Driving home on US24

I just returned from visiting my sister in Indiana. I started noticing the barns along the way...there were several more with unique roofs. I should have dug out the camera earlier.

 And this spectacular sunset welcomed me back to Livingston County.

Monticello on Dwellable

Face Lift

The side of our building at the shop is getting quite the face lift! The city had Diaz paint a huge mural on the back of the Rt. 66 Museum (the old firehouse part of the building). Then this spring they installed a nice brick drive in front of it so you can drive your car up there and have your picture made. The drive even contains bricks from the old Rt. 66 highway. Very cool.

Now they have also brought in the wishing well and sign from the old Wishing Well Motel and installed them between the old city hall building and the fire house.


Here's the front of our building...the white rectangle is where the new streetcar mural will be painted. Can't wait to see it all done!

The White House

Last weekend we wanted to get away...Joe asked me to line up some help at the shop and we took off. I didn't know where we were going until we stopped in the little town of Rensselaer, IN. This is one of the towns we are going to bike through this fall on our trip across Indiana. Did I mention that we are planning to bicycle from Pontiac to Fort Wayne? Well we are!


Joe thought we could check out The White House on Park Avenue. We are definitely going to stay there in the fall. It's a beautiful old home....well kept with very nice guest rooms.

We stayed in a room called the cottage retreat. I want this room for our trip too, because I think my muscles will be screaming for a whirlpool bath after biking all day.

This home has only had three families own it since it was built. The current owners, Fred and Sally, are innkeepers as well as professors at St. Joseph's College. They are wonderful hosts and great cooks too!

We went down the road to Lafayette for dinner. Joe thought I'd like that....kinda nostalgic since I lived there while I was going to Purdue. Lafayette has one of those great old Indiana limestone courthouses and a vibrant downtown. There's been a lot of restoration going on the last 25 years and it looks great.


I love these sculptures on a corner in Lafayette. They are by Linda Vanderkolk and Roy Patrick.

The backside makes me laugh....look at the derriere on her....it's perfect!

Nashville on Dwellable

Small Town Girl in Chicago: Main Street Conference

I spent the last four days in Chicago attending the National Main Street conference...it was fun, tiring and I learned a lot about downtown revitalization. I always like going into the city....plenty of great architecture to check out. We stayed at the Palmer House Hilton. The last time I was in this hotel, it was elegant, but in need of attention. Since then, it has undergone a beautiful restoration...it's a lovely old hotel.

Here's folks filtering in to the opening session. There were about 1600 in attendance.



The lobby has such a beautiful ceiling and a great atmosphere.


Here's my friend Lori walking past the bean...er, Cloud Gate.

This is one of my favorite Chicago buildings...the old library, now the Chicago Cultural Center. This dome is by Healy and Millet.

Preston Bradly Hall in the Cultural Center is completely covered in the most beautiful mosaics, all lit by a huge (the world's largest) Tiffany dome and Tiffany light fixtures (not in the photo, but trust me, they are fabulous!). They don't build them like this anymore.


Lots of great public art in Chicago....taking a walk is a pleasure even on one of those cold Chicago days. As soon as it warms up a little I want to go back up to do some drawing in the city...I have to go alone or with another sketcher when I do that because no one else wants to sit still long enough to draw.

And when I came home I found the orchid on my kitchen window sill is blooming again...it must like it there. Brightens my day to see this in the morning!

Chicago on Dwellable

Oiling Wood Floors and Knitting Socks

These floors are in our shop and boy, are they ever ever dried out! Believe it or not, the floor on the left is actually clean.... just dry as a bone. They seem to have no finish on them, and a floor man who was here for another part of the building told me I could just oil them. I decided to oil them little by little as I'm rearranging the shop for spring....ufff. What was I thinking?!! Anyway, they are going to look a lot better.


I'm using tung oil and it really isn't too hard, just a little time consuming. I clean the floor first using an all purpose cleaner in water and a microfiber cloth, rinsing often. Those cloths really pick up the dirt. Then I let it dry thouroughly.

Next apply the oil in a small area at a time...this floor is so dry, I pour some on the floor and then spread it around with a rag. Let it soak in for 5 minutes or so, and then buff with a different rag. Move on and do the same to the next patch of floor. I will apply a second coat tomorrow. It makes such a huge difference.

