Booth set up/Halloween

What a busy day. we worked at the booth again today.Mr. T. had to help me put up the ladder to hold baskets and we put up the old door wooden grids as a sort of ceiling between the door and the wall. Hard to explain.You can see it a bit in the picture of the door at the top
I will get more pictures when I get some more things set up in the coming week.I wall papered the one side of the door with an old song book.It turned out really good.Lots of good comments on it
from customers in the store.







Here are a few of the trick and treaters we had tonight.
What fun.Halloween has always been a fun time.One I enjoyed as a child,
in a small town that was safe to go to any neighbors for candy.It is still that way in the town we live in.
Our children looked forward to it as well.
Have a great new week.j

gardens and brussel sprouts

Finally we got the garden clean off.The Iowa weather has been rain, rain, rain.
We waited to harvest the brussel sprouts until after a frost.A nice crop off 4 plants.Into the freezer they go!
The leaves are falling fast,hopefully we will have a few nice days to rake.It makes so much more work in the spring if we do not get them all picked up in the fall.

I finally got a picture of the small buffet.The redo turned out really well.it is a bit brighter in the pictures than in person.I finished the chalkboard to go on top.Nice old picture frame.
Mr.T cut my boards.i have several more frames to finish for my booth at the antique mall.
The washing machine is rocking with all the table clothes I found to resell.My goodness no one needs 25 table clothes!!There is so much more to go through.Toys and books in the attic.Kitchen utensils in pantry and the baskets oh my goodness.!!
I better get to it.Have a good week.
j

the booth progress

The only day Mr.T could help me move the big pieces for the mall booth was Sunday afternoon.I hated to do that on Sunday but had no choice.The field work is ongoing.
I have decided this is going to be a long process.It is going to take time to go through all the collections acquired over 38 years.
It will be November 1st before I will have the booth open for sales.
I have so many ideas for the peg board wall.
Tomorrow my mom will be helping me mark the linens.She has been in the 2nd hand business for over 40 years.
Check back I will post pictures as we get things more organized.
No doll making for me for a while.
j

Mall booth/Fall color

You know how they say one thing leads to another?
Well it is true for me.I moved the hoosier cupboard to the screened porch. After emptying it there were things I decided I do not need.I thought where to take these things and decided to try a booth in the local Antique and Art mall. After making the decision I thought of so many things I do not need any longer. This is going to be fun.Vintage linens, children's dishes,a doll house,pictures,dishes and glass ware,pottery and so much more.I have enjoyed collecting all of it but now it is time for someone else to enjoy my finds.The picture is the before.I will be posting the after when done.We start moving in tomorrow.Thank goodness they are open on Sunday afternoon. I will need Mr.T's muscle for a couple of hours .

The weather here has not been the best for a speedy harvest.We had hoped to take a drive to see the fall color but we had a freeze and the trees are now a dull brown.I did find one stand of trees that are still a brilliant red/orange.It was over cast again today but if i didn't get the picture soon the leaves will be history.




There is a young man that had surgery for bone cancer on Friday. He is the son of our daughters best friend since high school.I think he is 14.
Things were worse than they first thought.He had bone replaced in his arm and will have a long process of treatments and therapy.Please keep Seth and his family in your thoughts and prayers.
J

What I'm working on Wednesday

I put the buffet on hold for the last few days so I could work on an order for a friend of mine.She saw a witch and scarecrow I made my self several years ago and wanted a pair of her own.I thought Miss Witch and Mr. scarecrow needed to be done for a club meeting my friend is having.I thought it was tonight the 14th .I found out the meeting is next week.Good for me!!! I am ahead just this one time.
This a labor intense pair.Lots of detail.They were fun to do.


I now have the first coat of paint on the buffet.Soon the mess on the dining table will be put away.The week is speeding by already Wed.
Enjoy the rest of your week.
j

What I'm working on

buffett redo/Falling leaves

Last week I stopped into the Carol Ann's 2nd hand store. I love that store.

