Wiggle Room

I started purging in 2016 and I thought I was done in 2019, but most of the purging came from the attic and I still have too much stuff.

I need "wiggle room" in my cupboards so in February, I got serious and asked myself if I was really going to use each item.

I started the process with our dining room plate racks.

Everything came off the racks and I either put items back on the rack, into a cupboard or in a donation pile.

Once the racks were decorated, I moved onto my grandma's step back cupboard in our entry.

I emptied everything out of the cupboard - remember that arrow because it led to yesterday's project.

I posted a pic of the cupboard on Instagram on February 20, when I began writing this "Wiggle Room" post, but life got in the way of finishing up the cupboard.

When I first painted the inside of the cupboard blue, I only had the top part of the cupboard and when I painted it, I didn't even notice that I had left the ceiling unpainted.

I literally didn't see the problem until this feature came out in Cottages and Bungalows magazine in 2017 - yes, it's taken me that long to fix the problem.

Health and the lockdown (couldn't get the paint) kept me from finishing the project, but yesterday things came out of the cupboard once again.

After I finished painting the ceiling, I decided that to make the cupboard more functional and give myself a little wiggle room in the hall cupboard I would add runners and tablecloths to that top shelf.

If you are wondering what those red sticks are on the second shelf,

they are the sweetest vintage utensils sent to me from Rita of Panoply.

I put everything back and planned to wait on the bottom cupboard until today, but there were wind warnings so I stayed inside and tackled the rest of the job.

When I painted the top part of the cupboard, the bottom half lived with my daughter in San Francisco and she painted it yellow- notice the remnants on the open cupboard door.

It's been organized since February, but finally the interior is painted white and that is checked off my To Do list.

Now that I am finishing the post, I must show one change I made in the plate racks.

I had Steve hang cup hooks -

 removing the cups from the cupboard gave me a little more wiggle room.

I didn't want the before photos of the dining room and entry to look exactly like they did to start with so I made my first visit to Trader Joe's in 11 weeks.

It was wonderful to pick out flowers in a nearly empty store

and to come home and create arrangements for both the living room and the entry.

What I mean by wiggle room is that I have space in the cupboards and on the plate racks for that perfect piece of ironstone I can't pass up

I just need thrift shops, vintage shops and pop up markets to fully open.

a Bicycle . . . a Box . . . a Bedspread

With lots of time on my hands, I'm working on projects - the challenge is working with what I have on hand.

This past week I tackled my To Do List with gusto.

From the title of my post, you can guess that the projects involved, among other things, a bicycle, a box and a bedspread.

Someone left an old black bicycle in our driveway years ago and I have wanted to paint it forever.

I have no idea what took me so long - it was easy, but I will use spray paint next time.

The box was easy with a quick coat of paint.

There are many fond memories of family gatherings attached to my mother's tattered and torn table cloths.

I have wanted to make them into pillows for a long time.

Last fall I made a patchwork bedspread out of my childhood chenille spread and plain white fabric.

Steve said it was just too heavy with the long ruffled sides so we replaced it with a duvet cover and bedskirt.

Last week, Lulu came in from the beach with tar on her paws and proceeded to walk on the crisp white covers of both our chaises - there was so much tar that I had to throw the covers away.

The bedspread was cut in half as was the ruffle and with some quick sewing, we have new chaise covers.

There were quite a few items on the list dealing with a back corner of the garden - all were complete, but I wish I could have found flowers like those in this old pic.

Sadly, the pickings at the nursery were limited - I know that eventually the ladder will have lots of fun flowers on each rung.

I will be adding plants beneath the studio window to my list and I can see that I need to redo the Welcome Friends sign.

The garden is looking good with new chaise covers, new pillows, and the yuccas thinned out (by our tree guy) and decorated with buoys.

I just have a few things left on the list, but I am taking the week off.

Except I see that the Mandevilla plant is creeping across one chaise so I will be working in the garden.

Bucket Brigade

It has been over a month since I posted so I am happy to be joining a fun group of bloggers for the April Pinterest Challenge.

Thanks Cindy of County Road 407 for hosting the Pinterest Challenge.

The inspiration photo is from Cottage at the Crossroads.

I've got a bench and lots of buckets and I knew this would be a really fun challenge.

As I gathered buckets, I was a bit surprised to see how many I have - this isn't all of them.

I cleaned off the garden bench we paid $1 for years ago - definitely not for sitting.

I usually go for reds and yellows, but this visit to the nursery was "take what you can get".

I made the mistake of taking a break and reading on the chaise - nothing else got done that day.

The next morning I began hanging buckets on the bench, but I wanted the foxglove to be the tallest plant.

I scattered buckets around the bench and filled them with plants.

My focus is more on buckets than topsy turvy, but this definition is fitting.

 I was given the idea for doing something and created something my own.

I kept the bucket theme going on the porch.

I have a lovely view from the window seat, 

but this view of my garden from the living room windows is my favorite.

You've seen my take on the pic from Cottages at the Crossroads - I hope you check out all the other posts.

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