Random Shots for Sunday Favorites

Ah, it is Sunday, this Blogger's Day Of Rest, thanks to Chari of Happy To Design, who hosts Sunday Favorites and lets us recycle old stories. And as you know, recycling is A Good Thing.

Two months ago, my computer was on the fritz,
and had flown home to the Mothership for repair. I improvised.

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(July 21st, Somewhere In New Jersey) -- If you have read my last few posts, you know I have not been able to load new pictures onto my temporary computer -- which is really my daughter Anne's laptop. Very frustrating; I love posting pictures -- usually too many!

So today I went into my blogger pictures album and chose some favorites from past posts -- including the picture that started it all.

Now . . . let's see if I can figure out how to load these pictures . . .
Yes! I can. (I am ridiculously proud of this.)

So, let's flip through a very personal little album of favorite pictures of That Old House.

Ring our high-tech doorbell,

and come on in.

We'll just wander around a bit, ok?
Please excuse any dust -- remember it is a protective coating for fine antiques.

I think my favorite room of all is our parlor. I fell in love with this room, naked.

The parlor was naked, not I.

It's just got such good bones:

(Much nicer than mine, which considering the fact that I am 120 years younger
than this room, is rather humbling. I creak more than these floors do!)

I have pictures of this room, furnished, but it's not done yet to my liking,
and these are favorite pictures I am sharing -- so you get the naked parlor pictures today.

Not so the dining room, which wasn't such a beauty in its naked state:

That's piles and piles of heavy draperies and elaborate lace sheers on the floor. They were donated to a thrift shop, and I hope have found a happy new life. The light fixture went also, replaced by a crystal jobby that looked way bigger in real life than it had on the Internet.

It's a bit over the top, but you can do that in a dining room.

We certainly go over the top at Christmas; I love this room at the holidays!

I wish I had a picture of the rest of the dining room all gussied up for Christmas.

Next year I will take more pictures!

For summer, I had planned on replacing the gold draperies with lots and lots of sheer creamy white -- floaty and dreamy. But, life interfered, and that particular project didn't get done.

We use the dining room a lot; it's cool in the summer, and always tidy and rather serene,
which is more than I can say for the rest of the house!

But this is my favorite use of That Old House:

Packed with young people.

This was taken after our House Blessing party in March -- these are friends of our daughters, who hung on afterward, helped us clean up (bless them), and talked well into the wee hours in the conservatory.

Ah, yes, the conservatory.

The newest part of That Old House is only ten years old, and it's a people magnet. We all love it, and although I am not yet happy with its looks, I do enjoy this room. It's especially fun in the winter:

Great fun, watching the snow fall. Coming downstairs and finding thick ice on the windows...

not as much fun, but at least the ice is all outside, and it's warm inside!

At Christmas, I loved sitting in the study, and looking at the big fresh tree in the conservatory:

Among the favorite pictures I found while browsing the online blogger album,
is this one of the bed in our yellow guest room:

Doesn't that look inviting? Love the light coming through the window, and I wish you could see the glass, closeup. It's incredibly wavy and wiggly, as the glass has melted over the decades into charming patterns. I haven't been able to get good closeups of the wavy glass in any of the rooms. Any hints?

Well I could keep posting pictures till I ran out of them, but

I will close with the picture that started it all:

Back in March 2007, I was browsing through Internet real estate listings, and a picture popped open of an old yellow house, slightly abandoned looking, with crooked dark green shutters, some scraggly landscaping -- and my heart actually skipped a beat. It was love at first sight.

I told my husband that evening that I'd found "our house."

"Fine," said he, "but we've got a contract to buy another house."

Fate intervened, and 12 months after I first saw this listing, we bought That Old House. The honeymoon isn't over yet.

I think it looks a little more lived-in now, but we've got a long way to go:

end of old post

See you Monday! I'm hoping to sneak out to a rummage sale at a
local historical society today. Sshhh... don't tell Howard! -- Cass

kentucky antique shopping and experiences on a houseboat, all in a wool skirt that beats up my other skirts

Photos by Neil!

