Decorating with Blue Glass in the Kitchen

Hello everyone!

As you know, I've fallen in love with blue Ball jars lately.  They've been around forever, but they're new in my decor.  I decided to bring some into my kitchen to help carry the blue color into that room. 

I intermixed them with my white pitchers above the range.

I also found these pretty blue glass votive holders and added them to a new Florentine tray I found.

I added some blue and white linens  as well.

Blue glass just says summer to me, so I'm enjoying it during these hot months.  

So, I guess when I say I've got the summer blues, it's a good thing!  

Thanks for stopping by.

~ Kelly ~

Coffee Table Makeover

Hello everyone!

Are you still tired from all the 4th of July festivities?  It was fairly quiet at my house.  We went out to dinner and then came home and watched my neighbors shoot off fireworks.  They had some professional looking ones too!  We cooked out last night and then  I made an apple cobbler in honor of the holiday. 

During the extended holiday weekend, I decided to do a makeover to my coffee table.  For years, I've been pondering the idea of painting the top of it.  I've taken baby steps and last year painted the legs white.  I thought that would be enough, but then I got the idea of adding a soft blue to the top of it.  Since the table is surrounded by so much white, I felt I could use a pop of color in the center of the room to jazz things up a bit.  

And, I'm very happy with the results.  I used the same blue color that I used on the chest in my foyer along with a dark wax to tone down the brightness of it.  

It is much too baby blue without the dark wax!  The color is CeCe Caldwell's  Memphis Blue.

I like how it no longer blends in with the wooden floor.   

I also recovered the chair cushion in my antique chair.  I cut a piece of  vintage grain sack to cover it.  The good thing is that I still have plenty of grain sack left so I can display it or use it for future projects.  

I added my vintage crate (from Decor Steals) on top of my coffee table and filled it with glass jars of white flowers. 

It looks very country prairie to me now.

So, what did you do during this long holiday weekend?  

Thanks for stopping by.

~ Kelly ~

Time to Celebrate!

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Wishing all of you a safe and happy Independence Day!

~ Kelly ~

My Patriotic Decor

Hello everyone!

I decided to go ahead and decorate my front porch for the 4th of July.  I tried to get some good pics from the street level, but because we have so many trees, it's hard to get a good picture in the summer.  The leaves are full and really hide our house.  Time to limb up some of those trees!  

See what I mean?  Oh well.  I love the shade and privacy that our trees give us.  So, you'll just have to squint your eyes to see the red, white, and blue bunting on the porch railings.  

As you can see (in the above pic) we need to remove our dead pompass grass bushes. They didn't survive our harsh winter! (My husband is secretly happy about it now that he doesn't have to prune them anymore.)

Let's head up the stairs to the porch.

I didn't want to cover up our leaded glass on the door, so I just placed some flags in my pot of flowers.

I also added some flags to my back deck flower pots. (Sorry, no pic.)

Inside, I don't really decorate for the 4th because of my light shabby chic color scheme, but I was lucky enough to have a very sweet blogging friend send me something she made! Carol from Art and Sand, made me a patriotic pillow cover.  However, the colors were traditional red, white and blue.  So, rather than only being able to use this pillow cover during the 4th of July (outside on my bench), I decided to tweak it just a tad so it could be used indoors year round! 

I painted over the red stripes in a grey color.  Now, it fits in with my everyday decor and brings a bit of patriotism to my home. I hung it inside this empty frame that I painted in blue (same as the dresser in my foyer).

Y'all know by now that I don't follow traditional decorating rules, right?  This was definitely breaking some rules!  But, I'm happy that I can keep it up year round or even take it down and stuff it to be used as a pillow as it was originally intended.  I may consider getting this matted and have some glass placed over it.  

Carol...........thank you again for your thoughtfulness.  I never would've thought that I could have a flag pillow in my house and love it so much! Hope you don't mind my tweaking it.

Thanks for stopping by.  

Hope all of you have a great 4th of July too!

~ Kelly ~

Restyling the Secretary

Hello everyone!

My secretary is a fun piece of furniture to redecorate.  I don't have shelving units anywhere else in my house, so every now and then, I like to tweak the shelves in my secretary.

I gave it a summer look by changing just a few things.

I changed the pillows in my slipcovered chairs by using this sweet floral pattern.

I leaned a floral canvas on top and filled the shelves with old books turned backwards to reveal the old pages.  

Old blue bottles and mason jars add a pop of color along with some faux purple lilacs.

It's light and summery but most of all sweet and simple.

Do you have a favorite item that you like to change up displays in too?

Thanks for stopping by.

~ Kelly ~

Italian Florentine Trays and Tables

Hello everyone!

I hope you're enjoying your weekend so far.  It is beautiful here in GA. 

I wanted to share my newest love with you.  I have fallen in love with these feminine Italian Florentine trays.

I found these at a local antique store and just snatched them up!  I love how affordable they are too.

Isn't this petite round one pretty?

It has a very subtle pink color on it.  

This rectangular one is pretty too.

It has a cream background.  

I love the painted gold on all of the trays along with the scalloped edges and detailed design in the center.

I plan on grabbing more when I see them.  Also, Etsy and Ebay are full of them!  

In addition, to these trays, I love the nesting tables.  Now, I've actually had these for years.  Every now and then, I bring them back out of storage.  I decided to bring mine back out after finding the trays.  

This makes a great little table for my glasses, coffee , etc. next to the chair. 

Look at the pretty design on top.

These tables are meant to be seen, not covered up with stuff!  

I used another smaller one beside the bench in my foyer.

I noticed that there are many different styles and color combinations of these trays and tables.  Do you have any of these?

If you have a feminine style home (like I do) they fit in perfectly!

Thanks for stopping by.

~ Kelly ~

The Best Way to Buy Meat

Hello everyone!

One of the perks to being married to a firefighter is the fact that he can cook.  In fact, my husband enjoys cooking!  In particular, meats.  With that, comes being picky about his meats too.  He prefers to buy our meat at the local meat market as opposed to the grocery store.  Why?  Because it's a better quality meat that is fresher and you can control your quantity size as well.  For example, we can buy the number of pork chops we want rather than a pre-packaged pack at the grocery store sold by weight.  

We shop here for our meats.

It's nothing fancy, but you get high quality, fresh meats here.  We buy in bulk and bring it home to freeze for later.  

We take it out of the white butcher paper it comes in.

We separate the meats by type and portion size. Be sure to have plenty of freezer bags on hand.

Then when it's all packaged it up, we load our freezer with it.

We have an extra refrigerator in our garage to store it in.  

At first, I wasn't sure if the meat would be any different than what we've purchased elsewhere, but after browning some ground round one night and had no fat to drain off of it, I was a believer.  It even broke up easier in the pan.  Everything we eat from there is much fresher than anything we've purchased at the grocery store.  We make a trip about once a month and stock up.  

So, if you're looking for a new way to buy meat, try your local meat market.  You may be surprised at the difference.

Now, what's for dinner?

Thanks for stopping by! 

~ Kelly ~