The Apple Street Cottage

Last summer we stopped at a yard sale.   It was late in the day and the man wanted to get rid of the few things that were left.  This rocking chair had a price of $15 dollars and he was trying so hard to get me to buy it.   If you know me, you know I LOVE rocking chairs and the last thing I need is another one ( I already own 3).  I mentioned this to the man and he dropped the price to $10.  I still told him, 'no', but he persisted!   I finally looked at him and explained, 'I really don't need another rocking chair and, anyway, the most I would pay for it is $5.'   He said, 'It's yours'.  My husband said, 'For 5 bucks, get it.' Have I mentioned he might be an enabler?? He put it in the car. I didn't look too bad, but when I got up close, I could see the finish was worn, there were some chips and dings, and some of the cross pieces were loose.  So, there was a little gluing, filling, and sanding.  Then two coats of chalk paint in Peac

...or is it a desk?  Either way I found it when my husband and I were running some errands last summer.  We drove by a house that was having a yard sale in the middle of the week.  I don't know about where you live, but most yard sales are on the weekend around here.  The little table/desk caught my eye, and yes, I made him turn the car around.  Long story short, the woman sold me the table for $5 simply because she wanted to get rid of it....Winning! It looked nothing like this when I found it.  Here's a peek: I loved the legs and the curve of the top.  What you can't see in the picture is the front skirt was loose and tipped making it impossible to slide the drawer.  We turned it over and found that the corner supports were not attached. There were nails and a bolt, neither were doing their job.  Here's a look from another angle: My husband volunteered to get this straightened out and pulled that corner support out completely.  He did the sam

This post has been coming for a long time.  You may remember my Dressing Table Makeover from last year.  I loved the result, but the problem was, it had no bench. When I thought I found one, that project went sideways ( you can read about it HERE ) , and I was still left with a bench-less dressing table.  Fast-forward to last summer and a yard sale that I saw advertised online.  The picture showed a little bench that looked like a great match. The problem was, it was already noon and there was a good chance it was already sold.  Being the eternal optimist, I grabbed the hubs and said, "We're going to a yard sale!"  Off we went and when we arrived, the bench was still sitting there.  I tried not to act too excited, because I wanted to dicker on the price....it came home with me! I forgot to take a 'before' picture (no complaining, I've warned you about this), but let me describe it.  It was painted white with a light gray microsuede seat.  Not my s

Oh the weather outside is frightful....at least it is here, and there's nothing like homemade soup to warm you up.  It's Ten on the 10th again and our theme is 'Keeping Warm'.  Thank you to Terrie from Decorate & More With Tip for hosting.  Let's make some soup, shall we? This is a crockpot recipe, so in addition to the crockpot, this is what you'll need: 3 stalks of celery - diced 4 carrots - peeled & diced 1 medium onion 3 cloves of garlic - minced 2 bay leaves 48 oz. container of chicken broth 1 cup of water 1 tsp. of sage salt & pepper to taste 2 boneless chicken breasts - about a pound Not shown: parsley for garnish egg noodles Add all ingredients (except the egg noodles) to the crockpot and cook on low for 6 hours.   Remove chicken breasts, shred... ...and return to crockpot.  Sprinkle some parsley for color. While the soup continues to cook, prepare your egg noodles according to the package directions.  You coul

Hellooooo!  Rosie here - Yes, I hijacked the blog from Ann today to show you my new outfit.   The last time I was here it was Christmas time and I'm sure you remember that evergreen skirt.   Can I tell you what a mess that made???    The floor was covered with pine needles and I was left standing there with bare branches from the waist-down.   No, I will NOT show you a picture.   It was too embarrassing.   Since I was between outfits, I insisted she cover me up, so I got her DIY shirt wrapped around me and, honestly, I really 'rocked' the look, don't you think?   Move over Rosie the Riveter.  This is Rosie the DIY Gal! My hat really 'polished the look' because......'Rhinestones'! But, I digress....The holidays were over and Valentine's Day was fast approaching.  I felt that the top of the Christmas outfit could still work with that gorgeous velvet ribbon, but I needed something for the bottom half.  I went digging in the stash from

When I first spotted this little footstool at the estate sale I attended last November, it was sitting in a corner with a box of junk sitting on top.  There was nothing special about it, but for $2 it was coming home with me to get a little love! The green top lifted right off and the first order of business was a cleaning with some Murphy's Oil Soap. A few rough edges were smoothed down with some sandpaper and it was ready for paint.   Two coats of Waverly Ocean Chalk Paint were followed by a couple of coats of clear finish.  Quick and easy! Then I turned my attention to the top.  Using a screwdriver, I pried off the finishing nails. This revealed a combination of cotton batting and wood wool under the green plastic. Here's a close-up of the wood wool, if you've never seen it before: Since I had no desire to reuse any of these materials, I grabbed some batting and stapled it to the board. This is one of the pictures I warned you about it in my H