Oh Christmas Tree...

...poor Christmas Tree.

I finally planted the Christmas tree. Our cottage is small, and we don't have room for a big old Christmas Tree. So we thought little potted ones would be a great alternative, and then we can plant them in the back yard when we are finished. I had been putting off getting it into the ground because I didn't think I could move it on my own. It had been sitting quite pretty by the front door for months. Dec 25th to be exact. I took it outside as soon as I had packed away the decorations. We were advised @ the nursery that you can only keep them indoors for a short time if you plan on planting them outside again.

It looks so teeny next to the Big old pine trees that were here when we bought the place nearly 4 yrs ago. I am so glad all the trees are now inside the fence. Speaking of the fence. We are going to stain it this year finally, I know it's about time. But I am torn between practical and pretty. I have always loved the "cottage" look of white, but our deck was stained that reddish/brown "natural" color when we got here, Lily's play house is that natural color as well and so is one of our picnic tables. I'd really like everything to match, But I think White might look better with our "cottage" since it is White with Navy Blue trim. All the men in my life, of course think it should be stained "Natural" because it is less maintenance and blends in with the surrounding trees etc.

Definately share your opinions with me, as I am having a tough time trying to decide.

Master Bath

Recently I have been reconnecting with old friends and they ask me what I have been up to. So this is what have we been doing for the last 3 and 1/2 years? Making babies and fixing up our little house. We are transforming an old 70's raised ranch into our dream home. "A little country cottage by the sea". Except the closest thing to a sea we have here is Lake Ontario. The theme we are going for was a mish mash of my childhood. I was born on John's Island in South Carolina. So there is a little Southern Charm in the mix. And my love for the Ocean is deep within my veins. So you will see Sea shells scattered her and there some sail boats and even a light house or two. Later we all moved back to my mom's home town in New England right on the coast :) That's where I spent most of my life. I loved having my grandparents around. I loved big old Victorian houses and small little beach cottages & beautiful farm houses. Built in furniture so intrigued me even as a kid. I loved going to visit peoples houses. I remember my grandmother had a hutch in the dining room with all her china in it. And the drawers came out of the wall. I thought that was the coolest thing. I had a window seat in my bedroom it was my favorite spot to curl up and read a book and all my toys were stored inside. As a child I had a very romantic imagination. I started a huge garden lined with cobblestone in my parents back yard. My dad helped me, We made it in the shape of an old skeleton key. He collected the cobble stones from roads that they were tearing up in the city. He also got me a beautiful wrought iron park bench and put a section of white picket fence behind it. He was the DPW supervisor and they were just getting rid of the stuff. How sad. Well we gave it a good home. Amazing what they throw away. I also have many fond memories and images from the stories I read with my mom. Mandy, was one of my favorite books along with The Secret Garden, Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, and all the Jane Austen novels. We also spent our vacations staying @ various bed and breakfasts throughout New England and touring old historic homes. (My mom is quite the history buff. She does genealogy for fun.) Best way to travel I think. I love B&B's. So when my hubby and I got married we went to a beautiful B&B for our Honey Moon. Morgan Samuel's Inn http://www.morgansamuelsinn.com/index.html. We stayed in the Morgan Suite. It was awesome. We loved the corner garden tub so much we wanted to put one in our dream home. We were not home owners yet. So it would have to wait. 8 months later we moved into Our fixer upper. Or "Money Pit" as we like to call it. Here is how the bathroom turned out.
Now before you freak out. My Hubby worked for TRANE @ the time which was a branch of American Standard so all the fixtures were under employee discount. So we had some fun with this project. And our friend Steven did the Labor with Kevin's help. The color Scheme is Gold and Brown. Kevin's sister and I did a faux finish on the walls with five different colors of paint. What a job but it turned out beautiful if I do say so myself.

I love old fashioned hardware. Kevin had to have the vessel sinks. The cabinets and counter top are kitchen height. We are a tall family and I didn't like having to bend over every time I wanted to wash my hands etc. I put some bathing suits on my girls using paint shop ;) I don't want my naked babies on the Internet. The curved soffit above was absolutely necessary. I had to have the border go all the way around the room. And I wanted to hide the shower curtain rod as well. I used 80in window curtains from Target in a lovely golden yellow damask.

We got the taller Potty with an elongated seat. :)

We got rid of our walk in closet and linked the previous bathroom to our master bedroom. It also allowed for us to have an outside wall to put in a window for some nice natural light.

Door to Master Bedroom.

Note- these pics were taken in Oct. 2008

Pretty Pillows

Now that I have a camera to play around with, I can start posting some of the things I have been working on. I made a new cushion for my window seat last summer. And last month I decided to sew up some extra pillows, to make it more inviting. It's a favorite spot in our house. Even Hailey our Goldendoodle likes to hang out there. She sits up there whenever we leave the house, and doesn't move till we get back. Poor puppy, but it's far to cold to leave her in the car while we run errands. Anyway back to the pillows, I made 3. Here they are. This one has starfish on it. Not sure if you can tell from the picture. This is the back of the starfish pillow. Haha I didn't measure quite right and really had to jam it in there. Oh well, it works.This fabric reminds me of an asian pottery print. My mom blessed me with lots of her old blue and white vases. I love hand Me Downs. So I had to throw this fabric into the mix. I'm very happy with how it turned out.

