Jenyfer Matthews

Sorry for the late post today, but it’s been a crazy busy weekend:

* I froze my butt off watching each child play a soccer match on Saturday morning. It was about 50F but the wind was whipping across the flat fields at about 30mph! FYI – I was not the only parent out there all bundled up like this:

(I got this coat at a church rummage sale for $2 )

* I hosted a slumber party for my son’s upcoming birthday with three little boy guests;

* As part of the party, I ate a Happy Meal at McDonald’s so that my daughter, not allowed to attend the party with the boys, could have the Halloween bucket the meal was served in;

* I stayed up later than I wanted to so that the boys could have their fun and I bit my tongue when one of them dropped his smore on my recently cleaned carpet;

(Incidentally, I am thinking of cutting off friend birthday parties at age 10!)

* I drove 2 1/2 hours one way to Toledo to meet a friend who had a BMX bike to donate to my son.

And I did all of the above while on the verge of having a major muscle spasm in my lower back from all the furniture sanding I did on Friday. Thank goodness for heated car seats…

Tomorrow is little man’s actual birthday. I’ll be making a cake and wrapping presents before I lay on the floor for a while for some back therapy.

I’ve been having a lot of fun unpacking boxes – so many things I’d pretty much forgotten I still had!

We moved fairly frequently when I was growing up, so there are a lot of things that I got rid of that I sort of wish I’d kept. I did keep some things though. Like this:

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Remember these? The records might be worth something (to someone) if I still had the sleeves they came in. Who knows – I haven’t opened all the boxes yet!

I went through a phase where I went to the TG&Y every week and bought several hits off their top 10 display for the week, which means there are some pretty questionable choices in this stack! There are also quite a few Elvis singles included – both mine and also some that my mother bought when she was a teen.

I haven’t even opened this box yet, but the label made me laugh. “Fragile” indeed! Remember when stereos came in single, stackable components?

I do still have cassettes to play in my dual cassette player too. What a mix of genres! There are cassette singles in the box as well – the music industries answer to 45rpm’s before iTunes was invented

I could always fire up one of these more portable puppies too! They look so giant now compared to ipods!

Yes, I have vinyl albums (and a turntable) too. Don’t you just love the “limited edition” albums with the picture printed right on the vinyl? My daughter asked to hold one because she had never touched an album before – then she asked if handling it would “smudge” the lines. Young whippersnapper! Vinyl is making a comeback because it’s actually more durable than digital.

This really is a treasure – from my husband’s childhood. I had never seen the schoolhouse before. I love the metal bell on top!

None of these little people have a cell phone to call home if they fall off the dangerous merry-go-round, but never fear – there is a phone booth nearby!

I would have thought that the children were too old for the Fisher Price toys but they asked me if I could buy them more. Only on ebay…

I consulted with my woodworking father about the dressers this weekend and did not find his suggestion of contact paper very helpful (though it was mildly amusing). However, I did find a box of Mexican tile at the city-wide garage sale this weekend for $5 and could not resist it. Just look at what I could do with it:

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I love the way the tile looks, and it seems so in keeping with the look of the rest of the piece. What do you think?

I’m sure there is more to tiling than I think there is – even if it might be marginally “easier” than doing a faux granite finish which is my runner-up option. But when I do something I want to do it *well*. I don’t want huge grout lines because the tiles don’t actually fit properly and I would need some sort of trim to finish the edge since none of these tiles have curved edges.

I suppose could always practice my tiling on the side table I got for free. It has a chunky Spanish style the would only be enhanced by the Mexican tile.

The “problem” with the tile is that it has so much personality that it would make the item to which I applied it lovely but much less neutral. I both like a bold statement but also to keep my options open.

One idea would be to apply the tiles to a foundation that could be removed from the dresser top at some later date. That would also make the dresser easier to move of course! Another idea would be to just refinish the dresser top in a more attractive way with either stain or paint and use the tiles on a mirror surround instead. Decisions decisions…

In any event, I think I’ll start with the stripping of both dressers and the painting of the taller one and decide as I go along!

My creativity to date has run in quilts, writing, and some dabbling in pottery. My father’s creativity has pretty consistently come out in woodwork. One of the items I had in my time capsule storage room was a carving he had done, inspired by M. C. Escher. He gave me this wall hanging on my 21st birthday and though I packed it away carefully, I was very afraid that it would have warped all those long years in a not-climate-controlled storage room!

It’s as lovely today as it was when I packed it, and hardly dusty at all since I wrapped it in a towel, sandwiched it between two boards, and put it in a box!

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Believe it or not, he carved this from ONE piece of wood. See for yourself:

He even made me matching magnets.

