Monthly Archives: May 2012
Our House… Travel Souvenirs
This week Centsational Girl hosted a link party featuring travel souvenirs, which got me thinking… how about if I highlight some of the items I’ve brought home with me from our travels.
(Ok, it mostly got me thinking because the links I put on her party got booted off, because they weren’t designated travel souvenir enough… so being the persistant gal I am… I really wanted to play there… so I’m hoping this one gets to stay on! Hi Kate… please let me stay)
I’ve mentioned some pieces as I’ve showed you different spaces in ‘Our House’ but today’s post is all about highlighting just the souvenir pieces. Read On…
Our House… Keeping up with the Seasonal Changes
For my birthday this year, my daughter gave me a pair of beautiful mercury glass candle holders…
When she gave them to me, they didn’t have the candles… I found these at Target and guessed on the size, WOW they fit perfectly and I loved the soft blue green color with the mercury glass, and how it mixes the old world look with a contemporary style.
(Funny story… when I was looking at candles at Target, I liked how these looked, READ ON…
Monday’s Simple Cleverness… Pot Rocks
Let’s start with a picture to see what I’m talking about:
See the pot rocks? Here’s what going on with them… READ ON…
Little Brick Cottage… Leaving Out the Back Entry
Well people, this is farewell, at least for now, to the ‘Little Brick Cottage’… yes, I’m sorry, I love it too, but like I told you at the beginning when we bought this antique house, it was a project for me to fix up, breath new life into it and then either sell or rent it. For now it’s being rented by a wonderful family that loves it.
However, I still do have one last room, the back entry, to show you, from start to finish, then it’s out the door and let this family live in peace in this charming home.
When we bought this house the back entry was ‘yucky’ at best. There was no natural light in the space, there was a door closing the kitchen to the entry, yet it was completely opened to the basement and felt dangerously close to the first basement step.
I told you as we were working on this space how we needed to READ ON…
New Rules to Follow us on Facebook
Important Notice!!!
Facebook Changes… Again…
To follow us on Facebook, you need to go to our Decorate With a Little Bit facebook ‘fan page’.
You can get there from this link:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/DecorateWithaLittleBitcom/319573694721677
Now you must do TWO things to get automatic updates into your facebook news feed…
First: To get it in your newsfeed, you have to ‘like‘ it in the top header. But now there’s something NEW:
Second: Now you must hover over that ‘liked’ in the top header and a dropdown menu will show up…
Be sure that ‘Show in News Feed‘ is clicked!
Follow us by email:
Enter your email address:
Delivered by FeedBurner
Our House… Screened Porch
We have numerous porch or porch type things at ‘Our House’, and the screened porch is one of them. It is the exact footprint of the sunroom because the screened porch sits directly below it. But unlike the sunroom which we made totally protected from the weather and livable all 4 seasons, the screened porch is only protected from bugs… for the most part… a few always seem to find a way in.
The screened porch is accessible from the lower level family room, it has a big sliding patio door that opens into the porch. It’s also READ ON…
Little Brick Cottage… DIY Vintage Canning Jar Pendant Lights
In the kitchen at the ‘Little Brick Cottage’ we have a peninsula in the new floor plan, and it seemed fitting to have some pendant lights hanging over that peninsula. When I started looking however, I couldn’t find anything that stayed in our budget and looked like a simple farmhouse style light.
So, as it often does, necessity led to creativity…
I made some pendants to hang off the track light repurposing vintage blue canning jars and old zinc lids.
I’ve said before how much I like using track lighting, and the simple cleverness of the track pendant adapter for just this purpose, (like how I showed you I used it in the dining room at ‘Our House’). The versatility it gives is very effective, especially in a kitchen where a lot of specific task lighting is needed. You can just add another fixture if need be and point it to where you want. That’s what we have mounted above the peninsula here, so the small fixtures are for the function,
but I wanted something for the form part, you know to look pretty, and that’s where the jar pendant lights come into the picture. Here’s how I made them: READ ON…
Our House… Kitchen Cabinet Details
I’ve talked a couple times about the kitchen at ‘Our House’ mostly here, but a little here and here too. I kind of ‘zoomed’ through, so thought I’d give a couple more details.
When we bought ‘Our House’ around 15 years ago, the kitchen cabinets didn’t look like they do now. They were in really good condition, but being built in the late 80’s they really lacked character. I’ve searched and can’t find a ‘before’ pic of the kitchen, (I think I was in such a hurry to paint them, I forgot to take a picture of the kitchen) but this is what our bathroom vanity looked like before we redid that room, and it was the exact same, dark stained oak as the kitchen cabinets.
Some people, (like the carpenter helping me at the time) could nearly croak at the thought of painting solid oak cabinets, but not me, (and I bet not you either, because if you’re reading this blog, chances are you too have painted over perfectly good wood, ha, and probably even written a post or two about it).
The first phase when I painted them… ok now, give me a little grace when you see this picture, it was 15 years ago, and I did have a huge Puritan ware collection… I did do some things right, and I’ve learned a lot about decorating over the years, but here goes the first phase pic… remember grace… READ ON…
Monday's Simple Cleverness…Plate Hanger
I’ve had a few questions here on the blog, as well as over the years, as I would decorate and hang plates, bowls, and platters on the wall of clients homes…
It came up again when I shared with you about the bowls I hung over the sunporch doorway in the kitchen.
‘How do you do that?’
Simple…
So here is a platter I have hung on the wall in the living room low enough that I don’t need to get a ladder out to take a close up picture of it.
See the little ‘fingers’ coming around the face of it holding it? READ ON…
Our House… New Season, New Dining Table Vignette
At ‘Our House’ the dining table is the first piece of furniture guests see, when they enter into the house. So for that reason I try, (try, but not always successful) to be diligent about having a beautiful seasonal vignette to welcome people in.
This is what is Read on…
