Another Weekend Flies By

I had a 4 day weekend and oh, I planned to get so much done.

Not.....

Everyday things that have to be done got in the way

I did take time to pick some of my Zinnia's and Black Eye Susan's

It is nice to walk in the kitchen and see a cheery bouquet.

Friday morning a distant cousin called and was coming through St Louis and wanted to know if we could meet for breakfast, so I was up early to meet them at 0800.

I had to take my car in for warranty work on.

It ended up taking from Wed to Friday when I got my car back.

So Friday morning I headed to get the car and afterward had to make a stop, for a friend who wanted a particular piece of Pyrex I had found.

So, then I went hunting!

Oh no more Pyrex!

2 yellow and black gooseberry bowls.

It was not on my wish list, but won't they look great in the kitchen at 1515?

the daisy is what I went to get for my girlfriend.

I never find anything at GW and rarely go

But, as I turned I saw the box with the word PYREX

A coffee carafe I think had never been out of the box, I actually thought the 

burner was missing but it was under another piece of cardboard.

Best of all it was $4

It may be going home to one of my friends daughter's, not sure, should I keep it?

and since I had to clean the car out I forgot I had this in the trunk

a great picnic basket

Saturday some cleaning and yesterday I went to get a new i phone, since mine met with some asphalt during the Reunion. I could use it still fine but it was getting slow. I swear it took forever to upgrade it and fix a few issues with my husbands phone.

So today I need to do laundry, grocery shop and finish cleaning!

So I better get off of here.

Greta says

"the thought of all that exhausts me"

nap time

Have a cheerful Monday

Touring on Blogland

My Friend Robin at Decorating Tennis Girl

asked me to participate in 

Touring on Blogland

I started my blog at the suggestion of Robin!

She saw pictures I posted of 1515 and talked me to going for it.

I have know Robin all my life.

We grew up in the same small town.

Went to the same Church.

Her childhood home is exactly 2 blocks north of mine.

I have moved away but she still lives in our beloved town, in the cutest cottage.

The last time I saw my Mom was when the Bed and Breakfast she purchased was having the former owners auction.

Robin and I touring her new home addition

Christmas 2011

Little did I know her B&B would become a refuge and source of joy for me over the years.

From 2003-2009 my cousin Mary and I would meet there to spend weekends together.

It was even where we started making our Christmas cookies and our Christmas party, that continues at 1515 till this day!

I need to get to answering the 4 questions.

But it gave me a chance to thank Robin for all the great memories she gave me!

What am I working on now?

Nothing

no really!

Ok maybe my MIL's 90th birthday party that is Labor Day Weekend

How does my work differ from others?

I focus alot on my ancestors and how they touch my lives ever day even though they may be gone.

How some I did not even know influence me to this day

Why do I write/create?

I put emotions into.

I want to invoke a memory, a happy memory.

My favorite comments are when YOU tell me about a similar experience, or how what I posted brought up a memory from your childhood.

Who else buys there Grandparents home for family get togethers?

Just me, the Sentimental Slob......maybe that should of been my blog name!

Helping my cousin David Bowles do research for his books

The Westward Sagas 

also helped, he has encouraged me to write and I have written one chapter of a novel which branches off from his that is "Son's of Adam". I want to the tell the story of the Mitchell's in Illinois where David stopped off and his family went to Texas.

How does my writing process work?

Not sure, I guess when I feel I have something worth while to say, to show.

I just want it to be worth reading for a laugh, a cry or a idea.

Now I pass it on to 3 (don't hate me!)

Tete

Beyond the Garden Gate

One of my first followers.

Come to find out she is from near my hometown and her bff was married to my cousin!

She has a beautiful garden and is such a caretaker of animals in need.

Pat

On Crooked Creektt

Pat and Mr. Ed are fun to follow.

She is always making great arrangements in her living and dining room.

Mr. Ed is a woodworker and I have one of the luck recipients of his

wooden Christmas angels.

Paulette

Cheerful Thrifty Door

She also writes from the heart.

Loved seeing her kitchen transformation and her worldly travels!

A big supporter of me, even so she bought a Charleston Riot tee shirt!

Were Ready to go Hunting Again!

Work has been nothing but horrific to say the least.

It is bad when you text each other at 10pm and ask if you were able to make up the stairs to get to bed?

Most of us get up at 4am to get to work you see.

So my Girlfriends and I from working are more than ready to go 

Pyrex Hunting!

It is not easy for the 3 of us to get a Friday off but we did, to go to the broom corn festival in Arcola IL, preceded by a Old Route 40 drive where we stop at every small town with a antique shop.

I love hunting for each of us.

Last week I was at 1515 for our family Reunion and found these

a set of Butterprint mixing bowls in perfect shape for $30

so after a text message or 2 I brought them home for my friend.

She has most pieces now

exchange at work, how do you like our sheet backdrop?

She will be trying to find that darn butterprint butterdish!

In the mean time my friend in Charleston texted me while at the auction

"Is a Pyrex white bowl with yellow dots a collectors piece?'

Why YES!

so she got the one like this for $1

I guess I will be looking now for the red and green dots too.

She also pulled this our of her cabinet once to give to us. 

a yellow butterprint Cinderella!

she also had a turquoise loaf pan she gave to Patty and then the Sputnik piece came from auction.

Do you forget what pieces you have?

I did a quick inventory at 1515

I have 6 friendship casseroles in various sizes and in yellow, red and the print.

My Friend found some and I got 3 at auction.

