The house of good news

I was excited to tell you about something that might happen next month, but better news has come along in the meantime.  First of all, our Meg and Ryan are adding to their Presidential Brood in September. Then Andrew and Jen announced they are adding to their family in December.  We're not counting, because as soon as you do, the number changes.  Hoping for healthy, happy children in the Wrecking Crew 3rd Generation.

I am hoping to be accepted into a show next month, so am busy completing a lot of 'started' things that need tweaking to finish.  A friend I met online, Lisa, who has a booth at the Brother's Antique Mall in Medina, called Rye Lane Design, [PLEASE PATRONIZE], was over the other night and we were each teaching and learning from each other.  She developed a spreadsheet for all my salable projects and I think it will cover my house taxes. So, as Maria would say, "fingers on the cross."

Here are some of my latest endeavors...

This is a pretty cool Vintage file cabinet with white oak interior. I am second coating tonight and distressing in the morning.  The color is really ALIVE. Definitely growing on me. It may be my new go-to color.

The next piece has a story, which I will share when I finish it.

Right now it has been thoroughly disinfected and looks something like this. Well, maybe a step different but I didn't snap a picture and I am wall to wall in my dining room tonight. It should be done by Wednesday.

This is a Sue box too. Just a plain box stored in the basement.

I gave it some color...

...and, some hardware.

This may have been a cheese box (?) once upon a time.  Not sure. It was a gift from friend David.  The wooden spool I found in a sewing machine I bought (I may have 8-but I also give them away to people who need them after I tinker with the tension so it is usable. I thought the spool had quilting thread on it, but it is a thin wire that will be used in a muck rake project. Looking better-no new pic of it, but....

Here is the cheese box (green cheese?)

The next piece is another Sue box.  I love these. I think it said raisins on the side.  I copied it on a salvaged drawer I'm working on and aside from no hole in the handle, think it turned out pretty good.

This is a gift for Max and Blair's Engagement, so don't spoil the surprise or I won't share things with you in the future. Not kidding.

Lynn did the lettering. She is sooooooo good.

~.~.~.~.~

I know I haven't had a Sunday Song for a long time, probably because I have been to every other church but St. Ambrose's 5:00 lately. Tonight, I showed up at Assumption's 6:00 to hear my niece on the baby grand. They played Seek Ye First, a long time favorite of mine, especially with the descant. So I'm sharing a YouTube one with you and I have not pre-screened it as my audio is not working.  It says it is combined with Pachelbell's Cannon in D, so how can you miss? I wasn't sure I spelled Pachelbell right so I right clicked to see, their only suggestion was "bellyache".  So listen to this selection and quit your bellyachin'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJpcyMaeqFg

To all the Dad's out there...hope you had a good day.  To my sons....I think you all have special talents in that field, especially since you really didn't know what it was to have a dad for all that long. Some of your children have had a living dad longer than you. Stay the path.  I love you. And those of you "up there", keep the door open.

As ever,

La Verne

hope&salvage

Miss Lucarelli, How do I love you? Let me count the ways!

Let me start off by saying that anything I write will not do her justice. If you can picture an angel planted in our midst going about, doing good, quietly, and without seeking any recognition for herself-then you see her clearly. For those of you with spatial conjuring impairment, here is a photo in years' past, but does nothing to tell you what is in her soul. [Yes, I suck, all my photos of her taken with my kids are at my kid's houses]

Mary Ann Lucarelli came to St. Albert's grade school some 33-34-35 years ago to teach Kindergarten and First Grade. She may have been the teacher of the 1st Kindergarten class. A bunch of my kids had her, and it's not fair to say which ones, because I AM THE OLD WOMAN WHO LIVED IN A SHOE. Back to Mary Ann...... It's hard to remember when I was first aware of her.  She had a strong sense of right and wrong. She had (still has in case you are thinking this is a eulogy) a passion for working with children, and a compassion for anyone in need. Her pockets could empty into your pockets with just a tear. And to her, Everyone was/is Special!  That for sure makes her saint-worthy. I can bad-mouth with the best of them-she never starts!

