September Farmhouse ~

~ Happy September ~

I have been cleaning this old farmhouse,

sprucing it up and making it shine :)

I have changed out the Summer curtains to my black checkered ones for Autumn…

but I've left up the lace sheers {that Joan gave me} to keep out the late-summer sun.

we bought 2 new rugs for the keeping room too!

(I NEVER by anything new!)

I had boring white berber rugs in here before, 

...but now I have an explosion of folky design & color!!

'front' part of the keeping room ~ under the coffee table is a big metal basket that holds my books, magazines & WIPS

my favorite blue 'tulip' cupboard above the couch ~

here is our mantel decorated simply for the beginning of Autumn…

hate that glare from the TV ~ Peter will make a blanket crane for me to cover it when we're not watching it :)

another view ~

view from where I sit on the couch & stitch ~
...while watching the sci-fi channel!

 I keep some of my sewing needfuls in this old round wooden tote, 

{{plus my pencils are never out of reach}}

~ love my hooked rug ~

 here is the 'back' of the keeping room ~

this other new rug is just as colorful & folk art-y as the other one, but in a different pattern

(as suggested by Peter…yes, he has an 'eye' for design)

the colors in the rugs pick up EVERY color that I love to decorate with and am drawn to…
bittersweet, robins egg blue, brown, black, mustard & sage...

 a small collection of sewing baskets & tins:

makes me happy :)

 a corner of the back keeping room:

~ my basket-tree is filling up ~

 the photo below shows a thread-box/sewing bow that I picked up with Joan last week ~

it was stained very dark & was polyurethane'd really shiny ~ straight out of the 1970's….

SO

I sanded it back, and repainted it like this:

POLKA DOTS!

I LOVE it!!

it also had a tacky polyester tweed fabric covering the pincushion on top, 

so I replaced it with hand dyed & stained velvet in a beautiful salmon color ~

it had all of it's original spool spindles too ~ happy happy!

 as I was snapping pics, 

'someone' wanted my attention …

Hi PEACH!!!!
Peaches (Sun Conure) & Barbara (our Parakeet)
live in this room with us and are always chattering & chortling away

Here is our dining room :

sorry about the blur….

 I covered up my books on the black bookshelf (below) 

with a piece of crewel fabric ~

I have SO many books & magazines ~ it's a sickness!!!

on the top of the black bookshelf is my collection of early shoes ~ 

...mostly children's shoes…

I put them in an OLD Mason's Blacking box
Blacking was used to polish the black high-top shoes back then...

I'll be working on finished goods now until the Gathering, so I will have lots of things to offer you!

OH and of course for my 'online' show here on this blog on the 28th :)

Enjoy your holiday & be safe my friends!!!

and HAPPY SEPTEMBER!

* Blessed be * 

Lori