The Cottage Charm Giveaway Winners are.....!

Can you believe it? The 5th Annual Cottage Charm Giveaway has come to a close. What a blast we had! I want to thank ALL of you for participating, especially all the dear giveaway hostesses who offered such beautiful and generous gifts to their visitors. I hope you were able to "meet" lots of new people and discover many new lovely blogs this month, because really, that's a big part of what makes this annual event so special! I'm looking forward to next year already!

Now, just visit my dollhouse kit giveaway and handpainted sign giveaway to see who won... I wish it could have been all of you! {Winners were chosen by Random.org} Congratulations to the winners of all 49 giveaways this year!

49 Cottage Charm Giveaways - A Few Hours Left to Enter to Win!

Hours are remaining for the 5th Annual Cottage Charm Giveaway event! Have you visited the 49 blogs above to enter to win all the charming items being given away this year? If not, click on the banner below while there is time left! {Winners of the giveaways will be announced tomorrow, May 29th, on all the participating blogs.}

This year, I'm giving away a miniature dollhouse kit and a handpainted black and white subway style sign. So be sure to stop in today and sign up!

Have a beautiful Saturday, everyone!

My Cottage Charm Giveaway #2- Handpainted Wooden Sign

5/29 Update: AND THE WINNER IS....Peggy Crawford! Congratulations, Peggy! You can contact me with your address and I'll get this sign shipped out to you! Thank you to everyone else who participated by entering to win and those who "liked" my new Facebook business page, She Could Fly. Even if you didn't win a sign this time, all She Could Fly Facebook fans will be automatically entered to win future sign giveaways. Thanks so much for all of your support and for visiting Twice Remembered!


Hello everyone! I'm a little late getting my 2nd Cottage Charm giveaway posted but fortunately there is still time left both for me and for you, too, if you want to add a giveaway of your own. My dear little Ruby the Doxie is under the weather with a herniated neck disk that has resulted in partial paralysis of her front legs. It has been very scary and heartbreaking to witness as she has not been able to walk since it happened yesterday. However, the vet feels a total recovery is possible but may take about six weeks of crate rest. It might even be possible to see her walking within a few days thanks to her medication. I'm hoping for the best but try not to leave her side often because she gets agitated and starts to thrash around. She is sleeping peacefully now (sedatives) so that means a few minutes for me to tell you about my second giveaway. (Click here to see the first...)

I thought this giveaway would be a good way to show you what I've been dabbling in lately - sign making! So I'm offering this wooden painted and distressed to perfection 12" x 9" sign as part of my second giveaway. Because I love words and quotes so much, I've been working on a collection of inspiring and interesting signs to offer for sale later in my new Etsy shop and I'm looking forward to sharing more with you. I had a hard time selecting the sign I liked best for this giveaway as I'm very pleased with how they've all turned out so far...but hopefully this Zelda Fitzgerald quote will be a 'winner' in your book.








There are a couple of ways to win this giveaway:

One chance to win- Just enter your name and a way to contact you in the comment section below

Another chance to win- Simply "Like" my new business page, She Could Fly, on Facebook. While my 'grand opening' has to be postponed a bit due to caring for my little Ruby for now, I would still love to be able to share with you what I've been up to with my shop, signs, and other items.

I will announce the winner on May 29th. If you haven't done so already, make sure you check out all the other charming giveaways in the 5th Annual Cottage Charm Giveaway event! And remember, you still have time to enter your own giveaway...the more the better and there are alost 50 so far!

Miniature Patisserie Project

I am beginning to learn that it is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all. - Laura Ingalls Wilder

Good morning, everyone. I hope this Wednesday morning finds you happy and healthy. I can't believe I'm saying this, but it's going to be a hot one today. 91!

Hubs and I have been working on caulking and painting beadboard in our spare moments and things are really starting to shape up. I think I've mentioned this before, but white paint {on this beadboard, anyway} is very hard to cover. It's taking about 4 coats,plus the primer coat. A much slower process than I had anticipated but wow - finally my white cottage style beadboard! It really is what seems to be pulling "the look" together.

