Summer Dreams

Good morning prim folk buddies.

With the impeding snowstorm 

we are about to get again.

I will gladly trade any of my southern buddies

some...

ALL

 of this snow right now.

Bob thought of an idea.

Northern buddies trading homes 

with Southern buddies for a month.

We get out of the snow,

and they get to enjoy the white stuff.

Good idea?

I'm all for it, but unfortunately

I have to go to work...

and I know Bob would 

NEVER

leave the store for that long.

Oh well.

I am left with my

SUMMER DREAMS

Being out on our dock.
Bob fishing and me crafting.

Watching the sun go down.
Watching the freighters go by.
Watching the gorgeous sunsets.

Now I have to go outside to my cold car.
Scrape of the ice and snow.
Drive to work in the dark.

Alas right now I am left with my

Summer Dreams.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Dreaming away the Winter Blessings To All!
Janice

Spring Ditty

My name is Janice
and I'm here to say.
If I could, I would
play with fabric all day!

Give me some floss, 
muslin and wool.
I love to create.
And that ain't no bull!

Happy Spring Ditty Dear sweet blogging buddies!

Do I sound like a rap artist with my Spring ditty?
Unfortunately I do not think I will get that golden ticket
from American Idol,
but my latest creation 
is this cute bunny.

Made from wool

 Fabric and floss.

Can you guess what it sewed up to be?

A Spring Ditty Bag!

I had enough of this blue/ brown fabric to sew up

6 of these ditty bags.

These are approx. 7  1/2 by 5  1/2 inches.

They will be hopping off to the Holly show. 

Update: Only 5 left now ~ I aalready sold one.
I was finishing up a few at the store and a customer 
wanted one. We have the best customers.
Thank you Barb!

Ditty Blessings To All!

Janice

We Had A Visitor

Good morning sweet friends.

Is everyone still keeping warm in the Midwest?

I told Mother Nature to skip Spring and go right to Summer...

So I can thaw out. LOL

We had a visitor for 6 weeks.

This little cutie belongs to Bob's dad.

Her name is Socks.

My father in law went to Florida for a bit and asked us if we would

babysit.

She looks cute

But she was a little stinker...

(don't mind my dust bunnies) LOL

She would coax Shadow into investigating.

And although Shadow had found another playmate,

it was chaos with our other kitties.

The others would not warm up to her.
They would hiss and growl.
We felt bad for her.
Even though she was darling and fun,

we were glad she went home.

No more kitties for us.

By Gone Visitor Blessings To All!

Janice

Lumpy And Bumpy

Good afternoon sweet friends.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.

I am at the store right now.

Working on tax stuff.

YUK

It has to get done though...

I am feeling a bit lumpy and bumpy.

Well actually my newest creations is.

This hand stitched wool bunny.

With some penny flowers.

Adding my cabbage roses.

What do you think I made this in to?

A lumpy bumpy pillow.

The bunny and flowers were all hand stitched.
Filled completely with rags for that lumpy bumpy feel.

This is my own design and one of a kind.

It measures 22 inches by 10 inches.

I will be selling it at the Holly show in March.
Details of the show on my sidebar.

Lumpy Bumpy Blessings To All!
Janice

Lets Play What Is This

Good morning dear sweet friends.

How is your week going for you?

The other day Bob and I saw 4 magnificent bald eagles
out on the ice near our dock.
By the time I got my camera they started to fly away.
Darn.
They always come when the ice is in the river to hunt.
Folks up and down the river have been seeing them now.
Maybe I will get another chance at snapping a pic.

So this morning I wanted to find out if my talented
and bright blogging buddies knew what this.

Bob and I came across it at an antique store and I had to have it.

This piece would have hung from the ceiling.


It did not hang in your home.


You would have found this in a General Store.

In the 1800's it held a certain item that folks needed.


More specifically when people traveled via horse and buggy.

Often times it was not used for the purpose it was intended for.


Many slaves knew what it was and never used it.


If you guessed a whip, you are correct.


This display item held

Buggy Whips.

Each little slot would hold one whip in place 

for customers to shop.

You might be asking yourselves now,

since I do not own either a buggy or a horse,

why would I purchase something like this?

