Displaying kids art.....

If you look closely at the photos in my last post, you will see this small cabinet

sitting on the bottom shelf in our great room.....

This pretty little cabinet holds special treasures.....

my children's 3D art made in school over the years....

You know, those pinch pots and clay animals.....

including cute little owls!

Besides making your little artists feel super special, showing

your special collection in a pretty cabinet is a great way

to personalize your home! My cabinet happens to be a new

reproduction {made to look old} but I see lots of small

cabinets at antiques stores and flea markets that could also

make a great "gallery space"!

Stylin my junk.....

First, let's address the elephant in the room.....

To all those named and/or who commented as 'anonymous' that I 

offended when I posted the Toby Keith video, I am sorry....

This is my blog and technically I have the right to post whatever I darn well please.

If for some reason it offends you to know that I am a 'fiscal conservative'

{the words I am assuming offended you}, you don't have to come

here, and I am ok with that.  It's a free country.

If for some reason you were offended by my use of capitalization, I am also

sorry......if you stick around long enough you will learn

that I tend to over capitalize, under-punctuate, italicize when it "feels right", bold for emphasis,

and commit other random acts

of grammatical errors on a regular basis.

I am who I am and felt inspired to share a video, of a song

that I was totally digging at that moment.  Will I probably do it again?

Heck yea!  'Cause I am not one to play it safe, hide behind the 'neutral' zone on

MY blog {oops, there I go again!}.  I find there is integrity in honesty and 

because I am a big girl, I can take the consequences.  It's not as if

I am selling anything here.  I don't for one minute take for granted those

who come here to read my drivel and cheer on my decorating and family

adventures.  I love the opportunities and friendships that blogging

has brought into my life.  I truly feel blessed by those who offered their support,

and even those who were critical and even Martha Stewart!

So let's return to our regularly scheduled programming, shall we?

Bookshelves flank {hungry for steak anyone?}, each side of the fireplace in our great room.

Styling these can be tricky.

I am lucky 'cause I have LOTS of stuff, or 'junk' some might call it.

But my junk is meaningful to ME, things that belonged to my grandmother, old clocks 

set to the times my children were born {which was mentioned in the feature

on my collections in Flea Market Style magazine - on newsstands now},

books, decorative objects etc...

While the objects on these shelves have pretty much stayed the same since 

moving in five months ago, I did some 'tweaking' last week.

And then I remembered I was a blogger and took some

pictures!!!

And now I share them with you.......

In the not so distant future I would like to put some grass cloth 

wallpaper on the back of the bookshelves to give them some texture...

'cause I like the way the sea fans do that now.....

image from here

Wishing you all a very happy weekend!
PEACE OUT!

Made in America

Confession time......

I am a HUGE country music fan.....

I don't like what I see happening to my country.....

{yep, that's what I said}

I am what you might call a fiscal conservative and have a 

HUGE problem with our current 'leadership'......

I have been listening to this song from a great American,

Toby Keith and it reminds me of all the things I love about

America....the REAL America, like regular folks who

work hard for a living, want the government to get

out of their business, don't take our freedoms for granted,

love the values and principles this country was founded on.......

Take a listen and tell me if you don't get goose bumps.....

Ok, off my soap box for tonight.

User friendly.....

Don't get me wrong....

I love the open shelving we added in our kitchen...

but I have struggled with how to style it.

You know, the perfect balance between looking photo worthy at all times,

accessibility for the kiddos to reach a cereal bowl and above all else, their

ability to put the dishes away when they empty the dishwasher

 {definitely not photo worthy}!  

Basically, my first go-round was proving unsuccessful in all above categories!

Last week, I spent some time tweaking my open kitchen shelves.  I moved

our basic/everyday bowls, sandwich plates etc...to a drawer below the upper cabinets for

easy access for my family.  Then, I brought in some of my brown transferware pieces, 

ironstone pitchers and most importantly, my wine glasses {cause momma can put

these babies right back where they go!}.

I like the mix of old sliver, glass, white ironstone and a bit of transferware -

it's a combination that has always seemed to work for me.

A special thank you to all of you who entered the Uber Chic giveaway.....

I read every single comment!  The winner of the giveaway is........

wait.......the "One Vintage Hag"!!!!!  For some reason, that name just cracks me up!

So, if you are "one vintage hag", please send me an email so I can get your pillow to you!

an 'uber chic' giveaway!

Remember the gorgeous bench I purchased at the 

Farm Chicks Antiques Show?

The transaction not only brought curvy, European goodness to my kitchen, it

also allowed me to meet the fantastic Dustin and Christian - of Uber Chic Home,

the vendors who sold me my bench!

For all of us who dream of finding treasures along the back roads

and in the barns of the European countryside, these

lucky dudes do just that! 

Besides selling their European collected treasures and U.S. industrial pieces

at shows like Farm Chicks 

and Alameda, they also operate a brick and mortar store

in Salt Lake City.  

They have recently added an online shop to their repertoire!

