Decorating for the Summer: A Patriotic Theme (Part 2)

Hello, and welcome to our great room

and dining area!

Continuing with yesterday's post,

here is our dining space...

The towels on the primitive ladder

were purchased at Hobby Lobby last week,

and replaced the beige and black ticking stripe

ones that I usually keep there...

I also bought the runner at HobLob,

and love the stars on it...

On the sideboard is a wooden plate which

had been painted by the artist mom of one

of hubby's son's friends,

along with some old transferware that I had.

The twiggy garland is also from HobLob...

Mr. Billy the Goat stands watch over our

fireplace most of the year.

Since the background is black, I didn't want

to use any navy blue here, so a minimal dose

of red seemed right.

This is the second year that I have put out

the little jars with (fake) flowers in them...

I've had the silver-glittered stars since I-

don't-remember-when,

but they seemed right to dress up the

red ribbon that has white stars on it...

Well, I wish you could come over and see it in person.

We could have some sweet tea and cookies!

Have you done any summer or patriotic decorating this year?

Decorating for the Summer: A Patriotic Theme (Part 1)

Happy Monday friends!

This year I decided to decorate some of our spaces for the

summer in a patriotic theme.

It's been a while since I've dragged out

my red and blue stuff

so in light of some of the bizarre things going on

in the world (and in our own country),

I wanted a reminder of what we are supposed to be about.

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I love to decorate our small entryway

for the seasons...

You may recall that this is part of an old

fireplace surround that I purchased when

I lived in Florida.

It actually came from an old house in

North Carolina,

and here it is back in its rightful state!

The flag banner was a cheapy from

Walmart that I spotted a few weeks ago,

and the mantel is topped with old

architectural salvage and a pitcher,

all of which I have had for a while...

Though I don't decorate with a lot of primitives

anymore, they feel at home in a patriotic

theme, and these I have also had for a while.

They were purchased in a shop in

Micanopy, Florida and made

by a couple of different

artists.

They are standing on the galvanized

milk box that I stand our little

farmhouse Christmas tree on.

I love the tinsel "sparklers"

that the big guy is holding!

If I were a REAL artist,

I would want to create works

with facial details such as these...

I don't want this post to be too

picture heavy,

so tomorrow I'll bring you

part 2 of my summer decorating.

Until then...

Christmas outside. Christmas inside.

Hello dear friends. I hope that you are doing well and enjoying the Christmas season. We are taking it easy this year as it was a busy and hectic year with Mr. Perch's leg. As usual, we decorated the inside of the house very minimally, but this year, right after Thanksgiving, we also did the outside in a minimal fashion since I basically had to do it all myself. Below are a few photos that I took last week or so.

We didn't put the lit garlands on the porch railings

this year.

I decided to use garden lights instead,

telling myself KISS: Keep it Simple Stupid!

I'm sure that there are those in the neighborhood

who surely think that I lost it.

I couldn't agree more...

To further antagonize those who never

want to march to a different beat,

we used the excess lighting

around this old primitive tree that we had

up in the attic and just left it on the porch

swing.

Do you want to guess if more than one

person has asked me if I needed help

standing up the tree?

I politely reply: "No, thank you."...

We put our old metal snowman from

the fifties by the steps going up to the porch...

I am a person who would father eat live

goldfish than shop on Black Friday.

I have never bought into the argument

that the good sales are only on that day.

Point proven:

Last week I went to Michael's and lots of

stuff was 70% off, and with quite a lot

of stock to boot.

I bought these lovely wooden

"Joy to the World" tags...

...and this nice wire basket,

with the fabric Noel painted in grey...

...although the fabric Noel was originally red, as seen below.

No problem, I just painted the letters grey with cheap

Walmart chalk paint.

At 70% off $19.99, who can go wrong?...

In that drastically reduced stash I also bought this

beige knit stocking, topped with fur,

and coordinating throw pillows, not seen

here, but I use them on the black rockers.

Also the twiggy heart below.

The greenery was also on sale...

Of course, I couldn't resist taking a winter

 photo of the back yard.

Not for any decorating reasons, but because our lawn is

back to being pretty and green,

thanks to our yard crew who did an outstanding job

of reseeding it this fall after we lost practically the whole

thing this summer while the Mister was in the hospital and the

sprinkler system let go...

But the best view of all is Mr. Perch,

for the first time since early August,

standing on his "own two legs" in front of

the fireplace last Friday after we got home

with his new leg...

What a wonderful sight to see!!

The Wren's Nest: The Guest Bathroom (Part 2)

Hello!

Moving right along in the saga of the guest bathroom, here is Part 2.

Now we are getting to the fun part,

though perhaps Hubby would not agree.

In this room we had no old paneling to work

with.

You may remember that when we did the master

bathrooms both at Birdsong and in this place,

we only made it LOOK like there was beadboard 

by putting up chair rail molding,

and painting the top of the paneled walls

 a different color from the bottom.

Here there was only old painted wallpaper,

so we put in actual beadboard on the bottom.

Since the old wallpaper was already painted,

I later followed suit with another coat of paint, 

and was actually 

happy with the way it came out.

In this photo you can see how little room

there was to work.

Good for me, as no room in there to help, 

so I got off easy.

Bad for Mr. Perch...

Here the beadboard is in, 

and flooring is being installed.

You can see where he also started sizing

the baseboards in back of the toilet...

The vanity (you may remember that we

bought this last year in Lowe's on close-out,

and stored it in the guest bedroom all winter)

was the biggest joke,

as we knew when we bought it that it was 1/2 inch

wider than the allotted space.

