For the Love of Valentines

I do not usually decorate my mantle for valentines, but this year I just couldn't pass up the opportunity when it all came together so well.  I've had the best time decorating for valentines this year all over the house, and on a budget too.   I've got quite a bit to show you now, so I hope you'll stick around.

My valentines mantle definitely has vintage appeal.

 I knew I was going to use my rose filled teapot for my centerpiece. 

I only needed to add some pretty pink glittery hearts from the DT and a hot pink birdie from Michaels.

Then I remembered I had two rose teacups that I inherited from my MIL's collection.  I was so thrilled that I thought of these.  I think they fit in so perfectly!

Do you remember the pink trees I got from Michaels on clearance a few weeks back.

This is what I envisioned the minute I saw them.  Heart trees!  The glittery foam hearts are from the DT, too.

On the opposite side I added my FIL's old readers from school, a few cherub picks with the stems removed that I've had for a while.

On the mirror I have hung the pink bow I got on clearance from Michaels.  Not sure how much I like this here, but, it's staying there for this year!

Then a bit more inspiration came when I was looking at The Graphics Fairy for graphics to add to my blog for Valentines.  I just loved these so much I had to figure out a way to work them in.

These pink heart dollies from the DT made the perfect background for a banner made easy.  I just printed out my favorite graphics, cut them out with craft scissors and used double sided tape. 

Come on, you know they are just precious!

Whew!  I LUVVVV It!!!

Now let's see what's up on the dining room table.

A plain red runner from DT was begging for a splash of paint!

These are really pink, funny how they look red reflecting off of the runner.  They were part of my Michaels clearance shopping sale too.

Ooops, Sorry for the fuzzy pic!

I recently found this pretty jar on clearance at Hobby Lobby.

I pulled this arrangement together using a few things I already had and added in a few new roses from, you guessed it, the DT.

How do you like it, so far? I hope you do because  I'm not through showing you my Valentines decor yet!

This heart came from DT too.  I was going to paint it red but after seeing how well it matched my light fixture here in the kitchen I decided not to.

And finally on the front door, I have replaced the winter wreath with a Valentines plaque, I purchased at Kohls last year after Valentines clearance sale.

Thanks for sticking around, I hope you enjoyed the Valentines tour!

Please be sure and visit the more fabulous posts at the following parties;

Tabletop Tuesday

Valentine Mantle Party

Brag Monday

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday

Rednesday

Pink Saturday

Are you ready for Valentines yet?  I sure am!

Mary

Our Family Pets

I have two pretties here to share with you today for the pet party going on over at Debbiedoos!  I hope you will visit with them a bit and all the other fine pets attending the previous link.  

Their names are Misty and Patch!

They are two wonderful cats filled with exceptional and interesting personalities.  Anyone who has ever owned a cat knows exactly what I mean!  People who are not cat people tend to think of cats as being aloof and obtaining no character.  How sad for those that think that way, clearly you haven't met my sweeties.   We have always been blessed with cats who have had great personalities and for the most part good dispositions, too. 

Misty and Patch came to us through their mother, Onyx, who showed up under our deck at our old house on a very cold and rainy morning.  Their mother was a kitten at the time, looked very poor in health and was crying very loudly.  We gathered her up brought her inside and nursed back into good health.  Before we could get her fixed, she was that young still, she turned up pregnant and gave birth to four kittens.  Onyx was solid black and gave birth to two white Siamese kittens with blue eyes and two brown short hairs.  I was there for the delivery and watched as out came one white kitten with a brown one, then another white one with another brown one.  We were quickly able to adopt out the white Siamese kittens and the little brown ones became my sons pets, we call them the twins as I am sure you can see why.

This is Patch. 

She is my oldest sons cat.  She was named Patch because of the Orange patch on the top of her head. 

  When my sons were younger they were very territorial over who's cat was who's and played with them accordingly.  Patch is a bit rough and tumble like my oldest son.

  She likes to be played with and endures heavy petting.

  She is the more vocal of the two.  She doesn't mind letting us know when she is hungry or wants inside. 

 She has a way of using her paws to knock on the glass doors when she wants in.  She literally can tap so hard it cannot be ignored.  I am always joking about how she must have some of the most developed biceps around for such a small cat. 

 She is the tougher of the two but has been seen to back down should her sister decide she's had enough.

  Since my cats are basically outdoor cats,  Patch likes to bring us treats and leave them at our doorstep.  It is gross I know, but she is offering us these as a token of her appreciation.

This is Misty! 

 Misty is the sweet and gentle one.  Literally!

  She is always very calm in her demeanor and even has the sweetest gentle meow.  She is the eptiome of a female. 

 When Misty was young she used to like to climb on top of the Garage door when it was open in our old house.  One morning she had been up there when I left to take the boys to school.  I came home to find two of my neighbors standing in my driveway trying to comfort the howling cat that was stuck in between the top of my garage door and my house that I had closed when I left.  I didn't know she was there and she got stuck.  All you could see what her tail and hind legs hanging out.  When I pulled in and saw them then her I immediately panicked and hit the opener in my car and she fell as soon as the space opened up and my neighbor caught her.  I rushed her to the animal vet where they x rayed her, gave her steriods for pain and kept her overnight.  She was fine as she had wedged herself  into a place where cats can flaten out right above their hind legs. 

