The Street Market in China

I just returned from a 3 week trip to China where I taught English to Chinese students at a summer English camp. I have been to China several times before but this trip was unlike the others. Usually we stay in luxury hotels which are VERY affordable there. This time we stayed in a dormitory for international students at the school which was located in a very typical Chinese neighborhood in Beijing. I was delighted to find a street market outside our window every morning at 6 AM. I am NOT a morning person but I awoke at 4 every morning which was OK because it is daylight there by 4 and by 6 the market was humming. I have seen these types of markets before while riding by in a taxi and I have always wanted the opportunity to stop. I had my chance on this trip. I so enjoyed observing the culture from a different perspective this time.

The market had more food than any thing but there was also furniture, clothing, shoes, and household items. I thought that the furniture pictured above was very interesting and wondered the price but didn’t dare to ask since there was no way it would fit into my suitcase.

I absolutely loved this lady’s shopping cart which I believe is a vintage baby stroller! If I could have gotten it in my bag I would have tried to buy it from her. I appreciate unique items with a history and I’m sure this has one!

This lady was selling a little bit of everything somewhat like a yard sale.

There was more fresh produce. If you look carefully you can see the American, aka yours truly, standing in the street taking it all in.



All of our meals were eaten in the school cafeteria and we enjoyed fresh watermelon every day.

There was also a tailor with a treadle sewing machine……

You could even get a haircut

men and women……..

One of the American college students in our group got a haircut here. He said it was very professional and very reasonably priced at 2RMB which is about 35 cents US! Quite the bargain! I most enjoyed watching the children at play while their parents worked. These boys loved getting the picture taken.




While I didn’t find a treasure to buy, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience!

I’ll be linking to Rhoda’s Thrifty Treasures at Southern Hospitality.

How to Reverse a Refrigerator Door

A Little Change That Makes A Big Difference

We were given this refrigerator for our summer cottage basement by a friend. It is in very good gently used condition and serves the purpose very well. The only slight issue was that the sink and counter are on the right and the door opened to the left. I was told by my friend that the door opening could be changed with a few simple screws. I began by removing the snap on grill at the very bottom of the refrigerator. This allowed me to access the hinge and screws at the bottom of the door.

Next I removed the buttons on front for the handles. If you look closely you can see the little buttons on the right side in the photo above. Those buttons will pop off if you gently place a screwdriver behind them.

The photo below shows the hole after the button has been popped off.

The handles also had a little plastic cover at the bottom that I gently pried off. Next, I opened the door and unscrewed the hinges.

When the hinges were unscrewed from the refrigerator, I discovered that the door has an opening for the hinge pin on both the left and right side. Also, the refrigerator itself, has identical holes for the hinges on the left and right side. I simply flipped the hinge upside down and screwed it into the appropriate holes on the other side of the refrigerator.

The additional holes for the hinges did have screws in them so that its not just an empty hole but you can tell by looking at the placement that this is where the hinge fits on the other side. The top of the refrigerator has holes on both sides for the hinges too. After making the change I replaced all of the screws into the empty holes.

It is much more convenient this way! I love it when a plan comes together!
Just a note, the blog will be on autopilot for the rest of the month as I expect to be unplugged with little to no internet access! I will probably suffer withdrawals, no blog hopping, no pretty pictures to look at, no online shopping and browsing, no pinning! But I will be back with posts of my adventure that I have been preparing for during the month of June.

I will be sharing with Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch and with Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style.
Have a great July!
I'm also linking to Tutorials, Tips and Tidbits at Stone Gable ( linking at 30,000 feet!)!

Slipcover for a Lampshade

You may have seen this lamp that I am using on my entry table at the summer cottage.

It did not look like this when I purchased it. I found it in the clearance section at Hobby Lobby. It was a little wobbly. So I carefully removed the felt from the bottom and tightened the nut to correct the wobble. Then I stuck the felt back on. It was a  quick and east fix.

While the shade was cute, it wasn’t really my style for this setting.

So I purchased an inexpensive replacement at Garden Ridge.

I liked the shape but I didn’t like the fabric so I decided to cover it. Because the shape was not conducive to just wrapping the fabric around and gluing it, I sewed a simple slip cover. I used some scraps of linen to cut a piece for each side then I pinned the pieces to the shade.

In order to get a perfect fit, I did what the Chines tailors do, I hand stitched the side seams first. Then I removed the pins and stitched it on the sewing machine. The photo above is all wrong side out.

After stitching the sides I tried in on for fit and trimmed the seams and pinned the edges before sewing them.

The fit was perfect so I just had to flip it right side out and slip it on, no gluing required.

I am very pleased with the results but I think I’m going to make another one using the silk fabric that I used for the leading edge on the drapes so that I’ll have a pop of color in this spot. Stay tuned for an update!
I hope that you are having a wonderful summer! Mine is VERY busy!

I’ll be linking to Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch and to Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style and to Tips and Tutorials at Stonegable.

Refrigerator Pickles

One of our favorite summertime treats is refrigerator pickles. We do not have a vegetable garden, just a few tomato plants in pots. While driving down the road recently, I saw a young boy selling tomatoes and cucumbers from his mother’s garden. I decided to stop and make a purchase. I bought a few tomatoes and cucumbers and took them home. Just as I got inside the house, it occurred to me that I should have bought more. I hopped back in the car and drove back to where he was. He was beaming to see me return. I told him that I wanted more cucumbers. He called out to his mother in another language and she replied. He told me that his mom was going to get more. He told me that his mom is Russian. She brought more cucumbers and I asked him to thank her for me. He was so excited that I bought all that he had. My family was excited that I was making the pickles. Every one was blessed! The refrigerator pickle recipe is very simple.

