Dinning Room

Hey there!  Hope everyone had a great weekend.  My hubby brought home some things the other day for me and this one particular thing, I just fell in love with.  And it's perfect for Valentine's Day. How cute is this old coffee tin??  So cute!  I filled it with one of my favorites, tulips.  I just love that you can find fresh tulips in my local grocery store during late January and February.  So, I treat myself to some each week when I shop for groceries.  They are such a cheery addition to the house during the drab winter months.   My other find is from Etsy.  I just love Etsy and always try to support handmade when I can.  There are some wonderful sellers there and I could spend hours looking in their shops.  Anyone who knows me knows that I love to cook.  It is one of my passions.  I have a couple of knives that I've had forever and they were always getting thrown into the drawer with my other kitchen gadgets, dulling the blades.  So my hubby had my knives professionally

Happy Friday everyone! First, I want to say thank you for all the sweet comments. I read every one of them and they all made me smile, so, thank you! The random number generator selected number 36 as the winner of the giveaway. christymanar Jan 16, 2012 06:11 AM Everytime I see another blogger getting ready to redo their stairs, I start staring at mine again. I so badly want to redo them!!! Hope to win the bread boards!!! Congrats Christy!  Contact me via the contact page to give me your mailing info!   Have a great weekend everyone!

When we first moved into our home 5 years ago, I was so disappointed with the stairway.  I had always dreamed of having a beautiful staircase and ours was just boring.  We always wanted to redo it but could never find the time.  However, hubby came home with some huge old barn beams the other day that ignited my fire again.  I was having trouble figuring out what to do with them until I saw this pic on Pinterest. Pinterest Our home isn't quite this rustic, and I don't really want it to be, but I really want to incorporate those barn beams into our stairway somehow like in this inspiration pic.  Here's a look at how it looks now. That half wall is coming down and I'm gonna try to build some type of railing  incorporating a barn beam.  I've got some ideas and can't wait to see what I can come up with.  Of course, I might also be out of my mind by doing this. :) The nasty carpet is also getting the boot.  Yay!   I'm so excited to take this stairway area from bo

 There is nothing I love more in the dead of winter than pulling out some preserved summer blueberries from the freezer and making a pie for my family.  It will definitely cure the winter blahs. And it gave me a good excuse to use my new vintage pie server that hubby brought home with a box of vintage flatware .  Anyone else think the pie photo above looks like a face??  My youngest, who's sitting here with me as I type, this just pointed that out.  And I think I'm gonna have to agree. This pie is simple to make because I just use a store bought pie crust dough, which is just as good as the homemade kind, if you ask me. Put 4 cups of fresh or frozen blueberries in a bowl with 3/4 cups sugar,  1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 cup flour.  Combine. Place one roll of pastry dough in the bottom of a pie dish. Next, pour blueberry mixture in, making sure to evenly distribute the sugar, flour, cinnamon mixture. Next, unroll second piece of pastry dough and place on top of the pie, seal the ed

My man has found himself in the middle of a vintage furniture smorgasboard getting ready to open our new shop.  The furniture and other items he has found are amazing  and hard for me to let go of.   This wardrobe is one of his finds.  I just love it and get to keep it.  It definitely needs some love so I can't wait to see what I can do with it.  I don't want to use it as a wardrobe, but instead, add some shelves to the inside and use it for storage in our laundry room, which we desperately need. And I'm also thinking of giving it a paint job, but haven't decided on a color.  I think I've narrowed it down to white or gray.  What do you think?

I love the renewed feeling our home has when we take the Christmas decor down and clean up after all the mess, get things back in order and start fresh for the New Year.  And with a New Year comes second chances.  Another chance to forgive, to do better, give more, be more, love each other more.  For me, it's also another chance to stop worrying about what if and start embracing what could be. To remember to open myself up to a great adventure, a great friendship , a wonderful opportunity, instead of closing myself off for fear of getting hurt.....or just plain ol' fear. To remember to live in the moment .... To work hard and be optimistic about doing the things that I'm afraid of and realize that the courage to do them is inside me and has been all along. To never give up on anyone......including myself. As always, thank you for visiting today!  :)

Hey there!  I apologize for the lack of posts recently and the lack of commenting on your blogs, as well.  Holidays are tough and this one was a doozy.  But I'm looking forward to what's in store for the New Year.  And I'm looking forward to getting back to regular blogging.  With that said, I wanted to share one of my favorite sayings........    After posting pics of my newly renovated studio at our shop , I received a lot of emails asking what the difficult to read quote is on the chalkboard on the wall.  So I thought I'd share it. And for anyone wondering, that chalkboard is just a piece of plywood painted with chalkboard paint.  I suppose that I could've put a frame around it but hey, I was lazy. :) "If the divine creator has taken pains to give us delicious and exquisite things to eat, the least we can do is prepare them well and serve them with ceremony."  Fernand Point. I love this quote as well.  I found it in one of my favorite cookbooks from Cha