Fall In Love With The Cottage Look

Ya'll are in for a real treat. Remember a few posts back when I told about running into my friend Linda in the Wal Mart parking lot, followed her home and bought my gorgeous kitchen table from her? If you want to read about that, you can click here. Linda is a very talented decorator and artist. She has one of the most interesting and beautiful booths in a local flea market/antique mall and is very successful (as you can imagine). In addition to her decorating skills, she also does custom furniture painting for the home, she can provide lamps, pictures, architectural pieces, and just about anything you need. Her services for custom work are very much in demand so she is one busy lady. She was kind enough to allow me to photograph some of the rooms in her home. Get ready to feast your eyes!



We'll start out in the foyer. Her entire house is painted in this yummy gray color which is a wonderful backdrop for her white pieces.

This bench is one of her latest finds. I love the way she uses the pop of turquoise/aqua for contrast.

Now for some photos of the master bath....I could live in here!

Hey ya'll!

What a clever idea....she took an old mantle piece and hung it upside down over her tub

Now let's go to the master bedroom. Love this floor lamp that she painted white and added the shade with crystal dangly things. She uses those EVERYWHERE and on EVERYTHING!

Bottom of the lamp, I believe she added these feet

Gorgeous bed and bedding

What a wonderful piece this is. A little linen sofa (where you can toss pillows at night)

Moving into the dining room, she spray painted her gold chandy white and added more danglys. I have this exact chandy in my dining room but for now it will remain gold

She uses this aqua color throughout for a pop of color. This mirror is another example of her painting talents

A little peek into her den

And last but not least is the kitchen. Notice all the architectural elements she uses over the doors, or anywhere they fit. She is looking for some of these pieces for my kitchen and bedroom

Collection of white pitchers against the background of that aqua


Going out the backdoor is this sweet angel


This piece is also in her kitchen facing you as you walk in the back door

Some of her artwork can be seen here (picture of the two girls near the bar area)

I want that screen!

I took a lot more pictures but I think you get the idea of how beautiful her house is. She has recently been asked to participate in our local Junior League Holiday Market being held here in October. Not sure what all she is showing, art and possibly some furniture. If you live in my area, I hope you can make the Holiday Market and be sure to check out Linda's space. Also, if any of you are interested in getting some custom pieces done for your home, please e-mail me and I will get you in touch with Linda.

Now let me go look around my house for how I can incorporate the cottage look.

Yard Sale Time!

For all you Montgomery area bloggers and yard sale divas, I'm having a big blow out yard sale this Saturday, October 18th beginning at 7:00 a.m. If you are interested in checking it out, please e-mail me for directions to my house.

Our Anniversary

Sunday, October 12th, is my 5 year anniversary. At times it seems we've been married longer than that and at other times, I wonder what in the heck was I thinking?!?!?!? My first marriage ended in a very dramatic divorce after being separated for 3 years from my husband of 23 years. Any of you girls out there who have experienced divorce after a long term marriage can relate to the depression and heartache that brings....especially when it comes out of the blue. Of course, upon reflection, there were red flags and signs but I chose to ignore them. But this post is not about that time in my life, but the life that my 2nd husband has given me.

I did not date for the 7 years I was single. After my divorce, and because I worked for a domestic relations attorney, I had no desire to enter the single scene. After all, I was 40-something and had not been on a date since I was 19 years old! How to act, what to say, and at the time I could not be myself, cause I didn't even know who I was. So I trudged along in my life, getting stronger and more secure about myself, until one day David came out of the blue. If you want to know "How I Met My Husband" you can read all about it here.


My husband works two jobs to provide for us. While we do not live a lavish lifestyle, neither do we go without. I have everything I need and more. There is nothing I have ever asked for that he has not given me. Of course, I have lots of "wants" vs. "needs" according to him! I'm sure it has not always been easy for him to understand why I "need" to repaint and redecorate on a fairly regular basis but he just goes along with whatever I want to do. He does have to put the brakes on me from time to time cause I might tend to get a little overboard (I can't believe I'm saying that!). The most precious gift he has given me, beyond his love and concern for me, is that he truly loves my grown children and their children. These are his grandkids as much as if they were his blood relation. He also sees about the comfort of my 88 year old mother. She loves him and as a matter of fact, she told my best friend that she "prayed him up" for me. Apparently, she was praying that I would meet someone in my life so that I wouldn't be alone.


It has not always been an easy five years. We were both single for a long time and both somewhat set in our ways and no one likes to change. We certainly don't see eye to eye on a lot of matters but at the end of the day, there is no one I'd rather spend the rest of my life with. I can't imagine life without him. I guess I'll keep him!!!!



A few weeks before we got married, we went to Fairhope, Alabama (a beautiful town near Mobile) for beach pictures with my children and their spouses. Here is our picture, taken at the end of a long day on the beach (guess that's why I have that goofy look!). Oh, did I mention, he's 12 years younger than me! I call him my "boy toy"!

Now ya'll know I can't have a post without a little decorating thrown in. I picked up my monogrammed euro shams today for our bedroom. Still a lot to do but I wanted you to see how pretty they turned out.