If these floors were in our house I would be trying to get off old paint when I come to it and really make it look more perfect. These floors are in the 100 year old city hall building in our town. I rent space here for our shop...there is a lot of traffic through the building. I just want to bring some life back to them and protect the wood a little. I thought I share the project here, because you could certainly finish the floors in your old home the same way.

eta: I've been reading on the web that this finish, while it says tung oil in the name, does not actually contain tung oil. Fortunately, many people seem to have had good luck using this on their floors even though the label says "not recommended for floors." I was happy to hear this, since I really don't want to put a poly over this wood. Poly can't be renewed without a lot of sanding and I think I can refresh this easier with out having to remove all my stock. I'll let you know how it works out!


I finished my socks and I love the Mountain Colors yarn. I will definitely be buying more of it...it was soft while I was knitting with it...but after I washed it, it is just the softest and warmest pair of socks I have.

Now I've started a new pair of socks for my daughter's best friend Kylie. Those are some pretty wild colors, but take a look at Kylie:

I think she has enough attitude to pull off wearing socks like that.



My friend Dawn passed an award along to me. With this award I'm supposed to tell you 6 things I'm thankful for and pass the award along to 6 other bloggers.

I am so very thankful for...

• My relationship with Jesus and that I have his word to guide me.
• My husband and kids and all our extended family.
• Having my parents living in the same town.
• Our home
• My dog
• My health...including my eyesight and the use of my hands because I love to make things. I don't take this for granted after seeing my grandmother lose both to her battle with rheumatoid arthritis.

I'm awarding:

• Tiny Old House
• One Woman's Cottage Life
• The Cottage at Wit's End
• Creative Little Daisy
• Equus Villa
• Daily Yarns n More
  

Handkercheif Curtain and Other Ideas from Mom

We went to my mom and dad's house for Christmas dinner, so I snapped a few photos to share with you. Mom and dad bought an old home that had been converted into apartments...thinking to live in the ground floor and rent the other apartments. Soon enough though, they realized they liked using the whole house. They left the apartments in case they want to rent them in the future...this creates a couple of mini suites in the upstairs of their home. These photos show the bedroom from one of the apartments upstairs. It's fun to go stay there...like staying in an inn!

The color combo you see here came from using the suggested color harmonies from the old Martha Stewart paint line at Kmart. Martha and her people did a great job of showing good color combos. Our Kmart doesn't carry paint any more, but I think Sears does have Martha paint.

Another corner of the room. My mom is the thrifting queen...almost everything in her home is a treasure she found somewhere. And my dad can repair most anything thing...so if she finds it and it needs a little work, between them they are able to fix it up better than new.

As you can see there is some work needed on the old plaster walls. Mom said they will get to it someday, but she went ahead and painted anyway...that way they have pleasant rooms to use in the meantime. I wish I had done that with my old house, because sometimes it takes a lot longer to get to some of those repairs than you would think.

Another part of that room. This house has neat some great features like the lamps on the walls. Some of the original shades had been replaced with cheap dime store shades... they found some more suitable vintage shades at garage sales and antique shops. We've found the antique shops are usually more affordable than some of those restoration places that sell new replacements.



These two photos show the window treatment in the kitchen of that apartment/guest suite. Mom has a huge collection of hankies... she pinned them to the top of a white valance using a straight pin in one corner of each hankie. It looks so cute and it's easy to take the hankies off when they need to be cleaned and ironed. My mom and dad have a ton of great ideas, so you will probably see me posting some more of their house in the future.

Let it snow, let it snow!

We awoke to snow this morning! I love it...it always makes me feel better...I think it's partly just because so much light is reflected into the house. Whatever the reason, I'll take the lift in spirits I get whenever there is a fresh snow. This little carpenter gothic is one of the older homes in our town. It's now owned by the historical society.


Downtown it's a little slushy. I think we are supposed to be getting more snow tonight and tomorrow though. Right now it's so warm...I think we are at about 35 degrees.


Our babies are home! We've had a house full of kids this weekend. It's been wonderful to have the house full and hear the laughter and teasing going on all week. Most of them have to go back to school today. For all the home improvement bloggers out there...the background in this pic in our stairway. A yet to be finished project.


Hawkeye was pleased as punch to have his girl home. Every time she sat down, he'd crawl on top of her for some attention.


We did a lot of sitting by the fire this weekend. We had family over for Thanksgiving Day and had a wonderful time and ate way too much. I hope you all had a good holiday too.