One Year Later...Open for Business

It has been over a year since my last post.  I'd be surprised if any of my readers are still out there.  If so, hello again.

So much has changed over the past year.  Good changes.  Life altering changes.  Such changes that turned my world upside down, I set aside the blog without warning.

The dust is starting to settle, and I'm ready to blog again, but what do I talk about now?

We've moved to a different home, and honestly, posting photos of our home on-line doesn't seem so appealing any more.  Privacy is more important to us now.

When we moved, the spousal unit declared war on vignettes and knick-knacks.  After packing up countless books, vases, bowls, and trays, I can't say that I blame him.  Three months after we'd moved in, I opened one box filled with little bird figurines.  I unwrapped one after another after another after another.  It was rather embarrassing. Enough!

So where does that leave you and me?  Honestly, I'm trying to decide.  My craft room was the last room to be packed because it was such a mess.  Organization was finally heaved aside as moving day approached.  I marked one box "Essentials" and one box "Etsy." The rest was just tossed in boxes simply labeled "Craft Room." I can hardly find anything now.

The good news is that I have Christmas pillows this year!

Truthfully, I've been so dismayed to see Etsy become filled with mass produced stuff.  What happened to it being a market place for vintage and handmade items?

I've looked into alternatives, but for now Etsy makes the most sense for me and my little shop currently operating from the dining room table until my craft studio is finished which may be years from now.

Be advised that I am running low on everyone's favorite damask, so this might be its last year.

I do have pillows with green bows available, but I still need to take new pictures of them.

I've added a teal bow this year.  Isn't it cute?

Visit my Etsy shop here to see more.

Mary Carol Garrity 2013 Fall Open House Tour

I can't believe it's September already. What happened to the summer? Actually, it still feels like summer in our part of Kansas. Today and tomorrow is Mary Carol Garrity's fall open house, and it was 93 degrees today. It's hard to get in the mood for autumn and the upcoming holidays in a puddle of sweat, but I made the drive to Atchison, Kansas, anyway.

By way of comparison to what I've seen her do in the past, Mary Carol really cut back this year. Every room wasn't dripping in fall decor. There were just little bits of autumn tucked around the home.

Inside the foyer, a table was made ready for fall with a simple bowl of pumpkins and seasonal foliage.

Who wouldn't love to have a foyer large enough for a sitting area?

Inside the den, only sign of fall was a wooden dough bowl filled with the colors of autumn.

And then I looked up.

In the living room, a large vase filled with faux branches made a bold statement in the center of the room.

All the upholstery in the living room is white.  I can't imagine how she keeps it all clean, especially with evidence of at least one dog in the home.

I always stop to admire the window seat.  It's always inviting, no matter what time of year it is.

The dining room was loaded with the colors and textures of the season.  I saw a lot of people buying these orbs today, but I already had one.  They are much more versatile than the ones she offered last year since they are collapsible and can be stored flat.  I found mine last spring at a local home decor store.

Notice the little knife-rest?  I'd love to find some of those!

Of course, the chandelier was dripping with pine cones and fall branches.

Through the door is the breakfast nook, which connects the dining room to the kitchen.  I love the light blue ceilings in this space.

Notice the cheese domes being used at the place settings.  This is going to date me, but we still have the marble plate and cheese dome we received as a wedding gift.  How often do you see these in thrift stores and garage sales now for next to nothing?

I love the little island in the kitchen.  Mary Carol's home is grand, but the kitchen is tiny!  It always gives me hope for our own little kitchen.

Let's go outside!  The screened porch was still looking like summer with only a few pumpkins tucked here and there.

My one purchase today was one of the lanterns seen on the left side of the hutch.  Thankfully, there was a tent set up next to the house that had them available for purchase because her store downtown, Nell Hills, was filled with people and the room with the line to check out there was horribly, horribly hot.

More pumpkins and orbs on the patio.  I'm so glad I have an orb of my own now!

