Combining Fall & Vintage Decorations

I love to decorate with pumpkins for the fall season. They can carry you from Halloween straight into Thanksgiving with minor tweaking, saving you time and money. This weekend I visited the produce stand and created some lovely fall touches for my home combined with vintage items of course.

In the sun room, I added a rustic wooden box, sitting on old quilt squares and filled it with white pumpkins and Indian corn.

In the dining room, I used a combination of pine cones, acorns and more white pumpkins in an old wooden bowl and added pretty green, orange and white stripped gourds to set the table.

 

 In the living room, stacked pumpkins on a vintage silver tray, sit on the coffee table...

...and more pumpkins and vintage glass/silver trays are on the mantle.

Old silver mouth pieces from band instruments have double duty.

They serve as tiny vases that hold black chicken feathers with salvaged black and orange seam binding and also hold the "Boo" sign that hangs over the fireplace.

It is actually a "Boo! Boo!" sign. I made this last year from old book pages and black ink. My grandson, Levi, who was five at the time, was visiting and asked for three book pages. He returned shortly with his own version of my lettering. I love, love, love that boy!!

The final touch was at the back door and included old flower pots, a galvanized bucket, mums and one last pumpkin.

The changing of the seasons is always a mix of sadness and excitement. We're saying goodbye to that which is ending and looking with anticipation to what possibilities lie ahead.

Here's a Heart Rock for your Pocket:
There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1

Wishing you God's Best,
Elaine

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Repurposing a Vintage Blue Voss Wash Tub

The other day my husband came in and said, 
"I got you a surprise today." 
My reply, "Oh, yeah, what is it?" 
"You'll have to go see. It's in the back of truck." 

Well, it took me about 5 seconds to get out there and what I found made me smile from ear to ear...an old galvanized wash tub and it was blue! I ran inside, squealed, jumped up and down, hugged his neck and said, "It feels like Christmas!" It was a really good surprise. I've been on the lookout for one ever since I saw a lady using a double wash tub next to her front steps holding big ferns. It was gorgeous.

Now the dilemma, what to do with it? There are so many options, but here is where it has settled, for now.

After trying it out as a planter by the back door and as a storage/table in the kitchen, I finally chose to put it in the sun room.

I added an asparagus fern in a white enamel bucket with read trim. This way it is still versatile. All I have to do is remove the plant and I can quickly use it somewhere else.

It will hold ice and drinks at my next outdoor party and may even hold my Christmas tree this year.  The base is very sturdy and has a nice decorative design. 

I'm still excited...excuse me while I go jump up and down and squeal some more!

 

P.S. I'm very thankful I don't have to wash my laundry in my new wash tub!

Here's a Heart Rock for your Pocket:
The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still. 
Exodus 14:14

Wishing you God's best,
Elaine

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Papaw's Old Schwinn Bike

My Aunt recently asked me if I would like to have my Papaw's old bike and of course I said, "YES"! He was ninety-seven when he died and had he lived would have been ninety-nine this 4th of July weekend. To say that he was a character is a serious understatement!

A couple of weeks ago my boys were home for the weekend so we drove over to my Grandparents home place. We walked around the house and relived old memories. I explained to Levi that this is where I came to visit my grandparents when I was a kid just like him. I showed him where the tree swing used to be. We picked up black walnuts in the back yard. I told him how I used to play "Annie Over" with my cousins at the well house. I took him inside the well house so he could see where Grandma would drop the bucket and pull up icy cold water and how we would drink from a long handled dipper and pass it around. The bucket is no longer there but I was able to show him the big pulley and rope that she used. I showed him where the tree used to be that we made homemade ice-cream under and how we would take turns sitting on the freezer while Papaw turned the handle. I showed him the potato house and explained how Papaw was a farmer and would store his potatoes here. Then we went to the shed and found the bike. Andy loaded it up for me and we brought it home.

I've propped it up against the shop for now.

It's a Schwinn. I wish I knew exactly how old it is...

...old enough to have been painted a few times. It's solid as a rock and almost too heavy to pick up.

One of these days I'll pass it on to my boys!

Here's a Heart Rock for your Pocket:
Jesus said: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Matthew 22:37-39

Wishing you God's best,
Elaine 

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