1950's Yarn Weave Wool Skirt - antique shop  in southern Illinois

1960's Black Velvet Tank Top - thrifted at the Goodwill Outlet

Black Fringe Heels - Forever21

Cream Tote Bag - Shakespeare & Company in Paris

The skirt I'm wearing in these pictures is one of my all-time favorites. I bought it last spring from Neil's old piano teacher in his home town - she owns an antique store now - and bargained it down to $10, but honestly, it's probably worth so much more. It's a 50's skirt made in Greece with green and orange yarn woven into it and gold thread detailing. It's very stiff, so it gives an amazing shape! It came with a waist belt that you wear above the skirt. I hemmed it by hand (I didn't cut any of the skirt off because there's more yarn weave that I folded up and sewed inside!) and now that it's short, it's one of those pieces that instantly makes me feel good when I put it on.

Yesterday was a Winter get together on their new houseboat! On the way to the lake, Neil and I stopped at Cadiz, Kentucky, which has a reputation for a cute downtown and some awesome antique shopping. 

I found a great clip on bow tie to put in the shop as well as those pretty 50's black bow heels in the picture (also headed to the shop - they're too big for me!). I also found a bag filled with sewing patterns, mostly from the 1960's! And a home improvement magazine from 1969 with gorgeous full color pictures.

Cadiz antique shops were pretty impressive. One in particular, Cherokee Antique Mall, had so many vintage dresses in fantastic condition (including a gold evening dress from the 1940's).. but everything was so overpriced! Well, maybe not overpriced.. maybe these antique shop owners knew exactly what they had and priced it accordingly. That doesn't make for a cheap shopping excursion, though.

Isn't that purple settee (pictured above with some cute guy sitting on it) wonderful? It was priced at $450.. I'm still trying to decide if that was a legit price or not. Man alive, what I would do with a million dollars. It would have nothing to do with expensive cars or name brands and everything to do with antique shops and Etsy.

After shopping, we hit the lake with Neil's parents!

Today, we're headed out for some barbecue at my grandparent's house. It'll be fun to sit around and eat good food and hear my grandpa complain about politics! That's what holidays are all about, right?

What are your plans for the weekend?

junk shops equal.. well, junk. mostly.

Pictures by Mom!

Clown shirt - thrifted by my brother-in-law in high school, reworked by my sister 30 years later (just kidding, Danny!)

Striped skirt - H&M

Denim stirrup leggings, black floral hair pin, leaf necklace - Forever21

Boho bag - Flea market

Cutout heels, cross necklace - Thrift

So this is my 'edgy' clothing response to my last post - wearing a shirt with a clown crossed off that reads 'No Bozos'. I went straight from 50s housewife to biker chick, right? Well, it's one step at a time, and I believe my sister Ashley when she speaks of balance in a wardrobe. You can't be 100% feminine or 100% masculine all of the time - the best outfits are ones that combine the two genders seamlessly (not in an 'It's Pat' sort of way, either, but I do think androgyny plays a small part).

Speaking of my sister Ashley.. here she is! In a beautiful drop-waist maxi dress. She, Mom, and I had a chance to go antique/junk store shopping today, and we had a great time with some interesting places (Mom joined us later at the less creepy ones in Franklin, where we found that beautiful lamp shown below at a gift shop above Henpeck Market).

Just Ash and I went to this gem. Exploring Steely's Corner in Columbia requires a strong tolerance for mildew and low ceilings. Aside from that and the lack of clothing, it was a really great place to look around. The helpful workers at Steely's took a haphazard approach to decorating, and I loved it. When you dig around in a junk shop, you feel like you've truly earned whatever you find in the many mystery bins and piles.

Antique and thrift stores off the beaten path always yield the best results.

Every time I hit up an antique store, I search for old photos and scrapbooks, and especially now that everyone seems to be finding great ones and posting about them. Well, I have never found one until today.. It was a beautiful yellow book with gold detailing, in awesome shape, from the 1960s. And it was a travel scrapbook! The work people put into these things - all of the details - made my sister and I wonder how they end up in antique stores at all. This one even had a section on plane rides. Shouldn't these scrapbooks be passed down?

