Fall is Finally Arriving

I'm always a day late and a dollar short when it comes to almost everything including blogging. Just yesterday, I started decorating the outside of our house for fall. Mind you, I haven't even gotten the inside fall goodies out of my basement yet. Fall will be over before I have a chance to enjoy the warm colors and textures in my home and then it will be on to Winter decorating. At any rate, here's a quick post on what's going on outside our home.


Please forgive the dark shadows. With the shorter days, it's harder to get the picture taken at the right time of the day when there's not harsh shadows.


This chair has sat on our porch for a few years now. It's very cracked and chippy (and probably lead paint), but I just can't get myself to repaint it. I like it just the way it is.

the small step ladder I valiantly rescued from the burn pile...




Even though our vegetable garden is all tilled under, I didn't have the heart to compost these pepper plants just yet. They're still providing so I'll keep them as long as I can. See the cart filled with gourds? Those are all from our garden too! I'll be bringing some of them inside when I decorate... if I ever get around to it. :)

Another old chair. I seem to have this "thing" for old chairs. I see one I like and I want to bring it home with me. The problem with this is, none of them are safe for sitting in and I'm in constant search of a new place to put one. The ones you don't see are still sitting in the basement waiting for a place to call home.


Our little porch. It's small, but I like it nonetheless.

I wanted to thank everyone for their super nice comments about the wall mural that I painted in our entry way. Oh my, I've never had such a response from my blog posts before. I loved reading them! To answer some questions, I thought I'd post here because it would take too long to answer each one individually, which is what I started to do.


The house stencils came from Crooked River Stencil Company. You get all four house stencils on one sheet so it's a super deal! I got the 5.5 inch ones.


For the glazing, I used Behr Premium Plus Faux Glaze from Home Depot, with the color "Campground" added to it. I used an old t-shirt to blot it onto the walls and simply rub it around until you get the look you want.


Sorry, no feather friends were included on the mural; crows, chickens or otherwise. However, I think that would be a great addition and may add them at some point. Thanks for the idea!!
Yes, I do make mistkaes, yes I DID make mistakes. Paint is great because it covers a multitude of sins. I simply painted over what I didn't like and re-painted what I liked.


The color on the beadboard wall and trim is called Jackson Tan and it's from Benjamin Moore.

Yes, I was very nervous about starting the project as I have no painting skills to speak of. I sketched two different ideas out on paper first. I asked my family and friends which one they liked best and this was the winner hands down. Much of my inspiration came from a mural I had seen in a primitive shop here in Maine called The Falls Country Gift Shop. The rest of my inspiration came from a New England Folk Artist named Rufus Porter and this website,MB Historic Decor. They have a gallery with pictures of murals done by homeowners using their line of stencils fashioned after Rufus Porter murals. Let me state clearly that I don't in any way compare this mural to his work. He was an amazing folk artist with many, many talents.

Don't be afraid to try it, if it's something you've been thinking about. It's only paint, it can always be painted over. Trees are easy, peasy!! All you do is paint out the trunk (thankfully they don't grow in straight lines) and then pounce your brush loaded with green paint until you get the look and shape you want for the tree. Add a little lighter green, and a little darker green to give the trees some depth. Really, it's that simple! You don't need a large wall either. If there's a spot in your home that's just hard to decorate, why not try painting a mural. My dear friend Betty has painted two murals in her home. Her home was just featured in the premiere issue of A Primitive Place and you can see one (if not both) of her lovely murals. She's also my inspiration for everything!
Well, I guess that's all for today. Thanks again to all of you for your nice comments. I hope I didn't bore you to death with all the details. I just thought it would be easier this way. Have a great evening and may your days be blessed beyond measure! Hugs~ Birgit

A New Look in Our Entry Way

Hello bloggy friends! What a gorgeous day it was here in southern Maine today. A perfect day for cleaning out gardens, which is exactly what I started doing. Lots and lots to do before cold weather comes so I haven't really started fall decorating yet. I've wanted to but I knew if I didn't get my outside stuff done while the weather was still good, I'd regret it and have to do it in the cold. So that's what I've been doing, cleaning gardens and putting them to rest for yet another long, cold winter.

