Happy New Year

This is what the party looks like at our house. That is Emry on the left and Chubby on the right. This is their new favourite spot to sleep. Stewart is in the bedroom on the bed and Rudy is curled up beside me on the loveseat. Wherever you are and whatever you do I wish you a Happy New Year and Best Wishes in 2015.

Love Always,

Kim

The china cabinet found a home

The china cabinet arrived before Christmas which gave me plenty of time to wash, polish and make it sparkle. I unpacked all of my teacups and tried to make everything look good. I love the cabinet in this spot. I had my hutch here but it was too deep and stuck out past the wall. Sometimes you just have to live with things before you make changes.

I have been busy lately emptying the last of the boxes. I always have a box ready for donations. When you realize that you do not need a certain item any longer it is nice to know that someone else will probably have a use for it. We have an amazing Salvation Army store in the town south of us and I take all of my donations there.

I have been working on organizing the laundry room. I have a vision for the room and the inspiration came from this picture. This is from the blog: From My Front Porch To Yours.

I just love the room in this picture. I have an antique dresser that I want to sit in between my washer and dryer. This room is my laundry room, storage room, mudroom and a room for the cats. I am going to have to paint the room from top to bottom and come up with a idea for a ceiling fixture. There is no outlet for a ceiling fixture in this room and there are only 2 electrical outlets.
I will take pictures of the room as soon as I get all of my storage furniture in place. I haven't decided on colours yet. Take care.

Love Always,

Kim

Looking forward to Christmas

I have just spent some time cleaning the handles and pulls on my china cabinet. I don't know why I never thought of it before. Once you get one done you want to clean all the rest in a instant. Well it took some doing to get these clean. I soaked them in hot water and soap just to get the dirt off of them first and then I took the cleaner/polish to them. Oh yes and don't forget the elbow grease. There was lots of elbow grease. They look like new, they pick up the light and look so much bigger.

I have been very busy trying to get all of the boxes emptied and everything put away before Christmas. It is right around the corner. How does it creep up on us so fast?

The weather man this evening says there is a really good chance of a White Christmas due to a major storm. This is a lot different from last year. We had so much snow this time last year. In truth it is much easier to get around without the snow. The wind howls here right off of the lake and makes the cottage rattle. We do not have any snow at the moment and it has been quit mild. I guess only time will tell. 

Love Always,

Kim

The Cottage

This is one end of the living room. The floors are new and they look like barn wood and have a matte finish on them. The chair under the window belonged to my grandmother. The upholstery matches the colour on the walls. It is a soft pale green with grey in it. I love the colour.

The little pie crust tea table beside my chair is a bargain from a garage sale. I refinished just this summer. I am very pleased how it turned out. That is my tea wagon which was a birthday gift. There are two cane armchairs. I am going to remove the seat and paint the wood white like the trim in the cottage. I also want to paint my coffee table. We use it a lot and I would like to brighten it up.

The loveseat has seen better days with four cats in the house but it is comfortable. I thought I would make a slipcover for it as there is nothing wrong with the couch it just needs a new look. The new floor extends into the kitchen and just beside the refrigerator you can see the light coming in our side door.

Here is one side of the kitchen. I put my hutch in the kitchen thinking this was the logical place for it. After having lived here for a little more than a month I realized that it need to be in our living room. I was using an old mahogany radio stand as a coffee station. My husband loves his coffee. The radio stand was just not big enough to be efficient so I move the hutch to the living room. It holds both coffee machines, all the coffee and I can display our nice mugs and cups and saucers.

The ceiling fans are coming down soon. There are actually two of them in the kitchen. I have two chandeliers to hang. One of them is going to hang over the table.

The louvered door is my pantry cupboard. I love it. It holds our food, baking supplies, canned goods, pots and pans. Need I say more. It is wonderful

I was so happy that I was able to put my little drop leaf table in the kitchen. I rely on it so much when making pizza, bread and for serving meals.

I have a lot of painting to do in the spring. Both the table and the hutch will get a makeover when the weather warms up again. I am going to be busy.

Here is the table in the kitchen. As you can see I do not have any curtains up as yet. I have my curtains from the house but I have just not decided on the rod type. That is Chubby posing at the entry to the living room.

I am really loving the gas stove. I have never cooked on gas before. The range hood is old and gross and not vented to the outside. It is going to have to come down. The little cupboard above the stove will have to be moved up so that I can get a new microwave in there. I am not that tall so it is a real reach for me to use the old one that is on top of the fridge. It is not convenient but it will do for now.

The best part of the cottage is the gas fireplace. Now that the snow is coming down it is appreciated even more. Hope you are having a lovely day.

Love Always,

Kim

Moving to a New Home

Well it has been a while since I posted any news. We have had some health problems but things are going well at the moment. All the kitties are well. We have had a strange summer with only a handful of good days. Mostly we lived under grey skies with less than normal temperatures and many days of rain. Actually it seems as we have just started our summer. The weather has been sunny with above normal temperatures and Autumn has already arrived.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and we are moving to a cute little cottage a short walk to the lake. We are going to celebrate Thanksgiving a week late due to our move. You can see the lake from the end of the driveway. There are a few projects being done before we move in. The walls are being painted, new curtains rods will be there for me to use once we move. There is a beautiful new floor.

The kitchen and bathroom counter tops and sinks are being replaced.There is a fireplace and we are going to be warm and comfortable. There is a big yard and it is peaceful and quiet. There is a lovely porch across the width of the cottage and I have been collecting ideas to use for next summer.

I have been working on a some of my furniture lately. I refinished my piecrust tea table. I am so pleased with the way it turned out. I sanded, stained and sealed it with Clear Coat. I bought my little table at a garage sale for $2.00. I am hoping to paint my little dining suite white to use in my new kitchen.

I am looking forward to finding a place for all the things I love and decorating the whole house. Here are a few pictures that I am using for inspiration.

 

Love Always,

Kim