Where I Have Been

It's hot here at home.  Some of you, in other parts of the country, may be suffering from too much rain, but here in the Southwest we are suffering from NO RAIN!!!!  Like we should have like 12 inches by this time of the year and we have had 1 1/2, that's bad.  AND, it's HOT here!!!  Seriously HOT!  Sorry, I don't mean to yell at you , it's just that it's blazing hot, sweltering hot, miserably hot, SERIOUSLY HOT!!!!

I will try to post some pictures of the awfulness that is happening around here.  I want to say that I will post the pictures this week, but I kind of know that I am sorely out of shape when it comes to posting so, not promising when, but I do promise that I will.  

One day the husband said, let's go to the mountains and look for a get away house !!!!!  *! @%* Squill. (is that how you spell squill?  it is isn't it?  it just looks funny to me)  Then I calmly said, "okay."  But the funny thing is I was packed in a flash.

Much to my surprise, we found one.  The following two shots are the reasons why.  This is the view out of the living room windows and the back porch.

And then reason why #2, the porch.  Isn't she lovely.  I've put some tables and chairs out here last time we were there, sorry, I forgot to take pictures.  Next time.  I also forgot to take pics of the master bedroom and bath, so, next time for that too. Look at her, she wraps all the way around.

I spent two weeks up here the end of June and through July 4th weekend.  I must confess I was strangely mad when I had to come home.  Curious, I totally didn't expect that.  But the husband knows me well and this evening he said that we should go back up next week.  Sigh. . . breathe Jerri Ann, breathe.

There is a number of things I would like to do to the house but after adding the florals, pictures and accessories I think I can live with it for a little while longer.

I found this wonderful woman and her sister that have been in the interior design business for 30 years and they just came in one day and when they left, it looked like this.  Oh my pearls, it would have taken my forever to put all this together.



Below is my Uttermost lamp, I love it!  It's kind of quirky and I have to something that is just a little off and kind of funky.

I would love to change the counter tops and backsplash here and extend the island counter top to include a bar area where I can add some stools but . . .  oh the dreams I can dream. lol.  I would also like to add knobs on the cabinets.   I think the cabinets look pretty without them, but I am breaking fingernails when I reach for the drawers and doors.  So, some nice pewter knobs, maybe.

See the blue canister with the cross top?  My friend gifted me that.  Perfect match, what a sweetheart she is.  Thanks Debbie.

The two guest bedrooms are in their beginning stage but off to a great start.  A familar voice echos in my brain, "remember it's just a vacation house."   hahahahahahaha.  Like I'm can stop here!  Ah honey your so cute.  He's right though, he's right.  It's just that I want it to look amazing, fabulous, beautiful and decorated.  Cause I love to decorate and it's a blank canvas.  Rambling.

Check this baby out.  Beautiful in all her rugged and rustic good looking self.

One thing to tell you about this house is the gal who designed and built this home had a thing for the same tile, mirrors, and light fixtures.  They're everywhere.  They are on the floor, on the counter tops, in the shower, around the the doors, on the backspash and in every room.  Please don't hate for saying that, but it's true.  I'm just saying, could we not have chose a few other things?  And please don't get me started on the paint color.  Take my word for it, it's the same color as the tile and it is in the pink-y, peach-y, rose-y color family and it's everywhere too!!!  Kind of nipple-y.  I know, I know, spoil rotten brat.  I get it, but seriously another color somewhere, please?  And the animals~ this is the bear bathroom.  And then there is the fish bathroom and mine is the moose room.  ~Shrug~ umm.

On to brighter topics, check out this headboard and footboard.  Lovely.

I picked up this great day bed with a trundle for the little ones.

I'm kind of crazy about this corner.

Okay, so I've introduced you to most of the house, and she's a beauty.  Don't get me wrong, I love it here and I'm loving it more and more but, in my defense, the paint color photographs better than in person. And in all honesty it is beginning to grow on me.

So here are the two changes I am going to make as soon as my contractor, bil, cuts loose and gets up here.   I really want to take this partition wall down and open the dining room back up to the rest of the room.

And this, . . . . . .  this is ugly.

This photograph shows the truer pink in the paint color and not that pink is a bad paint color, it's not!!!!  It's just that the tile is pink and the paint is pink and it just keeps going.  Please tell me you understand.  Please.

Ever feel like you have talked yourself into a corner?  And if you'll notice the carpets pink too!!!!  Seriously I have got to get control of myself here.