Now if I could find the bowl set and that elusive lasagna dish!

We also like promotional pieces

like my $8 salad bowl

and my favorite my $5 black rooster

My one friend has pink gooseberry, clear bottom and has one more to get her pink set.

The other has dots, stripes and sunflower

My only regret...........

I got the sunflower set at auction for $2.50!

why did I not keep them, I gave them to my friend and she gave them to someone else.

So all 3 of us now want these.

I also love the Christmas pieces..

poinsettia I use at Christmas for my cheese dip

and a blue snowflake divided dish. I found the holder later.

So we are ready to go again!

Here is what we found in 2012

So what do you collect in Pyrex?

Or what is your best memory of Pyrex.

We wish we could all go on a trip to the Pyrex museum in Washington State,

but IL will have to do for now!

What Happened 100 years Ago?

July 1914

A Young man named Walter was working as a Brakeman on the Clover Leaf RR.

His leg got ran over by a train.....ouch!

There he sits with his left leg up.

While he was there he met this young lady name

Mary Elizabeth or "bessie" as she was called.

she was doing her nurses training

I recently found out she took the picture of Walter

And by July 15 Walter wrote Bessie this letter

Friends?

Really?

move forward 1918

Walter was now in the Army during WWI

and there had been another girl but Elizabeth seems to be his true love.

His letters are so eloquently written for a farm boy with at 8th grade education.

her response

This could of been the end of that 4 year romance?

luckily not or I would not be here writing about this.

These are my Grandparents Walter and Elizabeth,

the owners of 1515.
They were married Sept 2,1919

1957 some 43 years after they had first met,

the young RR worker and the young nurse.

The look in my Grandfather's eyes says it all.

I have been scanning the letters, some of my cousins feel like we are intruding in on their personal feelings.

I think they left the letters for us to find, to read, to understand the struggles and see that somethings are meant to be.

Thank you Grandad and Grandmother

Part II of Dreams Come True

Yesterday I told you it had been 5 years since I bought my
Grandparents home as weekend place for myself and my cousins.

I bought the house on July 10th and before the next weekend, I had all new carpet, flooring in the bath, kitchen and utility put down. The couch and washer and dyer delivered.

It was like a military maneuver and I got it ALL done!

Everyone was amazed but I was determined the next weekend was our family reunion and I wanted us all in at 1515 for that weekend.

How about before and after pictures?

Things have changed so much!

Living Room

furniture of the lady who lived there after my grandparents

my old lazy boy, my Mom and Dad's end tables, my MIL coffee table and my old rocker

we gathered as much furniture together as we could.

I bought the couch which is a Ashley couch, nice and long.

My Aunts bedroom

boy did it need a paint job!

soft blue. my cousin made a vanity out of a old bookcase by adding a curtain and hanging a vintage mirror above. 

a head board she had in her storage shed and some purchased side tables

a wall of family pictures and Grandmother's gloves, and hankie

Now moving on to my Grandparents bedroom, which is mine now

The lady used it as a library, she had bookcases of genealogy work

 I had everything in the entire house painted

Here is the update

nice there was a chandelier

Vanity given to me by my painter, twins gave me the chair and purchased a dresser

the bed was a big purchase. A Wesley Allen vintage iron bed

the pocket doors turned out so pretty with paint

Now the dining room

 the beautiful chandelier with strawberries my Grandparents had is gone

I have the original table at home, but can not part with it to bring it back, I just adore it and is one of my most treasured things.

there we are in 1977 for Grandad's 90th birthday!

My Mom and Dad's table and odd and end chairs, it looks so bare here.

now my Great Grandparents is at the end of the dining room

There use to be a built in hutch they took out, I hate that the people did that.

The picture above the book case was lace made by my GGGrandmother in 1863.

Now my Dad's room

My Mom and Dad's bed and a Laura Ashley comforter I got for 80% off!

the books case my MIL. My Dad's grocery store delivery jacket from the 1940's hangs on the door ready to go! And Grandad's RR lantern and lunch pail live here too.

What about that kitchen and those cabinets? And that wallpaper!

walls painted yellow, cabinets painted white with glass knobs and vintage looking black and white cabinets.

What a difference!

The table came out of my Garden cottage and mix and match chairs

my Grandmothers Hoosier cabinet back home.

The coffee grinder, Campbell's tin were from 1515 too.

Mr. got the white cabinet for me and redid it, it matches one on the other side that was my other Grandmothers.

Grandmother's cookie jar, crock and meat grinder...back home

How nice to have a bit of both Grandmothers!

This actually it would be where the door was to the pantry they took out.

I hate that too but the bathroom is much bigger

the utility room use to be a porch area with windows

 the counter is a great place for a buffet line, and boy do we use it.

my painter made me this shelf.

My Mom's sorority apron hangs there with Grandad's RR flashlight, ice tongs and ice pick.

Cousin Tom that passed away gave me the flashlight, he told  me that that is where it us to hang, he thought Grandad might come back some night and want it.

Now that pitifully 1970's bathroom!

 now bright and cheery

new flooring, cabinets painted and same glass knobs added.

The mirror I found at a resale shop it was avocado green, painted white you can see the scroll of roses in it.

I had just changed out my bathroom at home so I brought my old pink rugs, curtains.

Amazing, new flooring and paint made the place looks so alive again.

I sometimes feel bad that a family does not live there day after day.

But we make up for it with the laughter and fun we all have when we are back there together again.

It just makes us all so HAPPY!