Wednesday 22 February 2012

Our home...

Before I post any pictures of my home I thought I would fill you in on a few things first.  I rent our home.  It is an early 1930's, 1 1/2 story, 4 bedroom, just on the outskirts of the city with about 1/4 an acre of land and I love it.



That being said there will be no posts of tearing down the walls, laying hardwood or ceramic tile.   No granite counter tops, new faucets or cupboards.

The washroom, well the toilet you can clearly see if you are sitting at the kitchen table!
A designer no no...I know.

The living room is 12 x 12 and the dinning room is 9 x 9 and there is no making either of them bigger.

It is however a warm cozy home that has a back porch/mudroom (which I love)  that enters into the large country kitchen.  One of my 4 bedrooms is on the main floor and that is the office, or should I say the drop off spot.  It is the room with the computer and the room that I craft in and is most of the time a mess.   I have considered moving it upstairs and bringing down a bedroom and for many reasons that would be a great idea. One being it would make a few great posts of before and afters and I can so see the office upstairs with the slanted ceilings.....dreaming.  However it is so nice to have the computer on the main floor. 

I have 3 decent size bedrooms upstairs with the slanted ceilings, my dream since I was a little girl.  None of them with closets. Not my dream since I was a little girl!

The basement....well lets just say there will never be a make over with pictures of that space.

So my point is, when you rent, your makeovers are limited to paint and decorating around the existing shell.    It is an old home with rustic baseboards and uneven walls with years of paint on them and I just have to work with what I got......I like what I have and have been working on making it a welcoming, relaxing, comfortable home.

These stories I will share with you.




Friday 17 February 2012

Tobogganing at Nana and Papa's

Who doesn't like to go tobogganing, it's walking up that hill that's a killer,  but when the hill is only 3 feet it can't be that bad.

I wasn't sure it would be so much fun either.  How much fun could a 3 foot hill be.  Just look at our faces.



As you can see we didn't have a proper toboggan but when you are little it really doesn't matter and it didn't to us.  It took us to the garage if we took a run for it and that was where the camera person stood.




This year Papa wanted to go bigger and better.  Oh if only we had a pick up truck with a shovel on the front,  we could plow the biggest hill possible in the yard.....the snow blower would have to do.

It went off the corner of the deck and out to the back yard about 40 feet.  Christmas eve we made a few test runs.  The pictures are not the best but you get the idea.






This year the youngest granddaughter (I'll call her "Flounder", affectionately nick named by her sister "Ariel") we thought would be ready to roll,  with a little bit of convincing we managed one run.





But sometimes, just feeding the birds with Papa is what they like most.







Tuesday 14 February 2012

Happy Valentines Day


I must say I have never really been one for Valentines Day. 


I don't send a card to my mom or my brother.
I have always felt Valentines was for "lovers" and if celebrated.....gifts, if any, had to be red and related.  You couldn't give a random book or cd.  A new pair of jeans or gift card.


However when your 4 year old granddaughter throws her arms around you in excitement and says, in answer to my question "What comes after Christmas?"

"Valentines Day!  Are you going to make me a card!?" 

Well what more could I say.   Happy Valentines Day my darling,  to you and your sister.

Love Nana
xoxox



Saturday 11 February 2012

Estate Sales and anything vintage

I love to shop Estate Sales.  Actually anything second hand.  Garage sales and antique shops.  I love vintage stuff.  It just has such character and history.  Among several other things I love old aprons, table cloths and collect vintage pillow cases.  I know it sounds strange.

I picked up a couple yesterday.  This boxed set never used nor open.  I especially like the embroidered ones like these beautiful yellow ones.  I had to have them.







I admit it took some getting use to,  to walk through someones home who may have past away, or moved into a seniors residence.  The family takes what it is that they want and then hire these people to have an estate sale.

We love and appreciate everything we buy and actually think about the history it has and who may have used it.  Several years ago I bought a square maple table with five leafs, this thing is huge and great for Christmas gatherings.  At this estate sale the children were selling the house contents.

They played cards at this table on the weekends and their dad didn't like the fact that it didn't pull tight together and the cards would flip in the middle when dealt so he pulled a bungee cord around the bottom of it to keep it tight together.  They said a lot of family stories were told at the table.  We said we would take good care of it.  It was banged up good with several scratches and big dents.
We never touched it.  I can come up the stairs and drop my laundry basket on it without worrying and I love that.

I always head for the kitchen first and my husband goes to the basement or the garage.  I love old dishes and am right now looking for a set of brown Staffordshire to use at Thanksgiving. 

We have bought many garden tools, lawn chairs, flower pots,  odd chairs ( I will feature them on a future post) lamps, small tables and several kitchen items.  I bought my first sewing machine at the same house I got my beautiful oak dining room set.  I would have never bought one new it would have cost thousands of dollars.  This set has since been pasted on to a new family.  I decided to change my style in the dinning room and the great thing was I didn't pay a lot of money for it.  I was able to pass the savings on to someone else to enjoy and bought another second hand set.

Sometimes you buy things that you don't really need but think are really neat.  Check out these hangers.  They fold!  I have never seen anything like them. I couldn't pass them up.







One item I have been watching for is vintage Christmas decorations.  I really only wanted one box but the woman bundled them all together and gave me a great price for them.
Sometimes this could be a problem.



  Last was the scrabble game I have been watching for.  The letters make great craft items.


 Hope you enjoyed my vintage finds.

Wednesday 8 February 2012

What's in a name...

Creating this blog has been everything but easy.

First off your name and every time you think you have thought of something creative someone else has thought of it first.  You think it's going to be easy, you want a name that represents who you are, that's catchy and looks good...and yet every single time you type in those perfect words, the system says taken but it suggests that you add your name to the end or the beginning.  No!  What was I thinking people have been blogging since 2007 thousands of them, how am I ever going to think up a name that has not been used!

Something that has meant a great deal to me has been becoming a Nana.  I have not had any children of my own but am the step mother (that sounds weird, not very often do I call myself that) to two girls one of which has two girls.  They call me Nana.... and it touches my heart every single time I hear them say it.  I truly love them with all-of-my-heart and I try to make every moment I share with them special.

I new this blog wasn't going to only be about them although I will share the odd touching moment (with mom's permission) but Nana is who I am now and well I love it and so I kept coming back to that name.  However...you guessed it, it was taken.  To get the ball rolling I chose something else and decided to use it as my secondary name.

Creating my layout and look.... now that is another story....and if I wanted this blog up now I better just choose something basic and tweak it as I go.



Monday 6 February 2012

Our winter visitor

There are many birds I hadn't seen before moving to this house, one of my favorites being the Pileated Woodpecker.  They range from 16 1/2-19" the male, as seen here, with the red stripe on his jaw.

We have had both the male and female come for a visit at the same time but have only captured a picture of the male.  There have been times when we haven't seen him for weeks, when someone comes to visit like my mom or our friend from Georgia, I've explained him to them, hoping that he will come to say hello and  he does,  like he has sensed that I wanted him to.

Sunday 5 February 2012

My first post...

Late last year while searching for colours for kitchen cabinets I landed on my first blog.

From there I went to another and then another.  I couldn't figure out what this blogging was all about.  Some had been writing about their lives for years.  Where have I been, I wondered.

Several months have past since then and I have enjoyed following, reading all about your adventures, raising your children, decorating and a little bit of everything in between.

Now, I am no writer and I am not sure how much of my life will be interesting but this year I have decided I am going to work at creating my own piece of blogging life.  Hopefully I will make it interesting enough for you to follow along.