Decking my halls, soccer .....{and a winner!}

My halls have begun to be decked......I love the 

driftwood wreath I picked up at Homegoods about

a month ago.  My cabinet loves it too.

Truth be told, I have been known

to be critical of those who decorate for Christmas {sorry!}

the minute after the turkey is eaten. Can't we

just enjoy ONE holiday at a time?

However, my big girl has a soccer tournament

in San Diego this weekend and I am going with her!

Yea for me, but it has sort of sent

me into a holiday panic attack - knowing it

will be December 3rd when we return!

Hello, my name is Jill and my Christmas tree

is already up and decorated.  Bring on the

snickering......I deserve it!

While all of you are fluffing and decking your halls this weekend,

I will be cheering on my soccer super-girl at her

FIRST college showcase tournament.

Any fun spots I should check out in Old Town San Diego?

*The winner of the Shabby Apple Giveaway is Steph -

who needs a new dress for her hubby's Christmas party.

Hurry up and get in touch with me Steph -

jillbeth{at}aol{dot}com so we can get you that dress!

Nature's tree lot...

One reason I love reading blogs is to see regional traditions

and ways of life.  This country of ours is diverse!

We are so lucky!

I know some southern friends cannot believe

I have never had grits......but I bet they have never

traveled up to 4000ft and hiked at the base of a mountain

to find their Christmas tree! 

I never take the beauty of Oregon for granted.  It

is such a beautiful place to live.  My daily

life affords me few opportunities to really get

out and enjoy nature, but I am

happy that we once again got our Bureau of 

Land Management permit {5 BUCKS people!}

and went and cut our family Christmas tree

at the base of Mt. Bachelor in central Oregon.

The two girlies pictured above may have mentioned a hundred couple

times that the grocer near our house had some pretty trees

in their parking lot.......but once we were there and 

walking in the beautiful forest, among

the fir stands, they sort of forgot all about 

those perfectly groomed, easily acquired grocer trees.

Cries of 'over here' and 'hey, I found a good one' were

heard again and again.

It was a beautiful sunny day with just 

a bit of snow cover at this elevation.

Skiing at the mountain opened for the season

on this day - higher up with much more snow.

Our tree!

Oregon ranks as one of the largest producers

of Christmas trees in the U.S.  There

are Christmas tree farms everywhere!  So it

seems it bit ironic that we choose to go

cut a natural tree!

I would not have it any other way.

**You still have time to enter my Shabby Apple giveaway!

Go here to enter!

Cyber Monday holiday giveaway!

My wardrobe is limited to mostly casual stuff, 

so when any dressy/fancy occasion

rolls around I sort of panic.  I am a jeans/boots/sweater kind of

gal, it's just the way I feel most comfortable in my 

daily life as a work from home mom.  However, I do

love a beautiful dress every now and again!

Shabby Apple is a wonderful source for vintage-inspired

clothing and accessories!  I love the retro look of their

dresses, skirts, tops and jewelry.

I particularly love their holiday dresses - so festive!

Shabby Apple is graciously offering a $75 gift certificate 

to one lucky Forever*Cottage reader!  This is YOUR

chance to get a special gift just for you this holiday season!

To enter the giveaway:

First, visit the Shabby Apple website and come back

here and leave a comment telling me what

you might choose should you win.

Second, 'Like' Shabby Apple on Facebook then

come back and let me know for a second entry.

Third, you can tweet about this giveaway using

#shabbyapplegiveaway for yet another chance to win.

And finally, blog about this giveaway for a fourth chance to win!

** You must have a USA address to be eligible for 

the giveaway.

Enter by midnight PST on Wednesday, November 28.

I will announce the winner on Thursday.

Good Luck!

**********

In addition, should you not win, or you find THE perfect

dress today that you can't wait to buy, Shabby Apple

has provided a discount code for Forever*Cottage readers!

Simply use the code 'forevercottage10off' at checkout

and save 10% on your purchases!!

