A Few of My Favorite Things

There are items in my home now that remind me so much of my childhood.  They are the reasons I feel comfortable living in far away places, whether those places be on the other side of the world or the other side of our country.  I do have favorites.  But those favorites change from time to time depending on the season and my mood.

These pieces always find a prominent place in each of our homes.  With our many Navy moves, we always get to decide where our favorite things will be displayed.  What may be a dresser in a bedroom in one home can become a buffet in our dining room in another.  I love the change of pace and having the ability to change the function and location of a piece....although I do not love having to pack and unpack again with each  move :).

 The table in the picture above has served so many purposes in the past for our family. It originally belonged to my grandparents.  Back in the 1930's the top of the table sat atop a sales counter in my grandfather's general store.  It was used to display sewing thread.  When the store closed, my grandmother, whom I call the Original Repurposer, had the box transformed into a side table.  Of course, my grandfather provided the manual labor to make the transformation.  As a child, I can remember the table being at my grandmother's bedside.  I loved the look.  Even back then I was a lover of all things vintage.  I never knew my grandfather, he suffered a stroke and passed away just three weeks before I was born.  My mother and grandmother always spoke of him with love in their eyes, so I know  he was a pretty incredible person. Having all the things that were special to him surrounding me as I grew up, and even now that I have my own family, makes me feel connected to him.

On top of the table sits a basket I found years ago at a thrift store.  It is filled with seashells, driftwood and small treasures that we have collected from all our travels, and home towns, across the world.  I use the term "home towns", for we feel, even if we're stationed in a location for only one year, it becomes our home town.  I even have shells in the basket my dear friends sent to us from their beautiful home in the Caribbean.  There's also a cypress stump my father found during one of his outdoor explorations of the Charleston Lowcountry.  I love that bit of cypress.  The fact that my children,  parents, grandparents, and dear friends have held some of these items in their hands makes them so special.

The small footstool below the table is a creation of my grandfather's as well.  I love the stool and remember sitting on it on my grandmother's front porch while I watched in amazement as she nurtured her garden into a splendid summer work of art.  She was a master gardener....guess what her name was?  It was Flora! A gardener with "Flora" for a name has to be a master! 

So, as the song goes, "these are a few of my favorite things".   I can't imagine setting up a home without these and so many of my other family treasures.  We keep saying we need to downsize, but I just can't bear to start thinking about that....not yet anyway.

Have a wonderful day everyone and take extra special care of all your favorite things!

A Dining Room By Any Other Name is a.....Workshop

How often each year do we really share a meal in our formal dining rooms?  For some of us, we may never dine in our dining room.  Sure it looks beautiful and is situated in a prominent place in our homes as if to welcome everyone around the table. But the truth is, we bypass it almost every day to opt to sit at our kitchen table. For us, that kitchen table is the hub of the house.  We're around it for breakfast and dinner and sometimes even for lunch.  We've had lighthearted conversations around it and we've had heated debates.  But, we always know it is a sacred spot where we will have a wonderful dinner and ample opportunity to participate in family discussions.  Can you tell, I love my kitchen table.


The truth is, I love my dining room table too.  I don't mean to neglect it; it was once our kitchen table.  Two of my favorite homes we have lived in (as you may remember, we moved many times with the Navy) did not even have dining rooms.  We had one table and that was certainly enough.  But since we bought our farm kitchen table eight years ago, our old kitchen table had been relegated to the dining room.  Some would think that was a promotion!   Moving up to the dining room!   No, that is not the case.  The old kitchen table sat in a room where no one pulled up a chair for a meal, except for a large gathering or celebration.  


Well, I am  happy to report that the old kitchen table/now dining room table has a new life!  In addition to the fork marks scratched into the surface by one second oldest son (then age one, now age 23), it now holds drying racks, waxed paper for surface protection, and containers of paint brushes and sandpaper.  The table is the most important piece in my new workshop!  I am so happy to bring it life again.  The fact is, we now have two tables in our dining room.  One is my planning desk, (you saw it in an earlier post after I painted it) and the other is this newly re-purposed work table.  You can see a glimpse of the table top in the photo above.  It is solid oak and will last forever. We bought it in 1989 after losing our first table in a move.
That's another story for another blog post!  