I thought that since I am giving away a new dollhouse kit for one of my Cottage Charm giveaways this month, I'd share a few photos of the kit I'm working on. It's the Storybook Cottage. I've gotten the main parts all glued together except for one side of the roof - I'm waiting until I install the wood flooring in the attic to glue down that side. I'll be using lightweight spackle on the inside to make the walls nice and smooth and then I'll be ready to add some trim work. I haven't yet decided how to finish the exterior - whether I'll use siding or some kind of sanded stucco or stone - or ...oooh...an aged brick foundation?!... {As if I didn't have enough decisions to make with our real house!} Ah, but this has been so much fun and I've enjoyed working on it here and there when I catch some snippets of down time.



This little house will become a little patisserie. A few months back I made the tiny pennant banner for a cupcake party I had for the girls and used it to decorate the miniature farmhouse kitchen. I couldn't resist {very prematurely} stringing it up in the patisserie for these photos just to get an idea of how sweet it could be.


The little attic space...


The floor has been stained a dark chocolate color. I was thinking about creating a white 1-inch diamond pattern on the floor as well. What do you think?


Oh polka dots! I have such a weakness for you!!!! Especially you red and white ones... *sigh*


I don't know where I'm going to put all these *little* projects that have stolen my heart with their sweetness. Our real house is tiny itself and I'm running out of space!


But I think the patisserie project is just fine right here for now. :)


Have a lovely day, everyone, and until next time, don't forget to keep checking in on the Cottage Charm Giveaway party going on this month. If you want to add a giveaway to the party, that's even better!

My Garden Themed Cupcakes

If I had a flower for every time I thought of you...I could walk through my garden forever. - Alfred Lord Tennyson

I don't know about you, but I am absolutely smitten with cupcakes. So when a friend recently asked me if I would mind making a few cupcakes for a baby shower she was helping to throw, I jumped on the opportunity to get my hands in some fondant again. When I asked about colors, etc., I was told to just do whatever I liked. I knew that there would be a big cake made by a professional and I did have some fears that whatever I came up with would clash horrifically with it. But I took the plunge and decided to with a garden theme - hoping that all would be fine.

Because last week was so incredibly crazy with school plays, dance recitals, and just about anything else you can imagine, I decided to purchase plain frosted cupcakes from a bakery so that I could just focus on making the "garden" decor for the tops. I'm so glad I did because I just about ran out of time to finish them even without having to bake the cupcakes myself!

My two regrets are that I didn't get to bake them myself {but that just couldn't be helped} and that I put too much frosting under the mushrooms to adhere them to the cupcakes. A dear friend and I were putting those little mushrooms on the cupcakes in the car at the shower.. I was late and moving like a mad woman!






I made all of the little cupcake wrappers and flags using my new Silhoette SD die cut machine. I can use images, templates, and fonts from my own computer - I don't have to buy any cartridges. I just LOVE that machine!!!!










I was so happy to discover that the cupcakes and baby shower cake looked really pretty together. No clash!



I am very pleased with how they turned out and I can't wait to work on another cupcake project again! By the way, this is the recipe I used for the fondant. It was so good! I flavored the fondant with peppermint extract so all the little flower and bug pieces {ummm...} tasted just like those little soft pastel after dinner mints you often see at weddings.

If you haven't already, be sure to check my Cottage Charm giveaway to enter to win a dollhouse kit! And of course, you'll want to check out all the other charming giveaways in this years Cottage Charm giveaway event. Have fun!

My Cottage Charm Giveaway - A Buttercup Cottage Dollhouse Kit

5/29 Update: AND THE WINNER IS....Jenny Lake! Jenny wrote:

"My heart stopped when I stumbled across this giveaway. I have always dearly wanted a dollhouse but my father never had the patience to build me one as a child. Now it's time for me to do this for myself! Thank you so much for this generous gift.

If I were to win, I would build a little spinner's cottage because that's my other dream--to live on a sheep farm and spin wool into yarn.