He does sell some of his work, but he couldn’t sell these because they aren’t his design. He does have some of his own lovely designs, like this one. Once I am all settled in, I would love to start an Etsy site for my quilts and some of his smaller pieces. Just look how lovely his more recent work is:

Right now I wish that I could apprentice under him to learn more about wood and refinishing because I acquired a couple of projects this week.

We need a couple of dressers for the children’s rooms and I’ve been keeping a lookout at garage sales. It’s amazing how many ugly and badly constructed dressers are out there – and how much people want for them! We got lucky today though. Just look what I found for $20/each. They need some love but they have good bones.

This one currently has a pretty bad paint job but is well made. I can see it painted pale green, perhaps with ceramic knobs. Someone painted the insides of the drawers too, unfortunately, in alternating royal blue and brown no less! It means a bit more work for me to paint over that to make them all white, but I think it will be worth it.

The second one has one loose board and one missing board on the back. Otherwise, I want to strip the odd paint off the top (why??) and see what is under the not-so-attractive mocha colored paint. If the wood it is okay, I might just strip the whole thing and then stain/varnish it. If the top is a mess, I’ll leave the bottom as is and repaint the top a bit nicer. Either way, what a find for $20!

I’d love for them to come out beautifully but at the price we got them I won’t even feel too bad if I mess them up

(What am I saying – of course I will!)

This weekend is the city-wide garage sale. I’m all a-tingle just thinking about it! Though I’m not even sure why the city bothers to have a “day” because it seems like every day is garage sale day here…

There were many things I forgot packing away in our storage unit way back when, but there were some things I could not forget – several special quilts.

I didn’t have many quilts back in 1999 – I was self taught from books and had only made two baby quilts for my then baby nieces and two bigger quilts, only one of which I kept. When we were packing things away, I put all of the special quilts in my cedar “hope” chest – and very much hoped that they would be okay when we returned!

The storage unit we rented was in North Carolina and was NOT climate controlled. Over the years I worried about humidity, heat, pests, hurricanes, mildew, etc. The worst I have had to contend with yet has been dust and intense cedar scent from the hope chest and all the cedar blocks I packed away with all the linens!

This is the first big quilt I ever made, made in 1998 according to the satin stitched signature on the back (guess who had more time and patience then??), now on my daughter’s bed.

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I quite clearly remember piecing this quilt seated in front of my hope chest, where my Kenmore sewing machine was parked, and then spending hours hand quilting it while watching a BBC production of Sense and Sensibility over and over again.

Check out how I finished the edge. Guess I hadn’t figured out how to do bindings yet! Again – much more patience and time!!!

Guess what one of my first projects will be when my fabric arrives??

There were also a couple of old family quilts that my parents gave me. This yellow quilt is from my father’s side:

It has no signature or date to tell me when it was made, but it was given to me when I was about 20 years old. I am almost positive that other than the embroidery it is machine quilted, which you don’t see much in older quilts.

I don’t recall the embroidery being in such sad shape when I put it away, but my memory isn’t what it used to be either.

It is so pretty I am *half* tempted to try and repair it… Wonder if that would be a worthwhile thing to do?? The rest of the quilt is in pretty good shape, though I am not sure I’d want to put it into everyday use.

This next quilt is from my mother’s side. It’s a bit unusual I think because it is a common pattern, Grandmother’s Flower Garden, appliqued to the top instead of pieced. Also, it is knotted instead of tied.

I remember trying to use this quilt on my bed when I was single and in grad school. Not only was it really, really heavy (thick cotton or wool batting?) but while I was away in class my cat would sit on the bed and untie the knots with her teeth. I decided it was better to put it away!

The quilt was rather threadbare in places and delicate when I put it away and still is. I don’t know exactly what to do with it. I’d kind of like to display it, but I wonder if it is even strong enough to be hung on a wall?

Check out how that edge is finished – maybe a binding is less critical than I thought!

I never did get back to the blog on Friday because I was having way too much fun opening boxes and remembering all the wonderful things that we put in our storage unit way back in June of 1999.

When the movers called to tell me when they were scheduled to arrive, first thing Friday morning, I was a bit miffed because their timing meant that I was going to have to skip my usual Friday garage sale cruise. It ended up not mattering though because not only was it a cold and drippy day, not the best garage sale weather, but I pretty much had my dream garage sale delivered to my door!

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Here they come! So exciting

The friend who supervised the movers while they were loading the truck told me that other than dust, things looked to be in good shape. She was right – about both things. It’s a big job ahead of us to clean everything before putting it away, but what fun to look at each and every item!

