Canton Rules

Earlier this year I began redecorating several rooms in my house. I haven't posted pictures yet 'cause I wasn't finished. I am finally finished with the living room and today I got one step closer to finishing the dining room. I found the table I wanted.

I didn't want anything fancy, I just wanted something more narrow and longer. I don't like dragging out the leaves (leafs? do you pluralize it the same way??) for the table I have now when we have guests and I didn't like how huge it felt when they were all in. I also wanted some cute mismatched chairs to go with it. Cheap was important, not name brand, not quality, not heirloom...cheap. I don't want to be upset when kids color outside the lines on it, when people don't use a coaster or when I have to stand on it to change lightbulbs. I just want cute and durable (and cheap).

Kenny and I went to Canton today and I found what I wanted. By what I wanted, I mean the price was right and it was verrrrry, verrrry close to what I wanted. Kenny will have to fill and sand some areas, paint the legs black and shorten it by an inch, but those are minor details.

We also found 3 CHEAP chairs that need to be restained and upholstered.

I bought some things for the baby's room, so I'm a little closer to nursery perfection. To round out the shopping fun I found a pedestal cake plate,

a RED dial wall phone. I love this! I'm wondering what I'll do when they say "Press 1 for..."

a hat box, several postcards for another project I am doing, a hanging basket of swedish ivy, a first communion certificate from 1932 for Anna Krause, a sack of straws for the baby, a sack full of RED bakelite silverware,

a surprise for someone at school who I don't even work with anymore but it was too perfect, lots of Christmas wrapping paper and wooden type in the letters "c" and "l". I had to buy those because I bought letters at a flea market in NY that spell out c-l-o-u-d and one of the dogs ate the C and the L. We had a choice of being the "oud" family or to perpetually ask the question "do u?" Neither worked for me so I had to find another C and L.

Of course, there is also a giant bag of kettle corn.

Now, for the Canton rules.

Friends, someone needs to be honest and I feel like this is a good place for it. Unless scooters are REALLY necessary for you to get around, meaning you use one in your everyday life or a medical professional has advised you against over exertion, STAY OFF THE DANG SCOOTERS!!! Are you CRAZY? Nothing says old fart like planting your bottom on a motorized vehicle because you don't want to WALK while you shop! Did you know that some of these vehicles have trays so you can EAT while you try not to exert enough energy to burn calories? Do you not understand that's why you don't have the energy to walk? And $50 a day...why would you blow that kind of money when you could have free, fun exercise? Walking is good for you. If maintaining your current weight is so important that you don't want to chance burning the calories and loosing the weight, then you could at least buy food with the money and use the rest for why you are there. FUN JUNK.

Forget the health issues, if you don't care, I don't care. For goodness sakes, though, stop driving around the Arbors, clogging up the walkways and parallel parking your scooters with your friends so no one can get into a booth. You mean to tell me that all 5 of you who came together have a physical impairment that renders you unable to walk long distances? And do you have to hook your scooters together like some sort of weird, lazy conga line? Self respect people, self respect.

Whew, that rant was exhausting. Obviously, I'm not fussing at you, just the inconsiderate folks who think they are entitled to a lazy day at the flea market, piddling around while making it impossible for the people who are actually walking around to shop. Can I have a witness???? Amen!

I'll end on a lighter note. Here are some pics of the finished living room. Click the highlighed words above the see the before. This is the table I bought at a garage sale and stained black.

Couch that the neighbors across the street were going to give to Goodwill and the neighbor next door reupholstered for me. There is another flea market table at the end of the couch.
Kenny added the shelves on the left to match the ones on the right and I added muslin ruffles that I dyed black to the Roman shades that were up before. We picked up the front door at an auction. It an old classroom door. It still has the room number on the outside.

New room, new outlook on life!