Fresh Flowers.....

Flowers seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity. ~John Ruskin

Flowers grow out of dark moments.~Corita Kent

Flowers are words Which even a babe may understand.~Bishop Coxe

Little things seem nothing, but they give peace, like those meadow flowers which individually seem odorless but all together perfume the air. ~ Georges Bernanos  


What is it about fresh flowers?
I try as often as I can to have them in my home.
They do something wonderful for me, I just don't know how to explain it in words.
If they become far too wilted and I am forced to throw them out-
I don't just SEE something missing when I look around and literally FEEL something missing.
Once I bring fresh flowers inside again it puts me in an uplifted mood. 

While uptown I found this new Country Living magazine, the gorgeous cover caught my eye.
A bright green potting bench full of pots, herbs and flowers really makes me excited for spring and summer!

And because of the dreary weather here lately, I brought home a couple more pops of color with these limes and a 5 dollar tiffany blue mixing bowl.

 I thought I would share a few photos that I took this morning.

  Here are our kitties soaking up the sun and relaxing.

I love getting up early before everyone and having a nice quiet morning coffee and watch the sun come up!

 I love watching it brighten up the livingroom.

They are so lazy! ;)

Wishing you well!

~Mel

Meanwhile in Canada

                                                               Meanwhile in Canada....

Oh friends, I see you posting lovely SPRING colors and it is so beautiful! Unfortunately THIS is my reality at the moment. BLAH BLAH BLAH! It actually started snowing again. It's such a dreary day.

I FINALLY got around to cutting some apple branches IN HOPES to force the blossoms.
Now, I have checked different sites and there are different ways-but I am lazy-and I will take the short cut or easiest route EVERY TIME! So we will see if pretty pink blossoms appear in the next couple weeks. I should have done this WEEKS ago! But hey, you know me-woulda shoulda coulda.

I am heading out today and hope to return with some colorful pretties for my home!
What are your favorite color flowers and home decor accent colors?

Simple Changes

AFTER

What do you think of the fresh look I've given my chair??
I kept looking at it thinking WHAT CAN I DO TO YOU!?
I've been spending some time on line,
pinterest & instagram have been my go to spots lately.
That's where I find so much inspiration from so many talented gals.
I am trying to figure out just what I need to do to bring a FRESH look into our home.
So I am starting with SIMPLE CHANGES.
I think these simple changes are going to make a BIG IMPACT!
Below is a before pic.

BEFORE

       
What do you think of my simple chair makeover?
It's OK! be honest!
Mel

Faux Tin Tiles (repost)

 My headboard REALLY needed a makeover!
It had this black swirly wrought iron looking type thing in the center of it when we first bought it YEARS ago.
I removed the swirly thing and was having SO MUCH trouble figuring out HOW to fill the hole!

It was horrible. I had not a clue how to fix it!

Then I thought about old tin tiles (which I LOVE!) The hubby mentioned they might be hard to cut and nail into the wood and also any tin tiles I had found so far were a little out of my budget. :(

 BUT THEN! I found these inexpensive plastic tiles. I figured I could just paint them and try to give them that old tin tile LOOK. I cut them to size which was easy because they are just thin plastic. I then painted them with MMS MP in grain sack. I sanded them with a sanding block to add a distressed finish. I tacked them to the backside. They turned out pretty good!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 They certainly work for now!

 I hope I've inspired you to be a little creative!

Mel

That DIY Spirit

         OK YES! We've seen this type of thing a MILLION times by now-using BURLAP to recover something-to give a piece new life-but this is an old project of mine from 2012, and I don't think I ever shared it's story. It's not just a story of a CHAIR, it's much more than that. It's about that whole DIY spirit and the need to repurpose, reuse, redo, relove, you get what I mean. AND it's also a story of the relationship between a husband and wife, and I always hear similar stories and it makes me laugh every time!  (photo credit Robin Stubbert)

Driving home from town one day we passed this chair on the side of the road, at the end of someones laneway. You know, a curbside find. (I call it road kill.) I immediately looked at my husband-he looked at me-I gave him THOSE EYES-he shook his head NO and we continued to drive and drive AND DRIVE.  Hmmmmm?  yep! driving further and further away from something that all I wanted to do was stop and get a better look at!