My reason for writing today is that she is retiring from St. Al's, not to golf or lay in the sun, but so she can rock babies at Providence House and Metro's NICU. And, so she can work with kids in the "City". How special is that?

Everyone has their stories about her, I can only tell you a few of mine. Years ago, when Lori Geyer and I had the Children's Choir at St. Albert's, we were singing at the 4:30 Mass on Christmas Eve. Earlier in the day, my husband said to me, "did you go grocery shopping yet?"  No, of course I had not! I had spent the previous week making and ironing 57 Kid's Choir Collars. He was scheduled to put in a hot water tank that day and then change at church for mass. He said if he didn't run into any problems, he would pick something up. Fast forward to after the mass. Howard, the kids, Miss Lucarelli and I are down in the choir room folding choir collars and he asks, "did you get to the store?" Same answer. Nope! [This was before the 24 hour Wal*Marts and the deli on every corner.]  Miss Lucarelli, overhearing our animated conversation said, "Don't you have anything to serve for Christmas Dinner?" I answered that the poor people have soup and we have soup, and that tonight I can take some frozen hot dog buns and broil them with leftover sauce from the Choir Christmas Party with some cheese for appetizers. She...was...stunned.  I told her not to fret, I who am not a 'shopper ahead-deep freeze in the basement person', would come up with something.

Later that evening, as I was defrosting the buns, AND, listening to my mother-in-law in the next room complaining about what she was going to be served that night and the next day, going on and on and on about "what good did it do me to spend all that time with the choir and not tend to things at home-nobody was doing good things for ME". Just then the doorbell rang and WHO was standing at my door in the form of the Christmas Angel? Mary Ann Lucarelli. She convinced the clerk at the Convenient Food Mart to sell her the last two chickens that were slated for the rotisserie. I cried. My mother-in-law shut up.

A few years later, my Andrew was in her Kindergarten class. It was an every other day, all day Kindergarten then, and on his 'off'days' he would go with Howard to work. They would install vanities and hot water tanks, put in gas lines. He was Daddy's right hand man. Then, 2 weeks before Christmas, his Daddy died. After the Christmas Break, what to do with Andrew on his "other" days when he was so used to being his Dad's productive helper.  There was 'NO DISCUSSION' on this topic. I had the baby to tend to and an estate to settle and Miss Lucarelli said, "Andrew is coming to school every day."  And he did.  Sometimes he sat with the other class and sometimes worked by himself. Today, Andrew is in Nuclear Medicine at the VA. Did Miss Lucarelli set a standard for him? For certain.

I have another story about her that I cannot tell on this blog. It involves the kindest gesture anyone could ever make short of giving their life. It changed her life. It changed ours.  

Miss Lucarelli did not have a family of her own, except the ones who raised her and loved her.  Her mother is still living on her own at 94.  But, she gave herself to all the families who needed her, the ones who gave a child or parent to heaven, or the ones who try to make heaven on earth for children on a short journey. She has readied all the North Royalton kids for the Eucharist these past decades and had absolute joy in doing it.

At 50 years of teaching, she is now traveling on a different path-one no less important and with perhaps more immediate need. She has earned the privilege of cuddling and rocking the littlest ones amongst us who need nurturing and nuzzling. God speed, Mary Ann, you are an Angel Among Us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCYFPMjCgKA

PS. The Blue Box I was wondering what to do with? I refinished it again and Lynn, in her special way, scripted, "Mary Ann's memories" on it.  Miss Lucarelli won't have time to stuff picture albums, but, she can toss them in the box for a later time; and maybe, she has no need for it at all, she has a big enough heart to carry us with her all the time.

With love,

La Verne

hope&salvage

Putting a face on Autism

A few months ago a family from Uniontown came and got my Poverty Barn. They got the 'friends and family' discount because they, like us, have seven kids. [Discounts are also given for using the same kind of soap, having red hair, and being an orphan] One of their children, Donnie, (I think the middle child) has Autism. I had been considering for some time to make up some sort of pin like the Irish pins that can be used for fundraisers or awareness.  My great nephew, Ethan, and a blog follower, Lisa's son, (also an Ethan), have Autism. It is less rare than we think, yet no one ever talks about it.

