Side table in master

another oil painting and a great old trunk, french enamel vases (the only thing i got from delia from the money she owed me!)

Guest Bed # 1

Where aunt amy stays, the shabby chic room. soon enough this will become baby # 2 room hopefully ...

Guest Room # 2 and Bath

This is a treasured piece - the wedding quilt my sister made us. Full of fun bright colors and I love it! To preserve it I put it on our guest bed so it will last ! Used my old display pieces from 10 yrs ago (baubles) as a headboard. The small olive chest of drawers my mom paid 25 cents for at the salvation army before I was born. She also paid the same for the chest of drawers in Mack's room which was in my room growing up.

Just picked up this cute bamboo bench in the bath at a garage sale for 8 bucks.

Mack's Bathroom and Wall Of His Room

Mack's room is a hodge podge too, isn't my whole house? brad asks when we are going to have grown up furniture. but his wall has a decoupaged M i did for him, a needlepoint of a yellow lab by aunt amy, another yellow lab pic i just liked, and a photo from etsy that a gal took of an apple orchard back east called "mack's" -i collect a lot of mack bulldog paraphenilia for him. the other picture is a dolan geiman i just bought for him !

1/2 Bath Main Floor

This bathroom is a hodge podge of some favorites as well. The horse collar was my father-in-laws that I had framed. The wall has an old oil panting that i bought at a garage sale for 25 bucks and i am still in love with the colors. i love unframed old canvas paintings, i just can't usually afford them!

The winged art piece and italian tole candelabra were gifts from my girlfriend mel. the polka dot pottery piece i picked up at the art institute's student sale they have every fall for under 20 bucks. i also love this chunky old dictionary. The table was from the garden city antique mall for 15 bucks.

Sunroom

This room houses Mack's play room and my studio space... I love this wooden piece of furniture purchased my by favorite rustic friend - it has served as an island in 2 homes, a tv stand and now holds Mack's books and family pictures. The piece behind it of old license plates is always a conversation piece.

the huge wooden basket is one slaves used to pick cotton in the late 1800's - not a bargain, but a treasure.

Family Room cont.

Family Room

Its hard to grasp the scale of this recent addition to our house. this armoire is a bit over 10 feet tall and 6 feet wide. Even friends who have seen photos and then see it in person say - holy cow. It may be my most favorite piece yet and was purchased at auction by my husband for a mere $100. Of course it cost me $150 to move it, but still a small price to pay for this bohemeth vintage lovely. The wood alone is worth that ! It was bugging brad how they stripped wood from it in sections - and I had been wanting to do something with the vintage cow tags I had him buy me at a farm auction years ago. So i started slapping the cow tags on the door. That seemed to disuade his distaste of that stripped door front next to the white one. This piece houses our tv equipment, my computer, fax machine and many files. Its a mini office space and I love it ! My collection of various fat chickens and roosters sits atop it... I have my eye on a great folk art wooden one at a mexican restaraunt in atlanta to go in the remaining vacancy on the top right. On either side of this are another of my favorites. When I was planning our reception i took this photo of brad's old 2 cylinder john deere that i wanted to have made in to stickers to use to address the invitations to our receiption. I needed it manipulated to match my red bandana color scheme so my friend cathryn simmons doctor it in photoshop. she and her partner lori created these 2 painting as wedding gifts to us and i treasure them.

Al is sitting next to my chicken coop i use as a makeshift fireplace screen, only because i haven't put the industrial wheels on it to make it into the coffee table i want just yet.

Either Side of Entry Way

The stretched burlap is one of my favorites. Brad begged a bar owner for this piece and it remained folded in his closet back in Iowa for years. As is almost every framed piece in my house, it was done by the very talented artist Lori Buntin - who I entrust all my framing to. It says - if you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullsh(covered by the bull horn). The suitcase below holds all my mom's old recipes, the hereford plaster bull also came from the garden city, mo antique mall also. Brad also happened to go to the antique mall the same day and spotted the other hereford in more "pristine" shape. Its weird how we do that... needless to say he was thrilled with my purchase. The bull is resting on another piece I love but you can't see - a vintage silveware box, with "silverware" stenciled on it from long ago.

The other side of the hall is another freebie - old literature files that came out of my dad's old office in our basement. He brought these from an old employer back in the 60's and they were old then. (I notice I have a love of things with lots of compartments). There is another set in the basement that I would like to nab one of these days! I also love books and using books as displays. A top these books are a vintage travel suitcase with a fun kitchy pattern and another politically incorrect piece of art I own, this vintage poster depicting how to roll a cigarette. I think its a riot, and when I saw the bold turquoise, red and black, I had to have it. It is from one of the fabulous STUFF artists, one from NYC.

Dining Room

I love adding to my collection of T's. My dining table I bought in Leavenworth, KS for 125 about 8 years ago. It was a great turquoisey stain made from old reclaimed wood. I foolishly painted it white for my shabby condo and had regretted it ever since. I took it out to our backyard recently and decided to strip it, i liked the "not completely stripped" look I was getting, along with the faded turquoise/green hues coming through so I left it. The hutch and 2 chairs on either side of it I antiqued, they were given to my free by my brother and sister-in-law. My mom found them at a garage sale for them right after they got married 23 years ago, so he was passing them along to me. The 2 yellow chairs on either end of the dining table belong to that set as well, i just put $15 ikea slip covers (made for parsons chairs) on them. I had 4 red ladderback chairs with my dining room but recently gave them away. I'm in search of retro metal zinc chairs - that I can afford !

Of course my cowhide rug works perfect in here - i think !

To the left of the hutch is another Mack memoribilia - the Mack bulldog saying Built Like A Mack

Kitchen cont

Kitchen

My iron kitchen set has been so good to me. Its heavier than hell, but was FREE on the side of the road. Mel and I picked it up one Saturday afternoon coming home from junking - her minvian was FULL FULL, but we had to grab this. We fit in what we could and ended up walking one of the chairs home (luckily found this around the corner from the house). I have recovered it once for my shabby chic condo and now did a fun bright print ...

I also love my "The Jeweler" sign that my hubby and I spotted in an antique mall in Garden City, MO where our farm is. I said "I have to have that" just as a huge thunderstorm was hitting. Our windows were down in our car, as was our dog, so we left. I went back the next week and bought it, the same night Brad came home and was so sad, telling me he went back to buy me that sign but it was gone. Yeah, because I bought it !

the green bench was another old memory. it is from roundhill, our community "barn" tennis and swim club where i grew up and lifeguarded. these were the benches on the tennis courts built by a late friend of the family so they hold special meaning to me. many a tennis match i won and lost while taking a break on this bench. it was a "wedding present" courtesy of the roundhill board after our reception there. was sitting in a store room long forgotten and i wanted it ! mack loves to climb on it and it fits perfectly below my windows in my kitchen. funny how new houses we move to have a way of fitting my things in a new way.