OUR 5 FAVORITE THINGS ABOUT FALL

#1  October is our wedding anniversary, Dan's birthday and several other family members birthdays.

#2  Autumn crafting, crating and re purposing.

#3  Pumpkin Pie!

Lynda Boyd gifted me with this pocket pie maker - so fun and yummy!

#4  Pumpkins, squash! Love all of the varieties.

 #5  We agree with Joe and Sandy of rhubarb reign that we Love the bluest skies of Autumn.

Some of this weeks projects.

From week to week I never know what comes my way for product. Occasionally, a local friend of mine calls who buys estate sales and lets me know that he has something that might interest me. This week was no exception. He called and said he had about half a dozen cupboards/cabinets in various state of disrepair that came from an estate.

Some of the cabinets I can piece back together, others get salvaged for parts and pieces to create new furniture pieces. I love doing this kind of work. The wood and cabinets I work with have a history that intrigues me. Many of these old cabinets were built very simple for a very utilitarian function. The wood has a quality about it that was found in lumber yards in the early 1900's but is no longer available. The hardware is often easy to work with and has a wonderful patina when restored. One can see and feel the history and lives that must have lived with these items for years.

One of the larger projects I finished this week that also must have had an interesting story to tell was this wonderful old workbench. This has actually been a workbench project that has been in my shop for a long time.

The various pieces were scattered around the shop and finial were put back together this past week.

It is a rather large maple top work bench with two working vises and a great old cabinet for a base. It reminds me of a beautiful workbench I saw in a Shaker village I saw some time ago. The top has a look of wood polished and well used. The base is a pumpkin red color.  I just put it in at Bluedoor here in Grand Rapids two days ago. It would make a wonderful workbench again for someone or perhaps its new life will be that of a kitchen island. It still has more story left to tell.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAN!

Happy Birthday to my hard working, loving, creative husband. Today is the day that Dan was born 55 years ago and I am so glad he was!

I am going to copy a blog post that Sandy of Rhubarb Reighn did this past year for Joe's birthday and list 5 things that you might not know about Dan.



#1 When Dan was a little boy he was fascinated with Indian lore and created a pair of moccasins for himself from salvaged leather from their dining room chair seats. His mother had recovered the chairs and that leather was just too intriguing. She taught him how to sew using the sewing machine and by hand. His first salvage project!

#2 Dan's favorite sandwich as a little boy was a ketchup sandwich!

#3 Dan's wood working shop is in a wonderful old industrial building on the second floor! with a huge old creaky elevator lift that all of the furniture goes up and down on. He refers to his work shop as Einstein's Hair! There are all kinds of wonderful salvaged pieces and parts just waiting to become "something".

#4 The antique shop that Dan owned a few years back was called Evergreen Lane, and Evergreen Lane was the name of his Grandfather Meyers farm in Minnesota. Grandpa Meyer was a German Immigrant and it was a beautiful farm. The only thing left standing today of that beautiful farm in the prairie are 2 huge wonderful cotton wood trees out at the road on either side of what used to be the driveway.

#5 Dan is the kindest, most loving, caring, creative, tender hearted man I have ever know and I love him dearly - OK maybe you already knew that!!!!

Fall Glorious Fall !!

This is the view from our front steps today. Fall is truly in full swing. We have had such wonderful sunny days, great temperatures, and we are starting to see some great color. I always love the Virginia Creeper crawling up the telephone pole and wire in this picture.

This great pumpkin colored bin cabinet I just finish making out of old parts and pieces just got put in Eastown Antique Mall this weekend. Bin/Storage cabinets continue to be hot items for us. Any cabinets I can find or make sell quickly.

This wonderful cabinet I just picked up last week. It is a beautiful vintage storage cabinet that came out of a sewing repair shop. I think I already have it sold. Something about all those drawers and storage that seems to draw everyone in for a look.

I have included this picture because the two pieces of wood trim on the right are old vintage casing. The pieces on the left are tongue and groove bead board. The reason I have these piece of trim pictured is because I use alot of that kind of trim in my repuposing projects and I am running low on my shop supply of this kind of wood. If any of you out there reading this have this kind of trim and would like to part with it please contact me.

Now time to get back to the shop and enjoyment of this beautiful sunny fall day!!

Petoskey-Then and Now

We are just loving the Fall feeling and Fall color this time of the year. We both find that October tends to be our favorite time of the year. So we look for any excuse to take drives this time of year. We are therefore pleased to announce that when in a few weeks we are going to be establishing some permanent space in Petoskey,Michigan at The and Now Antiques. For most of the summer we have had items there on consignment but now we will be establishing our own space which will give us a chance to create our own look at yet another location. So sometime in the next week or two we will be doing a drive up north to stock our product. Because the leaves are just starting to change we are anticipating experiencing some beautiful Fall color. Maybe we will even find some pumpkin pie along the way.

The Bluff's in St Joseph

Tomorrow we will be at the last antique show of the season for the Bluff's in St. Joseph, Michigan. We will be set up way at the southern end of the show. A few of the above treasures we purchased at the garage sale of a fellow antique dealer will be there with us. If you are in the area please stop in and say hi. It promises to be a nice Fall day.