Sharing Shadymont, My Mountain Cottage

I normally type my blog, sitting on the loveseat in the family room, but when I really want to be creative, I go into my little office space. My office, per the house plan, is a bed room, but it is rather small, and all I could easily place in here would be a twin size bed, if I wanted to have any extra room at all, the max would be a full size bed.  So I've always used the room as an office (with a twin size bed).  The bed is the loveseat.  It makes into a twin size bed, and is ocassionally used if my grandson brings friends home with him, and since he's out of college and working, that hasn't happened in a while. Here is my creative spot (since its makeover in March of this year). The ottoman also serves as a coffee table of sorts, for the area. Loveseat/twin bed The left side of the cabinet was a gun cabinet in its former life.  My husband and I added shelving to make it match the other side.  So much more useful and looks 100% bett...

My daughter and I went to a favorite consignment shop today.  I saw quite a few items I wanted, but restrained myself and only purchased two things. This flower arrangement, paper whites (I guess).  I was thinking, I can use it for any season.  During the Fall, I'll tie a Fall colors ribbon on it, at Christmas, a red ribbon.  So, for $8.99, it was a good purchase. I like the look of the paperwhites on the burlap runner.  The white crispness against the texture of the runner will go well into Fall. The other item I purchased is a Waverly valance for the powder room.  I love the colors and the print, and it was only $12.99.   I love the cottage print with the matching stripes on the bottom section. It looks like new, so I'm not sure how much it was used, but I really like it in the powder room. Earlier today, I gathered all my dried hydrangeas together and put them in the aqua tin I bought for a dollar at an estate sale...

Today's post isn't a "pretty" one, but one that shows we all have upkeep and maintenance to be done on our homes.  After all, it's our largest investment.  Here, I tell you how getting the right workers makes all the difference in the world. EARLIER: Our  home has a vast front porch.  It runs across most of the front of the house, and 1/2 way down the side.  I had it built with a brick border.  Now, 13 years later, the porch has settled, and the brick border has pulled about 3" away from the concrete slab!  It might not sound like a big deal, but it is.  First you have to try to find someone who has the equipment to fix the darn thing.  That done, now to wait for him to come and give us a price.  This is going to be major!  The old porch will have to be completely torn away (on the side) and replaced.  The walls to our home are poured, except the porch was built on stacked cement blocks! Why didn't it get poured when the ba...

Today, I'm going through some cupboards to see what they hold. Not going to change them right now, but I'm planning to do so right away, as I feel like it. THE PIE SAFE  The pie safe sits in the breakfast nook.  It was my grandmother's and then my mother's.  It holds a variety of items, most thrifted.  This gold set was a $15 thrift store find.  I love the color, and they are the bumble bee design.  The top holds a French basket with a rooster plate, a rooster lamp, and  a tool caddy I painted white, and added a graphic to each side.  It holds flowers, and some odd plates.  There are 3 pieces of depression glass, and some white items also in the cupboard.  So the purpose of this cupboard is strictly decorative in nature.  I was thinking I might re do it and have some of my large bowls inside it.  I have a yellow ware bowl of my mother's that I like to display. On to the jelly cupboard...  It is...

I subconciously decorated the bookcase in the dining room in purple accents.  I didn't plan it, or even think about it until after it was done. I picked up this african violet (faux) recently at a yard sale for a dollar (I think).  It looked so real that I couldn't help but buy it. It sat on the screened porch table for a while, then I brought it into the sun room, and the other day picked it up and placed it on the bookcase.  Later I came across the purple faux hydrangea, and just stuck it on the bookcase too.  I hadn't even noticed that I had purple backed books on there, and that I had unwittingly started a little theme going, but here it is.  My little blue primer book was a freebie at a moving sale.  I love it.  Have you ever done this?  Just "set" something in a spot, then realize you have a pretty vignette, even though you didn't start out to make one? I think this will work nicely for late summe...