Snow Day

There's something magical about waking up to the sound of the wind gusting outside the window, hearing the pings of hail hitting the skylight, and slowly opening the bedroom curtains to expose a world turned white.  I feel like a kid again, ready to yell, "Snow Day!"

As a kid, that meant getting out our ice skates and and heading to "the Pond".  Now, although my choices are a little less physically challenging, I still love that gift of unexpected, unplanned time.

Time to  . . . 

          Work on the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle.

Sew buttons on the two cardigan sweaters my friend Margaret just completed. Margaret is my knitting "mentor". In exchange for her help with my simple projects, I sew the buttons on her more complicated ones.

                    Margaret's sweaters are always colorful; just what I need to work on on this gray day.

Yesterday, Margaret showed me how to interpret the directions for this hat project which I got at Fiber College. I love the hand-dyed yarn. I promised to allow myself some time to start this project today. We'll see. Snow Days have an uncanny way of flying by!

And, every Snow Day should include some time for a good book, right? 

Here's my current stash!

In addition to everything else, DH and I spent an hour of our snow day working on travel plans. We're headed to Portugal (a magical place!) and Spain in October. I finally hit "Purchase" and booked the airline tickets today: Boston to Lisbon, Portugal and then  home to Boston from Barcelona, Spain, Can't wait!

                  And finally, this unplanned Snow Day is providing time to catch up on my little blog.

So much to do at Applegate Lane.

Happy Snow Day!

This post is linked to:

Sundays at Home Party at Little Farmstead

Happiness Is Homemade Link Party #254 at Bluesky at Home

Amaze Me Monday #298 at Dwellings

485th Inspire Me Tuesday at A Stroll Through Life

Procrastination

Happy New Year from Maine! I haven't posted for almost two months and I apologize to my few, but loyal, blog friends. I love to write, take photos, decorate, or go on adventures and blog about them and I've missed doing it. I promise to do better in 2019!

Winter has arrived here in coastal Maine but it has been mild so far. This is our street; across from it is beautiful Casco Bay, which leads to the Atlantic Ocean near Portland (the "other" Portland!)

With my stair project done, you'd think I would have taken a break but . . . you'd be wrong. The stairs came out so good sans wall-to-wall carpet that I plowed right ahead and started on the second floor, which houses my craft room, our master suite, and a second-floor laundry.

Which required squeezing every bit of furniture, clothing, and decor into the laundry room and bathroom while we worked on the floors. What a mess!

Here is a "before"picture of our master before the icky old aqua carpet was removed. 

We replaced it with red oak flooring. It was quite a learning process for me as there are so many new flooring products on the market today. I had no idea about the virtues of vinyl planks vs. engineered hardwood vs. laminate and so on.  After lots of research and speaking with helpful professionals,  we chose red oak engineered hardwood to compliment the floors downstairs.

We did have the flooring professionally installed and it looks beautiful. What a change!

 Here it is in my craft room, one side . . . 

And the other.

When  the floors were done, I decided to add some curtains to the craft room. I love how "boho" and unexpected these are, with their mix of colors and textures.

And since I've been reading at my craft table (and I LOVE to read), I treated myself to my very own reading corner in the newly-floored craft room. I had the lamp, bought a little C-table at Home Goods for my books, and ordered the chaise from Wayfair.  FYI: This was my first purchase from Wayfair and I couldn't be more pleased; they sent free fabric samples when I was deciding on the fabric and shipping was free and fast. If you've never seen my craft room, here's a link to a post I did about it. I spend most of my time in this room!

By the time the second floor was back together, it was Thanksgiving. Literally. I love these little bottle-brush turkey place card holders I found at Home Goods. Only $1.99 each. I gave them to my sister as a hostess gift on Thanksgiving Day. Heck, she was doing the cooking this year!

We  had barely finished all the Thanksgiving leftovers when the Christmas season got started. The first two weekends in December are "Christmas Prelude" in Kennebunkport , a great time for Christmas shopping, fireworks, and catching up with old friends.

Speaking of Kennebunkport, I have to acknowledge the passing of President Bush #41. He will be missed by all of us who he considered his neighbors. I am a liberal Democrat but knew him to be an exceptionally honest and caring man. He will be missed.

And then it was Christmas . . . .

I spent all my time making Christmas gifts and not enough of it working on my blog. 

I love this stamp. I had it made at Staples and use it to make my own gift tags, gift bags, gift wrap and Christmas cards on plain brown paper. Simple to wrap or embellish with plain old garden twine.

I found these vintage Bingo cards at an antique shop in North Carolina last March. 

With some cut and paste and a little ribbon, they made tree ornaments, a holiday banner for our fireplace, and Christmas cards for special friends.

I posted Tips for Stenciling Flour Sack Towels in August and, between then and December 25th, completed 46 (OMG!) of them to give as Christmas gifts. I found images I liked on the Internet and cut my own stencils on Mylar using an Exacto knife. 

                    The Kitchenaide mixer stencil took awhile to cut out but it's my favorite.

                                      Whew! No wonder I didn't have time left to blog!

             And then there were the driftwood Christmas trees to finish . . . 

Homemade Maine Christmas folk art with driftwood collected in Searsport, Maine.

But on Christmas morning, all of the preparation was worth it.

After Christmas Day, a walk on Wells Beach was exactly what was needed to center myself again.

For the New Year, I decided to go crazy and cut off all my hair. Really!

Here we are before; halfway before anyway . . . 

And after. 

Short, sassy, and oh so easy!