 She cried tears all the way there in the front seat with me but never howled.  I prayed and promised her she would be okay and she has been such a blessing ever since.

  She is a miracle to us and usually is always so calm and sweet.  Sweet until she catches her pray outside like a lioness, quick and swift.

  She can also set her sister straight with one swoop of the arm when she tires of listening to her.  Even though she is the sweeter one of the two she tends to act more like the mother of two of them.  She has often been seen cleaning and tending to her sister  as well as my youngest son, her boy!

My cats are outdoor cats that get to come inside when they sneak in, the weather forces them inside or they bang on the door long enough to wear us down and give in.

  They have been spending a lot of time inside with us lately!  The snow photos shown here were taken last February, they didn't even want to go out this year.  I hope you have enjoyed the story of our precious furry family members and a few photos too.

  My youngest son was recently able to catch Misty on film while drinking water.  She has always drank her water this way and is Oh, so feminine.

  I'd like to leave you with this short clip of our Misty, hope you enjoy!

Thanks for visiting!
Mary

His and Hers Projects

This weekend has been a flurry of activity around our house.  Both my husband and I have been working separately on projects.  His project is still in the works, as is mine, but I am just so excited about his, I just had to share it with you too.

Do you see this wall full of insulation?  My husband just built this wall this past weekend.

It is at the foot of the stairs in our garage basement.  We have wanted to do this since we moved into this house but always put it off or changed our minds on how best to proceed with this improvement.

Here is a better view of it from the inside of the basement looking towards the stairs.   

Because this is a garage/basement we have always gotten a draft at the top of the stairs that opens into our kitchen foyer area.

Since we have an extra refrigerator down here we have debated on how to close in this area at the foot of the stairs or if we should close in a larger portion of the basement to use for another room.   Our garage basement is large and could essentially fit four cars if we didn't have so much junk in it.

After seven years in this house we have finally decided we would not enjoy an extra room down here as much as we do having the extra space for storage and parking all the cars in when the weather is really bad.    So, we are finally resolving the draft issue by installing another door and wall before entering the stairwell. 

The Mr. had to relocate all the electrical that holds the light switches and garage door openers.

He moved them on the outside of this wall and one on the inside too.

I know this doesn't seem so pretty and interesting but I am just thrilled with this.  I will show you more later when it is completed.

Now on to my project. 

I have done a little change on my dining room chairs.  This is how they used to look with the scroll work and the cane edge painted a dark gold tone. 

 First, I painted the scroll work and cane trims black.  It looked okay but did not go with the fabric on my chairs.  I debated about getting new fabric and found some but then decided the black was just too dark and making my dining room look too formal.  I am just not so formal.

I forgot to take a picture of the whole thing in black.  Here is a glimpse of it after I decided to go in another direction.

I changed my mind and decided to just paint the scroll work off white and give it a mocha glaze.

This was much more calming to me and fit in nicely with the rest of the room.   I don't have to recover the seats, which is good because I still like my fabric that I already have on my chairs.

Since I had painted two chairs in the black, and they needed repainting again anyways, I tried something different on one of them.  I wanted to see if maybe I would like having the cane trim painted also in off white with a mocha glaze.

Here is how that looks.  I cannot decide if I like it or not.  My choices are to either change all chairs to look like this or to have them with just the scroll work painted off white and leave the dull gold cane trim as is.

Here are the two choices side by side.  Which way do you think looks best?  Please don't tell me you think I should paint the whole chair, as I am really not ready to commit to that.  So out of the two which do you like best?

I would really love your input.

I hope you have enjoyed a wonderful weekend too.  I am sharing this post with the following parties;

Metamorphosis Monday

Kim's Before and After

Transformation Thursday

 

Thanks for stopping by!

Mary

That's my new sugar bowl!

Look what I found this morning!   I know many of you also subscribe to Country Living Magazine and have enjoyed the February edition because I've seen you posting about it.

For those of you who don't know this issue's cover is entitled, " The Simple Beauty of White".  Inside there are many articles about decorating with whites and neutrals, etc.

This morning I decided to skim through it again and check out the displays of all the pretty white dish collections.   When all of a sudden on this page look what I spotted, right there on page 97.

OMG! There it is!

This photo courtesy of Country Living Magazine

Look right there in front of the clock.  See that sugar bowl?

That's my new sugar bowl!

See!  It's the same one! I recognized it because of the little bow thing on the top.

Isn't that funny!

 

I still don't have a clue about if this is porcelin, or ironstone, and mine still isn't in as good of shape as I would have liked.  But, at the price I told you about last night of $2.00 for the set and then seeing this right here looking so cute in the magazine I feel much better about mine now!

LOL!  Don't you just love when that happens?

Just sharing!

Mary