We commissioned a wonderful artist in Minnesota (where else?) to paint several signs for our farm. When we picked them up, we "adopted" four painted chairs for our kitchen too!
The sign is made from a door panel -- if you look close, you can see where the hardware was/is. The other side is totally different.
Love it. Sue sells at Buffalo Nickel in Buffalo, Minnesota!
Kari
sign.jpg (158 KB, 3 downloads) 1 year old Oh, Kari - I'm trying to imagine, but I'm not seeing a photo???
Sue
Sue...I left the picture loading on my "dial up" service(takes a week or so to upload)....came in from some yardwork to find your reply. Thanks, so much for the laugh!!
Now, I think it is corrected -- picture attached.
Kari
Love your sign. Wish I lived closer I would have Sue make one for my new anitque store.
I want to see ALL OF THEM!!!
Kari, that is so cool!!
I am SO Jealous!
Can we see the rest of them?
Lisa
LOL Kari - sorry about that - I didn't mean to rush you! : )
I love the sign and the colors you chose - so Very Prim and cool!
Sue
O.K. Lisa...
Here is another peak...this time the chairs. Color, color, color is the theme - with chickens, barns, corn, eggs, apple pie & flowers. They fit our farm kitchen perfectly. Kudos to the artist, Sue, her work makes me smile!
Kari
chairs_too.jpg (102.9 KB, 15 downloads) 1 year old Ok So Kari,
You are great photo shoot editor to disguise all of the clutter...OR...you are a wonderful housekeeper.....Look how tidy you are!!!
I love old farm kitchens!
And I love that you added lots of colors!!
More!!??
What else are ovens for!
Kari
Oh Good!
You do stash messes!
The former milk house now serves as Dave's musky lure making workshop. He also opens the doors for business every now and again and sells baits he makes and vintage fishing gear.
Kari
bait_shop.jpg (91.9 KB, 0 downloads) 1 year old 
Blossom Lane
Member
Kari,
Your signs are so unique and incredible. And what an ingenious use of door panels!!! I love the spindle posts of your "farm" sign and even the yellow toppers! What an idea!
I also love your kitchen. I see the ice cream parlor chair in front of the window, your pitcher collection atop that incredible pantry piece..WOW! The yellow tables with the hand painted chairs...of different colors..and your colors all harmonize so well with your wall color. I even love your checker board floor.
It is a room that makes me want to sit down and drink a cup of tea or flip through a magazine. Very inviting and cozy!
I wondered what was lying behind the brick walls of that gorgeous farm house! More pictures please!
Thank you Blossom Lane...you certainly have an eye for detail!!
I wish I had taken more "before" pictures of the farm when we found it vacant in 2006...but it was a diamond in the rough and had been loved---just needed some polishing ---- and I do love to polish!!
Kari
Kari,
Those signs are really in nice colors!! I love them!
Without asking a direct question, are her prices low to moderate, moderate, or moderate to high?
Thanks for sharing your pictures!
Leveta
Member
Kari the first thing I thought of looking at you kitchen was "The bridges of Madison Co". It's your floor. I love it...I LOVE older homes...The charm is magnetic...
Thanks Leveta...I had to have a checkerboard floor in this house...went to a flooring place said, "I want a sage & white checkerboard flooring in 12x12 squares" -- they said, "don't have it" -- then one of their staff said, "Actually just came in from a distributor yesterday."
Lisa...sorry it took a while to answer your question ...one of our work days at the antique mall today. Anyway -- I think her prices are extremely fair.
Kari
Thanks Kari,
Storing thought for future project!
Lisa
paintwife
Member
Kari, those are great signs and I love your kitchen, looks like home.
Linda
Kari - I'm moving in. LOL I love love your house!!! The signs are great too!!!
Robelyn - where have you been girl??? We've missed you!
Sue
Love the signs and kitchen... wish mine looked like that instead of something out of the Brady Bunch!
Ah - thank you Sue! I've been tearin' it up smack in the middle of Texas! LOL Had to do some junkin', sell some junk then turn 'round and haul MORE junk home! And, this morning I sent my 6' (plussssss) baby off on his first day as a freshman in high school... I think I'm traumatized - how is it that I'm old enough to have a freshman?
My kitchen doesn't look like the brady bunch so much as a zoo...
Kari, did I mention that I love the pitchers on top of the cabinet? Oh, the fun stuff I could hide in those....
That is so funny about what you could hide in the enamelware pitchers...I used to have a shelf with McCoy pots on it. Every now & again I would find them upside down -- found out later that my son discovered that I kept coins in them...he would flip over the unfilled pots.