I also started back to work at Pinetree Seeds which is much earlier than last year. I'm back to help pack seeds to help get them ready for their busy season which will start in another couple of months. I'm glad to be back but there's just so many things that I wanted to get done around here first, however I am very thankful to be back.

I mentioned in my last post that I was working on finishing our entry way, finally after so many years of it being unfinished. My sweetie is never in a hurry to finish building our house so I've learned to be very patient and wait for just the perfect time to ask him to take on or finish another project around the house. LOL! He works hard and since he's a builder, that's usually the last thing he wants to do when he gets home or on weekends. Anyway, I finished the painting and I'm ready for the room reveal... ARE YOU?

Here is our completed entry way / mud room.


It's a long and narrow entry way (about 5 ft. by 12 ft.) so it's a hard room to decorate or do too much with.

I wanted to bring some color into it so, yes! I painted a mural on the front wall! Do you like it?

Here's a few more pictures to help you decide.



Here's some close ups of the mural.



I used stencils for the houses and painted the rest free-hand.


This above picture and the next picture above I took before I added an antique glazing to the walls. The white part is now yellowed to make it look aged.


Even the little sheep were painted by hand. I was so nervous to start this project because I thought I might ruin the wall or the room but I'm happy with the way it came out and it really adds wonderful color and warmth to the room.




I'm not too sure how "prim" this is, but my thoughts are, if it makes you feel happy then go for it!

You can see the glazing on the wall in the picture above. I like that it toned down the white walls and adds more of an old feel to them.


We have beadboard and a peg rack that goes the entire length of the back wall. I always have the hardest time thinking of how to decorate it. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!



We left space at the top of the wall and added a shelf which I fill with whatever prims I can get my hands on.




So this is what's been keeping me busy this last week. I'm glad to have yet another project crossed off our "honey-do" list. The interior of our house if finally finished!! Woohoo! Now, if I could just get him to finish the outside...

There's always next summer! Thanks so much for stopping by to visit. I hope you enjoyed your stay. Have a blessed week! Hugs~ Birgit

Textiles, Junk & Harvest

Hello friends.... it's been a few weeks since my last post, I know. So much has been going on. For one, we lost our internet service... Oh the pains of not being able to get on and visit blogging friends or check my e-mails. ( I must say I got a lot of stuff accomplished around the house) LOL! For some reason our internet router box went kaplooey and it took them a few days to simply determine that it was their box and not my computer!! So they replaced the old router box with a new router box that, would you believe still didn't work. Finally they sent someone out to the house to see what the problem was. The service man brought yet another internet router box and within 15 minutes he had our internet up and running. PTL! Now, if they had listened to me in the first place, I could have told them in was not my computer because I don't have the money to buy a new one so it just can't be my computer (wink)! At any rate, I'm happy to be back and all caught up on my e-mails and life is good.

While my computer was on the fritz, I recieved the Textile Swap that Char hosted earlier in August. My swap partner was Kim from simple~needs. Kim is as sweet as can be and her blog posts always make me laugh. Thanks Kim for all the wonderful things you sent!! Here's a picture of the goodies she sent.

Notice the sweet little child's shoe's sitting on the tea towel? Aren't they the cutest?? I stuffed them with news paper to fill them out since they were shipped in a padded envelope. They were quite smooshed so they needed some fluffing. (I've since removed the newspaper.) There's a cute little handmade prim doll and a pillow that she filled with lavender buds. mmmmm... the package smelled so good while I was unpacking it! She also sent a prim tag and a cute little felt sheep all framed and ready to hang when I find the perfect spot. Here's a couple of pictures of some of the things that I've found a home for.


