A little over two months ago I moved to Overland Park, KS for a job in the public schools. I enjoy working with second and third grade students and adjusted well to a metropolitan life. For one, my daily commute of around 20 minutes involves about 15 traffic lights.  Quite a change from a town with only a handful of stop signs.

While I enjoy walking to the library and my own space--Brownville tugs at a persons heart strings. Before August my whole life centered around the historic village, and now I feel a strange mix of relief to be away from the drama and feeling of deserting my hometown. Every time I cross the bridge from Missouri to Nebraska, I feel more immediately home.

Brownville is a town of under 150 people struggling to maintain tourism levels high enough to sustain life as we know it. Very few of us actually make a living from tourism, most use it as a second income or a part time retirement. The economy has hit the Brownville Village Theatre, Brownville Concert Hall, and the Spirit of Brownville in the past years. A double whammy because two of the three rely on ticket sales and donations.


Perhaps the most near to my heart is the Captain Meriwether Lewis Dredge. This dredge was used by the Corps of Engineers to help dredge out the Missouri River channel before retiring in Brownville. Before the flood of 2010 the boat was open as a museum. In the past two years great deterioration has taken place by lack of volunteers, funding, and high water. Last year, in the 2011 flood she was floating for several months. My fear is a great piece of history is going to be lost if the Lewis is not restored and reopened.

I am home for a long weekend, and deeply hope Brownville pulls itself up to create a bustling community resembling the 1960s and 70s where people poured in by the bus loads. Still, I hope the economy picks up and allows Americans to enjoy the historical value and present day entertainment.

www. brownville-ne.com

Asian Flare!

I am not overly fond of the red on red look here because I feel like the kimono should stand out more, but nonetheless am happy!

The kimono is on the wall where the stairs lead down to the basement, so Mom and I couldn't put the rod quite as high as I would have liked.

My dad was stationed in Thailand during the Vietnam war and sent back a friend of his a red kimono. A few years ago this friend gave the kimono to me. Since then it has stayed in my closet in plastic--but I wanted to display. I priced shadow boxes but didn't want to spent that much at the moment; so I googled and found several pictures where the kimonos are displayed on curtain rods! Bingo! Instead of $120 for a shadow box I found a $12 curtain rod at Walmart today!

Sunny Yellow Side Table!

Today I finished up the 1 side table for Mom. I started with 2, but the second one was in bad shape (wobbly, and the wood was peeling) and we decided to get rid of it instead.

Petite Side Tables

We have had these two side tables sitting in the basement for quite sometime that came from my grandparents house over a decade ago. They wobble--because instead of screws they are glued together.

The before picture. The wood is not in very good shape either.

One of the tables is primed and just waiting on me to choose a color? What do you think, red, bright blue, light blue, yellow, or white?

Dollhouses

Since my early teenage years I have been building dollhouses, building 3 in the past 3 years. I really enjoy building and creating these "toys" but sometimes get frustrated with the directions and assembly.

This is the Victorian Cottage Jr. by RealGoodToys. I bought this at Hobby Lobby with a 40% of coupon. Real Good Toys is my favorite brand to work with because they are heavier duty made with thicker wood rather than much out plywood.

My favorite dollhouse is my lighthouse. Someday I will take pictures of the inside. This is also a real good toys kit, but someday I would like to build the new greenleaf lighthouse.

This is the dollhouse I am currently working on. I love the colors which are darker than shown here. For right now, I have put everything away because the pieces were not cooperating--so, I'm taking a break.

New Chair!

I have been looking for a new chair for a couple of weeks now for my bedroom. I knew I wanted something comfy because I am planning on reading in this chair. After spending hours bookmarking different chairs from several online stores, I found one at the Foundary yesterday. This is one of the chairs I originally bookmarked, but deleted because I liked the more expensive ones better. However, I decided not to spend more than 500 on a bedroom chair. Luckily for me, this chair was on sale for $245 and ended up being less than $300 including shipping and taxes.

Repainted Chest of Drawers (lingerie chest)

Over the past few days we have had quite the snow storm here in Nebraska, so I used the time wisely to refinish a small chest of drawers that has been in the basement for several years. I borrowed a sander from a friend and bought the paint to match my bigger chest I repainted in November.

The chest before I started. I had to sand down the whole item because it had a thick layer of stain and urethane on it.

After! Yes, there are different shapes and sizes of knobs--this seems to be the theme in our house.

I even primed and painting inside the drawers because it makes it easier to wipe down if necessary.