On the table you can catch a glimpse of some of the items I've been making to list in the Hartley Rowe Etsy Shop, which opens on July 8th.  I must admit, I love working in that room now.  It still resembles a dining room, but in its current chaotic state, I am having a blast.  I am so glad we decided to give the room a new sense of purpose and am elated I am not banished to the garage to do all my creating.  This afternoon, my daughter was cooking brownies in the kitchen while our youngest was upstairs playing his guitar.  I was right in between the two, painting away, and loving life.  It is so amazing what a warm, comfortable room can do for your state of mind. Everywhere I look, I see old familiar objects.  There is an old chest of drawers from my grandmother, that once served as a buffet that now houses old photographs and supplies.  The old, wonderfully worn stool that my grandfather made that has followed us all over the world is sitting in a corner with a basket of books on top.  Leaning against the stool are several old shutters I bought at a terrific flea market.  I am thinking of turning them into bulletin boards, but they look so great propped against the old stool,  I may just leave them there.  


I hope our table is happy and that the room is enjoying being used.  I am certainly enjoying its new lease on life.  I just regret taking so long to realize this was the perfect room for a purpose other than dining. We need to think outside the box (or should I say, room) when it comes to finding purpose for our spaces.  So, do not be afraid to dust off your dining room table and get out your work gloves, or your computer;  or even dust off your sewing machine.  I hope you find out what your dining room is just waiting to become.

Two Weeks to Go ~ an Update

It seems that the past week has flown by.  I do believe I have had a very productive week, but when I look around at everything that needs to be done, I feel like I should have had an even more productive one.

Let me see....yes indeed ~ I did get a lot of things checked off my "to-do" list.  Hooray!  Here are a few pictures taken as the week rolled by.

My New Storage Haven

Here is the closet I transformed into my storage "haven" as I now call it.  Did you know that builders don't make all closets square?  I learned this when I tried to install my perfectly squared boards as shelves.  Oh well, a lesson learned in an inconspicuous spot.

Shelves installed and level!   Happy me:)

Childhood Dinner Table Becomes Point of Origin for Creations 

After the Storage Haven was complete, I moved onto my new workstation.  My parents were given a wonderful dining room table with six chairs when they were married in 1957.  Sadly, the veneered finish had been badly damaged and the table was really too far gone to refinish.  I promised myself years ago that I would never paint family heirlooms.  I love the patina the old, wonderful pieces have.  However, I did make an exception this time.  In order to get the pieces to be uniform and for the table to have a level, smooth surface, I had to paint it.  I used a recipe for a variation of a chalk-style paint I found online at Liz Marie Blog.  I loved it!  There was no need to prime the surfaces beforehand and the finished product allows you to distress some points of the items and then wax over them with a finishing wax.  I used Minwax Finishing Wax.  So, here's the before and after.  What do you think? Please let me know if you have any questions about the use of this recipe or if you have tried it yourself.

Now my workstation and storage haven are complete.  On to make more creations for the opening day of my Etsy shop.  Don't forget to stop by July 8th!  Keep an eye out here for a sneak preview.....coming soon.

Have a great day!

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog!  The blog title, Hartley Rowe, is a tribute to both of my parents, Mary Jane Rowe and Jack Hartley.  They were married in 1957, and raised their family in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina.  I was the baby, Alison Rowe Hartley.

This blog is an online journal and scrapbook, past and present. I love technology and how it enables us to stay connected to one another.  I’m constantly exploring new systems and applications; yes, I am a computer geek.

However, I also feel we desperately need to hold on to yesterday. I believe it is important that my children have a sense of their parents' and grandparents' beginnings by preserving family documents, photographs, and heirlooms.  I also love to visit flea markets and antique stores to add to our collection of all things vintage, and to make creations that have a sense of timelessness.

I am about to take the leap.  My dear husband of over 25 years and my four wonderful children have been encouraging me to start my own business. With advances in technology (which you know I love) and online marketing, I plan to open my own Etsy shop to share with you some of the many items I've made and collected.  I can't stop creating or treasure hunting, and we are running out of room.  


Now that three of the four children have left the nest and my husband is looking toward retirement from his military career, I feel it is time to start this adventure. While I will never leave my day job as a part-time elementary school librarian, I am excited to begin the life of an entrepreneur. The shop is set to open on July 8th, which would have been my father's 84th birthday. It is a way to honor the most creative soul I've ever known. So, welcome to the blog and enjoy my musings. I would love to hear any comments you may have.