My Magazine Feature

Hello everyone!

Well, I'm can hardly contain myself now that the magazine is out on newsstands that has our home featured in it!  I heard about it last week, but only just now found it.  I was overwhelmed with happiness as I flipped through it reading every word.  I did not see the article until just now.  I was happy to see that everything was written correctly and gave me great pride to read my family names mentioned in it as well.

  

Here are a couple of pages from my feature.

It's titled "French Essence".

You'd never know, by looking at this photo, that the temps were freezing outside!

Even my sweet blogging friend, Laurie from Heavens Walk, was featured!  

This is her pretty porch.

It's such an honor to have been selected to be in a real magazine!  Mine is now sitting out on my coffee table with pride.  

Many thanks go out to the people involved.  My dear sister, Kim, for sending my name to Fifi O'Neill (the founder of the magazine) in the first place.  Also, to Fifi for choosing me.  The photographers, Gridley and Graves who had to battle a snowstorm just to get here, and to Sandra  Soria, the writer of my article and editor of the magazine.

So, I will be wearing a smile on my face all weekend I'm sure!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Father's Day on Sunday too.

Thanks for stopping by.

~ Kelly ~

Dreaming of a Cutting Garden

Hello everyone!

I love flowers in my home.  At the moment (and the foreseeable future) I have fake ones scattered about.  I don't mind that as they are pretty and very realistic looking.  However, it would be so much fun to having a small cutting garden out back to cut fresh flowers from to bring inside.  I never even thought about it until this gal suggested it!  She's a wonderful gardener herself so it was only fitting that she would suggest it.  

Here are some examples of some cutting gardens that I could realistically see in my back yard.

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Wouldn't it be fun to just go in your own backyard and cut from a designated area?  I would rather do that than take away any decorative blooms from flowers I'm using in my landscaping.

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Many of these cutting gardens have building and planting instructions!  (You can just click on "source" below each picture.)

Heck, we plant a small vegetable garden every year.  It would be nice to include a cutting garden too.  Honey, are you reading this?  

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I could even adorn it with a cute sign!  

Of course, it would be pure fantasy to have a border of lush flowers around the perimeter of our backyard to look like this! But, I wouldn't want to take blooms away from that.  

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So, I'm back to a nice raised bed style cutting garden.  

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It's possible.  

Right?  

I'll have to see.  In the meantime, I will dream about it some more.

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Kelly ~

Great Inspiration

Hello everyone!

I've been enjoying some new reading material lately.  It is full of great inspiration in the style that I love.

The first one is this book.

I got it on sale through my book club with free shipping!  Score!  I've been enjoying not only the pictures but the story behind them too.

These are pictures of Rachel Ashwell's newest venture.  She bought an old B&B in Texas and added more homes to the property and opened it up to the public.  She calls it Prairie Ranch and it's just lovely!  

Wouldn't it be fun to stay in one of these cute cottages?

I know it isn't new to most people, but I just wanted to share it with you anyway.  I really love her latest aesthetic of combining rustic with femininity.

Next, I found this beautiful magazine.

It's a new magazine that I haven't seen before.  

Just look at all this French goodness?

This is a very nice magazine if you like French style.

And I even saw some of my favorite bloggers featured in here!  

This one is from Courtney of French Country Cottage.

And this one is from Marian of Miss Mustard Seed.

So, if you're looking for some good reading and inspiration this summer.  You might want to give these a try!  

Thanks for stopping by.

~ Kelly ~

It's a Good Thing!

Hello everyone!

Do you remember watching the Martha Stewart Show and she would always have a "good thing" segment? I always liked those and hearing her say, "It's a good thing".   Well I thought I would share some of my "good things" in my yard.  

The thing that makes me the happiest right now is our humble little garden.

It's growing fast and we're just starting to see some tomatoes........

and squash.

Eating home grown vegetables from your garden, is a good thing!

Another "good thing" in my yard are these fragrant gardenias.

These bushes are right outside our garage next to the driveway and smell wonderful every time I go out there.

 Smelling gardenias on your way to loading the trashcan in the driveway, is a good thing!

Next to the gardenia's are these lillies.  They are just starting to bloom also.

Adding a little color next to the driveway, is a good thing!

On the other side of the house, this birdhouse is now home to a family of blue birds.

 Watching blue birds fly in and out of their house while you eat breakfast in your kitchen, is a good thing!

Do you remember me telling you that our arbor fell over and broke during the snow storm last winter?  Well, I thought my jasmine vine, that grew over the arbor, was dead.  We hauled off the arbor and the remains of the vine.  But look what appeared this Spring?