I do not want to spoil the secret, 

but this will be incorporated into the bedroom redux.

I cannot wait to show this off!

If you have any ideas how you would use this, please share.

I might change my mind....

Buggy Whip Blessings To All!

Janice

Dry Sink Memory

Good morning sweet dear friends

I cannot believe this month is almost over already can you?

Most of you who have been following me for awhile

know that I spent my Summers on both

 my paternal and maternal grandparents homesteads.

My paternal grandparents were pretty wealthy back in their day.

My maternal grandparents were not so well off.

However, I loved spending my time with both, 

and actually my love for prim goodies came from my maternal gramma B.

Gramma B did not have running water in her farmhouse.

Which means no toilet or shower.
Yes, we used an outhouse to do our business

 and a cast iron tub to bathe in.

Unlike the drysink I have,

she actually used her dry sink to wash dishes.

She had a black pump on the side like mine (hers was a bit taller though)

I also remember her drysink having shelves underneath 

were she kept her enamelware. 

Also  a wire rack holding her soap like I have also done.

Gramma B had a large enamelware tub inside her drysink.

She would pump water into a cast iron kettle

and boil the water on her woodstove.
(No furnace either)

Once the water was boiled, she added her dishes and silverware

to the tub and poured boiling water over all.

She let it sit a bit  and then scrubbed them.

Once they were scrubbed she would rinse them in another enamelware tub

which was located on the cupbaord next to the drysink.

She would towel dry everything and put away underneath.

I feel blessed to be able to enjoy my current drysink and all of my
other treasures,
but also blessed to have actually lived this way when I was a child.
It truly makes you appreciate what you have and to cherish what God has given.
Be blessed my friends!

I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their week.

A Truly Primitive Blessings To All!
Janice 

CupboardScape

Good morning dear sweet friends.

Its a balmy 70 degrees here in our neck of the woods today.

Sitting out on the dock sipping some ice tea

reading one of my fav prim magazines.

A girl can dream can't she?

I wish it was Summer but old man Winter is still around.

Now you all have heard of tablescapes and windowscapes.

I was inspired by Robyn

over at mugwumpwoolies.blogspot.com

to do my own monthly version of 

what else.

My CupboardScape

Maybe one day

this word  CupboardScape will be entered into the Oxford Dictionary,

with the likes of tweetable, social media and yes even twerking.

For now though,

all of my blogging friends will be introduced to my new word.

You will be treated to my monthly CupboardScape 

as I love moving things around in my home.

I have titled my January CupboardScape,

"Winter Blues" 

I decided to keep out my tree filled with silver...

well almost filled.

Big guy Bob brushed by a few times and broke lots of my ornaments.

Thank goodness they were the vintage ones and not the antique  ones at the top.

I will be on the hunt once again this year for more,

and will move the tree to another room this next Christmas.

This prim snowman  stood guard at the base

 of my snowman tree during Christmas.

Early 1900 child's blue check dress.

A few of my reproduction bonnets.

I purchased these from my prim friend Dawn

who owns a wonderful prim shop in Holly, MI

Holly Hills Primitives.

Wood bucket, butter mold and blue bowl 

resting on a piece of blue coverlet.

Can you spot my little treen bowl?

The base of my tree is a blue coverlet I placed in a pantry box.

Added vintage silver cookie cutters inside.

That does it for this month's new CupboardScape view.

Hope you enjoyed the mini tour.

Thank you Robyn for the inspiration!

I also hope everyone is enjoying their weekend...

what's left of it anyway. LOL

CupboardScape Blessings To All!

Janice

Warning Warning We Moved

Good morning Dear blogging buddies!

Did I grab your attention?

If you are reading this,

then I guess I did. LOL

A few more pics of our recent store redux from a couple weeks back. 

I love this prim blue side table.
(Update ~ SOLD)

Left is a red chimney cabinet 

and to the right another prim cabinet.

(We may be taking these to the show)

If I had a covered porch, this pew bench would be there right now.

Prim perfect and even still have the slot for books in the back.

(update ~ some items on table SOLD)

Lots of items sold from previous pics.
We have the best customers!