This is one of the built in shelves that makes up the window seat, Kevin and I built together. there is one on each side. And the lovely blue and white pottery my mom gave me. The teapot was a gift from my friend Shannon. She noticed my growing collection of blue and white and gave it to me, it was from her grandma in Hawaii. I am so blessed.I fell in love with this fabric. This is the front, and I put a striped fabric on the back.

And Hailey, enjoying the best spot in the house. :)

Paint Brush Holder

Most toothbrushes now a days are too fat for a toothbrush holder. So we don't use ours in the bathroom anymore. I decided to use it for Lily's Paintbrushes. And the big hole in the center makes a great well for rinsing her brushes off between colors. I am currently teaching her that trick so her paintings aren't all brown :)

The Fence

Daddy was working very hard on the fence today. He worked late into the evening. Lily misses him sometimes even when he is home, with all the renovations he has been working on. So we let her stay up and hang out with him tonight. She was a great helper too. She put all the old nails into the bucket for daddy. He is so patient and loving with the girls. I am so very blessed to have such a wonderful hubby and father to my children.

Privacy Fence

"Many hands make light work."

We took the fence down last spring in hopes to repair it, and clear the land we owned that wasn't fenced and put it back up. Well about six months later we are finaly close to finshing. Kevin's friend Jayce came over to help us out yesterday. What a blessing! I can't wait to enjoy the security of relaxing in the back yard without having to worry about The Girls or Hailey our pooch running into the road or into our neighbors yards. Don't worry we unplugged the saw when Daddy wasn't using it.

Daddy's Little Helpers

Thankful for a beautiful day and a good friend to help us get some work done.

April Summary

Gamma & Pappa came out for a visit. The weather was nice so it allowed the girls to play outside with my parents quite a bit. We even got to have a cookout and my folks got to meet some of our friends. It was wonderful. The Girls had a blast and were sad when they had to leave. We all were. Mean while Kevin and I have been working on tearing down the fence out back and clearing the land behind it so that we can use all that extra space. What a job it turned out to be. Hopefully it will be done by the end of the summer.

Lily's Big Girl Room!

                                                                   Edy My little Ruby will soon be here, so we decided to move Lily Belle out of the Nursery into her "Big Girl" bedroom. We decorated it with an ocean/surf theme of course just like the old nursery, except we jazzed it up a bit for a "Big Girl". We put our old queen bed in there so Gamma & Pappa have a place to stay when they come and visit to welcome baby Eden when she arrives. Lily was very happy with the way it turned out, and Daddy even let her jump on the big bed.

Pics of the Nursery

This is one of the three identical corner shelves made by my grandfather. I decided to use two of them in Eden's room, to hold various bobbles & treasures we already owned. So I spray painted them both pink. $2.99 for the spray paint. The girls bedrooms are on the smaller side, & I wanted to keep the look light and airy. So I chose a $5 can of butter yellow mis-tint paint for the walls. Score!

This shelf I found @ the Salvo for $3 I also spray painted this pink. And used it to display some of my grandmothers china collection. A Boyd's bear for Lily from my best friend Kate. And a cross stitch of me and my date of birth that somebody made for my mom when I was born.

We also used 1x3's as crown molding, Way cheaper than the fancy stuff, but also achieves the country cottage look that I like. The paneling in this room used to be natural wood but it was very dark so we painted it white. Another one of my absolute favorite things is Painted paneling. OOOOOOOOooooHHH!

My dear friend Bethany doesn't particularly like painted furniture, so she gave me this dresser along with a matching "Tall Boy" I decided to use for Lily's Room. It worked out perfectly. A changing pad turned this dresser into a very practical changing table. Since we are using cloth diapers I was able to store each size in separate drawers.

I wanted cafe curtains for privacy, but they still let in a lot of light. The curtains are eyelet lace. My mother helped me make some for both the girls rooms. And we threaded ribbon in coordinating colors through the larger holes. I love this idea because as they grow and change up thier rooms I can easily switch the ribbons out for new colors. I will try to find a better picture of the curtains.


I am totally a basket and tote person. I think baby clothes are such a pain to hang, and not to mention organizing everything according to age proved to be easier to accomplish using baskets. Especially since they grow out of everything within a few months. So I made shelves in her closet using MDF and 2x4's. I love how it turned out. The baskets slide in and out like drawers. They don't all match because I used ones we already had. The lazy boy was Kevin's grandmother's. His Grandfather gave it to us just before he passed away. It is perfect for nursing and rocking my babies.

I had already picked the yellow and pink theme for the nursery long before I chose a crib set. When I spotted this crib set I wanted it, but it was a little pricey. So I kept my eye on it and it dropped in price a few times. Then one day a my friend Shannon, said she had seen it on clearance and there weren't many left, and I finally scored the last one @ $19. Pretty sweet. So you can definitely pull off an inexpensive nursery if you get creative and try to decorate with things you already have, or ask around, you'll be surprised what people are just getting rid of. Recycling Rocks!

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