Reunited and it feels so good

In mid-June, we left The House of Goodwill to go back to the home/house, where we had some tasks that needed to get done (like getting a new roof on the house), and then we packed up and drove to New York, where we spent a few months.

All last year, we had planned to get the house completed, so it would be rental-ready for summer.  But, you may remember, though we did manage to get the house ready, the shoreline project was delayed by unforeseen problems (that included design issues and health problems of our contractor's).

The shoreline project - which was begun in April - looks exactly like it did when we left in June.  While it's incredibly frustrating, it's been hard to push our contractor, knowing he was dealing with very serious (and unexpected) health problems the last few months.  Both my husband and I felt it was better to perhaps err on the side of kindness, not knowing the full extent of his health situation.

Now that we're back, however, it's time to get it done.  He's supposed to be returning at the end of the week.  I had hoped when we returned at the end of summer I'd finally have a nice shoreline and a sandy beach to sit on.  Well, it is what it is.  

Miraculously, we actually rented the house on three different weekends this summer, despite the fact that there is currently no access to the waterfront.

Two of our renter groups were friends and family of people who live on the lake.  They were coming to visit, and needed a place to stay, but could access the water through who they were visiting.  The other guest family needed a place to stay for a 60-year anniversary party they were in town for.  (Wow!)

So The House of Goodwill managed to have it's first guests after all!

As for my family, after returning from New York, we wondered what it would be like returning to the house for the first time after other people had stayed here.  "I wonder if it will still feel like our house?" my husband asked.  I wondered too.

Well, it was weird coming in for the first time.  The house was so clean.  But all of our stuff - the "stuff" that makes a house feel like your own - was still boxed up in the owner's closet.  It was like a sterilized, sanitized version of our house.  Well, we did buy the house knowing we'd be renting it.

I spent the first two hours pulling our things out of the owner's closet, making the beds, and (most importantly) setting up the fireplace mantle, so the house would feel like home again.

I've been reunited with my beautiful fireplace mantle, maybe my favorite part of the house!

While out thrifting last year, when I'd see inexpensive, seasonal things I could use on my fireplace mantle, I bought them.  I unpacked part of my "fall" box yesterday and set it up.

When I'd see great stuff like this owl lantern or this pretty Yankee Candle tiled candleholder, I'd pick them up.  I'd only buy things if they were a few dollars.

It was about $12 for everything here.

I love this "Golden Wheat" pattern; it has a nice fall feel.

All the orange flowers came from my son; when I got home from Wisconsin (he had stayed home), he surprised me by cleaning the whole house and buying me flowers.

My son bought me orange roses and lilies, because he "knew I would want flowers that were orange for fall," and he dispersed them between four vases and put them all around the house. 💗

The first order of business after unlocking the owner's closet: put the blow mold goose back in his spot on the fireplace.

Candles? ✅

Flowers? ✅

Adorable sleeping dog? ✅

Ok, feels like home again.

One more pic to share, I just thought this little vase of flowers from my yard was so lovely:

One solitary lavender gladiolus was in bloom (out of a huge pot) when I was leaving the house, so I put it in the vase with one ginger flower (the stem had broken and it wouldn't stay upright with the rest of the plant anymore).

This is why I love my little vases: just a stem or two are all you need!

And, after a little searching around to locate some items that were returned to different places then we normally keep them (like the coffee bean grinder), the tally of missing items after three weekends of rentals includes: one coffee pot, one hair dryer and a rubber snake that was outside on the porch.

A trip to Goodwill and we'll have replacement items before we leave, except for the rubber snake, which was near and dear to my heart.  (He came with the house.)  I haven't talked to our property manager yet, but I'm hoping maybe she just moved him so he wouldn't scare anybody.

For about $1500 of rental income, I can deal with that.

It's not just our house anymore, but we'll adjust.  It sure feels like it is right now!

Well-read in Wisconsin

Besides my "new" pumpkin, I brought home a few souvenirs from the antique mall in Appleton, mostly in the form of books.

There were lots of great book vendors at this antique mall, that's partly why it took me about six hours getting through it.  A visit to a well-curated vintage book dealer at an antique mall is a lot like visiting the book store: it's easy to get lost for hours just browsing all the books.

Here are a couple of my interesting finds:

How could you NOT pick up a book with a title like this?

Ah, the story of a "tense city man" discovering "the inviolate reality of a budding leaf."

I have to read this!

Even better, apparently the story takes place in Wisconsin.

What a great souvenir!  Who needs another tshirt, anyway?

