Cold Weather Lists

This morning here in Illinois it was -26 degrees! What! The perfect day to stay in and do that "to do" list. I already made a cinnamon bread that was in the newest issue of Magnolia Journal.

I started opening boxes holding photo albums looking for my parents wedding photo. I wasn't sure where it was, so I opened each album I came across. I have many albums. Soooooo many albums. I got sidetracked and began looking at the pictures from when my boys were little. Where has the time gone?

Finally, there it was! I didn't have to go far to find the perfect frame. I just had to shop my stockpile in the basement.

I added it to the right of my grandparents photo. Now my wall is complete! I really love how it all turned out. Each photo has a special frame that seems to fit the overall look I was after perfectly.

On Monday, when it was also snowy but not as cold, cold still though, I went through the storage space under my basement steps. I had 2 very large bins of my hammered aluminum collection. I took them out and reorganized the area. Much easier to see everything at a glance now.

I am happy to say that I went through the bins and kept some pieces that I absolutely loved. The rest went into piles, to sell at the Carriage House, to sell on Ebay and to sell at my garage sale in April. At one point I had over 300 pieces of hammered aluminum. Not any more. I probably have a little over 100 now.

Then, I went through my china cabinets and rearranged and purged some from there too. One cabinet is exclusively for hammered aluminum. The smaller pieces go in here....

The other cabinet holds hammered aluminum and milk glass.

The one cabinet has milk glass, some crystal and other colored glass in it. I took most of the hammered aluminum out of it except for some of the larger hammered aluminum pieces.

Some of the hammered aluminum trays were pretty large and wouldn't fit into any of the cabinets so I used them in the bookshelves in the living room as backdrops with other collections.

Some of my favorite Wendell August Forge hammered aluminum pieces are on those shelves too...

I think I have accomplished my "to do" list. At least I think I have. Tomorrow will be more to add I'm sure. But for now I'm going to read my flea market magazines and have a cup of tea.  Stay safe and warm!

Hopefully we will be..... happy treasure hunting.....soon!