Lot of 40 + Antique Ladies Home Journal on Ebay...What a deal!

It's not a usual thing for me to make two entries in one day, but I wanted to let everone know about an Ebay auction before it ends.


For those of you interested in ephemera and antique papers and old magazines in general, this auction is for you! It's not my auction, (and I sure wish I had the extra cash floating around to win) but I think this is a great deal:)

Someone is selling a Lot of 40+ Antique Ladies Home Journals dating from the 1800's (1888 to 1896) for the starting bid of $75. I don't know how high the bids will go (no one has bid yet - the auction ends in 1 Day 4 Hours as of this posting), but I *do* know that if these were sold individually, you would pay A LOT more than that. For instance, someone else is selling an older LHJ (early 1900's) for $25. Someone else is selling one pattern from a Ladies Home Journal for $9.99, another is selling one ad from the magazine for $25, and so on. So this is an awesome find!


There would be so many uses for these old mags...framing ads and articles or using the beautiful pictures and print for decoupage. It would be splendid if one of you bids on and wins this auction! The seller has tons more photos on her auction page - check it out! The auction ends on Mar-29-07 16:25:48 PDT (1 day 4 hours)

Want Crown Moulding on Your Cabinets but Have Soffits? Solutions!

Here's a great question from the Cottage Mailbag this week...Vicki asks:

"Any suggestions for trimming out the cabinets with a soffit overhead?"

I don't have a soffit area above our cabinet area, but I know that many of you may. I was really excited to find a few photos online, though, of what others have done to make their soffits more attractive. Click to enlarge:)

Here, the homeowners added trim in three areas of their soffit - the bottom, the middle, and then the crown moulding at the top - then painted the area the same color as their cabinetry to create a seamless look. The moulding in the middle serves to break up the height of the soffit a bit.


I LOVE this next photo! Again, trim was added to the bottom and top of the soffit, but in the middle, the homeowners appears to have added (from what it looks like) some anaglypta wallpaper border (anaglypta is a textured wallpaper than can be painted). The paint treatment they applied is fabulous - it looks they've used some glazing as well for an aged look.


Here is another simple but beautiful treatment. Again, just some trim on the bottom of the soffit and crown moulding at the top. In the center, they applied appliques and then painted the whole area out the same color as their cabinets. Just gorgeous!


This is a little different, but I like it! Instead of painting the whole trimmed out soffit the same color, wording was added between the trim. You can paint your own, or check out Wall Words or Wonderful Graffiti for some pretty vinyl words and quotes. (I can't wait until I can order some quotes for my walls!)



I don't have a photo, but if you'd like a more functional soffit area, instead of adding regular trim to the bottom part of your soffit, add a narrow shelf ledge to display decorative items. You can still trim it out with moulding and paint it the same color as your cabinetry for a cohesive look.

So don't let soffits stop you from adding beautiful trimmings! I think they even enhance trimwork, personally. If you have any other soffit ideas and photos tha include trim (or not), let me know:)

Today is a perfectly yummy rainy day and though the laundry beckons me (it.is.never.silent), I think I'll sit and craft for a while. I have a fun announcement to make later this week...stay tuned and have a succulent day!

Why Must I Be So Difficult?

And yes, I know for a fact that I'm not the first person to ask that question about me, hehe.

Let me first start by saying something positive. The dining wall is looking great! The dips are gone thanks to many thin layers of drywall mud in just the right places, and after another final sanding, I can prime (again!). YOu may remember that I've done all of this before, down to even the priming, only to discover the rather unsightly dips and waves. Hubs, who notices everything, didn't notice but it was driving me bonkers. Now I can enjoy looking at a nice, straight wall (like I have time to sit around and watch the walls!).

Speaking of being driven bonkers, let me confide to you one of renovation secrets...brace yourself: I don't like my new countertops...***sniff***. I was really hoping they would grow on me, and I know they've only been installed for a little over a week, but I think they look just awful with the red cabinets. The countertops are beigy brown and are suppose to look like a natural type of material, but when I see the kitchen I see the brown, the red, and the (primer) green walls. Red. Brown. Green. The pattern on the countertop also seems much busier than the feel I want and almost gives more of fancier look than the clean, simple country cottage style I'm going for. What a feeling in the pit of my stomach. I thought maybe - maybe if I just used white (actually, a creamy white) beadboard *all* the way around the kitchen and dining area, including the backsplash area (instead of the painted brick pavers for the backsplash), then the eye will be drawn around the room instead of focusing on the countertop. But still...Red.Brown.Green Oh, and remember, our living room is yellow.

