Who needs sleep?

I can't sleep.  It's genetic I think.  You know, there is a gene, and if you have it you don't require much sleep.  Really I am not making this up.  I think I inhereted it from my grandmother.  A fiery petite red-head that always went a hundred miles an hour.

Yes, I'm sure I've got it, that gene that says 2-4 hours of sleep a night is enough.

Have I been tested for it......no, but common sence tells me that it's there running around inside my head, and it's shouting " time to get up".

This gene and I get along fine when I am at the farm

there is always plenty to do in the middle of the night:

make hand-made business cards

spin wool

knit socks

sew aprons

make my Gypsy Bags 

and refurbished old second hand clothes

 into quirky,unique, one of a kind clothing

oil paint

deliver baby goats

go for moon lit walks

 (hope I don't get attacked by a pack of coyotes)

catch my garden journal up to date

pour over seed catalogs

hunt mice

bake bread

and the list goes on and on.........

but when I am in my home (rental) away from home

I have to be quiet in the middle of the night

so I don't wake the household

I just about go BERSERK  !

SO I

 tried to make my (everything second-hand, thrift store courtier)

 room in my home away from home, 

as cozy and calming as possible

hoping to catch some ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

by using subdued colors....

calming, garden inspired furnishings

a vintage cherub lamp with a custom home- made lamp shade

I make and sell these shades at a local shop

 if you want, I will make you one

in the middle of the night of course

old, heavy, gold curtains and tassels

to block out the light from the yard light placed right by the window

I tea stained the vintage lace curtains.  The material took the stain beautifully

leaving the floral pattern bright white while the fine weave turned a light golden brown

the top half of a broken cherub and an old wall hanging from the 70's

makes a unique curtain tye-back

couldn't resist these large chicken feather pillows I scored at the thrift store for only 4 bucks

 cream colored lacy pillow cases and an antique iron bed

 I painted a garden inspired rose painting using muted colors

 and framed it in an antique gilded frame

funky lights from the 50's

antique pot-metal horses (I collect for my handsome man COWBOY)

sit a top his old antique dresser

an old ornate mirror reflects vintage art work on the wall

that is placed above my antique clawed, green velvet love seat

( I know you are all jealous of the paneled walls)

an old velvet bedspread

with a beautiful, rich, tasseled duvet folded at the foot of the bed

This is my room in my home away from home

SWEET DREAMS

(I hope)

Unique Water Fountains Recycled from old lamps

 

I have always been fasionated with the old brass and glass bulb lamps.  About 3o years ago when I first began collecting them they could be found inexpensively, so I would tear them apart and make something else of them.   I would hang the extra large glass bulbs from trees, or stick them atop a cedar fence post in the pasture, and of course add them to my Bulb Tree that stands out in the middle of my Garden.  The brass parts would be used in art projects, or put together in other combinations to make a number of odd contraptions, bird feeders and bird baths, pots for plants etc., but my favorite idea was to make them into water fountains. 

 

 

 

Sorry, these are photos of old pictures, so they are not very clear.   This is a water fountain I made years and years ago.  I simply tore various lamps apart and utilizing the tall center hollow pipe of the lamp, I  tightened a nut on the bottom threads (leaving a space of pipe under the nut to hook the hose onto)  and begin stacking bits and pieces of different  lamps on the pipe, creating the design of the fountain I wanted.  When I reached the top of the pipe a nut would tighten all the pieces together.  Then  fasten a water pump and hose to the botton of the hollow pipe and the water would flow up the pipe and down the sides.  I liked using a larger piece for the top that would allow the water to drip off the edge. 

 

 

 

As you use these brass fountains they weather beautifully with a nice patina

 

 

 

The fountain base

 

 

 

This is what is looks like now,

the hard water has mellowed the brass

 

 

Shouldn't have torn all those lamps apart, now-a-days they are worth a small fortune, but

then again I wouldn't have enjoyed all the quirky yard decorations.

Sometimes you just can't put a price on a yard

that makes you smile, and makes people think you're a little wacky!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Junkin' Treasures

I have always been a treasure hunter.

 

At a very young age I would hop on my "stingray" bike with it's banana seat and wire basket and pedal my fastest to the town dump.  It was located about a mile out of town, up a windy steep dirt road.  It was along side a cliff so the garbage could be dumped, burned, and then pushed over the edge.  I would spend hours and hours looking for treasures.  Even then it wasn't cool new-fangled, discarded toys or plastic (a relative new phenomenon) items I would drag home, no it was old wine bottles, old brown Clorox bleach bottles, green glass gallon jugs, rusty tin cans, old metal machine parts,  real glass car tail lights..............

