The yellow dining room

Last time I showed you the living room and promised to show you my newly painted dining room in a day or two, but I was distracted by a few things. 

One of which I'll share at the end of this post ;)

So here it is...

I chose the next color up from the living room color, which is a little lighter. It's called Behr's Whisper Yellow, which I also used in my bedroom.

Here are the three rooms together now that they've all been painted in different shades of yellow...

Looking into the office...

Looking into the kitchen...

Just like I did in the living room, I used Behr's Sagey for inside the cabinets.

I think it all flows pretty nicely and it's much more cheerful in the house now :)

So what have I been up to, since I last posted?

Well, quite a few things, but the most important was my daughter, Annie's birthday.

She wanted something simple this year so there was just three of us... Annie, her friend Nikki and me. For dinner we had, at her request, filet mignon, garlic mashed potatoes and steamed artichokes with marbled brownies for dessert.

The flowers were one of my gifts to her.

My baby is now 20 years old.

Amazing how time flies.

xo

rue

PS

I promise I'll get to your questions on my last couple of posts, answer your emails, and visit you soon.

It's just been a whirlwind of activity around here, with going out of town, birthdays and cleaning and this is the first time I've been able to sit down long enough to post.

Oh and snow... but I'll share that soon ;)

Almost

I'm almost ready to come out of hiding :)

I'm sorry to have been gone so long, but as you can see, it's been a little busy around here.

Scary stuff, huh?

Anyway, once I started painting the living room, I realized that I needed to paint all of the trim as well.

Then I realized that I couldn't paint the living room and leave the dining room as it was, so...

That was painted as well.

After that I had to paint the trim and corner built-ins too.

I'm sure you all know how that goes ;)

But don't worry, after it rained for over a week, eventually I got outside and noticed the changing leaves falling....

and went to a pumpkin patch and brought some pumpkins home.

So, Autumn has finally arrived with cooler weather and I'm almost done painting the last of the trim.

And I look forward to relaxing very soon.

Well, as much as I ever relax ;)

xo

rue

Ready for their close up

Sorry, I couldn't resist hinting at the Gloria Swanson quote for my post title ;)

Have you seen Sunset Blvd.?

Great movie.

Anyway...

The other day when I posted my hutch, quite a few of you asked about the plates.

Well, they have been on great grandma's hutch since my mom had it in her home and I rarely ever saw her change them out. So when they were passed on to me along with the hutch, I put them right back where they have been most of my life.

Actually since 1979, to be exact.

You can just make them out in this picture of my last house as well.

They're Franklin mint and show the seasons.

January, February, March, April...

May, June, July, August...

September, October, November and December.

Although, they're probably not worth much monetarily, they're priceless to me.

Also up there are some little plates from my dad's mom and some cups and saucers.

Shhh... don't tell the others, but the one below is my favorite of the three ;)

They all live happily on the hutch with a couple tea sets from my great grandmother and a couple pieces of Ironstone :)

And that's where they will most likely reside for the rest of my life and hopefully after that.

I'm kind of a sentimental gal, if you haven't noticed ;)

xo

rue

Kat's birthday

One of my very best friends, Kat turned 60 this past week, so I had her over for a nice quiet dinner.

She's not one for big shindigs ;)

I used my matching vintage table mats and napkins, my great grandmother's silver (that I use everyday) and some vintage wine glasses.

For the flowers, I used her gift, which was a miniature rose bush.

It came in that little burlap bag.

Pretty cute, huh?

Anyway, she's an avid gardener, so I knew she'd like it :)

Here she is laughing after she blew the candles on her birthday poundcake.

She didn't think about the fact that there was powdered sugar all over it and blew pretty hard, so it went everywhere lol 

Note to self...

No powered sugar next time ;)

A few other things about this picture... 

I'd give you the recipe for the poundcake, but sadly it wasn't that great. I should have stuck to my old recipe. Oh well... Kat said she liked it and took most of it home.

Also, it looks like Annie is flipping off the camera, but I'm pretty sure she's just doing something weird with her hands.

Or at least I hope.

And lastly, she didn't use her phone during dinner, but she was just about to take off again to her friend's house and sat back down real quick for the blowing out of the candles. 

Let's not even discuss the coke can on the table. 

She knows better.

Kids...

Ahem.

And here we are:

Two peas in a pod.

I love her dearly :)

Dearly enough to have my picture taken with her, which most of you know I'm not a fan of.

If you're reading this Kat....

Happy Birthday again my sweet friend.

Love you!

And please don't kill me for sharing your pictures or your age ;)

xo

rue



PS

Thank you all so much for all your kind words about me on my feature and welcome to all my new visitors.

It's so nice to meet you!

I'll be visiting those of you with blogs and replying on the last couple of posts to those that don't, as soon as I can.

Thank you again!!

Polishing antiques

For the last few days I've been polishing all the antiques in my home.

There's a right way and a wrong way to care for them.

Bad:

Oil

Good:

wax

There's hundreds if not thousands of websites that will tell you the reasons, but this link is the best one that I found.

It's a time consuming job, but one that will last about a year, with just a wipe down or a flick of the feather duster once a week.

My great grandmother's hutch is a great example of how it works.

This is what it looked like last month:

It was kind of dull and it had been about a year since I had waxed it.

First, I took everything off....

and here it is all nekked:

This is the wax I use:

Cautionary note:

It has turpentine in it, so if you smoke, don't light up a cigarette while using it or you'll catch yourself on fire, and if you use it on a wood mantel, wait a day or two before you light that puppy up or you might burn the house down.

Here is the hutch with the bottom waxed and polished, and the top untouched, so you can see the difference:

And here it is all finished with everything put back:

If you're wondering what that brown furry thing is underneath, Bubba likes to have a "bubba nest" next to the heating vent :)

Anyway, big difference, huh?

A few closeups while we're here...

See the tulips on the secret drawer?

The big plates were my mom's that she collected from Franklin Porcelain in 1979. 

Each one depicts a month in the year.

The bird casserole dish was my moms, the two tea service sets were my great grandmothers, the little plates were my grandmothers on my dad's side and the rest has been collected by me over the years.

Oh and hold on to your pants, because I actually have two springtime decorations!

One:

And two:

Exciting, right?!

I guess not, but I do have flowers all around the house right now, so that should make up for my lack of Spring decor ;)

Daffodils were $1.75 for a bunch at Safeway, this last week!

The daises were a splurge, but I love them :)

Now the rest of it needs to get polished.... sigh. 

But, in the end it'll be worth it :)

xo

rue

PS

I've decided to not answer back every single comment on my posts and just answer questions when they're asked, which I still have to do at this moment from at least 3 posts back. I regret having to do this, but it was really time consuming! Besides, I'm not sure you see them anyway, since I never check back on the blogs I comment on, so I figure that you don't either and some of you had mentioned that. 

Instead, I'll just visit those of you that have blogs, which I love doing anyway, and answer those that don't have blogs on my posts or email back if I can :)

I do want to say though....

Thank you so much for all the sweet words that you write every time I post. 

It truly warms my heart.

I really mean that :)