Very Big Truck and Bye Bye Ducks

Chaos in the cottage!  Moving boxes everywhere.  I went to the title company

this morning to sign the closing papers on Mom's house and although

I was only gone for one hour,  when I got back the movers  had already

packed up the shoes I planned to take with me on the trip down.

Note to myself ~ if I ever move again, write do not pack on anything

that is not to go in a moving box.  But the movers are the nicest guys

and super efficient.  One of them jumped when he stepped on one of

Bentley's squeaky toys that was oh so conveniently placed directly

underfoot ;-)  We all had a good laugh.

Mom's furniture is already on the big truck that is sitting in front of our house

overnight tonight.  Yesterday we said goodbye to the ducks on the pond

behind her house.  We spent so many hours feeding and talking to the

sweet darlings.  They really were like pets.

We will miss them!  They may not miss us, but I bet they will miss

the dried corn we always fed them.  Ah, but I suppose the new owners

will take care of that.

We are all pooped.  The movers will be back over at 8:00 am 

tomorrow morning.  Poor guys, they were packing all day and still have

more to do tomorrow.  Y'all know how many dishes I have!

Bentley ~ don't worry.  Mama safely packed up some of your

very favorite toys for the trip down to Texas.

Big Hugs,

Susan and Bentley

Bye Bye Pink

As much as I love the house we will be moving into in Victoria, there is

one room I really don't like and will change asap and that is the ...

pink striped foyer!

Y'all know I like pink, but not in a foyer.  I love to wear pink and to

paint my nails pink, but I don't care for it on my walls.  The last time I 

had pink walls was when I was a teenager.  So, bye, bye pink!

Of course, not being one to accept things the way they are, I also want

to change the front door and add a transom window and maybe a 

side light too to bring more light and openness into the space.

I am thinking something more like this.  Oh dear, stripes once again.  Can't say

I want that, but I love the window over the door.  If I did that I could keep

the existing door.  I love the side light too.  The wainscoting is nice and

how about those blue and white plates above that charming bench?

Is that a church pew do you think?

Here is a pic of the French doors leading to the living room.  Excuse the

quality of the pic, David took this with his cell phone.  Love the doors.

The carpet in the living room is going away as are those sheers and those

valances too.  The windows in that room (there are four of them) are

four feet by seven feet and are lovely old colonial windows whose sills

nearly touch the floor.  

source

Here is another image I love!  This is so warm and friendly.

More transfer ware.  We love that!  Oh and painted paneling.  I am 

beginning to think that I will want to paint the paneling in the

family room.  Have I mentioned that?  Of course I have not

breathed a word of that idea to David.  I will have to "condition"

him on the idea.  A while back ago I thought I could live with the

dark paneling, but you know how we women are ;-)

Okay, better run.  Busy, busy days right now.

Happily Joining ~

Seasonal Sundays

Bentley ~  your daddy will be back home in two days.  I

know how happy you will be to see him (me too).  Better get 

your toys packed before the moving van shows up.  You

can bring a few with you when we all drive down to Texas.

Big Hugs,

Susan and Bentley

I Love My Viking

I love to cook and I love my stove.  I got it several years ago

and it quickly became my favorite appliance.  It is so perfectly

designed.  The gas rings are wide so the heat goes up the sides

of the pan and then down instead of focusing the heat on the

bottom of the pan which leads to burning and scorching.

Although I love the way it looks, I did not buy it for it's appearance.
I bought it for it's function.  The cast iron grates cover the
top so pots and pans are easy to slide on and off burners. Each
burner has a simmer setting which is so slow you can cook a roux
all day long without having to be concerned about it.

The entire top comes off in pieces so it is easy to clean.  And
another feature that is really nice for messy cooks for me, is a
pull out stainless tray that sits under the burners to catch up any
spillage.  This makes clean up a snap.

 Even though my new house in Texas has a generic five burner
gas cooktop, I am pulling that out and replacing it with my Viking.
And since there are already two built in ovens, I will have
three ovens so we will be baking up a storm!

So I can honestly say that my stove is a favorite thing.
In fact ~ between you and me, if I had to choose between
my husband and my stove, it might be a difficult choice!

Happily Joining ~

A Favorite Thing


Bentley ~ let's take a pic of you so everyone can see
how cute you look with your new haircut!

