The Red Baron Has Landed!

They are here!

Intrigued?

I fell in love with these last Spring,

I knew I'd never pay Restoration Hardware's prices for them.

I didn't think they'd ever be a reality.

Enter overstock.com.

Hurry.

They disappear often.

I loved the contrast of vintage leather and metal,

The curves,

The sleek lines,

The uniqueness,

The red baron feel,

and how they reminded me of my mom.

Let me explain.

My parents were the prior owners of 545.

Mom loved her "bucket" chairs.

She had two in the corner of this room.

I think she replaced them at least once.

I could always find her there with a book,

and ready for conversation.

With the canoe there, "bucket" style chairs weren't an option.

These don't swivel, but the lines remind me of mom's chairs.

I know they aren't for everybody.

But I love them.

The kids do too.

They remind you of sitting in a pilot seat.

Sofi was thrilled to have a box on this rainy day.

See her little arms drawing?

Truth be told, the big boy was inside the other...

-Julie

Come On In

The lighting is so hard to capture.

I've been playing with the dreaded manual focus.

It's kind of fun!

Everything in the room has significance.

The two rocking chairs are from my dad.

The larger one was a wedding gift.

The smaller one was my childhood rocker.

I bought the decoys when we first moved to town.

Money was tight and I found an incredible garage sale.

The canoe was made by my dad in High School.

The lamp above was his cousin's.

The little lantern by the window is from a dear friend.

If you turn to the left this is what you see.

The pictures were hanging outside on the back of the garage.

The frames are old windows found curbside.

Then I brought them down to the basement.

I love how they fill the wall.

I'm thinking they need to move a little closer together.

Thoughts?

The chest was in my brother's closet when we bought this home from my parent's.

It's big, clunky, distressed, and I love it.

Inside the chest is our extra blankets.

I pulled the lanterns out of the trash.

They were outdoor fixtures.

The metal bin on the bricks was our family toy chest when I was little.

We kicked the couch to the curb.

I don't miss it.

Coming tomorrow are two chairs to join this one.

This chair was a killer deal at a local store.

I overheard one of the customers say, "that's the ugliest chair I've ever seen."

Moments later I was paying for it. :)

I love it.

It reminds me of my grandpa's wool shirts.

It's down filled and super comfy.

The light was a Target find a few years back.

The stump was from our friend's tree nursery.

Here's the nook to the left when you enter the room.

This is where the eyesore of a desk was.

Eyesore no more...just clean lines.

This piece was in the dining room.

It's filled with easy access entertaining supplies.

Glasses, trays, appetizer plates, candles, napkins.

Everything needed for a quick party.

It was from my mother in law's best friend's estate.

She lived much of her adult life in Africa.

We think the piece is from there.

The wood is interesting, and the back is actually metal.

Mark made an adjustment of the legs to make it fit.

On top are forsythia from our flowering bush outside.

The inner vase is filled with water.

The outer vase is filled with wine corks.

Swing back to the left and you'll find the next area we're figuring out.

This piece was from an antique store in Michigan.

We bought it soon after we were married.

It holds our wine and some candle holders.

It's an old school desk attached to a Singer base.

Love it.

It was in the dining room too.

We're still playing with options for above it.

This is a magazine cover from 1960 that we had enlarged.

Mark's grandpa is on the front cover.

It was found after his grandma passed away last year.

This copy is too big...we're still looking for a frame.

Here's that space.

Note you are now back at the entry to the room.

I'm looking for a 36 inch clock to put in that peak.

I have some artwork to hang on the left side as well.

So there you have it.

More pics to come once the art is hanging and chairs have arrived.

One last look.

The weasel on the canoe is the only thing in the room I'm not fond of.

I need to photograph the dining room too.

Despite moving two pieces in here it's not empty. :)

I'm loving the changes.

Today's task?

Tackle the kitchen cabinet.

With four busy kids it's a constant issue.

This is my last day at home before their break.

Time to fill more bags for Goodwill.

-Julie

Room Remodel

I overcame my technical challenges, without my children or my husband.

WooHOO!

Here's a few in progress shots of the living room.

Many things were no longer working in here...

The oak trim around the room

The white ceiling

The Henry David Thoreau quote poorly sharpies over the windows

(yes I used a sharpie on a whim....I know)

The beams...no longer easily cleanable, and the ceiling to beam line was a mess.

The painter suggested painting them.

His thought?

He could get a clean line that way.

They'd be cleanable again.

I frantically called Mark.

I thought he said to go head and have them painted.

He didn't.

Bad connection on the train.

Whoops!

They can always be painted again, but I admit to crying quite a bit.

They had been stained before and were quite dark.

Here's the uncovered canoe.

This was the canoe my dad made in High School.

He and his buddies used to take regular canoe trips together...

in High School.

How cool is that?

Yes, he did give us permission to saw it in half and make a window seat.