Many many times over the years people suggested to us that we were insane to continue paying $$$ to keep that storage unit. I wavered a few times but held firm: yes, it was true that there were things packed away that we would not want / need again but a lot of the stuff was worth keeping. We can probably afford to recycle the assorted glass condiment jars that we once kept spices in, but just look at those brown Ovaltine jars on the shelf. Those are practically antiques by now, LOL.

I love these chairs, from my husband’s grandparents (there is a fourth chair, not yet unloaded as of this picture) These are much better than the plastic lawn furniture we were making-do with. Add the oak kitchen table that I refinished myself and we have a very nice solid wood set for “free”.

This lamp belonged to my grandparents and it is my favorite floor lamp ever. Can’t wait to polish the crystal on the post.

This chair was one of the “casualties” – it did not age well. The upholstery is at least 3 shades darker than it was originally and the stuffing no longer gives. It needs to be totally redone. However, it wasn’t in such hot shape when we put it into storage so it isn’t a huge surprise to me. Given the expense and general poor quality of “new” furniture, I do think this chair is worth re-doing. My husband and I bought this chair for $15 at a garage sale in about 1997 because it had good bones. That much is still true. I’m thinking of having it reupholstered in leather. What do you think? More expensive initially but it would certainly last a long time!

Even my linens survived – they all smell of cedar from the wood blocks I put in everything but that is better than the alternative. Pictures of quilts coming Wednesday…

No garage sale-ing for me today: The moving truck is actually here – on time – bringing us our things from a storage unit we packed up and locked away nearly 12 YEARS AGO! According to my friend who watched the movers load up, the room was dusty and full of cobwebs but the stuff mostly seemed to be in good shape and even the movers were impressed how well it had all been packed originally.

It’s a blast to see all this stuff arriving – some of which I remember and some of which I don’t! It’s a bit like having a garage sale delivered to my house

I’ll update later today or tomorrow with some pictures. I think I have a few reupholstering projects ahead of me!

The time capsule, aka our storage unit in North Carolina, has been opened and loaded into a truck.

Sadly, I wasn’t able to be there in person to supervise (some might say “interfere”), but I had a friend who stood-in for me who said that other than dust and cobwebs, it all looked pretty good. Even our mattress set seemed okay! It’s all on a truck now, so now we will wait and see how long it will take it to get here. It is scheduled to be here FRIDAY MORNING but I’ll believe that when I see them roll up in the driveway!

We didn’t have children when we packed up and went abroad and while we were away we lived in furnished housing so we don’t really have much furniture coming. I’m willing to get things slowly, but we really need a couple of dressers for the children’s rooms. I haven’t been hugely impressed with the quality or the prices of new furniture I’ve seen so my husband and I decided to take a look at a local antique mall. Once furniture ends up in an antique mall, it isn’t always such a bargain, but it might at least be made of real, solid wood.

Sadly, we didn’t see anything that tempting at the antique mall. You win some, you lose some. We decided to drop in at a Goodwill we passed on our way home. We didn’t find a dresser, but I did find a cute sewing table for $5.

I’m not actually planning to use it as a sewing table though – I thought I might try it out as a bedside table. If it seems too high, I will put it in the living room as a side table. It is a solid little table with the top closed.

The question I have now is whether to try and paint it or not. The finish isn’t great, as you can see, and it already has a couple of paint splats on it. Would it look better or worse if I tried to do a “shabby chic” finish on it in white or pale green? Hubby thinks that painting furniture makes it look cheap but I think he’s crazy. Besides, it’s not as if this particular piece was ever such high quality wood anyway!

Also found another treasure while out looking for work shoes for hubby. Aren’t they beautiful?

I’m in love. I have always wanted red cowboy boots and now I have some. They were on sale for the same price the faux leather boots cost and are so so so much softer. Just have to make sure I don’t end up stepping in a snow drift / slush puddle with them!

My sister likes to tell me that I have a horseshoe stuck up my butt because to her I seem so lucky. I prefer to think we make our own luck.

If I could have picked a town to come back to as a family, I’d have picked one that was big enough for every day needs, but not big enough for traffic jams, had good public schools, nice family oriented neighborhoods, sports facilities, good thrift stores, and a short commute to work for my husband. Other than the commute and the thrift stores, we are doing pretty good where we landed otherwise.

I may not have thrift stores (or at least any good ones that I’ve FOUND yet!) but there have been plenty of wonderful garage sales to keep me entertained. If you haven’t noticed, I love a good bargain. (Even my kids know – my 8 year old son told my neighbor that my shoes were from a thrift store!) I especially love a good, useful bargain with some character to it. With us camping in a mostly empty house, I have the perfect excuse to go to garage sales.

