Beauty Farming Life

Here is a great find.  I was at a garage sale in town and found this old galvanized metal carrier.  I'm guessing maybe it was originally for milk bottles? Anyway, as soon as I saw it, I KNEW I just HAD to have it for the farm. I also knew immediately how we'd use it... ...as a wine bottle carrier!  So when we have friends over for dinner, inside or outside on the property, we can load up a few bottles of wine and carry them to the table.  It somehow seems appropriate for the country. Got Wine?

Wall mounted paper towel rack This is kind of a neat find the other day.  It's a wall mounted basket/towel rack.  I think it's for a roll of paper towels since the round rod on the bottom is removable.  Then I guess the top is a basket for more storage of some sort? It was only $3 when I found it, so I bought it first and will think about it later, ha.  Kitchen?  Maybe the mudroom?  Heck, we could even put a roll of foil or plastic wrap on it and hang it on the JULIA WALL . If we don't put it there though, I'm thinking that perhaps it might be time to break out the red paint again!

Haven't been to the thrift store in a couple of weeks, I know, I know, falling down on the job, LOL. So I went yesterday at lunch and found a few cool items for the farm.  This was actually sold as a set.  Three nice candle holders in the blue and white ceramic that we've been putting in the bedroom at the farm as accessories.  It all started with a wonderfully kind gift from a friend of the blog, and then another similar piece someone else sent, and now I try to find more that match.  I'm not sure if this is a "style" or what you even call it, but we like the colors. ____________ $5.00 for the set. And this was just too unusual to pass up.  It looks like it was once a  soup can that has since been etched or carved with cut outs all around it.  You put a tea light candle in the bottom and it gives off a wonderful dancing pattern in the room.  It's not fancy but I find it fascinating. ___________ 75 cents...

More wall sconces On my weekly lunch break trip to the thrift store, I scored some more metal candle wall sconces.  The large one is made to hold two tapers, and the smaller one to hold a votive or small pillar type candle. As you can see, one is black, and the other is a brownish/rust color.  I think I might actually paint these, depending on what room I put them in.  I could paint one pale yellow or pink and put it in the guest room, or leave the black one as is and put it in the foyer. Best of all?  Scored both of these for less than $3.  The large one was $1.89 the small one .99 cents.  Can't beat that!  And now we have a bit more alternative lighting and/or mood lighting.  Now if I could just find some oil lamps...

No, this isn't a tableau on an end table or something.  It's the three fun finds from my afternoon of thrift store running around yesterday. We need a large mirror above the dresser in the guest room.  Have you priced "new" mirrors lately?  Yikes.  $50 and up!  For a mirror that won't get used on a regular basis?  No thanks.  So I walked into the first store and found this one for the whopping total of $5.00!  I think you can still see the price written in the corner of the mirror.  My plan of course is to paint it. I'm thinking pale yellow or pale green, to match the guest room.  Now that I have some time on my hands, this should be an easy project. Then I found another large basket (I know, do we NEED another one?), that we're going to add to OUR COLLECTION  in the farm kitchen.  I can see this one filled with biscuits or muffins (or something equally good).  $1.00! Lastly, I found this clay wine bottle cooler (bott...

Here are some thrift store finds.  Recently, I was meeting some friends for dinner and on the way over there, I hit a few thrift stores in the area. First up, a pair of cast iron wall sconces.  It's hard to tell in the picture but they are in a distressed white finish, kind of shabby chic.  They will be perfect in the guest room, as is.  No painting necessary.  $2.00 each. Next up was another one of those terracotta clay wine coolers.  I figured we might want to have more than one bottle cooling at a time, and it almost matches the other one so it's ours now.  99 cents. Then I found a cool little glass dish, not sure what I'll put in it or use it for, but I liked the style and now we own it.  79 cents. Lastly, the "big" purchase of the day, this ceramic luminary, in the design of a basket with flowers.  You put a candle in the back (tealight) and then it glows through the holes that are all over it.  It's really beautiful when it is...

Here are the recent wall sconce finds up and in place: Foyer wall candle sconce  Above is the small, ornate brown one I found a few weeks ago.  I found a perfect home for it in the foyer above this little vintage picture right next to the front door.  Of course, I still need to find the right size pillar candle for it.  At the other end of the foyer on the desk, I have some hurricane glass lamps for tall pillar candles, I'll get a picture of those later. Below is the pair of white cast iron sconces I bought at the thrift store. I put them in the guest room, mounting one on each side of the mirror I recently painted and put up.  They fit the space nicely and add a little bit of detail.  If I can find some pale yellow candles, I might switch them out with these white ones.  I really like to use the smokeless/dripless candles, but it's not always easy to find them in a wide variety of colors. Pair of white candle sconces The goal is to ...

