Sunday, March 15, 2009

A stroll down memory lane!

It was a stroll down memory lane
this weekend as I pulled off my snowman and winter village off my entry shelf and boxed them up until next winter (the towels that I wrap them in to protect them are some worn out apple dish towels that Tracy and I got 19 years ago for wedding gifts). Just seeing the towels brought back a flood of memories!

19 years ago "Bunny's" and cute "country decor" were really in style and Tracy and I had an apartment FULL of all kinds of these crafts!!
Lots of seafoam green, mauve and country blue!
Anyway, obviously these colors/decor is not really in style anymore and so that is why I LOVE my entry shelf, so I can display my cute holiday decorations, without having to have my whole house decorated this way. I Love it!!
*************
I am married to a very talented and artistic husband and he has made me many treasures over the years for Christmas, birthday, Mother's day, etc....and many of them I display on my shelf. Here is one of my favorites....

Tracy was "doodling" during our first General Conference together and he made a grid work and painted these hearts all different water colors and I just LOVED it! He wasn't too fond of it and so he just put it away, but I kept begging to be able to put it somewhere in our apartment becuase I liked it so much. But, little did I know that in his spare time he took some old scrap wood he found and made a frame for it, took matte board and made a matte for it and then took little tiny pieces of wood to frame each heart and he wrote in his fun handwriting....Hearts...Hearts....I love you!! around the edge of it. I received this as 1 of my presents on our First Christmas together.
One of the main reasons I love this so much is Tracy made this with minimal tools and materials. When we first got married he only had a handsaw, hand plane, hammer, sand paper, etc...(no power tools at all).
Tracy does not particularly enjoy this creation of his and he has threatened to throw it away on many occasions when I am not around.(wink)
Needless to say,almost 19 years later Tracy has a fully stocked garage with almost every tool imaginable and he also built our house with those tools and own two hands.
I'm a very lucky girl!

**************
Here is what it looks like!
Anyway, it was fun to put away winter and put out SPRING on my shelf!!
I love it so much and everything on my shelf is some kind of "memory"
from Tracy's and my wonderful 19 years together!!
May we all
"Scatter Seeds of Kindness"
this month!
As Tracy always says:
"Life is Good!!

(here are some "memory lane" photos showing our Newlywed apartment days with our "cluttered" crafty apartment and showing our "closet work bench" area and Tracy's tools. )
1993
Tracy built me this desk...this is before we stained it!

1993
Here is the desk after it was all stained
(notice the lampshade...
Tracy made this by folding and scoring paper and he painted it a nice hunter green and even "flecked" on gold leaf paint).

1992
TOO many crafts!!

I can't believe this looked good to us!!
April 1994
My hubby the builder...

he built this barn over "spring break" with his good friend Jason while he was attending ISU and I was 8 months pregnant with Jade.
They built it from the ground up in 5 days!! Amazing!
April 1994
Inside of the barn they built...
this is the north side with stalls for horses...
Tracy is balancing on the log!
1994
Since we lived in an apartment

Tracy ran an extension cord out our apartment window
and hooked up his table saw to cut boards.
1994
Tracy assembling the boards together into what would now

be our Storage closet "Work Bench".
1994
This is how our work bench

and Tracy's "wall of tools"
looked like when he was done!
****************2004
We were SO thrilled to have a house
and Tracy was thrilled to have his "tools" organized
in a nice garage.


Tracy has a pile on his work bench
of "light weight backpacking stoves"
he makes for our yearly hikes.
Tracy very much enjoys puttering in his garage...
he is working on my entry shelf.
More Puttering....
Tracy is easing the sharp corners with his router on the blocks for my entry shelf!

2 comments:

Ann Marie said...

I have to say first at how much I love your profile picture! It is soo cute and I'm glad you are showing how cute you are!

The shelf looks so cute! I love it!
Isn't is a gem to be married to a "handy man?" I LOVE IT!

The old pictures are too funny. We sported the same hair once too-- as much as MANY other things as well..

I used to have those colors, and then when I got married Forest green and Burgandy were in style and I had LOTS of those colors. I have sold most everything at yard sales that looks too 80's or 90's unless it's sentimental.

Luckily with antiques.. They don't go out of style. :)I'm not a trendy girl. I decorate with what I like now.. Not with what is considered "In."

Thanks for letting us *peek* into the decor and organizing. The tools look great! I LOVE the barn!

CB said...

Whoa! This was GREAT - I had to laugh at the picture of your blue and pink living room with all the crafts - I had something very similar. Looking back it is like "What were we thinking??".
It seems like everything goes out of style though, so I am wondering when this "Italian" trend will be up and what the next new color choices will be? ha ha
I have gotten rid of most of my pink and blue at this point. I now decorate with what I like instead of what is in. I still love crafty things, which is why I enjoy seeing your shelf so much.
Your husband did a great job on it and I think the framed hearts is so sweet. I would never be able to get rid of that. One of those sentimental things.
I can tell your hubby is a romantic!