Thursday, November 20, 2008

Back Door Friends



Welcome into my little home in the most casual way possible~ through the mudroom door. It's also the laundry room, so you'll only get a view from one direction. ;) I am like a magpie, decorating my nest with other people's cast-offs or interesting things I find on the ground. I can't pass a garage sale without at least slowing down the car. Thrift stores give me butterflies in my stomach. Flea markets make me positively drunk with excitement. I love that so many things in my home had its own story before I found it, or were passed down to us from family members, or the kids or I made them. Gil found the old horse bridle (top left in the picture) in a field and brought it home for me~ he knows what makes me happy. :) I love the needlepoint pictures on the right because they look like the landscape here.



I want to paint this little cabinet someday, maybe with flowers and bundles of wheat? The needlepoint easel was my grandma's, the silver baby cup was Gil's, and I got the little doll at the Laura Ingalls Wilder home and museum in Mansfield, Missouri when I was eight.



If I were more of a minimalist, my kitchen would look like this. Instead, it looks like this~




Hello Japhy! I do have a desk and a place to keep my art supplies in the basement, but I really don't like to work down there, so I'm usually at the kitchen table. The light in here is great, and there's a sink, a TV, tea kettle and snacks.


There's this desk too, but it's mostly for storage. Garage sale chair, painted and recovered. Vintage souvenir plate with scenes of Colorado!


Gilner pixie planter~ vintage 50s? It holds keys.


My main weaknesses are miniature things, pottery and forest animal-themed salt & pepper shakers. The cookie tin holds dog treats, but we don't actually use the coffee grinder.


A tiny eggshell, a wild rose hip, and owl salt & peppers. I remember choosing the fawn at a flea market with my mom when I was little.


This funky planter is so ugly that it's beautiful. I'm trying to grow moss in it.


The view out back is the best thing about this house. I hung Scandinavian straw ornaments in the window.


More souvenir plates and a thermometer/barometer thingie. One year, through the kids' school, you could order their artwork printed onto things. Both of their classes made collage mountains. This is Sam's tile...


and Cat's tile. The little blue plates are Royal Copenhagen, and picture Hans Christian Andersen and the statue of the Little Mermaid. My grandma's parents were from Denmark, but I found these at the thrift store in our church basement.


A shelf above the sink~ vintage tin Colorado-themed trays, and more S&P shakers. I did buy the pinecone ones new, but the orange ones were Gil's grandma's. I adore the plastic hillbilly~ his jugs are shakers too.


Gilner cookie jar, McCoy planter~ I paid maybe $10 for each one? A treat, for me!


McCoy owl~ he holds tea bags. The little red rolling pin was Cat's.


A big red rolling pin. The squirrels were from Target. In Dutch, the tile says something like "Beer, beer, I will drink you if (or until?) must I on hands and feet crawl". Ha! And appropriate. ;)


This print of a wagon train crossing a river was in a tube of old classroom posters my mom gave me, and I decoupaged it to a piece of wood. The Dala horse is Swedish (I bought it in a Scandinavian shop at the Sons of Norway(?) lodge in Denver), but the Danish sign wasn't the right color. ;)


A calendar and aprons. I made the red one from vintage curtains, but the owl one is from Anthropologie. Ohhh how I love that store. A Johnny Appleseed pot holder!


This little wall separates the kitchen and den and is a handy spot for field guides.


I don't remember what these plants are. We haven't taken the top off this greenhouse in years, and Gil just waters it by pouring water in the tray. Cat painted the fairy


and Sam painted the gnome at a pottery-painting place.


This is full of things we found on walks in the woods (except the mushrooms are candles and the eggs aren't real)~ feathers, bird nests (the little one is from a hummingbird), a snake skin, a snake skeleton(!), a wasp nest, and a squirrel's tail. Yeah... I know. Ick. ;)


And wonderful! The things in here are some of my most favorite things in the world~ they're life and death and learning and teaching, and holding little hands, and hands that open up to show me the treasures they found. Those are the most wonderful finds of all.

5 comments:

Julia Guthrie said...

Oh wow, I love your house! You're like us...we like lots of things around too..lol
And those miniature greenhouses are gorgeous....I would LOVE something like that :) Gonna have to start looking around now. hehe

Heather said...

your house is so pretty! Aw, I wish we could pack up and go flea marketing one saturday :D how fun!

Hey, guess what! You've been DOUBLE tagged at my blog....go see what I've left for you there :D

saffron said...

What an enchanting look into your little world!

You're very good at making your things look interesting, yet orderly while staying non-cluttery. Very cute, indeed!! Happy Thanksgiving!!

Flor Larios Art said...

Lovely house. I love your art. this is my first time on your blog. It is great!

Jacksmom said...

Kristina,

You know I ADORE your house. Freakin' MOSS? I WISH I could even FIND moss.

I would so commission pet fantasy paintings from you. We have 3 dogs now. We still have MacGregor, and we have the horrid Haggis the Sheltie and we now have Dixie. She is allegedly a Yorkshire Terrier. I think she is something we fished out of a clogged drain and it has teeth.