The Brawn of the Operation Makes Beds

With Valentines Day coming (and my husbands birthday) I was inspired by a post on Miss Flibbertigibbet and how she gave Mr. Flibberti a nice photo of herself as a gift.

Brawn and I have been married for 30 years.  Blissful?  Well mostly yeah, but he's not getting a photo!  Brawn also happens to be one of the only two people in real life who know I have started a blog. 

I'm almost certain he doesn't really know what a blog is or how to find it on the web, he just knows I've been putting stuff on mantels, taking stuff off mantels, putting it back up again, taking pictures and staying up late. And that he's a been a bit neglected.  I'm gonna go to bed earlier tonight.

So in honor of the man who fetches me ladders and moves stuff around for me, all for the sake of the Bliss Ranch blog, I wanted to show you just a couple of the gazillion things Brawn has made for our home.  (Forget that he built the home too.)

I showed you the dining room furniture he made when I posted about gearing up for a country pine redo.  A few years ago when I wanted a new bed, being the cheap son of a gun he is, he said ok, I'll make you one.

OOOkkkaaaa then, can I have a dresser and nightstands too?  Sure.  I don't have those yet, but 25 years ago he did make the night stands we are still using.

It's hard to tell but the enlarged photos next to the bed are of our history..... one is the sign of the town he grew up in and the other is a California road sign from whence the raven haired beauty came.

If Bliss wants it, Brawn builds it

My Fairy Tale

The bedroom mantel is due for an accessories makeover, it's pretty dull, but I'm not up to it after the beginning of the week and the family room mantel re-do.  I also have a 3rd mantel in the game room, but you know..... I just decorate that one with dust.

My mom's Primer, with her coloring, sits on the mantel

At the base of our bed is a crochet bed cover that my mom made.  When I was a little tot- long before internet- that's how she spent her time.  She made three of them.  The detail is wonderful, so much texture with the raised nubbies.  And heavy..... if we ever had an intruder I could throw it at him and he'd be out cold.

My hunk of burning love letting our 3 youngest kids dress him like a pirate.

Arrrrr. I'm linked up at:
Time Travel Thursday @Brambleberry Cottage
Show & Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home
Potpourri Friday @ 2805
Miss Mustard Seed Furniture Feature Friday

Vintage Mailbox Towel Holder Boys Bathroom

I was inspired by a post on LittleMissMaggie's about her folk art mailbox, so today I'm going to boldly go where no woman should go - my boys bathroom -  so I can show you the vintage mailbox I turned into a towel holder.

16 years ago.

Back then I'm pretty sure everyone who saw it thought I was odd hanging an old mailbox anywhere, let alone in a bathroom.

Advertising Tins

My name is Bliss, and I am a tin-o-holic.  But I do not want to recover from this, no siree.  Not just tins, but any sort of item that has advertising on it or interesting letters.  If the re-decorating fairy fluttered through my house, she better keep her magic wand away from my tins.  They stay.
No matter what.  But she could drop more off.

 

Not all the tins I have are old.  Well intentioned friends often give me cute ones that look vintage but of course are not.  Doesn't bother me but I do have a fondness for the antique tins.

 

I like the Shinola tin above.  It still has stuff in it and it makes me laugh.  

Sometimes I don't look inside the tins I find because I'm not sure what I might see.  And in the case of the Shinola tin, that old saying had to come from somewhere, so why chance it?

 

Dust mop in a can?  Hmmm.  

I think this is the kind of thing those elixir guys sold out of their traveling wagons along with snake oil.  Look, it even has sort of a snake charmer guy as a mascot.  I haven't read the fine print on it, or opened it.  It has the word "dust" on it, and with my luck I would release what's inside, and Lord knows I don't want any more dust!  If it looks a little familiar to you that's because I turned this 'ol tin into my 

Bliss Ranch Button on the my sidebar. 

 

This Rolled Oats tin isn't even a tin.  It's the old fashioned version of cardboard.  I wonder if someone was sitting around their antique shop when they picked the name for the Golden Gophers Football team in Minnesota.  The oats are from St. Paul.  

This is also one of my favorites from my collection.

The tins I have are far from perfect, they won't be heading to any museums.  But somewhere sometime they were in someone's home, and if they could only talk.  Like this little Baby Talc tin above.  If you look close you can see pencil scratch marks all over.  Some little Victorian tot with a chaffed butt maybe took it out on the tin?  This one has stuff in it too.  

I have fought the urge to smell it.  

Linked up to:

Knick of Time Tuesday

Gearing up for a Country Pine Re-do

I've been trying to get a handle on cleaning out collections and brightening up my surroundings.  When we first built Bliss Ranch we had 4 kids, and then added two more in the early house decorating stages.  I picked things out by if it would show jelly or fruit juice, not by what I maybe really wanted.  I was being practical.  I also wasn't in my right mind (or body either!)  since I made those choices while pregnant.  And would you really trust anyone who might crave pickles and ice cream with your decorating?

 So I have these two pine pieces Mr. Bliss made with a big pine log, part of which was our Christmas tree, back when I didn't want white around for fear I'd constantly be cleaning it.  It's a nice piece, solid, and I don't hate it, I just want to update and brighten it, we have a lot of wood in our house.  It is top on my project list, along with the matching pine farm table.  My more rustic tastes from then have changed.  I plan to use something from the Graphics Fairy, along the lines of my all time favorite table designer Korrie at Red Hen Home.  I love her *chocolate table*, take a peek at her table, and she made some other ones too that are all my inspiration. 

Till I have a chance to pick up some of the famous Annie Sloan Chalk Paint, I added some white salad plates and some antique pine cone cups to brighten it up.  My daughter also makes those cute little stamped vintage silverware things and had a box of supplies sitting on my desk.  Soooo, in keeping with the cleaning up and decluttering going on, I took it off my desk, picked what I liked, fetched a metal tray that was heading to the Good Will, and put it all to use in a spot that has been famously empty unless there is a holiday.

The hardest thing around here is to say the words "painting wood".  Mr. Bliss loves the grain, the smell, the feel, the look of all things wood.  So I have to mentally prepare him for the assault on the dining room furniture.  I hope to start work on this next week if I can find a place in Minnesota with the paint.  What color ASCP would you use?

I've got rocks in my head

Yup.  It's official.
 
I've got rocks in my head.

Why?  Because I'm the lady who doesn't like Facebook 'cause then everyone knows your business' - yet here I am sharing info on a blog!

On purpose.   Crazy I say.