I finally got tired of running all over town to find copies of Romantic Home so I decided to finally get a subscription. When I went to sign up there was a “deal” to also get four copies of Romantic Country – so I figured I can’t have too many Romantic magazines, so why not?

As I was going through the Summer 2010 issue I turned a page and stopped in awe. It was over a article called The Poetic Potter – Lark Roderigues. It includes photos of her pottery which is just spectacular. Below is a photo of some of her vases that I found online:

They are absolutely gorgeous and I suddenly thought about what I could get rid of so I could afford a couple pieces. I also regretted getting rid of my kiln from my dollmaking days because I would so like to try to make something like it. But, alas the kiln is long gone.

The article mentions her website, which is www.larkpottery.com and has lots more examples of this beautiful handmade pottery. I then googled her name and found a piece of her work on eBay, though it had been sold. And lastly I found her Etsy shop with a few of her items.

There are so many wonderful things in Romantic Country that it’s going to take me some time to get through all of it. But I as soon as I saw Lark’s work I knew I had to blog about it.

Sandra

It’s Pink Saturday again! And as always our Hostess Bev has collected a list of great blogs that want to participate in the celebration of all things Pink. You can find more blogs listed at How Sweet The Sound.

Friday night I decided I’d had enough of being cooped up in my home and needed to get out – even if it was in the single digits – I needed a shopping fix. lol So, I headed over to HomeGoods. It was so nice walking in and seeing what I hope is just the beginning of the Easter and Spring items they will have.

Here’s my “goodies” that I purchased tonight.

I couldn’t resist this adorable pink bunny with a wreath of flowers around its neck. It goes perfectly with the other bunnies (Fitz and Floyd) that I’ve got in the hutch in my kitchen. I purchased one other bunny from HG last year and guess I’ve started a tradition.





Here’s a close up of my new bunny. Such and adorable expression!





At first I wasn’t sure what these were. I thought they might be candleholders, but they are a bit too big. I think they are egg holders. Will have to see if I can find wooden or paper mache eggs to go in them – or make some out of polymer clay.





Here’s the four egg cups out of the package. A pretty blue, yellow, light pink, and a little bit darker pink.





I also picked up a set of towels to hang on the over door. I’m going to try to keep my son from messing them up when he decides to do the cooking.

So, even though it’s cold as can be outside, by putting out some pink and other pastel items I can at least feel that Spring is on its way.

For this week’s Featured Blog here’s a link to Sweet Finds by Joanna. It’s her post from last week featuring something I think looks fantastic – pretty pink dishes combined with things like vintage silver jewelry, buttons, or other decorative items. Lots of other neat things to explore on her blog.

Have a wonderful Pink Saturday and a great week!

Sandra

It’s Saturday again and that means it’s time for Pink Saturday courtesy of Bev at How Sweet The Sound. We’re back to our regular Pink Saturday submissions.

While going through the “stuff” in my dayroom I “uncovered” one of the many items that I’ve purchased from Debi at Debi Coules. This week I’m showing a vintage pitcher that has been painted with the most beautiful pink posies.

Now for the update on my dayroom. Below are photos of a before and after of one section of the room. The cabinet that I cleaned off is where a new TV will go – once the whole room is cleaned up and organized. I’m taking the room section by section. The one thing that doesn’t show, that I need to do, is go through the drawers. There’s not a lot of “stuff” in the drawers – but I’m sure somethings I have been stuck in the drawers just because I don’t know where else to put them.

BEFORE



AFTER



On top of the cabinet are only two things right now – my Bose Sound System and a wire tray where I put all my mail from the week and sort through on Friday – as you can see, it’s empty because I did all my paperwork sorting for the week. It’s a great system that has saved me a lot of time and headaches when I’ve misplaced a check or something. As I said before, this is where a TV will go.


And lastly, don’t forget to check out last weeks Pink Saturday submission for my Anniversary Giveaway. To get in on the drawing just make a comment to this or last week’s post. Good luck to everyone!


Have a Wonderful Pink Saturday!

Happy New Year!

To start off the new year Bev from How Sweet The Sound has come up with a theme for this week – a project we would like to complete.


My project is something I keep putting off because it seems like such a huge project. It’s my “dayroom.” You can see one portion of it in the photo below.

Right now it’s become a place to park things until I can figure out what to do with them. This used to be my bedroom, but when I did my remodeling I moved my bedroom into my son’s old bedroom and decided to turn the biggest bedroom into my dayroom. I’ve got my computer desk in there, a place to put a TV when the room is fixed up, a large chaise and a lot of boxes over on the other wall. As you can see there are bins at the foot of the chaise. These are for sorting what I want to keep, sell, and donate. I’ll post pictures as I work to get this roon organized and fit for habitation.


