I Am Such a Ferret!

They say that ferrets like to steal things they like and stash them away.  Often, shiney things.

We've had ferrets.  They didn't do this.  The most mischeivious thing done by our ferrets transpired when Gizmo learned to escape not only from his cage but also from the house entirely -- via the dog door.  He would turn up, blssedly, frolicking in the neighborhood a couple of blocks away.  We were lucky to get him back from these adventures.  It didn't end well though.  He decided one day to come home via the back yard.  Our labradors thought he was a great chew toy.  To make it even more tragic, it was Thanksgiving morning.  Poor Gizzy. 

The biggest "ferret" in the house is Tessa.  I used to find the most amazing assortment of things in her room.  I wish I could remember and recount a long list for your entertainment.  I can only remember that the springy egg beater whisk was one of them items.  Tessa will still admit to me periodically, "I ferretted X.  It's in my room."  She is SO CUTE!

I must confess my ferret tendencies as well.  They derive from my being so very, VERY visual.  I like to look at stuff.  I especially like to look at stuff I am brainstorming on, the final product of a project that I am happy with, or when it something new or just something I LIKE. 

I had to laugh at myself this morning when I realized that I had created a little ferret's nest in that spot on the bedroom wall opposite me bed -- that spot that I look at most because bed is where I sit still the longest.

Mark bought the reproduction radio at a garage sale last Saturday for $1.  I found the vintage Waverly fabric for 50 cents.  Not sure what I'm going to do with it (and it make take me YEARS to figure it out) but I just adore it.  I did splurge and went back and sprang for the vintage blouse I fell in love with. 

These new acquisitions were added almost unconsciously to my collection of favorite things:  pink plates, white wire plate rack, vintage bird cage stand, my grandmother's candleabra, my mother's geranium quilt, one of the dried rose wreaths I used to make, and my favorite cream-framed chalkboard -- all on my vintage shoe salesman's rack. 

I realized later that my subconsious ferret must be working on my book because most of these things have the feel of the 1910's which is the time period a big chunk of my book is set in.  (That totally justifies both my purchases and my display of them, right?) 

These things, along with my vintage chair (right):

and my vintage dresser:

allow me to feel, when I'm in my bedroom, like I'm in my book, on the little twelve acre farm with the two white clapboard houses and the honeysuckle vine lining the back fence and my characters around somewhere.  I am pretty in love with my setting and my characters.  I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing for an author but I know I am enjoying it.

There's a lady around town who dresses like she stepped out of the 1930's and a lady on TV whose every belonging and item of clothing is from the 1950's.  I love to put a vintage spin on my clothes.  My favorite fashion inspiration comes from the seasons of Ghost Whisperer where their very talented costume designer made sure there was a vintage feel to all of (the main character) Melinda's clothes.  If you start to hear about some lady in Fayetteville who dresses like the 1910's, it will probably be me!

But don't worry, I won't ever be willing to give up modern conveniences like TV, central heat and air, washing and dishwashing machines, the internet, Facebook, and writing on an oh-so-changeable-and-forgiving word-processing program -- so a complete conversion is unlikely!

My Haven

This is my bedroom.  This is where I go to collapse at the end of the day.  It is also my haven. It's kinda crowded and cluttered but I love it!  Would you like a guided tour?  I got a little carried away and had a lot of fun so this is pretty long.  Sorry!

THE BED

* I found the old windows in the muddy crawl space under I rental house I once owned. 

* The frame in front of the windows had a beautiful bevelled mirror in it once (I don't even remember how or when it got broken).  I found it in the mud also -- in the enclosed front porch in front of an old junk shop I used to haunt in my early 20's.  It's not really painted white - I just washed it with crushed chalk mixed with water because I wanted it to be white but didn't want to paint over the patina.

* The candelabra is one of my favorite things!  I paid 27 cents for it and then sprayed it with free white paint. 

* The headboard underneath the slipcover was my mother's.  The slipcover provided the perfect way to store Mother's headboard while at the same time getting the look I wanted. 

* We bought the brown taffeta bedding with a gift certificate we got for our wedding.  (Thank you Becky!)  We still love it.

* The three old corbells holding up the shelf were an Ebay purchase from back when I did frivolous things like buy off of Ebay. I built the shelf out of scrap lumber that I had laying around.  The girls and I write messages on the underside of the shelf with a Sharpie!  My favorite is "I Like Pie!" -- Oh!  And "I Love You, Mom"!

