Demijohn Love

I didn’t even know what the “official” name of a demijohn was, I just called them pretty bottles with wicker or something unofficial like that.    Anyway, last fall when cleaning out mom’s house, I found a really interesting bottle that turned out to be a demijohn.     Lo and behold, I started seeing these all over the internet and especially on one of my favorite blogs – No Minimalist Here written by the very talented Sherry.    Recently, she hosted a giveaway of one of her demijohns and I won!      She sent it out to me and I couldn’t be more excited.   

She also included the sweetest little No. 2 tag along with a soft and squishy pumpkin and pear for a little fall decorating

Here are some of Sherry’s demijohns she collects and displays in her home:

And here’s the one she sent me, sitting proudly on top of my refrigerator with the one from my mom’s house:

 

 

 

 

I think this might have started a new obsession with demijohns!

I Won My First Prize!

I can’t tell you how excited I was this afternoon when Sherry at No Minimalist Here notified me that I had won her giveaway which is one of her own fabulous demijohns and a patchwork pumpkin! 

I never win anything and almost didn’t enter the contest.    However, I felt compelled to enter and left a comment saying that I am the proud owner of a demijohn I found when cleaning out mom’s house last fall.     Right now I’m using it in a vingette on top of my refrigerator but now that I’ll have two, I might have to start a small collection.

Thank you Sherry!    I can’t wait to receive my prizes!

Judy

Happy October 1st and Road Trip

Gosh, where did September go?    It seems the older I get the faster time goes!     To me, October ushers in the holiday season, and before you know it, Thanksgiving and Christmas will be upon us.    I love this time of year, with its color changing landscape, smells, and best of all (for us here in the sunny South) cooler temperatures!

Today I’m heading to L.A. (or Lower Alabama) for a much anticipated visit with my best friend, also named Judy.     Judy and I have been best friends over 30 years.     We don’t get to visit as much as we’d like as often as we’d like, so whenever we do get together, our time together is priceless.     She is a wonderful Southern cook and I’ve requested some of my favorite dishes to enjoy while I’m there…..think homemade chicken and dumplings, good ol’ cornbread, I’ll be making a peach cobbler, sweet tea….oh yeah, baby, my mouth is already watering.      Judy’s home is so, well, homey.     At the back of her house is a screened porch with wicker furniture where we plan to sit and sip wine after supper and catch up.    I’m so exited!

Here’s a few pics from some past visits:

View of her house front the driveway

 

The screened porch runs all along the back of  her house

Wicker chaise which her dog Precious claims as his own!    We’ll be at the other end in that fabulous porch swing

We will probably take out the golf cart for a ride around the neighborhood (come on now, a personalized tag for a golf cart?!)    What can I say….we are BIG Auburn fans!!

The two Judy’s at Guy Harveys at the Wharf – summer 2008

Happy October 1st and may your football team win this weekend.      WAR EAGLE!

2010 Auburn Football Tunnel Video

Chair Slips

For the past couple of years my kitchen chairs have been white slipcovered parsons chairs.     The chairs are so comfy and the slipcovers wash up pretty well buuuuuut….I have not actually bought kitchen chairs in over 20 years.     For a long time, I had some ladderback chairs my mama and daddy bought for me in the 70’s, then when I got remarried David and I got some mismatched chairs at auctions until I borrowed the parsons chairs from son and DIL.     When we put mama in assisted living last year, she had 6 really nice ladderback chairs that have been in storage and I decided I’d like to use two of them, mixing it up with two chairs I recently ordered from World Market.    Plus, the legs on my kitchen table are so gorgeous and I hated hiding them with the parsons chairs.

Love the legs of this table!

I also love my new chairs from World Market!

A while back I saw a cute “slipcover” that Chris at Just Beachy made for her ladderback chairs and I so wanted to steal borrow this idea for my chairs.    

I don’t have a tutorial but they were pretty simple, with the exception of the ruffle.    I don’t have a ruffler (is that what it’s called) on my machine so they are trial and error (mostly error) ruffles.   In fact, I will eventually take the one off on hubby’s chair and re-do it (eventually – does day ever come?)     I simply determined the length I wanted my slipcover to come to on the front and back of the chair, and cut two equal rectangles to that measurement.    Then I cut my ruffle 3 1/2 times the width of the chair back and added the side tabs.     Finally, I stenciled the date of our birthday on the back (as Chris did on her chairs) and that’s it!     I am not a seamstress…..let me say that again, I AM NOT A SEAMSTRESS!   But they turned out pretty well so I can live with my mistakes.    (In case you’re wondering, I used leftover drop cloths for my slips so these cost me next to nothing to make)

WARNING!   PICTURE OVERLOAD AHEAD…..

   

Close up of the stencil (this is MY chair….my birthday is September 12th)

Front view of chair slip (still loving my baker’s rack I got for my birthday….you can read about that here)

  

Looking into the kitchen from the den (oh, look at the green fan - since we took down the ceiling fan, I have to keep a fan on the counter to stay comfortable)

  

I love the mix of the two chair styles

First attempt at a ruffle….too skimpy and not sure what’s going on with those “wings” …..I will definately re-do this ruffle!   You live and learn, right?