Big Hugs,
Susan and Bentley

Ash Tree Cottage Tour 1 and New Movie

Here is the first of the tours before we pack up and move to 

Victoria, Texas.  Come on in and take a look around the room

where we like to hang out.  

I hope that you have a cup of tea or coffee for this tour because

it's a long one.

This room reflects my personality (and hubby's too).  It's vintage, a bit English county

cottage and a bit old movie themed too.  Lots of horse prints, books, and of

course slipcovers because you know who is allowed on all of the furniture because

he is family!

See what I mean?  Here he is now curled up in a chair just watching 

me take pics.  When he is not chasing squirrels, Bentley follows

me from room to room.  He's my darling shadow.  Notice he

needs a haircut.  No worries, Tina our groomer is coming over

tomorrow.

Notice one of Bentley's toys on the carpet?  Everywhere in

the cottage you will run across a dog toy or two.

In case you have not noticed, I have a passion for vintage

lamps.  They remind me of old 1940's movies.

Okay, that concludes our first tour.  Bentley ~ would you like to 

say goodbye to everyone until the next time?

Bentley says "bye~bye".  He had to run, an urgent date

with a squirrel.

Don't forget to check out our new video ~

Thanks for your visit.  I have more tours planned.

Happily Joining ~

Home and Garden Thursday

Open House Thursday

Vintage Thingie Thursday

Show and Tell Friday

Home Sweet Home

Feathered Nest Friday

Be Inspired

Big Hugs,

Susan and Bentley

Painting a Jelly Cabinet

This jelly cabinet has been on my back porch for a long time.  I have

been using it to store old linens.  Before it gets loaded onto the moving

truck I decided to give it some updating.

The exterior was barn red with a cupboard blue interior.  

Very primitive.

So to refresh it, I painted it inside and out with a color called

Heavy Cream.  As you can see, I painted the punched tin and

the hinges as well.

It has a bit of a greenish tint in these pics, but in actual fact it is cream.

I lined the shelves with a vintage looking fabric I had left over from

a craft job.

So now I have a fresh new spot to store vintage kitchen linens.

Well that's enough of a fun break for me.  It's back to getting ready for

our move.

Happily Joining ~

Tweak It Tuesday

Inspire Me

Wow Us Wednesday

Cottage Style Party

Bentley  ~  your groomer Tina is coming to groom you one last time

before we move to Texas.  Be on your best behavior!  I hope that

I can find a groomer in Victoria who is an sweet and as patient as Tina

has been.

Big Hugs,

Susan and Bentley

Last Peek at Mom's House

For Better View Go Here

Wow ~ we are getting excited now about our move!  The

days are slip, slip, slipping away and before you know it, we will

be in Texas.  I have been dreaming about re-decorating the new 

house and y'all know what that means ~ it means fun!

Bentley ~ Amy stopped by this afternoon and you missed her.

You were too busy watching that baby squirrel up in the tree!

Big Hugs,

Susan and Bentley

Our First Movie on YouTube

Bentley and I slaved away creating a movie for our new

channel on YouTube.  Well, it's actually my channel and Bentley 

is the assistant producer.

Our new movie is appropriately called ~

Pinks Around the Cottage

We hope you enjoy it.  Stay tuned because now that we have
this figured out we will be making all kinds of movies.  I imagine
that quite a few of them will be featuring Bentley in the
starring role.  He's quite the ham!

Happily Joining ~

Seasonal Sundays

Yes Bentley ~ we can make a movie about the show you put
on every night.  It's always a big hit around our house.

Big Hugs,
Susan and Bentley

The Quick Pink Post

See ~ I told you it would be quick!  Actually, I created a slideshow of 

pinks for you on my iMac, but I could not get it to load up properly.

I guess I will have to work on that technique when I have more time.

I am pretending that moving is my favorite thing.  Maybe I can

convince myself if I continue that mantra.  Attitude is everything so

they say.

Happily Joining ~

Pink Saturday

A Favorite Thing

Bentley ~ you are pretty smart, can you figure out how to upload

mama's slide show???

Big Hugs, 

Susan and Bentley

Birthday Breakfast for One

Tomorrow July 18th is my birthday.  I will be celebrating it without my husband

for the first time in 24 years of marriage.  David has been down in Texas since

June 14th.  He took most of our deck furniture with him in a small trailer and I 

don't have my patio table here anymore.  Since the mornings are the most comfortable

time of the day, I decided that I will have my birthday breakfast for one on the deck

one last time.  

