limb off of  it so I could use it as a hook for the chair that was caught on some rocks in deeper water.

I would've swam to get it, but it was where the water was rushing from the larger lake into the smaller lake.

I wanted the chair, but I didn't want it that badly!

Anyway, my hero showed up just in time to rip (wink) that limb right off of the tree and waded into the water far enough to drag the chair back in.

Oh, I forgot to tell you where he was all this time.

He had been packing the first of our other things up the hill back to the car.

Well, after all of that hub-bub I didn't get a photo of Starlet

sitting on the rocks with Javan.

But here's one of my wind blown Princess.

She really is a sweetheart of a girl.

 

They left this morning with Tim's sister, Kym, who was kind enough to bring them up with her when she came to get his mother.

Now we are both so exhausted we are going to just 'chill'.

This is a word we picked up from Javan for our R&R time.

It works for me!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I Have To Do It....

 

I will drop by when I can, but probably won't be posting for a while.

Hopefully I'll get some of my projects done and will have something to share when I return.

One can only hope.....

Take Care and Be Blessed

Kimberly