Have a safe and wonderful weekend!

I'm In Headboard Heaven!

Today my headboard finally arrived from Ballard's! I ordered it back mid-August and while I realize that "custom orders" take some time, I was getting a little tired of waiting. But it was worth the wait as you'll see further down.



First up, let me show ya'll another project I'm working on. Shannon has been looking for an armoire type cabinet for Taylor's room for her TV....not too big and not too expensive! I stopped in at the Goodwill last week and found this little cabinet for $50! It appeared to be a new piece that someone had painted over (not a very good job either) and made this little louvered door and cut out a hole in the back for all the cord things to run through. I called Shannon and she said to go ahead and get it. Started painting it over the weekend but ran out of time and paint so I'll get it finished up this coming weekend (I hope). We are going to use the gel stain on top to give it a dark wood finish instead of painting the top of it. For $50, I thought it was a pretty good deal.


There are two drawers that go in that space at the bottom which will be great for storage.





Now for more stuff I'm working on STILL in the kitchen. It has been real slow coming together because the look is new for me and I'm taking it one step at a time, not rushing and making sure everything that goes in there makes me happy. My decorator friend Linda was here recently to help me a little because her house is real cottagy and she has an eye for that kind of design. I had dug out lots of things I found in storage or around the house to see if we could use what I already had. This was a gold frame that I put a little mirror in. I had some Oops paint in a deep turquoise that I base coated it in before glazing it with Ralph Lauren Tobacco. I'm really not sure I like it but here's what it looks like before the glazing...

...and here it is after glazing. I'm using the aqua/turquoise color as an accent so that's why we did it this color.

Now for the big news......THE BALLARD'S HEADBOARD WAS DELIVERED TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's upholstered in creamy pintuck. I was afraid it would be too yellow-y with my white bedding but it works out beautifully. Here is how the delivery people left it, upside down, but you can see how pretty it is.

The bedroom and bathroom were painted Sandy Hook Gray last Friday and I've taken two euro shams to be monogrammed in a color similar to the wall color. I'm trying to talk hubby into letting me order plantation shutters for the windows and then using a billowy white drape over those. I have some beautiful linen fabric that I will use to sew a wide band at the bottom of the drapes to puddle on the floor and make a dust ruffle using a standard white dust ruffle adding the linen band at the bottom. In the bathroom there will be white shower curtain which I might have monogrammed, and fluffy white towels, and chunky white candlesticks with white candles. I'm planning on making a white roll up shade for the narrow window and will use white ribbon to roll/tie it up. Okay, by now, you know everything will be shades of white!!!!

I'm sure ya'll can't wait to see how this turns out (ha ha) and neither can I! If only there was more than 24 hours in the day, I might get all of this accomplished in the near future.

Now for some non-decorating news: We just booked our Mexican cruise for February 16, 2009! My sister and her husband are going with us and I can't wait. We are going to have so much fun.

Ladies That Lunch Bunch!

Saturday a bunch of local bloggers go together at a restaurant to meet and eat! We had a great time. Kristi is the sweet girl that had the idea and I think I speak for everyone there that we all had a wonderful time.....

Some of the girls brought their kids and in one instance, grandkids, and these little munchkins really enjoyed themselves and were so well behaved. Some of these little ones might be future bloggers, who knows?

Melissa was there with her beautiful little girls, Mary Ashley and Emma. Kristi's precious little girl Kate came along and Nancy brought her two precious little grandsons. Ian, her oldest grandson, really enjoyed himself with the ladies!

Ian (far left), Taylor (center), Mary Ashley (behind Taylor to the left) and Emma

Here's Melissa, the most talented "event" person I know! She's got a wonderful birthday party planned for her daughter in January.....you'll just have to wait and see all the "loveliness" she has in mind

All that playing made Taylor thirsty!

Wonder what the girls are up to? (Mary Ashley, Emma, Taylor) Mary Ashley and Taylor take ballet at the same place, same day

I tried to get a picture of the goodie basket Haley made for everyone....how sweet. She sells PartyLite candles and we all got the yummiest smelling votive candle

Ian was outnumbered 4-1 but he didn't seem to mind!

Nancy and her grandson, Ian

You can see how serious we were about ordering our food

Here's Haley with her goodie basket

Two of the sweetest girls I know (Mary Ashley and Emma)

Taylor, Mary Ashley, Emma and mom Melissa

And finally a group shot taken by our waiter - Ty Pennington (at least that's who he looked like)!
Back row: Leigh (left) and Shannon (right)
Next row (from left to right) Melissa, me, Nancy

Next: Heidi (left) and Kristi (holding her daughter Kate)

In front of Kristi is Haley and last but not least, Rebecca

I hope I got everyone's link right and if not, please e-mail me and I will correct it right away! Also, I hope I identified everyone correctly!

If you live near any of your fellow bloggers, I would encourage ya'll to try and get as many together as possible to meet and visit....it's so much fun!

Can't wait to see you girls again!

Hugs!