Chicken Coop Coffee Table

Last October I went to the Country Living Fair in Atlanta and bought this neat coffee table.

The base is a chicken coop and the top is scrap wood finished with a warm stain.

I like this piece for its character and its uniqueness.  It's handmade and was made from mostly recycled wood and materials so it's at least sort of "green" :-)

Linking with:
Savvy Southern Style - Wow Us Wednesday
Miss Mustard Seed - Furniture Feature Friday

A Splurge

Like many couples getting married my husband and I registered for some pots and pans.  Before we were married we only had the cast offs from relatives that we had used in college.  Well, our friends and family came through and gave us all of the cookware we could want.  We had registered for teflon coated cookware.  Teflon is great because it's really easy to clean.

But.... after five years of cooking acidic foods (I love tomatoes), the pots and pans had seen better days.  My husband, being the primary cook in the family (me being the primary baker) decided he wanted to get some nice new pots and pans.

We went to Williams Sonoma to look at what they had.  My husband was looking at some traditional metal pots when I spotted these gorgeous butter yellow (actually the color's name is "Quince") beauties.  Okay, had to have it.  The first thing we bought was the small pot in the lower right corner in the picture above.  But after tossing and turning all night dreaming about the rest of the collection, we went back the next day and bought the rest.

I also had to grab the matching bakeware while I was there.

The miniature pots are so cute!  I had to do something with them immediately so I made a vanilla and nutmeg custard.

What I love about Le Creuset is that it lasts forever!  My husband's grandmother actually gave us some of her Le Creuset which is pictured below.

This collection is from the 70's.  Proof this stuff lasts!

While at one of the antique stores I frequent, I found this for $25!!!  Are you kidding me???  Do they know how much this stuff costs new?  Major score!

At least I shouldn't have to buy any pots and pans for a long time (or for the rest of my life according to my husband).  But I'm still keeping my eye out for new items in the bakeware category ;-)

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Disclaimer:  This is not a sponsored post for either Williams Sonoma nor Le Creuset.  These opinons are my own.

Tufted Velvet Wingback Chair

Have you ever gotten a piece from your childhood home and gotten a warm and fuzzy feeling?  That's how I felt when my mom gave me this chair.  When I was growing up, it was in the "formal living room" which meant that I didn't get a lot of day to day use out of it.  But come Thanksgiving or Christmas time, our family got a lot of use out of it.

I spent a few weeks in the formal living room trying to learn how to play the piano.  An investment from which my parents have never seen any return.

The fabric is in pretty good shape considering its age and the fact that the house was never without cats and dogs.  There are some scratches in the wood and I still remember which dog those came from.

The front of the pillow was embroidered by my great-grandmother.  It was originally meant to be a square in a quilt for me but it didn't really go with the other embroidered squares so my mom took it and made a pillow cover for me.

It's nice when you can use things in your home that trigger found memories.  I'm not sure if I will reupholster and paint it.  For now I'm going to be patient and feel out what I want to do.

Guest Room Reveal

Above is a picture of my guest room soon after my husband and I moved into our house.  I really love this furniture.  All of the pieces are 1930's Art Deco Waterfall.  My grandmother bought all of it and gave it to me for my college graduation gift.  Needless to say, I was extremely grateful.  Unfortunately, the bed is a double which makes it too small for the couples who stay with us.  My husband and I discussed it and finally decided we really needed a queen.

What I like about this headboard is its versatility.  The bed and the headboard are the only pieces I bought for this room.  Everything else was around the house.

I was ready to have some color.  I thought the guest room would be a good place to experiment because I don't go in here everyday.  So if I didn't like it, I didn't have to see it often.  I chose a bright blue and I really love how it combines with the warm colors in the quilt.

The sides of the day bed under the picture windows are two twin size headboards.  When I first got them they were an ugly metallic finish.  I spray painted them antique white and love how they came out.

The trunk was originally my great-grandmother's.  I'm lucky to have a family that doesn't throw a lot away.

Because the trunk is under the window, I covered the top with a quilt I made to protect it from fading.  I didn't make the quilt for this room but the colors worked so well.  Don't you love it when things just work out?  I guess that's what happens when you collect things that you really love.  Somehow it all comes together.

Linking with
Savvy Southern Style

The Groundhog says "no" but the Daffodils say "yes"

This morning around 8am my local Groundhog, Beau, saw his shadow, predicting 6 more weeks of winter.

My early blooming daffodils seem to disagree with Beau's forecast.

Although Beau has a 94% accuracy rating (yes, really), I hope that he's wrong this year.  I'm looking forward to warmer weather!

Built-in Bookcases

While my house is a new construction, it's designed to mimic craftsman style.  That's part of the reason why my husband and I decided on this house as our first.  It has the trim details lacking in most new houses but it also has the conveniences of new homes (walk in closets, attached garage, and no major updates required).  However, it did lack one thing that I find almost essential in a craftsman house: no bookcases flanking the fireplace.  I realize not every craftsman home has bookcases around the fireplace but this house was obviously built to have them.

This is the "before" picture with two gaping holes around the fireplace.  So I asked my handy husband very nicely if he would consider either building bookcases or hiring someone to do it.

Having recently purchased this house, we didn't have a lot of extra money to hire someone and my husband is a bit of a perfectionist so he decided to build them himself.  And I'm so glad he did because they look wonderful!

He started by removing the existing baseboard trim so we could save a little money and reuse it.

He framed out the base.

I wanted to have an outlet on the bookcases so I wouldn't have to hide cords.

We painted the bookcases the same color as the trim to make it look like they had always been there.

We were able to reuse the baseboard.

We had to buy the top trim.  The hardware store didn't have the same trim that was on the fireplace but we found something pretty close.

I decorated with blue, green, and white because it gives the feeling of being outside.

Now the room feels like it has everything that it should.  I use this space as my "winter porch."  It has great morning sun which makes it the only room where the houseplants can survive.

Linking with:

Miss Mustard Seed

Savvy Southern Style

Pantry Organization

How embarrassing!  This is my corner pantry "before."  Actually what's more embarrassing is this is after I threw out all of the expired food and organized a little.  Seriously, there were things from 2007 in there.  Talk about gross!

My husband and I didn't purchase our house until 2009 so that means that we actually moved expired food!  Lesson learned for the next move...

No organization.  Things just stayed where I carelessly shoved them after coming home from the grocery store.

The worst place was the floor.  Honestly, can you tell what's trash and what's not?

So finally I got fed up with the pantry.  I'm a little fed up with the entire kitchen but I have to start somewhere and the pantry is a good spot.

I started by removing everything from the pantry and cleaning the shelves and the floor.  Ideally I would like to paint and install better shelving but that's for another day.

Then, I put large, non-food (at least non-human food) items on the floor.  I bought some bins for recycling (plastic grocery bags and egg cartons) and some for all of the dog stuff.  And there's a lot of that...

Next I put the cleaning and food storage items together.

I put breakfast items together to I'm not fumbling around in the morning trying to find something to eat. I also collected all of my baking ingredients into a bin so everything is easy to find.

Syrup and honey went into a tray.  Just in case the containers leak, it won't be a major cleanup job.

I used a couple of plate racks to hold my cook books.  The Jadeite cake plate is one of my favorite pieces so I put it where I would see it anytime I opened the pantry door.

The thing that I'm happiest about is being able to see the floor!

If you compare the last picture to the before picture, there's not really a dramatic transformation.  At least not looking at the picture.  It's more dramatic in person.  But it makes me a little happier :-)