Thrift store finds I love sharing my thrift store finds, hopefully to inspire you to check out that thrift store you've been driving by all this time.  You might just find something you've been looking for, or maybe even didn't know you needed. At my new job, I found that there are about 5 thrift stores and resale shops within driving distance at lunch. That could be dangerous, LOL. On recent trips (last week), I found these random items: A new silver tray, it's going on the blue dresser.  This is silver plated, not solid silver, but it has a similar design to the other tray I blogged about before and after a bit of cleaning, I think it will look just perfect.  $3. Then the two cobalt blue glass pieces.  I wanted a vase for the bedroom, and found this one.  The other piece is a drinking glass, I'm thinking it might make a nice glass for the bedside table, or perhaps another small vase.  $4 for both. And lastly, the metal easel, it's tall ...

Remember the SILVER TRAY  I found at the thrift store and cleaned up? I got a lot of suggestions on what to put on it and while I still haven't entirely figured it out, I did take these metal tins that were elsewhere in the house, put the two of them together and placed them on the tray.  I think they look nice on there.  They really match the style of the tray, almost the same design and they are even a similar color (though these round tins are not silver or silver plate, LOL).   I'm not sure what to put in them, but as many of you know, in a small house,  any storage space is good storage space.   I'm sure we'll figure out something fun to use them for (suggestions always accepted). As for the little vintage ceramic bunny, she just seemed at home there, at least for now and since we have wild bunnies living around the farm property, it somehow seems appropriate.  So until, or even if, I find something else, little " sunny bunny " can live her ...

I realized that I haven't posted any thrift store finds lately so I figured I'd share a couple of the latest finds. I found this book,  Songbirds in Your Garden , by John K. Terres.  The copy I found is an older copy, the link above is to the latest edition at Amazon.  It's chock FULL of great information about birds, the different species and how to attract them to your garden with their favorite treats.  It will be a great way for me to learn how to bring more birds to our property.  Best of all, $1.50! The other find is a glass votive candleholder.  It's white frosted glass with a clear, dark blue raised relief design on it.  When I saw it, I knew it would fit in the bedroom perfectly.  Check out the picture below of it with the bedspread.  Could it BE any more perfect for the room?  It looks very pretty lit up with a candle.  It will definitely have a special place on the dresser.  It was $2.7...

I stopped, on a whim, into one of the thrift stores I go to frequently and found this.  It's an awesome counted cross stitch (thanks Ellen in Oregon!) that is obviously old and has been around for awhile. It's very detailed and has lovely flowers and leaves stitched all over it.  The pink roses drew me to it because I knew it would go great in the guest room at the farm. Then it has the sweetest phrase on it: "To love and be loved is the greatest joy on earth".  A very nice sentiment for everyone. Here it is in all its beauty (IMHO, ha). The surprising thing is it is pretty large.  About 16x20.  Oh sure, there are some tiny stains on it, and it's faded a bit with age, but then I got to thinking about who might have made it.  Someone's Mother or Grandmother or heck, Great Grandmother?  Maybe as a wedding gift, or an  anniversary gift   or a birthday gift?  Someone obviously made it with love, framed it wi...

I stopped, on a whim, into one of the thrift stores I go to frequently and found this.  It's an awesome counted cross stitch (thanks Ellen in Oregon!) that is obviously old and has been around for awhile. It's very detailed and has lovely flowers and leaves stitched all over it.  The pink roses drew me to it because I knew it would go great in the guest room at the farm. Then it has the sweetest phrase on it: "To love and be loved is the greatest joy on earth".  A very nice sentiment for everyone. Here it is in all its beauty (IMHO, ha). The surprising thing is it is pretty large.  About 16x20.  Oh sure, there are some tiny stains on it, and it's faded a bit with age, but then I got to thinking about who might have made it.  Someone's Mother or Grandmother or heck, Great Grandmother?  Maybe as a wedding gift, or an  anniversary gift   or a birthday gift?  Someone obviously made it with love, framed it wi...

Found this metal wall mounted candle holder at a garage sale recently.  It's not old or anything valuable, but we liked the style and design.  So of course... ...I had to whip out the can of spray paint and get to work.  I didn't need to  sand it, this was already smooth and ready for painting.  I hung it up on a hook we have hanging from a tree branch and gave it a coat of red paint.  Side note, we love painting things in the country, we can do it anywhere and not worry about paint drifting to where it's not supposed to be! ...and here it is hanging on the wall in the kitchen.  Yes, I know the candle is a bit large, need to find some smaller ones, but we couldn't wait to see what it looked like.  It nicely matches the other reds we've put in the kitchen, the cookbook stand  HERE , and the paper towel holder makeover  HERE . So pull out that paint can and give someth...