One of my treasures I will never part with.

This wall posed a few challenges.

Note the paint color.

We removed a bookshelf 10 years ago...and never painted it to match the walls.

Whoops.

The chalkboard was covering it up.

We had long discussions about this corner.

See the table?

Mark built it about 16 years ago.

It's sagging.

It was constantly covered in Carl's schoolwork or Sofi's teaching stuff.

It was a constant eyesore in the corner.

For me anyway.

It's in the garage now waiting for Mark to part with it.

I'm not good at rearranging furniture.

I don't do it often.

This project really challenged me.

I flip flopped quite a few pieces, and discarded quite a bit.

Here's a sneak peek into the room.

I don't know that the colors are captured completely here.

I grabbed one of the Benjamin Moore Historical Color palettes.

The lightest color is on the living room walls and the beams.

The mid tone is on the living room ceiling.

The darkest color is on the library walls.

In person I think the library looks darker.

I'll try to capture that.

Yes the books are in rainbow order.

Love them that way.

The little ceramic vase in the corner was made by Linnea in sixth grade.

The piano keyboard was a curbside find.

Mark said he'd never take it off the wall.

Thankfully he did for the paint job.

I love the flow of colors.

They color looks different all day long.

I need to find smaller speakers.

I'm still looking for a clock.

Found one, but it was 15 inches too big.

Oy.

More pics next time.

Off to dig in the yard and organize the kitchen cabinets.

-Julie

Random Thoughts

Please excuse my technical difficulties.

This is not the picture I intended to post.
Kindergartener's response to Lane Smith's book Grandpa Green.

If you haven't seen it, go give it a read at your nearby bookstore.

Mine left....my nearby bookstore that is.

I miss Borders every day.

This book will leave a little lump in your throat and cause you to think.

I probably got more out of it than my kinders,

but they had fun with the project.

I asked them to make a picture of an important life event using only green and texture.

Wow.

Pretty talented little guy don't you think?

Many of the others had a sea of green.

His reminds me of Adam and Eve.

Too cute.

I dowloaded 197 pics onto my desktop.

I don't like blogging on my desktop.

I have iPhoto on this little laptop.

I forget how to get them onto here too.

I'll ask Carl for help in a few hours.

I'm still wrestling with what to do when I grow up.

I wish I was subbing.

I'm "on call" constantly...but only was called when I was sick.

My brain is on creative overload.

1 million ideas, constantly.

It's a gene I was given.

I will never be bored in life.

I will never have enough hours in the day to do all my little brain dreams up.

I dream of projects, connections, events to host, and all kinds of things in between.

I'm making a dent in the disorganized chaos of six people.

Uff Da.

That's a Swedish expression.

I'm trying to find ways to support my family through their days.

Mark is now on our pastoral search committee.

I don't talk about religion or politics on here typically.

It's going to be a long process.

There will be lots of meetings.

There will be lots of time that he is away from the family.

There will be lots of stress.

I know because I was part of the last one.

I see the church having changed so much.

The big C and the little c.

It will be a long year or so.

I think the church has so much to wrestle with...the big C and the little c.

On that happy note,

I'm off to use my brain and wrestle with the technological challenges of this computer.

I want to share pictures of our work in progress home.

Snoopy is coming on Friday.

Huh?

Remember the red baron?

Coming soon to our living room.

That should be enough of a tease to bring you back.

-Julie

Lazy Lazy Julie

Needs to upload pics.

There are loads of pics on my camera and phone.

They are upstairs.

I am downstairs.

I'm really that lazy today.

Kind of.

I'm sitting in the corner of the playroom typing waiting for Izzy to fall asleep.

This is day 5 of her missing school.

Poor thing had the flu and pneumonia.

She wants me close.

I want her to fall asleep.

I'm bored and have plenty to say, so I'm sitting here in the corner blogging.

Having her home sick has helped with missing school.

It's given me a purpose.

My little brain is still rolling with art ideas.

I guess I'll be making them with Izzy instead of the 400 kids I was teaching.

Sofi and Linnea don't like making stuff.

Carl's beyond making stuff with me.

So Izzy and I will be happily creating when she gets better.

I dropped Sofi off at school this morning and the tears were flowing.

Mine, not hers.

After she left the car.

I really loved what I was doing.

The reading.

Then the art.

What an absolute blast I had.

The interaction with kids.

Planning of lessons.

Seeing the racks fill with their artwork each day.

Hard to have it all come to a screeching halt with the end of the second leave I was filling.

I'm hoping to do some day to day subbing once Izzy is better.

In the meantime there is loads to do here.

Laundry.

Cleaning.

More cleaning.

Painting.

Now that the living room is painted (woo hoo!) everything else looks a little dingy.

She's finally asleep.

The purr of the vaporizer and the clicking of my keyboard did the trick.

Off to clean.

-Julie