 

 

 

 

On my last trip to the farm, I wandered around my little red house and took pictures of a few of my favorite junkin' treasures.

 

 

 

As a college student, I purchased this print about 35 years ago  ( in a junk store of course).  I guess it reminded me of carefree days spent outdoors instead of long days trapped in a classroom and then an 8 hour shift to pull at work after that.  I thought it looked a little like me also.  It sits on an old, antique, peeling veneer topped buffet I have in the bathroom at the little red house.

 

 

 

This glass pitcher and bowl was made by Avon.

  My mother had one sitting in the bathroom window- sill when I was young. 

 I always thought it was so beautiful.  I have collected many of them over the years.

  

 

 

 

A vintage green glass pitcher

 and salt and pepper shakers made in Italy

 

 

 

In the kitchen

A wire chicken filled with fake vegetables, an old, bright yellow baby scale that matches my yellow kitchen cupboards, and a large candle with wax sunflowers, are sitting atop my original oak "HOOSIER".

 

 

 

 

 

Rooster lamp was a score at a junk store in Nevada,  my talented husband made the hand thrown  chip and dip bowl

 

 

 

 

 

The one splurge on myself was this beautiful perfume vile.  I spied it at the  Shakespearean Festival gift shop, but I never buy anything new so I just admired it.  A year later I decided that if I was still thinking about the beautiful, sparkly, peacock I would check at the gift shop one night after the

 Cedar City Farmer's Market and if one was  available I would buy it.  I still fill guilty for buying

something new, and to make matters worse I don't even use perfume.  It gives me an awful

 head-ache.

 

However,...........

 

 I do wear a fragrance

 

when I am at the farm

 

 I call it  CORRAL #5

GOOD KARMA

On my way down south to attend an oil portrait painting class, I stopped after 4 hours of driving.  I planned my trip to drive through Richfield so I could stop at one of my favorite D.I. stores.  Usually when I go to a thrift store the item I was looking for or would have bought is already in someone else's cart and is heading out the door as I am coming in.  Well, today was different----or so I
 thought.  When I walk in, the first place I head is to the collectibles.  Sure enough there sat the most beautiful, dainty, hand-painted with purple violets, porcelain, even had it's lid, made in England TEA POT.  Smiling to my self, and thinking this must be my lucky day, I placed it in my cart and moved on looking for vintage linens and lamps.
As I was rummaging through a shelf a young man approached me and said, "Are you going to by that Tea Pot?"  After lot's of stupid answers to answer a ridiculous question ran through my head -----like "Look dude I have just driven 4 hours so I could stop at this particular store, and it is in my cart so of course I AM planning on buying this beautiful, I have been looking for it all
      
                                                              MY LIFE
                          TEA POT!"

But I didn't, I just replied a simple "YES".  Then he went on to tell me his story.  He and  his wife had been in earlier and had found the Tea Pot for their daughter's Birthday Party.  He explained that they had taken it up to the front and asked them to hold it until they could go to the bank for some cash.  Along their way they had stopped off to check at the antique store and by the time they had  finally gotten back to the thrift store the Tea Pot had been placed back out on the sales floor and now it was in my cart.  He continued saying his wife didn't dare ask for it back, but they really wanted it for the party, so being the good dad he was he came and asked me if I would give it to them.

Well, I love a TEA PARTY.  Lacy dresses with lots of ruffles, big hats with ostrich feathers, sparkly shoes, tiny sandwiches, and lots of giggles.  And who am I to say "no" and ruin a little girl's perfect Birthday party.  So I gladly (well maybe not that happy too) handed over the beautiful, hand painted with purple violet's, been looking for one all my life, dainty, even has a lid, porcelain, made in England TEA POT.

The dad introduced himself to me and genuinely thanked me.  I replied,  " You are welcome. I happen to be on the road and maybe this gesture will bring me "GOOD KARMA".  Smiling a smile that only a dad has when he gets his little girl her dream, he walked away.........with the beautiful, even has a lid,  I'll never find another in my life, tea pot.

I drove the remaining 3 hours without incident.  BUT......when I arrived to the farm I found the water lines in the heated pump house frozen  and the underground lines were still frozen a couple of days after I got the pump house thawed. ( Won' t know if pipes are busted until the spring thaw.)  So I just hauled water all week when I got home  at night from my class in St. George.   AND.......the winter squash and potatoes I had stored in the house were frozen.   

ice crystals on the potatoes

 

 

 

 

AND............. to top it all off I got a speeding ticket on the way back to Roosevelt.

  So much for

"GOOD KARMA"