An Antique Chair

I am really enjoying my latest inheritance, this antique chair.

It had belonged to my great aunt and then to my grandparents.

Grandpa just passed at age 101 after a long happy, healthy life.

The chair has wonderful details and is in amazing condition.

Even the bottom of the legs have a cutout.

It would be great to have the wood refinished but I also love the look of wear showing its age.

This would be a fun piece to bring to Antique Roadshow!

I hope you have enjoyed viewing this relic of the past. Thank you for stopping by! ~Val

Tattersall Farm Part 1

Tattersall Farm is one of the many peaceful places in our city. This 150 acre farm was donated to the city back in 1999 by the former owners and to be kept as conservation land to enjoy.  

Being a lover of old stuff I was intrigued the by various old farm equipment on display in their rusty weathered state.

Many of the pieces here were horse drawn back in the day.

It is like a farm museum. There are posts to explain how the pieces of equipment were used.
  
Here is an old hay wagon frame below.

Of course the place needs to show an old John Deere!

I love the seriously corroded horseshoes! 

The horse drawn hay rake is quite cool. Although I have no interest in old farm equipment I really enjoyed checking out these pieces.

Particularly with envisioning them being horse drawn with an uncomfortable farmer on the seat.

I hope you enjoyed my little vintage farming tour. 

I will be back next week with the trails this farm has to offer! Thank you for stopping by. ~Val

New House!

It happened this time! We moved into this charming New England colonial this past week built in 1900! I didn't want to blog about this sooner which may have possibly jinxed things.

So I will be able to cross owning an antique off the bucket list in 2016!

In general it does not feel like an old house. It is immaculate inside and out. However it is outdated in the bathrooms and kitchen.

There are still some gorgeous old accents like the front door with the letter slot (my favorite thing with the house). The mail carrier actually still slips the mail through this slot! I do want to get a mailbox for outside though since the slot is quite tiny. Mail must have been really small back in the day.

I love the old door knobs and skeleton key holes.

This chandelier is the real deal. All glass! It is in a bedroom. How shabby chic of the prior owner!

This is the huge walk up attic that we could turn into a room and add square footage to the home.

The windows have been replaced with the exception of a couple old custom window which I love seeing.

This old radiator still has its humidifier. Back in the day, people added water to that tray behind it which would then give off water vapors as the heat rose. The downstairs has been updated with baseboards for the heat and the upstairs still has these relics which I love!

There is a cool old slate sink in the basement that we are thinking of putting outside as a planter since we won't use it inside!

While this house is not a complete rehab, we will be updating the bathrooms and kitchen. Since they aren't pretty I will not be showing them until we start the work! 

There are some other items from the inspection we will be addressing as well so I am calling this my bucket list rehab! We will be taking our time with things since it is completely inhabitable so it will likely take a few years before we have everything completed.

Thank you for stopping by! Wishing you a wonderful week ahead! ~Val

Lovely Vintage!!!

We visited my grandparents last weekend for my grandfather's 96th birthday! They have been slowly giving things away since the reality is they will not be around much longer (my grandmother is turning 94 this summer).

She gave me 3 large jewelry boxes full of stuff that used to belong to my late great aunt. This is just a taste of some of the goodies in there! I love old brooches but rarely wear them because I do not want to intentionally put holes in my clothes.

There were more clip on earrings than anything else!!! These I do not wear since I feel like they look too big on me and I am petite! The variety here is amazing...again this is only a small percentage in the boxes.

Neat necklaces! I love the large heavy metal pendants which I may incorporate into one of a kind necklace designs.

I discovered many sets too!

These require some research. I am guessing the code of arms belongs to her name "Kydd" which is different from mine. The other symbols I have no clue about! Her high school class ring from 1932 in Somverville, MA was also in there. That I gave to my dad who has a place to display it.

These pieces I plan on keeping since they relate to my Scottish heritage. The bagpipes and spoon are sterling and I love the patina on these.

There were a bunch of beaded strands that were not that exciting. However I took them apart and cleaned the beads. These will make fun, one of a kind lanyards!

Also in there is a very old pin of Felix the Cat. This is stamped although I can not quite make it out! My guess is it is from the 1930s, back when he was creepy looking. Likely the most valuable piece in there!

I have been wanting to make Autism awareness lanyards for a while now and have finally created one! The colored beads accent the puzzle pieces. I love how it came out!

Thank you for reading! Until next week. ~Val