Inside Edition

Since I brilliantly sunburned myself yesterday (think "lobster"), I decided to get a bit of much-needed work done inside today. Fortunately I finally stumbled across a full size mattress at a give-away price nearby (they were holding a community garage sale in town), so I could finally get my guest bed put together.

Let me go back.... In February, during that fateful trip to my dad's where I killed my back, I picked up this bed out of my grandma's barn.

It used to be in this house, probably decades ago, and it belonged to my great-great grandparents when they lived on the property.

They actually homesteaded the property--my Great-great grandfather William A McCandless...

and his lovely wife Lula Mae (Adams) McCandless.



Lula is the one on the right. Her twin sister, Lois Irene, on the left, froze to death in a tent during a blizzard after their house burned to the ground one winter. Life on the prairie was hard....

Which probably made a bed like this one quite a luxury. It must have been something very special when they first got it. Then it was relegated to the barn, where it gathered dust for at least as long as I've been alive.




A LOT of dust...enough that even after a 5 hour trip in the back of a pickup, a heavy coating of dirt still remained.




But you can tell the beauty underneath that dirt.




So I began cleaning...




And cleaning...

And cleaning.


And now it's back to its former glory, for guests to enjoy when they stay over at my humble little abode.

The quilt was hand-made by my grandma 22 years ago. The colors are very difficult to match so I rarely display it, but I think this time I'm up for the challenge--just something about family makes it all go together. I still have a lot of decorating to do, but it's already hopefully feeling like home.