It's Giveaway Time!!

* This giveaway is now closed *


Woohoo!!  My first giveaway!  

I've been thinking about doing a giveaway for a couple of months now and thought I might do one when I reached 100 followers, but I tend to err on the side of procrastination and didn't come up with anything, so 100 followers came and went.   Now we're celebrating 125 followers.  Better late than never, right?

Here's what I finally came up with for one of you lucky Farmhouse readers.

- An old wooden shoe form

- A wooden folding ruler

- 2 cute little vintage books

- A vintage wooden hanger

 AND....

 See that little plaid card sticking out of the ruler?

- A $15 gift card for Hobby Lobby

Sound like fun?

There will be three ways to earn an entry.

#1) Required - If you're not one already, become a follower, either through Google Friend Connect or Linky Followers, and leave me a comment telling me you just found The Cozy Old Farmhouse or that you've been following all along.

Bonus Entries

#2) If you help spread the news either by blogging about it, sharing on your Facebook page, pinning to Pinterest, etc., come back and leave a separate comment letting me know you did.

#3) Another way is to visit my Etsy shop (link is in the sidebar) and come back and let me know which item is your favorite.

I'll give you 2 weeks to join in the fun and a winner will be chosen on Friday, June 1st.  And what a perfect day for it, that will be me and Hubby's 10 year anniversary!

Good luck everyone and thanks for following along on my decorating adventures.  I've been having a blast with it.

                                                 

My First Giveaway, Coming Soon!

I logged in this morning and discovered I've reached 125 Google followers!  Woohoo!!  I think that's a great reason to celebrate don't you?  I'm thinking....  

I've already been planning for this, I just need to snap some pictures and put the details together, so check back VERY soon to find out.  

Thanks everyone, this has made my day!  : )

                                                

Spring Flowers

Just poppin' in to share some purdy-ness with you.

The lilacs were cut (with permission) from our neighbor's bush, and they smelled AH-mazing!

And the roses came from our yard.

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day.  I know I did.  Hubby cooked breakfast AND dinner after church.  He did good - Roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, noodles, corn, and dinner rolls.  And he did all the clean up for the meals.  And after we got home from the evening service I was able to sweet talk him into a foot massage.  

A very good day indeed.  : )

                                              

Linking up to:

Saturday Nite Special #136 - Funky Junk Interiors

Vintage Kitchen to Farmhouse Kitchen

In my post about the kitchen canisters makeover I mentioned that the whole point of the makeover was because I'm attempting to shift the decor from a mainly vintage feel to more of a farmhouse style.  

One area that definitely had a very vintage look was this shelf above our table.  Though I've enjoyed it immensely for quite awhile now, it had to be changed up to suit the farmhouse look a little better.

Before

I know you ladies will understand how in the world I spent an entire morning primping this shelf and the top of the refrigerator (which comes later in this post).  I worked it and reworked it and moved and changed and scooted things for hours trying to get it just right.   

And finally I did.

After

I've mentioned before that I don't like my decor to be purely for looks.  It either has to have some bit of functionality to it, have some personal meaning, or both.  So, I'm going to give you a bit of background on some of these pieces.

The Ale 8 bottle was given to us by a good friend of my husband's.  We went to visit him in Kentucky several years ago and he introduced us to the stuff - SO good! (but the nearest place from us that sells it is a 1/2 hour away so we only get it very occasionally).  When he found out how much I love old soda bottles he gave me this one.  It's even more special to us because he passed away a few years later at the very young age of 26.

The "So Grape" bottle came from my childhood home.  It had a crawl space in the basement that my mom very rarely ever let us explore, but one time when she was feeling generous I found that bottle in there.  I think that may be where my love of soda bottles started.  I think I was probably about 10 years old maybe.

The C&C (Cantrell & Cochrane) Cola can was an Ebay purchase, special to us because of our last name.

The metal stopper in the Ale 8 bottle has a bunch of tiny little holes all over it.  I'm told it was used for ironing back in the day.  They'd fill a bottle with water, put the stopper in, and then they were able to sprinkle water over their clothes while ironing.

I can't remember for sure where I got the enamelware bowl, but I'm pretty sure my mom gave me the old egg beater in my stocking at Christmas one year.  She knows me well.  : )

The flour sack towel I found at Walmart the other day.  It came in a set of 5.  They're kinda wimpy to be used as actual towels, but they're great for decorating.

