~Changes and A New Game Board Sign~

Posted in Prim Crafts, Primitive Decorating, primitive crafts with tags , , , , , , , , on January 4, 2010 by Cindy

Brrrrrrrrrr……. It’s cold outside here!!  With the wind chills, it feels more like zero out there and they are calling for a few inches of snow. And where there is snow…there is prim snowmen of course!! 

~snowman grouping in my old sewing drawer~

 

~snowman towel on old ironing board~

I always leave a few of my snowmen out through part of January, but in a couple of weeks that will change to some hearts for the month of February. Now that all the holiday decor is put away…I’m in the mood to do some tweaking and rearranging. Do any of you get like that also? It seems that at the first of every year, I’m ready for some changes…but this year there are also some changes coming that don’t have to do with decorating.

One of those changes is that I’ve decided it’s time to slow down on the craft shows after 26 years of doing them…but I’m still going to do my largest show, which is the Sauerkraut Festival in October. Not sure if I’m going to keep one Christmas show yet, but I’ve got some time to think about it.

Why am I slowing down?… A lot of it is due to the feet/knee and leg problems that I’ve had since I was little. The long hours of being on my feet during the shows and the setting up/tearing down really got to me this past year. It’s a long story,  but I’ve known since I was a teenager that the older I got…the more problems I would have. Can’t tell you how many doctors that I saw from the age of 5  to 15 years old…surgery couldn’t and can’t be done without  a too high of risk of maybe crippling me.  The doctors have told me for years that I need a more leisure lifestyle to help me not be in so much pain. Most people don’t even know that I have a problem, because I don’t say much about it and I keep going even if I’m in pain. However, this past year has made me realized that the time has come to make sure that I take care of myself a little more as I’m getting older and listen to what the doctors are saying…which means, I need to make some changes in my business and my lifestyle. 

So what shall a crafting gal do if she doesn’t do shows ? Well….my on-line business did really good last year until I got into show season and it was just too much for me to keep up with everything. I ended up putting all my time and energy into my shows since I had already committed to them…and because of that, my on-line business suffered a setback. So another change for me this coming year…is to get it back up and running again…and to spend my time and energy on it. I’m a little nervous about this change in my business, but the excitement definitely out weighs it! I’ll keep you posted as I hope to have lots of prim goodies to share.

If you all are still with me…I wanted to share with you where I put my sugar buckets for now and to show you my new game-board sign that I ordered from Lisa at “Primitives from Above”.

She was selling these on her selling blog “Londonberry Primitives” and since we don’t live that far from one another, we met each other this past Saturday afternoon when she and her hubby came to town. It was great to see her again. (Thank you, Lisa…I just love my sign…it’s perfect!!!) It is going to go up in the hallway with all my game-boards…so now, I need to get busy and hang them all up. I’ll be sure to take some pictures to share with all of you.

Until next time….     prim blessings, Cindy

~First Peeks of Goodies For My Sister’s 1861 Home~

Posted in Primitive Decorating, thrift shop finds with tags , , , , , , , , on December 30, 2009 by Cindy

I’m back as promised to show you some peeks of the prim goodies that my sister got for her new “old” home. They are still getting settled in and have lots of work to do. The main part of their home was built in 1861 and there are 3 additions that have been added on over the years. The 1861 house is now the living room and also has the bathroom. An addition to the left side of the home is the kitchen, an addition to the right side is a bedroom, and the addition off the back of the 1861 house is a 10 x 25 foot dining room and another bedroom. Also off of the dining room is a 3 season porch.  You can’t tell from looking at the outside, but the original home was a log cabin…however the wood looks more like small planks than logs. They just recently exposed an outside wall, but it is now a wall in the kitchen. I will share more pictures as they go through the stages of turning back their home to its long ago roots.

My sister has decided to do primitive decorating in her new “old” home. She has loved country cottage decorating for as long as I can remember, but one day I showed her one of my Judy Condon books and that changed everything!! She knew then that she wanted to purchased an old house with history and she wanted to decorate it with primitives. So about a year ago, while house hunting…she also went thrift shop hunting and started to collect some prims. Well…her dear hubby, Mr. C decided to surprise her with a few primitive things for Christmas and just look at what he got her.

~An Old Jelly Cupboard~

Isn’t it just wonderful!! He didn’t stop there as he also got her some prim goodies to display on top of it. The clock sitting off to the right side…

…and an old  grease light.~

She also got a rod iron hook to hang some old baskets from, but if you look closely at this next photo…you will see that her kitties think it is something for them. LOL…

 If you take a peek…you can see that there is all wide wood around the door frame and it is also used for all the baseboards. They are going to be painting all of it through-out the house a tan color and then rubbing some gel stain over it.

In this last photo of her all decorated jelly cupboard…you can get a small peek of her kitchen.

For now she has taken off all the upper cabinet doors as they were in really bad shape. Our brother has a friend that specializes in redoing old kitchens and he is going to build them some new “old” prim cupboards that will fit the feel of the house. Well, I hope you have enjoyed some sneak peeks of my sister’s home…and I will be sharing more in the months ahead as they work on it.

Oh…I also forgot to show you the prim goodie that my sister gave me for Christmas.

~An Old Wooden Masher~

For now, I have it displayed in the old kitchen cubby that I got from the prim shop that is right around the corner from my sister’s house. How fun to have this shop right near there!! Just think of all the prim trouble that we could are going to get into!! LOL…

Best be going for now…I need to get some rest as I’m going go help paint Peyton Bradley’s nursery in the morning. Only 5 weeks until he is due!! Until next time…..     prim blessings, Cindy