Am I agonizing over this way too much? Are the countertops neutral enough or are they out of place in this cottage kitchen? *sigh* I need icecream.

P.S. If you subscribers got a strange entry from One Woman's Cottage Life, hehe, I apologize. That was the very first entry *ever* about our house, written back in 2003 before we bought it. I had it in a draft folder and only just published it to this site last night!

What $62 Might Get You at the Nashville Flea Market

I had so.much.fun on Friday at the Nashville Flea Market. As I mentioned earlier today, it was just me - no kids or husband:) That meant I could linger for as long as I wanted at any one booth without anyone complaining, hehe. And the weather was beautiful to boot!

Oh how easily I could have dropped $100 or more for beautiful old goodies, but as I mentioned in Friday's post, we were about to use a good chunk o' change for our new doors (see today's earlier entry)and hardware. So needless to say, I had to fight myself to keep from buying too much, lol. So here is what I bought...

A cute little old red and white chair for $11...




And old cream colored woven blanket with cherry red, lime green, and pale blue stripes for $5....



A cute little wooden cottage table for $20....



These old milk bottles are probably my favorite. Someone at some point painted the inside of them white and I love it! I got the set for $20. The little white pitcher beside it was $6.


Oh, and the old silverware in the pitcher, I didn't get at the flea market, but at Goodwill last week for just .25 each. Can't beat that! I don't plan on cleaning them - I love them just the way they are (for decorative use only)!

Mission Accomplished - We Have Our New Doors from Southeastern Salvage!

Drats, I have to leave for a doctor's appointment and only have a couple of minutes to write, but I just had to report that hubs and I had the BEST weekend in Chattanooga. The flea market on Friday in Nashville was awesome...it was just me - no husband or children in tow. I did find goodies but haven't yet photographed them - I will later today and will tell you all about them soon!


I have to at least take a moment to share photos of our wonderful new solid pine interior doors! I'm telling you, if you need new doors and want to go the real wood route, please consider taking a trip to Southeastern Salvage. They build the doors for you per your specifications and measurements - and any interior door size for the 6 panel pine doors are just $98!!! You will save so much because at Lowes or Home Depot, you'll spend at least $150 per door. Southeastern Salvage has locations in Chattanooga, Birmingham, Chesapeake, Cincinnati, Mobile, and Shreveport. They have lots of other building and remodeling materials for cheap, too. Check them out when you get a chance! These guys take a lot of pride in their work and the quality is amazing. Oh, and we also picked up all of our oil-rubbed bronze door knobs there and I'll share photos of them later, too:) Just $10 for each set! Amazing!

Well, I must run and get ready to go see an oral surgeon for a consultation. I need all four of my wisdom teeth removed soon. Bleh! Have a great Monday, everyone! And thanks for all your lovely comments below!

Flea Market Bound + PIcking Up New Interior Doors

You may find this hard to believe, but I haven't been to the flea market in probably two years. I know that if I went there frequently, we'd have no money to finish this neverending remodel, so I play it safe and just don't go often:) Besides, I just have to box everything up and store it for now anyways. But Friday (today), I'm Flea Market Bound! I still won't be lugging back furniture or higher ticketed items because the Flea Market is just a pitstop for me before we head down to pick up our pine interior six-panel doors. We'll be buying all of the oil rubbed bronze door knobs we'll need while we're there, so my flea market budget is pretty pinched. (Fiddlesticks!) But we'll see if I can find a special something with an itty bitty "renovator's budget":) The weather is going to be gorgeous, I won't have the kidlets, and I love a good hunt!

Before I sign off, please check out a new decorating/remodeling blog that I've recently discovered. It's called A Charmed Life and is written by a new blogger named Dawn. She says on her website... "I just recently purchased my first home and am busy remodeling and decorating. I am inspired by magazines, HGTV, books, and of course other women's blogs! I want my home to feel warm and welcoming and to be a special place for my family." Now, I've probably gone and embarassed her (sorry, Dawn!) but I love it when a new and inspirational house blog gets discovered! She just started writing this month and has lots of nice photos and project ideas already...check it out!