* The white matlasse pillow sham (in front of the brown shams) was a TJMaxx find.  Every time I look at it I think it's just simply delicious (and I've been looking at it for YEARS!).

THE DRESSER

Somewhere around 1994, I fell in love with a bird's eye maple dresser in a rural Oklahoma antique store.  I never had the $400 to buy it even though it sat in the store for years.  Somewhere around 2004, I found this birds eye maple dresser at a yard sale.  I couldn't get out of the car fast enough!  I paid $75 for it.  Then I didn't have a place for it so it's been in the closet under the stairs storing our mittens and scarves since then. 

I FINALLY got to move it into my bedroom recently!  I love using it as my night stand.  I love getting to look at it every day.  I love the old-fashioned feel it gives my bedroom.  I love that every drawer has a little brass-lined keyhole -- like I really need to lock up my socks and undies! 

I'm still trying to remember if it came with a mirror.  If so, I have some digging in the garage do to!

THE ARMOIRE

This antique Italian cypress armoire is my very favorite piece of all the furniture I own.  It was in the old "maid's bedroom" up the back stairs from the kitchen in my dad's house in Tulsa when he bought the house in 1982.  I think it came with the house because no one wanted to carry it down the narrow, steep back stairs! 

That was the bedroom I stayed in when I visited my father during my high school years.  I used to have long, late-night phone conversations with Mark in that room as I looked at that armoire.  I have always loved it. 

A few years ago, my dad and step-mother remodelled and things got shuffled.  They asked me to go up into the attic and see if there was anything I wanted before they got rid of some things.  I happily climbed up into their wonderful attic with diagonal raw plank floors and the Amityville Horror windows and there was my armoire -- in the "outta here" pile!  We had to carry it down two flights of stairs to get it out of the house and up one flight of stairs to get it to my bedroom but it was totally worth it!   Now I get to look at it every day.

OUR "HIS AND HERS" CHAIRS

The very first time I set foot in this room (in August 1993), I thought that there should be a pair of chairs by the front window.  Alas, the onslaught of babies and pets in the house made it more practical to have my mother's antique day bed there for whatever wandering child, dog, cat, or space-craving husband might need it.  The youngest of my babies is now 10 and I like to keep Mark closer than across the room, so I finally took out the day bed (stay tuned because it's about the be the jumping-off point for a room in the shed in the back yard!) and put in the long-awaited chairs! 

Here's the play-by-play on this photo:

* MY chair is the green one on the right.  It's from the 40's.  It was in our lake cabin (circa 1953) when we bought it.  Like the dresser, I adore the old-fashioned feeling if it.

* Mark's chair is the one on the left.  It came from the Salvation Army.  He loves it... and so does Lily-dog!

* The little wicker table was a freebie.  Again, I love the old-fashioned feel of it.

*Above the window are the silver baby spoons and rattles from my babyhood -- tied into brown frames with pink satin ribbons.

* On the left side of the window are framed copies of my daughters' birth certificates -- embellished with the crowns of flowers they wore at our wedding. 

* The lamp in the far left corner was my grandmother's and then my mother's.  On it is the crown of flowers that Tessa made for me out of roses from our rose garden for Mother's Day last year. 

* On the right side of the window is a framed copy of our wedding invitation and a framed copy of our prom picture along with a framed heart ornament that was tied onto one of our wedding gifts. 

* Above the window is a wonderful wreath made from rolled magazine pages that Emily made for me for Christmas.  I love both magazines and wreaths so it was the perfect gift!
*  All the curtains in the room were $3 each from the Salvation Army.  All the frames were $2-3 or less from similar sources.
* At the foot of the bed is my beloved "barkcloth" duvet.  The fabric is a reproduction of the wonderful "barkcloth" that was popular in the 1940's.  Inside is a down comforter so it's extra warm!  I paid $15 for the duvet cover at a garage sale years ago and still feel like I got a total steal! 

THE SHELVES

The room had this weird little nook from where the front gable of the house stuck out more.  I built shelves into it and corralled all my family photos into one place.  I've been glad for many years that I did this.  It's much better than having them scattered all over the house.  This way, photos of everyone I love are gathered in one special place. 

* These shelves also contain baby books, year books, and favorite books, beloved magazines.

* The top shelf is a shrine to my mother.  It has her baby photo (with her mother), her engagment photos with my dad, her silver pitcher, and the candy dish (with the lid and the red accents) that she always put ribbon candy in at Christmas when I was little.  There's also a glass jar full of vintage lace on that shelf -- but my mother would HATE that because she was definitely NOT lacey!

