Show Your Cottage Monday 10/19/09

Cielo at the house in the roses has started "Show Off Your Cottage Monday." So this is the first post that I had pre-scheduled for that day and decided that this will just have to do until I can get some other things posted. Enjoy and please go visit the other participants. :-)
~*~

Since Love Bunny has decided to drag me to the other side of the state and I certainly want to participate in Cielo's Cottage Monday I've decided to just put one picture of a vignette on my mantel. Those of you who have been following me for a while know that 2 summers ago I added a "faux mantel" to our family room to jazz it up a bit. The vignettes on the mantel are changing with such frequency Love Bunny can't keep up with it, chicks. Hah.... Anyway, that is all I'm going to show you of our "retirement/forever/I'm not moving again" house. Enjoy and see you next week.
~*~

Also a friend of mine makes these lovely faux pastries and at affordable prices so give her a look and see what you might like. Visit Jen here.
~*~

Random Thought:

Look around your house and use something in a different way for a new look. Think of what else you can do with it besides its "normal" use. You can do it! Just see it with a "different eye"! I do it all the time.

Family Room Refurbishing Part 4

Last post for the family room.

This corner here is where I've framed 2 pretty cards and fun-tacked 5 other cards that were sent to me for helping someone with their computer. (Just something I know a bit about and can help with sometimes.) She's a very famous painter and I'm not going to name drop.

You'll notice I am not a bit afraid of painting the mats "wild" colors. I love the vivid green and the caribbean blue I came up with after mixing several different colors with white for the 2 mats in this room. It adds a bit of a tropical feel to it with the little pink starfish on the ladder. I love color and am lavish in its use in my home.

The mantel contains some darling little birdhouse ornaments made by Rhea of sweetnshabbyroses and isn't doing very well physically right now. I added some white garland and bright pink and green balls to the mantel along with a little roses vase on the left and some more cupcakes on a rose plate on the far left. The little ballerina I made out of a matchbox and decorated with papers and garland. I had it for sell but it didn't sell so I get to keep it. I'll be making some more simply because I love having that kind of thing around my home. Beauty!

Here is the faux fireplace screen closer. (Click for a better view.) I added the paper roses, leaves and ribbons along with 2 small decals on the sides after painting the whole thing white.

On the right side I have a most unusual little tree I found at Goodwill but it is quite heavy and is done with wire. I have no clue what it was made for but I bought it home, painted it white and added little fabric covered eggs I bought last year after Easter when they were on sale. The roses in the little tin pot are my foray into coffee filter roses. Those are very labor intensive to do and hard to get them to look right. It wasn't worth the effort although I eventually did get a good looking one that you can see on the left of my sidebar.

On the left side of the mantel I have some more faux plants with little roses stuck in the middle. As I said, I don't care what other people think; I do what I like. I have to live in this house and that's what is important to me—what I and my hubby think of it. He thinks we need more model trains in it but that's beside the point. *Wink*

I made the one quilted ecru roses pillow on the left but the plaid one I got at JCPenney for a steal and the 2 blue toile I got at TJMaxx for $25.00 for the 2 of them and they're feather pillows. Squeeeeeeeal.

~*~

Pink Saturday 10/17/09

Happy pink saturday and please go to Beverly at howsweetthesound to view all the women who want to share their "pink" with you. You'll enjoy the journey!

At Bev's request I went to a blogger I've never been to before as it is impossible to visit all of them with almost 200 participating now. This is Esther and her blog. Do go visit her.
~*~

I'm going to be a trifle lazy today with pink saturday because hubs wants to drag me off to the other side of the state this weekend...sob...sob...sob...I hate not sleeping in my bed, eating my own food (or Applebee's or Olive Garden's alfredo fettucine!), walking around the house without my bra and various other things, but to keep th' man happy, I'll go. *Sigh*.....

Anyway, I'm going to just show you some beautiful rooms—not mine but others.

See what can be done with very little space to make an tiny office. I love this!

I once painted the insides of my huge linen closets in our other home a Pepto-bismol pink and it did jazz up the long hallway. Love it and may do it again. These are wonderful for that punch of bright color.

What drew my attention here was the pink jacket hanging of the door and the red (looks like lacquer) bedside table. Very oriental looking.

Another dream room for me, chicks. I love the pink walls with white wood trim and the diaphanous curtains framing the bed.