Here are two random, but fun, thrift store finds. Metal "Fresh Eggs" sign Found this fun metal sign for $2.00.  Hey, we don't have fresh eggs yet, but it seemed like something fun to put up.  It's certainly not old, it's one of those reproduction signs, but still a neat conversation piece to put above the sink. Metal desk bell OK, this might seem weird, and I have no idea what we'll do with it, but I always thought it would be neat to have one of these.  It's a metal bell, the kind you might find on an old hotel reservation desk.  This one has a red metal base which fits the kitchen perfectly so I took it as a sign, LOL. For $2.75, I couldn't pass it up.

Stopped at a thrift store the other day at lunch and found this nice crocheted afghan.  I often see afghans and throws but as you know, they can be made in any number of color combinations.  It's just one of those things where you want to find the one that appeals to you most.  This one did. Multi color crocheted afghan We liked the bright colors of this one because we were hoping they would add a pop of color to the living room at the farm.  Afghan on couch  So the last time we were out there, we put it over the back of the couch and sure enough, it's a nice and colorful addition.  I'm thinking of maybe replacing the flower pillows that came with the couch with something as colorful as the afghan.  We love the farm themed pillows  we found so those will stay, but I think it's needs a bit more color, don't you?

Here's an awesome find! Recently, while on my lunch break, I decided to stop by a garage sale that I saw as I drove through a neighborhood.  I only found this one item, but it was just too pretty to pass up... This looks like an old vase/crock of some sort that someone has hand painted... Painted jar with wildflowers On one side is a medley of flowers...in fact, it kind of looks to me like the artist/crafter was going for a wildflowers theme.  The background is full of bluebonnets (the state flower of Texas). Bluebonnet painted jar And on the other side is a large closeup of a bluebonnet. Hand painted flower vase On the last rainy weekend we had at the farm, we found a place for it.  It's now on the end table next to the couch...where we have the colorful afghan that we found at a thrift store a while back.  The hardest part was deciding which side of the little vase to showcase.  I suppose we could turn it around on occasion a...

Vintage needlepoint with flowers Found this at lunch the other day and one of my favorite thrift stores.  I'm guessing it's a table runner of some sort but it was the beautiful needlepoint work that really caught my eye.  It was only $5.00! Needlepoint It's got these beautiful roses mixed with other flowers and greenery.  The colors are vibrant and it's edged in a metallic thread.  The background is a nice yellowish gold color and it's lined on the back with a cream colored fabric.   I knew immediately what room it would go into at the farm, the guest room (which has a flower theme), but I wasn't sure where.   Vintage needlepoint table runner with flowers So when we went out, we had to decide.  We thought about hanging it on the wall but there wasn't a suitable space for that.  We don't have a long dresser that it would go on either.  Then we looked at this yellow cabinet we have in the room and though...

OK, I know a lot of you out there like to crochet, knit, quilt, etc and so I just had to share this latest thrift store find. It's one of those thrift stores where items have one price through one date, then if it's still there on another date, the price drops.  Then it drops again a couple weeks after that.  You can see what the date is on the price tag.  I saw this one day, on a Friday, and it was $24.00.  But after Sunday it would drop to $12.00.  I decided to take my chances and go on Monday at lunch.  It was still there! SCORE! Six point star crocheted afghan This looks like a six pointed star quilt (I believe that's what this design is called?).  In fact, when I saw it on the rack from a distance, that's what I though it was.  Instead, I realized it was a crocheted afghan.  It was folded up and hanging on four hangers side by side to support the weight.  It's HUGE.   This is on the queen size bed at the fa...

Found this old cook book at Half Price Books of all places, in the clearance section.  For a DOLLAR!  I was not going to pass this up! Page after page of recipes, and many of them are stained and spotted, always a sign of a well used (and loved) cookbook... There are even a few neat, old photos and drawings. The original Boston Cooking School book was published in 1896 and then every few years after that...and it's by by Fannie Merritt Farmer!  This edition was published in 1924 which makes it in pretty good shape for 91 years old.  We are going to have a special shelf at the farm for all our old cookbooks.  We have a lot of newer ones (some might say too many, ha) so we're trying to just limit our purchases now to older, vintage cookbooks as we can find them.  Sometimes, the best recipes are the older ones!

A while back, I mentioned that I cleaned out one of the storage units that had stuff from my parents in it.  I got it cleaned out (yay) and here is the end result, an empty storage unit.  I should have had a before photo but at one point it was full, front to back, top to bottom.  A lot was donated, some just had to be thrown away and some ended up at the farm.  I won't bore you with every little thing, but I will share a few of the fun discoveries.  A lot of this is stuff that my parents had collected over the years while visiting flea markets and thrift stores so while they aren't necessarily family heirlooms, they are, in a way, part of the family and we're glad to have them. I found these two metal trays with flower images.  I think they were TV trays once upon a time but there was no stand with them.  Still we think they would make great trays for using around the farm, serving drinks, food, etc?  Thoughts? I'm not sure wha...