And, ever the optimist, I rejoined Weight Watchers AND Planet Fitness for 2019. 

Hope springs eternal!

Last weekend, we had a great day outdoors at the farm of our friends Survivor Bob and Peg Crowley in nearby Durham, Maine.  

The occasion was the Crowley's annual "Christmas Tree Burning Party".

So much fun and so nice to be outdoors on a mild winter's day .

Which brings me to today.

I think we're actually caught up.

I promise to be less of a blog-procrastinator in 2019.

Happy New Year!

Do You Have a Home Coffee Station?

I'm probably one of the last people I know to invest in a Keurig, but I finally did. With cool fall days ahead, the lure of quick single cups of coffee and hot chocolate was just too tempting. I figured though that if I was going to get a Keurig, I might as well have some fun with the color. I chose "Oasis", a pale turquoise,  just for fun!

It was coincidental that a few days after my coffee maker arrived from Amazon, I happened upon this discussion on Houzz, entitled, "Do You Have a Coffee Station In Your Home?". My new Keurig was on the kitchen counter but the photos from Houzz and other internet sites encouraged me to add to it to make my own "Coffee Station". Here are a few of my inspiration photos . . .


The white tiles in the photo above reminded me of my kitchen and I loved the use of galvanized metal to hold coffee supplies in the two photos below.


Photo Courtesy of Home CBF

  Photo Courtesy of Houzz

A three-tier galvanized stand was too tall to fit under my cabinets but I found a two-tier one that is perfect. They are available online but I happened to have a 50%off coupon at JoAnn's Fabrics, where they had the same one I was about to  order from Amazon. Under $15.00 and it holds creamer, sugar, Sweet 'n Low, utensils, coffee pods, and two mugs. Perfect!

The little white-framed chalkboard was all of $5.00 at Target, in the "Wedding" section of the Stationery Department of all places!

I love this farmhouse-inspired coffee station.

Photo Courtesy of Home CBF

And this coffee station (below) on a vintage wooden ironing board! I recently posted about the wooden ironing board I just bought but didn't see this in time for my post. What a unique idea!

Photo Courtesy of Home CBF


Photo Courtesy of Home CBF

I always thought I'd like a coffee station in our Master bedroom but decided that, with the layout of our house, it would probably be more trouble than it's worth.  I also thought it would still involve a trip downstairs unless we had room for a mini-frige and bar sink in the MBR as well. (We don't.)

But I'm really happy with the little "Coffee Corner" I did create, inspired by photos from favorite decorating sites.

Do you have a "Coffee Station" at your house?

If you were only a little closer, I'd invite you over for a cup of coffee at mine!

This post is linked to:

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage
Share Your Style 179 at The Red Painted Cottage
Flaunt It Friday #421 at Chic On a Shoestring Decorating
Farmhouse Friday Link Party #79 at The Painted Hinge
Thursday Favorite Things at Follow the Yellow Brick Home
Amaze Me Monday #286 at Dwellings

Repurposed Ironing Board

My friend, and felter extraordinaire, Kathleen Gerdes, recently had a "Yard Fair" at her home - half Yard Sale and half Craft Fair.  My big purchase? A vintage wooden ironing board! I had no place for it, and no use for it (I'm downsizing, remember?,) but couldn't seem to leave without putting it in my car. I'm so glad I did!

It was leaning against the side of Kathleen's garage when I first spotted it.

Kathleen had planned to paint sunflowers on it but, like most of us, had just too many projects going and never quite got to it.

I loved that the original label was still on the underside of the board. And it was made right here in Portland, Maine. 

 I couldn't find a date on the label but, judging from the clothes and hairstyle of the lady ironing her husband's shirt (Wow, this really is an OLD ironing board!), it's  probably from the early 1900's.

Did they really iron back then?

Did they really iron in heels back then?

After moving my "new" ironing board all around the house, I decided to check the Internet for inspiration. Other bloggers always have great ideas! These two are from Floriane at Floriane Lamarie Blog. Designer Floriane writes in French but the blog has a "translate" button which works well. (Any way, I think "vieille table a repasser" sounds a lot better than "old ironing board", don't you?)

This one is from Anita at Cedar Hill Farmhouse.

This ironing board image is from Pinterest. It caught my eye because I have the same sign (thought I was the only one!). It reads simply, "Work Hard and Be Nice". I haven't really gotten into the "Live, Laugh, Love" sign trend but this one really speaks to me so it now lives in my kitchen to remind me of what's important. I love how this vintage ironing board is styled.

 And here's mine. There were so many places I could have used it but it has finally settled into my dining area, right off the kitchen. It will be great for displaying seasonal vignettes as well as for serving when I entertain.

DH just cut back the hydrangeas for winter. They dried right in my vase. Aren't they beautiful?

And if you happen to find a newer ironing board at a yard sale, how about this idea for your laundry room, again from Floriane Lemarie?

Even though I refuse to think about Christmas yet, I had to share this ironing board from Becky at Beyond the Picket Fence.  How about the "tree lights" coming through the steam vents?

Who thinks up this stuff?

 For now, I think I'll just stick with my old wooden model.

Yours in repurposing . . . 

A lot more fun than ironing!

This post is linked to:

Amaze Me Monday #284 at Dwellings

Talk of the Town #144 at Knick of Time

Inspiration Monday at Refresh Restyle

Share A Cup #310 at Mrs. Olson blog

Share Your Style #178 at The Red Painted Cottage

Farmhouse Friday Link Party #78 at The Painted Hinge