My Heart Skips a Beat

I've always loved Valentine's Day since I was a kid.  I adored making a Valentine box each year in elementary school.  I would use foil, red lacy paper doilies, and heart cut outs in pink, red, and white.  I loved making Valentines for my classmates, and looked forward to receiving them, as well.

Snow Day Project

Everyone . . . . ok, most everyone . . . . likes a Snow Day!  Am I right?  I thought so!  However when Snow Day 2 arrives, you . . . meaning I . . . . get a little stir crazy.  So let's back up a little . . . this is how it went down . . .

A Sweet Writing Desk & Feminine Touches

I am a girly-girl.  There is no doubt in that!  I love pink, lace, ruffles, and frills.  However, that's not my decorating style.  But in my bedroom, I have many feminine touches.  Today, I'm sharing my writing desk.  Everything here makes me smile and happy!

That Small Town Feeling

I've always lived in a small town.  It's the life for me.  I have been fortunate to travel some awesome places...many large cities...but my heart belongs to "small town living". 

For 52 years, I lived in the same small town...I grew up here and raised my boys here.  Just this past August, I found my cottage in a neighboring town...and yes, it is a small town too!

Every where I turn, there's a small town, and I like it that way.  I love the fact that I'm only around an hour from Nashville, TN, Chattanooga, TN, and Huntsville, AL for shopping and restaurants.  However, I am only minutes in all directions from quaint little towns like Tullahoma, Lynchburg, and Manchester.

Today after work, I needed to run an errand in Manchester...about 15 min. from work.  Luckily, this was one of my early days that I don't tutor after school.  So I decided to treat myself to a little small town fun...

Come with me, and let me show you what I mean...

For The Love Of Decorating

So when did you first get interested in home decorating?

For me I think it's always been there. I can remember paying close attention to details when creating homes for my Barbies.  I adored several 60's/70;s sitcoms for 1.  fashion and 2. home décor.  Here are some of my favs!

Wintery Decorating

Christmas is over but winter is not.  The red and green are put away, but now what?

I love the twinkle that my white lights give off...it's kind of magical!  That is something that I like to carry over in my décor after Christmas.  So I went on the hunt for some inspiration.  This is what I came up with...

Post-Christmas Blues Gotcha Down?

I don't know about you, but I get kind of down after Christmas.  I plan and plan for months...shopping for just the right presents, wrapping them all up, put up decorations, planning my Christmas menu...etc...etc..  Then in a blink of the eye, the presents are opened and the food is all eaten.  The Christmas tree looks sad without the presents underneath.  Then comes the dreaded task of taking down the lights, trees, and decorations and boxing them all up for next year.  It is surely enough to get most of us down!

So how do you beat the post-Christmas blues?

Well, I've got a few suggestions....

My Christmas Home Tour

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  Oh how I have waited and anticipated decorating my cottage for Christmas.  I can't even begin to put into words the feeling I have for the first Christmas in my cottage!  I am beyond giddy.  It's been a long two years after the divorce, but I am stronger and happier than I have ever been!  I've hung in there when times got tough, relied on God, and here I am...in my very own home that I got all by myself...with God's hand in it all the way.  Boy, it feels GOOD!

This was the first thing I put up this year....the vintage ornament wreath that I made a couple of years ago.  It makes me *HAPPY*

And I even have one on the inside of the same door.  :)

So without further delay, let's get to the tour of my cottage all decked out for Christmas!

A "Two Seater" Spruced Up For Spring

So the other day, my bestie and I did lunch and then prowled around some antique shops.  We chose to do both in a small neighboring town.  It was a nice little outing...even though we had to drive back home in a torrential rainstorm!

Gallery Wall...New Concept?

"Gallery Walls" are all the rage...I decided that I wanted to create one in my living room.  While choosing just the right pieces, I thought to myself...this really ISN'T a new concept at all!  Off and on all my adult life, I had created something similar.  I started looking back through picture albums (you know those things that hold photos before camera phones and digital copies...lol) and I found photos of several "gallery walls" from the past.  It's kind of like in education...ideas go and come back around with new names for them....I think that's the same thing here.

Weekend Crafting

Last weekend was the flea market, and this weekend I put some of my treasures into projects.  Anytime I am working with anything chippy and white, vintage millinery flowers, or dolls, I'm a happy girl!  And when the project calls for all of the above...then I am over the moon!

When I found this chippy white frame last weekend, I initially had a different idea in mind for it.  However, things just led me in a different direction when I got out all of my treasures.  So, after gluing vintage millinery flowers, a white rusty heart & key, a sparkly "LOVE", and a Frozen Charlotte to this wonderfully chippy frame...here are the results...and I have to say, I LOVE it!

It fits into my Gallery Wall (that I'll be posting about soon) just perfectly!

I'm Linking To.....

PINK SATURDAY

INSPIRE ME MONDAY

BUSY MONDAY

AMAZE ME MONDAY

MONDAY SOCIAL PARTY

OVER THE MOON PARTY

CREATIVE MONDAY

Flea Market Finds: Worth The Wait!

You may remember one of my posts from last month about not getting to go to the flea market due to weather...Well, my bestie and I made it to the Nashville Flea Market this past weekend...and it was worth the wait!

