I was on Anne Marie's blog today   www.nadafarmlife.blogspot.com  and was inspired by her blog posting of expressing your soul through the beautiful found treasures within our homes.  How store bought things aren't always the things that express who we are but more the reloved items we put into our homes.  Items rescued and reloved or given to us by a friends or family members.  They represent history and each piece tells a story.  This hit home with me because I love to rescue, repurpose and relove pieces of history into my home.  My most cherished items are items passed down to me from family.  When we moved and had to downsize I gave alot of family heirlooms to my two daughters to keep and cherish in their family homes.


This cabinet I have in my office was old kitchen cabinets taken out of an old farmhouse in Iowa.  I bought it from one of the great vendors of old vintage stuff at the Kane County Flea Market.  I loved that I scored this old chippy cabinet and it had a great story with it.  The vendor told me of how she saved alot of things out of the trash when they tore down this old farmhouse.  So glad she saved this little treasure from the trash.

I so so love old doors.  I just think of the history of who has walked through these doors and the stories they tell.  This door I got from  www.tatteredtiques.com  it was an old horse farm barn door. I fell in love the moment I set eyes on it in the shop.

This little chippy door was thrown out in the trash!!!What!!!! who would throw out such a beautiful part of history?  I loved the mail slot in this door. Such character and the little ledge under the window just too much for me to pass this up.  I hang her proudly in my home knowing this hung on a home and many family and friends passed through this door.

Another chippy door that I got at an estate sale years ago in a old lake house cottage they were tearing down.  Oh the fun summers the families of this place must have had on the lake.  I have a home in a lake town so I knew this was meant to be for me.  Now it hangs in my lake cottage guest room of my home.  It is amazing the love I feel for a simple old door with history.

I am sure some of you saw these chippy side lights I hung on each side of the entrance from my kitchen to the family room.  I loved that this one on the left had the old chippy mail slot too.

These chippy windows were out of an old farmhouse and I got them in a shop I like in Geneva called Denise's Adornments. Loved that these too hung in an old house.

I love these old doors I got at the flea market and my husband was able to make them into a great headboard in our bedroom.  I just love to be surrounded by history.

This old birdhouse hung outside an old farmhouse for many years. I just think about how many birds have lived and had their little families inside this cutie.

The old shutter off an old tear down and the old vintage birdhouse have alot of history between them. So glad I could hang them together to make this beautiful piece for my wall.

These cute suit cases and the places they have gone through the years.  Oh my I can only imagine.

Old gates for a headboards.  I can dream about the gardens these gave entrance too.

Old chippy gate to hang my stuff on in my office.  Another lovely gate taken from a beautiful home with a beautiful garden now has a new home and a new purpose.

Ok these next few pictures are of some of the vintage mailboxes I have inside my home.  I think of all the love letters and special and important news that went through these.

This was an old farm discard.  I can't believe someone would throw out a beautiful old and chippy mail box like this.  This one is special because it is so big.  The packages left in this alone such stories!!!

This is one of my prized treasures.  This mail box is from the 1900's cast iron and all.  Back before phones, cell phones and internet the only way of communicating was through mail.  Oh the wonderful history of stories and messages that went through this mail box.

This was given to me by a special friend years ago.  She made this chippy table for me and put these old baskets in it for all my magazines.  She knew my love of reading magazines for inspiration and she wanted to give me something special to store them in.  Thank you Paula for my gift from long ago. I love it.

This is piece is a really special piece for me.  This was my grandmothers old cedar chest from my dad's side of the family.  I love that when we were kids this chest always stored some of the most comfy blankets to curl up with.  My little friend is guarding the piece for me!!!!!!! She is nosey and wanted to be in the picture.

This little pillow means the world to me.  My 99 year old grandmother that just passed last year is in this picture with my grandpa.  This was actually their wedding photo out on their farm.  The beautiful charm bracelet was a prized keepsake for my grandma.  It has each of us grandchildren on it and our birthdates.  She loved this bracelet.  Also in the upper right corner of the pillow is my grandmothers watch that she put on everyday.  She always needed to know what time it was.  The picture, the charm bracelet and the watch are cherished and treasured pieces of memories for me of my grandma.  I loved her so much and miss her so much.  She was only a few months short when she died of reaching 100 years old.  She was a wonderful women caring wife, mother and loving grandma and great grandma.  I am so glad to have these pieces from her to hold on too precious memories.


 

Here is an upclose of the charm bracelet.

