I Am IN LOVE With This

I'm sorry...This is Flat Out Gorgeous! Woohoo!

I participated in this new meme today and discovered this wonderfully talented lady that made this and explained how she did it here. I love the metallic look, the gems, the rustic embellishments, the glitz...in short everything about it! I love that it is not practical...it is simply beautiful! This is bedazzling at it's finest!

I am on it, thus begins my new sparkly button collection! Stop over and meet Ann. And check out the meme called WooHoo Wednesday! I can see it is going to be a FUN way to celebrate your gratitude!

Welcome to the Cottage

From the Street you see this...

I was asked by a few people to include more outside photos of the house so here you go...


I have always loved the beautiful wrap around porches we see in the design magazines but I am just as happy with our little one. Yesterday after the "cat nap" and cleaning up I decided to fool around with the porch a little. I rescued the wicker chairs from the warehouse and put this together. As you can see our bricks are cracking and separating...a hazard when the ground shifts here in CA. Fortunately our good friends own a masonry company and I have put in a call for a repair soon. So these can be the before pics.

Tic Tac Toe with frogs and dragonflies anyone?

If you come to this door I will know you are a perfect stranger or you really are coming to play tic tac toe. Even though this is the front door we never use it except to come out on the porch. I seriously think we don't even have a key to the door. We and all of our family and friends enter into our backdoor. "Backdoor Friends Are Best," it has been said and in our case it is very true. Here is a photo of the porch we normally use.

After coming up the drive way you can turn left at the bricks to go to the porch I just showed you, or you can go straight to the "backdoor." I guess technically we have two front doors!

I got the cute sign from a shopkeeper
who had a little gift shop called
"No Place Like the Cottage."
I ♥ it!

This is a chair that l like that
I had down in the warehouse.
I would sit on it and look at all the
stuff and figure out a design plan
for each house.
I want to keep it and I haven't a
square inch open anywhere
else so it is on the porch!

I am really glad we painted the doors black
to go with the shutters on the house.


I really enjoy decorating with whimsical things.
I don't want our house to feel stuffy or too formal
so I love to put things around like this
lawn jockey. I have been meaning to paint his vest and hat
a different color than green for years. Any suggestions on
a good color? I will be doing it this year.
Some of the shutters have not been put
back up since we had the house painted!
Workin' on it though!

This is a wind chime I found down in the valley
near Yosemite last fall. It is a fun piece and so vintage.
Just right for the cottage.

This is a fun welcome sign. It pivots to..

I love the whimsy of the back side!
I know it's there but you won't ever
see this side if you come over.

These are my hydrangeas from Easter.
They are looking kinda over.
I think the big rains around
Easter took their toll on them!

Well, thanks for stopping by.
I hope you felt welcome because you always are!

P.S. I really like taking pictures of the house because it makes you see things you haven't really noticed before. I realized through these photos that both of our porch lights are too small. The scale is just not right. Do you take photos of your home and analyze them sometimes? It is a good idea. It is so easy to just not notice things otherwise.

China Cabinets and Butler's Pantry Get Fluffed!

A little faux treat I made in my cabinet.
One thing a home stager has is
plenty of faux food!

I think I am really going to enjoy having Jim home more. He is just so happy working out in the yard and he is really overjoyed about closing down our warehouse as he gets all the shelving for his things. He has plans to build a workshop one day and then he'll have plenty of room for his man stuff. Yay! In the meantime he is fixing up an old cottage we have in the back with the shelves and he is excited. In its day it was quite the cute little bunkhouse but now it is on its last leg and ready for a redo. But we are not going there at this point! It will be fine for storage.
Someday I'll have to take you on a guided tour outside on the property. It is a fun place to be.

Jim is such a productive, happy person. He has inspired me to get a lot done this week here at home. We are even having so much fun we canceled our date to the city for tomorrow so we can stay home and keep at it. We (mostly he) have just accomplished so much this week. Spring cleaning is almost done and the stuff in the yard is getting either thrown out or organized after being out there for nearly a year during the construction phase. I feel the burdens lifting as we get things back in order. Yay...I love order. And we have decluttered considerably as well. I got rid of so much junk in my china cabinets.

Honestly, how does it jump in there? I am not kidding I didn't even recognize some of it. Like it reproduces in there or something! I think I'll add some photos of that now that they are all redone. Maybe I'll even give you a peek into my butler's pantry that Jim built for me out of an old coat closet a few years ago.

Here it is. You can barely see it but it
has a glass door on it that is original to the home.
Here you can see our Christmas dishes,
the china we bought when I went back to work
after Laura started school,
and my grandmother's dishes on the bottom.
Click, click for a better view.

This curio cabinet is where we
keep our glasses and stemware.
I love this cabinet because the door is
curved glass.

So they look like this after I purged through them. Yikes. Anyway, at least now they are all dusted and cleaned and orderly again. Because our house is not huge I have to be really careful about keeping things in order or the chaos is crazy making. When it is in order it makes me want to actually have some company over soon. The butler's pantry is very convenient for large gatherings as we don't have to dig through everything to find what we need.

We just don't realize how much stuff can over burden us. I think we all function better with a house of order. I know I can feel the difference, in a physical way, with every little corner than is getting cleaner and refreshed and becoming the way it should be. I never could function in chaos, but the older I get the more I need the order and peace. I love changing the seasons with the decor and just lightening up for the months ahead.

Tomorrow I am attaching the library bookshelves. Ugh, but I know it will look so much better. Why are bookshelves just little junk catchers?

So then, about retirement...I just love the synergy of two~so far, so good~ projecting into the future of twice as much husband and a little less money and all is well ! We have reached that time in life where more time=more wealth in the things money cannot buy. It is a nice place to be, I am liking it a lot already.