Moving....

Hi everyone and happy Wednesday!

Just a small update. Moving is hard! Enough said....

Here's a picture of the bathroom in the farmhouse.



I hope to get back to more regular blogging in a week or two. We don't have internet, tv or a land line phone yet. But, thankfully, we do have good cell phone reception!

Debbie J.

Glimpses from the farmhouse

Another mystery plant... does anybody know what the plant is with the lavender cotton ball shaped flowers? Its another one of those bushes that only bloom in early spring. Thank goodness we moved into the farmhouse in early spring, or I wouldn't have known that these various bushes were so pretty!

Geraniums on the steps:



Hope you are having a great weekend! We are busy moving.

Home at Last!

After weeks of waiting, the little farm house is finally ours! We closed the deal yesterday. So now comes the process of moving... which I haven't done in about 30 years. I'm so thankful that I have been decluttering off and on over the last several years. But nonetheless, there's much work to be done! At this point we are moving what we can fit into our cars before and after work, but this weekend hope to move some furniture and larger items.

This is a picture of a corner of our bedroom. The fireplace was originally used for burning coal. We are learning lots of interesting things about the house. Yes, this house definitely has character!

Plant Mystery Solved

This is a picture of a shrub like the one that is blooming in the farm house's yard. Its a flowering quince, also known as a Japonica, an old standby of farmer's wives. I don't think I'll be making any quince jelly, but we'll see! HERE'S a description of the plant.

A Farmhouse Update

Time to change from mittens to clotheslines!



Spring is finally here! No more mittens (we hope). Time to start thinking about using our clotheslines and planting our gardens.

We are still working towards moving into our little farmhouse. One nice thing about it is that we will be moving in during early spring. The perfect time of year for dividing and moving plants from the old yard to the new one. The farmhouse was built in the 1940s and I see some promising old fashioned plants that are either dormant for winter or just beginning to come up. So far I know there are crape myrtles, daffodils, nandinas, camellias, daylillies and dogwoods.

There is a bush that already has tiny pinkish red flowers on the bare branches. Does anybody know what the name of this bush is? It doesn't have any leaves yet and has long skinny branches covered in tiny pinkish red flowers. I should know the name of it, but can't think of it!

HOME

Home for me is so many things.... its where my loved ones are, where memories of my loved ones are, the place on earth that I love... and so much more. Here are some quotes about home. I don't know the source of many of them, just heard them somewhere along this life's journey.

Home is a soft place to land.

Home is the nicest word I know! Laura Ingalls

Home is the place you hang your heart.

98% of homes in America have tv sets, which means the other 2% have to make their own sex and violence.

To keep children at home, make the atmosphere pleasant and let the air out of their tires.

For kids in college its their "home" home. Which means its their "real" home.

Take me home Country Roads, to the place I belong. John Denver

A man travels the whole world over, only to return home and find it. (George Moore)

Life's a voyage that's homeward bound. (Herman Melville)

Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home. (John Howard Payne)

A good home must be made, not bought. (Joyce Maynard)

A house that does not have one worn, comfy chair in it is soulless. (May Sarton)

My home is not a place, it is people. (Lois McMaster Bujold)

"I like calling North Carolina Home" (NC tourism theme song from the past)

Oh Lord, I wanna go home. (song)

A house is made of walls and beams; a home is built with love and dreams.

Home is not where you live, but where they understand you.

“Home is where you can say anything you please, because nobody pays any attention to you anyway”

Home is where you can scratch where it itches.

I want Jesus to make a home in my Soul (Revelation 3:20)

Someday I hope to go to my Heavenly Home.

My heart won't be at peace until I am really "home".

What is your definition of Home?

Farm House/French Country Shopping

This post is a part of Southern Hospitality's THIRFTY TREASURES.

Hubby and I went Farmhouse/French Country shopping today. Now it wouldn't really be farmhouse style if it was expensive, so our shopping took us to used furniture stores, antique stores and a discount store called "Roses". We found bar stools that go perfectly with our theme at Roses. The total price for four was less than the price of one fancier bar stool in a furniture store, and I love them!



I think they will go perfectly in the kitchen:



I really love to get a good deal and put together items that make up my own style. This chair was out in front of a used furniture store. Again, I think it is perfect. The seat is red toile, but can easily be recovered if I choose too. The black wood has a distressed look with slight little bits of red showing through on the edges. I may use it for my sewing machine chair, in the hallway or at the entry.



There is an antique store in my area that is huge and full of stuff. The front portion is pretty high priced, but if you go in the back portion there are some pretty good deals. I am still putting together some dishes for the wall above the window in the dining room and found a couple more today:

A red one:



A green one:

Sewing Break

As promised, here are a few more details of our upcoming new adventure. I'm taking a sewing break, which is very unusual for me! Its hard to start packing for a possible move when there are sewing projects in progress. I can only concentrate on so many things at once.

THE SEWING ROOM IS PACKED:



By the way, all that decluttering I have been doing over the past year are a Godsend! Remember my 2009 "Home To Do List"? I accomplished a good bit of the items, though not all of them. What a help that is going to be! I haven't moved in over 25 years, so as you can imagine this will be a big job, but having already decluttered several cabinets and closets will make the job much easier.

If all goes well, we will be moving into our little farmhouse within the next two weeks. I will be posting pictures of the new house and our moving process soon.

Dreams of Spring

I am participating in Table Top Tuesday at A Stroll Through Life HERE.

This picture shows some of my favorite early Spring things: A birdhouse, blooming African Violet, a trowel, gardening magazines, dirty gardening gloves, and early Spring seeds such as lettuce, carrots and radishes. As you can see, the sun was shining very brightly when this picture was taken!



I know its not really Spring yet, but it sure does feel like it this week!

Plates on the Wall

I have collected a few plates to hang above a window like this one. So far these have the colors I am looking for, but I am still looking until I get just the right combination.



A Spring Bunny plate from Cracker Barrel:



A Corelle strawberry plate from the thrift store:



All of these may not make it onto the wall above the window, but definitely have possibilities.

Winter and Spring

I took this picture yesterday morning at sunrise. Remember that old saying, "Red sky at morning, sailor take warning, red sky at night, sailor's delight"? Well, it certainly was true in this case! We had our fourth snowfall of the season yesterday and last night. Granted, one of the snowfalls did not stick to the ground, but its very unusual for us to get this much snow in one year. There is a major consensus everywhere and I am constantly hearing the following statement: "WE ARE READY FOR SPRING"!

The brown thing in the picture is a big pine tree limb that fell during the night.



Spring is definitely on the way. I took this picture Sunday:



I ran across this picture at Freefoto.com. Nothing says Spring like this picture! Isn't he cute?



Happy Wednesday and Happy last two weeks of winter!

Thrift Store Picture Re-Do

I made a quick stop at a thrift store on my way home from work on Friday. I am currently doing a BIG DECLUTTER, DONATE AND TOSS, at my house, so I was very careful to limit my purchases so as not to bring more clutter back into the house. I really should go to the back door of the store, drop off my donations and stay out of the "store part" of the store.

But anyway, I love winter and farm scenes and fell in love with this picture.



I took it apart, cleaned it, asked hubby to spray paint the frame white, tied a black and white checked ribbon on the back for hanging and this is how it turned out.



I think it will be very cute for the country farm house decorating theme that I love.