Two French Chairs

I haven't posted for over a week but I've been under the weather. I had been having pain in my left leg and after trying my best to diagnose myself—:-)—I made an appointment with my doctor. She thinks it's sciatica, gave me a prescription for pain killers, muscle relaxants and a prescription for physical therapy. I start Monday. My left leg all the way from the "hip" down to my ankle has hurt so bad I've been on pain killers. I'd cut them into quarters to try and cut the pain. I don't want to become a drug addict!

Now, my husband and I are retired and have scaled down from 5,000 square feet to 1800 square feet. We don't have a formal dining room anymore and that's fine with us. We just have an area off our kitchen to eat. For us a formal dining room would be a wasted space. So I settled on this but knew I'd make it a special place when we bought the house 9 years ago.

I've been looking for a pair of chairs for a long time now. A friend told me she got her gorgeous french dining chairs at Savers, a local thrift store. I perused the place but found nothing, but then she warned me I'd have to be diligent. She painted her chairs white and added a red and white check fabric and they are beautiful. Lusting again. I know, I know.

So finally I found 2 chairs on craigslist that would do. They were sturdy enough, all wood with an open back and a piece of carving down the center of the back, already a bit shabby and cheap at $75 for the two chairs. I couldn't get over to his house fast enough!

I didn't particularly want to paint them or change the seat covers OR make new seat covers, which would have been easy so refer to the first paragraph above as to why. And I recently bought some pink seat covers for all the chairs to have a more cohesive feel to them. Finally, stores are getting more pink in their stock. Even men are wearing more pink lately.

Then I saw this website on etsy for these. SweetDreamTutus and the url is: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SweetDreamsTutus

I have to say this lady was a doll. She answered my questions quickly. I ordered them and she sent them to me in rapid time. I recommend her highly. This photo is on her etsy site; it's not my house. I'm going to order another pair in pink also. I love them!

I have no idea why I'm posting so many photos of these chairs but I wanted you to see how cute they are now after their renovation. So now I have 2 cane back and seat French chairs and 2 of these. I don't have a "before" photo and I'll be darned if I was taking those covers off to show you the before. But they weren't fancy so I made them Fancy.

I've had this fabric for years and was down to my last couple of yards. I absolutely adore this fabric. It's a designer fabric and nice and thick. Absolutely gorgeous in person.

I didn't know how to make them "fit" perfectly and was trying to get every bit of fabric out of the last of the roll I had bought many years ago. So I left them open on the sides and tied them with ribbon. One chair has pink grosgrain and the other one has white satin ribbon. I ran out of the grosgrain and am trying to scale down my craft room—and I'm also lazy—so I used what I had on hand.

I added a boa and a pink paper flower.

Trying to get as many views as I can to show you. You're probably sick of the photos by now, but WAIT! There are even a few more. ;-)

Closeup of the tutu.

The white ribbon ties on the sides come on the tutu.

So you can adjust it to the chair width. Fantastic!

I think this is one of the loveliest lamps ever. A great color, shape and just the right amount of "aging" done to it.

Lovin' this pretty bed and pillows.

Now, this is not my can but I've done this with coffee cans I get from friends since we don't drink coffee. And it is so very easy to make them gorgeous with paint, decals or paper mod-podged on it.

I would absolutely love to find a chair like this. It is gorgeous, but my guess is it isn't comfy to sit in for any length of time.

There are times I'd love to have something like this for my home office and then I think: I have a whole room to myself. Isn't it true that we're sometimes unhappy with the things we have? It takes time to recognize our blessings. While this armoire is gorgeous, I'm blessed to have a whole room for my office. And another room to craft in. I sounded ungrateful but I'm truly not.

Oh my goodness, this is just gorgeous. I'd probably have painted it pink but I do love that color on it. I think it would go well in my living room.  ;-)

~*~
Linking up with Pink Saturday.   

Glasses & Vases Decorated with White Paint and Roses

I pin images on Pinterest a lot, actually every single morning. If you'd like to see more images I post on here and more, then go to my Pinterest and get addicted! There are over 14,000 pins there from all over the internet, only gorgeous images as you'll see. There are well over 25,400 followers so you have to know they are lovely images to view and pin. People have emailed me and said they've gotten so much inspiration from the images there. Just want you to see all the beauty there is in the world instead of all the negativeness being sprouted from the world. I truly mean what my saying is under my logo at the top of the page: My life is to make everything around me beautiful.
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I see a lot of things I'd like to do to our home but I'd truly rather read a book. However, I did finish one thing I've been wanting to do. A vignette of white glassware. I saw it on a blog or pinterest. I just can't remember where now. But I wanted something similar and since I have a plethora of old glasses, vases and such, I decided to finally get with it. I like the way they turned out. I had most of these sitting around the house but had to go to Goodwill and get a few more and it was only $4.25 for the lot. The photos below aren't exceptional but you get the idea. BUT I did you all a favor in that if you click on the photos you'll see an enlarged photo of the same pictures. I don't do this except in rare cases and this is one of them. I love big pictures but the blog isn't conducive to it and it takes a LOT more work to show them bigger. So enjoy looking at them. Just click and they'll be 1000 pixels wide instead of my usual 700 for the personal photos I display on here.

I painted them white 3 or 4 times depending on the item. I then scruffed them up a bit with sandpaper to give them an old look. The large vase in the back center is plastic and it was the easiest one to accept the paint. All others are glass.

A wider look at the room actually.

