Pink Saturday

I'm truly sorry but these last few weeks with the remodel has left me without a pink item to show except for the pink in this room. I'm getting the house back in order and today I mopped the floors and it felt sooooo good to walk across the vinyl in the baths and kitchen without something jabbing me in the foot (I did step on a tacky strip where we peeled back the carpet and it BLED!) Do I hear some "ooooh, ouch, chickie"?! Maybe you could send me some chocolate! That might help......sob....sniffle. Oooooo, yeah, definitely chocolate!!! ;-)<----- smirky wink!

Anyway, I thought I'd share with you my all-time favorite room. In 1997 when I was looking to buy a new sofa (Yes, it's the one in my living room now and looks as good as when I had it delivered.) I journeyed to Ethan Allen in Boise. The sales lady gave me one of their catalogs. I perused it when I got home to help me decide and came across this room. I almost expired on the spot!! Truly, I don't think there is another room that captured my heart so much as this one. I counted 10 different fabrics in use in that room and just fell in love with everything about it. The tufted white sofa, the drapes and mix of different pillows and one with the family crest perhaps(?), the white wrought iron tables juxtaposed with the french country coffee table, the old vintage books lying about on the table, the mullioned windows, the fresh bouquet of roses, the portraits of ancestors perhaps, the requisite globe, the lovely carpet, the throw to warm you in the cool evenings, the staffordshire lamp, the comfy chairs, the kilim fabric on the footstool by the fireplace grate (mostly "hinted at" in this photo as the observer cannot see it, but surely there is one there!), the old wood paneling, the window seat where you can wile away the snowy winter afternoons and the look of the room - as if it had been collected over a lifetime of the owners. That's the look I'd like to capture in my home. Of course, our "stuff" has been collected over our 47+ years but it certainly isn't as elegant as this room. But my home is my home: a mixture of old, new, shabby, english, country with a shadow or hint of formality, romantic, flowery, roses, pink and ME - Connie. That look I have down "pat"!! :-) AND you MUST enlarge the pix to view it properly!!!!!! And I'll show you another room from that catalog sunday. I think you'll like that one also. :-)

Decorating the Living Room

I seem to be making some headway in this house the last 2 days. But wouldn't ya know it; I had to stop and resuscitate the mouse!! She's been giving me a fit lately and I usually just dust her off - her belly button, ya know, that scroll wheel. But she's been sucking some serious dust around here so it's been a miracle that I can revive the little darling. *Sigh*.........................

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This was 2 days ago. I was so tired I didn't know whether to climb the ladder to paint/hang pix or get on my knees and put stuff back that was to be "lower"! My feet are killing me from standing on that ladder, chicks.

Do you realize that I "shopped" right outta this house??? Yep, old things placed in different places seem new again. Besides, hubs said to keep it to a minimum. They're just no fun when it comes to remodeling and redecorating. Actually, this whole remodel was his idea. Ya woulda expected me to say nuuuuuuuu?!?! Get a grip, chicks, this was decorating and spending money here. It's our lot in liiiiIIIIiiiiiffffffffee. (When I type the words that way you'll know I'm RAISING my voice and lowering it. Hah...No matter.......on with the show.)

Anyway, today shows a marked improvement.....in the living room. The family room??? Pfffffffffttttt. It's trashed! Now, I'm not so proud that I wouldn't show you but there's nothing to show in there at the moment. I've pretty much stripped the pix off the walls and brought them into living room.

Notice the french wire baskets. I don't know where to put them! I'll have hubs help me decide tonight. He's actually pretty good at noticing things and recommending things when I'm stymied. You all have been a big help with your email suggestions also. Thank you!

Clock was moved last night but moving a grandfather clock is a delicate matter. We had to almost disassemble it to move it - take out the weights and pendulum. But it's there. I've added 2 pix above it and some pretty little boxes on the overhead. Being from California I'm squeamish about putting things "UP" when they could "FALL" on your head! These are light however and not a problem.