In celebration of their new venture, they have generously offered to

giveaway one of their grain sack pillows {valued at $200} to one

lucky Forever*Cottage reader who heads over to their website and visits their new online shop.

 Besides checking out the "hard-to-come-by in the

U.S." antiques, you can also read about their Euro shopping adventures on their blog!

To enter the giveaway just visit Uber Chic Home, then come back here and 

let me know what your favorite piece is.

I will close the comments at midnight PST on Tuesday.

Stylin'

When the kids go back to school, I always have lofty goals....

to hit the gym more than twice a week....

to tweak spaces in my home....

connect with friends.....

keep up with laundry....

enjoy the solitude of an empty home.....

I am pleased to say that with one week under our belt, I have been pretty successful!

I painted this chest of drawers {a $12 Goodwill find!) and restyled

the top using accessories I already have....

ahhh......life is good!

Come back on Friday for a fabulous giveaway!

Just a pretty image.....

Happy Monday to you...

It is our first back to school Monday - yippee!

I found this image on Pintrest and love everything about it....

love the gallery wall, cause you know I can't ever hang just one picture,

love the mismatched frames,

love the restrained use of color....

love the vintage objects and art mixed with rather

contemporary chairs.....

God Bless America

God Bless the USA!

Ten years ago, I lay in a hospital being treated for a blood clot

that threatened not only my life but the life of the sweet baby

girl that was growing inside of me.

Doctors and nurses came and went from my room, stopping

to watch the coverage from New York, Pennsylvania

and Washington DC.......

Now ten years later, I have my health and a beautiful little girl. 

Today I think of all the families, the children who lost parents, 

spouses, sisters, brothers, sons and daughters that horrible

day in our American history.

I am grateful for our brave American men and women who have fought in the 

years since 9/11 for our nations freedom and liberty.

Where were you that day?

Brass is back!

I have a confession.......

I am having a hard time finding my decorating mojo in this new house....

I kind of did the whole white/chippy/shappy thing in our Minnesota cottage

{which by the way can be seen in the recent Flea Market Style magazine!}....

Don't get me wrong, I love that look......but I am wanting to do something different,

get out of my comfort zone, to mix in

some contemporary elements that blend well with my existing 'stuff'.....how that will work, you ask......

 well, I am still trying to figure that one out!

Right now, I am loving BRASS!  Not the polished, fake kind....

but the real, patina'd brass.....gorgeous....

I found this 'vintage' brass coffee table on Craigslist and snapped it up for my living room -

which is currently in a yet-to-be styled state......It is the room that I 

intend to make "my room" and experiment with a new decorating style....

thus the lack of 'mojo' - the pressure to do something fabulous is paralyzing.......

I envision replacing the glass with a honed carrera marble top instead......

I have always had touches of brass in our homes.....like this lamp.....

And these vintage brass candle holders......

I even went with brass hardware in our kitchen.......

So.....what do you think of adding brass?

Oh Happy Day!

Did we have a fabulous summer?

YES!

Am I happy that TODAY is the first day of school?

YES!

Don't they look happy too?

All is right in my world today.....hope it is in yours too!

Teenagers and forest fires....I know, completely random, huh?

I've been m.i.a. lately, enjoying the important things in life.....

like getting the kids ready for school, which was made much easier this year

due to the fact that they wear uniforms to their Catholic school, phew!  A trip to

the shoe store for some new 'kicks' and we were set....well, besides the 

two page supply list {was it THAT long when we were in school?}.

But, most importantly we celebrated my big girl's 13th birthday!  I know what you

are thinking.....something along the lines of "she can't possibly have a 13 year old!".....ha!

I remember when she was small and thoughtful folks told me to enjoy those years as they 

went by so fast........well they weren't kidding!  And while I have a 13 year old, I can't possibly

be 13 years older than when I brought her home from the hospital in early September 1998!

We celebrated in central Oregon with my parents.  My big girl is a HUGE animal lover so we headed

up to the mountain to visit a Alaskan sled dog team that happens to have a new litter of puppies.

We learned ALOT from the musher Rachel Scidoruss, the first legally blind

musher to run the famous Ididarod sled dog race! Rachel wants her puppies to be handled and held alot as an important part of their initial training to perhaps one day become a member of

her team......my girls were happy to help with that task!

Mostly the puppies just slept while we were there!

We all enjoyed a ride with a sled dog team on a training sled, these dogs are strong!

It was a perfect way to celebrate her special birthday!

We headed home to Portland yesterday......and had quite a smoky ride.  It is forest fire

season here in the Northwest - so often this part of the country is known for all the rain

we receive in the winter months, but often people don't realize that summers are quite dry.

It is sad to see beautiful old growth forests burning.  We pulled over at a viewpoint yesterday so

I could take some photos and the girls could watch the airplanes drop bucket of 

water on the fire - extraordinarily dangerous work!

That's Mt. Washington behind the smoke plumes.  In the foreground is the remains of 

a forest fire that occurred about 6 years ago - lots of charred trees.

I will be back this week with some design posts!