TGIF Blessings To All!

Janice

We Separated

Good evening dear sweet friends.

I have the Winter Blahs

and so looking forward to Spring.

No Bob and I did not separate.

He is making progress on the bedroom.

We separated the closet space.

To the left will be shelves for more displays.

YAY FOR ME!!!

The right will be our closet and Bob will hang our new door there.

This originally was one big cedar closet.

We decided not to remove the cedar,

but will paint over it on the shelf side.

Bob ripped off a bit of outside wall to find out if we had insulation.

Since I was told this was a Summer home when built, 

I was not sure if there was any insulation on the outer walls.

Yippee..we do!!

Now instead of ripping off all of the paneling, 

Bob will just dryall (sheetrock) over it.  

Hubby working on my shelves.

He is also going to make a small door at the bottom, so I can hide

more wool and fabric.

I cannot wait to see how he makes the door!

WOOHOO!

This is going to be a slow process 

because he only gets two days off a week

from working our store,

but I will continue to keep you updated on our...

oops... Bob's progress. LOL

Progressive Blessings To All!

Janice

Making Some Progress

Good evening dear blogging buddies!

Snow to rain and back to snow.
Mother Nature sure is a mixed up gal these days.

I am so tired of snow...where is Spring?

I just wanted to show you my latest project.

A bit more progress.

I changed my color scheme up a bit.

Out with the blue and in with the red.

More of a pop.
I call these my Cabbage Roses.

This will be a OOAK that will be headed to the prim show.
Oh yeah..we are doing the 
Early Plantings prim show in Holly, Michigan.

For any of my blogging buddies who like my prim goodies
and are not able to come to the show,
 just send me an email and if you are close to our store,
I can bring them in or I can ship too.

Pop Of Color Blessings To All!

Janice

WooHoo I Found A Door

Good morning everyone!

How are things going for you all?
Even though it is a Monday...and we all know Monday gets a bad wrap.

I hope your Monday is as good as it is for me...

cause I found me a door for the bedroom redux.
Well actually Bob found the door and I had to pick it up.

WOOHOO!

I had to drive an hour one way...stuff it in my car with the back seats down.

Drive back another hour a bit cramped 
because I had to move my front seats closer...

But I did it.

This is the door inside my car.

Now I could have driven our cargo van...
but I have never felt comfortabe driving it.
So I made this door FIT into my car.

Isn't she a five star beauty?
Actually a five panel one.  ;-)

This was in one of our friends antique store.

He also gave me the hardware.
With the reclaimed trim we also found, 

this is going to fit great into our plan.

Old Door and Happy Monday Blessings To All!

Janice

Beginning To See The Light

Good morning dear sweet friends.

Well the rain has not come yet as expected,

but it sure is foggy!

Still suppose to rain this evening,

so we remain in limbo on the flooding issue.

With the gloomy dark nights of Winter,

and no more Christmas cheer.

I began to see the light.

The lights of whites and creams.

With that said,

I changed up one of my kitchen cupboards

to reflect my new light of color.

What colors do you like during the Winter months?

Winter Light Blessings To All!

Janice

We Are In a Jam

In an ice jam that is.

Good evening sweet fellow blogging buddies.

We have had an ice jam since the first of the year.

This is not normal for us along the river here.

The ice does not jam like this until March.

Now with all of the snow, polar freezing and rain we are expecting tonight,

we might be in a bigger jam.

With the rain and warmer temps,

where is all of the water going to go?

Please say a wee prayer for us,

as we are afraid there might be some flooding this weekend.

On another note, I want to give a great big

SHOUT OUT

to both our American and Canadian Coast Guard.

These men and women risk their lives to rescue

folks from the waters of both of our countries.

Where others won't go, they head straight for it.

Without them our coastal waterways this time of year 

would not be navigable.

This is our ice jam.

View of a coast guard boat cutting through the ice.

So this big fella can get through our big river.

And one more post script.

Peepers was a little miffed that I did not include him 

in my Sunday Afternoon view.

He sleeps next to my crock lamp.

So sorry Peeps..do you forgive me now?

Weekend Blessings To All!

Janice