It's growing again and needs another arbor to grow up on.  That's a hearty vine!  Guess I'll need to get my husband to build one or find another metal one like I had before.

Having a vine grow over an arbor that makes a charming entrance to a back yard, is a good thing!

Also, I moved the bird bath over to the pinestraw area.  I love it there.  Still need to plant more flowering bushes in that area though.

A place for flowers and a birdbath, is a good thing!

And lastly, this is a VERY special hydrangea bush.  I know it doesn't look like much, but it was beautiful when I first received it.  It was given to me by the photographers that came out last February to shoot my house for a magazine.  It had blue blooms on it then.  I made sure to plant it in the yard this Spring in hopes of keeping it alive.  Time will tell.  I'm babying it for sure!

Having a sentimental plant in the garden, is a good thing!

Well that's a brief tour of some of my "good things" around the yard.  I'm hoping to get our front porch bleached and cleaned up on Monday so I can share that with you too.  We are late getting to it this year!

Having a clean front porch to enjoy, will be a good thing!

Thanks for stopping by.

~ Kelly ~

A Celebration!

Hello everyone!

Well, it finally happened.  Someone in this household, turned the big 5.0.  My husband celebrated his birthday yesterday.  I made him a cake and tried to make it a festive evening (after all it was a Wednesday).  

He got lots of well wishes too.

We had pizza and cake.

But he's not so sure about this whole "50" thing.  He seemed to be very reflective on his birthday.  Which made me think I may be the same way when I turn 50 later this year.  Oh my!  Sometimes, milestone birthdays just make you do that I guess.  I think the older ones hit you the hardest.  Our oldest son will be having a milestone birthday later this year too.  Only he'll be 21.  Do you remember that one?  Now, THAT'S an exciting birthday.  Why can't 50 be like that too? 

Well, he's not done celebrating.  He will go the blade show with some friends this weekend and pick up something he wants and he'll celebrate over at his parents then too.  So, we're stretching this whole birthday thing out a bit. Maybe that will give him some time to adjust to his new age.  We have to remind ourselves that it's just a number, right?  

But, I have to admit, I kind of like the number 21 a little better. 

Well, you know what they say, youth is wasted on the young (or something like that).  

Here's to turning 50!  

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May you have another 50 yrs ahead of you honey!

Thanks for stopping by.

~ Kelly ~

Old Crates

Hello everyone!

As you probably already know, I love decorating with old objects.  One in particular is old crates.  I have a few that I thought I would share with you today.  In fact, one was just obtained recently!

All of my crates have come from the same source too -  Decor Steals.  I love it when they sell "found" objects.  

My most recent purchase just arrived!

It's an old crate used to hold grapes.

It's printed on both sides.   I placed it in the center of my kitchen table for now.

Another one that I've already shared with you before is this German beer crate.  I placed it on top of my refrigerator.

And lastly, is this old milk crate.  It is in my dining room.

I love how it is stamped on the side with the dairy farm that it is from.

It was the very first old crate that I purchased!  I've been hooked ever since.  

Do you like old crates?  I like the stories that go with them and the endless possibilities of how you can use them.

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Kelly ~

Chest of Drawers Makeover

Hello everyone!

I have been thinking about painting a piece of furniture blue for some time now.  I ran across pictures like these and thought how pretty they were.

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Now, although, those pieces of furniture are painted in Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint, I was impatient and didn't want to have to order it and then wait for it to arrive.  So, I went down to my local antique shop and picked up something similar.  I just wanted something in that general color.

So, I bought this.

This is the first time I've ever used this brand. 

I chose Memphis Blue. As you can see its a pretty soft blue. 

And what did I paint?

This, in my foyer.

Now, I know some of you might be cringing that I painted over this pretty pine piece, but I bought it several years ago at a consignment store with mostly credits that I had from things that I sold.  So, it's not as if it came over from France or anything!  

I was ready for a change.  

Here it is with the first coat on it.

Then I painted the knobs white.

I wanted this piece to look distressed, so I used some sandpaper to take off some of the paint.

(Sorry this is a terrible photo.  It wasn't in focus.)

After letting it set overnight, I decided to age it even more by adding some dark wax to it. It also helped tone down the blue a bit.

Now..............voila!  All done and I'm very happy with the results.

I like how country it looks and adds a bit of color to my mostly neutral home.  

So, what about you?  Have you been inspired by anything out there that makes you want a change?

Thanks for stopping by.

~ Kelly ~