The print on the left of the photo is 1 of 3 of my favorites. It's a Susan Rios print. The one in the middle below the painting of the girl (more on that in a moment) is my absolutely favorite of all times. When we lived in California I had a huge family room and had slipcovers made for a sofa I had. It was a wide pink and white stripe. That thing cost me a fortune! That was over 20 years ago and cost me $800.00. I could actually have bought a new sofa for less at that time. I loved it though.

One day when I was at the Valley Fair Mall in San Jose I went into the Martin Lawrence Gallery there and found this print. I immediately bought it because I absolutely adored it and it looked a great deal like my home with that sofa and the lace curtains. My heart was stolen, little sweets. But when we moved up here and then to this new house 3 years ago we didn't have room for it. I sold it for $100.00 and included 2 outdoor wrought iron chairs. Pathetic.

Anyway, the limited edition on the far right with a white frame is another of Susan's prints. So I grouped them all together.

Now, about that painting. I purchased it recently at Goodwill for a couple of dollars because it touched my heart and it has pink roses on her hat. BUT the thing is Susan Rios did a self-portrait once and that is a lot like her portrait. I have a book of her painting and prints in it and that portrait is in there. Except for the hat it could almost be her. It is truly amazing. So I hung it with her paintings. I've also included her self-portrait for you to see the similarities - the pose, the hair, the white blouse, the direction in which she's looking. You'll have to enlarge the pix of living room to see that portrait better.

My new sink!!!!!! I love it. I like stainless steel and it's not as deep as the old porcelain one. I did put one pix over the sink that I can look at. Still much more to do there but I had to get some of them off the floor and hung! I'll get Love Bunny to put a shelf in there - I have no "shortage" of shelves or I'll hang that little french country shelf for miscellany.

This is a mosaic my daughter and granddaughter made me. She never got a photo of it 3 years ago and is updating her portfolio of mosaics. So I had to photograph it for her. If you want to see some of her pieces for sale go visit Nan. This is a hobby for her. She's like me and CANNOT do nothing!

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Now I want to share with you a special gift that Katie recently sent me! She just started a selling blog. But I have to tell you also that she recently has taken up silk ribbon embroidery. (We've created a monster!! Aaaack!) AND she's recently had her first grandchild, Syllah May, which was a terrific thrill for her. We followed the journey with her from the announcement of her daughter's pregnancy to the delivery of Miss Syllah. She's a beauty also, but has the most extensive wardrobe of any new chick I've ever seen!! Anyway, Katie made this quilted tote for me and it's lovely. You have got to go to her blog and see her exquisite silk ribbon embroidery! That new baby had the most exquisite first wardrobe I've ever seen. Goooooo! Ooooh and why the tote???? I guess she just "loves" me for some crazy reason! :-)~*~

*UPDATE at 10:15 pm TONIGHT!*
I composed this post tonight at 6 pm or so after working all day (but I wanted you to view the "latest" of the kitchen) and adding to the draft of this post and scheduling it to come on line at midnight, but hubs put up a couple of shelves for me tonight so it's 10:15 pm and I've been up for 20 hours now and still going strong............ Hah! If you believe that you're nuts because you can tell by the run on sentence!!!!! I'm about to keel over. BUT I'll just post this and go because hubs is tired.*Fini* Bon nuit!

Redecorating is Tiring!!

To those of you who have sent me emails asking me how I go like the energizer bunny - I don't, sweet chicks! I'm losing steam rapidly. I have been getting up around 4:30 or 5 am every day for weeks just because I can't sleep knowing what I want/need to do. But my "mental energy" is abounding and astounding! Today's post will be short - got lots to do. Now, what I'd like is some suggestions. I'm putting my 3 Susan Rios prints on this wall - the partly new wall. I think the 2 french wire baskets are too big for this and the 3 tiered white plate stand I want to showcase some faux pastries on is too big for any plates I have. Sooooooo, my little bunnies, what do I put on a 13 1/3" round plate holder - 3 tiers so I'll have to do "3" of whatever? I don't think I've seen 13" plates anywhere. Then what do you think of the little chair with books and that victorian house with foliage and roses in it on top of that?? By george, I think I've got a vignette just in that quick photo below!!! Hah.... And I can assure you the rest of the house is suffering......but NOT for long. I'm on a roll today!!!!!!!!!!!

