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Thursday, August 28, 2014

While the Cat's Away...

...The mice will be working their butts off!
Dead blog time means 
PROGRESS!



Guest room-DONE.
Well, the construction of it is except for
furniture, decor and flooring.
The important stuff is there,
the BED! 



Ready for our company tonight!

Hope they like the view of the woods.
Cruddy picture so when the new
camera is in my hands, I will 
give you a glimpse of the spectacular view.
Trust me on this one. 
Squint your eyes, you might see it. 



Have a good weekend!
We'll be eating lots of BBQ!

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Toile de jute

{Burlap}

My planned day went a little askew today
because this morning, I became the 
Contractors helper at his job.
So, no painting the boys room.
I came home at lunch, took a break
then took a quick tour of the house
to see what I could muster up before the 
kiddlywinks came home from school.

Curtains.



I mounted the rods yesterday basically
to keep them from becoming swords.

And as you read in the last post, I had
planned to use burlap.
I dug out my dusty trusty sewing machine
and whizzed away!

I put the first two panels up on either
side of the mantle.
Love!



I left them long because I love the puddled
look and it hides the outlet down below.

I love how cozy the great room is feeling.


Taking pictures (even with the point and shoot)
is actually a good thing. 
It lets you analyze the room differently.


I have lots of room for adding some art
so as I'm out and about, I'll keep
these areas in mind. 
I will be looking for more small frames
as well, for family photos. 


The fireplace still needs some trim down at the bottom.
We (he) ripped out the beautiful white tile stage
that sucked up so much floor space.
It's so much better now!



Doesn't Lucy just fit so well in this room?
She's definitely a French Pressed cat! 

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Sneak Peek!

Holy matrimony,
have we been working on the house!
Company's comin' next week so it's been 
a storm of projects getting (somewhat) done.
In the last several weeks,
we've added two bedrooms (converted loft),
a bathroom (in the loft),
caulked and repainted the 
great room (and I do mean great). 
Our two bedroom, two bath house
is being converted to a four bedroom,
three bath h.o.m.e.

It's nice to have a Contractor living under
the same roof!
Well... kind of, but that's a whole other story.

I picked up our newly reupholstered couch cushions a few days ago and am
absolutely in love with them. I desperately need throw pillows
but I'll pick those up along the way because
I am very unlucky in finding what I want if I go out
on a hunt for them. 
I will probably end up making some of my own then
finding one or two special pillows for an accent.



Excuse my fabulous pictures.
Still haven't gotten my replacement camera
{I gave the Mr. a reminder this morning} so
I used my state of the art flip phone. 
Don't laugh.


Drapes are next for this room.
I am going to whip out some burlap for now just 
because I have a whole bolt of it.

The exciting thing for me is being able to unpack
more of our treasures!

Now I can visualize where things will go.
I waited since every log and every bit of tongue and groove
wood, was white washed. 
Not really the French Country look.

So now, I'm off to continue my floor scraping.
Somehow drywall mud, caulking and paint
magically appeared under the painters tarps.

Can't wait to show you more
with real pictures!

** If you are new to my blog, Welcome!
Glad to have you visit and I hope you come back.
I'll be sharing my Blog Tour on September 1 but I'll be posting more updates before then. Hope to see you!

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Package numéro un

I love Google Translate. 
Not sure if it's always right but I like to 
click on the speaker to hear French

Package number one...
My bread plates have arrived
ahead of schedule and I just got
an email from my etsy friend
that my bowls are on their way!


I will be looking for more 
Bristol~ Crown Ducal~
England pieces!

I love how this bread plate
nestles so nicely in the salad plate.


Hey, there are only a few but
it's a beautiful beginning to 
a fabulous collection!


Are you a collector of transferware?
I'd love to see it!

Thursday, August 7, 2014

Transferware

First, I want to say that I scoured Pinterest and Etsy for some
beautiful photos of red and white (pink) transferware because
where else would one go?
I have linked every photo to the source I could link them back to
so if you're interested in where they came from,
click the photo. :) And thank you to all the owners of 
these photos for taking such amazing shots!



So, a couple of months ago, before
we painted the kitchen cabinets,
one of the bottom shelves came crashing down.
Of course it was the one with our
plates and bowls along with some
other collected white stoneware.
Obviously those obnoxious little peg
thingies  are not made to hold weight
that heavy. 


I had "brought it up" a couple of 
times over the past months but,
you know how that goes. Priorities! 
Not more than 30 minutes after I mentioned it again
to the sweet Mr. that we needed to add cleats
all the way around the shelves did those things
scream, SURPRISE!!!!!
Hmph. 
When will husbands learn to listen
to their wives?

We had casualties and I have been searching high and low
for the same pieces to no avail.
Guess what?
I came to a better solution!
I am going to start collecting
red and white transferware.



I really love the mis-matched arrangement
of white and red and white, together.
Since all the dinner plates survived (don't know
how that happened!), we just need replacements
for salad/dessert plates and bowls like these below.



And, it will give me a pop of red my kitchen so
desperately needs. 
My Kitchen Aid will be so happy!

I want to unify the kitchen, dining and living rooms
so the pull together color is going to be fabulous red.
Just bits and pieces though, just enough to 
give us a French Country feel.

I once, maybe twice, condemned red from my house.
I lied.
I love red. Always have, always will.
I must have been in a bad mood those times.

Now it will have a home in my house. Always.


And I think I might have to find 
an apron just like this one, too.


And have this in my jardin.


 What do you think?

Monday, August 4, 2014

No More Blogging...

...about the house until it's finished!
Well, not completely finished. How about
until I have some complete before and after's?
{still waiting on my camera-SIGH}



As easy as it is to compare oneself to
others {beautiful home blogs},
 I have to sometimes bring 
myself back to the wonderful reality of, 
WE are doing all of our renovation. 
Between a full time job (Mr. FPH), budgeting
and saving for the next project, rebuilding from
the studs out and all by the hands of those
that reside in our home,
we have come a long way from the original
state of our cross-Country move in date.





I am proud. I am excited. I am grateful!

There is nothing more gratifying than
sitting on the couch after a l.o.n.g day
of house work and looking up 
at the days completed results,
raw finger tips and all.


I'm not complaining one bit. I'd rather
scale that 22 foot ladder and caulk than
have to hoist sheets of drywall up and hold them
so they can be screwed in!


I am sharing all the before's on today's post.
Not bad, huh? 


Just you wait till you see what we've done.
Excited for this coming weekend.
There will be some welding going on!
Not sure if I'm happier about it getting
done or about it not laying on the dining room floor
anymore. Ah, okay, BOTH!

Have a great start of the week!
See you soon.