Fingers crossed
Jennifer"

Congratulations, Jenny! You can contact me with your address and I'll have this darling dollhouse kit shipped to you. And thanks SO very much to everyone who stopped by Twice Remembered this month to enter to win this giveaway. I wish I could send a kit to all of you! You all had wonderful ideas as to how you would use the dollhouse if you won and if I had to decide who won based on the loveliest idea, I wouldn't have been able to choose, that's for sure! {I used a Random Number Generator instead...} Have a beautiful rest of the weekend and we'll "see" you all again soon!


Well, finally, a week after the 5th Annual Cottage Charm Giveaway began, I'm ready to post my own giveaway! As you may {or may not} know, the Cottage Charm giveaway event is an annual month long, multi-blog cottage style themed giveaway party. Bloggers are invited to post giveaways on their blogs and then link back to them here. Winners for all the giveaways will be announced on all participating blogs on May 29th. So much fun! We've had as of the time of this posting 33 bloggers to enter their giveaways for the party - and I think that's just divine! Last year we had 68 giveaways... and wouldn't it be wonderful if we had even more this year? There are plenty of days left in May, so feel free to join us, and of course, make sure you check out all the new cottage themed giveaways added daily to enter to win the ones that strike your fancy!


The giveaway I am posting this year is very close to my heart. It was inspired by one of my new passions - doll house miniatures. I'm having so much fun with the old miniature farmhouse that I'm remodeling and the 'built from the ground up' house/patisserie that I'm working on as well. I've found it to be so relaxing and therapeutic - a great way to break away from full scale real life for a while and just dream in miniature. I've read from your comments that many of you have a desire to have a miniature house or to get into miniatures because you are just as fascinated with the hobby as I am. Buying the first kit can be tough, however. Questions such as "which one?" and "can I really do this?" are enough to scare new ones away... or, for those who are experienced doll house builders, deciding which kit to do next can be just as hard and maybe the old "do I really need to buy another doll house kit" thought haunts you.

So I'm really hoping that whatever the case may be with you personally, my Cottage Charm giveaway this year will help you out, because I'm giving away a Buttercup Cottage dollhouse kit!

Here is a perfect description of what you will get with the Buttercup Cottage Dollhouse Kit:

Delightful, charming, enchanting, adorable. That's the Buttercup - the ideal little house to create any type of shop, cottage, or even just a room setting. The bay window, silk-screened windows, gingerbread trim, and window boxes add to every decor. The Buttercup provides the setting, your imagination will provide the rest!

The all-wood dollhouse goes together with tab and slot construction that requires only glue to complete assembly. Unpainted and unfinished, you can decorate, paint, wallpaper, and furnish this heirloom-to-be with your own personal taste and style.
Features include:

True miniature scale
1 inch = 1 foot
Open-back design
Tab/slot assembly
Unfinished wood

Assembled Dollhouse Dimensions:
17 W x 11” D x 18” H

The photo below is how the little cottage will look complete. Of course, just like a real house, you get to choose all the finishing touches, colors, and decor inside and out...



Here is a Buttercup Cottage finished in Tudor cottage style. You see the front door was changed out, trim and brick work was added, and it looks like what could be a stucco exterior. {It's hard to tell from this photo, but I've seen many dollhouses in this style with stucco exteriors.} Cute!


And I am so impressed at Jen's interpretation of the Buttercup Cottage. She added siding and changed the door as well. I love all the red! {Click here to see more photos in Jen's blog entries on her Buttercup Cottage - I just can't get enough of her sweet little house!}





Oh the sweetness! And oh how a dollhouse can get your imagination cranking! Please don't worry if you've never built a dollhouse from a kit before... if you can read instructions, you can do this!

So if you are up to a new fun and exciting challenge, just leave a comment and a way for me to contact you below to enter to win this Buttercup Dollhouse kit. And while you're waiting for the winner to be announced on May 29th, think about how you would finish out the Buttercup Cottage and just how you would like to use it. Would it be a little house? A bakery? A flower or gift shop? If you'd like, tell me about it down below. Also, check out some great miniature sites like Miniatures.com to whet your appetite. SO many adorable little things - and you can order a free catalog from there as well. {No, this isn't a paid advertisement.... I just really love ordering from this site and wanted to pass along a great resource!} The Greenleaf Dollhouse Community forums have also been an invaluable source of information for me personally - and their member photo gallery is very inspiring to say the least.

