Cottages of Seaside and Watercolor

I promised in my post here that I would share some of the cottages.  These are just a few of my pics I took of the Seaside and Watercolor communities.  I was either on a bicycle or in the car when I took most of these pics.  I had not ridden a bike in over thirty years.  It was so much fun!  Riding a bike is the main mode of transportion.

Love this lavender one!  Notice the aqua bikes to the right of the house.

Colorful and so cheerful ... this one was about three stories.

Gorgeous blue with the yellow door and purple rocking chairs.

PINK!

I would love to sit up there and look out onto the ocean.

This is the house from the pic above.  Notice the bikes lined up. 

This is not a cottage to me ... it's a large house!  I would love to live here.  We could never own a house like this unless we won the lottery!

Wouldn't you love to sit on this front porch? 

Sorry the pic is not straight ... I was in the car being nosey!

Green and red ... they are all colors.

Loved this one too ...

I love the lush greenery.

The porch light fixtures are so pretty on this house.

Loved this fence with the courtyard.  All of the fences in Seaside are all different.  

Details galore on the fences.

I have so many other pics of the picket fences, however they had the owner's names and where they are from.  I don't want to share their info.  They had the cutest most original names for their "cottages"!  Must be nice to live this lifestyle :)

Sunset at the end of a long day!

I wonder how many times I used the word "love" in this post ... LOL

I have more pics of the shops and parks in the community I will share in another post.

 It took me forever to download these.

Thanks for visiting!

Hugs,

Donna

Amber ... Happy Birthday in Heaven

Amber ... a few months before she went to Heaven ...

Wearing the color purple and a heart necklace around your neck :)  Two of your favorite things along with angels, sunflowers and Karen Kingsbury books!

It's days like today when you would be 32 years old that makes us miss you so much more. There is not a minute of the day that goes by that I don't think of you.  When I was at the beach I watched the clouds to look for images you designed :)  You told me it would be your job in Heaven :) according to a few questions on Facebook!  I constantly look up at the sky.

I know you will be having a birthday party in Heaven.  We will all join you one day to celebrate together!  Just believing and having faith gets us through the "tough" days!

Happy Birthday Amber .....

Love you,

Mommy and Daddy!

I'm Home ...

I have been away on vacation and soaked up too much sun!

This is what I did for hours ...

The beach was gorgeous in the Florida panhandle. 

I have some pics of gorgeous homes in the Seaside and Watercolor area where we vacationed.  I have to download and look through them all.  I will share them with you later this week.

My heart goes out to all the people on the east coast who were affected by hurricane Irene.  Hopefully everything will be back to normal soon.

Thanks for visiting.

Hugs,

Donna

Dresden Plate in Progress

I took a break from organizing my sewing room and worked on my Sew Cherry dresden plate quilt top.

I adore this line of fabric ... very vintage looking and cheerful!  I needed some cheering up and just looking at this makes me happy :)  I can't decide what fabric I want to use in the center.  I have a cherry design I could embroider on my machine using the white fabric or I could hand embroider the centers ... I can't seem to make any decisions!

I will have enough fabric to hopefully make these quilt tops too.  I love these patterns with the cakes on the pedestals and apron.  Bee in My Bonnet patterns are just adorable. 

Speaking of cakes ... right now I wish I had a piece of cake.  I may just go bake one!  It may have pink icing :)

Have a great weekend!

Hugs,

Donna

Drab to Fab

My "new" cedar chest ... and I love it!

After the makeover ...

This is a cedar chest I acquired several years ago. I like it because it looks like a table. I've had it in a room my husband and I have updated and it needed an update too. 

My daughter called it the "brown blob"!  It did not belong to anyone in our family so I thought why not paint it. 

I knew it would bring out the details in the piece.

We had the off white trim paint and the chocolate glaze that was used on our kitchen cabinets so my hubby and I went to work!

 I had fun glazing this piece and watching the details come to life!

My husband even took the handles off and spray painted them oil rubbed bronze. 

We didn't have any cost with this makeover. It was all things we had on hand or left over from other projects.

I have been playing with accessories on top of the chest. I will tweak and tweak again! I am still unpacking boxes.  We painted another piece that goes in this room also and I love it too.  I will share it next ... it went from drab to fab too!

Thanks for visiting!

Hugs,

Donna

I am joining Susan at Between Naps on the Porch - Met Monday and

Linda at Coastal Charm for their linky parties.

Antique Dress Potholders

Back in the Spring I found these adorable antique crocheted dress potholders at a thrift store.  I imagined they would be pricey but to my excitement they were just $2 each!

This one is adorable with the little butterfly sleeves and colored border at the hem.  I can only imagine some lady sitting and making this cutie!

And another precious little dress with red trim! This one laces up the back.

 I knew immediately my potholders would go in my sewing room. 

I really don't know how they were ever used as potholders ... they are not lined with anything.  They must have been used for decoration in the kitchen.  Imagine the work in these little treasures.  It makes me think back to when I crocheted years ago.

I have been organizing and moving things around in my sewing room.  I moved my grandmother's treadle sewing machine in my sewing room and here it is where I am tweaking the decor! The lamp was a makeover I posted here.

 I have my complete house in chaos due to the makeover of  another room where the sewing machine was located.

 Oh ... let me honest here ... my house is always chaos!  I have to admit I am a clutterbug!  But you know if I didn't have my hobbies I would be a crazy woman for sure :)  My sweet hubby has just learned to live with it!

