little messes

so here you go, and this time with a few days to go before the bidding begins.

i love old photos and ephemera and these are just so great:

as it starts to get cold i always get the itch to focus on some winter pasttimes, maybe this year i should finally learn how to actually play mahjong, how about you?

or maybe do some organizing:

or just sit back with good old movies and pop some popcorn:

that’s it for this week, just a few bits and bobbles, and if you fall in love or want to see more of what jeff’s been finding in lots of old boxes lookie here at Woodward’s site.

early last year jeff started working at a new antiques store/auction house that opened barely a block from our house. being that the boy has spent most of his 34 years rummaging through other people’s stuff at yard sales, flea markets, or thrifts stores, you can imagine his delight to now be getting paid to do such digging.

and i, friends, had no idea i would then become the lucky recipient of oh so many treasures in the process. the auctions happen every two weeks on tuesday nights and there is much to be had. so i thought i’d start a new type of post to share my auction faves from each upcoming auction for you to drool over, or heck, call and place a bid on… so here goes.

this week is sort of a cruel post since the auction was actually last night. but well, i was inspired. next time around i’ll give you some time to fall in love.

lisa organized a really great postcard swap to kick off the fall. i always love a swap and gocco is just so easy to dig into, especially when i walk down the stairs into the studio and realize i have days of organizing before i can get anything actually made down there. usually as soon as i hit the third stair from the bottom i let out a sigh, then a yelp, and then i turn around and come back upstairs where it’s nice and clean. but honestly with all the organizing/rearranging/cleaning that’s been going on around these parts, it’s only a matter of time before i make it down there for real.

until then, gocco and i can rendezvous on the dining room table. and my walks with henry can help source my inspiration. ahh fall. i so love this season.

you can see all the creations folks worked up over here on the flickr group: gocco swap.

we’ve been doing some rearranging and renovations round these parts. finally. the last renovation we took on was a year ago in september, the kitchen. we had just returned from a visit out west to see dear friends in portand and seattle when i announced to jeff, “We must redecorate the kitchen!”. to which the smartest man on the planet replied, “maybe we should finish one of the other rooms we’ve already started” as i ran out of the room with my fingers in my ears. I had somehow convinced myself that the renovation i had in mind; (i.e. new paint on walls, new paint on cabinets, new countertop, new sink) would be finished in two weekends. yeah, i’m a dummy. it’s was over 3 months and actually i still need to put the molding up around the backsplash, but no matter! we’re on to the dining room.

when we first bought our house just over 3 years ago, we spent the first year going from room to room and stripping 100 years of wallpaper off the plaster. most of the rooms we tackled are now sitting pretty from follow-up renovations a few years back, but the dining room, well, she’s been a touch neglected over the years.

so this is where our friend j comes in, because we realized we will never find the time on our own to patch all the plaster and prime and paint, good ol’ j has come in to get the ball rolling. i’m so flipping excited. i can’t wait to share what becomes of our dark green & brown dungeon. three cheers for j!

and just so i can get some photos into this rambling post, here are a few corners of the home from this beautiful saturday morning.