Well I just thought I would shoot some pictures from around my house today of some of the treasures with history that I love in my home. Thanks Anne Marie for the inspiration.

I got this chippy cabinet with old wash boards for doors at the flea market this past week end.  It had 4 washboard doors but it was too long to go over the washer and dryer in the laundry room so my husband cut it down and remade the cabinet to fit and then we painted it with white paint and now I have some storage cabinets over my washer and dryer.  Plus it hides a very ugly fuse box.  I just took the left over washboard door and put it above the cabinet for now.

Just added some of my old laundry soap bottles and old clothes pin jar up on the top of the new cabinet.

Chippy little bench I got at Junk Bonanza.  Thought it looked cute under the chippy door.

Found some old vintage laundry baskets to hang on the walls.  I am not sure what I am going to do yet with putting something in these baskets.  I was thinking some old vintage laundry theme pillows or old vintage linens to lay in there.  What do you think?

Another cute old vintage basket to hang above my chippy door.

I love the old laundry baskets hanging above  on the walls.  Fills the walls in with some vintage decor.  I still am playing with this laundry room redo but I feel pretty good about it being almost done.  Just a few touches of vintage color here and there and I think it will be complete.  I am open for suggestions on what do put in the vintage laundry basket above the door.  

Updated pictures from Laundry room redo.  I finally found a cute old wire basket to hang on that old chippy door in my mudd room/laundry room to put our scarves, mittens, gloves etc. this winter. Now I am on the hunt for a chippy little bench for under the door. 

I like the mudd room sign with the old door hardware on it for hanging things too.



I found this adorable little laundry sign

I have so much cream, tan and white in this room so I love that I am finding touches of black to add too.

Found some cute wooden vintage dry cleaner hangers.  I love that the advertising still comes through on these.  That room is a work in progress so I was happy to find the hangers and the old wire basket for the chippy door.  Laundry is not as bad to do now that this room is almost done!!!

  Here is the before pictures of my laundry/mud room redo. It is hard to take good pictures in this room with all the angles.

I did not like that my washer and dryer were under the window in my laundry room.  I could never get at that window easily to open or close the window or even have the blinds open to let light in so I asked my husband  if he could move the washer and dryer down away from the windows.

Very hard to let light in with these in front of the window.

Yuky water heater sitting in the room and no place to move that so the husband had some good ideas on what to do about that as you will see.

yuk floor

Hubby took doors and made a closet to close off the water heater and also took old door parts to build out under the window to hide the plumbing and also give me a shelf under the window.  These doors all open so if we have to get at the plumbing or water heater we can

After moving the washer and dryer down away from the window.  Ohhh how I love the light that is coming in that room now.

I had a hard time getting a good picture of this window area with the way the light was coming in. Again I wish I had a better camera to do justice to this room!!!!!



My window treatment was just some bunched burlap and I used some old vintage lace for the under valance.  Cute little fabric flowers to add some bling. Used a staple gun and it framed the window nicely and did not need curtain hardware.

Love my little shelf under the window.  You would not know now that the ugly plumbing is hidden behind this little door and shelf area.  The beautiful part is that we can easily open the little doors to get at that plumbing and electrical if we need too.

Re hung the old ladder that held all my vintage baskets down and over the washer and dryer

Old wash bucket with ringer still working.  Threw in some flowers to bling her up some!!!

Cute laundry room sign I found at Home Goods.



You can see the beautiful closet my husband put around the water heater.  I used old door knobs to give the newer doors a more vintage look

Found this chippy little chandelier with the cherub at a cute shop called Soulful Sparrow near my home.

I love that this little cherub is keeping watch in the laundry room.

Got this old wooden ironing board at the flea market and it still had the instructions on it from the 1930's.  Loved this little find. I hung an old door knob on this too for my cute laundry bag to hang.

I hung an old wooden spool and door knob to make extra hanging space for clothes that need to hang and not go in the dryer.  Found this chippy old vintage hanger with the clips on it too.  I am hunting for some old wooden hangers to use here too.

Some of my treasures from our trip to Junk Bonanza.  This door is a work in progress.  I am hoping to find a cute wire old bike basket to hang for hats, mittens, scarfs etc.  The old post coat hanger will be where we hang our coats in the mudd room this winter.

I found these chippy little garden pokes with vintage door hard ware and hung them up to hang our keys on.  The little dish is an old vintage soap dish that I hung so we can toss misc. things like sun glasses etc. there.

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