After a lot of cussing and swearing

(sorry, readers!)

we finally got it in.

Here you see it with the faucet that we also 

bought last year..

You can tell that the walls are not yet painted

nor has the caulking been done...

Here is the new fixture,

which replaced the junk that was there

(see yesterday's post).

And the walls are not yet painted,

evidenced, again, by the lovely wallpaper...

Here is the almost-completed room.

You will recognize the bird print on the wall

from Tuesday's post.

We used the toilet that was originally

in the master bathroom,

as it was in perfect condition.

(We purchased a slightly higher one for the master). 

I also re-used the sweet towel rack from

Birdsong.

The beadboard was painted with a basic

trim white, since the vanity was too white

to be up against my favorite color,

Simply White, used in the rest of the place.

The upper part was painted in another 

Glidden color which I will supply the 

name of later,

as that information is up there,

and I am home right now.

It is a light taupe-ish color,

which blended better with the vanity top

than any shade of grey would have,

though it is in the same tone as what

I used elsewhere in this home.

In the upper right you can see the raw framing

of the window, which we replaced on

our second trip.

Oh, did I tell you that there will be a window 

saga to come?...

I must confess, that aside from painting, 

I did not play much of a role in remodeling

this room.

But, I did have fun playing with 

this dingy old antique 

mirror that was being ignored in the attic

here at Plum Tree.

It was chippy white, but not in a good way.

So I taped it off...

...painted it with the same white semi-gloss
paint used in the rest of the room...

...and voila,
after turning it sideways
we had a pretty mirror that kind of matched
the room, but not too much.
Only enough to give it that cottage look
we desire...

By the way,
brushed chrome knobs came with the vanity,
so I sprayed them with oil-rubbed bronze paint
and they match everything else now.
This room is so small that there was not enough room
to step back far enough to take a picture of the whole thing!
You have to love it.

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Thanks for coming by.
As always, I so appreciate the time you spend reading my posts.
Have a wonderful day!

Whites: A Magazine and a Mantel

Hello! Well, we survived last night's storms. After our area received an actual tornado warning around dinner time, we grabbed the cats and holed up in Hubby's closet for about 40 minutes. His is the one spot in this house that is away from windows and outer walls. When all was clear we ventured out and today we only had some branches and pine cones strewn about the yard, so we won't complain. My heart goes out to those in the areas that were not quite as lucky.

When we knew yesterday morning that we were in for some stormy weather, I picked up some foodstuff on our way back from breakfast. I also picked up a great magazine, and thought I would share a few glimpses of it with you.

This is the magazine.

(Ignore all my sticky notes,

and pardon the bad photos.

Good lighting was not

to be found!)

Can you guess why I bought it?

All kinds of articles about white decor.

The creamware featured in this article was gorgeous...

This was about a lovely shop in

Birmingham, AL 

that featured beautiful wares in white...

This owner used a lot of neutrals

with a touch of black.

I loved the rustic ceiling beam

that kept everything from looking

too sterile...

This stove is gorgeous,

and was in my idea of a dream kitchen.

White shaker cabinets,

marble counter tops,

and wood floors.

I wouldn't personally put spices in that

drawer under the stove though,

as spices should be kept cool.

Perhaps this designer or owner does 

not like to cook!...

And this glimpse is from the old family home

of Terry John Woods,

who is an artist and designer.

Not too long ago I bought two of his 

recent books about modern

farmhouse decorating, but

I started following him in Country Living

in his early

folk art days when his home was

decorated in a primitive fashion.

Over the years, his home

 has evolved to a pale and whitewashed

look, which of course, I love...

And this gal had something I always say that I will one day start,

namely a moon garden.

I love all of these white flowers...

...and the bouquets that she makes with them.

Gee...I wonder why I bought some 

moon flower seeds today?...

And who could not love snowdrops?

They start to pop up early,

 and often right through the snow.

What could be bad about that?

I have never seen any for sale in this area,

though I have seen the bulbs for 

sale in mail order catalogs.

Must try them some time!...

And now for reality instead of fantasy.

Last week I was tired of looking at our

rather barren (after the holidays) mantel,

and did some late winter 

or early spring 

(depending on whether you consider

your cup half empty or half full)

decorating of it.

I went for a clean and fresh look,

finally getting to hang up our new

goat picture.

Actually, I found Mr. Billy

on-line awhile ago,

long before we ever reworked the fireplace.

I love goats!...

I also used some faux milk bottles

purchased a while ago from Michael's...

...and some wispy white flowers,

also fake...

So much for this decorator!

NOT!!

Are you lightening up your decor yet?

Thanks for coming by, friends.

Some Little Touches: The Last of Our Christmas Decor!

Hello to all!

I just thought I'd share a few of my little holiday touches, though certainly they are nothing spectacular!

This is our entryway.

Kept pretty minimal because 

hubby likes red and we

don't have a lot of it throughout the

rest of the house. 

He picked out the picture last year

when we were in the mountains

(it actually has some very cute twinkle

lights that we can turn on),

so I tried to work around it.

This is the area that I usually play

around with using stuff that I normally 

wouldn't put elsewhere.

The sign was done by a sign painter

on Etsy.

You can find all kinds of signage

there if you like it as much as I do!

The shelf is from an old fireplace

surround that I bought years ago when

I lived in Florida.

It originally came from an old house 

in NC, so I guess that you could say

it found its way back home!...

This is a pretty little apron that I bought 

in Walmart and matches the little 

deer plates that I featured a few days

ago...

Thanks for coming by.

What little things have you decorated with this year?