By the way -- do enjoy every moment of your Brady Bunch kitchens and kiddos -- I am now an empty nester -- my nest stays "fluffed" more often than not now, but I would take the fingerprints any day!
Kari
Blossom Lane
Member
Kari and Robeyln,
Today is my son's first day as a high school senior. It bore a strong resemblance in my heart to his first day of kindergarten.
Like kindergarten, I did not cry when he went. On the drive home today he fell asleep and I kept glancing at him and was asking myself where in the world time had gone.
And just like that first day, some twelve years ago, I watched him as he sat beside me in the car. My heart literally ached over the passage of time, and the tears came...
When we are given the gift of parenthood, we do understand that it will be different...we have counted those nine months until birth, or months/years until adoption...and know it will change. But did anyone ever really really describe how our heart would be opened so wide that it could literally ache as you so eloquently described?
Firsts and lasts - over and over again. This circle that unites, sometimes divides - always conquers. Our heart learns to hold so much, and if we allow ourselves a moment to truly take it in -- it goes to the very core of our soul.
Many times I have willed myself to remember every moment, every detail...not with a photo or with a video....but with all my heart....remember this moment, remember this moment, remember this moment...
Kari
Greta and Kari - I'm almost in tears here myself after reading your emotional words. My baby is 24 and my oldest is 28, so it's been a while for me since they started kindergarten or freshman or senior year. I think I can still feel my heart hurting as they waved good-bye as I watched the bus taking my son to the first day of their memory filled school days. I don't recall shedding tears during high school; although I felt the need more to protect them in high school for some reason. I guess it was because they would soon be turned out into the cold, cruel world that we live in. There would be no more protection once they took that diploma in hand...BUT, they made it through HS and have turned out to be wonderful caring sons that I am very proud of.
How did we get so off topic? Smile. Sometimes life gets off topic.
Sue
Leveta
Member
My baby is 25, and I wish many a time I could shink her back to being small again. There are things I'd do different. But now I look over and see this sweet little guy asleep in my bed and my heart just gushes...And I wouldn't change a thing...If that makes sence...
My baby is 50 yrs old & he & his wife came last night to check on me because he couldn't get me on the phone (my phone was out of order). Now that made my day! There have been so many times that I have wished I could have my children all back home with me! Now I have noone with me.
Blossom Lane
Member
In my earlier post I wrote that I did not cry on the first day we took our son to kindergarten. Understatement. (I cried all summer before he went...ha ha!) What I meant was that I did not cry when I left him...I cried when he came back to me. The same happened to me this afternoon.
I actually had my daughter (she is four years younger) to stave the dread of sending my son to school. Plus, I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY wanted a little girl! And I got her! When she went to kindergarten.... I went with her. I taught for six years at my children's school. I am teaching again this year: piano, hand chimes, choir, and drama.
I may be the "Poster Mom" advertisement for the Velcro mother. ; )
I have scuds of books on motherhood. I love this excerpt from one of my fav's:
"Woman's charms are certainly many and powerful. The expanding
rose , just bursting into beauty, has an irresistible
bewitchingness. The blooming bride, lead triumphantly to the
marital alter, awakens admiration and interest, and the blush
of her cheeks fills with delight. But the charm of maternity
is more sublime than these. Heaven has imprinted in a mother's
face something beyond this world, something which claims kindred
with the skies--the angelic smile, the tender look, the waking,
watchful eye, which keep its fond vigil over each child as long
as she has breath."
I have been and done many things, but I view no success in life under the same scrutiny as what kind of mother I have been/currently am to my children. That is tantamount to me.
It sounds like you ladies view motherhood the same way. Your children are blessed.
I am heading off for my week at my office (300 mile commute -- lots of time to think)...anyway, I think that how we got to this wonderful topic of parenthood has in part to do with "home" --- as junkers, we are likely all nesters too. We feather our nest, just like the birds in my yard that find a piece of cottonwood or tinsel to add --- all to make this place for ourself and our family special. It is what differentiates a sterile house from a comfortable home. We work from our heart as much as our head.
My sign -- at the very tippy top of this topic holds pictures of my beloveds -- my animals. I teased my son, Ian, that he would come home to find his face on a sign at the road's edge --- he just laughed.
Home --- I relish the thought of my homecoming on Thursday night when I come back from Madison....this place filled with memories and love.
Kari
Kari - I DID notice that your sign features some of the loves you have talked about, your goats and kitties. I didn't realize you had chickens too. How fun and blessed to live on a farm!
Sue
Blossom Lane
Member
Kari,
I love your post. Actually, I love all of them. You express your thoughts so beautifully!
You are so right about Junkers being nesters. My home is a haven for my family. And, like you, I love being "home".
Greta
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