 Now, I don't know about the rest of you ladies but this is the face I give when I don't get what I want. No, this is not my actual face, but the expression is pretty darn close!! So I don't say a word, I just sit there with THIS FACE. And not even looking directly at him-no just looking out the window-because I know he can still see this face even at side view.

 Now, as you already know-and can tell by that expression on my face-that's not really MY face-but you know-we had turned around and went back so I could get that better look at it and YEP! it ended up coming home with us!

I started out by washing it off with soapy water and the garden hose and left it outside to dry for a few days. I applied 2 coats of Old White ASCP, distressed it with a sanding block and then applied both clear and dark AS waxes.

I then got out my reupholstery stapler and applied some burlap coffee sacks on the seat and the backside. For the backrest I applied a plain burlap material and I then STENCILED the lettering on with Graphite ASCP to match the seat!! Bet you didn't know THAT!!! And as you can see from the beautiful top photo taken of the chair with our Himalayan Smeagol, that stenciling turned out pretty darn nice!

Even though you've seen this type of thing a million times-what do you think?

Mel

We made the cover!

This is MY DINING ROOM! It's on the COVER of LANDHAUS Living magazine! How great is that!? We are thrilled! This photo was taken along with a bunch more during our spring shoot last year. Robin Stubbert is the photographer who took these amazing photos and Kim Davies is the creative stylist who just brought these photos to life! These photos were originally featured in Country Samplers PRAIRIE STYLE magazine May 2014 issue. They are NOW featured here and it is a GREAT feature!! I can't believe how different the feature is! The photos are laid out differently and there are some photos that weren't in Prairie. I love it!

I have the issue downloaded and I must say it is a gorgeous magazine! I am just loving all the photos of the homes inside! GORGEOUS! 

but of course I would love to have a few print copies (since we MADE THE COVER!) but we are  having trouble ordering on line-between finding the right site and translating to English and at one point I think we figured they just don't ship here to Canada so we are trying to find that out. 

So I just had to share that update-it's pretty exciting for us! 

If you would like to order either an on-line or print copy of this magazine here is a link below

http://translate.google.ca/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.landhausliving.de/&prev=search

Hope you all are well! 

Mel

Grain sack aprons

Today I finished sewing up a couple GRAIN SACK APRONS.

They are really cute.

                                                  I added a little pocket in the front.

                                    I think I'm gonna keep this one!....for now anyways!

After school snack! (creamy potato soup)

My kids LOVE the creamy potato soup I make.
Here it is with a dollop of sour cream! YUMMO!
It doesn't last too long so I try to get a bowl right away!
Today I made it for an after school snack-the kids usually come home quite HANGRY! Yes hangry! (When you are so hungry that your lack of food causes you to become angry, frustrated or both) 

 I don't have time to measure-or maybe it's that I'm too lazy? either way-I just throw stuff in!
Potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, s&p and a bay leaf.

 I just fill up the pot with water, bring it to a boil and then simmer for an hour or so.

 I have to remember to REMOVE the bay leaf before I...........

 give it a little whirl with my hand held blender- I mulch it up but I also leave some chunks.

I added some parsley and ham that I had cut up into small pieces I will also add some chicken broth & cream

 In a small saucepan I melt a chunk of BUTTER! ~because everything tastes better with butter!
...........and I add some white rice flour

 I cook the flour for a couple minutes and then add some cream and wait for it to thicken up.

 Then pour that concoction into the soup! (sometimes I add some corn starch-which I did today as well- remember to mix it up with a little cold water first)

NOW!!-if you thought the butter was BAD-wait till you get a load of THIS!-I then add a BLOB or two of bacon fat!! YEP! old school cook over here! I DO try to eat rather healthy but seriously sometimes if you want some FLAVOR-you gotta add the FAT!

 ......and then to top it all off -for even more flavor-I add 2 tsp of this Knorr chicken flavoring.
I let it simmer a little longer and then.....

IT'S READY!!! now this is when you have to get a bowl or two as fast as possible because in a house with 7 or more people-it doesn't last long!!