I did get Jennifer's drapes made and hung last week ... one more thing off my list of things to do!  She said I could share her master bedroom soon.  I still have to make a couple of pillows.

I am joining Linda at Coastal Charm for her  Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays.

Thank you for visiting!

Hugs,

Donna

Tessellating Pinwheels Quilt Top

This is a quilt top I made a couple of years ago and it was fun to make to see how it would look when completed.  You begin by making a quilt top with square blocks sewn together and once the quilt top is sewn you use a template and cut it up ... the entire quilt!  Then you take those quilt blocks sew them together to make the pinwheels and this is the result. 

It was fun to make!  I used Thimbleberry fabrics I had left over from projects so it is a scrap quilt! 

My friend Donna of Donna's Lavender Nest  just sent me a large box of Thimbleberry fabrics!  Now I know what I will do with the pieces she sent me! ... Thank you Donna!

The quilt top above is the size of a perfect table topper.  It would be great for Fall!

Speaking of Fall ... I am so ready!  The days feel like there is Fall in the air with slightly cooler temps!  I am ready for cooler and less humid weather!

Thanks for stopping to visit!

Hugs,

Donna

Ruling the Roost

Sheila at Note Songs is hosting a Roosters and Chicken party ... yard birds as she calls them.

I didn't realize I had so many roosters until I looked around my kitchen and dining area.  Roosters really do rule the roost around here!

In the pantry ...

Roosters and sunflowers go so well together.

Tin rooster sign...

On top of the kitchen hutch ...

Cookie jar even has a rooster!

Teapots ...

I recently purchased the rooster dishes that match the platter, sugar and creamer ... love them!

Another rooster platter with salt and pepper shakers.  Love the sunflowers on the checked border :)

Roosters on top of the dining room china cabinet.  My dining room connects with the kitchen ...

More salt and pepper shakers.

And finally a small rooster lamp behind a chair in the family room.  It adds a soft glow in the evenings.

Love the feather trim on the lamp.

I hope you enjoyed my rooster collection.  Can you tell I am a country girl?

Thank you Sheila for hosting the party and thank YOU for visiting!

Hugs,

Donna

Old Sheets ...What Was I Thinking?

After joining Pinterest and seeing quilts made from sheets from the 70's and older ...I thought I have some of the same sheets!  We had used them for dropclothes for painting!  Just a few weeks ago I used them for covering the piano and furniture while we painted a room. What was I thinking? 

Found on Pinterest

This one is from Pinterest too.  See what I am talking about?  I never would have thought in a million years I would want to make a quilt from old sheets!

After doing a quick look in my linen closet I found these sheets.  I even have the pillow cases to match.

 I know I have more in the basement and another closet.  My aunt says she has some too and I could have them.  I never knew I could get so excited over old sheets!  LOL

Now I am on a mission .... looking for old sheets!

Sorry I didn't press this one ... forgive the wrinkles.  It is a sheet I used on my girls baby bed :)  I adore it and I know I have more packed away. 

I know what I am doing this weekend ... searching my house for old sheets!  My husband will really think I have lost my mind!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Hugs,

Donna

My Baby is 30!

My little girl is 30 years old today!  Makes me feel so old :)  I am lucky to have this adorable young lady as my daughter.

The happy couple ... they are still newlyweds after all! LOL

They came to our house on Saturday and we took her out to dinner and had birthday cake afterwards.  She insisted on not having a party!

Her daddy and I are so blessed to have Jennifer as our daughter!  She has been such a comfort to us the past couple of years even though she misses her "Sissy" so much too!  She always has the right words to say or the perfect Bible verse to quote me when I need it most.  She is a wonderful Christian girl.

I don't write about Jennifer too much on my blog due to the fact that she had her own blog for awhile.  With her long hours of working she gave it up for now. 

She has made me and her daddy so proud!  She was the valedictorian of her high school class, a magna cum laude graduate in college with all kinds of honors and a magna cum laude graduate of the pharmacy school she attended with honors!  You know I should really call her Dr. Jennifer ... !  After four years of college and four years of pharmacy school I was so glad when she graduated from school with her doctorate!!  She is a perfectionist ... she didn't get that from me!

I kept asking her what she wanted for her birthday.  I thought something sentimental like a piece of jewelry and she said she just wanted me to make drapes for their bedroom. A couple of months ago I made pillow shams, a comforter, and bed skirt for her.  Now she wants drapes to match!  So we purchased the fabric and I will be making them in the next few days.  She has no interest in learning to sew!!  Maybe she will let me share their master bedroom in a post.  Her house is beautiful!

I wanted to do something a little more personal for her and decided to make her a scrapbook of her bridesmaids luncheon and bridal showers from last year.  I finally got the bridesmaids luncheon pages completed and she was thrilled with it!  I will continue to work on the bridal showers as well.  There are sooo many pictures!  I love to scrapbook but I miss my scrapbooking buddy ... Amber!

These are a couple of pics from her bridesmaids luncheon ...

And I LOVE her shoes! I did a really cute page with these shoes!  I have a Silhouette digital craft cutter and I cut little shoes out and decorated them.  I wish I had good pics of the scrapbook pages to share.

And this is a bouquet of flowers I picked from my garden and gave her for her b'day!  I love having flowers in my garden!

Well I need to get busy on those drapes!  Gotta make the birthday girl happy!

Happy Birthday Jennifer!

Love you,

Mommy