Doing what I love best…

…okay second best! I love being with my family best, but coming in a close second is decorating. What?? You didn’t know that?? 

I just love being the keeper of our home. But I often wonder how it happens that some of us are this way and others are not. My sister could care less about being at home, maintaining a home, or decorating a home even though we were raised by the same mother who did it all from upholstery to drapery making to furniture refinishing to canning her own produce from her own gardens. Martha Stewart couldn’t begin to compare to my mom before Alzheimer’s robbed her of all that.

My daughter is not nearly as interested in cooking, decorating, and domestic arts as I am either. I know she loves and appreciates what I do, but she is not like me at all in that way. Then again, I can’t dance and do the splits like she can either! Whatever makes some of this way, I am really glad I do enjoy it. I can’t think of anything more fulfilling than making a house a home and haven for me, Mr. Red Door, family and friends.

Okay, I will admit, for some us though it goes waaaay beyond that. Yes, we belong to a special group. Tweakers International I am calling it. I saw those homes in the summer issue of APP that were across the big pond and I know many a prim decorator up there in Canada and I see visitors from all the world who stop by my blog so it isn’t limited to just in the good ole USA.  I volunteer to be the first President of this new group. Are you ready to join?? I am collecting the dues right now. What dues you ask? Your dues are one piece of redware or an antique basket or piece of pewter. Just leave me a message if you need my mailing address.  Not sure if you qualify for this exclusive group? Well if this describes you, get ready to join…

We can’t leave well enough alone. We get it just right and take 300 pictures from every angle on every camera setting during the day and at twilight. We burn our $12 beeswax candles down to the nub to get the pictures just right. Then we post the pics on our blog and FB and Picture Trails and before the web pages are even published we have already tweaked it and of course it is EVEN  BETTER, so we have to start all over again. Sound like you or some you know??  Who just said MY name out loud? I heard YOU! Are you ready to join yet??

Well thank goodness for us – huh?  Same old same old would get pretty darn boring, wouldn’t it? LOL I can hear the men folk saying “NO NO NO! I want same old same old. Just once I want to come home and know EXACTLY where everything is.”

Poor Mr. Red Door. The only time the house didn’t change was when I was in the hospital! He didn’t even get a chance to enjoy same old as he was so worried about me. Recently when I asked for his help to un-assemble a bit piece of furniture, he asked me “Honey, why do we have to keep changing things?’” I told him “We can keep the same house and I can keep changing things in it or we can keep changing houses. It’s no different than you going to play golf over and over and over. You have already hit the little white ball on the same course with the same clubs hundreds of times but you keep doing it to see if the outcome is different – better. It’s the same with me and my decorating. I need to see if the outcome is different – better. Tell you what, I’ll quit when you quit.”  He just smiled and went golfing.  Good man!! 

So that is what I do and why. And I am here to share it all with you and I won’t even bother to explain what has already changed since I took these pictures. HA!!

You know I love me some redware and I got 2  new pieces recently from Turtlecreek Pottery. I put this plate here in the dining room. Lili is fascinated with this little bureau lately so the décor is set up with things she either ignores or can’t hurt.

And I got a wee little plate too and put it in my office ~ which has seen a lot of changes. Notice I didn’t call it office/guest room anymore?

This is to the left as you stand in the doorway.

And more changes in here…. this is straight ahead when you stand in the doorway…

This is where I blog. That red cabinet on top of my desk was in the laundry room/bathroom downstairs but someone told me I needed it upstairs somewhere. So I moved it up here. Well Mr. Rd Door moved it up here. I won’t tell you what he wanted me to say to my friend with that bright idea! Good thing she lives all the way down in Columbia, SC.

Oh now look at that? Is she not the cutest little bear sitting there. Want a closer look?

Why it is one of the very special A Primitive Place magazines collectors series summer bears. Hand crafted and designed exclusively for APP by the very talented Lana Testa of Winterberry Primitives. Well look at her, she can’t bear to part with her summer issue!

To order YOUR very own APP collectors bear or any of the previous dolls in the series, you can click ~here~. 

To go to Lana’s blog, click ~here~. Hopefully she will be sharing some of her garden pictures soon! Her home and yard are just gorgeous! How do I know… well just wait for the fall issue for that answer!

So continuing around the room…

Yes, I know, I still haven’t hid that TV. Some things take time you know….

Going around to this corner… did you notice something missing? It is the daybed we moved down to the family room.

Now when I have an overnight guest, they will have privacy, a TV, a microwave and dorm refrigerator at their disposal and access to their own bathroom for their stay. Oh no, I guess that means I need to find something to replace the red cupboard we moved up here won’t I?

I moved an older wing back chair up from the family room so I have a place to read and relax. And I moved my little antique desk and ladder back from the living room in here too. I am not quite done with this space, but it is getting there. I am looking for just the right piece to replace that shelf/peg rack and I’d love a new chair at some point. 

So you ask, what took the place of the desk in the living room? Well the dry sink of course! Remember I got the antique dough box table and new lamp for over here where the dry sink used to be? I already tweaked this since you last saw it and put my old black stockings on the blanket crane.

So here is the dry sink  and  the AWESOME new Kathy Graybill tavern sign I got to hang above it.

I am in love!

I got it from one my favorite sources for colonial goodies Circa Home Living. I have admired tavern signs in several homes for some time now and I decided I just had to have one. Circa Home Living has several different styles to choose from so it was hard to decide. But the colors and size and design of this one spoke to me. If this speaks to you or to see the other designs offered, you can go their online catalog if you click ~here~! Noel and Verge are a pleasure to do business with!

See the black iron candle holder? They sell that in their catalog too. They also have opened Circa Home Sampler in Nobleboro, ME in the Nobleboro  Antique Exchange if you are in the area. I need to find myself in that area sometime soon! You can read more about it on their blog if you click ~here~.

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Most of this post was written before I had my little stay in the hospital so I wanted to take time now to say thank you for all of the well wishes and prayers and comments after my last post. I am so sorry that so many others are also feeling the same stresses in their lives while doing their best to help ill and aging parents,  but it is a comfort to know there are others to commiserate with. It is both immensely rewarding and immensely difficult at the same time.

This once again reminds me that bloggers and prim friends are truly the best! If we could bottle up all the love and goodwill I have seen in blog land since I started blogging  over 3 years ago and we spread it out to places that need it the most, there would be no more war or hunger or poverty. I am sure of that! And to be on the receiving end of some of that goodwill is just the most amazing feeling ever. I felt so warm reading all the comments and prayers and love. My eyes leaked more than once.  For that, I thank you from the bottom of my heart!!

Until next time – prim blessings, Linda