Robin's Nest

Here's a quick round of photos from the cabin in April and June of 2012. Things have been a little extra crazy at the Cottage. Cancer. Death. Unexpected travel. A toddler. Lots of changes...we're getting thru it and well, it is what it is.

 

#1 the ribbon stripe between the patchwork and check pattern is actually the same color of maroon, it just photographs weird.

#2 all of the "stripes" actually line up between the two curtain panels...I need to move my curtain rod up a few inches.

 My dad gifted me with the red, white and blue bobbins.

 Last changed to the mantle...the basket is filled with cinnamon pine cones.

 The downstairs bedroom.

 The other side of the downstairs bedroom. What? You don't use 5 gallon buckets of stain as decorative objects?

Still love this quilt...

 The door behind the door...it's the laundry room / closet in the downstairs bedroom.

Moved my favorite homemade (not by me - thrift store find) floor lamp to the bedroom and relocated the little cubby cabinet from beside the front door at the Paisley Cottage. Makes a great side table!

 The kitchen...

 The living area...don't ask me why the front door is standing ajar...who knows.

The upstairs bedroom! Finally a new picture or two...with the artwork actually HANGING on the wall.

 The little white bench is temporarily living upstairs.

The sewing table is a WAY better TV stand than the little green side table (now on the back porch). It's taller and more narrow so the love seat isn't so close to the front door anymore.

 Packing up to go home.

It's almost completely re-stained now! Such a difference. The doors and window trim are charcoal gray (I wanted black), but it came out looking more like a dark espresso. Frankly, I'm ready to just use black paint on the trim, but Mr. Paisley said no way. So dark brown it is.

We zipped up to Ohio (part 1 unexpected trip) and my aunt Alyce gave me a TON of her Americana / Primitive stuff from her last house. She redecorates and changes her style somewhat regularly. The white enamel pitcher is one of those goodies. I had a blue and white speckleware coffee pot there with the wheat in it, but this is narrower and fits better.

 From the top of the stairs.

 Over one of the windows in the living area

Some artwork from Alyce.

A beautiful braided rug from Alyce (and a naked bed...go figure) I'm not sure, but I think it's a Thimbleberry. It weighs a ton.

 My side of the bed!

 LOVE this framed print that Alyce gave me - I needed something up there!

I thought the candle/plate holder was working in this spot (also from Alyce, minus the plate), but not loving it in the picture. I'll be moving that in a few weeks when I'm back up there.

 Decorated the front garden for Summer / 4th of July.

The side of the cabin from up on the hill...yeah! It matches the front!

And a closer up shot of the new stain. It's a bit more orange than I was expecting (yeah, I wasn't expecting ORANGE at all...gotta love stain...never quite know what you're going to get until you put it on the wood that you are working with). You can sort of see the previously mentioned blue and white speckleware coffee pot there in the garden window - it has pip berries in it now.

Making money...

It's been awhile, I know. This post will be short, I'm blogging from my phone...in the backseat of the truck...somewhere in Virginia. We are headed to upstate New York to say goodbye to grandma.

Alas, making a little money along the way. We happened to be going right by Replacements, LTD in NC and I had recently packed up my wedding dishes after getting new ones that go with the changed decor. The old ones were Pfaltzgraff Key Largo. A simple pattern of cream stoneware with pale green and yellow bands. It's retired. It's not selling well on ebay. No interest on Craigs list. I left with a check for $93.00 for 11 year old dishes that we used every day. I'm thrilled to say the least. More later when I can actually type on my laptop and not spend so much time correcting typos from the truck bouncing all over the road.

Here's the other song...or poem? IDK. I don't know if this one was finished or not. I assume it is...but who knows.

Blood

Drumming the rhythm of motion through space,
Collapsed within heartbeats, ages, and time,
Tears stain the scars set in my face
Sharing a reason and loosing the rhyme
All but forgotten in loneliness, bliss
Cold and dark footsteps remind her
Collections of her breath quietly hiss
And vision is cleared, the mind left blurred
Midnight within the collapsing heart
Pierced and suckled, drained and bled
Her world of shadows is blown apart
Within the limits of her head
But hush and hear the whispers speak
Their embers dimming through the night
With daylight's shadows, poised and sleek
The last immortal birthright.

 (typed as written - no spelling changes on my end)

Again, feel free to throw your interpretations out there.

In keeping with the Spring Cleaning theme...I found a couple of songs that were written for (or about) me. I don't really "get" lyrics (or poetry for that matter) so I don't really know.