Today is my One Year Anniversary for my Cottage Dreamer Blog and I’m having a Giveaway. Below you will find three items that I found in the Dayroom while starting my organizing of it.

The three items are a hand-painted enamel pot that is decorated with beautiful pink roses, a glass heart that would be perfect for holding potpourri, and a wonderful book by Kim Jacobs called “Celebrate Today” – appropriate for an Anniversary!


Between now, January 2, and January 12 (at the end of the day) anyone who leaves a comment on this and other posts about the giveaway will have their name put in the “hat” and I’ll have my son draw the name and post the winner the next day.


Thank you for stopping by!

It’s Pink Saturday again at Cottage Dreamer! Thanks to Beverly at How Sweet The Sound for once more hosting this fun day of sharing all things Pink!

Well, I went to take a picture of something tonight and the battery in my camera is on empty. By the time I get it charged I’ll be deep in sleep, I hope, so I went searching through my hard drive and came up with a few pictures I’ve saved in my “decorating” folder.

The first two are ideas for my back bathroom, which is just off the master bedroom – which is slowly being changed into my office/dayroom. It’s the only room that gets any real sunlight so I’d love to curl up on the chaise I have in there that’s set right in front of a window. Anyway, when I had my condo remodeled about two years ago I decided to finish the front bath and then wait to finish the other one. So, now I’m thinking that after the Holidays I’m going to finish the remodeling. Right now it’s this wonderful pink – a deep and really bold color. My son actually picked it out and I do like it. I figure in a bathroom you can get a bit wild.

In the first picture below I really like the mirror and would love to find something like it – maybe even something vintage. In the front bathroom I have a pedestal sink very similar to the one in the picture. I was thinking of doing the same in the back bath, but, I do like the idea in the second picture where they took an antique or vintage piece of furniture, painted it white, and put a sink into it. I think with the oval mirror and two wall sconces it would look great. I might even be able to get it done so there was a drawer or two that I could use.

Now, for the living room. I do want a new sofa and am reall torn as to what to get. I love the two sofa/love seats shown below. But then I worry that I’ll get tired of the print and think I’m much better off getting a plain sofa with white slipcovers that I can take off and wash. Then bring in the pink with pillows and a throw or two. Anyway, it’s fun to just daydream about a nice fancy overstuffed sofa that I could just sink into and feel all pampered.

Will let you know what I decide.


Have a wonderful Pink Saturday!

It’s Pink Saturday again at Cottage Dreamer! Thanks to Beverly at How Sweet The Sound for once more hosting this fun day of sharing all things Pink!

Yes, I know Halloween isn’t over with yet, but I’m on the hunt for items and craft projects to decorate my bedroom in Pink for Christmas this year.

This week I found at Home Goods an adorable little ballerina outfit as my first ornament.

I’m sure there are many of us who remember the smalle carboard village buildings that were covered with glitter. They have been making a comeback in recent years. I was able to find one in pink and it’s in a much larger size than what I remember. Hope I can find more – if not I’ll have to get some posterboard and make some of my own.

As Bev has asked us to do, I’ve selected a blog to feature here from the list of those I may not have visited – or one I haven’t visited in a long while. I selected a new blog from this week. It’s Jen’s J. Nichelle Holiday because of the wonderful pink ornaments in her header and the perfect pink Christmas ornament frame she created.


Have a happy Pink Saturday – and if you know of any Christmas crafts that would fit in with my Pink-themed bedroom let me know by leaving a link in the comments. Thanks!

The other day when my studio was in what might be called its most organized state I thought I’d take some pictures. Just ignore the bookcase. lol I never do seem to be able to keep my magazines and books in order.

After seeing pictures of Bev’s gorgeous office/studio over at How Sweet The Sound – look for the link to it along the right column – I’m going to see about doing something similar to my studio with stock cabinets. My son had a desk built into one of the closets in his condo using two stock cabinets and a stock counter top. And I would really like to build shelves into the closet. So many plans.

Anyway, here’s what it looks like now:

The above pictures show one corner of the studio. The door is on the wall opposite the window. On the table on the right I have my main working area where I do jewelry design, work on my original dolls, and eventually I plan to get into doing more polymer clay work. On the table on the left is one of my pretty Tiffany-like lamps, a radio/CD player, and a table top oven for the polymer clay. I think it’s important not to use your kitchen oven when working with polymer clays. Eventually that oven will most likely be moved to a small nightstand so I don’t cover up so much of my window with it. The curtains come from Country Curtains and are called Kitchen Garden Tiers.

It took forever to come up with the right color for the walls. I wanted a very nice and sunny yellow since this is a north facing window and never gets any sun at all. So I thought I’d provide my own. Course, the true color doesn’t show up in any of the pictures. But you get the idea.

