sometime it's just not pretty....

Lest you start to think that I'm just another "pretty picture" blog :) or that I only show you the edited version of life here at the farmhouse, rest assured I show you the good, the bad, the ugly... and this is ugly!!
We've been having record rains here in the Northeast, rivers are flooding across our state and region. Even though our house sits on the top of a hill the ground is so saturated that the basement began to "retain water."

(Before I go any further, let me say that I am very grateful that this was our mere inconvenience, as many homes across the region were reported to have had up to 8 feet of water in the basement plus flooded houses.)
In one area of our basement it was a good two inches. Dan used the shop-vac to remove 160 gallons of water last night, and then this morning Dan and our wonderful, fabulous painter/handyman Seth removed another 250 gallons and put in a sump pump. For my Southern family and friends who aren't familiar with this animal it involved having to cut through the concrete floor, digging down about a foot and a half and placing a submersible pump in the hole that removes all the water from underneath the house when the hole fills up with water. Did I mention it's not pretty?!!

This is a sump pump.

Dan's worktable (we found it at an estate sale in Dallas- isn't it a great table?!) had to be moved to put in the sump pump. You can see the pump underneath the worktable towards the back wall.

Okay, maybe a couple of 'fun' pictures.... !
Pile of vintage caps and old ceiling medallions, plus extra harps that we use in making lamps.


Antique cash register stand that Dan uses for small nuts and bolts (also found at an estate sale in Dallas). Old radiators taken from the house are in the background.

It turned out to be a really good day, as Ella got to go to her favorite store...Lowes!
Ella loves Lowes- even more than Petco!! To watch her wiggle and waggle into the store you'd think they were handing out treats.... well, actually they do give her dog cookies!!

That's one happy girl!

Then the day only got better, when we had to go to Home Depot too!!

Luckily it is supposed to be in the 70's this weekend, so we look forward to drying out!!

Bright & Shining

The vintage chandeliers for the two guest bedrooms have been cleaned, rewired and hung by the resident handyman (aka Dan;). They are now bright and shining in their respective rooms!

This is what the chandeliers looked like when I found them. If you missed it, you can read about it here. I removed the crystal festoons (also called garlands per the glossary from the book mentioned at the bottom of this post), which I think highlights the simple lines of the chandelier.


The silver ceiling caps were found at Cranberry Hill Lighting in Cape Neddick, Maine. It's our closest lighting store, and we look for any excuse possible to drive to the Maine coast!!

Here is one chandelier before the real-wax sleeves arrived.

The real-wax sleeves were purchased from Lumiere Candles.

I love this company!

Because my sleeves were not a standard size they were a special order- they were custom made for me on Monday, shipped on Wednesday and arrived on Saturday! I'm a firm believer that it's the attention to the little details that will make a room sing.

Close-up of the sleeve. (sleeves are in "white")



I also ordered sleeves for this pair of antique iron sconces in the master bath. These sleeves were only one inch, and yet the attention to detail on the drips is perfect! The sconces flank the antique tub in the master bath. We found these sconces at an antiques shop in Marseilles, France. I love the purple crystals.


Lights off!
If you love chandeliers you might be interested in this book, Chandeliers by Elizabeth Hilliard. I recently purchased this book, and have been so impressed with the sheer number of photographs of chandeliers (over 200 per the book jacket), not to mention, the history and information of different styles and periods.

There was a MOOSE in our back meadow !!!

"Toto, we're not in Texas anymore!"

We've lived in New Hampshire now for two years, and have never seen a moose! We've heard about them, see road signs for them- warning of moose crossing the road for the next five miles, you can even get a license plate with a moose on it... but we have never seen one here. We talk about moose often on our drives.... looking in marshy fields to spy one, wondering where they live, asking each other when we will see our first New Hampshire moose, but nothing, nada, zip.

Until tonight. Only moments ago- standing in the master bedroom looking out over the back meadow in the dusk of nightfall and Dan proclaims he sees a moose on the hill behind our house! A mere 300 yards away. "Yeah, right" I say as I'm running to get the binoculars, the whole time thinking he's delusional and needs to get his eyes checked! And then, sure as rain, there it is ....

A MOOSE!!!!

Not on some back road, not in some marshy wetland on one of our drives..... but in our very own backyard!!!!

(I tried all different settings on my camera and this was the best shot I could get... he (has a rack) is in the center of the photo and his legs appear white. Hope that helps you to spot him in the photo!)

Reason Number 357...

Why I love Costco...


Orchid $19.99!

There are seven stems full of blooms!

details:

This is a corner in the master bedroom.

Table was mentioned  here.

Pair of original antique french architectural renderings on wall.

Vintage (iron and wood) wheat lamp Dan found at a flea market in California twenty years ago! We were just starting to antique, and this was the first purchase he made on his own... he called me three times to make sure he should "chance" it. It was $7.50!! This was back before cell phones, so the calls home were more than the lamp itself!! For many years it has sat in a closet, but I always loved it's lines and never wanted to sell it. I made the finial- carved it out of clay, baked it and then gilded with gold-leaf to match the wheat on the lamp! New black fabric shade is lined in gold fabric which illuminates the gold wheat stalks!

Old pot the orchid is in was found at an antiques shop in Paris,Texas!!
Two antique Santos- one has a piece of petrified wood as the stand.
Painting was found on a trash pile in Dallas!
Vintage silvered vase in the corner (not mercury glass, as mercury glass has to be "double-walled.")
Great reads: John Salidino, Suzanne Kasler, and Rose Tarlow.

hotel silver champagne buckets and more!

Hotel silver champagne buckets are difficult to come by. It was years after we first started collecting hotel silver before we even crossed paths with one, and then it was so ridiculously expensive we thought we’d never own one. But, as collecting goes we did find one, and then another and another…..!


This 1913 Biltmore hotel bucket is my favorite in our collection: from it’s time-worn monogram barely visible, to the drip-tray, to the handle, to the bun feet- I love everything about it! Found this gem on eBay years ago, and paid only $35, as he was listed in an unusual category (not “hotel silver.”) It has chilled champagne for us on many happy occasions!

This built-in cupboard in our dining room houses some of our larger hotel silver and antique ironstone pieces.

Another hard-to-find piece is this large punch bowl/ice bucket. I have only seen one other bowl this size in 15 years, and it was in a magazine!

A closeup of the above bowl. It is from the

Hotel Fontenelle and measures 15 inches handle to handle.

I’m especially fond of hotel silver trays, as I find lots of uses for them around the house:

You remember this large 1913 Biltmore Hotel tray on the kitchen dining table...

Here is it’s matching mate on the kitchen island holding a wire basket we found in France that is filled with topiaries.

Hotel tray from the Arizona Biltmore holds keys and sunglasses on the Entry chest-of-drawers.

Hotel tray from the Olympic Hotel on a skirted table in the Living Room.

Pierced hotel piece (The Commodore Hotel circa 1917) holds old photographs and an antique English horn and sterling magnifying glass in the Reading Room.

I'm a huge fan of actually using your collections, and I love the warm patina of the hotel silver placed throughout the house!