October Yard Sales

Last weekend my mom & I hit a couple of yard sales.  I had lots of great little finds!

First is this pretty little dish with lavender flowers on it.  It's small (hard to tell size in this photo!)
I'm going to put it in my room for catching jewelry & loose change at the end of the day.

It was 50 cents!


In with the stacks of dishes, I found this round plate (in the back of the photo).  You can see how it matches the pitcher & bowl that I had bought years ago at an estate sale!
It was just 25 cents!

This really makes me want my butlers pantry.

Next I found a book for my oldest son.  He is very into the fact that our house was built between 1760-1790, during the time of the American Revolution.  I thought he'd enjoy this book filled with paintings from the time period.
It didn't have a price on it (I HATE when things don't have prices at a sale), but judging by the cheap prices on everything else, I took a chance... and it was only 50 cents :)

She also had some free children's books & I picked up a Peter Pan book.  It was in rough shape- but I thought maybe I'll eventually frame some of the pages as artwork.  No photo of it though because my youngest quickly commandeered it to his room!

Then I found this sweet little milk pitcher- in the yellow that I've been looking to use as an accent color in the family room.  It has a hairline crack, but since I'm just using it for decorative purposes, I didn't mind. And at just 50 cents, I couldn't pass it up!

Here's an updated shot of the family room cabinets on the left side of the fireplace...







And finally, to my favorite finds of the day!



First, a set of two small enamel pots.
They have measurement markings inside.

They were just a $1 each.

I don't know why I'm so drawn to enamelware lately!  I bought a cute little bucket Labor Day Weekend (and even put it to good use during my youngest's last birthday party!)

These two basins are kind of beat up, but I still love them!  I especially like the handles on the blue rimmed one.  These were just $1 each too!

I'm envisioning these on the shelves in the future laundry room or linen closets holding washcloths & hand towels.

"Rustic", right?  ha ha!

For now, I've put them on the wall going down the basement steps.  It's down below the stairwell area that we've finished, so this is where you step back into the 1700's era... and  I wasn't sure about sharing photos!

But what the heck, here's a peek --->



Can you believe I came home with all of that and I only spent $5.75!!!  So much fun!

Mirror Painting

While painting the built-in shelves in the family room, I decided on another little side project while I had the white paint on hand.

A few weeks ago, my mom had given me this mirror.  I think that when we re-do our master bathroom, I'll hang it above the sink.  But in the meantime, it found a new home in the foyer.

The frame was painted an off-white.  I gave it a quick coat of white paint so it would fit in better in the foyer.  I really like the mirror in this spot, rather than the painting... it feels more open.

AFTER

Before

I had fun putting up some Halloween decorations, and bought a bouquet of pretty little orange flowers at the supermarket.

I also picked up some yellow & red bouqets to put in the family room vases.

At least the downstairs rooms are feeling a bit more put together now.  

Upstairs is a completely different story!  

We're tackling some of the attic/media room project this week... 

Sneak Peak at the Driveway

All that prep made for a pretty easy driveway installation!

The driveway was actually finished almost two weeks ago, but we had a weekend trip to Southern Maryland and I figured I'd take some photos when we returned.  But when we pulled in, the driveway was covered with leaves!  Which didn't make for very good photos...

I did get out there again this weekend, but the photos didn't come out so great.
Here are a few that made the cut...

Looking down the back driveway

Reversal

The transition to the barn driveway-
we left it as gravel back there.

We also moved some slate
for a better walkway through the arbor

I'm going to get out there to get proper "After" photos in the next day or two.
Hopefully the third try will be the charm!

In the meantime, the boys have been loving it!
Here's the little one taking his bike for a spin- with a yellow balloon, no less  :)

More Yellow Wallpaper

Once papering the back of the family room built-in shelves was complete, I had a bunch of scraps of yellow wallpaper left over.  So, I decided to give the same treatment to our corner cabinet that sits on the opposite side of the room...

AFTER

You also may notice the new clock.  I had mirrored one hanging there, but both Mike & my parents were in the "hate it" camp on this one.  So after much searching, we found one to replace it.  I have to say, it does look much better!


Since I was on a roll, I did the same with an antique bookcase that is also in that room...

BEFORE

AFTER

It's so much brighter!  And seems to allow the items in the cabinet to stand out more!  You can see that I also moved the painting from the foyer into the family room.

Now I'm really feeling the need to get new couches!  But I don't think we'll be getting around to that for a while yet.

In the meantime, here are some detail shots from the corner cabinet :)
I'm still playing with the placement of things!

Newest addition-
antique stamp holder & "return to sender" stamp!

Brightening up the Built ins

We love the built ins that flank the fireplace in our family room.  They provide so much storage- photo albums, kids games, DVD movies...

They were painted off white when we moved in.  I knew we wanted to go with a crisp white eventually, but we hadn't gotten around to starting that until Labor Day weekend.  It's taken since then to finish it up (I broke it down into little steps...)

I started by removing all the stuff from the shelves
and taking the doors & hardware off...

I painted the upper shelves first, since I had to stand on the countertop to reach.

I couldn't believe that it took FOUR coats to cover the off-white!

Then I moved on to the bottom cabinetry and the doors 

(which were spread out in our dining room for painting)

While letting everything dry for a few days, I organized the shelves inside the cabinets.

Then replaced the outlet covers, put the hardware back on the doors, and the doors back on the cabinets.

For one set of the game cabinet doors, I decided to use Chalkboard paint.

The kids could use them to keep track of high scores, or list the games inside.  

I don't know... it just seemed like a fun idea.

The next thing on the list was putting wallpaper along the back of the shelves.

I decided on yellow and found a print that Mike & I both really liked...

Of course, none of the shelves were exactly the same size as any other, 

so each had to be individually measured out. 

This took another couple of days! 

I stuck the wallpaper up with painters tape. 

I wanted to be able to easily switch it out for another pattern someday.

Here are the finished photos!

The yellow basket I painted with spraypaint, and I'm working on incorporating other splashes of yellow through the rest of the room.

Shelving to the left of the fireplace:

Shelving to the right of the fireplace:

Some close ups:

I'm still playing with the placement of items on the shelves. If you look at the first photo in this post, you'll see that I used to have all of my antique cameras on a set of shelves, all the books on another section, all my McCoy vases together, etc.  

This time I decided to mix it up a bit!

It seems like this adds to the new airy-ness of the shelves.

I need to take a wide "After shot" that shows both sets of shelves 

(but need to get the rest of the family room put back in order first!)