My list.....

I'll be honest - the gift giving part of Christmas stresses me out!
Of course, it has always been important to get our
girls enough to make them happy but not too
much as to over-indulge them.  My husband and I
have usually kept to a couple simple gifts - but he
is completely hard to buy for!  My parents are
generous so you always want to try and match
their generosity and also have the gift reflect
your appreciation. Often, I feel like I fall short.

Me, I am pretty easy - I know what I like and then
I put everything in a Polyvore set and blog about it
for the world to see!  Mostly, I did this
for fun - as many of these items are
pretty spectacular!
Based on my selections, I
would say I am a girl looking to work on her fitness,
who likes to be comfortable and stylish and
perhaps cook a mean pot roast! Ha!

*We are not yet decking our halls - still enjoying
pumpkin pie and an impromptu out of town visitor!
Happy Saturday to you!

On Thanksgiving...

Our little family is headed over the mountains and through

the pass to Grandma's house in Bend, Oregon.

Thanksgiving may be my favorite holiday....I love the

pause it blesses us with.  I love the food and time to

hunker down and enjoy my family.  We have

so much to be thankful for this year.....

May your weekend find you surrounded

by those you love and counting your many blessings......

among mine, I count YOU.

*Come visit me on Monday for a fun giveaway!

Tag Sale!

Inspired by all the upcoming sales....and the bit of 

purging I have been doing in my home,

I thought it would be fun to offer a few

treasures to you!

In my humble opinion....this type of shopping

is way more fun than standing in line at 

midnight at Walmart.......but that's me.

Please email me at jillbeth{at}aol{dot}com to let

me know what item you would like to

purchase.  I will immediately mark the item

as 'SOLD' when I receive payment via Paypal.

It's that easy!

Vintage Seltzer Bottle $30  $25 {$20 shipping}

Vintage Framed Bulletin Board $25 $20 {$20 shipping}

Three Yards of Waverly 'Seeing Spots' in Lipstick $30 {$20 shipping}

Vintage Scale {from Barn House!} $25 {$20 shipping} SOLD!

Vintage wooden scoop $10 {$10 shipping}

All purchased items will be shipped next week.

Happy Shopping!

*** Please email me {jillbeth@aol.com} with any questions.

A new project...

Ever have one of those weeks where you just don't know if you 

are coming or going?  Yea, that pretty much sums up my week.

It's all good, but phew, it was a doozy! {I am speaking 'grannie' tonight.}

I took the photo above at a friend's home this week.  This friend is

now a client and I look forward to helping her 'finish' {her words}

her family's home.  Believe me, the home is lovely as is but I am going to 

help her edit and style, add some contemporary elements,

update textiles, rugs and just improve the way

the home lives for a family of SIX.

Have a fabulously fun weekend!

Bead Board....{oh how I love thee}.....

Here is a sneak peek of our first floor guest bath in all her bead board glory.

Yes, she is quite incomplete - I had not even changed all the knobs

on the cabinet when I snapped this pic!  But it is such 

an improvement from where we started.

My handy papa worked super hard this weekend - so 

"thanks dad"- if mom happens to hand her iPad to you

so you can see this blog post!

And I know they will all kill me for posting this photo - but

man was getting that first piece up and straight a bugger!

As you can tell, yours truly was doing the heavy lifting with 

her Canon Rebel!

More photos after it's styled.

Busy...

I am a mom.....by definition that means busy.

We are all busy......I know.....

but right now I feel overwhelmed -

perhaps it has something to do with the Christmas

music playing at Anthropologie, the aisles FILLED

with everything holiday at Target......

or the field trips,

games,

homework,

social commitments,

volunteer commitments,

business stuff,

sports practices,

laundry,

dishes piled in the sink....

arghhhhhhhh!

My bathroom is beautiful - that makes me

happy....but why, oh why when I am focused on a 

project does everything else go to h*e*double hockey sticks????

