Happy Mother's Day! 05/10/10

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Mother's Day! I just have to brag on my kids and say that they are the BEST a mom could ever wish for! I was in bed all day with a toothache (root canal coming this friday...ugh.) but the kids made breakfast for me and still brought me gifts. The flowers above are from my two teens. They said they will plant them in my garden for me.

My "little" girl (18yrs and 4" taller than me!) made this beautiful crystal necklace for me in all my favorite colors...pink, pearl, silver and crystal. It SPARKLES!


My "big" girl (27yrs and 4" SHORTER than me...) made me this beautiful clock to hang in the cottage! She hand painted it from a photo of our Pondicherry Cottage. Isn't it perfect?

Here is the cottage, an old photo before we even had the porch redone:

And here is a close-up of the clock:

Didn't she do a great job?! She had to paint "around the tree" in the front yard to get the entire house in. It looks exactly like the real thing!

New door and chandelier at the Cottage! 12/08/09

I know it's silly to get excited about such small things but if your front door was 100 years old, you'd understand. Our old door was so out of plumb that you could hardly lock it anymore! And the window that had been broken out of it before we bought the cottage had been replaced with a bit of plywood. There was a 1 inch gap at the bottom and everytime I left the place, I had to pray that I could slam the door just right in order for it to lock. One time I slammed my finger in it and stood there crying as my son prepared to catch me as I fainted from PAIN! But I digress...



Here is the old door. I painted the little plywood piece blue just to make it tolerable. In the 2nd pic you can see light coming through the crack where it was screwed to the door! Ugh.

Look at this photo from the inside. At the top of the jamb you can see that it was practically 3" off square! No wonder I could never get it shut! The workers had to remove the original trim but were able to get it back up. You can see they had a little trouble with the plaster/lathe coming off on the left but they patched it pretty well.


Inside view. The new locks work like a dream. I'm very happy. ('Scuse the unpainted section of the floor.)

Check out my chandelier! I bought it at a garage sale for $2. It had no crystals and it was all brass so I took it apart, rewired it and painted it white. I bought an old table lamp for $10 that had aurora borealis crystals and used them for the chandelier. They are awesome!

Look how they sparkle like tiny rainbows!

I bought 2 ceiling medallions at the Escondido AMVETS for about $5. (Try to fit THAT in your carry-on luggage!) You can see I used the smaller one here. The center hole was a bit small for the electrical box so I just jig-sawed it bigger and then glued the thing up there with that super-caulking-industrial-glue-stuff. It ain't goin' nowhere!

Birthday Celebration & Cottage Update 10/01/09

Well, I celebrated my 48th birthday on Tuesday and the best present of all was that my mom was here to help me celebrate! I hadn't seen her since April so I was REALLY happy to have her here for almost 2 weeks!

We had a very full day, doing our favorite things...garage sailing, thrift shopping, lunching...then to my son's soccer game that evening. After the game, my sweet in-laws treated us to dinner at our favorite Chinese place, The Mine Garden. It's actually call The Jasmine Garden, but the lightbulbs behind the "J-A-S" have been burned out for quite some time now, so it's the "***MINE Garden."



That's my husband on the end pretending to be disinterested and playing games on his phone...I think he pretending...


Check out my beautiful flowers from my in-laws. They remembered that my favorite flowers are anything orange.

Well, my mom hadn't seen the cottage in a long time so she REALLY wanted to see it before she left for home. Here are some current pics of our work. (The bathroom is still a mess...so no pics of it.)

Mom enjoying the view from the porch. That walkway was completely hidden under sod until my hardworking son uncovered the entire thing.



Mom in the bedroom.





Mom modeling my circa 1960's fridge with pink interior.



Mom pretending to do housework...(she doesn't really know her way around a kitchen but can definitely find a microwave!)



Mom lounging on my $10 sofa that clashes magnificently with the green walls. I used a Pale Apple from Laura Ashley but it just wasn't pale enough. It turned out pretty lime-y. I will repaint the room but, right now, that is waaay at the bottom of the to-do list. The red sofa will be permanently moved to the yellow living room when that room is finished.



Here is the living room. I LOVE this pale yellow color. I had to mix it myself and have since had much trouble in matching it, even with the photo-technology at the paint stores! Green room is to the left, pink kitchen to the right, I am taking the photo from the front door...See, I told you it was a tiny house! That cottage painting behind my mom willl hang in the living room. The chandelier on the stool will go in the green room. Check out that vintage crib leaning against the wall on the left. That was also a curbside attraction at the same place I picked up the antique door (see kitchen photo above.) I love the bunny/teddy bear/ giraffe decals. So adorable! I haven't decided what to do with it yet, but it will definately be a piece somewhere in the cottage.




