Furniture, Fabric, and Flattened Flora

My junking trip into the
wild and woolly Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
on Thursday yielded 3 tables and a sweet old rocking chair.

There, in the back of my trusty minivan, is my haul.

This is the junk hunter's equivalent of tying the deer onto the hood of the car.

Yes, I actually took this picture backwards, over my shoulder, into the rear of the van

when I pulled into our driveway.  I am that lazy.


In my defense, I'd spent a lot of time on the road in Pennsylvania that day,
traveling at 12 MPH behind vehicles like this (the big green thingy):

I don't snap pictures while I'm driving, but the big green thingy had stopped.  I guess for a rest.
Therefore, so had the line of cars behind him, including me and Red Minnie, my van.

Anywho, the tables and chair are a little ... ummm ... cleanliness challenged,

so they won't be coming into That Old House until they get the spa treatment outside first.

Then we'll see what else they need.

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So Thursday was an excellent day. 

A successful junking trip into Pennsylvania, and then when I got home --

FedEx had delivered my fabric samples.  Yay!

I showed you the patterns in Monday's post.  (Click here.) 

#1 was the clear winner among the comments left on that post.

So let's see how it looks in real life, in the Pink Bedroom!  Please pardon the lousy indoor lighting.

 As is usual with samples, most of them were eliminated right away,

so I narrowed it down to #1 and #6, with the striped #9 as an accent if we use #1.  

Also briefly in the running: #3 and #4, but they were quickly eliminated.

That's #1 on the left -- a scattered old-fashioned roses print.

#4 all the way on the right -- nice color, but the fabric is very stiff and would not drape well.  Out!

#3 is on the left -- too many red tones, not enough pink.  Otherwise a really beautiful fabric.

So here is #6.
Yes, there is a lot of it.  I ordered a yard because the pattern is so huge.
Here, it's draped over the loveseat.

I am cuckoo about this fabric, and I'd sign on for it now except --- I'm not sure it's right for this room.

Fabric #1, which is a linen-type cotton and has a soft, antique, muted look, might be better.

Less dramatic, but maybe a look we can live with longer. 

  It also goes really well with the striped accent fabric.

 But if I use the cottage-y looking, more restrained linen-y roses fabric, what can I do with the big peacock fabric?

I left the Pink Bedroom in a funk. . . and then looked down our second floor hall and realized,

"Hey!  There are other rooms up here!"

Want to see a part of That Old House that no one has ever seen before?

Here it is, below.  The room our daughter Anne has dubbed "The Cell."

It's the same size as our hall bath, and also the walk-in closet for the master bedroom.

We aren't sure what these 3 rooms originally were -- since the house was built before bathrooms --

but they may have been small bedrooms, nurseries, hired-man rooms, or even box rooms.

It's about 7' x 12' and is in its original, as-found state; we haven't stripped paper and painted in here yet.

 Eventually I want a pretty daybed in here, and make it a cozy spot for reading or napping,

and a small single guest room to use in a pinch.

But I can't see Giant Peacock Fabric in here, can you?  Talk about system overload.

So, we move on to the Master Bedroom, where the walls are painted in Benjamin Moore's Palladian Blue. The curtains in here are quite restrained, a yellow and blue toile from Greef with a Chinese look.

 Yes, that's also a rice-carved bed, similar to the one in the Pink Bedroom.

Hey, what can I say?  I found two on Craigslist.

How can you not get them when you find them for $200 or less?

Now, let's bring in the Giant Peacock Fabric, our #6 from last Monday.

 Ah . . . the background of #6 matches the Palladian Blue wall color.  Well, what do you know?

This is what it would look like if you were tipsy.

But -- do I want to introduce pink into the Master Bedroom?

Must I consult with Howard about taking such a step or can I act,

as Hyacinth Bucket would say, unilaterally?

Stay tuned.  Any suggestions or opinions are very welcome!