The child's shoe's are on the end table by our couch highlighted by a jug lamp.


I thought it would be fitting to have this little doll that's currently part of the centerpiece of our table, holding the little doll.


I added the lavender stuffed pillow to a wood bowl that I already had filled with lavender buds and another lavender pillow.

I've also been out junk shopping with my friends Betty and Lynda. Here's a picture of the things I picked up on that day.

The grain sifter and large measure were on top of the big red stepback cupboard in our dining room but have already been moved as I've been busy, busy changing things around (pictures later).

The round breadboard looks good in the center of our farmers table but that's been moved a couple of times too.


I also picked up a butter churn that I've had my eye on but wasn't quite sure I wanted to pay what they were asking. I've wanted one for quite some time now and have been checking prices when I found them but they've always been more than I wanted to spend on one. I haven't been able to find them for under $100 and I'm cheap with a capitol C-H-E-A-P, so I've passed waiting for the right one to come along. It finally did! I saw this one a couple of weeks ago at one of my favorite junk shops and they were asking $95 for it. I decided to pass it up but for a week, I kept thinking about it knowing that I hadn't found one for under $100 yet and this one was in good shape. I finally went back to see if it was still there and sure enough it was. I asked if they'd take $80 for it and in the end I ended up paying $85 for it. I wasn't going to walk away over five bucks! Do you want to see it?
Well, okay. Here it is in all it's glory.

Isn't she a beauty? It has "Edwards & Walker Co. Portland, Me." printed on the front and a picture of a cow on the back which I didn't think to take a picture of. I love that it came right from Portland, Maine too!

That's all I have for prim pictures but one other thing that I did that was fun and I wanted to share with you was some volunteering I did at the Opportunity Farm for girls. I actually volunteered a few weeks ago but between being busy when we got back from Ohio and then losing our internet, I haven't been able to post about it yet. The Opportunity Farm is a home for teen age girls and there's a separate location for teen age boys who, for whatever reason aren't able to live at home. It's either not a healthy living situation for them or they live there until things are better and they can or want to move back home. It's voluntary on the children's and family's parts on whether they want to live there or not. Anyway, I got to go and do a craft with the girls so we made some stamped greeting cards that they could give to a friend or family.

The girls really had fun making the cards using flower stamps and bright colored inks I brought.

This is my friend and helper Fran helping one of the girls.
The girls were all super sweet and so polite!! Each one of them shook my hand and introduced themselves to me when I walked in. It was so much fun and so rewarding getting to work with such a young group of eager teen age girls.

Of course I've also been busy in our garden. I made homemade spaghetti sauce the weekend we came back from Ohio and I'll be making another batch this weekend with more tomatoes from our garden. I also made more homemade pickles and jams as well as some zucchini soup that went in the freezer for this winter.



These are Golden Glow pickles. Aren't they pretty?
Here's a picture of some of the harvest from our garden.

And a picture of some acorn squash from our garden.

I just love the looks of fresh picked harvest and gourds in old wooden bowls. I can't wait to decorate for fall this year as it's the first year we've grown gourds and I'm ready to cut them off the vines now!! I'm being a good girl and waiting until just the right time to harvest them. :)
Another thing I like to do is cut sunflower heads and dry them on a windowsill.


They look great sitting on a countertop in a large jar or wooden bowl. You can also use them to surround your favorite candle.


My sweetie finally finished putting the trim up in our entry way (it's only been three years) so I've been keeping myself busy with painting the trim and repainting the walls. I can't wait to finish the entry way and show you pictures of what we're doing in there. I think you might be surprised but I can't tell you anymore than that. You'll have to keep checking back for my post about it. Guess that's all the catching up I have for you today. But before I go, I wanted to say "HI" and "thanks" to all my new followers and those of you who take the time to leave comments and send me e-mails. I just love hearing from you and visiting new blogs.

Blessings~ Birgit