The patio table was loaded with autumn's bounty carried in a small wheelbarrow.

I love these iron candlesticks.  They seem so versatile every season.

On the patio table there was a dough bowl and an orb.  Swoon!

Doesn't this look easy to put together?

I adore the little statue with the ribbon sash.  Usually, he's holding a bottle of wine.

But today, I'd be more interested in a big bottle of cold water than a glass of wine.  Eventually, summer will turn into autumn here in Kansas, and I'll be ready with new ideas to decorate for the season.  

By the way, if you pin any of these images, please give decorating credit to the talented Mary Carol Garrity.

I'm linking up...

Between Naps on the Porch

Savvy Southern Style

Lighten Up

Sorry for another disappearing act.  This summer hasn't turned out as I expected, and I've been pretty under the weather.  Being sick is never fun, but it always seems to be a little worse during the summertime.

We've managed a few un-blog-worthy projects around the house, like replacing a storm door that was literally crumbling to pieces and having gutter guards installed since the trees are now taller than the roof line (read: regularly clogged gutters).  The yard I worked so hard on this spring is now a weedy mess.  The laundry piled higher and higher, and when I was finally feeling well enough to tackle it, the washer broke.  Oh well.

During a good week, I decided I'd had enough of our dark olive green living room.  I had changed it from a ho-hum taupe about five years ago to SW Olive Grove and immediately regretted it.  It was just too dark.

Adding the overmantel helped lighten the room, but I still wanted a brighter, happier look.  I wanted to stick with a shade of green, and I finally settled on Valspar's Desert Grass that I had mixed at Sherwin Williams because I love their Cashmere paint.

It's a much more cheerful room, and the traditional cherry furniture I love seems less heavy now. This shade of green really blends well with the brass hardware, especially in the grandfather clock, my very first Craigslist purchase from about five years ago.  Can you believe I scored this beauty for only $125?  Since it had been stored in a dirty garage, I had it professionally cleaned, and the serviceman said it was worth about $800.  Score!

I've always been and admirer of secretary desks.  My grandmother and my great-grandmother had one, but I thought they were a little old-fashioned until I saw the many hutches and the secretary desk in Mary Carol Garrity's home:

So when I found a secretary that had just been put on the sales floor at ReStore, I pounced on it.  It's filled with beautiful books (that we've actually read, thank-you-very-much!) and favorite pictures documenting some of our family history.

It took five years, but I think I've finally figured out this room.

Centerpiece for Spring

Life is keeping me very, very busy these days.  I'm really struggling just to keep up with day to day housework, and now that we are well into Spring, there's yardwork as well.

I'm realigning my expectations for the short term, but a couple of weeks ago, I took time to treat myself to a trip to Olathe Glass, a local glass supply company that also sells some lovely, small home decor items.  

They have a great selection of faux succulents and artichokes now.  They are a little pricey, but they are far more realistic than the stuff found at the chain hobby stores.  I picked up a small silver gazing ball as well and mixed them with the faux succulents and berries I already had at home.

The shop was using big glass bowls for their succulent arrangements.  When I tried to replicate it with a deep-sided glass serving dish I had at home, it seemed kind of flat.  I found a small cake stand I "won" in a white elephant exchange a few years ago along with a very stale cake.  Finally, that cake stand came in handy.

As luck would have it, it fit perfectly under my glass dish when it was turned upside down.

I think this arrangement should last through the summer if I don't have time to change it.

Overmantel Reveal

Hello again!  It's been a month since my last post.  Did you think I gave up blogging?  I've been working on a big project that consumed an entire month of evenings and weekends.

I've had crown moulding envy for a long time.

By the way, are you wondering if it's "moulding" or "molding"?  It depends if you are using British English or American English.  But like most things American, if we want to appear more upper crust, we resort to the British spelling.  So, I'm going to refer to it as "moulding."

