Author Archives: dorinesplace

Log cabin, log cabin….Part 2

20 Sunday Feb 2011

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In my previous post,  I left you with a glimpse of  what we did to renovate the kitchen in our 100-year-old log cabin.  Of course what you saw in that picture was more on the decorating part than the renovation.  We kept absolutely NOTHING of the old kitchen except the refrigerator, which we put in a cubby hole on our front porch, for extra drinks, etc.   This comes in really handy especially while we sit and rock in our rocker, swing in our swing and watch the river go by…….

OOOH, this is nice.  Could you get me an ice-cold drink please?  Tea or lemonade would be great!

Oh, sorry, I was day dreaming about summer.  Enough relaxing for now, back to work!

We found a great local guy (GLG) to do the renovations for us and he was able to see my vision for the cabin.  We did start in the kitchen and he ripped out every thing.  The stove, sink, water heater, washer, dryer, cabinets, paneling, and dark green marble looking vinyl.  Whew, this makes me tired.  After repairing a few areas in the wall and floor, he put up bead board on the walls and a new vinyl floor (I know, a tile would have been nice, but you need to know that nothing is square OR level in the cabin) and we were ready to paint and continue to the next step.

I bought a stock cabinet from Lowe’s to hold my sink and my GLG installed it along with a place to put in a front loading washer and dryer.  Hey, you know this camping isn’t all it’s cracked up to be!  Laundry? Oh, please? 

Anyway, he raised the sink cabinet to the same height as the washer and dryer and we found some old walnut boards in a storage shed on the property that he made into my counter tops.  Stain and linseed oil and the countertops were finished.  I painted the sink cabinet a soft apple green and made curtains to hide the washer and dryer.

Not much room for overhead cabinets, so I found an antique bookcase and stood it in the corner and GLG installed a couple of shelves on iron brackets to store dishes, cups and glasses.

I found a tall cabinet for a pantry with old shutter doors which fit perfectly beside the entry into the great hall (more on that later).  We installed a tankless water heater to save space as well as energy, a small apartment size stove and a smaller refrigerator.

All that’s left is decorating the walls and what fun we had looking for the signs, chalkboard,  clock, the wire rack, etc.   I also found a cabinet that doubles as a garbage can holder to sit beside the  stove which has a drawer in it.  The top comes in handy when cooking.  Cooking?  Not if I can help it !  

I just like sitting on my porch, watching the river and sipping iced tea or lemonade.  Oh by the way, now there is room in the kitchen for me to dance by myself or with my hubby and a couple of other people (close or not).

Catch my next post Part 3……….Bathroom renovation……..

Log Cabin, log cabin….

19 Saturday Feb 2011

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Okay, what’s this all about?  WHY did I repeat these words?   Should the words be capitalized,  did I just studder??  Actually I’m just stalling because I’m having bloggers  block, I mean writers block……could it be I was thinking of the children’s song “Little Cabin in the Woods”…….maybe I was thinking of Lincoln Logs…..ENOUGH ALREADY!

Actually this post is about two totally different log cabins in my life.  One is the log cabin quilt or quilt block and the other is our little 100-year-old log cabin on the river.   So I’ll start with the log cabin. 

 OH, sorry, the one on the river. 

About four years ago, my husband and I bought a small cabin on the Buffalo River just outside of our home town.  We had been looking for a get away on the river ever since we moved back to Tennessee in 2003.  We happened upon this cabin by pure luck and it happened to need a lot of work.  Just what I wanted…..a project!!!   Yay!  Here it is as we first saw it.We didn’t know it was built of logs because it had been covered with siding.  The site was beautiful and had an added attraction that I wasn’t so sure about.  Here it is….

You guessed it…. A STATUE OF LIBERTY!  Better known as “Miss Liberty”.  However, she grows on you and we have named our place “Camp Liberty”.   We have friends whose parents and other relatives have camps about half a mile up the river and when they found out we bought the camp and she was part of the deal, they called us and said they were calling on behalf of the  “Committee of Preservation of Statues on the Buffalo River” and they had voted for it to stay.  When asked who was on the committee he said, “his mother, his dad, his uncle, his aunt and himself”.  Of course she stayed and has become an icon of the camp.  Everyone who visits loves her.

Next came the inside of the cabin.  We were so excited to see what it looked like on the inside.  When we opened the door here is the first thing we saw……the “kitchen”!  One person could get in there and turn around but two would be doing a slow, close dance with each other. 

 

Bells, whistles and light bulbs started going off in my head.  LIONS, and TIGERS and BEARS, oh my!!!!   Get out the design board and start ripping it out.  There  was nothing that I considered functional in this space.    Here is a sneak peek at the next post.

Things were removed, ripped out, painted, moved in , etc.  Check with my next post and you’ll see the transformation.  STAY TUNED……

Pillows and Pillowcases……

16 Wednesday Feb 2011

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A few years ago,  I had a small booth in a local Antique Shop.  The owners were also agreeable to put in handmade items.  I decided to put together my sewing skills with my painting skills and create some pillows and pillow shams for children’s rooms.  I had several yards of blue and white ticking as well as red and white ticking.  I don’t have pictures of the actual steps I used to create these but I can give them to you and show the final results.

