A September Weekend

 The last weekend in September was a beautiful, busy weekend.  I did some decorating for Fall on Friday.  Last year I skipped Fall because I was getting ready for the Holiday Homes Tour.  I went straight into Christmas.  So this year I was anxious to do a little Fall around the house.

Fall decor includes candy at the Stone House, specifically candy corn.

 The mini pumpkins are from Pennsylvania and bring back good memories of our girls trip to see Nancy.

 The old stand by and my favorite, scrap book stickers on mini pumpkins, easy peasy!

 I added a few things upstairs this time as we had weekend house guests coming to stay.

 I did some Fall cleaning upstairs and that felt good too.  All three bedrooms were full and it was fun.  I hope they had as much fun staying here as we had having them stay.  It was fun for me to have someone to bake for again.

 Loren and Katie with their children, Madison and Charlie and Katie's brother, Jan David stayed with us.  They are family of my BIL Jeff.  We hadn't met before they arrived but had such a nice time.  It was like we'd known them forever.  Charlie loved the Legos and the Atari, Madison loved her room and they all loved the chocolate chip cookies.

 On Saturday morning I went junkin' with Chris and Shelly.  Shelly grabbed this Yellowstone map from the 1930's for me.  I think I'll frame it for the '57 Aloha.

 A little yellow radio for the '57 Aloha and of course, a bit of Christmas for moi.

 It was a wonderful weekend, now onward to October this week.

Doesn't time just fly?

Around Here

Around here things are pretty ordinary, normal, just so everyday.  And I am really thankful for the mundane.

I ironed all of the summer clothes and put them away this week.  Every Fall I have a pile of Summer clothes that need ironing.  And honestly, I whinge and moan about it like no tomorrow.

I mentioned needing to iron on Monday and Hubby asked if I hadn't just done it the week before.  Uhmmm, no.  I just complained about it the week before, I didn't actually DO it.  There is always a two week lead time of whining, whinging, complaining etc. prior to actually ironing.

But now it is all caught up.  Bring on the jeans and sweaters, which need no ironing.  Best part of Fall!

Less time in the laundry room.  It's the little things.

A laundry room pic, since that's where I've been this week.

 The '57 Aloha walls are stained and now getting a couple coats of shellacy type stuff.

 The patio hut, where friends love to gather with us for a meal or a drink in the summer is now a paint station.  It's not pretty nor as much fun, but it works.

 I've been hogging this book, Happy Homemade Home, from the library.  Overdue fines!  I may just have to order it and own it.  There is a lot of pretty and clever in it.

Hubby and I are getting company this weekend.  Our upstairs bedrooms will be full of guests including a young one that may play with Legos.  I can't wait to hear that digging through the Lego bin sound.  The kids are the ages where they'll love our treat drawer so I plan to fill it.  Actually, any age loves our treat drawer.  Just ask my brother Ken.  I am cleaning and tidying tonight and then tomorrow I hope to do some decorating for autumn and baking with pumpkin.

Sometimes the normal, the chores, the change of seasons, the little things are the biggest blessings.

Enjoy!

Last Weekend of Summer

 On Saturday morning I walked in the Walk to Defeat ALS.  Aunt Nelda had a lot of people on her team and we were all so happy that she was able to be there.  Tanner and Clayton are so sweet with her.

 My sis, Kathi and I came to support Aunt Nelda in her fight and Les Kooistra in his fight against ALS.  Les was there but I didn't see him or Karen.  There were 500 people signed up to walk.  Karen, we keep missing each other!

 Meanwhile at home, our firewood for this winter was delivered.  Hubby and I stacked it at a record breaking pace early this morning.  We get our firewood from Dave and he is very insistent that no rain ever touch his firewood.   His firewood is clean, dry and a beautiful blend of alder, maple and birch.  If you're into that sort of thing, it's a big deal.  And yes, we are.  Hubby and I are officially firewood snobs.

 After the walk on Saturday Leslie and Caitlin picked me up to go wedding dress shopping with them.  Caitlin is engaged to Jon and they are planning their wedding for this fall.  I got all teary and touched when they asked me.  We had the best time.  Caitlin said yes to the dress.  It was such an obvious choice.

Of course, the dress isn't pictured.  Top secret!

We celebrated her dress with a peach bellini at Scotty Brown's in Bellingham while feeling pretty elated and smug with our success.

 On Sunday we had dinner at my folk's place and then Mom told us to go to the orchard and pick out some pumpkins.  She had an accidental pumpkin patch growing out of the compost pile.  Happy accident.

 My sisters and I had fun gathering the pumpkins.