This feeling I have over the pink paint, carpet and tile in every single room in the house, reminds me of the craze I got into when we had flies sooo bad at our ranch.  I mean, I went crazy.  You probably don't understand that either.  I feel I have revealed too much of myself on this post.  BUT they were sooooo bad.  I mean they were all over the outside of my house. I couldn't even open the door. They were all over it and . . . and . . . I went a little crazy, that's all and when I killed them with the flyswatter, I didn't just swat the little buggers I slapped 'um flat.  Like a crazy person.  The kids even thought I had gone too far in my hatred for the flies.


Why did I get off on that subject?  Have I been gone too long from you guys and now I have pent up writer's rage?

Ugly.  This is just . . . don't,  If ever you are looking at your wall and wondering to yourself, "what am I going to do on that wall?"  Don't do this.  K.  Just don't.

My game plan is to knock all this out and re-sheetrock and build in a smaller niche and put a nice chunky chest and set the TV on that and then I will have a more wall to hang some art.  That's plan A, plan B is to keep the idea of the cubby holes but do them all in sheetrock and put lights in and add some large pottery and add some florals from my new friends in town.  And I would like to take the carpet up and continue the tile.  It cuts the room off and there is just no reason plus it give me the opportunity to add rugs.  I love rugs.   So stay tuned for that.

And thanks for hanging in with me until I finally got to the end of this.  By the way, hot flashes are a great way to get up early and blog.  So there you have it, what I have been doing and where I have been.  More to come.  Later.

See ya.  :))

Salty Sister Decorates - Fa la la what?

After working in the living room and decorating the fireplace mantle, I thought I would come in the kitchen and work on this mantle.

So I laid an apple swag up there and stepped back, I was looking to see of it was going to work and then . . . BAM! it hit me.  So I ran upstairs and grabbed these, my all time favorite painting products.

Yep, this is the way my brain works, right in the middle of Christmas decorating, I decided to do one of my 2010 todo's.

Like I discussed in my table vignette, I start with a vague idea of what I want and then, I just work with it.  I have learned to trust the idea, even if it is just a smiggin of an idea.  Not really tutorial, teach me kind of stuff.  More of an adventure in decorating kind of stuff.

Yesterday as I worked on Christmas decorating in the kitchen, I kept my eye on this lovely little project and decided the texture was a little to rough.

Things are about to get ugly, stay tuned . . .

I better get busy, the honey's gonna want dinner.  :))

See ya.

Dining Room Re-Furnished

I'm joining Susan at Between Naps on the Porch for Metamorphosis Monday. Thanks Susan for hosting such a fun party. I've been a stalker for a long time.

This could be "shop your house" decorating at it's finest. The first post I did on this room was in January. I move slowly when I don't know which way to go with decorating.

I thought about adding texture to the walls and paint and glaze but during the winter months this room, which is north facing and behind a deep porch over hang, gets almost no natural light. It ended up looking very drab and gray so any painting I did just might make it worse. I thought about taking the red ceiling out but for now that stays (because that would be hard work). Unless you guys think it needs to go and then I will make it go away. I will.

I thought about adding that beautiful mirror from Pottery Barn with all the beveled mirrors but I'm not sure if I want to spend the money. I've also thought about trying to make it but sometimes I find that I spend almost as much and don't end up with as good looking a piece. So the mirror could still be in the future.

Here is the room before I began moving furniture around.

The shelves are now in my bedroom which still needs some work. New furniture and I really want to paint those shelves. And I'm thinking about painting my bed, future post.

and the dining table is in the living room behind the couch.

and the rug is in a guest bedroom. We are empty nester's so they are all guest rooms.

This smaller table came from the breezeway located just outside the breakfast room and kitchen area. The idea was to put puzzles together on it but in two years we have never done that. Still we could put them together in this room now. It would probably help if I would buy some.

Breezeway before

The breezeway now.

This little red table was just floating around looking more like an after thought.

Now she has a home . . . temporarily anyway.

Same with this red chair. I am thinking about how good this chair might look recovered in pretty linen and painted.

Check out this cute little metal table, it is a new find.

I don't know if this would pass the smell test from a professional but it'll do for now.

Next project, do something with this. It looks unfinished, could be because . . . it is!

Started out to be venetian plaster but my painter didn't know what he was doing so I moved him to another part of the house and it is still waiting to be finished. I want it to stand out more and make more of a presence and it needs to balance out the refrigerator and freezer just across the room.

I'm linking up with Amy at New Nostalgia for Anti-Procrastination Tuesday

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