One man's trash is, indeed, another (wo)man's treasure! One chilly Monday morning as we were drinking coffee on the front porch, a friend pulled up in our alley. Their family had been cleaning out the garage over the weekend, and his wife "encouraged" him to get rid of some things that had been lying around. So, he brought this vintage 1905 (same year The Good House was built) port box by (along with another item I'll share later) - and did I want it? Um, yes. Very ... View Post
Reel to Reel
I beg, and they put me off for weeks but finally acquiesce. Dad digs out the projector and the boxes of slides in one Kodak box after another. Mom has me climb the step stool to reach up into the crevasses of the highest kitchen storage cabinet to fetch the old green monster for making homemade malts. She pops the popcorn on the stovetop into big metal bowls and we each receive a thick kitchen dish towel as a heavy-duty napkin. (No wonder, then, that I nearly swoon when my husband pops ... View Post
1895 Dogbranch School
This is at the 1895 Dogbranch School and Cemetery, just off the highway and taken during a meandering trip through north Arkansas to Mountain View in the summer of 2012 to visit Stephanie Buckley, The Park Wife. It accompanied an article about taking the slow road that ran in a regional magazine last October (pages 6 - 7). You can follow the full road trip highlights in my North Arkansas Meanderings trip on Foursquare or via the travel section of The Little Magpie. Around here, it has to be ... View Post
In The Warehouse
I'm celebrating all things coffee this week due to my general enthusiasm about a little collaboration with Airship Coffee. Trust me, you'll want to keep an eye on these folks. Around here, it has to be almost Wordless Wednesday, because I can't really live without words. I'm using these posts to share a few of the small but meaningful things around our home - the fond memories, tattered remnants and found objects that make me smile. ... View Post
Getting To The Point
This is the pencil sharpener from my grandparents' house in Mena. I love seeing functional things like this that don't deteriorate through the years - it's just as useful as it was on its date of origin. I'm relieved that it isn't totally foreign to my kids to sharpen a pencil in class, and despite moving my life closer and closer to paperless I still keep this and good supply of old-fashioned pencils and Field Notes Brand notebooks in close reach at my desk. It steel feels like a moment of ... View Post
The Rope Swing
Reason #972 I love The Good House: someone just knocked on our door to very politely ask if they could use our swing for a photo shoot. I'm pretty sure our swing is going to hit the big time. I'll keep you posted on where to send fan mail. There was a swing hanging from this particular branch when we bought the house, and we've since had to replace it with the current version, which Fred carved all four of our names into during reconstruction. Whenever I see someone surreptitiously looking ... View Post
