Bit the Bullet

I know in a past post I was bemoaning the fact that I needed (wanted) new living room furniture and did not relish the thought of having to go shopping for it. I took the easy route and bought new slipcovers (on-line) instead of new furniture.

Well, while I loved the look of the new slipcovers, I did not love the way they became untucked after a few days of normal couch and chair usage. I was re-tucking the slipcovers way too much for my liking.

So, I finally bit the bullet and did some furniture shopping. The Colonel and Darling-Sister-In-Law came along to help me in this task. I am not a big shopper and do not find much joy in the activity, so having them along to help me was much appreciated.

Darling-Sister-In-Law and I had gone shopping for her new living room furniture a couple of weeks before, so I knew what was out there. This made the shopping expedition easier and quicker (and more pleasant too).

We visited two stores and I ended up purchasing a couch and recliner from the La-Z-Boy furniture store. I ordered the same couch as my Darling-Sister-In-Law but with different pillow fabric and I ordered a different kind of recliner. I would have to wait about six weeks for my new furniture to be delivered. It arrived today!

Here is my new living room furniture (you can see part of the old chair in its "forever untucking" slipcover at the bottom-left corner of the first picture. Eventually that chair will be gone from the room).

Here are the pillows. When I chose the material for the pillows The Colonel said the bird eggs looked like potatoes. He was calling it the "potato and bird" material (Darling-Sister-In-Law's pillows have palm fronds on them). When choosing the material for the recliner I tried to match the brown color of the little sandpiper. I think the couch and recliner complement one another nicely.

The new couch is a bit smaller than the old one but it still sits three and allows for more space in the living room.

I am sitting in my new recliner with my feet up as I write this post. It lends itself very nicely to blogging and there is no tucking involved.

Painting Myself Into a Corner (Cabinet)

I am on a chalk painting roll as of late (maybe I better get some stock in Annie Sloan's company). After painting Yam's old chest of drawers I wanted to paint another piece of furniture (or two).

I still have the oak corner-cabinet that The Colonel and I bought in the early days of our marriage. Before retirement, the majority of our furniture was oak but we sold most of it because we wanted to start out the new chapter of our lives with new furniture (we still have a couple bookshelves, a dresser and a nightstand).

I like and still use my old corner-cabinet but I wanted to give it a fresh, new look. I had a can of Annie Sloan Provence Chalk Paint. When I told The Colonel I intended to paint the oaken corner-cabinet he said he didn't think oak wood should be painted, but didn't stand in my way (one of the many reasons I love this man).

I removed all of the things that were inside the top section of the corner-cabinet to include the glass shelves and brass shelf pins. I then began to apply the first coat (I would end up with three before I was satisfied) of paint.

Just one coat so far...two more to go. I was really liking the new, fresh look of the old corner-cabinet.

As I was painting, I realized that I would like to have new knobs to replace the old, metal ones as part of the cabinet's makeover. I was going to order newer glass knobs for Yam's old dresser (see older post)...I would just add four more knobs to that order...and I did.

When coat number three was dry, I began to put everything back into the cabinet.

I have various items in my corner-cabinet...there is no real rhyme or reason to them...just things I have fancied and collected over the years.

I really like how the cabinet's makeover turned out but I do not know if I am done with it yet. I still have some white chalk paint left and I am debating whether I want to paint the outside of the cabinet white.

Yam was here for the 4th of July and said if I did, maybe just a white wash of sorts, so that the oak grain could still be visible. She liked the inside painted blue.

If I did paint it white or just white-wash it, that would mean I would have to remove all the items from the cabinet (again) and take it out to the garage to paint. Maybe I will just enjoy it this way for a while...a long while.

I did put some of that white chalk paint to another use though...

The Colonel, Spud (who was here for a couple of days last week) and I took The Colonel's parents out to lunch and as we were driving back home, we spied a little table alongside the road. Someone was getting rid of it.

