Baby Boy Shower

My home was the setting of a wonderful baby shower this past weekend. My sister-in-law threw a baby shower for my daughter who lives across the country from us! She was here just for the weekend and my house was central, so that's where we gathered. Grandma, Grandma and Aunt

We used receiving blankets from her registry for the "tablecloth". (That's the handsome father in that baby picture up there).



The cupcakes were baby rattles -decorated adorably by talented SIL.



That's the cute little mommy as a baby up there.

It was so good to get together with relatives and friends!

Now we can't wait to meet the little guy!

"New" Kitchen Cabinets at Knottliten Cottage

KNOTTLITEN COTTAGE ~

The kitchen in our 1925 cottage was remodeled in the 80's and it looked like it. Within the first two months we lived here, we added a dishwasher, bought new white appliances, installed white tile floors and counter tops, painted the walls white, changed the light fixtures, and added a large white farmhouse sink with a new silver faucet. We didn't, however, do anything to the 1980's cabinets except clean them profusely with expensive anti-smoke cleaner (the previous inhabitants were heavy smokers) and add cute silver pulls. When we priced cabinets, it would have been more expensive for new (old-fashioned looking) cabinets than the entire rest of the kitchen remodel. We just couldn't afford new cabinets and were resigned to living with the completely out-of-place, 1980's ones.

Three years later, I was reading The Lettered Cottage blog and fell in love with their black cabinets. I asked my husband about painting our cabinets black, but he wasn't sure it would look good. Then we found a picture on the Lettered Cottage of their original cabinets before painting. They were the EXACT same cabinets we had! My husband was totally on board with the painting after that. We had to finish our basement remodel, build a fence and landscape our yard first. But a year after finding the Lettered Cottage cabinets, we finally had time to do our own this past weekend. My folks babysat the twins and it took us two full days and $100 to turn our cabinets from this -

To this ~

We basically added beadboard to the sides, sanded the doors and cabinets, primed them, then painted four coats of glossy black paint with brush rollers. We absolutely love them!

~Janna

PS Linking up to Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday and the House in the Roses Show Off Your Cottage and Cottage Instincts Make it for Monday.

Savannah Weekend

Janna and Janelle decided we needed a "girl's weekend", so Labor Day weekend found Janna and me flying to Savannah. We left Friday morning early and a mere 6.5 hours later, we landed in Savannah. We had a great, relaxing time - spa day, shopping, new foods and even checked out some cute cottages on Tybee Island (that we had seen on Layla's blog.) It was gorgeous weather and Savannah is just full of inspiration! But now it's time to get ready for FALL (we love fall!!)

There is Nothing New under the Sun

One nice day in March, I was headed out on some errands and saw that wonderful sight - Yard Sale! I immediately braked and followed the signs! And here's what I found:

two child-size Pottery Barn chairs - perfect shape - $10.00 each. I happened to have a $20.00 bill in my purse, so I snatched them up and took them home. That is usually more than I spend - even on big people chairs, but I had been looking for sturdy, little wooden chairs for some time and these needed NO WORK!

Immediately my head started seeing a cute little table to go with those chairs - painted white with a chalkboard top. Of course, I'd never seen a chalkboard top and was quite proud of myself for thinking up something "new". So I started the search - and it was not until about 5 weeks later that I found the table. I promptly brought it home (Salvation Army store - $12.50) and set it aside knowing I wouldn't have time to work on it for several weeks.

The little cuties I was making it for were coming to stay for 6 days! This Grandma would get no painting done!

When I was cruising some blogs that evening, what should I see, but Centsational Girl's table and chair set with CHALKBOARD top! Hmmm, I guess I didn't think of something "new".
Anyway, mine is now done and here she is in all her glory!

Of course, I forgot to take before pictures, and during pictures, but it was just a cute little brown table (boys are sitting at it in picture above) and I did the usual sand, prime, paint, add chalkboard paint to top). I even sanded down the legs a bit so they'd show some wear and "match" the Pottery Barn chairs.

Now I can't wait for the little cuties to come back and stay for awhile so they can draw me some pictures!!

I'm linking up to SNS at Donna's And Met Monday at BTNOP

Porch Chairs

I love these chairs that I found at Goodwill this weekend!
Old fashioned charm, but sturdy!
Let's hope the neighborhood cats don't like them!!
Now, should I leave them as is, stain the wood darker, paint the wood?

So comfie!

Storage, storage . . .

We have a "grandkid" room in our house. It's the room where the grandkids have always slept when they come to visit. But I have decided that I need to have more room in there for play/exercise, etc, so I got rid of the two twin beds and am going to a daybed with a trundle. I have always stored several suitcases full of pictures, art, frames, etc. under the beds and I have now lost that storage. So here is the new plan.