I think I must be in garage sale heaven. The first week I was here, I saw a sign so I followed it to the sale. Then I saw another, and another, and another… it wasn’t long before I’d lost THREE HOURS driving around from sale to sale to sale. I don’t buy things every place I go, but I love the thrill you get just wondering what treasure you might find when you pull up!

So far, I’ve been really happy with the bargains I’ve found. Among the many I’ve found are:

Toaster oven $2
Iron wine rack $2
(Cheapo) full length mirror $2
Milk glass bedside lamps 2 for $1/each
pizza stone, in box $2
3 1/2 quart crock pot $2
cookie sheet $1
assorted cooking utensils $1
bag of cutlery $1
3 Pfaltzgraff dinner plates, 4 side plates FREE

I happened to stumble on a mid-week sale last week tucked down a cul-de-sac near my son’s school. I stopped by at 4pm and saw a full-sized bed frame with headboard, a solid pecan wood coffee table, and a (cheap) computer desk. I told the man I wanted them all, but that I was driving a hatchback VW Golf which made taking things difficult. He offered to deliver them in his Expedition. He ended up not only delivering the items, but he brought the bed frame inside as well as the box spring from my garage and set up my daughter’s bed for me! Also, when he picked up the coffee table, I saw that it was stamped Lane underneath. What a find! I have a very nice cedar hope chest by Lane coming from storage… someday…

The head board has a shelf (with a hole for wires) and a cupboard on either end. It was almost worth the purchase just for the interaction with the people who were selling the things. They were so so so nice! They were an older couple and the wife told me that the bed had been her first and favorite bed and that she was so happy to have someone come along who would really appreciate it. I certainly do appreciate it and it absolutely made my day to make hers

I found another fantastic sale this week. It happened to be on the way to my daughter’s school and they were setting up at 7am. I spotted a headboard and some other furniture as I was passing so I decided to stop after dropping her off. I found an absolutely lovely metal head and footboard set for $5. Yes, FIVE DOLLARS. Not only that, but once again, they delivered it for me.

I had to go out and get the proper sort of bedframe and supply my own mattresses and bedding, but is this a gorgeous bed or what? (Please ignore the wallpaper – it came with the house!) The quilt is one I made for my mother in 2004.

I still can’t believe I got it for $5. Having gone to the bed shop to get the frame and having had a look around at what bedroom furniture costs I’m nearly ecstatic (because frankly, most of the furniture I saw was expensive but cheap, if you know what I mean). My son is really jealous that my daughter and my husband and I have proper beds and he doesn’t, but you just can’t predict what you will find a garage sale.

There is, however, a CITY-WIDE GARAGE SALE scheduled October 8th!!!!!!

I think I might have died and gone to heaven!

I do believe that the city wide sale might mark the last gasp of garage sales for the season and in a way I’m glad. It takes up a lot of time and energy driving around looking!

Zen isn’t cutting it right now. I’m feeling downright sorry for myself.

I’ve washed windows, walls, baseboards, mini-blinds, vent covers, and scrubbed showers with Tilex and Magic Erasers, all in preparation for my things to arrive. I had hoped to have at least some things arrive by the end of this month. Seems like maybe I had more time to get the cleaning done that I thought I did.

When we moved from the United Arab Emirates to Cairo, I split our shipment so that some things would arrive by air and other, heavier, less-pressing items would come by sea. I told my husband to do the same this time. He said he told the movers but somehow the message was lost because when I woke up Tuesday morning he’d written to tell me that the reason the quote they gave us was so reasonable was because it was ALL scheduled to travel by sea.

Not. Acceptable.

I was whining about this to a friend of mine who pointed out to me how lucky we’ve been through this whole process overall. I know we have been extremely lucky – finding a job in such a tough economy and getting all the rest of the logistics sorted out so efficiently has been nothing short of a miracle. However, knowing that doesn’t really help in this moment. I have been living adrift for NINE MONTHS. I’m tired of making do and improvising. I want to have my own stuff, in my own place, and start doing my own thing again ASAP. Having our things shipped by sea will delay that possibility by at least another two months.

Yes, I could buy more towels and sheets and dishes and utensils, but what a waste of money – I have all these things coming to me from two different sources, dammit. It’s just getting it all here that is the problem.

In the end, I basically threw a tantrum by email. Though they are many hours ahead of EST, the movers were still in our place and my husband was able to divert most of our kitchen things by air freight along with as many of my quilts as he could find (they had already been packed). He tossed some of my sweaters in his suitcase and called it good. I guess I’ll have to be satisfied with that for now.

I am still working on getting our US time capsule shipped to us as well. At this point, any of my stuff will do…