Plates, Trays and Owls

First take a look at my woods in the fall framed by a bit of All Hallow's Eve.  Posted at Christmas.  Cause that is the way things roll around here.  See the black fuzzies?

 A bit closer maybe.

 Closer yet to see the creepy caught under glass!

 And because I loved my fuzzy little owls so much and Picmonkey has become my new playground, here's another.

 Halloween's chalkboard

and the creepy who got away.

Somewhere in the back of my brain lives a little editor named Frances.  She is a little compulsive about spelling, punctuation and grammar errors - you know, speaking well.  Not good.  However, I do overrule her in the name of creative writing from time to time and do not follow rules.  If I so choose.  Like beginning sentences with And.  Or using extremely short declarative sentences.  To make my point.  Some things however are never overruled.  Like spelling or wrong word usage.

So Frances required me to take the time this morning to re-read yesterday's post.  Just in case I used there instead of their or peak instead of peek or even worse, your instead of you're.  Those little things that irritate Frances more than a little.  And it occurred to me as I re-read that I did not show y'all my plate rack.  How could I have done that?  J did this for me too and I absolutely love it.

I am so happy with the way it turned out even though it is a bit different than I had first planned.  The plan was for it to be the same size and height as the cabinet.  It would just snug right up next to it and be trimmed out as one unit.  One piece of crown all the way around the top and somehow make the joint look good with either trim or our friend Bondo.  J built it and we stood it up there.  Geez it looked dumb.  It made the oven cabinet look lopsided and for some reason it looked like a plate rack had just been slapped onto the side of a cabinet.  duh.  I told him to tack it up there and I would think about it.  For some reason my two guys get a little antsy when I say that.  Can you imagine that?  But the platerack, what to do?  Pinterest of course!

I found this first

follow THIS  to source

  and thought feet!  Raise it up and break the lines a bit.  Then I found this

follow THIS to source

and thought move it!  Forward, just a bit.  To break the lines even more and  have it be a bit of a divider between the kitchen area and family room.  So this beauty was born from my thinking, Pinterest and a lot of work from both my guys.  And maybe a bit of cursing.  But not at me.  No, not ever at me.  M had to help us do some of the crown work on this one.  It was a little over 8 feet high before the feet were added!

These little shelves hold some very treasured things.  The blue and white shallow bowl on the top shelf was Mark's great grandmother's, his Babička or Baba.  The next shelf down has Uncle Stevie's blue and white platter and one of Mother's dinner plates.  Our good dishes when we were growing up.  They are my good dishes now.  K, the next time you come to visit we will use them.  J makes incredible fried chicken!

The top shelf in the above photo holds Mother's Staffordshire Ironstone set.  If you look close you can see that I have the cup wired to the bar.  Not that I don't trust the guys I live with.  I'm eventually going to do it in a more discreet way.  This was a quick fix.  The next shelf holds the small silver tray and spoon set that was a gift for Mother and Pop's 25th Wedding Anniversary.  She gave it to me for ours and we used it at Rae and Nate's wedding. 

The two smaller plates on these two shelves are kind of special to me too.  They are Danish Mother's Day plates.

I'd like to say my children bought them for me but I actually found them at antique stores myself.  The little silver baby spoon was Charles Roy's.  Aunt Evelyn gave it to Rae before our Evelyn was born.  I have it because Rae is afraid it will disappear into the chaos that sometimes surrounds four children.   

A third Mors Dag plate sits on a lower shelf with some of my silver trays.  Not as prominent, but not forgotten either.

I really like that it has two little babies.

I have several old silverware serving pieces on these shelves.  It is a matched set that I bought at a flea market type store.  They are very similar to Mother's old set.  But did you notice the spoon and meat fork on the lower shelf?   On Thanksgiving Day, Rae made a yummy "salad" that was loaded with cool whip.  Yes, COOL WHIP from our earth mother girl.  Anyway, she and the girls were tasting it and Fletcher saw them.  He ran to the plate rack and grabbed that spoon and took it to his Mama for his taste.  He really wanted to use that huge thing!  We laughed so hard because his intent was so obvious on his little face.  And he is so much his Papa's boy!  I always have to hide cool whip at our house if we want any left for our desserts.  That spoon will never move now.  It brings a smile to my face every time I see it!

One last thing.  Here is my finished except for corbels and paint fireplace.

The shelves are done but the cabinet fronts have to be put on the lower portion.  This weekend!  And tomorrow I have gallons of paint to put on!

I don't think I've told you about what is going on with the walls back there.  We extended the wall coming out from the shelving unit so it was the same length as the one on the opposite side at the dining room end.  The 2x4s you can see are actually stepped back about 10 inches so they are on the same plane as the end of the wall that divides the foyer area from the hall.  There will be sort of a doorway into the hall but it will still be very open.  What I haven't written about is we did something similar at the other end of the house with the door into our bedroom.  We  moved it.  This should just be another post.  I will save it all till then!

Construction shop breaks down Sunday night and Christmas moves in Monday morning.  Ready or not.