New Old Furniture

Soon to be painted white!



Right size book case

I always come up with different ideas for the house.  I'm not sure if that is a god thing or not, but it sure is fun.  When we moved into the new house, I thought I did a pretty good job of getting all of our furniture from the Florida house, to fit in the new house.   We have only had to buy a few new pieces.  We have collected a lot more books and old movies than we ever had so I came up with the idea of looking for a bigger book case for the living room and that way we could put the smaller one in Chuck's room.  I didn't want a new tall, modern book case because it was going to be next to the TV armiore. 
    When I was invited to a Tea Party at Lady Melanie's daughter's new house, I had seen where she had painted a large hutch and put it in her sun room.  I loved it!!  I instantly wanted one on our back porch!  I've been looking for an old hutch to paint ever since.  I was hoping I would find both items at the Longest Yard Sale.  I did find a really old hutch, but Chuck would have had to do a lot of repair work on it and the guy wanted way too much money for it.  I just knew I would find at least a book case and was hoping for a hutch at the Estate Sale we went to a week ago, but only found books and mayonnaise jars.  I was really disappointed but decided to check out our local favorite junk place.  I had seen the perfect little hutch in there about three months ago but the price was not what I was willing to pay.  That little hutch stuck in my mind and that was what I was looking for in all the places we looked.  We stopped at the junk store on the way home from Walmart the other day and I took off to the back room where they have furniture.  There is was !  The little hutch that I wanted!  On sale!!  I even got Mike to come down some more on the price.  It was going home with us! We were in the explorer so Chuck said he would run home and get the truck, for me to stay there.   Well, I'm not sure if that was a mistake in Chuck's eyes...ha!  I was left there to look through the whole store twice.  I found it!  The book case. It was perfect!  I even got Mike to come down in the price of that too.  It got loaded into the truck also.  Now, I can stop looking for both pieces.  I can't say I'm through looking for furniture because I will always come up with new ideas, like replacing the four wrought iron chairs to the table on the back porch, but that will be awhile.  Now, all I have to do is paint the perfect little hutch, "white".

Summer Puzzle

For some reason, when I think of summer, I think of putting a puzzle together.  Don't ask me where I came up with that idea, I don't know.  All I know is, it's a good thing we only do it in the summer or you would never see the top of our coffee table.  It's something different to do when the TV is on.   I always look for puzzles at the Thrift store.  You usually only pay $1 for them.  Of course there is a good chance of them missing pieces and this one was missing FIVE out of it's 1000 pieces.  It was still more than $1 worth of fun.  This one was a little hard and it took us one and a half months to finish.  As soon as I put the last piece in ( that we had) place, I grabbed the camera, took the picture and then put the puzzle back in it's box.  It's in the bag to go to the Thrift store.  I'll be looking for our next summer puzzle, all winter long. 

Wild Flowers

Believe it or not, zinnias were in the wild flower mix that Chuck planted this Spring.  I'm so glad they were because the zinnia seeds that I planted ended up being little tiny things.  They are cute but not what I consider being used for a summer bouquet.  Zinnias and Marigolds always remind me of summer.  I have both of them in my kitchen right now.  I will be ready for Fall to come but I will miss the good parts of summer.....the flowers, the fire flies, the hummingbirds and all of the summer fruits. 

Other People's Stuff

Big Ass Glass bowl!!



Glass bowl with tacky flowers



Plate Glass platter



Blackberry Purse



Old movies

We didn't come home with a whole lot from the longest yard sale, but what we did get was kinda neat.  Since Chuck has hooked up all our old TVs that can't be used to watch TV on any more, to VCR players we have been collecting old movies to watch on them.  We have one in the basement, one in the TT and one in the barn.  The one in the barn is set up by my painting area so I can watch my painting tapes that Sandy gave me and we also can put a movie in while we are down there working.  At least the old tapes are cheap.  I usually get them for $1 or less.  Believe it or not, most of them I have never seen before.  Do you remember, I think it was in the late 1970'a or early 1980's where women discovered decoupage and were covering wooden purses with what ever pictures they could find?  Well, I came across a wooden purse covered with pretty blackberries.  Who ever made it, did a wonderful job and I think it will be fun to take to tea parties.  It will be a conversation piece for sure. I already had a compliment on it, just carrying it around when I bought it.  I'm always looking for big glass platters to use as trays around the house.  I was lucky and even found a "blue" one this time. Then there was this "big ass glass bowl" filled with tacky flowers.  It was cheap and I could see how pretty the glass bowl would be without the tacky flowers.  Maybe fill it with pine cones or something for the holidays.  How about filling it with cotton!  Oh my mind keeps wondering.  Any ways, the glass bowl of tacky flowers came home with us too.  Now I just have to figure out some place to store it until I want to use it.    I know another year will roll around and we will be heading out to the "longest yard sale" before we know it.  I'm just glad we live so close to the beginning of it, so we can have fun going. 

DeSoto Falls

People swimming at the dam



Back side of the dam



The DeSoto Falls weren't that impressive but the canyon that they flowed into, was deep!!!  I'm sure in the Spring when all the Falls are flowing good, it would really be a pretty waterfall. When we pulled up and got out of the car at the dam, there were people swimming all around it.  It would be a nice place to spend the day, with picnic tables and even a bath room area. It was a nice way to end our day of jumping in and out of the Explorer all day before heading for home.   

It's Time to Yard Sale!

I can't believe it's been a whole year since we went on the Longest Yard Sale.  Even though everyone wants waaaaaaay too much money for their " stuff", we decided to go again.  It's just fun to see what people are trying to sell for so much money.  Ya never know, there just might be something out there that you just HAVE to have even if you have to pay an arm and a leg for it.  We started in the same place...the beginning but we went farther this time, because it wasn't pouring down rain on us all day.  This time, we made it to within just a couple of miles to Georgia. I can't imagine going all the way to Michigan, yard saling.  Before we headed for home, we drove through DeSoto State Park to see DeSoto Falls. 

So Lucky

I was walking to the mail box the other day and I stopped and just looked down the drive way.  Since we have been here a little over 2 1/2 years, we have come used to the fact that we are so lucky to live on so much land, covered with woods.  Some times, I just stop and realize that not everyone has to walk 1/2 mile round trip to their mail box.  You might run into a few spider webs and know that there is poison ivy under a few of the trees but you might see a few birds in the trees, a chipmunk run from the middle of the drive way and see some kind of wild flower.  Plus, the 1/2 mile walk is good for me.  Brambly Pines feels like home to me now.  I feel like we have been here forever.  I don't ever want to take it all for granted.  I just need to walk to the mail box every day and stop and think about how lucky we are.