A Little Cottage Spring Cleaning and Wishful Thinking

I love spring. Everything comes alive and there is always energy in the air. I seem to have more energy, too, and that's a wonderful thing! My problem is that when it comes to taking care of the house, I don't know where to start? Household chores? Remodeling work? Crafting for my little cottage business? Spring cleaning? Yard work? All of the above majorly need my attention, but today, spring cleaning in the office/sunroom/storage room won out. It has needed my attention for weeks now, but as you may know, it isn't heated or cooled yet so the idea of spending hours in here during really cold or hot days isn't very appealing.
I really do dislike the fact that this room often serves as a storage room - often cluttered with boxes and toys and books. The girls' books, as you can see on the bookshelf there, stay in a state of disarray and it's something that I'm always harping on them about. Usually there are always piles of books on the floor, too (they need a much bigger bookshelf - and in their room...in due time). This room also once served as a playroom, but I found that the kids still managed to keep both their "playroom" and their bedroom cluttered, so their toys were moved back to their own room. Funny, though, how those toys still manage to migrate back to this space...hmmm.... This has also been where I store items I buy to repurpose or rehab in the future. With the room so full of stuff, you just don't notice how light and airy it is in here.

Today the weather was quite pleasant so I tackled the sunroom head on. It was emptied of nearly everything but the computer desk, a couple of chairs, the girls books, an old shabby dresser that I'll repaint one day. This may be quite mean of me, lol, but I've told the kids that this space now belongs to hubs and me and that they need explicit permission to be in here (to grab a book, use the computer, or just have alone time). Everything that wasn't trash was bagged up and taken to yet another problem storage area (our unfinished bonus room upstairs). I've swept and need to mop and clean the windows, but it looks 100% better already. By the way, those steps lead right into the kitchen, in case you were wondering:)

We're going to be having a yard sale in the coming weeks and I have such a hard time focusing on what to keep and what to sell when *everything* is pulled out at once. I know my idea of just hauling it all upstairs may seem strange to some, but I want to live without this excess "stuff" for a while, and if we don't miss anything between now and the next six weeks or so, then we can live without it. Bringing down one bag of things at a time to sort through - that I can handle. My first instinct when I'm surrounded by things I have to make a decision about (does it stay or does it go?) is to just throw everything away, lol. As hard of a time that I have staying organized and tidy, clutter really does drive me bonkers and I operate much better with very few personal items. You wouldn't know that by looking at my closets now, hehe, but it's the truth. I told hubs that I wish we could challenge ourselves to only keep enough personal items that would fit into a certain number of suitcases...and nothing else.

Back to the sunroom, I love this room, despite it's problems (no heat yet, water damage on the walls when the roof leaked years ago, the ceiling that needs to be redone, and on and on...) But I was thinking that this would be a great craft room for me. It's nice and sunny and cheerful! Or, wouldn't it be fun to have a Cottage Sale in this room every once in a while? (Tiff from Folded Gingham gave me the idea...). It would need new paint and a little TLC, of course, but it's just the right cozy size for a little sale. Plus, the sliding doors open to a part of our deck that I could decorate with plants and cottage type items... and the entrance to the sunroom will soon be (hopefully!) surrounded by pretty colorful flowers. Do you see in the last photo, right outside the door, hubs has built for me recently some really large flowerbeds just waiting for dirt and plants?!

Even if I never do it, it sure is fun to think about!

Well, I'm off to do what everyone loves to do after hours of cleaning - make dinner!

Kitchen Countertop, Sink, and Old Fashion Faucet Installed

What.a.weekend. Oh my. First let me say that I completely understand the saying that "if a marriage can survive a remodel, it can survive anything", LOL! Talk about stress!

On the weekends, I try to come up with projects that hubs and I can work on together...things that I can't do alone. The dining room wall is something that I can work by myself, during the week, so I left it untouched this weekend hoping that hubs and I could work on a project together. I thought about all the myriads of things that need to get done and then I jokingly said, "Hey, we could install the countertops this weekend, hehe". You see, our new countertops have sat in our garage for two years now. We never really thought we'd see the day that they would actually be installed:) But out of curiousity, hubs brought in a small piece of the countertop to see what it would look like. Out of curiousity, I removed a piece of the old countertop and placed the new piece in it's place just to see if our measurements were correct (they were, yay!). Within half an hour, hubs pronounced, "We're intalling our new countertops this weekend!"

