The things I love surrounding me...

I know, I know... I've been a bad blogger. Bob and I finally repainted the family room and kitchen area. We're going to start work on the front rooms today... our "formal" living and dining rooms. All this really means in that these are the rooms that we don't use very often... the rooms that get piled with stuff to keep it out of the way in our living space. I could fill hundreds of these rooms. Alas, today is cleaning day and that means tough work and decisions to be made about what to do with things. I have some wonderful things in those two rooms that just needs to find a home, but there is no room at the inn, so to speak, in this house... no real room at the shop right now either, which is why it all just continues to sit there. I have three shows coming up in March, so I'm hoping to get some of the items priced to take to the show. Then we can box them and put them in the trailer to "wait" for us to get to them some more. I'll try to snap a few "before" pictures before we start our little cleaning and painting project (that will likely grow into a very large and unfun cleaning and painting project before long). I'll share as we get a little further into it (that means when I need a break from cleaning and painting :0))

These are the "after" pictures of our family room. I redid my mantle after it sat empty after I cleared off the Christmas display. I decided to use some of my very favorite things. This display is a pretty good representation of "me"... Polly Ann Blythe is really just a little girl who likes to dream and wants to be creative, but finds it difficult to follow through on her intentions.

Hope you like the pictures.



Two of my very favorite painted plaques. I love the colors. The one that has the glare is of wonderful hollyhocks. By son collects chalk banks and this is one of my favorites from his collection. The little "made in Japan" doll speaks right to my heart and the little pointed feedsack ornament thingy is truly one of my very favorite things that I own. It embodies so many things that I love... all the colors and prints in the 1930's fabrics... the detail of the blanket stitching... the fact that someone took the time to make it and keep it all these years until it found a home with someone who loves it as much as its original creator. Then we have a little motto print... I love these things. The little dog is a pin cushion and is a representative member of a growing collection of pin cushions.



I bought this little house bookend/doorstop from my good friend Daryl. It ranks right up there with the little ornament thingy on the other side of the mantle. I WILL live in a little cottage like that one day. I'm going to have an arched doorway and the flowering vines climbing and the white picket fence and everything. I AM!!! The little cottage print tray is yet another representation of a bigger collection. I'm really into houses, I've discovered. My mother was in real estate and she, too, "collected" houses. I used to love to go to her open houses and critique each property. It was a nice common ground for us and now that she is gone I find myself missing that relationship. She always valued my opinions and often would call me when she was putting an ad in the paper for a certain property and needed my help with a description.
I love the little clown... he's a string holder and hangs from yet another, hand-made, crafty item, a pot holder holder. (I love saying that). The little girl with the bonnet hot pad needs a safety pin and she'll get hung up too... such a big chore, but I can't seem to get er dun! The pink feather tree is new, but is so very sweet and since pink and green are definately my most favorite combination EVER, I decided to put it up against the green ("Lettuce Alone" colored) walls. The little boy is wooden and an is a hat stand with a "pocket" in the back for a brush. He speaks to me too! You can also see another one of my cottage prints in the picture. That is the one that I bought at Barb's () fall sale. I LOVE it!



Maud Hallyer prints, cottage plates and plates with hollyhocks... what could be better. I love the thatched cottage roof on the bigger picture. Looking at that wall always makes me smile.



A close up of my "someday" retirement home...



My collection of matte McCoy pottery sitting atop my mother's kitchen cupboard, surrounding yet another cottage print. I love the subtleness of the colors of matte McCoy. One of the little shoes (the lavendar one) always sat on the back of my grandparents toilet... my grandma is 100 years old!



My husband collects R.A. Fox prints. For Christmas this year he bought me a "Fox" cottage print... the best of both worlds. Although the majority of his collection is in our bed & breakfast area in our lower level, we brought up a couple of garden prints to display with my new cottage print. I absolutely love the colors in these pictures against the green walls. Green goes with just about everything and makes me happy, to boot!



By the way... it was my husband's idea to paint. I am hosting my Bunco group this month and he, yes HE, decided that the house needed a bit of sprucing up before the big Bunco day... I wasn't going to argue. He's motivated and I'm determined to be there with the cattle prod to keep him going. He's a keeper, for sure!!!!