This great book shares Ed Sullivan's Christmas memories, along with those of other celebrities during his heyday.  Intermixed are Christmas stories by famous writers like Truman Capote and Pearl Buck.

I love reading recollections of Christmases from many decades ago;

I learn a lot of history and it's a great reminder of how blessed we really are.

On a totally different note, I found this, a copy of "Madame X" from 1910.

Having no idea what the origin of "Madame X" was (other than the name of the current Madonna album), I did a little internet research...

A story of "mother-love??"

Sounds very creepy...

And this picture (on the inside cover) confirms it.

Looks like a great book for Halloween season.

Anyway, back to my two-minute Google research:

So, "Madame X" is a famous painting, of a "brazen" woman known for her famous love affairs, by John Singer Sargent in the 1880s.  Apparently the painting was quite scandalous and not well-received in it's day.

"Madame X" was next a French play that was translated into this English novel.  It was also made into a movie in the 1960's, and has been a play on Broadway.  Now it's the name of Madonna's tour.

Other than knowing it's a tale of "mother-love" and connected to scandal, I have no idea what the storyline is.  As soon as I read it, I'll let you know!  But now I kind of really want to know, too.

But, back to Christmas:

I found this beautiful edition of "The Fir Tree" by Hans Christian Anderson.

I love to read Christmas stories in December.

And finally:

Three more Nancy Drews of varying vintage.

My collection is nearing complete; I've been buying them over the years when I come across one for $5 or less, and I read one every summer.

They're just as special to me now as when I read them as a child.

That's the end of my report, though not the end of the books I bought.  (I said I spent $172 at the antique mall, right?)  And this is why I have boxes of books throughout my house - I find great stuff to read much faster than I can read it.

But that's ok, it means I always have something to look forward to.  And that's what makes life fun!

Only in Wisconsin?

Since I had the fun opportunity of checking out the antique & thrift scene in Wisconsin, I thought I'd offer a report on what I found.

When I got to Appleton, I found a really cool, really HUGE antique mall less than a mile from the hotel.

It was called "Fox River Antiques." 

See these huge wings on the sides?  This place was enormous, with 165 vendors.  I spent three hours there the first day, and only saw one side.  Therefore I *had* to return the next day, to see the other.

So, while wandering through some usual (and unusual) discoveries, I found a lot of things that reminded me - hey, you're in Wisconsin!

Here were a few:

A roof snow rake?  I'm pretty sure I've never seen one of these, and I grew up in upstate New York.

Yes, yes, I'm definitely up north.

(Disclaimer: this was actually in the thrift store I visited, not the antique mall.)

I also found Green Bay Packers everything!

Vintage jerseys, helmets, trading cards, blankets and decor of all kinds were in so many booths.

That's one thing you'll never see in a Tennessee antique store: vintage Titans anything!

If you ask my son, a "meal to please" is definitely NOT made with "lots of cheese," but I disagree.

It might even be more important than the love...

Yes, they love the cheese in Wisconsin!

Have you ever seen deer antler art?  I hadn't.

There sure were a lot of hunting-motifed items.

Wouldn't this have been fun?

A gun to pack with snow that shoots snowballs?

Kids in Tennessee might get to play with this two days a year.

So to recap: lots of snow stuff, lots of Packers stuff, lots of hunting stuff, and lots of German-themed and beer-themed finds. There was a lot of interesting memorabilia from Pabst Beer, which comes from Milwaukee.

I spent over $150 in my two days there; so what did I buy?  Well, mainly books, plus a few other things.

Here's my favorite non-book purchase:

I loved this vintage ceramic pumpkin with it's tulip-shaped eyes.

It was $25 and in perfect condition.

Sweet!

So there you have it.

Do you feel like you've been there now?

The House of Goodwill goes to Wisconsin

I feel bad that it's been such a long time since my last post, but since the last one, I've packed from a summer in New York and traveled fifteen hours back to Tennessee, unpacked, then repacked once more for an eleven hour trip to Wisconsin. With some work-for-pay inbetween.

I've been a little busy.

Why Wisconsin?  Well, my husband works for a company headquartered there, and when he told me he had to fly there for a two day work summit in September, he offered to drive instead if I would like to come along and share his paid-for hotel room.  Would I?

Of course!

I had never been to Wisconsin, and on the life bucket list of fifty states to visit, I wasn't sure when I'd make it there, so it seemed like a perfect opportunity.  And since my husband's work commitments ended Friday night, he asked if I'd like to pick a city we'd never been to on the route home, so we could stop and spend part of the weekend there.  