We are always there for a few hours and find some good treasures.  However this month, we found an unbelievable amount...and we closed the place down!

Would you like to see some of my wonderful. treasures?  Oh, I knew you would say, "YES!"  So let's take a look then!!!

Stop and Smell The Roses

I love roses...and I love the way they smell.  I especially love the meaning of this saying. Unfortunately, I don't set aside time just for doing that and nothing else! 

We all have full plates at one time or another...sometimes we can't seem to ever get those plates clean!  Many of us are multitaskers much of the time!  But stopping and putting all aside for just enjoying the things around us in important!  Even if you have to "pencil in" time for "smelling the roses" we need to do that!

I love my home....it's comfy and cozy and full of love with my two pups!  After a long hard day, I have a wonderful leather recliner sofa to plop down on to watch a little tv. I have a nice cozy bed to snuggle up in at night! I have decorated my little cottage to my heart's desire.  I rearrange and redecorate often because that's just who I am and what I love.

The Nashville Flea

The Nashville, TN Flea Market is considered one of the top 10 flea markets in the country.  Well, I am not one bit surprised!  My bestie and I have been frequenting this flea market for years and hauled loads of goodies home almost every time!  You can find this monthly-themed flea market at the Nashville Fairgrounds every fourth weekend of the month!  You are sure to go home with some vintage treasure...if not many!

There are about 1000 dealers and vendors, representing about 30 states, each month!  It's been going since 1969 (I was 4 years old when it began) and has been going strong since....bringing in close to half a million visitors a year!  What?????  WOW!!!

Blogging Through the Years...

So....this post is dedicated to my blogging through the years....

I thought I'd share some of my fav FINDS, BLOG PARTIES, VIGNETTES, ETC.

I began my first blog, Our Back Porch in October 2007.  My focus was just what it still is today....decorating and home.  Since I was of a young age, I took a great interest in home decorating.  In high school, that is really what I wanted to be when I "grew up"!  I had a typing teacher in high school whom I adored, and I found out that she use to do just that.  I did a report on home design, and I interviewed her as one of my sources.  I found out quickly that it would be quite hard to enter this career and remain in the small town in which I lived.  I really didn't have a desire to move to a big city, so I put this idea to rest....however, it was a part of me....a BIG....CONSISTENT...PART. 

From the moment I had my very first apartment, I spent so much time decorating and redecorating.  When I married, and we bought our first home, I decorated and redecorated....and I've been decorating ever since!!!

"Country Decorating" was all the rage when I first married.  I bought every decorating magazine as soon as it came out on the stands!  I frequented antique shops, yard sales, flea markets, etc. and soon filled our home with all sorts of goodies from yesteryear!  The decorating mags back then had a pen pal section.  I soon made friends interested in the same décor...some of which are still friends today...and we would pack monthly boxes of goodies for each other!  One of the most exciting times was when my pen pal request was printed in one of the mags!  It was one of the best times in my life! 

R is for Rebecca

It's NO secret that I adore using WORDS in my décor!

The Most Magical Time of The Year

December was chockful of the most wonderful time with my kids!  For my grangirl's October birthday, I gave her a ticket to ride The Polar Express along with Gramma, her momma and daddy.

Not So Fall

September is here...and I wish fall weather had accompanied it...but no such luck. Autumn has always been my very favorite season...the cool, crisp air, colorful leaves, apples, pumpkins, acorns...I get giddy just talking about it!  So, even though it's not so fall yet, I will pretend.  So, with that, I began to pull out my fall decorations.

The small dresser that my TV is sitting on is a new acquistion.  I love it as it is, but I'm probably going to eventually use some of my favorite paint (Blackberry Paint), sand and wax it, and shabby it up more in some of  my go-to colors.  I've added a few touches of fall, and I like the way it turned out!  

Large orange and gold blooms fill a vintage watering can that I found at the Nashville Flea Market for $10 several years ago.  I just love the look!

Just Like Mayberry....Sort Of...

Thanks for joining me again on my trip through quaint little towns of Tennessee.

Today, I'm going to focus on a little town called Bell Buckle.

It has such qualities of a "Mayberry" type town that you think you'll see Barney Fife running across the road and into the drugstore!  LOL  And...I happen to be blessed by living just a short distance from this small, Middle Tennessee town.

You will be SURPRISED at what this little town has to offer!!!

Let's take a look!!!

All Moved In...

Ok, I said I wasn't going to do this...you know, the disappearing act...Ha!  But I did.  Eeeek!  Things got crazy busy in the spring getting ready for state testing...only to have it called off ( Yes!  I said CALLED OFF...as in NONE...which is a FIRST...and after all the time we put into computer skills so they could drag/drop, toggle between two articles, highlight, etc. because they were expected to do it on the computer, AND the program crashed every practice day!)

Then, all of my energy had to go into MOVING....not just my regular move of furniture in my classroom, at the end of the year, but MOVING homes again!  My year's lease was up on June 1, and I chose not to renew it.  The stairs in my townhouse were taking it's toll on my knees!  Also, my Emmy Rose needed a yard.  So the moving began again!  Now Emmy has a wonderful yard (which will soon be fenced) and I have a garage again...and a covered patio!