Farmhouse Style Guest Room

Hello!  Today I am sharing our other newly remodeled room in our home.  This room has previously been used as the bedroom to our two boys (at different times) and is the second largest of the bedrooms in our home.  Over the past twenty years, it has had many styles of decor - from wallpaper to dark painted walls, sports posters, video game equipment, stereos .... and, well, you get the picture.  Now the room is simply decorated in more of a restful New England farmhouse style.

All of the furniture in the room are pieces we have had in other parts of our home.  I did buy the nightstand from a friend and it was the piece that inspired me to choose the bedding.    The bedding is new, a TJ MAXX find, as is the lamp next to the bed, which I purchased from Magnolia Farm's website.  (I LOVE it!)    But for now, welcome to our guest bedroom.  Take off your hat and stay awhile....

I will share more about the process of the remodel and about the small decorative touches in another post.  

Till next time...

peace.

Cottage Flowers

I am thankful for a mother who always had lovely flowers in her garden.  I remember her standing in her garden, hose in hand, and watering her flowers in the light of the moon.  Mom was an artist not only in painting on canvases, but she had an effortless way of knowing which flowers to plant in her yard.  We have two of her rose bushes now growing in our backyard and I think of her every spring when the first glorious pink blooms bud and stretch their petals in the face of the sun.

My father loves to garden, too.  This was a hobby learned later in life and his garden is full of bulbs and beautiful perennials and annuals.  I find it endearing to visit his yard that captures the essence of his love of gardening.

As an adult, I still love flowers.   One of my favorite things in our home are the amateur floral paintings and prints that are displayed in different spots of our home.  A wall of our family room have several of my favorites.  I also adore little boxes with flowers on them; books about birds and flowers and door stops that have little florals.  And lets not forget beautiful plates and pottery with delicate images of flowers and birds.  I'll share more of some new finds in another post.

Outside, the Snapdragons, Pansies and Allysum are thriving.  All in shades of coral, white, yellow and pinks.  Happy flowers make me smile......and they make me think of my sweet folks.

Happy Spring!

Happy Birthday Duhgall and Some Of My Favorite Vintage Bits

"Do what you love and do it often" is one of my favorite sayings.  And with this, I am planning on doing a lot of sewing in my new room that I shared in my last post.  I have a soft spot in my heart for the cute and whimsical stuff and filled my room - sparingly (did I hear a "yea right"?... ha ha) with the little things that I have collected over the years that bring a smile to my face.  A lot of the vintage collections have been gifts from friends and other things I have purchased over time.  You may recognize a lot of them from having been shared on my blog before.

The next few photos are the things inside my white cabinet.

On the wall next to the window is a Victorian shadow box that I found at a local antique store years ago.  My friend Marsha had it for sale in her space.  It is one of those pieces that I will never get tired of.  Inside are little cottages that are incense burners, squirrels, mushrooms, gnomes and a neat metal Red Riding Hood bank.

Hope you enjoyed the tour!  

Thank you for the kind words left for me on my last post.  

Guess who turns 9 tomorrow???  You got it, my baby boy, Duhgall Piper.  I cannot believe he is NINE already!  Happy Birthday to my little Scottie Boy!!!!   Love you tons and tons!!!!

Till next time.....

My New Creative Space

Any of you who have followed my blog for sometime know how much I love to sew and create.  Over the years, my sewing machine "Mr. Janome",  has had many landing spots inside the house - like the kitchen table or a large table in our bedroom.  Because we have a three bedroom house, and my boys occupied two of those rooms, my own sewing space was never an option.  Now that we are empty nesters, my husband and I both agreed that I should have my own creative space.  We decided to use the smaller of the bedrooms as my sewing room (which had been the red and white guest bedroom) and made the larger bedroom a guest bedroom now.  I will share that room soon.

The process was a bit tedious.  Had to box up 20 years of "stuff" that the boys had accumulated over the years and put a lot of it in a secure place.  It was bitter sweet.  That part took me a long time because I read birthday cards, found a little black book of "cute girls" of Jordan's and combed through the binders of class room assignments with artwork created in the margins.  Art that only a mom would appreciate knowing their children's sense of humor.  

Boxes upon boxes upon boxes of sewing fabrics, trim, buttons and other various things one collects to create were also organized, boxed up and arranged in a semi-organized affair inside the closet.  Stacks of linens and fabrics were sorted and only the most cherished pieces remain - others were taken in to sell at the shops.

The walls received a fresh coat of Soft Chamois paint, Benjamin Moore, and the 20 year old Berber carpets were removed.  We decided to use the same flooring that we had installed downstairs, which is a Mannington Hickory laminate in a Butterscotch color.  We had to have a section of the floors redone (as you will see in the photo below).  The installer had a piece of metal on his knee pad that somehow got there when he was installing our floors.  Thankfully it was at the end of the job.  I taped off all of the scratches for them to see when they came back to look at what happened.  It looked like a crime scene!  They felt really horrible about it and I felt sorry for them - but they made it right and in two days the problem was fixed.

 I ordered a natural fiber rug to go under the sewing table and Duhgall's cushion is there for him to have a comfy spot to rest while I sew.  (He likes to be near his people!)  I found darling floral curtains at Ikea and took down the checked panels.  The yellow dresser is tall enough for me to use as a cutting table - I just have to remove the things on top first.  Hubby still needs to put large caster wheels on my sewing table to lift it up in height.  My long legs barely fit under it.   It is not a comfy spot to sit for very long.  I am also going to get a good chair to sit in with lower back support.  Ikea has a cute checkered one that I am thinking about buying.  I LOVE Ikea!

The white cabinet use to be in our bathroom to hold towels, etc., but now it holds my favorite collections in my sewing room.  I will share more about these collections in another post.

So here we go....my little corner to create.  The second photo is the former guest bedroom, which I did really like, but that is ok....I have something better now.  It is a cheerful space full of the whimsical stuff and gifts from friends that I hold near and dear to my heart.

 

And yes, I have actually sewn in my new room and made the Valentine hearts that I shared in a previous post.  Now that my taxes are all done to turn in, I need to make a date with Mr. Janome.