Ok, so here we go! But first, a little fine print...

*Please just one entry per person
*Unfortunately, I can only ship this dollhouse kit to those within the United States due to handling fees that are applied to International shipments. However, if you live outside of the US but would really love to have an opportunity to win this dollhouse, I would be more than happy to provide you with a gift certificate from the Miniatures.com website for you to order it yourself if you win. You would be responsible for the shipping costs, unfortunately, but still.... the dollhouse kit would be a gift. Just an option for my dear international readers who would really love an opportunity to win this charming little kit. :)

Have fun, and goodness, I hope you win!

Dining Room Painted Beadboard and Faux Fireplace

You used to be much more..."muchier." You've lost your muchness.- Lewis Carroll

Don't you just love that Alice in Wonderland quote? For me personally, I couldn't think of anyone I could ever apply it to but myself and my blogging habits! Yes, I use to be much more "muchier" with blog posting, to be sure! Yet despite that fact, here you are. Thank you, dear readers, for visiting and checking in - year after year for some of you- on the progress we're making on our little fixer upper. Your encouragement and kind words are great motivators for us - and I wish you could know just how much!

Today I was snapping a photo of a small item on the fireplace mantle we built in the dining room a few months back. You may remember when I blogged about adding the faux fireplace and beadboard to the dining room and kitchen. Anyway, it occurred to me that I haven't yet shown you what the fireplace and beadboard looks like painted. Yes, it's true... we're just now getting around to painting though all the beadboard in the kitchen, dining, and living room has been primed for a while now. Let me tell you, pure white paint is just as hard to cover as red paint... it's taking us four coats, even with primer! So a slow job, but I'm pleased with the results far.

You will notice that I've carefully cropped these new progress photos. I'm working on a huge project on the dining room table in the center of the room and I'm sure you don't want to see the mess. But hopefully you can get a good idea of the direction we're headed with not only the dining and kitchen, but with the entire house. Only the bedrooms and bathrooms don't yet have beadboard, but they will when we get around to them.

First a before. This is how our dining room looked when we first moved in. Well, after we first moved in and I painted the room a deep red, that is!



You see in the next progress photo that we added a big window and removed a door to the laundry room. There were two entrances to our tiny laundry room {which, incidentally, use to be the kitchen!} We only needed one door to access the laundry, so we walled up one entryway and added the faux fireplace.



Now this is what the dining area looks like currently. White, white, white with beadboard aplenty!







We still need to finish the fireplace inset. Haven't yet decided exactly what to do with it, but there will be something.



If you would like to see a basic tutorial on the beadboard and trim we added to the dining, kitchen, and living room, please check out this past blog entry. Very easy and relatively cheap!

As for the "mess' on the dining room, well, I suppose it's the best kind of mess one can have. I'm working on making fondant flowers for some floral cupcakes. So much fun! I'm sure I'll have photos of them later, so stay tuned. :)



Speaking of "staying tuned", I'll have one of my Cottage Charm Giveaways posted this weekend. {I have TWO, the other to be posted next week!} I really wanted to have it posted this week, but little did I know how crazy things would be! For one thing, one of my daughters has to perform in both a play and a dance recital on Thursday night {tonight, depending on when you're reading this}. And you would know we all had dental appointments for the same day, which I promptly rescheduled. Of course, I would get a cold bug this week as well! Perhaps not with with blogging, but with l.i.f.e, I guess this is as "muchier" as it gets!

The giveaways posted so far by everyone are absolutely stunning! What participation we have in the first four days! I *hope* to have at least as many giveaways as last year {68} but wouldn't we all love to have more? Keep them them coming! For newcomers, please check out the 5th Annual Cottage Charm Giveaway event. You'll be glad you did!