Bunny Town Tour, Awards & Miscellany!

I'm almost done painting, just waiting for the carpet man to re-stretch the carpet and he's doing that as I type this. So I've washed and washed and washed things the past 2 days. This morning as I washed the "Bunny Town" on the kitchen plant shelf I thought how cute they were and decided to take you on a tour, sweet chicks and bunnies! They're back up there now but cleaner :-) and with a tad more prominence! Each one below shows the front, and the back is just below it so you're getting both views of it. I love collecting little whimsical houses and have many collections around my home. Some I got in Ireland because it seems the Irish love that sort of thing also.

Ooooh, chicks, you've really got to enlarge each one to get all the details.

This is the ice cream parlor. Doesn't it look like an ice cream cone? Loooove the pink roof and the little turret with a bird holding an ice cream cone, pink awning and the pink and red striped awning and mommy and daddy bunny carrying a basket.

This says "Cottage" but it looks more like the barn to me, but hey, I'm no farm chick so what do I know? I think it's precious calling it the "cottage" though. ;-) "Chick Cottage"??? I can go for that....... Notice the giant mushrooms, the flowers growing out of the thatched roof, the cross hatched windows on the back and the wood fence. Mommy and daddy bunny doing chores and coloring easter eggs. Sunflowers on the roof and a chicken on the roof. Hmmmm, where are the roses?!?!?!

The fruit shop comes next; although, I've always called them "fruit stands" when we'd drive the 99 Freeway from northern California to southern California and we'd always stop at the fruit stands for fresh-from-the-orchard squeezed orange juice. I loved it! But now we hit I-5 and miss all those stands. :-( We can see tomatoes, corn, carrots of course, baskets and wooden crates.

Nexxxxxxxt, the train station. Hubs would say he's never seen a train station with what looks like a polka dot tomato on it, or maybe that's a strawberry and it's a California train station. :-) Look at the ticket sign and the RR crossing sign. Even a little clock tower! Mr. Train Engineer waving to us all and a mommy and bunnyette waiting. But most of all the back has a cracked egg shell and someone's tried to "fix" it with tiny bricks! Tooooo cute.

When we were down there recently, hubs bought a limited edition print of the Riverside station. When we got home he asked if I noticed anything off about it. I perused the print and answered no. He chuckled (He only gets this way when I can't find what he's talking about!) and showed me the picture was wrong in its description. It has a canal/body of water that said it was on the north/south side (can't remember which now) and it was wrong. DUH!!! Like I even could figure that one out or even cared. Hah!!

Squeeeeeeal, my favorite! The flower shop!!! It's a ROSE! Look at all those little shrubs in pots and the little flower pots sitting on a shelf, stone steps, teeensy gravel path in the shop. How cute! Yes, they have a nice assortment of roses in this shop!

We now come to the "Inn" of bunny town. Notice the little waterfall in front and the stone steps leading to the door of the inn. There are 2 separate buildings to the inn and one with a kind of french mansard roof and the other a steep tile roof. How quaint. I'm not sure but could this inn be in the "french" part of town???? Ooooo la la!

The Bakery....ummmm, maybe this one is my favorite, sits on main street. Another PINK roof! But this looks like the busiest place in town. No one is empty handed here, chicks. Little stone fireplace inside. Can't you just picture yourself in here eating a cinnamon bun and sipping orange juice?! I can.........

School House!!! Now, no self-respecting bunny would go without an education, right??!!! Well, these bunnies are very studious and smart bunnies. Mrs. Bunny Teacher has her books AND her class well in hand. Ain't no bunny getting slack from this chick........uhhhh, I mean BUNNY!

Well, that ends our tour of Bunny Town. Your tour guide has some decorating, painting, washing laundry and cleaning to do.
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Okay, okay, I do need to post some awards I've received lately and answer some questions put to me so here goes, my sweet chicks:


UPDATE: The blogger who awarded this to me has let me know and I'm very, very embarrassed. I'd been looking for the email in the trash bin and it was in my Mail box waiting for me to acknowledge the award!! How ridiculous of me to not remember that because that's exactly how I do those things! So the sweet chick that gave me this award is JenR so go visit her at Sanctuaryart TODAY!!! I remember that she had to change her name because of some difficulties with someone hijacking her name or some nefarious plot like that, but let her tell you about it on her blog. Now gooooooo!