I jumped out of the car to check it out. It was in pretty decent shape...all it needed was a couple coats of white chalk paint. I grabbed it (oomph...heavier than it looked) and carried it to the house of my In-Laws, just a couple of yards away (seemed a lot further away).

I did not paint the inside of the little table's drawer. The entire table was this same dark brown color. The drawer's knob was missing. I made a trip to Hobby Lobby and bought a little glass knob as a replacement.

I think this little re-purposed table turned out really cute. Jacques, my little octopus, likes his new "home".

I still have plenty of white chalk paint left, just in case I cannot fight the urge to not paint the corner-cabinet for a long while.

Seeing the Southern Side

The Colonel and I are originally form Central Indiana. We have not seen or know much about Southern Indiana. So, when we were driving back to Florida in late May of this year, after visiting my family, we decided to stop at a few places in Southern Indiana to see what they had to offer us.

It turns out they had plenty to offer us...plenty of history. Right up our alleys!

Our first stop was a quick, off-the-highway stop at the Pigeon Roost Massacre State Historic Site near Underwood, Indiana.

Pigeon Roost was established in 1809. The town was named Pigeon Roost because of the great number of Passenger Pigeons that once lived in the area. The settlement consisted of a single line of cabins stretching north and south about one mile east of the present town of Underwood. The cabin below is a replica.

On September 3, 1812, a war party of Native Americans (mostly Shawnee, but possibly including some Delaware and Potawatomi) made a surprise attack on the village. Twenty-four settlers, including fifteen children, were massacred. Two children were kidnapped and one family managed to escape. Only four of the Indian attackers were killed.

The raid was the first Indian attack in Indiana during the War of 1812. The Pigeon Roost settlement was rebuilt, but then eventually abandoned. Most of the victims were buried in a mass grave.

From the former Pigeon Roost we made our way to Squire Boone Caverns and Village in Mauckport.

Squire Boone was younger brother to Daniel Boone. We have heard of Daniel's adventures but not much of Squire's. I read a book about him and he seems to have been quite the adventurer and saved Daniel's bacon on a couple of occasions.

Squire had his run-ins with the local Indians. He was once hit in the head by a tomahawk which nearly split his skull in two. After he was struck by the tomahawk, he ran back to the fort, holding his skull in one piece as he ran. He also was shot by arrows many times and had one of his upper arms shattered by an arrow; his arm healed but was shorter than the other one.

In 1790, Daniel and Squire Boone discovered the caverns in Mauckport. Later Squire escaped a band of hostile Indians by swinging Indiana Jones-like into a cavern and hiding there until the danger passed. From that day on, he considered the beautiful valley by the caverns to be holy ground. He eventually settled here with his wife, four sons and their families.

Squire built a mill in the early 1800's and on one of the foundation stones he carved this inscription: "My God my life hath much befriended, I'll praise Him till my days are ended."

 

Upon his death in 1815, Squire Boone was laid to rest within his beloved cave as he had requested.

The Colonel and I took a one-hour cavern tour. Our guide was a descendant of the Boone family. There are a lot of Boones still in the Mauckport area. There are also many Lincolns in the area because a cousin of Squire Boone married John (great-grandfather of Abraham Lincoln) Lincoln's sister.

The Squire Boone Caverns were different from Mammoth Cave. They were a wet cave system with many formations. We saw many stalactites and stalagmites. We also saw a formation called a "Fried Egg".

Here are some pictures of the impressive cavern formations The Colonel and I saw during our tour.

As stated earlier, Squire Boone was buried in his beloved cavern. His remains were moved from that cavern to the cavern that hosts the tour. They were moved to preserve them and keep them safe. A new coffin was built to hold his skeletal remains, as the one he was originally buried in had rotted away.

We saw Squire Boone's coffin. It was sitting alongside the path of the tour. We could have reached out and touched it (you know I wanted to).

The Colonel and I saw more of Southern Indiana's history before we crossed the Ohio River into Kentucky, but the telling of that will have to wait until another post (or this one would go on for too long and I do not wish to tire you, my dear reader).