Tuesday Display Chain--Sprucing & Springing!

Happy Tuesday!!! This weeks theme from Misi is Sprucing and Springing! I know here we have had a lot of Springing! Record warm weather for March in Chicago land! Everything is about 5 -6 weeks early here... Though Mother Nature gave a us cold slap in the face yesterday! Many are out working in the flowers beds and such...not me... I know at some point we will still get frost...Planting season for us is Mother's Day...So that is still a bit away....BUT everything looks wonderful! My weeping cherry tree... the best it's ever looked! Already sadly losing it's blooms.... Some might remember it as the "gourd" tree 2 years back. With all the gourd vines growing up the tree... I think I about 20+ gourds that year! LOL

These Daffodils are already spent...sigh.... I took these pictures last week...

Sweet Annie growing on the side of my front step... LOL... Don't know why...I will have to transplant it soon.....

Now all this great weather has started some spring clean on OLM'S part... slowly.... LOL... But I thought I would toss in the "ugly" side to cleaning...It always makes a mess somewhere else for a bit.....I was working in the kitchen... Trying to clean up my counters a bit...thin a few things out...sigh... I find this VERY hard to do....So this is the mess that I made....

And here.... See those blue counters...put those in 10 years ago when we did this part of the kitchen... didn't know at the time what I really wanted for counters... just knew I wasn't a corian or granite girl...So what do I want, WOOD!!! Thought I had a guy...but he's decide it's to much work...sigh.... called another guy that works in reclaimed wood... waiting for that "quote" I am afraid it might be out of the OLM budget... so these stay until it is....double sigh!

But...then I got to this .....

Now I ask why oh why can't it stay that way??? Well.. 2 boys Alex and Steven! LOL

Close up of my new pastry tin... Went to my first auction on Sunday... OH MY!!! got a few goodies to sell in my ''space"... and a few keepers...this was one..but it made a new mess to clean up...working on that one still....ugh....

Moved a few things around in the other corner...Believe it or not...this has less "stuff" or space being taken up...That makes hubby happy.... Few new goodies here from Christmas I never showed off... little dry sink... I think it might of been a salesman sample? Gift from my prim gal pal Cally for Christmas, isn't it wonderful!!!! Love it!!! Then, this Salesman sample of a sawbuck table!!! Love this... a little something I found after Christmas... just moved it to the counter this week... See the little beeswax bunny from Pam?

Noodle board... I was a bad girl 2 weeks ago... got this keeper! just so hard to find and always expense... just bit the bullet on this one!! Might have to leave the checkbook at home hubby says!

Then dusting up the bakers cabinet...Much need, long over due... still had a snowman in there... all gone now.....all dusted up for awhile.... So that's my Springing & Sprucing!!! I will visit everyone bit later... off to do more cleaning... The Prim gals Cally & Sandy coming tomorrow for Sandy's birthday... I need to clean & cook!!!! have a great day! OLM

A Much Overdue THANK YOU! And a Birthday!

So I am trying to figure out where this week went!?!?!!? Friday already.... IT was a warm one here all week for March... In the 80's all week, for outside of Chicago, we broke records!
Today, gloomy rainy and cooler in the 60's, yet still above normal for us!
So.... my baby boy Alex turned 24 on Wednesday the 21st! So we of course celebrated! Alex asked for Molten chocolate cake in the crock pot. It is yummy! Almost sinful!!! Here he is eating just a little bit of it!

Here's what it looks like.... all this warm hot fudge sauce cooking on the bottom and the cake cooking on top of it! YUMMO!!! Almost all of it was gone, I made 3 batches of it!

AND... on the 21st of March everyone gathered on the patio, and swatted mosquito's....

AND... I owe a much over due thank you to Brenda of the Rusty Thimble!!! I won her giveaway a couple of weeks back! I SO love this All-American pocket!!! So, I finally got hubby to hang one of my tobacco sticks in the gathering room, so I could hang it up!

So here is the full 'ugly" view...LOL... Knuckle's dog bed, toys, the TV.... We live in this room....

I also hung one of my bonnets from Lecia, I so love them!!! She does such wonderful work!!! And last weekend I found this wonderful, yet so small old tobacco basket.... I have never seen one so tiny, so of course it was a much have! I need a little something else up there...I just haven't figured out what that is yet......