(These two photos are before shots...)For many reasons, this was a much bigger job than we expected. Of course! We realized that when we tried remove the old sink. It was literally glued down to the old countertop (and not with sealant) and took forever to remove. Also, because we have a lazy susan type corner cabinet, we had absolutely no access to the mitered corner area of the countertop in order to bolt them into place. We had to put the mitered corner together first and then slide it into place. It took three tries before we could get the corner to come together. Using clamps to hold the pieces in place definitely helped. Also, I'm amazed at how roly poly and wavy the walls are! I shouldn't be, though. I couldn't believe how much old caulk from the old countertop I removed. When we got the new countertop in place, I could see why. I'm so glad that we are using fairly thick brick pavers as a backsplash. Some of the pavers are thicker than others, so we'll just place the thicker ones where the wall dips.

(Here are some photos of the newly installed countertop) Overall, I'm pretty happy with the new counter. Honestly, I didn't want laminate at all and preferred to use something more earthy or light. I love soapstone, but that was out of the question for our small budget. Tile would have been pretty, but I didn't want to worry about cleaning grout lines. My options were pretty limited so I chose this countertop because it seemed earthy "enough" and the colors were about the same as the aged paint on our kitchen island. My concern with the counter we chose is that it might be too dark...when I look at the kitchen now, I see the countertop first. But, when we add a painted white (it's a creamy bisque colored white, actually) brick backsplash, I think that is what my eye will see first. As I've mentioned before, the kitchen will have a lot of that creamy white in it - the beadboard, the ceilings, the trim - and the appliances and new sink are already that color. So, hopefully the darker countertop won't seem so "dark" when all the elements are in place. I might add that though our old countertop was much lighter, it was stained terribly. So I guess there are pros and cons of having light and dark counters.

But I must tell you, I love, love, love our new bisque colored extra deep sink and faucet (again, I've had these all boxed up and sitting around for two years!)!!! The faucet is from the Kingston Brass Restoration Collection and I really like the style...especially those old-fashion handles.

So another major project behind us. Here's what is left to do in the kitchen, in no particular order:
1)Even out the one dining room wall
2)Install backsplash
3)Install door trim
4)Install beadboard
5)Install crown moulding and finishing trim around ceiling beams
6)Paint walls, ceiling, doors, and trim
7)Maybe, maybe, maybe intall a single french door where we enter the house now (it's in the dining area across from the windows)
8)Install lighting
9)Install hardwood

I've gotten lots of emails from readers lately asking me about the color of paint I have on the cabinets. I'll respond to everyone soon, but until then, I just want to mention that the color is called "Cherry" by Waverly (at Lowes) and I used the satin finish:)

I hope everyone has a great Monday!

The Good News, Then the Bad News, Then More Bad News

The Good News is that I primed the dining wall where we removed the door and unless you are looking for it, you'd never know there was a door there. The Bad News is that I *do* look and I *can* tell where the door use to be. *sigh* This wall has driven me nuts and I wish that I could just give in and let it go. You don't see seams - they're gone, but I can see a couple of waves and dips in the wall near the seams. In the photo, the color variation you see is the primer - it was a different brand of green primer that I had originally used on the wall, so the color is a little off. I thought that maybe that's what was throwing me off, but when I painted a sample of the paint on the patched area - nope, it's a wavy wall:(

The wall wasn't even to begin with, but I never noticed because there was a door there interrupting the drywall. But now that it's just one big wall, those little humps jump out at me and I won't get any peace until they're fixed, lol. So the More Bad News is that I'll probably need to go over nearly the entire wall again with drywall mud to even it out. You may think I could just sand out any unlevel places, but that would result in just one big dip instead of two little ones. Oh well, at least this can be fixed and it isn't some kind of catastrophe. We'll see if I have any hair left by the end of this project. I think I need to get one of those really large, wide drywall blades, though, to help ensure that I'm applying the drywall evenly and filling in the dips correctly.


I know the days are suppose to feel longer now, but they are just flying by for me. There is so much to do and still so little time! Ack! But I have worked on some cottage crafts a little bit this week...
This set of little glass cottage fridge jewels (magnets) will be going in my online shop when it opens. I know there is usually a need for us to put reminders and lists on the fridge or other places - I love the idea of doing this in cottage style:) You can click the last photo to get a better look at this cottage fridge jewelry:)

Well, as usual, I only have this snippet of time and now I need to get out of work clothes and fetch the kidlets from school. I haven't yet responded to the generous comments and emails from the last entry but will soon - thank you all so much!

