SURGERY AND A FEW PICS

Good Friday morning, my primitive friends (and not so primitive). We finally got most of our kitchen counters finished so I wanted to share some pictures with you all. Jermiah (our SIL) did most of the work and he still has one section by the refrigerator to get done but he is so busy and if it doesn't get done for awhile, we are fine with that. He cut the cherry boards quite awhile back to give them time to dry and got them installed a couple of weeks ago and got the finish on them. Here is a close up of one small section with a wool mat and sugar cone. I'm very pleased with how they turned out.Here is the corner by the stove.

Here is the stovetop and the countertops match my stoveboard nicely.

Here is a view of the sink ~ we went with the black granite sink and I just love it.

Another view ~ you can see my primitive soap keep hanging on the side of the cupboard that I bought from a seller on Ebay. It came with the rusty cup, two prim bars of soap and a sprig of sweet annie. It is primmed up perfectly.

Heres another section. The little red cubbie to the right hanging on the wall is kind of hard to see because I have a dittly bag hanging on it, it was for the 4th but it's now gone. The cubbie is done in a primitive red and has 2 drawers & a towel holder.

Here you can see I have an old primitive table in the center that Simon's father built back in the 20s. I have some flags & sweet annie in an old sifter, my beeswax crow, and a 4th of July candle.

Here's a closeup of the corner. Simon made me the primitive toaster cover, all of my wooden spoons and scoops are very old, as well as the slicer and the cutting boards.

A better closeup. Darn, I have an outlet showing. A prim lovers nightmare.

Another view.

Here is a bowl of flax, spools, and Americana stars I made on top of the antique sewing machine our SIL gave us. It belonged to his great grandmother and it dates back to 1860 - 1900. There were even a few bobbins in the drawer when I got it.

Here is a closeup of the machine. The tan thing covering part of it was what she used to stick her pins in it.

It folds out to a nice sewing table with lots of work room.

Here's a close up of the bowl of flax, stars, and spools.

Here's a hanging pinkeep from a Lori Brechlin pattern. I had made this same pattern before & framed it but it sold so I made myself a pinkeep from the pattern.

This is Fancey Blackett and her butterchurn, a Pineberry Lane pattern. It is also a hanging pinkeep & I just love the muted colors of it and it's perfect for late summer, early fall, though I will leave it out year round.

And here's the little ditty bag I made & filled with sweet annie. I will tuck it somewhere in the living room now that the 4th is over.

That's the pics I have to share today.

I will be taking a break from my selling blog for awhile. You've heard me speak of my pain in the neck, LOL, but I saw the neurosurgeon yesterday & I'm scheduled for surgery on July 29th. He is doing an anterior cervical disectomy with fusion on 3 herniated discs in my neck. They remove the bad disc, then do a bone graft where the disc was & a small metal plate is screwed in to hold the bone in place while the fusion heals. If all goes well it is an overnight stay in the hospital.

I have a couple small orders to finish up, then I want to get our house in good shape so I won't have to worry about cleaning while I'm recovering. I hope to continue to read your blogs & leave comments and maybe even post now and then. Maybe I'll have some garden pics to share but if the weather doesn't start cooperating then they may look quite pitiful. We've had some very cold weather & 2 days ago I had a woodfire ~ that's a first for us ~ a fire in July.

Well, take care my friends.

til next time,

Pam

HAPPY SUMMER

Good morning, everyone! I'm still here, just extremely busy with summer, gardens, baskets. I'm sure you all know how much busier we all seem to be this time of year. I really did not mean to go so long without posting but I kept thinking our kitchen would be finished and I could share some pics but not quite done. I also wanted to share some pics of our living room but it's a mess with kitchen stuff all over the floor, etc. Anyway a few weeks ago I picked up this long bench at a antique/garage sale. It was a hideous bright green but definitely old & what I was looking for so I bought it. I sanded it down, put 2 coats of buttermilk paint on it then walnut stain. I love how it turned out. Do you notice the shoe cobbler thingey on the right? It belonged to Simon's great grandfather. Gwen and Miah's baby is due August 10th so I thought I would share a couple of pics they had taken on the beach. I want to congratulate Dawn from HollyHills Primitives and Linda from Behind My Red Door on the births of their beautiful new granddaughters. I will be woohooing in 6 weeks or so. We are getting another grandson. Gwen certainly has that pregnancy "glow" and I think she looks gorgeous though she says she's not feeling it.