I just don't know where this whole week has gone...ugh... so much I wanted to do...so little done...double ugh...FINALLY today I felt the creative juices flowing...ready to get to work....BUT....first I walked Knuckle's after the rain... Came home, needed to wipe him down... bending down to dry him off... he bumps me... knocks me over... fall on my A$$... hit hard... OOPS this is NOT good for the back! UGH... I yell... Knuckle's now thinks he's in trouble... and he's crawling into my lap...all 75 LBS of him! Got to love him... but nothing creative was done... back has completely tightened up again..UGH! Oh well....it is what it is.... so I will go read the new Country Sampler... have a wonderful weekend everyone!!! OLM

Tuesday Display Chain is BACCCKKKK!!!

Misi has started up the Tuesday display again! Always so much fun to see what everyone comes up with.....Now I must admit, I wasn't going to play today..... I don't collect sheep... I know hard to believe...No kitty's either...Knuckle's would eat them....no lamb's....no Lions.... I really couldn't come up with anything.... So this is my weak display this week....

Not a Lion or a Lamb... BUT my mom's Stieff's tigers from her childhood... They now sit in the cabinet in the front room... each thing on this shelf has special meaning to either hubby or I.... ( that little Mickey Mouse was his dad's toy as a child.)

Then Pam stitched it up for me with my " OLM" initials in it! Love this little pillow! Thanks Pam! So that's it... quick and easy! Off to visit everyone else! Enjoy this wonderful day! OLM

The "QUEEN'S" Crow Celebrated St.Patty's Day TOO!

Just a little bit of fun.... HEHEHE! The "QUEEN'S" crow wasn't about to miss out on St. Patty's Day yesterday! I might say he had a gay old time!!!! I don't think he is ever going home!
Our neighbor the "GENERAL" had a last minute St. Patty's Day party last night and the "crow" came too! cocktails... the crow is a bit of a lush!

I believe he or is it a her? showed it's breasts for the beads... We tryed to tell him wrong party....

Looking for another drink in the recycle bin! bad crow!!!! Have a great day! OLM

Did Ya Think I fell off A Cliff??? I'm BACK!!!

So, really I have been MIA for quiet awhile... Not feeling great for 2months didn't help. I really was beginning to think maybe I had Mono? Totally exhausted then toss in the cough that lasted for about 7 weeks, that was great for the back! BUT, finally, I am feeling better, more like myself.... AND... I have been busy!!!
First, this happened very quickly....sigh... I really didn't think I would go into another shop to sell some antiques and such... after that last experience... I am gun shy, I didn't see this coming...BUT... I found a antique shop... nothing over the top, all renters, CHEAP RENT! No work day, no % of sales, it was a no brainier! So I jumped back in...and I will go to my first estate sale in over 2 months looking to collect a few treasures.... THOUGH... I have been cleaning and thinning a few things here in the homestead... So there is a pile of things that can go at some point. BUT, my space is VERY SMALL... no floor space... just shelves, so I am limited to what I can put in there... So I have a few bigger items that I would like to part with, just don't know how... SO, if you live around the Chicago land area and might be interested in a dough box on legs or a great handmade primitive wagon with all different wheels... Email me... I will send pictures. The dough box I am asking $90, not real primitive, it's stained, but could be painted to look prim.. and the wagon, I love, just to big where I have it.. asking $60. BUT, they are to big to ship.....
Anyway, are you getting this great weather??? 80+ yesterday! We slept with windows open on March 15Th!!!! YIKES! So of course Steven and a few of his friends where playing with Knuckle's and his big ball. I gave him my exercise ball because he can't bite it and break it! He loves it, will chase it all around the yard! So I have learned, don't ask how... It might scare me! LOL! BUT, the boys got it stuck in the tree! Steven seems to think he has made a field goal, which leads me to believe my son is the one that got it stuck, but Sean climbed the tree to get it out... OH these boys! Got to LOVE THEM!
So in my last post I talked about the metal kitchen set I saw on my trip... I couldn't stop thinking about it...Where do you ever see the whole set? Why did I walk away from it?? STUPID, STUPID!!! SO I called...they still had it and would ship it! HEHEHEHE.... Came last week... OH my that box is heavy and BIG! MMM... Now I had a plan... I knew right where they were going to go, UNTIL I pulled out the stove! OOPS! These guys are big! Well... no super big, but bigger then the one I had gottten... I said a few words, because they are NOT going to work on top of my cabinets like I hoped... Few more words...don't' know where I am going to put them..... So I finally think I am going to have to break the set up.. Keep 2 pieces and sell the stove and sink... THEN, hubby came home... First...LOL... Is like WHAT DID YOU DO!?!?!?!? If you wanted them that bad, we could of gone back... I am like I didn't realize how much UNTIL, I got home! So I tell him my dilemma... going to break apart the set.. HE is like NO, they need to stay together and we will figure this out???LOL....sigh..... Got to love that man!!!

