Mr. Prof designer home

So… we got back from our week-long excursion at 11:30 p.m. Friday night.  As my husband and I were sitting with our morning coffee at 8:00 the next morning, we talked of the various house projects in the line-up.  30 minutes later, he had the air compressor and nail gun going.  I think it’s an addiction, this hobby of ours. 

The old kitchen (above) had a cupboard built into the backsplash to the left of the sink.  See?  It was extremely impractical.  Being 5‘3”, my little arms can only stretch so far.  We always thought a shelf under our lower cabinets could come in handy, but the cupboard and it’s doors prohibited us from building one. 
 

So this weekend, we covered up the glorified hole, and built the shelf we always wanted.  Using leftover wood, the project was free!

My husband built the brackets, so they are one of a kind.  Like him.  ;)

 
The antique salt and pepper shakers belonged to my grandma.  I adore them. 

They were passed down to my mom, and then on to me.  I don’t think I’ll ever let them go - until death do us part.  Sorry girls.

I wanted the shelf to be utilitarian, stacked with things we use multiple times a day.

Practical…

but pretty too.

Here's hoping that your Thanksgiving was a time of gratitude and family togetherness. The leftover's are dwindling here and we have begun with the adornment of white lights (natch) and grapevine deer grazing in our front garden.

I had intended to have the trees up today, but a weird injury has sidelined me... Don't ask me how, but on Friday I was lying on my stomach on the floor with my granddaughter while coloring and I twisted to the left to reach for something when I felt and heard a "pop" along my left rib cage. I'm positive it's soft tissue and a sprain but all the same it hurts like hell and has gotten worse over the last two days. So hauling trees around and getting tubs of ornaments down is on hold.

In the meantime, I want to share a redo of the guest room with you that was inspired by a cute little dresser that was given to me by my mom. It belonged to my great~grandma and has been living in Indiana with a family friend who bought it at the sale they had years back. Mom decided she wanted me to have it and bought it back from her friend and they were nice enough to bring it to me on their last visit. It was stained brown so of course it needed a facelift, but the glass knobs are original.

The room is in reverse of it's previous arrangement and this set up makes it look much larger and works so much better. Isn't it funny how you just know when you finally get it right?

The first pic is of course the dresser. Please enjoy the tour and I'll be back soon with Christmas decor pics...

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I  hope you all did too.
Two of the boys/family went to the in-laws so we had a small gathering but still wonderful…as usual there was enough food for an army but oh it tasted so good. We had leftovers last night but that’s the last I want to see of it. Love it but enough is enough.
Now I’m ready for something else.

We had two of our grandchildren here Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday and had lots of fun planned.

Emily made place cards for our Christmas dinner while Joe played with his Lego’s (his favorite things to do in his spare time)
I had printed out an old time Santa head on aged paper and Emily glued them onto aged tags and then wrote names on – we’ll tie them onto the napkins…all her idea!

They also made ‘snow’ – we bought the pack at a prim shop and thought they would enjoy it and they did…we also bought some Winter figurines to use with it. I think you can buy that snow most anyplace, especially at places like Walgreens, CVS and the like…it’s called ‘REAL SNOW’

This is Emily’s – two boys throwing snowballs
 

And Joe’s is the snowman and deer

We also made Marshmallows! What fun that was…messy but fun!
 

Emily had a Mickey Mouse sweatshirt that had shrunk up quite badly so she asked if I could make a pillow out of it so we did that too. I think it turned out adorable and she was a happy camper to be able to still have it in some form.

From sweatshirt…
 

To pillow
 

Now onto my weekend…well, it just started but it started out great.

A friend and fellow blogger ANN from A Hole In The Basket Primitives, from Ohio, is in Wisconsin visiting family for the holiday and she and her husband Kevin came here for the morning.

 
We first exchanged gifts (her husband had made an extra blanket crane and I wanted one and she chose some of my items plus I threw in a little surprise too) then went out for breakfast and then on to a craft show…it wasn’t very good…lots of fleece, painted items and jewelry – hard to find anything fun or Prim…but I did get a PEWTER CREAMER & SUGAR SET…loved the patina on it and it was only $12.00 for the set.
 
but…this was on the other side…now I just think it was horrible to destroy an antique like this! I’ll display it turned around – I wouldn’t use it as a creamer and sugar anyway because of the lead content.  But isn’t the design pretty?
 

We left the craft show and went to the one and only Prim shop near me – Finders Keepers – and I bought a MERCURY GLASS SANTA that stands about 9 inches.

Here it is next to the pewter for size
  Also bought one of these trees (not sure what kind it’s called though – do you know???)  I have a 3 ft. but wanted a taller one too so this is a 4 ft.

On Thanksgiving we gave Jamie a gift for always taking care of the kitties when we go away…my niece makes rag quilts and Jamie loves ours so it was the perfect gift.
 

My goodness – we NEVER go shopping on Black Friday. Never had the desire but Friday we went to Janesville to meet my brother/wife and niece and I wanted Tina to help me pick out fabric for quilts for our two granddaughters…well let me tell you it was a zoo. CROWDED to say the least…LINES OF PEOPLE waiting to pay and even bigger lines of people waiting to have fabric cut.

We finally got to get a number to wait in line…I had F08…they were on E24 and it went to 100 and then started on the next letter.
We had a loooong wait ahead and they weren’t calling off numbers very fast. People had carts heaping (I mean HEAPING) with fleece fabric – they had a HUGE SALE and people were taking advantage of it.

It would have been at least an hour and a half before we would have gotten taken care of – people said they had been in line for over an hour (they had numbers in the E) so we put my fabric back, bought what we had of other things and away we went to lunch to Applebee’s (good choice!).
So my Niece will go back this week and get what I had picked out.

So that’s my long weekend – now I’m ready to finish orders and get the fall decorations put away and start on my Christmas decorating which will be on-going for a week or so…it’s not getting done in one day cuz I just don’t have it in me anymore.

Now getting ready to watch the Wisconsin game…wish us well so we can go to the Rose Bowl !!!

Have a great weekend
Karen

I could start a whole blog based around all the things I'm thankful for (maybe that's not such a bad idea).  Even the hard things in life are blessings in disguise, if we choose to look at them that way.

Today, I'm reflecting back two years ago where I spent Thanksgiving Day in Poland.  I was in Warsaw, finishing up the final weeks of the adoption of our new daughter.  The rest of my family had already gone back home, and I would have been stuck in a hotel room alone with Charlotte if it hadn't been for two other American adoptive families, who invited me along to share in their Thanksgiving festivities. 

So, we feasted on Pierogies and expressed thankfulness together for the blessings of  the three special needs children sitting around the table with us that day.

This year, we are spending Thanksgiving with good friends.  Between the four families celebrating together today, 11 of the children have been adopted. 

So today, once again, I'm reminded and thankful that "God sets the solitary in families..." Psalm 68:6 and "He defends the cause of the fatherless.." Deut. 10:18. 


Thank you Lord for caring for these little ones.