I purchase the small pickling cucumbers and wash them off before slicing them.  I put them in a jar with a snap seal lid.

I use the microwave to make the syrup.

I put 1 cup of white vinegar, 1 Tablespoon of salt, and 1 cup of sugar in a microwaveable bowl. I heat the vinegar until the sugar has dissolved. Then I allow this mixture to cool slightly before pouring in into the jar over the sliced cucumbers.

Close the lid and store them in the refrigerator. Very simple and very delicious! Other variations of the recipe include onion slices, bell pepper slices, celery seed, etc.
I hope your family loves them as much as mine does!

I’ll be sharing at Tutorials, Tips and Tidbits at Stone Gable and to Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch.

My Favorite Spot to Relax

If you’ve visited this blog regularly, you’ve seen this spot before and probably won’t be surprised to find that my favorite spot to relax is on the screened porch of our summer cottage.

I would much rather be outside than inside so I spend a lot of time here enjoying the view.

When we built this home a few summers ago, a screened porch was an absolute must have. It was non-negotiable. The builder screened the top porch and we screened the bottom. We have found that the screen is a necessity due to mosquitos. The porches stretch across the whole width of the house, a whopping 30 feet and they are 12 feet in depth adding 360 square feet of outdoor room space to each level.
Most of my outdoor time is spent on the top level.

The settee in the corner is great for taking a nap!

The server was a $20 roadside rescue. You can read about it here. I made the lamp on the end table from a lantern and a thrift store lamp and you can read about it here. I found the mirror over the server at an antique store. I love the old convex glass in it.

The orchids thrive out here very well with little to no attention. The decorative box on the coffee table was purchased from Hobby Lobby ( with a 40% off coupon of course).

The box provides storage for a pair of binoculars and for remotes for the fans and sound system.

My favorite seat in the house may well be one of these rocking chairs. I believe that the key to comfort for these chairs is the contoured seat. I would not purchase a rocker without one.

We enjoy many meals in the dining area at the other end of the porch. The sheer panels were purchased 3 summers ago from Ikea for $4.99 a pair! I love the way they blow in the breeze and soften the corners of the porch. Because the basement porch in just over 10 feet high, I had to cut 2 feet of material from extra panels and sew it on to make these panels come all the way to the floor. They remind me of the summer sheers that my grandmother had many years ago.

The dining area on the lower porch is used more for snacks than meals and for overflow when we are entertaining since it is farther from the kitchen and from the grill.

Additional rocking chairs are on the lower porch. Both porches provide a wonderful place to relax.  After staying up all night at the hospital waiting for a special package to arrive, I have spent the day recovering here.

My niece Hannah, the special package, arrived safely at just after 5 AM!!! I am proud to say that mommy and baby are both doing fine and she was worth every minute of the wait!
Praising God from whom all blessings flow!

I’ll be linking to Rhoda’s porch party at Southern Hospitality and to Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style, to Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch and to the House Party at Thrifty Decor Chick.

Repurposed Piano Parts–Entry Table

One of my latest projects has involved the dismantling of my grandmother’s old upright piano. It involved a tremendous amount of work but it was great fun. I am in the process of recycling all of the parts. My first repurposed item was an entry table for our summer cottage.

Due to limitations in the size of the lot, the layout of the house has a long, narrow hallway coming from the entry.

The photo makes the hallway appear wider than it is. Actually it is only four feet wide, wall to wall so it would be less than that at the moldings on the floor. Thus, it is too narrow for even a shelf to be mounted on the wall.  I needed some type of small table to drop keys, phones, etc. on to keep it off the end of the kitchen counter.  At the end of the hallway, there is a niche next to the refrigerator that is 26 inches wide and 13 inches deep. After looking and looking for a piece to fit this spot, I finally decided that I could build my own. Take a look at what I started with………

I didn’t take a lot of photos of the deconstruction but it was done over a period of two afternoons. Three large pieces came off very quickly and easily. The large panel on the bottom above the petals simply lifts off. The large panel at the top where the music rests comes off with a couple of screws. And, the very top which is a hinged panel comes off with a couple of screws. I will be repurposing these parts into a chest. After removing those three parts, we had to lay the piano down on its back so that it would not fall as we dismantled every thing else. I am NOT recommending that anyone try this. It is dangerous as these old pianos weigh several hundred pounds! The parts that I used for the table were the legs (which were held on with big screws) and the very bottom of the piano. I also used one of the curved pieces that folds down to cover the keyboard.

The top of the table was made from the very bottom of the piano. It has a beveled edge on it. I stripped the varnish off of the curved piece and chose to leave it as natural wood because the finish was so pretty.

My only purchase for this project was one piece of molding to cover seams on the sides of the table.

There actually was a piece of molding in my salvaged parts but it was not wide enough to cover the area I wanted to cover.

I built the drawer (box) out of a scrap of plywood and screwed the round front on from the inside. I even reused the wood screws from the piano! (I should have painted the drawer but was too anxious! I’ll do it later.)

I purchased a buffet lamp from the clearance section at Hobby Lobby.

Then I added a vintage box from my collection.

It is a wooden cigar box that I purchased at a flea market for $2!!! I almost died when the vendor said I could have it for $2! Another project checked off my list. Now, if I can re-train my family to drop keys here.

I hope you’re having a great and productive summer!

I’ll be linking to Wow us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style and to Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch.