Mr. Prof designer home

I bet you thought the day would never come... Finally the reveal of the interior of the GARDEN COTTAGE. Let me give you a brief history of how the GARDEN COTTAGE came to be...

I had saved pieces and parts over the years of being in the antiques biz. You know porch posts here, a zinc dormer there, pieces of tin ceiling tile, architectural fabulosities. A lot of them were used as decor in my shop which I closed in 2008, and I saved all of them without any real plan. Until... I got the inspiration for a GARDEN COTTAGE that I could have home sales in. So I used the COTTAGE as a mini shop and sometimes just as storage. What a waste... After last fall I had decided to end the home sales and thought that it was too darn awesome to use as storage. So I set my sites on bringing it to be as a little place that I can sit in and enjoy just for me. The ceiling is all hand~pieced rusty crusty tin ceiling tiles, and the floor is hand~painted by moi to look like stone.

I hope you love it...

It was such a great day today….reached 82 but the breeze kept it nice and comfortable.

So I grunged some gold wool felt for my Penny Rugs so I can continue to make my Daisy and Bee Skeep Rugs which I finished another one today – it’s a 10 x 24 runner with the same design as last weeks round one.

So there you have my ‘other latest’ Penny Rug

What can I say…..I’m spoiled!
Yep….who wouldn’t be with this to lounge in – finally got the camera out to take pictures of the ‘clean’ screen room….it normally last for about a week and then the webbies start showing behind the furniture like sparkling little jewels in the sunlight….too bad I can’t cash them in – I’d make a fortune!

Here’s a little a little visit to my ‘clean’ screen room…..
Oh…the ugly cushion in the chair…that is there for Lola to sit on….that way I can just pick it up and put it away when company comes and not have to use the lint roller for her fuzzies
 



 







 

And now we’re off to our Granddaughters baseball game….See Ya!
Karen

Another casualty of delayed blogging. This bowl of pasta looks delicious, doesn't it?


Too bad I have no clue what it is. Anyone want to play Guess the Ingredients? I think there's chicken, spinach, maybe some scallions. I can't tell if that's an onion or a piece of artichoke. This is why I need to be better about blogging frequently.

We are back and guess who is happy about that?  The little furry beast above is who.  Boy, do I have lots to catch up on around here... both at my house and yours.  I missed my bloggy world while away. I'm sure there's a treasure trove of inspiration awaiting me! 

To my surprise, I came home to a lovely little dress I won in a giveaway from Blissfully Content (my first win!).  It is homemade and darling as can be.  Pop over there to say hello to Julia.  She has a really clever and cute storage idea for toothbrushes. 

Another delight awaiting me was this post from Margitta from White as Linen.  She made the sweet driftwood candlestick (below) and painted "home and harmony" on the front.  Isn't that about the sweetest thing you've ever seen?  And I'm not a bit biased.  ;)  Honestly, I am so touched by it.  Margitta lives in Norway and her home is so calming and beautiful.  You will love it. 


































It's so good to be home.

So please bear with me, this post will unfold one layer at a time...

I received an email yesterday and another today about a long lost friend from my childhood. She is just a couple of years older than me, early 50's, and she is dying. I mean today, as I type... She has liver cancer and has been sick for about two years. Like me, she has grown children. They are all saying their good-byes today. She is in her final hours...

Can you imagine?

I haven't seen her since I was in high school. But I idolized her. I never told her that. She was an upper classman and beautiful, and the coolest guy around was mad for her. She lived with us for awhile. She had a job and some spending money. She turned our car on it's side in a ditch with me and my sister in it. She could hit the heck out of a softball. She treated me like a little sister...

I have thought about her all day. Sad, saying prayers for her family and friends, just kind of moping around. I needed this kick in the pants really. You see I am a procrastinator and sometimes I just can't get out of my own way. I overthink things. I am afraid the end product won't be what I wanted. Won't be what others wanted...

And so the idea that my old friend won't get the chance to put things off, to see things through, to do a million things she wanted to do made me realize that life is short. For some of us, even shorter.

I've been procrastinating on the garden cottage... Today I finished it...

I'm dedicating this post to Pam...

Let's start outside, then next post we'll go inside.

We used old wavy glass windows and a gorgeous old door, old porch posts, a zinc dormer from France, lots of old architectural pieces and a tin roof.









I re~purposed old iron headboards for porch railing.




















An old pot belly stove makes a fab table on the porch.

I was impressed by this random display in the Piedmont Triad airport. It's from a company called Halo Styles, and they fashioned the entire display case to resemble one of their trunks.

Love the parasols for filling in vertical space.





Corny, but I liked the resemblance to a trunk.






Sorry for the crappy pictures -- all I had was a camera phone.

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