Tuesday, March 22, 2011

cottage love

if you haven't already picked up the
summer 2011 issue of cottage style
then you haven't seen this.


go to jerusalem's blog pronto
and check out the pics of her home
featured in the summer issue.

i think i'm in love.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

what is a girl to do. . .

when it's nearly 90 degrees in march?


fill up a window box.



freshen up the front porch


for sittin' and chattin' and readin'.


plant a pretty vine to crawl the mailbox.



buy some lavender and dianthus.


and seed some basil, oregeno, and cilantro.


happy spring, y'all!!






Sunday, March 6, 2011

the inbetween-projects project

i have diy a.d.d
there is a little bit of something
going on in every room of our house.
almost done projects,
barely started projects,
projects needing professional attn.,
projects that need tweaking.

so why not add another project?
outside.


i put out an all call for bricks on facebook
and was given enough to start an
outdoor project.


we have this triangle of yard between our one car drive
and the walk to the front door
that is basically dirt.
it gets stepped on when getting out of the car and
9 times out of 10 the left car tires are on it
because the right side of the drive is so close to
a row of shrubs.
it also gets cut across with bikes and skateboards
and six little boy feet running from the side of the
 house to the front and back again.

so. . . i have a plan for this area. the portion that gets most of
the foot traffic is going to be bricked and the rest will
be decked out with some sort of ground cover.



i haven't a clue what i'm doing.
i'm just fitting the bricks in best i can and
filling the spaces with dirt.

if i have my way the cracks will be
covered in green moss.


can you believe that people try to get
rid of moss between their brick paths?!


this is going to be a slow project and will fall
in line with the rest of my house.

as the funds are available another portion will
be complete.


like so many of the rooms in our home i love
that this little bricked section of our yard
will have a back story.

these bricks came from our friends, matt and julia's,
yard. they had a few random piles laying around
from the previous owners' project's
they're all a bit different which adds to the
mish mash look i want.


what are you planning for your outdoor spaces?




Tuesday, March 1, 2011

bright spot


it's hard to believe that a broken
hot water heater can disrupt
day to day life so much.

today is tuesday, the problem started
saturday and the job is still not done.
it's getting close, though.


since the house is overrun with
dirty dishes and clothes that cannot be 
washed, and all our living spaces are piled
with the contents of the ruined closet, i thought i
would tweak the only space that is not
cluttered.

the mantel!



i decided to bring in an old shutter that i picked up
a year or so ago at a junktique place.
i also gathered the white candle's that look just
like they did from christmas. that's the great thing about
using white and burlap!
and what's a spring mantel without flowers?
i also threw some empty frames behind the
candles and flowers.


i love the rustic features of the shutter.



the texture and weight of it really adds some
interest against the white walls and white mantel.


it's the bright spot amongst the current mess
here at quinby cottage!


don't be fooled. the mess is there. i just moved it right outside
the frame of this picture. :)