Antique Straw Hats; Grandkid's Room Re-vamp Done

Love this rain in so many ways.  We need it so much here in the dry California state.  But also, it is keeping me indoors to do some house projects we have been wanting to do.

I tackled the back bedrooms this last week.  They weren't in too bad shape.  Painted the baseboards, door openings, windowsill. Cleaned the light fixtures; pulled everything out of the closet and made my piles. One for thrift shop, one for Celli, one for trash, one to keep. Then everything from under the beds came next-kid's books, wrapping paper, bows, a few rugs. Same routine.

After vacuuming all around the room and inside the closet, everything went back and I decided to re-arrange the two twin beds and create a collage of my antique straw hat collection.

I love all these hats, I have collected for years.  The textures and shapes have always fasinated me.  They were hung all around the house so I didn't realize how many I had until I put them all together.  The colored ones are also straw but are decorated up with veils and painted colors, possibly for evening or church.  I have a few men's straw hats too that they would use for summer with their white suits!!!

I think my favorites are the ones that must have been for gardening or a summer walk.  They don't have a top part of the hat but just a band.  Piles of hair probably sat on top.

On the other side of the room, I moved around a few of the old wooden game boards I had around the place.  On the one picture you can see a small wicker chair hanging on the wall.  There are two chairs that belonged to my grand mother and given to me from my mother.  I believe they were either a doll set or child set.  They are made so intricate, exactly like a late 1800s adult wicker chair would look like.  They were used only on special occations when my mother was young.  My mother had 13 brothers and sisters in her family and were only occationally allowed to play with them. I thought my grandkids would enjoy seeing them to pass on to some day.  Out in the open, not closed up in a box someplace.
Frank made these headboards for the beds, I sewed the slipcovers that slide over them.  And I purchased a king size bedspread (because it didn't come in twins).  Then I cut it in half, sewing binding around the cut edge that matched somewhat to what was on the bedspread new.  So I got two covers for the price of one.  Old blankets are another one of my passions, so I put two that I had at the end of each bed with similar colors of the room.

I am so glad to have had these last few weeks to get in and organize and to deep clean the house.  I just saw on the news this morning that it is supposed to be in the middle 70s next week!!!  That is a shock, guess no more beinging inside for a few days.