Suitcases are stacked under the window seat in the owl window on the stair landing. I want to make some cute luggage tags so each suitcase will be labeled as to what is in it. (Instead of the little red dot).

I need to get one more black suitcase (18"-24") and make new handles for some of my suitcases. I will be looking for narrow belts on my next "trash to treasure" shopping expedition.

In the grandkids' room, this stack of suitcases will become an end table beside the daybed. I'd like to get one more suitcase to put on top of this stack too so the stack reaches the bottom of the window.

Can't wait to get shopping - and get this room finished up!

$8.77 chair

I found this chair this weekend at one of my favorite haunts. It was $1.00 - that's right - $1.00. It was a good sturdy chair on casters. The upholstery was dirty and the seat cushion a little flat, but those are easy fixes.

Close up of the dirty seat.

So I went to work - took the seat and back off (they unscrew easily), tightened up a couple joints with wood glue and bungie cords to hold them tight while they dried and then stained the whole thing dark. This was my first staining project and I have to say, I'm more of a painting kind of gal. Staining is hard - I couldn't get it to cover evenly, etc. But in the end, I liked it. I had also picked up one of those mattress toppers for $5.00, and I used just a little chunk of it to fluff up the seat a bit.

Polly helped me with that part.

Then it was just a matter of wrapping the seat and back with my new material ($3.77 a yard at Walmart) and staple gunning it onto the seat and back. Again, not as easy as some I've done. It had curves, etc. I ended up taking it all apart, rearranging the foam and starting over. But it is comfortable and looks much better than it did! The fabric is a velvety type with stamped patterns in it. I can't get good pictures of it because it's night and I have to use flash, but it looks quite nice in it's proper place (our bedroom). Maybe during the day I can get a picture of it where it belongs instead of on the landing.

So it was $1.00 for the chair, $2.00 for the stain, $3.77 for the material and I'm figuring about $2.00 for the chunk of foam I cut off of my topper. $8.77 for a nice sturdy chair - not bad!!

Oops, excuse the stain on the carpet - I spilled some dye. I will be cutting that out and replacing it with a piece of carpet soon.
Esther

Linking up to Furniture Feature Friday at Mustard Seed Creations

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!88 years ago today my mother was born. Almost 8 years ago, she went home to be with her Savior. I still miss her!

She was an example of what a Godly wife and mother should be. She loved us unconditionally and was patient and kind.



She taught me to make do with what I had and to LOVE it!! She was creative and content!

She was full of fun and could laugh at herself!

There are so many things I wish I could share with her - my daughters' weddings, the birth of the twins, our "new" old home, my son's marriage, the growth of the two grandchildren she did meet - not to mention all that has happened in my siblings' families!!

I picture her in heaven, looking down and smiling at us. I hope she is pleased with all of us!

I love you and miss you, Mom!

When I started this blog so long ago, it was a "decorating" blog. It was helpful to me - gave me motivation to not only start the projects that were in my head, but to finish them as well. It worked well for that. But as time went on, I found that trying to take all those pictures from start to finish, etc. was hard for me. I would get going on a project and just forget to take them!

Anyway, I have decided to change this blog to more of a "decorating/family" blog. I love to do projects - take something old and re-make it into what I want. I love to paint and change the look of things, so that will always be a big part of my blog. But there may not be as many pictures of each step! And there will be more "family" things, because that seems to be how we stay connected these days and then I will have a "diary" to look back on and remember what happened (you know, for when I get old).

So, hopefully, a little later, I will get some pictures posted of our Georgia trip - after all, it is inspiring to visit Georgia! (As the picture at the top shows)

Plants and a sweet potato casserole at Knottliten Cottage

The plants that I chose for the back yard (greens, yellows, reds, tropical ish) -

The plants that I chose for the front yard (blues, purples, pinks, whites) -The mature plants already in the front yard (pink azalea and purple lilac tree) -Proof that I do sometimes make dinner (sweet potato omelette casserole) -

Sorry for the photo quality; it was hailing when I took these pics :)

Super Easy St. Patrick's Day Sign

This is soooo easy - I forgot to even take pictures! Just grab a piece of 2 x 4 about 8" long. (In my case, I asked my hubby to cut me one since all the scraps were too big or too little). I gave it a quick, very light spray of heirloom white. Then it was just a matter of typing on a piece of scrapbooking paper, modpodging it onto the block and adding a cookie cutter. I then put some eye hooks and chain on the top and hung it up by my front door.

SUPER EASY - SPLASH OF FESTIVITY!

Hooking up with Cottage Instincts Make it for Monday and DIY at ASPTL