Country cottage Home tour

Happy Friday everyone! Today I would like to share a Country cottage home tour.
Jane is a real gem and I am so happy she agreed to share her home and her story with us.
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When Debbie asked if we'd like to participate in her house tour feature on her blog, we were truly honored. It was only a year ago that I met Debbie through her newbie party that she has on her blog, and I discovered that we live about an hour apart. 

Right away, I realized what a warm, wonderful person she was to deal with all the questions that newbies have, myself included!

 So, Debbie, I give you a great big thank you and a hug  for helping us get started.

Welcome to the Cottage at the Crossroads! My husband and I moved here two and a half years ago. This is the house that my husband grew up in and was built by his grandfather after whom he is named. It is sitting on land that has been in his family since the 1700s. The house was sitting empty at the same time that we were making some life-changing decisions. So we decided to move here, and that has been the best decision that we've ever made.

This is our front porch which is used about 10 months out of the year, weather permitting.

One of the first things we did when we moved here was to screen in the porch. You can read more about our porch  HERE.

Our home is small. It is under 1400 square feet, which is half the size of the house we moved from. So all of the furniture that you see is what we already had. If it didn't have a place in the cottage, it was sold.

Prior to moving in, we had the entire house painted, inside and out.  And when we ripped out the old carpet, we discovered these wonderful, old pine floors which we had refinished.

We also painted the fireplace, and we found this butterfly picture that Leo's mother colored about 50 years ago. You can read about that HERE.

Our living and dining areas are one big room, which is unusual for such an old house. So when you walk into our home, you can see straight through from the front to the back.

Here's our kitchen. We painted the cabinets white, installed beadboard and new countertops, and put in a cork floor.

The kitchen is fine, but when we have big, family gatherings, it seems mighty small! One day we'd like to enlarge and modernize it. If you'd like to read more details about our kitchen, click HERE.

From the kitchen, there is a back porch where the washer/dryer is located. Those old, turquoise boards will find their way into the new kitchen one day.

From the kitchen is also our office. This used to be Leo's bedroom when he was growing up.

This is our hallway where we have a lot of family photos displayed.

Halfway down the hallway is the guest bedroom. You can see more of that room HERE.

Next to the guest bedroom and our bedroom is our bathroom. Yep, there is only one of them, and that was the biggest adjustment that Leo and I had to make when we moved to the cottage!

It's a small bathroom, and we did remodel it before we moved in. We added beadboard in here, too. Henry likes to nap on the shelves.

There are shelves on both sides of the shower, and a little area to tuck hampers into.

I use lots of baskets and jars for storage.

Looks like Juicy has found a comfortable spot on our bed.

This is the only closet in our entire house! But that's ok.

Most everything that we wear now can be folded and put into this armoire.

Most of our time is spent outdoors in our flower gardens or

in our vegetable garden.

I hope you've enjoyed the tour of our humble cottage. It's a cozy haven for us, and please come back to visit again.

Thank you Jane for  having us over to tour your lovely home.
You may visit Jane
HERE 

Have a wonderful weekend folks! It is a nice bright sunny day here.  Is it really February 3rd already?

Craft and home decorating ideas {Homerama in Charlotte, NC}

When a friend asked me to go to the Homerama, I was excited to go along.  

I had first heard about it through a  blogging friend Cindy....she took complete home tour pics you may love to see. 
(I am just sharing some crafts I spied)
  Baxter village is only 10 minutes away from me, so it was a fun fast trip to head on up.

The homes we toured were all in the upper 500,000's and up.  Of course way out of my price range.

I loved a lot of their craft idea's and we can all afford to do most.

If you recall I just did something like this with an old Goodwill mirror.  This sat pretty in a dining room area....all dressed up for Fall.

This next idea my gal pals and I decided we are having a small burlap party.

We are making these placemats for the holidays, and I have a small twist to add to them...they are so cute and so simple.

Each one had a different saying.
Next,

Here is something my Mom used to do, hang baskets all over the kitchen walls...

I really love this idea and forgot all about it until today.

How about cute lamp embellishing? This looked like a simple butterfly patch..

easy peasy.

My friend Mary has two daughters and she loved this idea.  How easy, craft hoops, material,

and felt.

Just adorable for a girls room.

Such fun colors in here too.  I spy an OWL.

{Bathroom}

Pretty apothecary jars filled...

{Laundry room}

This looked really cute.  Just some simple craft trims rolled in  to flowers and then some streaming down.

Adorable.

How about a pantry like this girls?

Loved the wrap around wine rack with the chalk boards.

this idea is so easy too..these were just wood letters painted.  You can buy them inexpensive with coupons and make your own wall art just the same for a nursery.

I spy another owl...

Well that about wraps it up.  I certainly can't afford the house, but I can afford the crafts!
So let's get busy!

{Us girls getting silly and comfy in a media room}

Thanks for stopping by.
See you later on tonight for the newbie party.

Joining:
 Making Monday Marvelous

Some of my favorite photography!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Memorial day! We spent the day with friends on the Lake, Margarita's and some great food! And I did not get  a sunburn!
 Guess 30 sunblock really does work even for 6 hours!
One thing of  many things,  blogging has encouraged me to do, is to be a better photographer.  I still have a long way to go, but am having fun in the process.

Today I saw some cemetery pictures on my friend Pam's blog.

I have to say these types of photos are some of my favorites.

Why? not sure, because I sure don't want to be a resident there anytime soon.

But anyhow, they make for some beautiful photography.

These stones were beautiful, as they told just a little story...

 

If you ever want some practice, grab your camera and head on over to a cemetery.

Old churches are also fun to photograph, the windows, arches, such cool architecture.

Newbie PARTY still going on

HERE

So what is your favorite thing to photograph?