Cottage Charm Give Away Day Drawing Near! + Brick Backsplash Update

Only four days left till May 26th - the day where all of us participating in this cottage themed giveaway will announce the winners of our drawings! There is still time to enter your own giveaway and/or to sign up for all the giveaways being held. I said below that I would add giveaway links to the the list until noon central time on Friday, but I won't be home until late afternoon, so I'm extending the deadline (to be added to the main giveaway list) until 6 pm central time on Friday, May 25th. So check out all the other great cottage charm giveaways being held from now until May 26th! If you want details on participating yourself, click here. I hope you all have had as much fun with this as I have! I will do another "Cottage Charm Give Away" the last week in May next year, too, so mark your calendars - you've got plenty of time to plan, hehe! This has been a blast!

Well, just one more step and I'll be finished with the backsplash. I still need to paint, which I really wanted to do days ago but our weekend was super jam packed with activity. So yesterday was going to be THE day to paint, but I had to first wait until the dishwasher repairman came and went (I didn't want to have a mess pulled out while he was trying to work). So I waited and waited and waited and waited. He never showed. Turns out, he had to cancel our appointment but instead of calling me to let me know, he called hubs work number and left a message. Hubs didn't get the message until late in the day...grrr! Why they called hubs - who is always on the go at work, I don't know. But an entire day was wasted here and by the time I knew the repairman wasn't coming, it was time to cook dinner. *sigh*

The backsplash may already *look* painted but it's not. I overgrouted (rubbed a thin layer of grout over the surface) the bricks to see if I'd like the color and look. If I liked it, I was going to seal it well and leave it "as is", and if the grout started to wear off over time, it would slowly expose more of the brick color. Turns out the color is a little too bright of a white and also, the grout on the surface of the bricks wears off pretty easily - I'm not sure how well a protective finish would work after several scrubbings. So now I think I'll go through with a wet washcloth and wipe down any grout that comes off easily, let it dry, and paint it a creamy white called "Honey Milk". I think I've mentioned it's the same color as the appliances. But from the photo, you can still get an idea of what the backsplash will look like.

I went to Hobby Lobby the other day to get a couple of pretty cast iron off-white brackets to place below the ends of the upper cabinets. There were tons of them back a couple of months ago and I had several in my buggy at that time. But I decided to wait since I wasn't yet ready for them...I was trying to be patient:) Wouldn't you know, when I went on Friday they only had *one* left of the kind that I was looking for. I was very disappointed, but I know something else will come up.


I did find these cute nursery rhyme prints at Kirkland's Home. I thought they were Kate Greenaway prints (she was a childrens book illustrator in the mid 1800's - I collect her books!) but turns out the artist is someone else who lived during the same time. I was sure fooled! I love them though I don't have a nursery to put them in:) These may even end up in the dining room one of these days as they look really nice with the red and green and off-white. Whimsical to say the least! (click photos to enlarge)








Oh! And by the way...the countertop really does look so much better to me now that the backsplash is in! It doesn't seem as dark as it seemed at first - thanks for the encouragement to wait until everything is in place before deciding that I don't like it!