While I Am Sitting Here....

It ended up being a small ordeal to get full-frontal photos of the house in order to email them to Mel. I wanted to use a camera that was better than mine (supposedly) but the photos came out terrible! We won't even discuss the bare spots where I had pulled out the old landscaping last summer, the 50 mph winds and generally dark day, not to mention the fact that I couldn't back up any further to get a full panorama of the house or I ran the risk of falling down a steep hill and into oncoming traffic.

Regardless, I got what I could, here are some outtakes:

YES my bullet planters are full of fakedy-plant goodness. It looks fine from a distance, only the fed-ex guy comes to the front door so I'm not too worried about anyone thinking I'm tacky. Once spring and summer arrive, I will try my hand at real plants and see what happens.

So... I think we all have those kind of days where you read other people's blogs or sites and their homes look 1000x better than yours. Last week I was bumming out over the fact that my front door isn't orange, I don't have built-in planters anywhere, my kitchen sucks, my couches are all wrong, yellow siding is ugly, I wish I knew how to install pinch-pleat drapes, I will never be as DIY savvy as the girl who owns The Brick House, and holy-crap- I-need-3-matching-sconces-and-where-the-heck-am-I-going-to-find-THREE-matching-sconces....! etc etc etc. There were definately some home-insecurities running rampant around here!

But then I had to take these photos and they reminded me how much I love this house and how we came to own it. How I get butterflies in my stomach like a silly crush every time I drive up the hill towards home and see the the roof pointing out of the trees just a little bit. How there's nothing like the familiar prints of my barkcloth curtains when I walk in after a long day. How it's funny that when I googled about some Hall-Mack pieces, photos of my bathroom were close to the top of the search... how it will soon be summertime and I have a huge set of patio furniture to sandblast and repaint for the ultimate in swanky poolside furnishings... and how I have all these amazing ideas of things to do around here to just make it extra-groovy and how lucky I am to have a literal partner-in-crime who is down for any kind of project or purchase.

& I stopped feeling so inadequate. :)

I Should Be In Bed.......!

What has 2 thumbs and won this months' "Love The House You're In" giveaway at RetroRenovation?

→ THIS GIRL ! ←

 

I am a relatively new reader of RR, but of course it's a daily go-to read. The last thing I expected was to actually win the collage giveaway on the first try. I was so stoked after getting the email, you'd think I won the lottery!

So tomorrow I will be taking full frontal photos of the house for Melissa to work with and I can't wait to see the collage she makes. Not only is she talented, the materials she uses are so interesting. You all know what a ephemera nerd I am, the idea of getting handmade paper art has me giddy. I've never, ever won anything like this before!

Between this, the recent stash of extra house plans I have, and a watercolor style rendering of this house, I should put a wall aside soon solely for framed tributes to it. I love the idea of having such keepsakes.

Anyone on the east coast will know that we are getting severe wind without any signs of stopping. I was going to put the bullet planters out tomorrow for the photos but I don't want any of them to topple over. What also had me panicking today was the idea that it's winter here, all of my grass is brown, the front landscaping is naked or dead, and it's generally just not-very-pretty out there. I wonder if Melissa can collage us some new landscaping? ☺

Other than this, my week has been dreadfully dull. We paid for the few auction wins from Monday but haven't picked them up yet. Unfortunately we did not win the chairs or any of the furniture that we bid on, but I think I won a pink flecked candy dish on hairpin legs, a dachshund print, some candleholders, and a shelf. We shall see. Oh and clearly I was fussing around with my layout again!

[edit] I was tired last night and kept typing "melanie" instead of "melissa". Rest assured the links were proper!

Auction Day

Today was (is! it's still going on... from 10am to 10pm) Auction Day at a local spot. We get there in time for previewing, put in our absentee bids and leave. Since P-I-C starts work at noon everyday, it works out well for us. Tomorrow AM he will call the house to see if he won anything. There was nothing spectacular that we NEEDED, but I'm always about the tables of smalls and checking out dishes, fabric, art, pottery, books etc.

