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Monday, June 28, 2010

Antique Poverty



The biggest antique weekend of the year is July 4th in these parts. My husband and I decided to get a head start and see what the shops had stocked this weekend. I think I spent the grocery money, there was just too much that was too good to pass up. Here are a few things I didn't have to fuss with, great just as they are.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Rediscovering Milk Paint




I bought some milk paint, always wanted to give it a try, should have done so long ago, I love it! It looks just awful on the first coat, but a little stain, a little varnish and perfect antique looking paint. Of course, blue is my favorite, but the black turned out nice too. I wish I had taken a before picture of everything, especially the blueberry crock, it was an ugly chipped up brown thing, now completely gorgeous. I got so many projects done, I will definitely have ebay fatigue by the end of this week. Now I just have to worry about the self appointed antique police who email-yell (you know those all caps notes) at me about painting antiques. Hey, they used to be ugly, now they are not!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

More Americana




I'm filling up the shop with the old red white and blue this week, I just love the things I found!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Unloading The Truck


I am slowly but surely getting all my buys from last week listed on ebay. I spent a day in northern Missouri driving for days to get to all the antique stores. I made it all the way to Weston, a beautiful antebellum little town and it was so hot and humid, I felt like I was way farther south than I was!

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Do the dishes, do the mopping, they always keep her hopping...





I just got back from a week in Clarinda for the Glenn Miller Festival, first 2 days spent cleaning house for our Japanese guests. The house is my dream house, but a big giant pain to keep clean, especially when we haven't been there for so long. As you can see, we have 2 dining rooms, just because the parlor room is kind of a walk through and I have this huge family for family dinners, it is just easier to have the extra table there. I love how the living room turned out, the Victorian fireplace tile is black and yellow, and I thought "I really don't want a Hawkeye room", but the yellow walls and black toile curtains did the trick. The entry way is great, the house was built by a furniture maker, preacher and occasional undertaker. Every room has different wood work, entry and dining room is oak, parlor cherry, living room walnut. The house had been delegated to being the town haunted house and was slated for demolition when the Berendts bought it and completely re-did the upstairs before they succumbed to exhaustion and sold it to us. We finished the work on the downstairs, all new walls, wiring, plumbing, flooring, stripping woodwork, and no contractors, just our own calloused hands. Let me tell you, you haven't lived until you have to wash dishes in the bathtub until the kitchen is finished; spent an entire day with a sledge hammer knocking down cracked plaster, only to fall into bed realizing the dust has permeated the bedroom and a cloud of dust billows out of your once clean bed; or been on a ladder stripping woodwork when your steel wool gets too near an outlet, sparks and sends the whole wall up in flames. Ahhh, good times.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

The Fruits of My Labor




Next week is the Glenn Miller Festival in Clarinda Iowa, so this week is fix those antiques like crazy and list them on ebay. I finished some great projects, I must say. I really love the sugar buckets and sand shovels.