Welcome, Spring! + Beadboard Trim Question...

I know that spring hasn't officially arrived yet, but with the weather we've been having, it doesn't really matter:) We've enjoyed temps in the 60s to mid-70's - wonderful!

This week, along with crafting, I've been working on the wall in the dining room (our friend didn't make it last weekend, so I've taken on the project afterall:-) ). It's really coming along nicely despite hubs worries that there would be unsightly seams. Because our dining room walls had already been textured with a special " old pitted wall" effect back last year (before I decided that door in the dining room really shouldn't be there), there was a concern that we'd never be able to blend the new part of wall in with the old wall. Also, it seems like the drywall of nowadays is just a tad bit thinner than the drywall of 30 years ago. It could just be me. It has been a little tricky, I'll admit. I've had to slowly build up layers of drywall mud over the last few days, making sure to allow a layer for my texture technique and a final sanding layer. I've have that final layer to add tomorrow, then I'll sand it all nice a smooth, with a few pits here and there. We'll be ready to prime that section of the wall this week in preparation for PAINT - finally! We primed the rest of our dining room and kitchen well over a year ago.

I've spent a lot of time outside this week as well. We live on an acre and 3/4 of that is our backyard. So I've had a lot of fenceline pruning to tackle. After the first day of pruning, I felt like I had been run over by a truck! Whew!

About the beadboard, I would love to know or see photos of how you've trimmed out the chair rail for your beadboard/wainscotting in your own home. We are not yet ready to install the beadboard, but now that we are finishing up the kitchen walls, I'm thinking ahead to the kind of trim we'll use throughout the house. For baseboards, door trim, and window trim, we're just using simple, flat pine boards, (see dining room window trim). So we want to stay in keeping with this simple "farmhouse" style. I'd love to have a picture ledge but hubs thinks it would stick out too far. I don't know. Ooh, but while researching this topic and searching for inspiration photos, I found this one! The yellow is the shade of my living room and what will also be in our scary hallway. This photo gives me a great idea of what the beadboard is going to look like in our hallway and living room and I love it! It's so fresh and cheerful! Even the flooring is a similar shade to what we've bought. I had reservations about beadboarding the lower portion of the living room walls, but after another awful season of winter blues, I know I need a lot of light reflective white in my home, and being surrounded by warm and homey beadboard will be so cozy.

I hope everyone has a nice and safe weekend! After this beautiful week of delicious weather, we get rain tomorrow...pfft!

Spread the Love

I wanted to share with you all a couple of new cottage blogs I've discovered - new to me and also in the sense that they are newly created blogs that are just waiting for visitors and to be discovered. By the way, if you have or know of a cottage blog, "vintage" blog, or "old house" blog, please let me know! I consider such blogs to be great resources - a wonderful source of inspiration for both myself and other readers, and I "collect" them, if you will.

First let me introduce you to Paintin-Patti. She is currently making over her older, outdated cabinets by adding beadboard and moulding. It's looking great so far! She says they are almost finished and she'll be posting photos as soon as she can. She's painting them a beautiful cottage white - I can't wait to see them!

I'd also like to invite you to visit Elizabeth Hill Cottage. What a sweet little cottage! Like hubs and I, Martha is going to be documenting their cottage transformations, which always fun to watch unfold.

A dear friend of mine also has a blog called Ivy and Lace Cottage. If you love all things old-fashioned - quilts, aprons, vintage goodies, nostalgia - you'll love visiting Marilyn:)

You'll also enjoy visiting Mary from Across the Pond ! She came to America 45 years ago but hasn't lost her love for her native land in England, and this shows in her lovely new blog:)

There are several other cottage blogs that I've come across but due to my major lack of organizational skills, lol, I can't find them now:( If you think you might be one of them, please tell me. You know, when I first started blogging I couldn't locate any other cottage blogs. Not that they weren't out there, I just couldn't find them. But now I'm thrilled that they are popping up all over the place!

So about the dining wall. Hubs changed his mind about letting me tackle it and wants to wait for our friend to do it:( He's suppose to come tonight but if he can't for some reason, the wall is mine. Today, I'll be spending my day decluttering and sorting through the winter clothes and preparing for a spring yard sale. I've also been working on crafts this week as I've had the time (ha!) and I'm having so much fun!