From our house to yours.........

Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday!

See you in the New Year!

~Toni~

Revamp and a little History

Revamp;

alteration for better: a change made in something in order to improve its appearance or functioning

And that's just what I did for this sweet piece I picked up for free! A friend of mine, who happens to have the best Junk, asked my son and I if we could help her move a custom made cast iron stove for her. She needed it moved from the back of her property to the front to make it easier for the client who purchased it to pick it up. After about an hour of pushing, shoving, trying to carry this heavy piece, across a plowed field no less, we finally got it moved.

As I mentioned, she has some great junk and I can never stop by her house without leaving with something. I spied this little jewel, literally buried, and asked what she wanted for it. She said I could have it for free, for helping her move the stove.

At first I thought it was a feeder of some sort. But closer inspection told me it was part of something larger. It has a brass plate on the side with: Property of Cherry Burrell Corporation stamped into it.

I don't know about you, but I like to find out what I can about a piece, especially if I'm not sure what it is/was used for, etc.

NOTE: If you want to skip right to the pictures, it's okay. I tried to keep the history lesson short, but I don't mind if you want to skip this part :)

I Googled it and found that the company started as the J.G. Cherry Company in 1800 specializing in the manufacturing of cream cans, dairy machinery, butter churns and ice cream freezers. The company originally began with the invention by J.G Cherry of a jacketed cream can designed to withstand both heat and cold temperatures. The product proved popular and the company soon developed a variety of machinery for processing ice cream and butter including coil pasteurization and continuous ice cream freezers. During 1928 in a merger of the J.G. Cherry Company and seven other regional dairy equipment manufacturing and distribution companies, the Cherry-Burrell Company was born.

The company continued to grow developing machinery to include packaging and processing of food, beverage, brewing, candy, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, chemical and paint. I'm not sure what part of the process equipment my little treasure is from, but I would guess that it was used to process food. There are holes in the bottom, as if what ever it held was washed/rinsed. The company is still in business and is known as Waukesha Cherry Burrell Company.

I knew what I wanted to do with this sweet little jewel as soon as I spotted her.

Nothing fancy, just functional.

I love candlelight and I am always looking for unique ways to have it.

I am also loving the industrial look in small amounts around my home.

This whole project was free, I had the pebble rocks from another project

and the candles also.

Easy Peasy and Free.

Love It.

Until Later,

~Toni~

Changes at the Farmhouse

WOW....I cannot believe how long it has been since I posted anything on this little blog of mine. I have a good excuse, really I do. And I know all of you can relate. Sometimes Life just happens. I started a new job in March, working at the local hospital and I LOVE it! My schedule is graveyard, which really has discomboobalated this gal! Limiting my time to blog, create, visit friends or be able to see the sunshine. Also in March I moved my dad from California to Idaho to live with me. He is 82 years old and his health is fragile. He had his latest round of chemo in February that really knocked him for a loop and he still hasn't gotten his strength back.

My son, Cody joined the army in August and my youngest son and I drove across the US (literally covering 9 states) to Georgia to watch him graduate Basic Training in October (that's another post). But in between working, taking care of my dad, driving to Georgia, we found some time to update our little farmhouse. I first shared my little Home Sweet Home here.

We rent this house and it has been in my landlord's family for many, many years. I believe my landlord first acquired it around 2000. The first three pictures are what this little farmhouse looked like when they first purchased it. (Sorry for the small photos, my landlord sent them to me via email).

Definitely not a pretty sight. The inside was even scarier, but I'm thankful to say my landlord did a GREAT job remodeling the inside and outside and getting the yard back in shape. There was no yard to speak of, unless you call weeds and overgrown bushes a yard.

The next 3 photos are what the house looked like when we moved in. Blue metal roof with a light blue/grey paint and a darker version for the trim around the windows and doors. Much better than her prior state....she looked pretty good, but I definitely pictured her white from the moment I saw her.

See how nice the yard looks :) Beautiful lush green.

Closer inspection shows that she was in need of paint.

So...after scraping (Gotta love having tall sons!)

And scraping.....

And even more scraping (that's my sweet little daddy)

We power washed. Okay, if truth be told, I didn't power wash anything, my job was to be the supervisor ;)

Here is the front with a fresh coat of farmhouse bright white paint.

The side of the house the boys were scraping in the photo above, with a new coat of paint....

And here she is with her shiny new white coat. Of course she will be getting some new accessories, as in black shutters to complete her new fresh look.

We have plans for next spring to add some color to the yard with flowers, shrubs and treasures.

I love, love our little farmhouse.

Participating in LaurieAnna's Farmhouse Friday

Until Later,

~Toni~