Here is a picture of Shelley and me. I was so fortunate to meet a blogging friend from Northern Michigan Experience. Shelley was selling her art at a craft show in Gaylord on June 6th so I made a point of going to see her. She is just as sweet as can be & gave me the prettiest keychain that was made with one of her beautiful photos. Her work is just amazing and she and Greg are the nicest people. They have a beautiful log cabin up near Gaylord that they spend their weekends at. Thank you, Shelley for the keychain. Simon loves it, too. I picked the perfect one because we have so many pileated woodpeckers around our home.

Here is a wonderful vintage soap keep with rusty cup, soap, and a sprig of sweet annie that I won on Ebay a couple of weeks ago. I just love it and I put it in the kitchen instead of the bathroom.

Here is a doll I made from a TFC Folkart pattern and dressed her up for the 4th of July. I will take better pics of our living room when everything is put back where it belongs. I forgot to tell you why it's such a mess. Our son in law Jermiah is putting in wood countertops. He's had the cherry wood drying for a couple of months & he started the work this past Saturday. They are looking so pretty. We are also putting in a black granite sink. I wanted the farmhouse sink but just couldn't justify spending that much money. I still have trim to paint in the kitchen, too.

I made these sweet prim dolls from a pattern by Lottie of SweetPea Primitives. I just love the simplicity of them. Thanks Lottie for a wonderful pattern. I'm not sure yet where they will go. I picked up a huge shaker peg rack at the same sale as the bench & I redid in black and it will go over our sofa in the living room, they may wind up there. I will share pics when it's all done.

Here's a stitchery that I worked on in the car on our way to Grand Rapids ~ we took a day trip down there to see our son John. He had gotten us a beautiful colonial chandelier for over our kitchen table but it was much to large, much to our dismay. I called Betsy the owner of An American Sampler and she was so kind as to let us exchange it. We had store credit left after choosing a smaller light and below you can see a few things I picked up. Some of it isn't unpacked yet. If you are ever in the Grand Rapids Mi. area, this shop is a must visit. She has the most wonderful furniture ~ repros and antiques, textiles, penny rugs, candles, dolls, pottery, stitcheries, coverlets, too many things to name and she is just a sweetheart. Thanks Betsy for opening the store just for us.

Here is a runner that I got at her shop. I love the pattern and for now I have it on our coffeetable in the living room which is done in a prim red.

Here is a beautiful piece of Rowe pottery I got from her. It is quite large & I don't know where this is going either. It was like Christmas for me spending store credit. John's generosity just blew me away. Thank you, John, very very much. I love you & you are the BEST!

I don't know where this little guy is going either. It is a blackened beeswax crow & smells divine. He has little nail feet. Isn't he just prim perfect?

Here is an Abraham Lincoln stitchery that I also got there. I just love the saying on this sampler. Abe was a wise man!

Well, next time I post I should have lots of pics to share. I kept waiting thinking it would all be done, but you all know how that goes. Our peonies are starting to bloom, the salvia, cosmos, sweet william, irises, and I've actually got several nice blossoms on my yarrow. The green beans we put in came up very nice but now something is eating the leaves ~ not sure what. I've been working on lots of basket orders and want to thank all of the wonderful customers that I have. I've started another cross stitch to work on in the evenings and most of the day I spend weaving. Simon's sister from Arkansas will be here tomorrow for a week and hopefully this weekend we will have his family all over for a cookout. I hope to have a sink by then. We've been using paper plates & doing dishes in the bathroom. We grill most of the time. Simon has a gas burner stove in the barn for heating water when he makes sausage and butchers so last night we used it to cook bacon & had BLTs.

Congratulations again to the new grammies ~ what a blessing those wee babies are.

Hope to see you soon.

hugs,

Pam

A RAINY THURSDAY

Hello to everyone! It's our 3rd rainy day here in northern Michigan which our grass and flowers really needed but now we need the warm sunshine to get things growing. I hope you all had a wonderful long weekend and were able to enjoy some time with family and friends. We stayed home mostly and got alot of things done that badly needed doing. We got our little garden shed totally cleaned and the garage. I planted a few more flowers & we went to the nursery and bought vegetable plants but am holding off until June 1st to plant those as we will probably get another frost. I found some yarrow plants, sweet annie plants (I also tried seeds of both) and I am trying a small bit of lavender. I've managed to finish a stitchery and a cross stitch but I can't show you the cross stitch as I did it for a dear blogging friend and I haven't mailed it yet. This is a simple, primitive stitchery from a pattern by Sherri from www.picturetrail.com/blaircreekcabin I love how it turned out. Sherri also has a blog ~ http://gatheringhope.blogspot.com/ Here's a closeup of the stitchery.