So it was going to be Milwaukee, St. Louis or Chicago, and how could I NOT want to stop in Chicago?  Although I'd gone to college three hours away, I had never been there.  What a perfect opportunity!

Oh Wisconsin, you were lovely!  The countryside reminded me a lot of my part of upstate New York: miles of verdant cornfields, beautiful old farm houses and lakes.  An underrated state, for sure.

I had two days to entertain myself in Appleton, a kind-of, sort-of suburb of Green Bay.  So where did I go?

On the way to a city park in the historic part of town, I passed this thrift store and couldn't resist.

For a girl who's used to Goodwill, this place was amazing: all the stuff for sale was cleaned, folded or dusted before being put out on the shelves.  Wow!

I found some things for The House of Goodwill; I'm trying to keep a stash of some commonly used things in the garage to have as replacement items for when something breaks or wears out.

I toured this Queen Anne mansion, "Hearthstone," on the Fox River, which was "the first place in the world to be electrified by hydroelectric power from a central Edison system."  According to the docent, one summer evening in 1882,  three-hundred people were standing across the street at dusk, just waiting and watching for the power to be flipped on for the first time.

So interesting!

The owner of Hearthstone owned multiple paper mills, as well as the first hydroelectric company in Wisconsin.

I always take a lot of photos on home tours.  I would love one day to be able to restore a Victorian home, and I get a lot of great ideas.

The original Edison light switches looked like this.

Hearthstone's moniker came from it's seven custom carved and tiled fireplaces.

Each fireplace had it's own set of custom tiles imported from Europe.

The tiles on this bedroom fireplace had a Charles Dickens theme.

This tile is an illustration from "The Pickwick Papers."

My next stop:

I really love visiting garden centers in different geographic areas; now I try to locate one if I'm in a new place and have opportunity.  There are often some unique plants I haven't found at home.

A few of my favorites in my Tennessee yard I bought in New York.

Anyway, here is the place I found in Appleton: "The Plant Place."

It was huge (and everything was 30% off).

I hoped to find a Wisconsin souvenir in the form of a cool plant, and here's what I got:

I just loved this planter!  And the echeveria plant I put in has the most beautiful salmon-pink flowers.

Both the plant and "pot" came from the store.

You may be shocked, but I *had* to visit this Goodwill.

(Which, incidentally, was extremely large and nice.  It was the first Goodwill I've ever been in that had a large section of brand new items...not that that's what I ever look for...)

Anyway, the day before I left for Wisconsin, I just happened to meet a girl from Wisconsin at work.

"You have to buy some cheese," she told me.  "You'll find the freshest cheese there."

Well, that sounded like a solid plan.

But once the husband and I arrived in Wisconsin, we realized we didn't think to bring a cooler (also handy for leftover vacation restaurant dinners).

So you see, I HAD to go to Goodwill...

And look what I found for $2.99?  We fit LOTS of cheese, plus a couple of restaurant take out containers in there.

And finally, here is the cheese specialty dairy store we drove to out in the middle of the country.

For a place that was seemingly in nowhere, it sure was packed with people.

I went one last place: a huge antique mall that was so big I went two days in a row.  But in the interest of keeping this not too long, I'll report on that tomorrow.

Now on to lunch; I've got some creamed spinach and truffled macaroni and cheese in the fridge from a steakhouse in Chicago to finish.

Good thing I found the $2.99 cooler!

Summer reading, part 2

The summer flew by; I can't believe it's gone already!  I've been enjoying the outdoors as much as possible, and in Tennessee the super hot weather has turned to regular hot weather, and it's actually been not too bad.

What else was I reading this summer?  Some of my favorite magazines, like always.  Vintage "Ideals" are so wonderful.  I often find them for a few dollars each at antique shops or estate sales, and I always buy them if they're issues I don't already have.  I've got quite a collection now.

Since I was just in my home town, the small town where I grew up, here's what I was reading:

This cover photo reminds me of the beautiful New England towns not far from where I was raised.

I thought this was such a pretty poem.

While I can't recall a blacksmith, the rest of the imagery is so familiar.

A couple of pages had these recollections of village life, and I just thought they were so interesting.

I never thought about how people sharpened scissors over a hundred years ago, or needing a street peddler to do it...likewise the big deal it would be to encounter a street photographer.

These images just make life seem so much simpler...though I know in many ways it actually wasn't, in many ways it was.

I enjoy history, and I love coming across something that makes me think about it in a new way.

I guess Ideals magazine is like a 1970's version of Instagram; full of all the beautiful imagery that harkens to some kind of impossibly perfect life.

It sure is nice to imagine, though!