Gray and pink. The pink letter stands out and truly sets off that gray. I love gray also.

Just my style with the deep ocean blue, pink stripes and touches of green to bring the outdoor foliage in. I did this exact thing in my family room: the colors I mean. Beautiful!

~*~

We had an apron making class recently at a saturday activity at my church and I was supposed to teach the women how to make an apron. I ended with with 4 sewing machines, none of which I was in the slightest bit familiar with, and women with various degrees of "sewing ability", thread that didn't match much of what fabrics they each brought, every single machine had a problem or two, but I got a free meal out of it. If you feed me, I'll follow you anywhere! They all tried really hard though and as time ran short I offered to bring this one home and finish it off for this woman. She had never sewn before but did a fantastic job for her first apron. I applied a ruffle I had for another apron and the pockets.

And ya wanna guess who my model is here???? Hah.

So it ain't pink, adjust!

~*~

Family Room Refurbishing Part 3

A few closeups of the items in the family room. This is the ladder with the finials tucked in nicely and the pink sparkly glittered starfish. I bought these little cupcakes from Shannon and just love them. I have several from different people as well as do my own, but I'd rather buy them than make them. It's much more fun to see other chick's delights! So go visit with her.

I also need faux plants as I love greenery around the house but everyone knows I can NOT grow a thing...well, maybe, mold, but plants? Nope, nada, zip. Then you'll spy a little darling bottle I got from Cathy. I don't have a passion for little decorated bottles; I have a passion for anything beautiful! Hence, the bottles. :-)
As I've said before: be adventuresome, or in come circles creative, in making pictures work for you if you're on a budget and the highly expensive picture framing industry drives you nuts like me. I use calendars, print pretty images off the internet (as long as I don't sell them, it's fine) and then hang them on my walls in old frames or use the mats to "frame" them.

This spot in the family room is not done. It's not visible from the dining area but that's no excuse for not finishing it off except I'm not sure what else I want to do with it. I have dozens of books I no longer use and am giving them to the thrift stores. Mostly decorating books. I'm keeping all my old favorites though and have put them back in the shelves but I'm thinking of pictures or knick knacks in there also. If you enlarge the photo and look on the 3rd shelf down from the top in the middle, you'll see my crayon box. Yes, I color in my books!

I have no other place for that pink chair I refinished years ago but I love it and am not selling it. I'll probably end up putting it somewhere in the living room eventually and stack books on it. It's an additional chair for holidays anyway. The baby shoes of mine on that little shelf will be changed out as soon as I figure out what will go on those tiny shelves. The bookcase houses most of Love Bunny's books and church books. The other one is for my froufrou and decorating books.

This little thermometer isn't my style but it is so cute I hate to get rid of it. Come to think of it, it really is a shabby chic style, isn't it? Anything goes with shabby and romantic!

~*~

Random Thought:

Peppercorn steak is one of my favorite meals and I make it for us a lot. But I got to thinking—again—about it being in heaven. If it's not in heaven, then I'm taking all my "Take Out" menus with me and ordering in!

Why Are You Photographing My Salad?

This is one of those "I hate t' tell ya" posts. Couple of conversations around the house lately...

He: I want lima beans with our meatloaf tonight.
She: Nope.
He: Why not?
She: Remember 2 weeks ago when I fed them to you how you kept me awake all night? (No explanation is needed here!)
He: I still want them.
Bringing food to table:
He: Those don't look like limas; why are they orange?
She: They're not; they're carrots. Eat them anyway.
~*~

She: Make us a salad for lunch so I can finish this project.
He: Okay.
After a few minutes he walks into craft room:
He: Why are we out of lettuce?
She: I don't know. Are you sure? (Her duh moment, silly question)
She walks into kitchen to check fridge crisper.
She: Looks like we're out, but you have a tiny bit of lettuce there.
She chops up about a cup of lettuce, adds tomatoes he's cut up already, adds cucumbers, carrots, onion for his plate, beets for her plate, sunflowers seeds for his plate, pecans for her plate, craisins for both plates and then artfully arranges it on plates like a chef would do.
She: Remember the slogan about "lemons"?
He: Huh?
She: Making lemonade from lemons?
She: Thank you for doing the salads for lunch.
He: Blank stare!

Salads don't have to be just about "lettuce", ya know! Tasted wonderful!!! Notice the "artfully arranged" ingredients... ;-)

~*~