Our garden shed doors are not really that bright, they are a pretty dull red. I wanted to show the beeskep I got for Mother's Day. It's from http://www.oldcolonyprimitives.com/

Here's a paper hat annie that I made 2 or 3 years ago from a pattern I bought from Patchwork Patty primitives but I don't think she's in business anymore. She's sitting in a chair in our enclosed porch.

Americana box I did a couple of years ago.

Here's the top shelf of a prim cupboard I picked up this weekend at a garage sale for ~ are you ready? ~ $10.00. It's in great shape, all the doors open and close, and I'm sure it's the top of an old Hoosier. Now I need to find a base with an enamel top. For now it's on a bench in our porch. I will redecorate it after the 4th of July.

Now you can see the full cupboard.

Here's the bottom shelf ~ a crock with some really old spools with yarn, and the white one is wrapped with some kind of wool. Sugar mold with votives ~ very old piece.

A star makedo I did last year.

Another one.

Basket I made & filled with some spools & Americana stars I did a couple of years ago.

This is a very, very large tote that I made for a very special lady who won't get it for a few days. It got mailed yesterday. It has long canvas straps for shoulder length but may be knotted for a shorter length. It's a marketing tote that she requested.

Here's the inside ~ you can tell how deep it is & the straps are woven through the bottom so it is very sturdy and will hold a load of groceries or whatever.

We spent the weekend of May 16th ~ 17th at the cabin in the UP and it snowed on Saturday night so I snapped a couple of pics of Simon outside working. I was inside with the dogs where it was nice and toasting & I was working on a stitchery.

Our cabin is on the Betsy River out towards Whitefish Point north of Paradise. We are only a couple of miles from Lake Superior. Well, I gotta get busy ~ I'm working on a very large basket order for a blogging friend so can't show you any of them. I will let her show them once she receives them. I'm working on another stitchery in the evenings & have a little bit of sewing I want to do, too. How do all of you other gals manage to get so much done?? Well ~ have a wonderful weekend and I'll talk to ya soon.

til next time,

Pam

A COUPLE NEW PRIMS

Greetings, my prim friends! This will be a short post but it's been a week so I wanted to drop in and share what I've been doing. I've taken a quick break from basketweaving because I've had some issues with my neck and right shoulder. I'm scheduled for an MRI and EMG on Monday and Tuesday it's lab work for my thyroid. No, this isn't a post about my health but I've been feeling so tired & have absolutely no energy & that's sure not like me. Our weather hasn't cooperated either ~ I just had to build a fire in our woodstove so for the rest of the afternoon I will be by the fire stitching. I wanted to show you the pantry cake I made yesterday. I finally picked up a mold at the thrift store & I used Lindas recipe, though she says it's not her recipe. She has posted it on her blog awhile back. It's a very easy recipe & I love how it turned out ~ it just takes a long time to dry. Thanks, Linda, for posting this recipe.

Here's Abigail ~ I made her using a Jackie Schmidt pattern. I made a little pocked & stitched "flax" on it & stuffed a tiny bit of flax in it from my stash. She's very prim & I love how she turned out ~ thanks Jackie, for another great pattern.

Here is Bettina & her crow. She is a large doll & is stuffed completely with rags as is her crow. This is a PineberryLane pattern. Thanks, Wendy. I love how she turned out. I used Civil War repro fabric for her bib jumper & osnaberg for her shirt.

Here's a picture of Liam and me which Simon took on Monday. We babysat for him for about 3 hours & Liam and I spent most of the time outside. We had a beautiful sunny day, one of very few.

Here's Liam in his wagon. I think all in all, I must have taken him for a 3 mile ride. He loves to collect sticks and when we are outside he always has a handful. It's amazing how many he can hold in his little hands.

One more shot of the two of us. We were both quite dirty by the time we went in. We played in the sand, collected sticks, dug holes ~ what fun we had together.

That's it for a few more days. I'm hoping it warms up so my flowers can start growing. I will be making a different style basket to add to EarlyWorks Mercantile the first of the month so I hope you take a peek. I plan on updating my selling blog next week as well. I hope you all have a wonderful week. Time to get a cup of coffee & warm up.

blessings,

Pam