Here's a video I intended for and sent to my kids---so they wouldn't visit one Sunday...LOL. I'm a bit of a drama Queen. I never intended to use this here...but it pretty much shows...what happens when you fool around with one tiny room and go through EVERYTHING!
Hope you got a chuckle, Anyway, we live in a small house by today's standards a 1400 sq. ft. ranch with a full basement. We have one large bedroom and two small bedrooms...and one of course is the INFAMOUS EXTRA BEDroom, for guests. LOL.
You know you all have a space like that, where everything gets dumped---guests may never see it, or use it. Well...after last year's basement upset---it really was super full of everything---and the printer was in the LIVING ROOM...
Well, we gave our twin pullout (to King) daybed to our son for the Grand to use.
I ordered a small twin loveseat size sofa for the tiny room.
Guests can use the master with the bath attached and I can sleep in here. Or a single can sleep in here...but a lot of stuff had to go.
Amazingly, this is comfortable...and the old Swedish trunk on gliders is perfect for storing bedding and putting your feet up on. It's on sliders and will scoot right over to open up the bed. Now the Grand can have her own space when she visits.
I ordered a set of twin sheets and pillow cases. We have the vinyl plank flooring to redo the floors during the winter.
Okay, I'm a collector---Most of these books are research for the historical fiction I'm supposed to be finishing. The rest of the file boxes are personal family genealogy stuff, and remnants of the magazine clippings I have been doing for 25 years or so.
I NO LONGER get ANY magazines anymore---I just look up at anything I want to see online.
Ta, DA! All the boxes under the desk on the left are our four family trees photos, from both sides. This winter photos will be digitized, and originals hopefully sent to other families. My mom got every photo from both sides and never did a darn thing with them. Boxes and bins of them, this is maybe 20%.
Wanting to save money and open out spaces elsewhere, I gathered three tables from in the house...I just strung them along the outside wall, and one on the left behind the printer. I used some upholstery vinyl to make beige tops to help unify the look...cost $12.00. The light beige brightens up the room...and protects the wood tops of the furniture.
The middle desk table is perfect height from my sewing machine. Picnic baskets below have sorted patterns and fabrics for my doll projects.
The windows face north and there is also a roof overhang which keeps it pretty dark in here. So the lighting is tricky. I opt for two smaller desk lamps which I can easily move around for where I'm working.
The printer cabinet came from the basement and my husbands office. This is working well here as it is centrally located for the network to get the signal.
My label printer is here for the Etsy shop and all the paper, cardstock, labels, sticky stuff for storage. I love having it all in one place and not in the basement, as I do much of my comp work in the living room while watching tv.
Reconfiguring the room...meant my wall art and memory pieces had to get adjusted here and there. I've been picking up cottage art for years, and have needlepoints, crewel, photos and original art up here along with little memory pieces and gifts from others.
The ceramic lamp---was one from my potting days...and it works perfect on top of the radio. The green cabinet is one of two Swedish Cheese cabinets I used in this room that I've had for over 30 years. They are great for hiding bulky desk/work projects for easy put away.
The largest task was the five foot closet, again, stuffed with photos, antiques, patterns and fabric pieces. Some art supplies also. Every bin has been sorted and labeled. I plan on printing labels, but right now they are scribbled on paper or scraps of contact paper...I did purchase three cheap fabric bins...for 1.25 each at the $$$store.
The rest I already had. I still have the top shelf to do---and thin out the patterns and sell the ones I'll never use...kids grow so fast.
These are the photos of our families, that have been sorted, but I have to start sharing them to others. The temporary stickers aren't sticking---I'll have to get on that right away.
This result took over three weeks to go through everything in this room, sort, throw away, donate, and collate. (Three garbage cans of throw away, 2 trunks of donations and a pile to be sold. I did deep Cleaning and very little decorating. We will lay new flooring during the winter, but for now it's ready for me or company.
Last night I attended my online Zoom meeting for Windy City Barbie Doll Collectors Club
in a comfortable chair with decent lighting and a clean work surface...really a first in 7 years. My doll room downstairs is always a work in progress, so unless I have a display to show...this room will work perfectly.
Another plus, I have freed up space in two other rooms by removing the tables.
My only other purchase was this chair cover, I LOVE...under $5.00 online...heavy smooth polyester knit which works great and helps to unify the space. My desk Scooter chair, we had and is easily adjustable.
Informational Sources for my INEXPENSIVE REDO.
Twin Loveseat from Temu, on sale $274.98 with tax.
Quite comfortable, works smoothly, well constructed and that fabric will wear like iron a thumbs up. Well packed.
One Twin bottom sheet and two pillow cases Temu on sale under $7.00 something, can't find the paperwork.
3 cloth bins for closet from Dollar Tree $3.75
2yd. of vinyl upholstery fabric -Horrid Lobby (since Joann's is gone, only source close by now $11.96
Polyester Chair Cover from Temu $4.77
Total under $306.00
Labels already on hand
Bins already on hand
Artwork: vintage, personal and antique--already had.
Book cases 20 years old from IKEA Billy Bookcases.
3 Lamps over thirty years old, handmade, inherited or purchased.
3 desk/sofa tables, (One, a curb steal (Yield House), one from 30 years old in living room, one from friend swap 8 years old from master bedroom)
Informational Note: I do purchases from Temu via Paypal...which gives me an added layer of personal protection. Deliveries seem to be shorter as they have opened warehouses in the US now. I have not had any problems with them in two years except some mini chair breakage from bad packing.
If you enjoyed this post please follow this blog by Blogger or FOLLOW IT
which you will find in the
upper right hand corner of this page.