After dinner and the pumpkin patch Hubby and I went home to watch the rest of the Seahawk's game.  I told Hubby that I was getting the flu, I had a headache and was nauseated.  I was definitely getting sick. Sigh.

Then the Seahawks won and I was healed.  A bad case of nerves made me physically ill.  I don't think I can do this every Sunday so we need a blow out.  Next Sunday is a bye, thankfully.

On the bright side, Hawks won and I don't have the flu.

Overall, a great last weekend of summer.  

And now...

it's FALL Y'ALL!

We Have Walls

Hubby and I had the same weekend.  A four day weekend off from work, at the same time only happens once every six weeks so it's kinda a big deal here.

We started with a dark and stormy on the patio and talked about all we were going to get done and all we'd enjoy in the next four days.

 The '57 Aloha restoration was at the top of the list.  The pieces were cut for the first wall so Hubby got busy on Friday morning putting it all together.

 We were pretty nervous about the curves.  Our strips were cut, laid out for glue, and then staggered, clamped, and nailed.

 it went better than we thought it would.

 He screwed the framing to the band of strips.

 I record the steps with photos and instagram once in a while.

 One wall is completed on Friday and another on Saturday.

 We also had some fun this weekend.  Sam and Angela came with Reagan and stayed at our place.  On Saturday evening we got to go to two parties.  We can go months and months, years even without going to a party and then bam! two in one evening.  Fun, pretty parties with fun interesting people.  We had a wonderful time and a nice break from projects.

On Sunday we celebrated my Dad's birthday with dinner.  I brought the Happy Birthday cake and my Mom made Dad's favorite picnic fare, fried chicken, baked beans, potato salad, fruit salad and chips.  In the evening we went to the brewery with friends.  We are treasuring those last summer evenings at Kulshan Brewery.

 Monday morning it was time to get back to work on the '57 Aloha.  I worked on hardware most of the day.  I'm not ready for an 'after' picture yet but they do look better.  At one point I was on ebay looking for new or better ones.  Not much luck there so I kept scrubbing and used a lot of steel wool.

 In between hardware clean up I helped Hubby.  His first task was to lay the marmoleum flooring.

 Before we set the walls, Hubby put a coat of tar on the bottom edge to prevent floor rot.

 It took both of us to set the walls so I have no photos of the actual process.  It was heavy and the a little tense but we did it.

 Hubby cut out the windows, added some braces in case of wind and then we wheeled her back into the carport.

I spent some time buying stain, creating sample boards and then repeating.  We are going to Benjamin Moore next to see if they can help us with the right color and patina.  It's hard to know if to use the poly, the stain, the shellac, a mix or separately, and what color.

We really had fun and it went better than we thought it would with the curves.  Cabinets are next for Hubby, the front one over the dining area.  We are racing against winter.

Happy campers here!

Clever and Creative Campers

Last weekend the Mt Baker Vintage Trailer Rally met at the Lynden Fairgrounds.  Hubby and I met up with the Aloha group on Friday evening.  Ed and Kathy brought their new Rainer, a close cousin to Aloha, for it's first rally.  They did a beautiful job of restoration.  We met so many wonderful people and got some good advice for our restoration project.

 We went to the swap meet on Saturday morning but didn't really find what we were looking for there.  In the afternoon we went to walk through the open trailers.  We needed to check out seams and welt trim.  Exciting stuff.  Trust me, I got sidetracked by pretty.  A lot of pretty.

 In addition to trim we saw a big bucket of creativity.  People that own vintage trailers are some of the most clever and creative people I know.  Very resourceful too.

We saw the most adorable map themed bathroom.  I think I wiped a tear.

 A lace screen door, of course.  The owner had some tips too, starch and lots of it.

 The upholstery in this one was a work of art.  Hey, we have that stove!

 A spice rack that was cute and useful next to the stove.

 Okay, now I need a vintage Life Saver rack for my maps.

 Many of the stoves had covers that when removed could be flipped over and used as a tray to bring dinner out to the picnic table.  There are handles on the sides.  The aqua one pictured above also had a tray cover.

 Vintage Christmas and vintage trailers all in one spot.  That would be my happy place.

 This ice box looks like a brand new Oldsmobile.  

 Ironically, someone turned an old cooler into a gas fire pit.  I wasn't kidding about all of the clever people that own vintage trailers.

 Speaking of clever, how about an old clothes drying rack turned into an outdoor kitchen?

 A fold down tiki bar?  Yes, please.

 I love a corner kitchen and this one was cute.

 This little trailer stole my heart.

We started with our '57 Aloha on a trailer but hope that by next September we can roll right into the Mt. Baker Vintage Rally.  Today, we work on framing the walls.