Help I'm Lost

I have not been able to log into my blog for a week.  I think I missed something while I was gone.  Hopefully I'll get it fixed soon.  I have been busy sewing getting ready for my fall shows. I've missed keeping up with all your blogs. Hope to be back soon.

My Weekend Project Finally Finished

 TaDa!

 Remember the chair I settled for when I couldn't find a glider?

The old green chippy, rusted metal chair?

Well I found it's mate and now they are painted

a pretty retro green and yellow!

 I was driving to work when I saw this glider

on the driveway at a yard sale!

I stopped

 backed up

and purchased it on the spot. 

I knew it was just like the chair I had bought at the antique show. 

I even thought the greens matched.

My husband, once again

 was called upon, just like with the blue door, to go retrieve the glider.

Upon seeing it I got the rolling of the eyes

and

"where are you going to put this?"

Well, I let a few weeks pass and then one evening while skeptical husband was in a good mood, I mentioned the color I thought I'd like to paint the glider and chair.  He told me what colors his grandparent's glider was and I knew I had him. 

I chose those colors since I am reliving life at my grandparents and I wanted to do something to remind him of his paternal grandparent's home too.

 Progress

I used an oil based primer to cover and seal the rusted spots

I consulted my paint friends at work and this is what I decided would be best for me.

 I used a paint brush instead of spray paint. 

It took longer but I do not do well with spray painting?

I get impatient and try to go faster and get runs.

 I am very pleased with the results!

Very vintage and retro.

And, my quilt from my broken swing matched great.

Here is the glider this morning after my mid-morning read and nap!

Latest book's I have been reading

 I received this book through The Library Things early reviewer program.  Just finished it last night and really enjoyed it.  I read a very scathing review on Library Things reviews and realized why there are so many types of books and how we can see things so differently.  Here is my review.

This is a fun, quirky story about a son who goes home to bury his dead cat on his childhood farm and finds the care giver for his Dad who has dementia is missing. Shakespeare (the son) decides he has to stay and get the farm in order. Many serious life events begin to unfold.

Gregory actually addresses these life issues in a fresh and humorous way that leaves you thinking, maybe I take life to seriously. I have personally experienced Alzheimer’s disease in my family and our own foreclosure of our home. East of Denver left me chuckling, thinking, and remembering things I had forgotten about. I enjoyed the relationship between father and son. Instead of expecting life to be “normal” Shakespeare just takes it one day at a time, with humor.

I enjoyed the simplistic writing style and Gregory’s wit. He made me rethink some issues and his knowledge of life on the farm is true to life.

I enjoyed this book very much. He made me smile, taught me some new things and kept my interest all the way through. And the cover of the book really made me smile at the very end! I hope Mr. Hill writes more in the future.

I Have been wanting to read this book for years. I am not even sure how I came across it.  I finally decided to get it when I got my Nook.  I thought it would be a different kind of book but it was a historical narritive put together from letters and documents from many of the men who went on this adventure.  I found it draging at times but I did enjoy learning about life in the Amazon and about this time in President Roosevelts life. All in all I am glad I read it.  If you don't like 2nd hand information, kind of reading like a text book then you may want to pass.

 Again another book I have owned for awhile but didn't fit into my reading schedule till now.  I did enjoy this book even though I found it frustrating at times.  Here is my review for Library Thing.

Having attended an independent church I could relate to so much if what Sheri wrote in her book The Rapture of Canaan.  The crazy beliefs and lack of freedom brought back memories of how I felt when I began to attend the Pentecostal church.  Sheri’s writing style for this book was spot on and very believable.  I found it hard to put down when I had other things to do.  I just wanted to see what Ninah was going to do next.  So many times I wanted her to just run and run and run.  I enjoyed Nanna, and her independent thinking. I found it frustrating that she didn’t speak up and change some things but her love and devotion to her husband was inspiring. We don’t find many people who believe in dedicated love like this anymore.  As frustrating as this community seems to be,  it is how life really is in so many cultures. I feel Sheri did a wonderful job relating her thoughts in this area very well and kept me coming back for more.  For me, I would have ended the book differently but I did change my situation in my life story so that’s all that matters.

This was my book clubs choice for July. 

I was hoping for a much better story.  I found the reporting of the battle, life in the small town during this time to be very interesting. I find it hard to imagine living with war going on just outside my door even though I know it does and has for ever.  This review from another Library Thing reviewer about sums it up for me.

This is one of those works of historical fiction in which the historical part was really interesting, but the fiction was just so-so. Carrie McGavock,aka The Widow of the South and The Keeper of the Book of the Dead, is a fascinating historical figure. She realized her purpose in life after the nightmarish battle in franklin Tennessee during the Civil War. Her purpose? To care for and watch over the dead, numbering 9200! I was not particularly engaged by the fictional part of the story however. It felt as if the author was trying too hard t make each character amazing in some way, and the plot too mystical. For me it just didn't work.

