A New View

There are new curtains at my house, the first time since we've moved in, nearly 5 years ago now. Up until THIS house, I've been a switch-around-all-the-time kind of decorator, including curtains.

I love a cottage look, so when we built the house, all the windows were adorned with white sheers. I still love them because they are so easy on the eyes and very simple.

But these curtains...these curtains have been in a very important-to-me cottage for many, many years, hanging proudly in a vintage bathroom.

You see, these brown and white, crispy cotton darlings came from Sue's Estes Park cottage, a place so special to our family and so many others Sue has shared her Colorado home with. When Vaughn remodeled her (I'm guessing 1920's) bathroom a couple of years ago, the vintage curtains were packaged up for the thrift store and, you know me, I couldn't let that happen. (All Sue has to do is mention something's going to the thrift store and if I can find a nook or cranny in our vehicle to haul it back, it's as good as mine.) You know me and stories...if a piece of my house has a snippet of a memory attached to it, I'm happy as can be. All those stories surround us with love that way.

So what do you think of these sweet cafe curtains now proudly hanging in my Oklahoma bathroom? I like the way they're a little more private, even with the blinds open. I love light in a bathroom.

 

Vintage. Cottage. Simple. Sentimental.

Perfect!

A Trailer Full of Junk

No photo of the loaded-to-the-max cargo trailer full of junk we brought back from Estes Park. No one would want to see the way that thing looked. It was a little scary. Imagine the Clampett's.

As soon as we arrived I bought a newspaper and started searching for garage sales, moving sales and/or estate sales. And I already knew about the three thrift stores. Some of my best junk has been found in those places.

Good news. Some people in Estes Park like to mark things FREE at their garage sales. We loaded up a bag full of knobs and pulls and hooks and such at one sale. And a coffee table at another! Then a guy threw in a free church pew-style chair at his sale because we bought another item.

We got two NEAT metal rocking chairs for $2 each. They'll get a coat of paint and some cushions and work perfectly on the patio with the existing adirondack chairs. (Note to self: watch Gabby around ANY and ALL upholstered cushions.)

Another sale had a funky chair, sort of propped up and sitting there sadly. It was obvious it had been stripped and was destined for refinishing, but had never been completed. The owner was asking $20 but we settled on $10. Then I asked him if it was a chair owned by someone in his family. He said it wasn't but that he and his wife had bought it on a trip to Ireland years ago. Score! I'll post AFTER photos one of these days (when Vaughn gets finished with it) and I bet you'll think it's pretty amazing too.

One of my favorite moving sale purchases was an old safety deposit box WITH the original key. Box #14 it is. I love it. The guy who was selling it said his grandpa owned a bank in Nebraska and when the boxes were replaced, he had kept the old ones. You know I was hooked when I heard the story. At this point there's no plan for what I'll do with it, but it's just the kind of thing that rocks my world, so it had to come home with me.

I usually have a plan for the things I buy. Sell it and make a little profit. Keep it to love forever and ever. Use it to decorate with in so-and-so room. But not the safety deposit box. I know it's going to be MINE, but no plans for what it will be used for. Not yet. It will come.

I feel a semi-humongous rearrange coming on. That's when a few things I adore that are already being used or displayed go into hiding for a bit and I put out things like a safety deposit box and a $1 beaker (like used in a lab) that I'll probably use as a vase. I also plan to do my beds over with all sorts of mismatched bedding so the $3 turquoise dust ruffle Sue and I found at the thrift store will certainly help make that happen. (I also found some neat red sheets at a super sale at Marshall's, so I'm pumped.)

The old claw foot bathtub (1920's) from Sue's cabin came home with us in the trailer too. And the wall-mount sink and medicine cabinet. We plan to hang the sink on the side of the backyard pavilion/shed and plant flowers in her bowl. And of course, the medicine cabinet will go right back where it belongs, above the sink. The tub? I fear for my life as I say this, but we have big dreams for it. Not IN the house, though. The tub will be used in the center of our back patio as a fire pit.  Sue is perfectly okay with this situation because she's going to be invited over on a regular basis to visit her tub (and roast a wiener and a marshmallow). Do not FRET though. We are true junkers, but we did NOT haul the toilet home with us. We haven't gone there yet.

Junk Heaven.

Sweet Sue

Just returned from Estes Park, Colorado, where we stayed with our dear friend, Sue Anderson. She owns a cabin there and a home in Holdenville, where we live. Usually Sue goes to Estes Park in the summer and returns home at the end of September (when it gets tough to even wiggle under all the quilts required to keep her warm).

I taught first grade with Sue for a few years. When she retired, we began getting together for shopping and eating and talking. We both love red and school and cherries and Fiesta and about a million other things the same.

She likes telling stories and I love to hear 'em. Especially stories about her growing up, courting and being a young mom.

A few years ago she shared her cherry pie recipe with me. I tease her that she's the queen of cherry pies and I'm sort of like a princess. I have to admit mine is tasting pretty good these days, although hers and mine should never really be compared. She makes it look easy.

Last week she not only fixed two cherry pies, she baked her special less-cinnamon-than-usual apple pie (yummy and tart) and a delicious strawberry rhubarb pie. So I am soon going to be the princess of those pies too. I'm determined to get better every time. And I plan to practice A LOT. Pie makes everything right with the world.

Sue owns a lot of things from her past and I enjoy finding out the scoop on every single one of them. When we were there we were sorting through some odds and ends in the storage room. I've heard it before, but it was fun to be reminded that the plastic, yellow tub we were digging in was once a bath tub for her son Brad. I love that story. She cleaned it up this week and plans to take a photo of Ellie, Brad's newest daughter, taking a bath in it when they're in Estes Park over Labor Day weekend.

While Vaughn was busy remodeling one of Sue's bathrooms, she and I ran around shopping, eating and then shopping and eating some more. We took a trip to Loveland to the mall and I got some new school clothes. We were invited to a road party (people on Sue's road all had a party...why doesn't that happen in Holdenville, anyway?), went to the Rocky Mountain National Park a couple of times, watched a few movies (I referred to this activity as LOLLYGAGGING around), redecorated and rearranged and cleaned. We talked a lot. (We bring out the best in each other.) A couple of days we got sucked in by back-to-back episodes of Hoarders.

Loved every minute being with Sweet Sue.