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Now about that Flattened Flora in the post title . . . 

These below were upright Autumn Joy Sedum before the snow hit.

Would you believe we still have snow on the ground here and there?

 Along the sunroom foundation, the sturdy little wax begonias have finally fallen.  Squashed by the snow.

Last weekend that our big lilac was cut in half by its trunks breaking off with the weight of the snow.

But even our great big Forsythia, usually such an

enthusiastic mound of psychodelic color in the Fall, is looking a bit downtrodden.

I hold out hope that come Spring, our perennials and bushes and trees will

have all sprung back and recovered.  Let's hope for a mild winter!

Have a lovely weekend!  Howard is going flying,

and I am putting on my Mad Scientist lab coat and experimenting.

 Double, double toil and trouble, Fire burn and cauldron bubble ... Cass

Link Parties!

At My Romantic Home, it's Show And Tell Friday.  Click here!

Feathered Nest Friday makes its home at French Country Cottage.  Click here!

The Charm of Home features Home Sweet Home on Fridays.  Click here!

It's Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground.  Click here!
Miss Mustard Seed hosts the Furniture Friday Feature.  It's a must visit -- Click here!

And it's Fertilizer Friday at Tootsie Time.  See what's still blooming, or not!  Click here!

Come Junkin' With Me

I'm heading across the state lines
into Pennsylvania to do some antiquing.

Okay -- junking.  My kind of hunting trip.

If you want to come along, you better be quick.  The red minivan leaves in about 20 minutes!

I'm checking out some Craigslist things.  Among them are these:

Now you know I don't like to spend more than $15 on anything.

So I may have to do a teensy bit of negotiating here and there.

I'm betting on me.

Right here in New Jersey, there's a beautiful Henkel-Harris hutch-style cupboard for sale -- for $50.

Fifty dollars for Henkel-Harris, top of the line, American-made furniture.

Someone needs to buy that puppy.

Or I'm in danger of buying it myself.

So, why am I buying more little tables and chairs?  I'll tell you tomorrow.

But now . . . I'm outta here!   -- Cass

Link Parties!

At From My Front Porch To Yours, it is Treasure Hunt Thursday.  Click here and visit!

At Tales From Bloggeritaville, it is Thrifty Thursday.  Click here!

Countdown to Thanksgiving

Okay, I've done it.

I've put a Countdown Clock in my sidebar,
and it's ticking down the very seconds
until it's time to take the turkey out of the oven.

2010

You know what this means?

It means making sure Howard's turkey shirt is hanging, all ready to wear, in the closet.

2010 -- He looks good in red, doesn't he?  Ladies, don't be jealous
because my hubby has a shirt with turkeys printed all over it.

It means pulling out the menus and shopping lists from years past,

saved on the computer, and tailoring them to 2011.

It means freshening up the linens and the napkins, renting those extra chairs, polishing the silver,

getting the white Thanksgiving china out of the breakfront, figuring out who is going to sit where

and, most of all, it means trying to check off at least some of the

To Be Done By Thanksgiving list.

The dreaded T.B.D.B.T.

It means, in short, that another Thanksgiving Day is just around the corner.

It's our favorite time of year.

2009

Last year, I forgot to plan a centerpiece for the table in the dining room, and ended up with this,

which was pretty underwhelming:

2010

So this year, I'm planning ahead.

This is hard for me; I work best under last minute pressure.

This morning I denuded the conservatory table of its Halloween decor, and just left Fall.

Including a big red Cinderella pumpkin, nestled in the middle

of that twiggy wreath that has come in so handy this season.

What do you think?

Can black crows stay through the Autumn, or must they be banished after Halloween?

Anyway, I'm thinking this wreath will be making an appearance on the buffet table on T-Day.

With either a plump pumpkin cradled within, or the big turkey that I used last week in a tablescape,

or even a cornucopia.  Or, possibly, Howard in his turkey shirt.

