Gram’s Paintings, China Cabinet and a Random Icebox

by admin on June 10, 2012

So, for the past month (or more) I’ve been totally meaning to blog. I keep saying to myself, you must blog, Shan. You MUST. And then I get all hung up on what I should be blogging about and then go to Pinterest (click it and follow me!) for inspiration and then blogging doesn’t happen because I get all overwhelmed by everything I could do. I have definitely felt like I need a project to blog – and since I haven’t really done any projects, I just kept on procrastinating. Today, that stops. I thought I’d just give you an all-inclusive update on what’s been going on in the world-o-me.

First things first, I really want to blog regularly. Like, REALLY want to. I want to do the FFA posts from my 2nd favorite Mandi in the world at Vintage Revivals. I want to tackle the 337 project pieces I’ve drug into my home that have been sitting and collecting dust, dog hair, cat hair and Kool-Aid splotches. So, I’m saying it loud and clear so you can publically humiliate me should I falter – I’m getting back on this wagon, all four squeaky wheels of it. I am committing myself to at least one post per week, but will aim for three.

What have I been up to that has rendered my blogging fingers useless, you ask? Well, my Gram passed away after a long sickness on May 5, 2012. Up until that point, I was spending every ounce of time that was actually mine with her. That’s been going on since December or so. She got real sick and confused, and was just really not herself. We put her in a nursing home so that she could get around the clock adequate care. I held her hand as she made the journey to the Other Side around 8pm EST on May 5, 2012. Anyway, that’s her below. Hottie, right? (If you click the picture, it gets bigger…)

After Gram passed, Grandpa was in a bit of a hurry to start distributing her stuff. I inherited all of her paintings and old lithographs and such. This is what I’ve done with them so far. I’ve got some idears for what I’d like to do to the actual wall, but have been a bit wishy washy about the color – so I’m just going to wait for a bit.

This is like 1/100th of the paintings.

My living room – Silhouettes and Frog are stuff I did. The mirror was inherited.

ALL-TIME Favorite painting. It’s an original Andrew Gunderson, and I want to go to there.

I also inherited my Gram’s china cabinet. The story goes that many, many years ago (we’re talking like the 60′s), my Gram had saved up 80.00. She knew that this china cabinet was due to be auctioned, and she took her 80.00 to the auction. Grandpa knew how badly she wanted the china cabinet. So he stood in the back of the auction hall and watched Gram lose the china cabinet to a man who had been bidding against her. Grandpa watched as she hung her head, not knowing he was there. Grandpa then started bidding against the guy, and when the auctioneer said “Sold! To Shreve in the back!”, he watched Gram’s head bounce up, look wildly around to find him, and he said he’d always remember the ecstatic smile on her face when she realized that he had shown up and won that china cabinet for her.

Finally: What I’m working on now. This is an antique icebox that someone tore apart and did a piss poor job of refinishing as a side table. Currently, I’m in sanding mode for this piece. I’m aspiring to be done with it by next weekend. We’ll see.