At one point in pulling this shelf together I thought I had it all done and I walked away.  But a few minutes later I came back and decided it just wasn't cuttin' it.  I sat there and stared and stared trying to figure out what it needed. 

Then my toddler started to get into the CD cabinet and I told him to get out and close the door.  When he banged it shut I heard the clang of the little metal Chick Feed sign that had been randomly hanging on the door of it and I knew it was exactly what this vignette needed.

So I pulled everything down and started over and within a matter of minutes it was perfect.

You might recognize that canister as part of the set I did the makeover on, I didn't need it for functional use necessarily and it looked perfect up there.  I just bought the metal measuring cup this past weekend at a yard sale for .50.  I've had that sign and the milk jug for quite awhile, can't remember their origins.  And the Coke bottle came from the ranch we used to live on.  Hubby found it out in a pasture and brought it home to me.

Part of my morning was also dedicated to coming up with a new arrangement for the top of the fridge.  Since I moved the flowers over to the new cozy corner, and repurposed the crate into a canister holder, there wasn't much left up there.  But that's ok because it needed a little more farmhouse vibe anyways.

Before

And after.

I put some old cassette tapes in cases under the tray to give it a boost of height.  The rolling pin does a good job of hiding them from sight.

The rusty crusty rooster I got at a yard sale for $1 found a new home up there.

As well as the lemonade tray I made, with a (faux) old looking jar I got years ago, and an old rolling pin.

And the great old scale I found at a yard sale for $10 is perched happily on an antique cheese box my grandpa gave me.  More of the Walmart towels are folded on top.

So, now for a quick recap.

Before - very Vintage

After - Farmhouse Vintage

The "Eat Here & Get Gas" sign was purchased years ago and we've always put it in our kitchen everywhere we've lived.  That's just our kind of humor, 'cause that's how we roll.  : )

Before - Vintage inspired

After - Farmhouse Vintage

I'm loving all these changes and I don't have much more to do to make the transformation complete.  I'll try to get the whole kitchen cleaned one day and take a few shots of the whole thing so you can see it in more context than just bits and pieces.

P.S.  Some friends and I are planning a trip to the Springfield (OH) Antiques and Vintage Extravaganza.  I am SO excited!!  Cannot wait!  Anyone else planning to be there?

P.S.S.  Stay tuned for my first giveaway coming soon!

                                                               

                                                    

Linking up to:

Wow Us Wednesday - Savvy Southern Style
Saturday Nite Special #133 - Funky Junk Interiors

Life 2 B.B. (2 years Before Blogging)

You know how ancient history is marked by B.C. and A.D.?  Well, sometimes I feel like my life is marked by B.B. - Before Blogging.

  The other day a picture popped up on my computer screen saver of our kitchen in the house we lived in before this one (2 B.B.) and I knew I just had to show you, because if you've ever thought you have a small kitchen I'm betting you'll feel a tad bit grateful for the one you have after you see this one.

So, I put together a whole little post about our previous house just to show you life did exist previous to my introduction to the blogging world.  Funny story - my husband walked in the room and saw me editing these pictures and asked, "Why are you working on pictures of that house?" I replied, "I thought it might be fun to do a little series about life before blogging."  With mock incredulity he said, "You HAD a life before blogging?!?"  : )

Anyways, on to the pics.  This little house was on a huge ranch in a very small town called Devils Garden, FL.  My hubby was a cowboy and one of the benefits was a ranch house to live in free of charge.  Before moving day came I toured the house and took pictures so I'd know what I was getting myself into, so to speak.  I won't show you the whole thing, just a bit of it.

This was the view as you walked in the front door.  The arrow is pointing at the kitchen. It's so small I feared you might miss it.

Another side note.  This was originally a hunting cabin, built in 1936 by a group of 4 doctors who had more medical knowledge than they had building sense.  I'm fairly certain the kitchen was just an after thought.

To the right of the front door was the laundry area.

Let's get a little closer look at the kitchen - or lack thereof.

Yep, this was it.  Feeling blessed? 

No drawers w.h.a.t.s.o.e.v.e.r. and about a foot of counter space.