I found pink ribbons, drop cloth, laces, netting and different kinds of small roses to add to each one.  These might change a tiny bit. I thought I had some raffia but I can't find it and I really wanted some on these.

I'm a devotee of putting things under living room tables, always have and don't see that changing any time in the future. Here I just took the vintage drawer filled with gorgeous faux peonies from the top to just under the bottom of the table. There are also boxes under there with things I might need in a hurry. That rose covered box on the right contains my Dyno label maker. Don't have to sift through cabinets trying to find it when I want to label something.

As always, this north facing house has terrible lighting so this is as good as I can get it unless the sun is straight up and the solar tubes catch it.

Just another view of the living room with light and shadows playing across the room from the solar tubes.

I think this is cute for a French-style decor.

This is very similar to my bed cover. I love white and always will. I'm thinking of a long white pillow across the bottom. I'd make it, of course. I have so many pillows in my craft room I'll never have to buy any more. Some I made, some were given to me and some I bought. All kinds, even down pillows.

A cute red and white dining room and kitchen.

A cute setting for a table. I always look around for things I already have and decorate them differently for the different times of my life. Sometimes I want simply and sometimes, I want flashy and bling. Just never know.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to have an entrance like this one? I think it's gorgeous.

This looks like it could be a craft room and a potting area also. Lucky is the woman who has this home though.

How nice to have this sewing and craft area kind of sectioned off from the rest of the home with that little porch railing. Looks antique also.

I like that sofa and that table. The aqua of the wall is gorgeous also.

There are some things that make me smile and giggle. This is one of those things. Pink in the garden!

~*~
Linking up with Pink Saturday.  

Random Stories Today 4/1/14

My 2 children both have birthdays in April, which makes their birthstone diamonds. I usually just call and wish them a happy birthday as they both have so much there's nothing we can buy them except Momma's home cooked meals. ;-) But most of our family's birthdays are all within 3 months of each other. But we're all planning a train trip for our 55th anniversary. We are ALL excited about that. All fifteen of us on a train for at least one night and then a weekend in San Diego sounds like great fun to me.
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My great granddaughter, who will be four years old in May used to go under the kitchen table to do her "business." Once while my granddaughter and her hubby were house hunting she got under a kitchen table at an Open House. When her mother told her to come out she said, "I'm doing my business, Mom." When they were visiting here about a year ago, I gave her an area rug for her kitchen dining area as I was buying a new white one for ours. She took it home and sent me a picture of it and it made her kitchen dining area look cozier. She also told me "business" has "improved" under the table. We had to laugh. ;-).
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Most of our friends have family photos lining their walls—living room, bedrooms, etc. I've never liked decorating like that. I have the 2 pictures that my husband had painted for me while he was in Japan on a wall that I see every single day. Those are my favorites of them. I love both of my kids and have them in my "heart photo album." The pictures on my walls are all serene (not that my kids aren't!) but I prefer that. I'm a very private person when it comes to showing my kids. Now, the great granddaughters are posted on one of my kitchen cabinets. But I've never liked seeing hundreds of pictures of someone's family. (I've been in some homes where political photos are on the walls. Never happen in this house!) It just doesn't interest me and I doubt my family would interest them. I do, however, have beautiful pictures that people rave about on the walls.
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Years ago when I was attending Weight Watchers meetings and was a relative new WW I stepped on the scale and told the woman weighing me in to not tell me what my weight was. She said, "Fine" and when I got on the scale she blurted out the weight! I couldn't believe it. What about "don't tell me my weight" did this woman not understand? I just wanted to know the loss, not my actual weight. That would have depressed me even though I knew it was getting out of hand. I don't do WWs anymore, but mainly because of the whining I hear at their meetings. Good grief, what about the program do these people not get?! The speaker will cover all the things for the lesson that day and invariably some nut will say, "Well, I'm going to a party tonight and there will be lots of food. What do I do?" Idiot. She just told you and other people chimed in also. Didn't you listen to her tell you? My opinion is that those people just want to be noticed. I just couldn't stand the absurdity of some people and stopped going to the meetings.
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As you all know I love vignettes. This one is particularly cute.

There is certainly a "lusciousness" about having an outdoor room with a place to sit even in the rain. I think this one is beautiful.

Another chair I should love in my home. These are beautiful.

A bit of eye candy for ya.

I've wondered where to buy these pretty little pots. I haven't found any in my neck of the woods but I'll keep trying.

I have this pillow and the matching ruffle quilt but recently changed back to my old Soft Surroundings all-white one with one long ruffle skirt to the floor. Hubs and I were tired of fixing the bed skirt. So I may sell the Summers at the Cottage one. If anyone is interested, just email me. It really is gorgeous!

I'm waiting for our rose garden to bloom. Love Bunny has cleaned it up after this long winter, clipped the branches back and got our yard looking lovely once again.

I have a keen interest in beautiful laundry rooms. Mine being pink and cheerful with signs, clothes pin bags and shelving in there. I don't mind doing my laundry at all!

Isn't this a darling way to store your dinnerware and glasses?

While this is a visual treat, I'm not sure I'd want my house to be this narrow between two walkways.

Cute dining room display.

Now tell me, would anyone actually wear a shoe like this? I'd think it would b a bit itchy.

Do all women love feminine bedrooms like this? I sure do. Wouldn't have it any other way.

While this is a fetching bathroom, all that lace would certainly collect dust. Just kidding. It's actually wallpaper.

My great granddaughter would call this a Princess dress. She makes me so happy.

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Linking up with Pink Saturday.