So, did I buy this great scrapbook find? No. I ended up purchasing this Darth Vader porcelain bust. I'm sorry, but my nerdy passions have to win out. Darth Vader is going straight to our living room bookshelf when we move into our new Nashville place on Monday.

Aside from Darth Vader, I found an old bamboo rug and a home sweet home sign that is going above our front door. We also found a strange 1960s coffee table that Neil and I might be going back for. Old furniture will always be better than new to me. Unless the furniture comes from Urban Outfitters and is made to resemble old furniture, of course.

Hooked On Curtains & Guestrooms, And a Foodie Friday Trainwreck!

It is Friday, and it is the first day of Spring! Mother Nature sprinkled our world with a light dusting of snow early this morning; she is such a card, that Mother Nature.

Meanwhile. . .

Over at Julia's wonderful Hooked On Houses site, there's a "Hooked on...." party going on. Check it out here.

Hostess Gollum has declared this a Foodie Friday Trainwreck Day. Visit a vast array of them right here.

My Foodie Trainwreck could qualify for a Wordless Wednesday post.
I am among friends, so I invite you to take a look:

Now that is a train wreck!
Click and enlarge that picture at your peril. You have been warned.

It's one end of our kitchen, in the early cleanup phase after Saturday's House Blessing party.
As my mother-in-law (just visible walking near the fridge) would say ... "Oy!"
As my sister would say, "You couldn't fit a booger on that counter!"

(At the end of this post, for Foodie Friday involving actual food, there's a recipe for chili from The Silver Palate in New York. It's good and complex, with some surprising ingredients. It is not a blazing hot chili, so if you want a scorcher you'll have to tinker with it.)

Since I am Hooked On Curtains this Friday -- I am going to just detour a bit from my guest room and steer you into the butler's pantry.
It is one of the most "BEFORE" spots in That Old House. . . witness this:


See what I mean?

But with no time or budget to do an overhaul before Saturday's gathering,
I resorted to the creative use of a hastily sewn curtain on a tension rod. . .

It became our coffee station, with urns of regular and de-caf, and guests could help themselves.

Speaking of guests, my Florida-dwelling in-laws stayed in the Yellow Bedroom for this long weekend,
and I did indeed get curtains hung in that room in time for their Friday arrival.

But -- I am not happy with them. (The curtains, not the in-laws!)

Take a look:

Notice the poofy-ness. Don't they look stiff? The drapes don't drape! It's the lining.
I wanted a heavy curtain that would block out light in this room, so I ordered "black out lining." Big mistake. Big, big mistake.

This lining fabric is cotton, but it's solidly bonded to a rubbery material
that is stiff, wrinkles and even makes noise.
Although that may be my imagination. It even looks stiff on the bolt:

You can't iron it with a hot iron ("I'm melting, I'm melting!"),
so there is a network of wrinkles like a road map all over the curtains.

I should have used normal cotton lining and interlined with flannel, but I am a thrifty soul, and I had already paid for this bolt of rubbery and somewhat creepy stuff, and by gum... I was going to use it!

And now I'm going to remove it, and replace it with real lining.
Ah well, everyone needs a hobby.

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But meanwhile ... if you have time, take a tour of the Yellow Bedroom, our official guestroom.
It's where you would stay if you knocked on our door and needed a refuge.

Come in. . .

This is a small room, so we maximize guest storage (does that seem as if we are storing our guests?).

Near the door, there's a vintage bombe chest, one of my Craigslist cheaper-than-cheap buys.
The top and middle drawers are empty for guests to use.
The bottom drawer holds extra sets of linens for the bed.

The lamp is a pineapple, a symbol of hospitality. I like to buy old lamps and my Dad rewires them, but this one is new, bought at JC Penney
at their huge after-Christmas sale; I think it cost 34 dollars, shade and all.


A little peachy-pink tole basket ($9 at Home Goods) holds practical plastic glasses, bottled water,
and wrapped chocolate covered mints and hard candies when guests are in residence.

We have an old hotel luggage rack, bought for a few bucks when the Carlton House closed in Pittsburgh in the early '80s. It's near the window, holding back the *&%$#* curtains!