There sat a sad looking buffet.It was just the right size to replace the hoosier cupboard I had in the dining area.I could see possibilities.It was strudy,all but one door was in decent shape and it will give me the extra storage space I need.Now I could have gone and bought a new buffett but I love a challenge and a good redo.Besides if I find something else another day I don't have much invested.

The hoosier was moved onto the screened in porch. The oak chest that was there got taken back to Carol Ann's along with 2 other things.A childs rocking chair and a booster seat.
Mr. T said I did well!! 3 things gone and only 1 brought home.

This morning I worked on the door. Apoxy sculpt is a 2 part medium.It can be sanded when dry.Just the thing to repair this door.

What a mess moving things like the hoosier cupboard makes. It was full of things I thought I would use again one day. Well the glass snack trays need to find another home.They filled the bottom of the cupboard.I used them years ago for wedding and baby showers and again when I gave birthday tea parties for little girls at the shop.The little girls thought they were very grownup using glass dishes.
I will keep one set (just in case we need to have a tea party).

The hoosier also held vintage keepsakes.The aluminum pitcher and glasses from my childhood,
Remember them?Ours is red.
I used to walk to the Food Giant grocery store to get the weekly aluminum offering.
I remember the cereal/soup bowls most.They had cottage cheese in them.They seemed to make useful containers,back in by gone days, not the throw away plastic of today.Sad I think.

The clown cookie jar. The one I used when the kids were growing up. Still my favorite cookie jar.

I will paint and glaze the buffett the same as I did the kitchen cupboards.We had taken down the plate shelf when we did the remodel of the kitchen dining room area.Because the hoosier was tall we did not put it back.We put it back up last night. Good to have it there again.You can see the kitchen redo process on my webshots pages.http://community.webshots.com/user/nana5111
I will post pictures when I get it finished.

My friend Carol told me she had no leaves in her yard at 7 a.m. Sunday morning but by 10 a.m. the leaves had all fallen off one tree.We had a frost/freeze.There was no wind.The leaves just fell in a circle around the base of the tree. Neat to see.Mother nature is amazing.

Wonderful old home/closet redo.

I didn't take a before shot with the old shelves.Just a picture of the empty walls.
The space was not being used to the full potential I knew it had.
Of course I had to convince Mr. T. that the space needed a redo and that he should do it.
The space is just off the kitchen.Our 2 pantry cupboards are down a few steps in the hall by the family room.It will be so much closer to have the canned goods and the big pots I use often on these new shelves.

A little history of the house.
This house is over 110 years old.We are the 2nd owners.It is a wonderful old house.We have done some major remodels but have for the most part left everything original except for the kitchen.
Why when they built homes back then was the kitchen the smallest room in the house? It is my understanding that Mrs. Draper the original wife, served meals and teas in the house.
The lay out of the house was such that she could go through the swinging door into the dining room and serve a group. She could go though the back bedroom(which she may have used as the 4th serving room), to the music room to serve a 2nd group.She could also go through the basement door in to a small landing and through a small door to the closet under the stairs into the living room to serve the 3rd group who were separated by pocket doors.It is this closet we are redoing.
The layout of the house has not changed with all the remodels we have done.The swinging door is gone but the rest is the same.
We raised our 4 children in this house.Sometimes I think it is time to move.One does accumulate stuff after such a long time.Then I think after almost 38 years I really don't think I would be happy any place else.

Craft shows

It has been many years since I have done a craft show.My sis and niece do 3 big shows a year.Adventureland in Des Moines is the first.They also do the Ankeny and Nevada shows.Be sure to stop by and see their booth.
I did a few things for the show, the light bulbs were fun.




Gourds would have worked but I didn't have any egg gourds.



I did a couple of chalk boards.Finding just the right old frames takes a bit of time but they turn out fun.This one is sold.

Most of the past week was a rainy dreary week.As the farmers try to harvest the crops Mother nature seems to have other plans.
Mr. T farms and thinks this will be a long harvest season.For 37 years I have prayed for a safe and bountiful harvest.I pray again for the same.