Today was Lamp-a-palooza and even though we don't need any more lamps we did put bids in on a few PAIRS. I guess if they're in matching pairs it's ok to buy. Weird logic.

Here are some snaps that I took, covert spy-style:

we put a bid on this pair of chairs they were comfy and will match the orange sofa.

Thrift Share Monday

For the bellyaching I did about being sick, I did venture out last week, just one day. This is what I found:

 1. NuTone Door Bell Frame, in box. 2. A set of Danish Trays. 3. Syracuse Fanfare saucers (3 !!!)

Not bad for a few hours out.  I'm not sure if I will use the door bell frame, I just grabbed it because my Grandparents' home had a similar one, and it reminded me of them. Our door bell is round and connects to a Broan Nu-Tone Chime that has, literally, 12 different chimes to pick from. Everything from Happy Birthday to Hava Negila. Why mess with perfection right?

What Is That Saying About The Best Laid Plans... ?

What a week! It started with one of my dogs spraining his back and suddenly becoming 70 pounds of immobile (and very sad/confused) pit bull.  His condition was so bad that my partner-in-crime had to postpone his flight for 2 days because the poor dog needed to be carried up and down steps so that he could do his bathroom business. That ended up being rather futile because the steroids that the vet eventually gave him after the anti-inflammatory pills weren't really working caused explosive... mess and stomach issues for the poor dog to the point where we had to lock him up in the kitchen to contain the chaos. P-I-C left for Italy on Wednesday and I promptly came down with a nasty cold that rendered me useless to just about everyone and everything in the house. There went my whole grand plan of house projects!

I couldn't sleep last night so I dug up the architectural plans for the house that we have. There's quite a few of them, and plenty of copies for some reason. I know we have the blueprints as well but I didn't find them. These plans are on huge sheets of paper and have been rolled but then squished under another box. Scanning them just exaggerated all the creases, so I fussed in photoshop a bit to make it look like they're supposed to be kind of ratty. Is anyone crafty enough to know a trick to smoothing out paper? I was thinking of putting a towel over one, and ironing over the towel to see if the paper smoothed out. Some of these are neat in their own way and I would love to frame them.

 

The original plans for the house (not shown) are dated 1959 and are really far-off from the finished product, which is funny. Also the original owner of the house is listed as the designer of it. He was an engineer by trade, and really knew what he wanted in house. A local architecture company drew up the blueprints and plans.

This is the aerial spec of the property, from 1971 when the carport and upper (off-kitchen) deck were constructed.

Things I Collect Pt. 2

L to R: Vintage NOS Napkins, Franciscan Starburst, Syracuse China

I want to pose the question: is one item considered a collection? I have only found one of these Syracuse China plates in "Fanfare". But I want more. I want to collect them, alas I only have the one right now.  They don't come up on ebay very often (or if they do, it's hard to find - not too many people know the pattern name). There were some sets up last night, but I didn't bid... I'd prefer to hunt them down around here & get them as I find them. The Starburst collection isn't a serious one, they're mostly for show in the breakfront.

Also, does anyone else collect other people's photos? I will rummage through boxes of photos and pick them out based on color tint, subject, clothing, or home design. It's kind of creepy but I like to just look at them and imagine the stories of the day they were taken.

This and the photo underneath are from the same roll. 

 

 

 

clearly this person had A+ taste in furnishings. I like to think this roll of photos is from a new house. Everyone is happy and showing off.

So! If anyone comes across any Syracuse Fanfare, keep me in mind! :)

Thrifting Finds Week Ending Feb. 6, 2011

I hate snow! It kept me from getting out to my haunts for the past 10 days. We had snow and ice storms that made driving impossible, so the thrifting finds for this past week were relatively minimal...but I've been living vicariously through you lovely people whose blogs I follow, all of you have had way better weeks than I !