This was awarded to me a few days ago and for the life of me I can't find the email that tells me. I'm very, very embarrassed and if the person/blogger emails me I'll be more than happy to include a link back to them. I'm so sorry. Life has been more than a little hectic around here lately.
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Rachael over at The Rose Room gave me this award. I'd never heard of it and while I've been called Wild - and Crazy, I've never been given the classier version of it - "Wylde Woman Award"!

The rules of this award are:
1. You can give it to one or one hundred or any number in between - it's up to you. Make sure you link to their site in your post.
2. Link back to this blogsite tammyvitale so Tammy can go visit all these wonderful women and remember the Purpose of the Award: To send love and acknowledgment to women who brighten your day, teach you new things and live their lives fully with generosity and joy.

I have selected Miss Rhea to give this award to. She is one of the most talented women I know, just a tad wild and crazy gal, and she loves the Lord.
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This award absolutely truly stunned me!! I was perusing my Google reader and came across this post from this sweet blogger, lulusfluffyruffles, and just about fell out of this chair!! I am serious!!! I could not believe it. Thank you, thank you, sweetpea, for the delightful post on that blog about loving me. I'm truly humbled. Sniff...sniff....sniff.... Yessssss, I am in tears thinking someone would even think I'm worthy of it. AND she plays my absolute favorite song: Pachelbel's Canon in D. It's gorgeous and I love Pachelbel.
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I received this award from Garden Antqs Vintage and try to answer all awards. I think I should put this award on a side bar and simply add the names of sweet chicks who give me this award! Anyway, I know this is hard but I'm truly awarding this to anyone who reads my blog. Now, I think that if you read it and RETURN then you definitely NEED this award (and a mental evaluation!) for sticking with it to come back and read my ramblings! Truly, how sick do ya hafta be to read me TWICE?!?! I'm a boring old....ummm YOUNG chick who loves life and just tells ya the truth, my sweetpeas! Sometimes it ain't purdy either. Soooo if you're reading this consider yourself tagged for this award!
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Now, we'll hear from my iTunes!!

Cottage Rose and Picketsplace both tagged me for 5 of my favorite songs and since I got 2 tags I'll select 10 songs. So I looked in my iTunes for 10 of the most played songs and will list them here. They are all from the 60s, 70s and 80s mostly.

Can't live if living is without you - Air Supply
Making love outta nothing at all - Air Supply
City of New Orleans - Arlo Guthrie
The air that I breathe - Air Supply
All out of love - Air Supply
Year of the cat - Al Stewart
It never rain in California - Albert Hammond
I never promised you a rose garden - Lynn Anderson
Slow hand - Pointer Sisters
The end of the world - Aphrodite's Child
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Special Blog!! God Bless the People of Louisiana!

I have to say how that makes me want to cry all over again, sweet chicks! I salute all of those Louisianans who made this possible!!! We all love ya!!!!! Sheeeesh, I'm bawling like a baby......... Let's let the world know what we are made of in this country!
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Here SHE is, the USS New York, made from the World Trade Center !

USS New York

It was built with 24 tons of scrap steel from the World Trade Center .
It is the fifth in a new class of warship - designed for missions that include special operations against terrorists. It will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-ready Marines to be delivered ashore by helicopters and assault craft.

Steel from the World Trade Center was melted down in a foundry in Amite, LA to cast the ship's bow section. When it was poured into the molds on Sept 9, 2003, 'those big rough steelworkers treated it with total reverence,' recalled Navy Capt. Kevin Wensing, who was there. 'It was a spiritual moment for everybody there.'

Junior Chavers, foundry operations manager, said that when the trade center steel first arrived, he touched it with his hand and the 'hair on my neck stood up.' 'It had a big meaning to it for all of us,' he said. 'They knocked us down. They can't keep us down. We're going to be back.'

The ship's motto? 'Never Forget'