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Green and Gold Glasses Raised to our Veterans

Green and Gold Glasses Raised to our Veterans

Sometimes I have no idea what to blog about. Okay, that’s not entirely true. I have a list of things I could blog about but I mentally filter those ideas as to what makes it onto the blog and what doesn’t.

That filter has one question.

Would I be interested in reading about this? That’s it. One question.

For instance, today I was going to share about this little Christmas tree that I have set up. But, it’s 61 degrees outside and I’m not feeling it. By the way the average high in Minnesota in November is 41 degrees. Believe me, no one is complaining but it’s not normal. Last year on this date we had 3 inches of snow on the ground.

Wait, where was I going with all of this? Oh yeah, my filter.

Christmas décor didn’t make it thru today’s filter.

So I took advantage of the warm fall day and went on a walk with Nikki. Nikki as in Jimmy and Nikki.

When we returned I had a text from my Mom.

She saw on my Instagram account (OldLakeGeorge) that people have commented on the green glasses that are in this picture.

These were given to me by my Mom. And now that I really look at that picture, so was that duck, the lamp and the card catalog. 🙂  My Mom has great taste.

The day that she gave me the glasses and decanter, I was at my parents house and my Mom asked if there were any dish sets I wanted. She has so many beautiful sets of dishes. The set I wanted is a blue and white set that for me represents the many loud and festive family dinners we shared. BUT, she was not quite ready to give them away. That only makes it more special for me knowing those dishes hold great sentimental value for her.

So as we moved on to other things, I spotted these green and gold glasses and decanter in her glass front kitchen cupboard.

I thought they were pretty but I don’t remember seeing them around our house as we were growing up. Reason for that; my Mom had recently purchased them at a garage sale.

So, the text she sent read, “Hey, I just saw the comments about your gold and green glasses I gave you. Did you look up how much they are worth? I got them at a garage sale for probably $10.”

I read the Instagram comments, which I love getting and someone mentioned that they might be Culver green and gold glasses. So I googled Culver green and gold glasses and yep, that’s what I had.

This is a set of 3 double Old Fashioned and 6 Old Fashioned glasses along with a decanter. The pattern is called Valencia. The gold is 22k and I found prices from $10-$20 per glass up to $250 for the decanter and 6 glasses.

Told you my Mom had great taste!

In honor of Veterans Day and green and gold cocktail glasses, let’s raise our glass to all of the Veterans, men and women that have served and are currently serving our country! Thank you!

See you on Friday,

Wendy

 

Estate Sale Treasures Lead to a DIY

Estate Sale Treasures Lead to a DIY

This will come as a shock to no one.

We went to two Estate Sales this weekend. Two amazing estates south of the metro.

The first house was a downsize from 4000+ square feet to a condo. The second house was….I don’t really know what the second owner was doing except selling a lot of big furniture. 🙂

Wade always heads straight to the garage to find his treasures while I tour the house. For me, the best part of Estate Sale is the house. I love house tours and then while touring, shop.

At the first sale we bought white beach chairs that still had the tags on them from Target. The tags said $21.00 each and we bought two for $16.00.  62% off, not bad.

At the second sale, a black granite topped hickory table had tipped over and chipped the granite top. So the owner removed the granite and sold the hickory table base. There were a bunch of busted granite pieces in the garage and I grabbed this piece for $1.00. This snowman needed something to stand on. 🙂 It’s the little things that make all the difference.

Wade bought a carpet cleaner for $10.00. Booooring. 🙂

Back to me…..In the sitting area, this snowman sits on top of the card catalog which sits beside the mate to the chair I recovered. The Pocahontas slip cover epic fail chair. I decided that the chair in the sitting area needed a stool. But, the stool I wanted to put there needed different fabric.

Plus the fact that I needed to boost my upholstering ego and make something awesome.  😉

First I collected my tools: Scissors, Staples, staples gun, Phillips screwdriver, regular screwdriver and pliers.

Then I flipped over the stool and removed the base from the top.

After this it was a matter of removing the staples from the fabric. I carefully popped up each staple and then pulled them out with the pliers. That left me with the original fabric to use as my pattern for the new fabric. I simply laid the old fabric on top of the new and cut.

Now everything is done in reverse. Replace the fabric, wrapping the edges from top to bottom and place a couple of staples to hold it on.  Make sure the pattern is centered on the front of the stool and then staple on the black upholstery mesh to the back.

Put the base back on and WAHLA!! Moroccan rope fabric cover complete.

Before and After:

Neutral, calm and relaxing.

Have a great Monday, see you Wednesday,

Wendy

Epic or Fail

Epic or Fail

Does anyone else besides me watch “Ellen” every day?

One moment please…

According to Google, an average of 3 million people watch a day.

Okay then, answered that question, a couple more people watch besides me.

The reason I am asking is because one of the games she plays is called, “Epic or Fail”. All of the audience members have paddles with the word Epic on one side and Fail on the other. They then watch videos and vote whether the person is going to crash the four-wheeler into the slimy pond or if the Dad is going to get hit in the you know what after pitching to his child or…you get the picture.

Well hold your paddles up people. Let’s play “Epic or Fail”!

Pretend this is a video. We start with the back story.

Earlier this week I wrote a post titled, House Tour 2015: The Sitting Area and Guest Bedroom.

This little office area and guest bed sit across from each other in the guest bedroom. I love the chair that I sit in to write the blog, but I do not like the fabric color and pattern on the chair for this room.

So I figured, I know how to sew why not make a slip cover? In fact I found this tutorial.

Slipcovers for Dummies.com!!!!! Perfect.

I read the ‘How to” and then made up my own version.  😉

First I cut big rectangles of fabric from my huge drop cloth. I sewed two of the top pieces together and placed them across the top back of the chair. To match the actual shape of the chair I stuck pins thru the fabric and then drew a line of where I was going to sew.

