Met. Monday, Blue Monday, A start to the Guest Room.

I need to get packing for my trip to AZ but I just wanted to share with you our guest room progress so far.  This is how it looked when we moved in two years ago.  Not too pretty.  It would become my step-son Jacobs room so we replaced the carpet and painted it to look like this.

  A total disaster pic before I started to paint but you can see the colors that were in this room. I didn't mind the colors for a boy's room, but since Jacob has his own pad now it was time to make it a guest room.

The after:  We painted the room a color called lemonade slush.  It required a coat of primer first and then a coat and  then some touching up because the before colors were quite dark  The brass headboard was painted a cottage white and I shared that in last weeks Met. Monday.  This is just a little preview as I have lot's more decorating, fluffing and arranging to do but I thought it might be ok to share our progress so far.

 

I took these pics at night so the color appears a little stronger than it is.  I am looking forward to getting the rest in order and then I can share more pics.  Thanks for stopping and please visit our hostesses Susan and Sally  for some fabulous inspirational ideas.  Have a great Monday too.  Cindy

Met. Monday/The Brass Bed

Hi All, it's Monday and I hope you  had a pleasant week-end.  Our's was uneventful but nice.  I am joining our hostess Susan for Met. Monday and Flea Market Style for their first ever blog party!  Please visit their awesome blogs  for tons of inspiration! Normally, I would have had my post up last night but I was  feeling a bit too tired.  Dan and I are working on creating a guest room.  The pic above is of the bedding that we will use.  I ordered it on E-Bay and I just had to share a little pic of it.   I am very happy with the quality of the bedding and I love the cottage/french country look of it.   But first the bed. 

I would have loved to find an iron bed but for now I will make do with this one.  The before, above, a brass headboard purchase at a garage sale several years ago.  When I started on this it was still beautiful and sunny and in the 70's.  My hubby gave it one final, I will fix Cindy's mistakes coat yesterday. LOL.  He is really good at this and although I did most of the work, he gave it the final coat and fixed some of my boo boos.

And here is the after!  It took a coat of primer and several coats of off white spray paint to cover the ugly brass.  We are almost done painting the room.  It's taken several coats because the color was dark and we're going lighter.  I hope to have some pics to share next week.   Have a great week everyone and thanks for stopping by.   Cindy

Sunday Favorites/ Prairie Tablescape and toilet roll napkin ring tutorial

http://happytodesign.blogspot.com/

Please join my good friend Chari and all the other participants for a Sunday Favorite post!

 Welcome! After a few days away I have blogging posts to catch up on. But first, its Tablescape Thurday with our lovely hostess Susan.

It's also Thrifty Thursday, with our lovely hostess Leigh. Please visit these ladies blogs by clicking on their logos . My theme today is Prairie Garden. My only new purchase is a tablecloth from the Martha Stewart Collection. I purchased this on e-bay for a whopping $8.00!

My centerpiece is a creamy white ceramic watering can from GW, the target birdies, a fat little birdie borrowed from a bedroom, a white chair borrowed from the LR and blue candlesticks inside Wal-mart candle holders.

I took some pics at night using my flash and then some without a flash. The plates are my bargain Vera Bradleys from TJ Maxx,$1.00 for the plates and .70 cents for the salad plate! The napkins are GW , the blue glasses TJ Maxx and the wine glasses are a garage sale find.

I used flowers from my garden to fashion a centerpiece. I tried to arrange them decoratively and I am gradually getting the hang of it. ( I hope) LOL!

The pretty place mats are from Kohls, only $1.00 a piece and the napkins rings are my super thrifty find. Read more about them below.

I like the fat little blue bird on this table and the target birdies are back to work!!!

My gingham napkin rings!

Trying to capture a nighttime by candle-light view. A little dark, but I still like the romantic glow!

Now onto my super thrifty napkin rings! None in my house fit and I remember a post I saw earlier on someones blog. Grabbed a toilet paper roll! Their Free!

Measure 1" width and cut. If you had two empty ones I would make them 1.5" across.

I cut a piece of wired ribbon leftover from my wreath.

Wrap ribbon around the ring and add a dash of glue with your glue gun. Simple hey? And free!

A finished view. The wired ribbon works great but you could also use fabric strips.

And whose the wiser? Now that's my thriftiest contribution to today's post! I have some blogging to catch up on and I will be getting to your blogs as soon as I can! Have a great week-end too! Cindy

Doors of Welcome at Applestone Cottage.