The arrow is pointing at a large cabinet that didn't even have any storage capabilities.  It housed the hot water heater!

To the side of the "kitchen" was a large wall of cabinet space, and with some creative ingenuity I was able to fit quite a bit of stuff in there.

Looking from the kitchen doorway into the living room area.

And back towards the kitchen.

SO......what's a good country girl supposed to do except make the best of what you've got?  

I had to go searching for pictures that would show the difference, so some are from Christmas and some are from Fall, but here's what I did with the place.

The curtains are actually a vintage tablecloth that I cut in half and made into valances.

The refrigerator had been blocking all the light from the window, and plus I didn't like the idea of the stove being right by the main doorway into the rest of the house so we switched them around.

Fortunately, I was able to find the perfect kitchen cart to put in this space beside the wall of cabinets.  It gave me the much needed drawers, and lots more storage area.  (Notice this was also life before Keurig)  : )

Amazingly enough, after a few weeks of living there I learned to accept it and how to navigate it, and with only a minimal amount of temper tantrums I was able to successfully cook many a good meal in there.

Here's the living room area.

This picture was just after we moved there and we didn't have the new red couches yet, but it was the only one I could find that showed that we turned the other end of this room into the computer desk area.

 Figured I'd throw this one in here of how our bedroom looked since I've been sharing what I'm doing in the new house.  Notice that lovely original beadboard on the walls?  It was throughout the house and I loved it!

So there ya go.  That was our house previous to hubby deciding to go back to college to become a diesel mechanic and thus a move from the rural country of sunny South Florida, to the dreary cold of northern Ohio.  And man do I miss it like crazy!  

Let me just show you a bit of what I'm homesick for.

We were surrounded by horse pastures, and had our own barn filled with horses.  Some were ours and some were other people's that we cared for.

I miss driving through the pastures during calving season and seeing all the adorable new babies.

I miss seeing the Bald Eagles, a fairly common occurrence around there.

I miss all the deer sightings.  

Headless bloody carcasses on the side of I-75 just isn't quite the same somehow.

And most of all,  I miss watching my man on horseback.  

There's nothing that compares to that.

Needless to say, we cannot wait to get back to the country (and warmer weather) when he graduates!

                                                    

Linking up to:

Wow Us Wednesday - Savvy Southern Style
Saturday Nite Special #133 - Funky Junk Interiors

Yard Sale Treasures

Just wanted to pop in here and show you some of my favorite finds from my day of yard sales yesterday.  And when I say "day" I mean DAY.  A friend of mine went with me to a nearby town that was having community yard sales, and we started at 9am and got back home at 4pm.  My car was loaded down!  The trunk was completely full and we had begun putting things under the kids' feet.  : )  A fun day indeed!

This isn't all my purchases, just my favorites.  I was super excited to get that ice cream maker for $2!  Several months ago we borrowed one from a family in our church and the resulting ice cream was amazing.  Can't wait to make some more.

I got this old Dr. Pepper crate for $7.  That particular sale was actually in the process of closing up for the day, but they said we could take a quick look around.  I spotted this on the floor off to the side away from the tables of stuff.  I asked if it was for sale and she said, "Well...no, I hadn't even thought of selling it."  I asked her if she'd be interested in selling it and we settled on $7.  Love it!

Okay, now this baby made this country girl's heart happy.  I have wanted one of these scales for a very long time, but was never willing to pay the $20-$30 most of them were priced at.  I found this little rusty, crusty piece of perfection for $10.  It doesn't have any indication as to the brand, but it does have a patent year of 1913, and along the bottom it says, "Not legal for use in trade."

I got the little colander thing-a-ma-jig out of a box of free stuff, and the old leather suitcase cost me a whoppin' $1.  Well, actually less than that because I bought 2 other things from the same sale and got a bit of a discount on the total price.

In my previous post about the master bedroom makeover I mentioned that I wanted to find a suitcase for the suitcase table that was more of a brown or tweed color to replace the green one and this one is perfect.  After I snapped this picture I took some leather cleaner/conditioner to it and it cleaned up bee-u-tiful!  It's gorgeous.

And I just love love love the little metal brand tag on it.  It has such a great vintage feel to it.

Anyways, just wanted to share my treasures with you.  

Anyone else finding anything great lately?