The top fit nice and snug.

I was so proud.

I placed the other rectangle pieces in place to get a vision of where I was going.

Now comes the part that I have yet to master. I know I have the sewing skills to do this but I fail every time when it comes to working around the arms.

Remember this inexpensive Estate Sale chair?

Samantha uses this chair at her desk in her house. Again, I couldn’t figure out the arms, so I cut them off.  🙂

Cutting off the arms are not an option for my desk chair.

I hope you are sitting down when you are reading this next section. No pun intended.

This slipcover goes south, really quick.

For the life of me I cannot figure out how to make this work. Of course I wouldn’t want to re-read the Slipcovers for Dummies, that would be admitting defeat.

After a full day of thinking, sewing and ripping out that sewing, I re-envision this chair as a chair for Pocahontas.

Seriously, Pocahontas.

Here’s why.

I took some rope, upbraided it, used a huge upholstery needle and literally sewed that chair shut. Don’t you think it looks like the deerskin dress that Pocahontas wore? Or maybe it’s Frankenstein’s forehead scar.

I crack myself up!

But from afar I love the look of the chair with the quilt.

Truth be told, it’s actually the bolster pillow on the chair that pulls it all together. I made that pillow cover too. Not a total loss of a sewing day.

I’m going to leave the Pocahontas slipcover on the chair for a while. It gives me a good laugh. 🙂

Alyssa and Liam dropped off more rustic signs for the shop today. I will give you a preview of those tomorrow on Sidenote Saturday. Liam did a great job. You don’t want to miss it!

Have a great weekend,

Wendy

 

 

 

Home Tour 2015: The Sitting Area and Guest Bedroom

Home Tour 2015: The Sitting Area and Guest Bedroom

We had a great Halloween weekend with our neighbors!

As we were both reviewing and sending each other pictures from the weekend, pictures that will never make it onto this blog, 🙂 , I found a photo from our previous house.

I forgot how much I loved the painted staircase!

I removed the carpet from the stairs, added stained oak treads and painted the back of the risers the same color as the kitchen cupboards.

I was so on top of it that day! 🙂

Now we have the “stairway to heaven” in this house and I am really feeling that I need to do the same thing here. I’ll let you know how that progresses.

Looking at these stairs, the wall on the left is the back wall to Wade’s office and the spindles on the right you can see behind the couch.

Those 17 steps lead to a small sitting area.

When we first bought the house, I thought it was a kind of goofy area. I think I have moved chairs around, a bench placed in a couple of different spots and even attempted the minimalist approach to the area. Minimalism made it look like it was waiting for something. The bench and chairs were too much.

I split up my Queen Ann chairs leaving one in this area and the other in the guest bedroom in front of my desk. I then moved in a small antique table and a lamp and topped it off with some fun pieces.

It works really well when guests come to visit, i.e. my parents. My Mom is an early riser and many mornings I have found her sitting in the chair with her morning coffee and reading her local news from her iPad.

I think I will keep the sitting area as a sitting area. 🙂

The guest bedroom is right around the corner from here. You’ve already seen most of the pictures from this bedroom when I posted about the quilt my Mom made for me. Across from the bed is my desk where I work on my blog. Spencer took great shots of the room.

To refresh your memory….

These are the last two rooms for the Home Tour 2015.  Maybe I should make a Home Tour 2015: The first week of October, the second week of October etc. When I was looking at these pictures, I noticed that I have changed a lot of things around.

This girl loves change!

I have dug into my Christmas box and on Wednesday I will show you some things I have set up.

I hope you stop by!

Wendy

 

 

House Tour 2015: The Master Bedroom and Bath

House Tour 2015: The Master Bedroom and Bath

Sometimes I put my foot in my mouth. Shocking, I know. 🙂

It happened again, soon after we moved into our house. The ownership history of this house is that the original owners lived here for about seven years. They then sold the house to the owners that we purchased it from. Those owners lived here for about two years.

Last summer when we were pulling the dock in, we met the original owner. He was a very nice man and is still friends with the neighbors. He kept looking back at the house from the water, so the nice person that I am, asked him if he would like to come inside and look around.

He declined.

I told him how much we loved the house and if I were to design a house, this is the house I would’ve designed….except for one thing.

I didn’t understand why the previous owners had put an ironing board cupboard in the master bedroom on the wall that you would obviously put the head of your bed on. (You’re ahead on me this, aren’t you?)

He looked at me sideways, and very Minnesota nicely, told me that he and his wife had put that cupboard in, not the owners that we purchased from.

Mouth, meet my foot.

But to add insult to injury, he added that in their current home, they had done the same thing. They again had put an ironing board cupboard in the bedroom and they loved it because it was so convenient for his wife to finish the laundry ironing and then put things away.

Okay then.

I just smiled. Minnesota nice smiled and slinked away.

So here is that bedroom.

As you walk into the room, on the wall right behind the wrought iron based nightstand, was where that cupboard was inserted into the wall.

Not my style. So I changed it and moved on. 🙂  Ironing board cupboard removed and brick wallpaper put up to create an accent wall.

The opposite corner of our bedroom at the foot of the bed holds the rocking chair I upholstered and the dresser. And then to the right is the calming view of the lake that greets us every morning.

On the right hand side wall as you walk into the bedroom is the pocket door that leads into a long galley vanity/whirlpool tub/shower/bathroom/walk in closet.

Remember the chandelier we put in the walk in closet?

Me too. It stills makes me feel all Movie Star….with a foot in my mouth. 🙂

Have a safe and Happy Halloween!  Stop by for a Sidenote Saturday between bites of candy.

Wendy