I am using a TV table that I painted a few years ago and a card table chair.  

Talk about elegant lol ~ but hey, one has to make the most of what is

available right?

This has been the loveliest deck.  It is shaded by the most enormous tree

that has irritated my neighbor for the past 20 years.  My neighbor is sweet 

and I do get along with her very well but she hates trees!  When she and her

husband moved into their historic Queen Anne Victorian nearly 60 years ago,

they cut down every tree in the yard!  That would not be possible now as

we live in one of the historical districts and with the exception of disease,

trees may not be cut down.  But to keep our friendship, every couple of

years my husband trims the branches of this grand old tree that overhangs into

her yard.  She is always happy when it's done, but she would prefer if we

cut it down.  Of course that's where I draw the line because I am a bit

of a tree hugger.

David will be back here at the end of the month.  I miss him so much.

This has been a very difficult separation for us both, but we are 

on the tail end, so we will get through it.  

Yesterday ~ July 16th was David's birthday.   We always have a

three day celebration, so when he returns we will celebrate together.

I painted this TV tray in honor of our cottage which turned 100 years old this year.

Now in keeping with that tradition, I will have to paint another TV tray for our house in

Texas which was built in 1948.  I'm a sentimental, sappy kind of girl.

Happily Joining ~

Tablescape Thursday

Home and Garden Thursday

Open House Thursday

Vintage Thingie Thursday

Let's Dish

Show and Tell Friday

Home Sweet Home

Feathered Nest Friday

Be Inspired

Okay Bentley ~ what should we have for breakfast?

I say we because I know you will want to share some with me!

Big Hugs,

Susan and Bentley

Freshly Painted Kitchen Cabinets

Finally finished painting my kitchen cabinets.  It has been a very long 

process that actually started a few years ago.  For a long, long time I have

had the care giving responsibilities for my parents.   During my Daddy's long

battle with Alzheimer's I was my Mom's helper.  Doing all the grocery shopping,

filling in to give my Mom breaks and more while holding down a job.  My dear

sweet little cottage that I love so much always took a back seat to other more

important duties.  After my Daddy died, I continued to help my Mom any way

I could.  When things were finally settling down, I thought that I would be able to 

find the time to finish all of the projects I had either begun, or had planned in my

own home.  But then ...

David came home one day and talked to me about the idea of selling our business and

moving to Victoria, Texas.  Although I had always planned to keep this dear home, I

realized that the opportunity that the Texas move was offering was just too good to pass

up and that if I said no, he may always resent me for it.  

So I said yes.

When he gave me the time schedule for the move, I became really nervous.

How could possibly get the projects done around the house that had been

left uncompleted while also selling my Mom's house.  She did not want to 

use a real estate agent, so all of the advertising and showing of her house fell

on my shoulders.  Fortunately, I was able to get a good offer for her house in

only five days, and the official closing date in July 31st. 

But what about my own house?  How would I possibly get everything 

done to get it ready for sale too?  Then we had a business to sell as well.

Well, fortunately the business sold quickly and David was able to leave

for Texas to move into the new house we bought down there while I have

remained up her tying up all the loose ends.  

Every time I think of selling this place I hold back the tears.  But the good

news is that my neighbor of many years has an elderly father who is now widowed

may be a possible new owner.  Amy's dad is widowed and living in Illinois

but his three daughters live in other states.  Amy talked to him about buying my

house and he is very interested.  And Amy said to me, "and one day you could

buy it back."

The thought that Amy's dad may be living here makes me feel far less sad to

leave this sweet home behind.  I know how helpful it is to have an elderly

parent living close by.  In fact, my Mom is moving in with us down in Victoria.

So I have been working hard to pass on this cottage to someone I hope will love it

as much as I do.  I must say though that painting kitchen cabinets is a monumental job

and one that I do not plan to do any time soon!!!  Thankfully I will not have to paint

the kitchen cabinets in Victoria as they are lovely.  Oh, and I will have a big 

window over by sink which I never had here, so I am excited about that too.

Okay, that's enough chit chat for now because it's onto another project!

I will be taking more pics as I go along, so stay tuned.  Until then I am

happily joining ~

Tweak It Tuesday

Inspire Me

Wow Us Wednesday

What's It Wednesday

Bentley is so cute!  He runs outside and plays for a while and then comes

back inside just long enough to see how I am coming along.  He's the 

best little buddy!!

Big Hugs,

Susan and Bentley