Feel free to throw out any interpretations of this one

 Candlewax (a tragedy)

She stands in white flowing forrestry
Caring, but not knowing why
Looking about, she notices me
Enthralled with the wink of her eye

Captured in timeless tapestry,
Going, but not knowing where,
Turning around, she runs from me,
Her hands holding onto the air

She spent a long while in the monastary
Looking for some peace of mind
She's blind in the dark but she wants to see
Too bad it's a waste of her time

She stares at some strange monstrosity
That followed her out to the glen
She isn't sure, but she thinks it's me
Coming to see her again

And a shot in the dark pierced through a dream
As slumber was slipping away
And again and again somebody screamed
As night slowly fades into day

Now I'm going down to the edge of the sea
You know I will always be there
Where undertow dances with dying sea weed
And waves shout her name in the air

(typed as written - I take no credit for spelling here)

I'm neck deep in Spring Cleaning since Mr. Paisley is otherwise occupied for a few days. Today I have focused on my office. Lord have mercy...

My poor shredder is on overload. I've emptied it 5 times. It's overheated in protest 6 times since 11:30 a.m. 

Thus far the only monetary treasure i've unearthed is a 2001Vermont quarter. However, other treasures abound. I found a photo of me and my two BFFs from 1991. Senior Grad Nite at Disney. All I can say about that is...wow. 

#1 seriously...i'm wearing a ROMPER...with a bib no less. It doesn't get any more awesome than that folks! (yes it does...that thing is still in my closet - no I don't wear it, but the 80s are back baby - just you wait, the 90s will be back again)
#2 shoulder pads...they were all the rage. Really.
#3 so were stockings and rayon "dressy" short sets...ahhh rayon.

If you're not familiar with "Grad Nite" Disney hosted it from the 70s (at least here in Florida) up until 2011. I went twice - one for "Jr. Grad Nite" for 8th grade "graduation" from Junior High and again in 1991 for Senior Grad Nite for high school. They have popular bands / musicians headlining and the park is (or was) closed except for the students. We had to dress up. Hence the lovely outfits above. No one in their right mind would normally wear that to Disney. Yep - rules were no tennis shoes, no school logos, no sports logos, no jeans, no hats...some of that changed later on (jeans and sneakers became acceptable as long as they weren't torn or low rise).

Who was performing for my Senior Grad Nite...don't hate! It was: Stevie B., Tara Kemp, En Vogue, Timmy T., C&C Music Factory

(at Jr. Grad Nite it was  Ready For The World, Rene & Angela, Animotion, Nu Shooz, Starpoint, Klymaxx, Miami Sound Machine, Sly Fox...you know you're totally jealous)  

Not much else I can say about it...always good to look back on where you came from ;-)

I also found a new Circuit City credit card...it expired in 2010...sadly (or not) Circuit City expired in 2009.

I found some new ink jet cartridges for a printer that died many years ago. I listed those in the free section of Craig's List earlier today as Canon still makes printers that use this particular cartridge. They may or may not be any good, but for free, someone might as well take a chance right?

I dug out a brand new, still in the box vintage 1980's Go Bot Command Center. My parents bought it for my brother (back in the day) and either decided not to give it to him or forgot where they hid it  before Christmas. I listed it on ebay once and sold it for $75 but the guy never paid for it and I never relisted it - I will be doing that soon. I would do it tomorrow, but there are 3 or 4 also NEW on ebay right now. Interesting.

My favorite find is a newspaper clipping - my scanner is currently buried so i'm going to throw some random bits from it here for your entertainment.

From The Orlando Sentinel, Wednesday, March 10, 1993 "Spring Break Survival Guide"
The write used the name "Tammy Tanline" (ha...not).

Top 10 Pickup Lines
TOP 10 pickup lines girls DON'T want to hear during Spring Break.

•  If I were a pair of Reeboks, would you be my pump? (I totally had Reebok Pumps...)
• You look like you could really use a Big Mac.
• So...is that really your father's Oldsmobile?
• Hey, baby, is that sand in your teeth or are you just looking for more fiber in your diet?
• Been on the Big Dipper yet?
• I don't want to brag, but at home they named an anthill after me.
• Listen, if it doesn't work out, I've got a friend who can get us on Divorce Court.
• Dan Quayle told me you'd be here tonight.
• Funny thing about those sloths...they had three toes.

and the #1 pick up line girls don't want to hear during Spring Break...

• Are you pregnant?

The actual article is about dumb crap we all did in Daytona Beach during Spring Break. Ok not "we" - my Spring Breaks were spent in Cocoa Beach because, well, that's where the condo is and mostly free is good.