On built-in shelves, we keep books, a plastic carry basket for bath items, and two sets of towels.
Plenty more towels are stored on the shelves underneath, behind the doors.

I use yellow towels for guests in this room; they always know which are theirs.
Guests in the Pink Bedroom get ... yeah, you guessed it.
A pair of Teddy Bears perches on the shelves;
you never know when you might need a Teddy.

In the closet, kept empty, there are wooden and padded hangers (no wire!), and extra pillows.
(Now how often do you see the inside of a closet? It's the only one of mine you will ever see!)


On an old quilt rack ($5 at a yard sale): extra blankets and a sweet little quilt.


For bare toes, a small rug, hooked by a gentleman who was my father's best friend.
His wife was French, and the little rug has "Bonne nuit" and "Bon jour" worked into it.


And on one of the bedside tables, a little lamp I recently bought on Ebay.
($24 with free shipping.) Can you see what it is? Look closely. . . .


It is a miniature replica of an old wicker suitcase!
There's a small brass handle at the top.
I just get such a kick out of a suitcase lamp in a guest room.


Simple things amuse me. Just ask my husband. He amuses me no end.


The low-post cherry and poplar bed is one we bought 30 years ago at The Whale's Tail antiques shop in Mars, Pennsylvania.
I love it, but there is the creakiness factor.
180-year old beds have a tendency to audibly protest when used. Can't say I blame them.


The nightstands are from my in-laws' block-front Newport-style mahogany bedroom furniture,
handmade in Boston in the 1940s. Most of this set is in our master bedroom,
but these little guys just fit in so well in this small room; they struck out on their own.




The needlepoint chair I wrote about in another post, here; another Craigslist bargain!


Well, this is long enough!
Tomorrow: More curtains! Remember the powder room?
Those black and cream toile curtains were just what it needed.
You ladies who suggested it were absolutely right.

The Powder Room curtains post is up!
What's Black & White & Red all over? Click here.

Then there's the dining room, the parlor, the master bedroom, the Pink Bedroom. . . .

And maybe, just maybe, the retro-fitted guest room curtains. I hope to get them re-sewn,
and re-hung, today. Yeah, we'll see how that works out.

And remember... as it says in the pillow on the bed in the Yellow Bedroom:


Anyone interested in a partial bolt of rubbery insulated blackout lining?
I know where you can get it, CHEAP! Very cheap.

And.... now for the Silver Palate Chili for a Crowd Recipe, on this Foodie Friday:

Silver Palate Chili For a Crowd

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound yellow onions, coarsely chopped
1 pound sweet Italian sausage, removed from casings
4 pounds beef chuck, ground
1 can (12 ounces) tomato paste
1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic
1/3 cup ground cumin
1/2 cup chili powder
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons dried basil
2 tablespoons dried oregano
1 1/2 tablespoons salt,
or to taste
1 1/2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
3 cans (28 ounces each) Italian plum tomatoes, drained
1/4 cup dry red wine
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill (Use fresh if available, but dried will work in a pinch; just use less -- Cass)
1/4 cup chopped parsley (Dried parsley flakes can be used if you can't get fresh; use less -- Cass)
2 cans (16 ounces each) dark-red kidney beans, drained
2 cans (5 1/2 ounces each) pitted black olives, drained (I use sliced black olives -- Cass)

1. Heat the olive oil in a very large pot. Add the onions and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until wilted, about 15 minutes. Add the sausage meat and ground chuck; cook over medium-high heat, stirring, until the meats are well browned. Spoon off any excess fat and discard.
2. Stir in the tomato paste, garlic, cumin, chili powder, mustard, basil, oregano, salt and pepper. Add the tomatoes, wine, lemon juice, dill, parsley and kidney beans. Stir well and simmer, uncovered, for another 15 minutes.
3. Taste and adjust seasonings. Add olives; simmer for 5 minutes more to heat through. Serve immediately.

Serves 20. (Easily doubled!) Per serving: 260 calories, 19g carbohydrate, 26g protein,
10g fat, 55mg cholesterol.