* On the second shelf from the top are two teddy bears made by Emily.  The white one she made in 2001 at the age of 7 1/2 for her new baby sister, Sara-Grace.  I love that the stitching is on the outside, it lacks legs, and the face is drawn on with marker.  SO CUTE!  The one behind that Emily made for me in 2003 at about the age of 10.  It's fun to see how her sewing skills have evolved.  She made this bear out of things she found in my project room.  By chance, she used some very sentimental items: scrap peach and white stripe oxford fabric from the shower curtain I made for my first California apartment (1988), extra buttons (the eyes) from my favorite maternity outfit (1993), a black velvet button (the nose - circa 1940's) that was my very favorite of all the buttons in my grandmother's button jar that I had played with since childhood (1960's and 70's), and the tie (around the neck) from my mother's wedding dress from her second marriage (1978). 

* The lamp is made from an old porch post that came off of the house my children's great-grandmother lived in (built in the 1910's).  It was the house there grandfather was born in and lived in again during his retirement years until he died in 1999.  Emily and Tessa have memories of riding his donkey around the house with their "Grandpa Donk" leading them.

THE SHOE RACK

Recently, I've managed to put quite a few of my very favorite possessions on the wall opposite my bed.  Because I am VERY visual, what I see from bed is paramount because it's the view I see most. 
* In addition to me beloved armoire, this vista also contains the antique shoe salesman's rack ($125 -- but still worth it because I see them in magazines all the time and still love every one I see!) that I bought in Fayetteville in 1992 -- three years before I even moved here.
* My pink china plates and the wire rack that holds the pink china plates, featured in a previous post "$3.78 Worth of Cheap" have recently moved to this wall so I can look at them!
* I've had my grandmother's candleabra for 20 years.  I just recently became grown-up enough to feel like it suited my decor!
* Also here: a white quilt (TJMaxx $15), a vintage bird cage stand (free), a pink enamel veggie bin from an old pink refrigerator ($2), and a chalkboard with an ornate white frame ($4).

MARK'S SIDE

This is Mark's side of the bed.  It has lots of fun stuff too:

* A vintage table that I've been halfway through mosaicing for the last decade!

* A vintage stained glass window that came from my Tahlequah, Oklahoma days (where I lived from 1993-1995 and where our lake cabin is).  I think I love the "amethyst" glass because amethyst is my birthstone!

* A wonderful dark wicker bench which is actually weather-proof outdoor furniture courtesy of Kmart's Martha Stewart collection (and an end-of-season close-out sale!).

* A showcase box of momentos from our wedding (under the table).

* A silver tray with a photo of Mark's son, Noah, and a photo of me from age 4.

* Mark's $6 dressing stand that he loves to put his suits on.

* Our $6 vintage clock that was featured in a previous post.

* And lots of wedding photos!

OUR MEMORY WALL

And lastly, our memory wall.
* Our room is pink, white, and brown because those were our wedding colors and we still haven't gotten enough of them!
* This wall contains photos of Mark and I from 8th grade through the present.  There are photos from several high school dances and the prom mixed in with wedding photos and wedding gifts and momentos (the silver plate from my aunt and uncle and the photo album with the copper plaque on the front made by my Matron of Honor's talented sister). 
* If you look closely, you can see dried wedding bouquets and boutinieres, the boxes our wedding rings came in, and the sea shell Mark dove down and retrieved from the ocean floor on our honeymoon.
* A bunch of the white matte vases that I collect -- all for just a few dollars (or less) each.
* A couple of silver holders with candles from our wedding.

* A few pieces of pink ceramics because I love them!  Pink reminds me of Mark because he work pink Polo shirts and pink or pink and white striped oxfort shirts in high school!

I can build a shrine, can't I?  But I think that's what a haven should be -- I place where you can surround yourself with the things you love, with favorite memories, with photos and momentos of the people you love, and with lots of things that are about what's REALLY important.

I just remembered -- we are about to paint the walls in this room a dark, chocolate brown!  Maybe I should have waited to photograph it until after the paint job!  Oh well!  At least we now have "before" photos!

The Blue Room

I have had the worst time trying to photograph this room!  All the photos come out too dark.  Maybe I should use a flash on a real camera instead of my iPhone!  Ya think? 

Anyway, here's a preliminary glimpse of it.  Mark says this is now his favorite room.  It's still got a ways to go but it's getting there.  I've already posted pictures of a lot of it but not the main view of the bed -- so here it is! 