At the time of the pick-up, I promised to make up some pins that they could give away at their golf fund- raiser this Saturday. My thought was to use the symbol of the blue puzzle piece that looks like a person. It turned out way too flimsy after I bought a couple of puzzle sets and only got 3 possibles out of each box. Nix that idea.  Daughter-in-law Angie, had told me about a process to use where-in a matte gel medium is applied to a reverse image and transferred to wood.  It was my first go around with trying it but I think I like it.  However, they turned out too artsy and not really "brand identifiable" for the vision in my head.  I mailed them off to Uniontown and haven't heard back yet how they were received. I made them into magnets, not pins.  I'll give you a peek:

Donnie's group is out of Akron and is called The Autism Family Foundation.

I should have taken a better shot of these.  They were packaged individually before mailing.

These turned out very rustic. Not sure I would go with a non-painted surface again.

I ended up using the blue puzzle image but pasted the wood not the paper.  Made a difference.

The Team Donnie Golf Outing is this Saturday, June 8th, at 1:30 PM at the Brookledge Golf Club in Cuyahoga Falls. Pray they have a good turnout and great weather.

~.~.~.~.~

Tonight the cedar chest goes back home. When I got it, it looked like this. Yes, that is snow in the background.

It had a couple of issues, some gouging, magic marker....

The bottom was a little warped, but I glued, Bondo'd, screwed and stained it back to health.

It is a Lane cedar chest and this is how you read the date of manufacture. The first date on the serial number means the chest was made in 1945. The second  number gets reversed to being made on the 16th, and the 40 is reversed to April. Hence, this chest was made on April 16th, 1945.  Since 1972 these chests have a safety feature that prevents anyone from being locked inside and unable to get out. Gloria ordered a replacement one for free to be installed.  

I thought at first I would strip the chest and see what was under the layers of paint. (love my Purdy)

The wood was way too porous and and not all that beautiful.  Because of water damage, no amount of bleaching was going to hide that.

I painted it the color of the aqua water stain thinking that might be a good way to hide it in plain sight.

Turns out the chest was not going to the original intended, so back on the neutral trail and matching a cabinet they had that looked like this...

I started by mixing and diluting a maize and and applying in two coats with a sanded distress.

Then added another diluted mustard tone still letting the distressing show through.  Rubbed it on with a rag.

Then gave it a walnut Danish oil and let it cure.

Here you can see how the several tones of color added shading that replaced the curves that were absent. Finished it with some polyurethane.

For a novice, I was happy with the look.

The cedar chest gets to go join his sister.  Finally.

Thanks for trusting me with your treasures Gloria!

As ever,

La Verne

hope&salvage

Retiring the Blue Star Flag

Today my son Neil retires from the military. Army, National Guard, Reserves. Some 25 plus years ago, I was not happy that he joined, and I can say more than once I hung up on recruiters (any kind) when they called the house and asked for my boys. I had issues dating back to the My Lai Massacre, and who knows what all. Had I been a boy, my birth-date for the draft was the 5th one called, and my sister Michelle's was 6th.

Years passed and I resigned myself to the idea pretty much, until January, 2003, when Neil's unit was called up to head to Iraq at the beginning of the war.  He spent 15 months with "boots on the ground". He was a lieutenant at the time and made captain on returning. I'm sure he has some stories I'll never know, but one I did hear involved an ambush from an overhead bridge, and his gun jamming and unable to return fire. Another story, tells of a comrade killed in a dust storm.

I couldn't comprehend the conditions there; driving in 140 degree heat with the air conditioning off and windows down so that they could be aware of any sound that was "unusual", climbing into a sweat soaked cot that someone just crawled out of, and hoping to sleep, drinking 13 liters of water a day and producing 'no pee', wearing dog collars so they wouldn't get sand fleas.