Hubby’s birth date (September 24th)  (And you can see that side seam where my bobbin was going out so I did rip out that ugly thread and it looks much better now)

 

 

Simple centerpiece using an old dough bowl with “faux” pears

Thanks for stopping by today.    I’m heading to L.A. (lower Alabama) on Friday for a nice 3 day visit with my best friend, who I have not seen since March.    I can’t wait!

Winner of Redi Shade

The winner of the discount coupon from Redi Shade is Rhiannon, from the great state of Hawaii!    (BTW, my sister and her hubby are planning a little trip to Hawaii in November…hey, where’s my invite?)    Rhiannon said “I would really like a Redi Shade for my kitchen and son’s room.”     I know she will be happy with her shade and maybe she’ll post pictures to let us see how it looks in her home.

Busy weekend coming up.    I’m heading to daughter’s house later this morning since her hubby is in Arkansas for the Alabama-Arkansas game.    Of course, we are all Auburn fans, with the exception of SIL.   Shannon went to the Auburn game last weekend so now it’s SIL’s turn.     We are going to be doing a little fall decorating at her house plus some decluttering and redecorating in Taylor’s bedroom.     Hubby is working a ball tournament all day then he’ll be up this evening to cook out and watch some Auburn football!     WAAAAR EAGLE!

Super Duper Redi Shade

I’m always looking for great window treatments that compliment my home and offer privacy and security.    When the folks at Redi Shade Simple Fit contacted me to review their product, I immediately jumped at the chance.    I was really impressed as to the quality and ease of installation.      Click here to read all about this revolutionary product and for YOUR chance to get one of your own at a discount.

Nightstand and Lamp Makeover

So what did I do on my birthday, you might ask?     Got up, ran outside before it got unbearably hot, and primed this free nightstand hubby picked up off the side of the road last year.    Had no idea what I’d do with it but I just couldn’t part with it.    Then when DIL moved McKinley into her new bedroom (read about that here) I knew this little french-y nightstand would be perfect for her room.

(don’t pay attention to the rusty chair to the right….it’s supposed to look like that in my yard….and see how awful the grass looks….it’s terribly dry here)

Most everyone has either had one of these pieces in at some point  or bought one to paint.     I decided not to remove the hardware but just paint over it.

I picked up this primer yesterday and let me tell you, it is sanity in a can!    It leaves a beautiful base coat and I was even tempted to use it as my actual paint color.     But I had a sample size jar I had mixed up at Home Depot in “Popcorn” so I decided to use it.     However, I highly recommend this primer.

It dries so smooooth!     And for the record, I did not sand this piece or use liquid sander.     I was worried the paint would not adhere to this piece of furniture but after I primed it, no problem.

 

I also primed this lamp I had that I wasn’t using….then sprayed it with Ballet Slipper Pink….a perfect color for a little girl!

  

Now we’ll all just have to wait to see how all of this comes together in McKinley’s room.     I am waiting for son to deliver the headboard to me so that I can paint it to match the nightstand.     I’ll be adding an applique and doing a little distressing, then her room will be “done”.      After that we’ll start on the baby’s room.

Between priming and painting, my mom took us to lunch for my birthday.    

Mama loves this bloomin’ onion!

I ordered my usual-----Signature Steak and Wedge Salad

Taylor and Pop lovin’ on each other (they do this a lot!)

And now for the best present I got…..

(Notice how she used orange and blue for Auburn….I’m telling you….her mama is raising that girl right!)

My very own, one-of-a-kind, handmade birthday card from my Taterbug!

Happy Birthday to Me!

 

Sunday, September 12th is my birthday…let’s just say I’m still in my 5th decade.     Today I asked Taylor if she knew how old I was and she said “39”….yeah, I’ll take that!

Last weekend hubby surprised me on our trip out of town with a birthday cake in our room, a dozen chocolate covered strawberries and a fruit and cheese tray.     I ate ALL the strawberries by myself! 

 

After we got back home Saturday from our trip, we went to daughter’s to watch football, then on Sunday we went to son’s to spend some time with our new little grandson. 

Here I am loving on this precious angel.   (Notice the address sticker I have on my hand…..McKinley put that on me…..she said it was my bandaid)

My 90 year old mom is taking her “baby” (me), the hubs, and daughter and her family out to eat tomorrow at the restaurant of my choice.     Today mama told me the day I was born was the happiest day of her life!    

This past week has been very busy (as usual).     Thursday evening I went back to son’s house in Birmingham to help with the baby as son was out of town on business.        Before heading home, I stopped by Rhoda’s and visited with her for a little bit, then over to Consigning Interiors to buy a present for myself from hubby.    Ever do that, buy yourself something, then tell him what '”he" bought?     While I was there, I finally got to meet another blogging friend, Elizabeth Ann.     Check out her blog if you get a chance as well as her booth at Consigning Interiors.

So here’s my birthday present….a little baker’s rack that fits in just perfect in this spot in the kitchen.     Even hubby likes it!  

  

         

(Sorry for the crooked photo!)

I  was so excited with my baker’s rack that I just threw some stuff on it to see how it would look.    Of course, the displays will be subject to change!

     

 

 

I really needed some extra storage for all my white dishes and iron stone and this is perfect.

Also, I’m switching out my chairs in the kitchen to two of my mom’s ladder back chairs and two woven chairs from World Market which I just ordered.   

(this is not my table and chairs but these are the chairs I ordered)

Ya’ll have a great week!