Above is a view into the green room from the yellow room. The sun was really shining nicely through the stained glass. Here is mom sitting in the corner on my ratty old pink chair that I dragged all the way from Kansas. It is a bit rickety but I love it!

Cottage bathroom 06/26/09

Here are a few "before" pics of the bathroom. This is how it looked when we bought the cottage. Where the tub was, will now be the laundry area. (Boy, that tub was HEAVY to remove! Lucky for me, I'm married to the Hulk....short but powerful.)






Here is what it looks like right now. I am hoping to get it finished this week since I am off work for the whole WEEK!





Before the new ceiling.



During installation...it is so hard to put something on the ceiling! I drilled my finger...twice!

Running WATER! 06/26/09

YES! The cottage has WATER! After a year of trucking water over in coolers, we now have the modern convenience of stepping over to the sink and...PRESTO! Welcome to the 21st century!

The plumber has hooked up my kitchen sink, bathroom sink, tub and toilet. So not only do we have water for washing, we have water for flushing! I won't tell you what we did during the year whenever nature called....

Here is a picture of my son removing the old sink in the kitchen. Notice the burned formica countertops and lack of backsplash. (I removed the peel-and-stick tiles that were up there.)

I wallpapered the backsplash in a pretty embossed paper that mimicks pressed tin ceiling tiles. I will paint it with enamel white for durability. I covered the formica with crisp white ceramic tile....ah...Dad would be proud. Check out the old medicine bottles found on the property. 

Here is a close-up of some of the many layers of wall paper on the old backsplash.

On a side note, we had a HUGE blessing last weekend with a surprise visit from some dear friends of ours on their way traveling on vacation. We hadn't seen then in about 5 years.
They have 10 of the sweetest children you will ever meet! They were driving home from a week at Suzuki Camp. You can see the older kids with their instruments in tow. They drive a 15 passenger van and haul all their belongings in a horse trailer. Clever! I hope to see them again soon!

Mother's day 05/12/09

I hope every Mom has as nice a Mother's Day as I did. I got the only thing I asked for...help demolishing the bathroom at the cottage. I even got some extra helpers...my brother and sister in law. My husband's Mom came along to to keep things light!


Here is my daughter helping to rip out ceiling tiles. Note my new electrical panel! Lights!

My sister in law and brother in law worked hard to pull tiles and remove remaining bathtub framing.

My son and husband were out mowing the lawn and gathering an armful of Poppies that were in full bloom on the property. Aren't they beautiful? (See photo above.)

After burgers at a local "Drive-In" we came home and I opened my gifts.

My jewelry-making daughter took this lone vintage earring and turned it into a brooch for me. It SPARKLES!

My 16yr old son made this sweet charm bracelet out of Sculpey clay. He baked all the pieces right under my nose. I never saw a thing. The charms are: a cross, our dog, pepsi logo (I'm addicted), a heart, watermelon (my favorite food) and an ebay logo (I've been selling there since 1995!). His sister put all the charms together on the bracelet.

Work at the cottage 04/25/09

I've been getting work done on the bedroom at the cottage. I love the blue we picked out for the walls and it's so pretty with the sun shining through the large windows.

While my mom was visiting, we hit a few garage sales and I got some GREAT treasures for the cottage.

I got this really pretty bed for $10. I forgot to take a "before" picture, but it was painted fluorescent yellow and green and was upholstered in maroon. But I saw past that, to what it would be. Here it is:

I painted it in white, re-upholstered it in a tiny taupe houndstooth and covered it in an old hobnail cotton bedspread that I had. No pillows yet. Look at the pretty detail in the siderails and foot.

Here is more detail in the carved roses on the headboard:

Now, I know this is absolutely crazy but check out this adorable side table I picked up for $3!. There are 3 huge brass flowers that spring out on the base. They are like tulips on steroids that have been bronzed! Inside each of the flowers is a light bulb that lights up when you plug the thing in! How great is that?! Anyway, the flowers look just like "Audrey 2" in the movie Little Shop Of Horrors so I have loving dubbed this little table "Audrey 3".

At the same sale where I purchased Audrey 3, I bought this massive mirror for $15. Is it gorgeous, or what! 

My amazing daughter used lots of elbow grease to get this old fridge to shine! This is the old thing I bought last month for $25 from a farmer who had it out in his barn. It is an old HotPoint with a tiny freezer on top. But the best thing about it is its PINK interior! It is too SWEET and too perfect for my old kitchen. It's a little shabby on the outside and I may paint it in the future. But for now it is fine.