His job there was not to fight, it was to transport, and turn sludge into potable water. While  there, he saw Sadam's torn down palaces and statues, walked in the Euphrates River, and in the ruins of Abraham's stone abode. He came back. Changed. But, He. Came. Back.

I'll take my Blue Star Flag down tomorrow. It's faded and the stick is broken, glued and held together with a fat, black paper clip.  I'll miss it in my window. As disappointed as I was when he joined, as uneasy as I was when he left, I was So Proud. So Very Proud.

Two of my 5 boys joined the military.  Maybe it was to be all that they could be, or pay for college, or see the other side of the world.  I know they represented well, both their family and their country. Well done.

[This 50 caliber ammunition box I picked up in Columbia Station. The lady said it was her father's from the Korean War. Flowers/weeds courtesy of my garden.]

~.~.~.~.~

A couple of weeks ago, when Therese visited for the Communion, we made it to Habitat for Humanity's ReStore, and this was one of my (her) purchases. It cost $2.00 American money. Two hundred pennies. I saw in my head the bones of a really good shelf/coat rack/cubby hole thingy. Yes, it is sitting on my unfinished Boat For Sale sewing table. I promise it will be completed by next weekend. Sort of promise.

I picked up a 1x8 and sectioned off the cubbies and built the illusion of a finished top piece.

My inspiration for this was in Ana White's Handbuilt Home (shown). Next I patched all holes with Bondo.

A couple of coats of Stealth Jet while watching Season 6 of Dexter.

The reclaimed wood was from pallets I picked up from a factory in Cleveland.

The wrought iron numbers and verdigris faucet handles were half price at Hobby Lobby.

I wanted to extend the knob for hanging a jacket and was looking all over the house for some tubing to cover the long screw.  I found some plastic tubes that cover gutter spikes and cut them to size. Perfect.

Pretty proud of this salvage. A similar one retails for $299.00 American money from Pottery Barn. I spent less than $10.  [No longer available]

~.~.~.~.~

My friend Sue comes through for me all the time. Just look at these treasures. Her father who was a dentist made these old camp boxes decades ago.  Wait til you see what they will become in future posts!

The blue one I just sort of scrubbed and oiled.  I'm always concerned about the thought of lead paint.  Not that anyone would be chewing on it, just taking precautions so that it can't flake off. 

Not sure if blue is finished, just wanted to show you that I don't spend all my time napping. (I wish!) [Update: This box will be come a Memories Box for retiring kindergarten teacher and friend, Miss Lucarelli]

~.~.~.~.~

This table was a gift from Ken. It had sort of a wobbly chair rail-widow's walk fencing on both ends that had to go. I filled the small holes with Bondo and sanded well.

It really only said Union Jack to me, so I taped out the pattern.  It's not exact, like the dresser or my little wood flags, because of the elongated shape of the table.  There is a definite arrangement of the 4 red corner stripes that are not accurate on this project, but a lot closer than some I've seen and field conditions prevail.

It's been sanded and distressed, glazed, but still needs a coat or two of poly and then will be heading for a little girl in Parma who LOVES One Direction!

~.~.~.~.~

I had a bat in my house the other night. At a very inopportune time. [Spoiler alert: The next few paragraphs are references to Dexter.] First of all, the DDK was about to get his due, secondly, I only had my crutch for defense, and third, well, this place is a minefield for having to chase anything that has the upper hand of being airborne. I recalled being a 3 or 4 year old living on a farm in Minnesota and sitting in a rocking chair on our porch. A bat flew in my hair and was pulling me off my seat.  My dad came to the rescue and hastened its demise with a baseball bat.  Having no access to a boat for burial at sea, we buried it under the barn. 

I began to practice my high pitched sounds to drive him off. Maybe when he saw me pick up the electrified Harbor Freight bug exterminator he felt he should visit elsewhere. I left the front door open while I re-watched the episode.  He may have left because my screaming was even beyond his pitch. Perhaps he thought he was no match for my WSD (weapons of single destruction). But I think he realized that I entertain serial killers, and he definitely fit the 'code'.  I haven't seen him since.

~.~.~.~.~

Be back soon,

As ever,

La Verne

hope&salvage