Next I'm planning to put a shelf just above this window that goes all the way across the wall.  We'll put lots of cool vintage RED things on it -- probably mainly old toys because we're like that! 

The trundle bed (originally $130 from IKEA) was $29 at the thrift store. The trundle and both mattresses were free.  I splurged $15 on the tan damask coverlet and two matching pillow shams.  All the rest of the bedding was free except for the long, rectangular tan damask pillow which I made out of this pair of pants that I paid 27 cents for.  Clothing is a really good source of cheap or free fabric if you don't need large quantites!

The two red pillow cases were free from Angel Stephanie. Everything else in this photo was free except the brown menswear-ish curtain fabric --  I paid $3 for it and made 4 curtain panels. I'm still waiting for the bed skirt or it's inspiration to find it's way to me!  

I hate both lamps but they're still a work in progress.  The one on the right was an experiment is spray paint!  It was once brass but I sprayed it brown which is much better.  This is also where I learned that you can spray paint lamp shades -- though it would probably look better if I hadn't run out of paint half way through!  I hate that ugly table lamp on the left -- AND the ugly shade -- but they WERE free!  I'm patiently waiting for an idea to recreate them.  I'm also working up courage and inspiration to delve into making some interesting lamp shades.  We'll see!


The square white pillow was made from a white oxford shirt that I found in a dumpster.  Here is a photo essay of it's creation. 

Free white oxford shirt with spot on shoulder.

Measuring to cut (inside out).

Cut.  Ready to sew.

Ugly free pillow about to sacrifice it's stuffing.

Stuffing freed of it's ugly cover and ready for it's new pretty cover!

Of course I don't have a proper photo of the finished product because it just doesn't occur to me that I'll need a close-up shot of a pillow until I write a post about it!  But you've seen oxford shirts and you can kind of see in the photo above that it has the buttons going down the middle and the breast pocket remains as well and it just looks like an oxford shirt pillow  -- like it should!

Beside the trundle bed, on the right, is a vintage radio cabinet (free) that I use for blanket storage (wish I had a better photo of it too!).

All free stuff (including the lamp and radio cabinet everything is sitting on) except the globe ($3).

This room also has the vintage Coke box ($40), the little car-laden shelves (free), and the stack of vintage suitcases (free) that I've shown you before (but I'll include photos for the sake of thoroughness and newcomers)!

All free stuff except the Coke box ($40), the picnic basket ($2), and the Walmart truck (a gift from Mark's son Noah).

Free vanity stool and free lamp (which I hate but it will be transformed at some point!).

All free.  The suitcases provide great storage!

I Confess: I Have Baggage!

But it's ok because it's really wonderful vintage baggage!  As in suitcases!

This is the front bedroom.  It's the one that opens onto the living room via beautiful vintage french doors.  Here are a couple of before pictures. 


    Gorgeous woodwork. Hideous panelling.  The original floors are under
 that carpet but I can't take it out until I buy the place!





Oh! Hey!  You can see the unpolished switchplate in this photo!
(I know, I know, I'm obsessing on the switchplate!  Sorry.)

















And here's the same wall at about 75% of where I want it to be.

I'm seriously wishing I'd fixed that one suitcase handle and either hung or removed the picture (it's a framed vintage crochet piece that says "Welcome")!

I'm very happy with the blue paint next to the vintage woodwork. It's not the robin's egg shade it was intended to be but I've decided that it's the color the room is supposed to be!
The vintage ice skates are one of Mark's favorite dumpster finds.  And you might recognize that shiny switchplate from a previous lament. Today I'm kinda liking it!

No one seems to like or know what to do with vintage luggage. So they throw it out and I get it. I could easily stack it to the ceiling - and I might!

I feel particularly lucky when I find one that has a monogram or a Bakelite or Lucite handle (second from the bottom) or some wonderful racing stripes (bottom and middle)! Sometimes they have really wonderful subtle color or texture! Sometimes they're just rich old leather. I love them all!

These old suitcases are a great way to store things in a house with 1915-sized closets! Literally, the closets are 18 inches deep and hold about 12 items per side! The closet in the back bedroom is probably 24" square! The suit cases can hold papers, keepsakes, extra linens, games, out-of-season clothing, holiday decorations, craft supplies -- the possibilities are endless though (I would recommend from using them to store Mark's very helpful suggestion: reptiles! But I will probably use one for his clown noses!)