Thanks always for visiting.
I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.
Winter has been very long in the Midwest. I received this great 1000 piece puzzle for Christmas and sometime in late January I spread it out in the family room on a large round table. It had been years since we've had a puzzle out on the table.
Our family was over, so four of us sorted all the pieces into groups and managed to find maybe half of the edges....OY! The pieces are so small....
It's a BIG puzzle with 1000 pieces, I swear there are more.
Anyone my age---in my mid 70's---remembers these ladies at church, shopping, or at ladies' luncheons in the 1950's. I've even named them...after some of my Grandmother's friends.
]
Christine with Mock Haut Disapproval, but still a friend...what is she looking at?
Amelia, not the brightest bulb in the box...sweet and Clueless..with her price tag still hanging from her hat. What will the Parson think of that?
What you can't see is this is a photo of a painting, and not a litho or clear illustration-and all the details are brushstroke suggestions...it filled the whole table...it's been years since I have done a 1000 piecer. When the boys were growing up there were always puzzles on the diningroom table after Christmas.
As a Mom, I never accepted the, "There's nothing to do!", or "I'm bored." They knew they were sent to the puzzle table or given WORK...gosh FORBID. LOL.
Special thanks to Susan Barbeau the artist for her brushwork and the adorable image and
copyright 2017
This was such fun, but a taxing puzzle, this took me over a month to complete. True our lower level has many distractions: our office, craft room, doll room--and the family room,...but I needed the table to work on taxes...LOL. So, I had to get itdone!
It's boxed up now to pass the memories and laughter on to someone else!
Whom should I victimize?
....I just did my dear grandmother's ...SNORT!...
If you enjoyed this post please follow this blog by blogger or
FOLLOW IT which you will find in the upper right hand corner of this page.
Thanks always for visiting.
I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.
Just one of the hardest things about growing old is the passage of time. Not on a scooter anymore, time zooms by at the speed of a jet plane, maybe a supersonic fighter jet. It's really crazy how fast a week goes.
I'm doing these photo posts...scientifically-chortle by going to my everything folder and saying Eenie, Meenie, Minie, MO, and opening a folder. I gaze down the stacks of files and clips and randomly choose one.
Just over six years ago, I attended my 50th class reunion.
YES, I'm that old and that's why Time is Supersonic.
Part of the three-day event was a great tour of my old High School. No longer the sterile, dark, drab green and gray ground stone floors anymore, the school was fresh and bright with wall murals and memorabilia everywhere. Imbedded in the colorless floor was a huge school emblem and elsewhere another uplifting message.
While touring I looked up....memories flooding around my feet and brain with every step.
There was my dad....class of January 1941 in a blow up of his yearbook page!
He was captain of the football team, played basketball and baseball, actually had a scholarship to a State University, but enlisted instead. Our manufacturing city was still suffering the throes of the Depression, and jobs were hard to find, and his family of six couldn't even help with subsidizing a scholarship.
________________________________________
So, he enlisted, 11 months almost to the day of the start of WWII.
I have many great photos of my dad, so please excuse this blow-up from the picture above.
He served 5 years in WWII in the army as a Technical Medical Sargent in the Pacific.
He taught me to throw a football, run a wood lathe and a bandsaw, how to swim, how to always be a 'lady', how to drive a riding lawnmower, a boat, hook up down-riggers on Lake Michigan, and most important to never quit anything.
He doted on my boys...fished and hunted with my husband, and took care of Mom when she was ill, difficult and bedridden.
That trip to my high school conjured up all kinds of memories, but the strongest was the pride I had for my father up there on the wall
Captain of the Football team
and of my Heart!
If you enjoyed this post please follow this blog by blogger or FOLLOW IT which you will find in the upper right hand corner of this page.
Thanks always for visiting.
I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.
All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown. Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle
Way back when, maybe three computers ago...Word had this great AP for fooling around with photos. I so miss it.
Anyway, my husband's family is from east of Green Bay, Wi. One trip home years ago pre-2009, I went with my Mom-in-Law to track down some family geneology information with her distant cousin. Her home was really out in the middle of NOWHERE, Wisconsin. But, there were these magnificent Hollyhocks growing on the side of the family's very old clapboard farm cottage.
I actually don't have the original photo anymore---that was probably lost in the computer switches. I had kept these 3 alterations as documents, which then survived the many system changes.
The above was a straight water color Ap and I remember lightening the entire photo as the siding was grayed with age.
Playing with more of the choices, here is a tinted watercolor version...which would go with my decor then. I never did do prints...but these are so charming, I probably should do at least one, now.
The Memory is one of a lovely summer's day...a wonderful conversation, coffee with an elderly family member, and a great day with my Mom-in-Law, whom we all miss and these gorgeous Hollyhocks.
I also miss the free-tweaking Word AP with all kinds of bells and whistles that once came with my old computer system, which at that time was free with Apple/Macs.
Ha, free software---those were the good-old days!
Do have a beautiful weekend full of
Family, Flowers, and making Memories.
If you enjoyed this post please follow this blog by blogger or FOLLOW IT which you will find in the upper right hand corner of this page.
Thanks always for visiting.
I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.
All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown. Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle
Dad was a fisherman, so my youngest memories are of throwing in a line with a cane pole and watching it drift with the current. Ripples on the water teasing the bobber and his earnest reminder to,
Our family had property in the middle of Wisconsin surrounded by fields, hills, and nestled on a small chain of lakes. I would take long walks along the creeks and across the fields, the ever changing landscape as it morphed from greens to golden tans and then to the subtle dead grays of November.