So he feels they need to be in the kitchen...BUT there is no good space... He wants them on top of the pie safe... UGH! I like to change that out for the season's AND what am I to do with everything that is already on it? This is being a mess!!! So I clean them up, ick they were DIRTY! Took everything off the pie safe on Tuesday... AND this is how they looked if I am standing on the step stool.... You can't see the top of them without the step stool. They are too tall up there... DON'T LIKE THIS LOOK AT ALL!!! DOUBLE UGH! This was half my day.... No wonder I get NOTHING done! LOL.....

So I moved things back, change them up a bit again... and I have this... much better... Now what to do....

Then I get to looking at the Jelly cabinet... Took this "before" picture as I started to take it apart....

To this... It's better... the best it's going to be... Love the step back! Now that's a keeper... put the little stove and the refrigerator on the one shelf... not great, but workable... BUT, more things "displaced" I have a bigger mess! So I have made up my mind, I am selling the stove and sink.....UNTIL hubby comes home from work... This is to funny, he is telling ME to keep something??? LOL...more work....thinking, I feel like Pooh Bear! THINK THINK THINK!!!!

So, they are not in the kitchen, but under the pie safe in the front room... Looks OK.... but again more displacement... One might, just might say I have too much???? NEVER!!!?????

So in the mist of all of this I cleaned up the shelf above the patio door, because for a bit the small stove was up there... thinned out a few of my tins...they will go to the shop at some point....

So in cleaning... this is where the dough box, WAS.... moved my old boxes...like this better.. BUT, dough box MUST go! LOL!

Some of the displacement mess... The ugly side of all of this...LOL....I should of take a picture of the kitchen table, no one is eating there at the moment... LOL... well that is #1 on my list today!

Then lastly, just for the 'QUEEN" LOL... her crow... enjoying the sun and warmth in my birdbath!!!! LOL

So there is what I have been doing the last couple of weeks... Busy and crazy, but truly it always is, and I won't have it any other way! Enjoy your day, off to make homemade sauce for dinner tonight and mail off Henry from Lemon Poppy Seeds to Gail! Thanks Gail!!! I am hoping to FINALLY have a new update on my selling blog this weekend! OLM

Treasure's & A Hint of Spring decorating!

Happy March 1st everyone!!!! I heard birds chirping on my walk today! Such a great sign!!!! After weeks of feeling crappy... Totally exhausted, I needed that sign of Spring!! I want color, warm breezes and open windows!!! So I changed out the top of the pie safe in the kitchen to Spring!!!

Finally... Here is a couple of my treasure's from my trip with hubby a couple of weeks ago... I so love everything child size! One, because it's small.... but how I love it... Found this old metal stove... I had found a whole set, walked away from it...kicking myself... might have to call, see if they still have it, and if they will ship???LOL.... And the child's metal dish drain, super cute!!!!

Still haven't found a home for this great wood primitive measure'r, I got at Wanda's... I am getting there... In a different shop found a butter mold for only$24! Never see them that cheap, so I HAD to get it!!!

Just a bit of fabric for creating! Time to get this butt back to work!!!!

Spring wreath from Renate's for the front door!

Love this saying... Pillow from Lebanon...

My rug hooking frame and my kit that I won from Margie in the fall.... I never win! But I did win the great primitive all American pocket from Brenda today too!!!! I am SOOOOO excited! Loved it!!!!

Finally......... That darn CROW of the "QUEEN'S".... I just never know where he is going to show up next....

opened my oven...there he was....LOL..... She should of never left him here!

Off to finish creating my huge carrots for Lemon Poppy Seeds... They will be up tonight, if you want to take a peek... They are over 23" long each.... YIKES!!! OLM