Wow.  This planning ahead is pretty neat.  I could get used to this.

Remind me of this comment when it's 30 minutes before people are supposed to arrive,

and I'm realizing there's no centerpiece on the main table.

It's a gorgeous sunny day in The Garden State,

and I am motoring south to New Brunswick for lunch with my daughter Anne, and some shopping.

That will be way more fun than staying home and watching snow melt.

I took this picture about 8:30 this morning; those are the steps right behind our house, up to the driveway.

It's been mild since the snow fell on Saturday, but there's just so much that it's still hanging around.

Happy Wednesday, my friends.

By the end of this week I'll have an announcement about a new venture,

and by then I should have the dreaded T.B.D.B.T. List written out.  

But today?  I'm having fun; hope you are, too!  -- Cass

Link Parties!

Susan at A Southern Daydreamer sponsors Outdoor Wednesday ...  Click here!

Kathleen at Faded Charm is the hostess for White Wednesday ... Click here!

Sue at It's A Very Cherry World sponsors Today Is Rednesday ... Click here!

Don't Laugh! Well, okay, go ahead.

I don't own a cloche.

Well, actually, I do.  But it's knitted, and I wear it on my head in cold weather when I walk the dog.

It is shaped like this hat, below:

That is not me.  That is not even I.
But my hat is the shape of her hat.
Cloche-shaped.

The cloche that I don't own is made of glass, and is modeled after the garden cloches of the Victorian era,

those mini-microcosmic greenhouse bells, that would coax delicate plants to survive in too-cold weather.

Rather like my knitted hat does for my head.

But today is the Cloche Party at Marty's A Stroll Thru Life blog, and I have always gotten

such a kick out of looking at everyone else's cloche vignettes that I thought I'd give it a whirl.

IF I had a cloche.

Necessity being Invention's Baby Mama, I took the closest thing I could find -- 

my grandmother's cheese dome -- and hired it as a cloche pinch-hitter.

I tried fitting the dog underneath, because he would look so darling under glass,

but alas! his head is too blocky and big.

 Plus, he kind of objected.

 So I resorted to inanimate objects.

Like this little metal pumpkin, and some fake bittersweet that I had to jam under the dome.

 I'm beginning to think a bigger cloche is the way to go.

Rudy, our resident ghost, wasn't any more pleased than Dion to be put under glass.

I think he looks pretty nifty, reflected twice in the carved circle cut into the glass.

Plus, you can see through him!  Yikes, he may really be a ghost.

Note his spiffy new comb-over hairdo.  He saw it on TV and wanted to try it.

 Antiques experts, where are you?  Marydon, you out there?

This cheese dome shows the scratches of age and use on the plate base.

It is cut with circles and stars, and there are some bubbles here and there in the glass.

 The dome top is heavy, and the finial handle is applied.

It does have a crack from one side of the handle to the other; it's had that crack as long as I can remember.

 I know nothing about its origins, except that my grandmother bought it used.

She said it was already old when she bought it, and she set up housekeeping in 1900.

It's not large; not much fits beneath.

But my last cheese cloche vignette is the one you've been waiting for . . . 

it Gives Thanks because this silly post is over!

For some real cloche vignettes, with wonderful ideas for your own decorating,

visit Marty at her A Stroll Thru Life blog, for her Cloche Party on Tablescape Tuesday.

Click here!

Can you stand one more Halloween picture?  Or two?

This one is our nephew Garrett, holding his year-old twin boys on Halloween.

 Calvin on the left, Luke on the right.  How cute are they?

Our daughter Anne teaches Theatrical Makeup at the university where she's a grad student.

Yesterday she did a quick demo of a scarecrow face on herself, for her class.

I think the purple brings out the hazel in her eyes.  :-P

The snow is still melting here, but we are seeing grass.

Woo-hoo! -- Cass

Thanks to The Graphics Fairy for the image of the vintage glass garden cloche.