First I decided what size and shape of the pillows I wanted to make.  Then I played around with a design until I got what I wanted.  Once that was done, I put the design on tracing paper and pinned it to the unfinished top of the pillow.  I used a temporary adhesive to attach the fabric to a piece of foam core so I would have a hard surface to paint on.  I placed a piece of  graphite paper under the tracing paper and I transferred the design to the fabric.  Using acrylic fabric paint and a fairly stiff brush, I blocked in the design and added a few highlights and some shading.   When this was dry,  I used a permanent marker and outlined the design and added some words.   Once they were completely dry, I finished the pillow sewing the front to the back and adding trim if needed.

These are simple patterns and you could even get patterns from children’s coloring books and use most any fabric, however, smooth surface fabric would be best, like cotton.  If you choose cotton just wash and press it first to get the sizing out ( so the paint will adhere better) and to preshrink it. Here are pictures of the results.

 These are obviously for little boys.

These are for little girls.  In both cases I also show a couple of pillow shams.  The flowers on these were painted freehand without a pattern, along with the vases.

Here are some photos of individual pillows.  This one of the bunny was created for a good friend of mine for her granddaughter.   It, of course, is on a different fabric and was a little more involved with shading and highlights.

I am showing you the back and front of this pillow, because I added some writing to the back.

On this pillow, I added some writing on the front and some waves to give some added interest to the tug boat.

 This is the last picture, I used a bright fabric for the back as well as for the flange on the sides along with some rickrack.

I hope you have enjoyed this post and it has given you some ideas on creating fun and decorative pillows for the kids in your family or friends.  Deciding on colors and fabric is the hardest part of this project.  Enjoy!!!

Smitten……..

13 Sunday Feb 2011

Posted by in Family

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Valentine’s Day has brought back memories of the love my parents had for each other.  I really never remember my mother and daddy exchanging valentine gifts or cards but the proof of their love was all around.

They met sometime in early summer of 1943 just before he was shipped overseas to fight in WWII.  It was on a Sunday afternoon in a small pharmacy and soda shop much like the one on It’s a Wonderful Life. My mother, one of her sisters and a cousin were on their way to Centennial Park in Nashville and stopped in for a soda.  A group of soldiers came in from Fort Campbell and started talking to them and asked if they knew how to get to the park.  Of course my mother, sister and cousin said they could walk along with them.  From that day forward my daddy was smitten!!!!

He was shipped overseas several weeks later and began writing my mother letters.  She kept all of his letters throughout the years and would never let anyone read them.

 At one point, a few years before she passed away, I asked her about the letters and she said she was going to destroy them.  She didn’t want anyone to read them for fear we would think they were silly.  After a lot of begging and promising we wouldn’t read them until after she was gone, she agreed to keep them.  When we were going through her things after she passed away, we found the letters as well as a lot of other memorabilia from, my sister, her grandchildren and me.  I got the letters and took them home. I began reading them and it took me a week and many tears to get through them.

I knew my daddy loved my mother but until I read those letters, I really didn’t understand how much.  He wrote her for over two years and with each letter you could see his love growing for her.  He was in the 101st Airborne Division of the army and needless to say very busy but he found time to write her and profess his love more and more with each one.  He spoiled her, even evident in some of the letters, and I can never remember them having an argument.  I’m sure they probably did but I never saw it.  He worked hard to provide for his family and she did also.  He would get her up every morning and have her coffee ready as well as her bowl of  “Cornflakes”.  He would get home every day before she did and have the coffee waiting and most days would cook supper.  Don’t get me wrong, she did her fair share of work around the house but daddy took care of her.  

Mother returned his love in so many ways but it was no more evident than after he suffered a stroke in 1990 and she took care of him until his death in 1993.  He was bed ridden after his stroke and she saw to his every need.  She sat by his bed hours at the time and read or crocheted to bide the time.  His stroke affected his speech so their conversation was limited but even then he would reach over and pat her and smile.  He was her everything!  She thought he was the smartest, hardest working, most humble and giving person she knew.  She was lost when he passed away and never got over missing him.   

That kind of love, smitten forever, should always be present.  It was a great love story in my eyes and I’m sure my sister and the rest of our family witnessed it the same as I did.

Happy Valentines Day and I hope you are struck by cupid’s arrow!!!

Procrastination…….

11 Friday Feb 2011

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After years of friends and family telling me I need to start a blog…….it finally sunk in.

I guess I am always afraid people will judge my thoughts, writing and creativity so I tend to think things through for entirely too long (better known as procrastination)and keep telling myself it will be fun and I’ll do it tomorrow (or as they say in the dieting world…I’ll start Monday).  After all, how can we grow if we don’t get comments or suggestions, good or bad.

I was once told by a teacher in one of my quilting classes that I was trying to be too perfect.  She wanted me to move on so I could get through the class and worry about perfection later.  I don’t consider myself a perfectionist but I do like to try and make things as perfect as I can in my eyes.  By the way my eyes are not 20/20!  

I use to teach tole and decorative painting so I know what she is talking about.  All I wanted was for my students to learn the basics and the strokes in class and then practice, practice, practice until they got it  I really never judged their work in a negative way but I would give them suggestions on where they could improve like color choices or ……..give it up, you’ll never be a painter (just kidding). 

You know I should take my own advice!!!!!

Here is what I plan to accomplish with this blog.  I promise it won’t be purrfect (oops) and I won’t procrastinate (for too long) and I will share some or most of my creative projects with you and give you insight into my life as a quilter, artist, decorator and every day kind of woman.

I hope you will find this blog informative, fun, thought provoking and something that you will return to and tell your friends about. 

Until Monday or next Monday, or the next Monday……….(just kidding)!