Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Cotswold in California?

A little while ago I had the great opportunity to travel with my mom and sister to England. This trip was perfect in every way. I came back with many, many treasures (one of the advantages of traveling without the Mr.shhhhh) When we traveled to the Cotswolds I picked up a few of these cards since they captured the fairy tale houses brilliantly~thought I'd throw that word in since it is soooo British~ After hanging onto them for years now I decided to hang them on the wall. Of course I never custom frame anything. I found inexpensive gold frames ( I personally think the art should be more important than the frame) and trimmed.
My parents were getting rid of half used rolls of wallpaper...No way! I use wallpaper for everything from gifts, backing shelves, decoupaging to matting pictures like this. This particular embossed wallpaper is on the ceiling of a bathroom in the house I grew up in.
As I walk through my home, I not only have great visions of places I love, but the snippets of wallpaper will keep childhood memories forever.
Yuck, sorry the coloring is so bad on this one.

On a completely different note...I have been fiddling around in the garden a lot. I was so inspired by the garden rooms here last month. This hoosier cabinet, below, is one of my favorite pieces of furniture. Unfortunately, we have many windows in our house and there is not one wall (believe me I've tried) that it works on. Sadly it sat in the garage and I even surveyed my friends if they wanted to buy it. The other day I moved it out to the back porch and I love it! Am I crazy to have this outside and this inside?

It is great storage for spur of the moment dining al fresco. I filled it with tablecloths, bbq supplies, dishes and other goodies. The best thing is that the enamel table pulls out to make for a great buffet and...get this...the bottom right drawer is metal (intended for potatoes) so lined with plastic and filled with ice it is an instant cooler for guests to grab a drink! I can't wait for our first outdoor dinner! Wanna come?

7 comments:

Jan said...

Yes I want to come. I love the ideas and the pictures turned out great. I love them on that wall too. Very creative Jen.

The Vintage Vagablonde said...

You are not crazy..just creative. I love that piece outside and it is lovely and USEFUL too.
I am new to your blog so I just wanted to say Hi :)

tammy said...

Name the date and time and I am there with you and the Mister!!! I lvoe hanging out with you guys!!!

Rachael Hutchings said...

I wanna come! Can we have a tea party? :-) I LOVE the Costwolds, and I love what you have done with the cards and moving that lovely piece outside! You are seriously brilliant woman!

Silcox Stories said...

UGH! I just love all your ideas. I love your new outisde addition, I think it looks great there and what great use! Let us know when the party is, we'll walk down (that's about as adventurous as we're going to get for a while!).
-Jennie

ROSE VINE COTTAGE said...

It looks so cute! I love it. I put an old desk with a drop down front, outside and put stuff in it for gardening(that I don't do) LOL,
and I bought the same pink metal teapot that you have. I'll have to take a pic. When is the party? You can count me in!
Kelly

Unknown said...

SO! pretty!! I love that hutch outside!!!! Yeah, and we'll come too! :)