Yippee Yi Yah!!  Todays' my lovely friend  Karen's first blog party!  I can't wait to see what everyone has created !  So when your finished browsing here head on over to Karen's lovely blog (by clicking on the link above).  You can check out her  wonderful blog and follow the links to all the other gals who have joined in.  Thanks Karen for being our hostess for this! 

One of the first things you may notice when you pull into our drive-way are the apple trees and our frequent visitors. 

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I recently made the autumn wreath  and posted about it on Met. Monday.  The red mums are sitting inside my vintage apple basket that I purchased for a $1 at an estate sale.  The old fashioned crate was also purchase for a buck.   My daughter bought me the scarecrow several years ago and  you can't have autumn without indian corn!

My front door is really my whole front porch!  We love having a front porch and next summer I have a whole lot of new projects in mind!

I had painted the old bench red last summer and it's a perfect prop for some Autumn decor!  Lots of pumpkins and gourds, the old coffee pitcher filled with autumn flowers and the cute little scarecrow in the wagon that I recently won in a giveaway hosted by another Cindy at Plant some Roots at Lakewood.  Thanks Cindy!  If you haven't met Cindy you need to go check out her lovely blog! 

My daughter Katie, bought me this cute little sign for my birthday in August!  I think it fits perfectly here!

If it's a dark dreary day like today we can just plug in some lights to make things a little more welcoming!

It helps to chase the gloom away!

While I was at it I thought I might as well spruce up the back entry. 

A pumpkin topiary and the cute little mailbox that was also in the box from Cindy!   It sit's so pretty on this old red bench!

I added my other homemade wreath to this door.   And now, for one final view.........

OOPS!!  How did this get in here???  Karen, this one's for you !!  When you come back for Karen's blog party in December, you will probably see something like this!  Time to go visit all the other Doors of Autumn!   Cindy

I Finally Got Him !!! A Pheasant Surprise for my Outdoor Wednesday!!!

I've been watching him for months.  He  seems to appear when I'm without my camera or he will take off too quickly when I come by.   He lives  near my Mom's house and late last spring I would sometimes see him as often as 3 times a day!  I figured it  must be  mating season because he would be out strutting his stuff and looking all pretty!  Sometimes, I would see him over flirting with a group of holsteins.  Now that was a sight!

Yesterday morning I finally caught him!!  I pulled over to the side of the road as he passed by. I quickly grabbed my camera,  he made some funny noises, actually a lot of sqawking!  No he wasn't too thrilled with me! 

Soon he was headed into the brush and nowhere to be found.  I have seen him a lot lately and started wondering if it could be mating season again.  Well, I didn't drive but a few hundred yards, and look what I found. 

She is a little more plain looking and blends into the landscape really well!   And yes, that is snow, our you've got to be kidding snow!

But I know a certain fellow who thinks she's just gorgeous!   Thanks for coming by, I hope you visit our hostess Susan for more Outdoor Wednesday Posts!   Cindy

A Met Monday Autumn Wreath and some Awesome Homes!

Did you all have a lovely week-end?  We spent our's in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul.  We awoke   Saturday morning  to a light dusting of snow!  This left me feeling a bit grumpy, we should be in the sixties instead it's like late November.  Dan and I were able to take a beautiful drive  up to Lake Minnetonka, an area NW of the cities. The view out the window was definately autumn but the temperature certainly wasn't.   But first it's my  Met. Monday and I present to you my humble little wreath.  No before, but all  the supplies were purchased at Wal-Mart for a total of about $10.

 

I  used some floral picks to insert the gourds, pumpkin and fruit and a glue gun for the rest.  Simple to do and I look the look next to our stone.

Now for my little home tour.  The area around Lake Minnetonka has some  gorgeous homes.  Many are in the 1-3 million range. I think a lot of executives and a few viking players live along here.  As we drove along, with  my mouth wide open I still  managed to snap a few pics.   If you look closely, you can still see a little snow on the shrubs.

 

You can view a little bit of the lake through the awesome stone patio.

What gorgeous windows!  Fun to dream, I can't imagine the taxes though.

This is my all time favorite!  I love the door, the stone work, the curved archway.

A more sweeping view!  Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to visit Susan for some awe inspiring Met. Mondays!  I am also hooking up with Roeschel for DIY Fall Festival party.  Visit her lovely blog for some great inspiring posts!      Happy Monday!!  Cindy