So it goes on to talk about Vanessa (a chem major from up north somewhere) who needed to blow off some academic steam and so she entered (and won) a wet t-shirt contest. Followed by an interview with Brad - the reigning home town hero - (Lyman High grad and student at UCF) who won a beer coozie and a hat for having the best (?), longest, most disgusting burp. He likened it to an earthquake coming out of his body. Awesome. On to Dan from Norwich U (a military school in Vermont apparently) who got a t-shirt for winning a belly-flop contest. 

Ahhh the "cool" stuff we did back in college during Spring Break. 

Speaking of Spring Break...I found some of MY last Spring Break photos...I will NOT be posting those. So sorry to disappoint. Some things are better left alone. Just sayin'...

Sprinklers?

Sprinklers were not on my radar. 

Is it just me or do you ladies also have husbands who decide "now" would be a great time to start XYZ project even though they have 5 others in progress and a list of things their wives wanted them to get done around the house....

Welcome to the Paisley Cottage...story of my life.

Yesterday I came home from work and there was Mr. Paisley...knee deep in a trench beside the driveway. 100% certain said trench wasn't there when I left for work - nor the pile of dirt in the driveway where I normally park my car. *sigh*

WHAT are you doing? Putting in sprinklers. Seriously? And so he did. In one tiny sliver of the yard...between our driveway and the neighbor's driveway. It's not 5' from one driveway to the other. We do not have sprinklers anywhere else in the yard. 

RANDOM.

Please note, we are about to head out of town again. We have a huge party coming up in May and there are indeed a million other things to do around the house...not involving random sprinkler installation. *SIGH*

On the plus side, my husband is SOOOO not into kids. However when I peeked out the door I snapped a few photos while he wasn't looking...

Little Emily from down the street turned up to be a helper...she was picking the rocks out of his dirt pile. 

I just noticed you can see the mostly empty lot across the road...there used to be a house there, now there is just the carport. Back several years ago when Central Florida got hit by 3 hurricanes back to back the back wall of said house literally fell off. Let's just say some folks on our street don't do a lot of home maintenance. The owner of this one - well, he didn't live there. His mom did. I swear the woman had to be 100. At some point the county kicked her out because plastic sheeting isn't an acceptable wall for an extended period of time. So rather than fix the house, her son had it torn down...minus the carport which, years and years later...is still there. We like to think of that lot as our neighborhood dog park ;-)

Giddy giddy giddy!

Once again, I've been away too long. Working full time and keeping up with TWO houses is over rated ;-)

I still have a post about CHRISTMAS in my drafts...stay tuned. It will appear...better late than never...

For now - I have to share my most recent find. A mid century, Danish modern, Lane record cabinet (record...as in vinyl...album...old school). Why would I want that you say? Well dear crafters - an album in it's cardboard jacket is 12"x12"...coincidentally, scrapbook paper is 12"x12". See where this is going?

My Christmas gift from the hubs was his silence and cooperation while I redo my office. Granted it's mid-March and I haven't started on my office yet, but it's because i'm working on a million other things. However, when I happened upon this cabinet, it wasn't going to wait for the redo...it was going right into the back of my truck to wait for that redo!

These are not my photos, nor is this my cabinet (although it is identical to mine - minus the labels for the slots - I guess that makes it mostly identical, but not really identical). These photos are from the website of a fantastic vintage shop over in St. Pete - it's called Paper Street Antiques the owners were recently featured by Apartment Therapy if you're familiar with that awesome website. At any rate, if you're ever in the Tampa area, you should stop by their store! You can look at their inventory online, and DROOL - they have the most fantastic stuff! I will be making a trip to the West Coast (of Florida that is) very soon to see it all for myself! They are selling it in their shop for $129.

So anyway, I bought this same Lane cabinet after it popped up at my not-so-local Habitat for Humanity ReStore. They were selling it as a magazine rack (kids...LOL what's a record?) Even though it's not something I grew up with, I knew exactly what it was - they actually had two (the second was smaller and very plain, and i'll probably kick myself for not picking it up as well at some point). I snagged this beauty for $30 + tax. 

I will be using mine to store my scrapbook paper and smaller photo albums. It could be used for magazines or cookbooks in the kitchen (the smaller one would have been great for the kitchen - it was bench height - put a cushion on top and your cookbooks in it - fab! Too bad my kitchen isn't big enough for it - and it was $25 at ReStore).

Anywho - I was SO excited about this purchase I had to share. I was thinking about painting it, but now I think i'll just clean it up - it's in great shape, so maybe i'll just keep the original finish (which looks just like it does in the above photos).  You'll see mine here once I take photos (it's still in my truck) and get it into my newly decorated office (whenever that happens).