After touring several new model homes, my husband was in agreement that adding crown moulding would make our house look less builder-basic.  While I was eager about adding crown moulding, I knew it was going to be a big project filled with challenges:

1. Our living room has bay windows.

2. There are two bump-ins flanking the foyer.  One is the coat closet ,and behind the other is the ductwork going to the second story which means lots of corners.

3. One wall is almost 20 feet long.  Another wall is about 16 feet long.

While researching installing crown moulding, I started to think about the mantel.  It's not a bad mantel, but wouldn't it be nice to beef it up a bit?  (Sorry for the nighttime photo). 

The first step was going to be to build a frame for the overmantel.  Fortunately, the existing columns were made of stock lumber.  Mitre saws don't bother me, but I am afraid of table saws.  I know someone who cut his finger off using a table saw, so I want nothing to do with them.

I used a 1x8 for the fronts and 1x3s for the two sides.  I like to prime and paint two coats before installing trimwork.  The final coat of paint I do at the end, and it's just to cover the nail holes and any scuff marks from installation.

After a test fit and making sure it was level, I drew a line on the wall as a guide.  I screwed scrap pieces of 2x4 into the top plate and into the existing mantel then nailed the frame into place.

I had a piece of hardboard cut at Home Depot for the backing, and from this point, it was all about adding trim.  Lots and lots of trim.  But it was so worth the time and living the with the dust and sawhorses because the room is completely transformed.  Notice the secretary desk which replaced the bookcase?  I found it at ReStore while I was in the final days of finishing the project.  It fits the space so much better.

Other than the crown moulding itself, which I bought at Lowes since it's closer to my house, most of the trim came from Home Depot since they sell it by the foot.  I did have to go to a lumberyard that caters to the pros to find the trim to match the the front of the existing columns.  Since our house is about 20 years old, I was concerned I wouldn't find a match.  Sometimes "builder-grade" isn't a bad thing!  Unfortunately, the existing artwork doesn't quite fit the space.  I'm not attached to it, so it will do for now.

I have a month of projects waiting to share.  It's so good to be back!



I'm linking up...
Between Naps on the Porch
Coastal Charm
Savvy Southern Style
Handy Man, Crafty Woman
The Shabby Creek Cottage
Chic on a Shoestring
The Shabby Nest
A Stroll Thru Life

Using Photoshop for Home Decor

I'm certainly not the first blogger to use images available on-line for non-commercial license for economical wall decor.  The New York Public Library has a wonderful digital image library, and recently I discovered the Botanicus Digital Library.  It's indexed, but it takes some digging to find publications with wonderful images of natural studies.

I found several bird and botanical studies, and settled on two to use in the office.  I took advantage of Michael's Presidents Day sale to pick up some frames and mats.  Frames were half price with another 25% off with coupon!

I couldn't decide how to hang them, and since I hardly have any paint leftover for touch ups, I had to get it right the first time.  I took advantage of an existing nail in the wall, hung one print and snapped a picture.  Right now, it's too low, but that won't matter in a minute.

Selecting only the framed print, I copied it into a new file.  Next, I "repainted the wall" using the
stamping tool creating a virtual blank wall.

Copying the image of the frame twice into my original file, I'm ready to digitally arrange my prints.  Are you with me so far?

Originally I thought about hanging them vertically, but I didn't like how much taller they were in comparison to the painting on the left.

Next I thought about hanging them horizontally.

It's better, but they seem to be floating over the desk chair.  Let's try staggering them a little.

That's the winner.  Time for a hammer and nails.

Mr. Cat is oblivious to the activity.  I've often admired vintage botanical prints, but they are so expensive.  I'm so pleased with these.

They took some touching up with Photoshop to get them to a standard 8x10 image as well as a little adjusting of brightness and white balance since I wanted to print them on cream-colored cardstock.  I even flipped one of them so the bird would be facing the left instead of the right, a process which involved multiple layers and careful erasing so the text wouldn't be backwards.

Let's have one more gratuitous shot of the French doors.