I had hoped to show you photos today - but

I was gone the entire day on a field trip with

my youngest's class and now it is dark and the 

photos would not be pretty.  

Come back tomorrow, please.....hopefully I 

will be in a better mood and have some pretty photos

to show you.....

I've been keeping a secret....

A big UGLY secret......this is our first floor powder room bath!

We moved into our home exactly a year and a half ago.  You would

have thought that this ugly dated wallpaper would have been

one of the first things to go.....but no, we have lived with it

for all this time......

Sure, various members of the family have taken

their turn ripping the wallpaper off the wall.....classy, huh?

With the help of my handy dad, this bathroom is the midst of a much

needed makeover.  I can't wait to show you the results.....

I promise pretty pictures with better lighting!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Down Pipe....improving a challenging area of the house.

Accent walls......I'll be honest, I have never been a fan.

This weekend, I made an exception......due to a love

affair with a paint color and desperation to improve

the hallway in my home with SIX, yes SIX doorways.

The photo above is a great representation of the view I have 

from my kitchen island - a place I stand for about 5,954 hours

a day and I always felt the view to the back hallway was blah.....

It completely lacks architecture and the light walls were not

helping it's cause.  

I am using Farrow & Ball's "Down Pipe" in my 

bathroom {more to come on that makeover} and

just loved it, like alot!  I had leftover paint and

thought I would paint the wall a dark color

to add interest and dimension.

Like I said above, this hallway, although small in size

has six doorways!  Drives me nuts!  One doorway leads

to our master bedroom, another the laundry room, another a 

bathroom, another to the garage, one to a coat closet

 and one to my husband's office.

That's alot of doors!  

I will be looking to add a Dash & Albert stripe-y runner to

the space.  

So, where do you stand on accent walls?  

A design 'do'?  or a design 'don't'?

Weekend thoughts...

image via Katey Daisy

Remember, we live in a country many risk their

lives trying to get to.

  So many of our brave great grandpa's,

great grandma's, grandpa's, grandma's,

dad and moms, husband's and wives,

son's and daughter's have

fought hard for the freedoms we enjoy today.

Democracy and liberty are the world's

citizen's greatest goals - something we

get to enjoy everyday here in the USA.

There is much at stake in this election - go vote on Tuesday!

We vote by mail in Oregon - it may be convenient but

I love the experience of going into a curtained booth

and really feeling like an American - I am old school like that!

Enjoy your weekend!

Random...

It is November 1st!  Holy cow!

As I drove out my neighborhood today, one neighbor was

having a professional service hang their Christmas lights - 

definitely not ready for that!  We are still

eating our Milky Ways, Snickers and Butterfingers over

here at the old Forever*Cottage.....

The photo above is my big girl - just when you think

they are too old for dressing up, they get invited to 

a 'costumes mandatory' halloween party.  She decided

to resurrect the 'always a hit' nerd costume and spend the 

night in character!  

I have had some fun over the last week visiting some

favorite Portland spots.  I met up with some girlfriends

at St. Honore and enjoyed a morning of talking

business - we all work from home and are following

our passions while trying to strike that perfect balance

between work and family.  St. Honore is the perfect

place for 'water cooler conversation' - something lacking

when you work from home, mostly on your own.

Client work had me at Rejuvenation Hardware {photo upper left} - 

a Portland must-see for anyone into vintage fixtures, lighting and 

architectural salvage.  I won't even tell you how many gorgeous

claw foot bathtubs were in their back warehouse area!  

Working with a friend from Minnesota on some

choices for their new home, had me looking at 

fabrics from Lee Industries.  If you are looking for 

quality upholstery for a relatively affordable price {think a bit 

higher priced than Pottery Barn but WAY better quality}

check out Lee Industries.

And of course, last night had us out and about -

well not yours truly - {someone had to answer the door

and drink some Cabernet} - but my girls - one with

her friends and the other with her daddy.  

Lots of fun and candy was had by all!