My weekend project is just about finished. Can't wait to share photos!



Newest Vintage finds

 I went to our local antique extravaganza looking for a metal glider.  I did not find one so I settled for this chippy bouncy chair.  It's very fun to rock in so I think I like it better than a glider.

 I have been on a mission to find real feed sack fabric at a reasonable price so I can repurpose it into bags and pillows and not have to charge an arm and a leg.  I found these 2.  I really like the colors.

 As usual I found more really pretty fabrics to work with.

 Not everyone likes my pastel pallet so I decided to look for browns and blues.  I discovered that it is hard to find brown quilts because the color brown was hard to find and when they did get brown the fabrics tended to not hold up.  I found this cool crazy quilt.  Can't wait to start cutting on it.

 3 aprons .50 each.  Loved the reuse of the old fabrics here.  I'll also cut these up for something ;)

 I couldn't leave without something for me!  More red kitchen items to add to my displays.  I was so pleased to find the enamelware coffee pot!  My husband...not so much.  Who decorates the stove?

 Doesn't the spice box and old jar add a great touch to the display I already had going on here?

 We have a local dairy farm turned in to a mega family fun spot just outside of Yellow Springs, Ohio.  Young's Dairy.  My girls came home to visit and Liz brought a friend from Chicago so we spent the day in our favorite town of Yellow Springs and went to Young's for ice cream.  I decided to take a few photos of the animals. (My girls included!)

We took a walk down our lane to see the river and here are the girls and Cooper.

We had a lot of fun that day.

I love it when Liz and Miranda come home to visit, it's just so hard to fit everything into just a few days.

It's been really crazy in my life right now and we still have issues with our internet.  I started this blog once before but in the middle of uploading the images we lost contact with the server.  So frustrating!

I am working on a project related to something in this post so hopefully next week I'll be finished and can have photos to share!

I think it will be something you'll really like.

Have a great Weekend.

Vintage chippy door

 Here it is!

 Isn't it lovely? 

For now I am putting it in my garden that I have this year. 

Maybe I'll do something different next year.

 This is why I love it. 

See all the details in the wood work?  Now with age and pealing paint....

AHHHHH!

I have been such a bad blogger as of late. 

I have images of my latest vintage purchases and hope to show you next Tuesday.

Enjoy your Sunday!

I got my door!!!

I posted about this door here http://www.theeccentriclady.blogspot.com/2012/02/old-chippy-neglectedim-in-love.html

I was driving past this house the other day and saw it leaning on the garage.  They had torn the house down last week and I wondered about the door.  The man said they were thinking of keeping it but he would let me know if I could have it.

It was just leaning there for almost a week.  He didn't call and I kept driving past everyday on the way to work thinking, someone is going to steal it. 

Sunday my husband and I were driving home from dinner when I got a call on my cell.  It was the neighbor of this house and a friend.  She said her husband went over to introduce himself to the new neighbor who is tearing down the house.  The man said " I have the door here waiting for your friend but I don't have her number."  My friend called right away. 

We just happened to have my husbands van so we went right over!

I had not told my husband about the door, haha.  So he had no idea what this was all about.

Husbands just don't get the need to rescue beautiful junk.

As we were loading up the (very heavy) probably 90+ year old door, the wife and I were discussing the joy of finding old, rusty, chippy stuff.  Our husbands just smiled and shook their heads.

The best news of all

The door was FREE!

The man did not charge me anything.  He never really said a price but I was afraid he was going to try to gouge me since he knew how much I loved that door.

So, next job is to find a really cool place for it.  I envision it to be a door to a secret garden.  The place I wanted to plant didn't get worked on so the real dream won't happen probably till next year but I'll start working on the garden.  For now it is sitting along the shed by some other plantings and an old chair and window, so I will enjoy it here this season.

Need a life change

I'm really just blogging this to myself but tonight I have once again come face to face with the fact that I feel a calling to help people who are mentally challenged through art but I have no idea how to start. 

1. I have no education in this area.

2. I am the main bread winner so I need an income.

3. I'm not sure how to set aside time I don't have to volunteer.

4. I feel I can't make a change.

5. I just have no idea where to start. I just know that when I am involved with children or people who have special needs I feel a need to help, to encourage and to inspire them.  I want to make a difference in someones life.
Just going to work doesn't fulfill me. I didn't realize how my photography really did give me satisfaction when people were happy with their images and how I made them feel.  Making them beautiful and happy really was my motivation.  I miss that.

My life situation has set me up for change but I am stuck in a mind set of  "I can't do that" because I have no experience or connections in these areas, I'm not qualified, I can't afford to take a risk, etc. I know I'm rambling but if anyone has suggestions as to how to make a leap like this I'd like help. I don't want to spend the rest of my life just working to pay bills.  I want to help others.  If I can't do it with money I need to do it myself.
Please pray God leads me to where He is calling me and I am able to see opportunity when it presents itself and not listen to the fears and doubts that will come.
Thanks.