The lamp on the table on the right side is an Ott light. I’ve now got three of them in that room that I got from Joann’s. I got them all for 50% off by watching their sales and also getting their weekly flyer. I have an Ott floor lamp in my “Day Room.” I love the light they produce.

As you can see I’ve got a tv and a DVD player. I wanted this so I could watch my craft CD collections while at a place where I can work. This way I can watch the video, pause it when I need to, and then start it up to continue. I’ve also got a way to hook up my laptop in the studio so I can watch You Tube video tutorials.

The above pictures are of the area where I do my machine embroidery. It’s directly accross from the area where I do my main work as shown in one of the first pictures.

Eventually shelves will go up over the table – unless I do put in stock cabinets which would be nice so all the thread, stabilizer, etc. would have a nice place to live. Though it is nice to have everything I need right there on the table. My embroidery machine is a Deco 600 that I purchased about 10 or so years ago. Now that I’ve finally figured out how to do simple things I’m going to start working on sections to be placed into a quilt. Will keep track of my progress on the blog once I start.

This is the area next to the door and opposite the window. The table is a harvest table, unlike the others that are folding tables. I’ve had this table for over 30 years and just love it for sewing since it’s very deep. My sewing machine is also about 30 years old, but it’s a Viking and still sews pretty darn well. I may think about getting a new machine, but for now this one works just great after getting a good cleaning and tune up.

I got all the baskets (on sale) at Michaels. They hold patterns, fabric, CDs, and misc. The boxes on the shelves are photo boxes that contain paint, embroidery thread, etc.

I really love this room. It’s only 10′ x 10′ so is a pretty tiny room but has lots crammed into it. I still have what used to be the Master bedroom to finish up as my “Day room” and may move my jewelry making into there since it seems to want to take over all the studio with box after box to keep the parts seperate. Then the area over by the tv can be completely devoted to dollmaking and clay work.

Oh, and one last picture. The rocker sits in the corner with a Vermont Teddy Bear I got from son a few years ago for Mother’s Day. Quite fitting since this was the rocker I bought to go in his nursery when he was born over 30 years ago. The little basket on the rocker really belongs on the embroidery machine table. Guess it wanted to get in the picture since it would have been covered up by the embroidery machine in the other pictures.

Thank you for visiting!

It’s Pink Saturday again at Cottage Dreamer! Thanks to Beverly at How Sweet The Sound for once more hosting this fun day of sharing all things Pink!

Once again I’m posting pictures of one of my Debi Coules creations. This is a vintage wooden plaque that features an artist on a hillside painting a scene of sail boats on a lake. The plaque is about two feet long. I’ve included a picture of the whole plaque and then the two sides. Debi does some of the most beautiful roses.

For this week’s “New To Me” I’ve selected one of the new participants at Pink Saturday. The site is Shabby Chic Diva’s Pink Corner where Winona shows that she definately has a passion for all things pink! I love the Desert Rose dinnerware!

Until next time – Have a fantastic Pink Saturday!

Sandra

It’s Pink Saturday again at Cottage Dreamer! Thanks to Beverly at How Sweet The Sound for once more hosting this fun day of sharing all things Pink!

I went out this morning to do a bit of shopping. It had been awhile since I’d been to Home Goods so decided to head over there. I kept thinking – you don’t need another teapot or ceramic bowl or crystal candlestick. I was just about to forget about going into the store when I realized – I had been thinking of something I needed – a nice plush blanket just for me. My son’s chihuahua Bootsy, who spends most weekdays with me while Dave is at work, tends to take ownership of all afghans, comforters, and blankets. He’s even been known to take his 5% of the bed right out of the very center. Anyway, I thought I’d check in to see what they had. So, I made my way to the linens area – after going through all ceramic and glass aisle. I found a lovely pink twin blanket that is as soft as any other blanket we have in the house. I thought it was just so pretty all wrapped up with the satin white ribbon that I’d take a picture of it for Pink Saturday.

I need to wash it – can’t stand any kind of sizing in material, and then I think I’ll put it on the chaise in my “dayroom” – which I really hope to have done by the end of August.

Thank you for stopping by and for all the wonderful comments so many of you leave.

It’s Pink Saturday again at Cottage Dreamer! Thanks to Beverly at How Sweet The Sound for once more hosting this fun day of sharing all things Pink!

I’m doing my own kind of Garage Sale – I’m going through the dozen or so tubs I’ve had sitting in my own garage for over a year. It’s about time to get the stuff into the condo. Now if I could just find the hutch I’ve been looking for to put in my living room for all my “stuff.”

Here’s one of the things I rediscovered, a beautiful compote with pretty pink roses painted on it.

Happy Pink Saturday to all!