Total Whirlwind

We had a CRAZY week last week getting ready to put our house in the market.  I don't even remember how many 2-4 hours nights of sleep we got last week.  We did pretty much every project we'd ever planned to do "eventually" in the span of 9 days.  Our house was full of contractors helping us and I attempted to pack up and keep things running in the office, which became pretty much impossible.

Saturday morning (the day of the first open house) we woke up early to get started on our unfinished projects.  At 6, Dave ran to Home Depot to buy a new drill because we'd packed ours up and sent it to live in the Pod for a month... he added the missing hardware on the extra kitchen cabinets we'd done a year or so ago. (Yes, until this point they'd been just sitting there, naked and topped with plywood... On Friday the carpenters came and installed the butcher block and did the trimwork.)  I ran around with only one contact in (I tore my left one in the rush) pretty much legally blind in my left eye, squinting to do the paint touch-ups.  (It was at this point that I almost lost it...  I'd been pretty chill the whole 9 days along but when I realized I couldn't see it was - Dave- "It's almost over."  And me- "But I can't see!!! How am I supposed to look at anythig with a critical eye if I can't see?!!!"  --- Yes, I really said that.  Not my best moment.  He knows me pretty well and just didn't say anything.  God I love that man. )  I frantically cut hyrangea & spread them around the house in jars, all the while worrying about the funny smell of the paint in our basement because the contractors had just finished with the ceiling.  Every time I finished with a room, I'd close the door and the kids' security clearances were revoked.

{Yes, that's a muffin squished into his eye.}

 (By the end they were relegated to the foyer as our realtor helped them put on their shoes and fed them cookies & that's when I knew it was the home stretch.) I jumped in the back or our minivan to feed (wailing) baby Luke as Dave turned the car on and "blasted" the air at my behest while people arrived early for the open house.   Dave ran through the yard with the lawn mower (Him- "A mowed lawn is important to men.") as Christian & Justin got extra allowance for picking up sticks.  I watched and thought about how I'd wished I'd gotten more weeding done in the gardens as the van (which was blasting air) got hotter and hotter.  I opened the door because the hot air outside was better than the inside.  The baby's tiny little body stuck to my dress and we were a sweaty mess.  When Dave finally showed back up to load the kids in the car it was, "Oh sorry babe, I'd had the heat on." 

We drove a few houses down so I could feed the baby before driving to the eye doctor's.  We watched as the cars came pouring down our street for the open house.  (I know that sounds creepy and I hoped no one would notice us, but with the hungry baby, we really had no choice.)  As more time went by and none of the cars had left yet, we felt a little better.  Anytime there was a lag in the stream of cars, we worried.  We noticed cars leaving, driving around and going back.  That was a good sign. 

Once the baby had had his fill, it was off to the eye doctors' and then to my mom's house where we showerd and promptly DROPPED.  (We had already decided we were not going home Saturday night because there was no way we could keep our house clean for even a night for Sunday's open house.)  We waited for news from our realtors and I was in total shock as they called and told us the good news.  (I typically worst-case scenario everything at the last minute, and by the end of the day had convinced myself that no one could ever want our house.)  Saturday night was great as two of my best friends stopped by to celebrate (One who I haven't seen in over a year just home from Paris!) and we gorged (or maybe it was just me who gorged) on food from the Lebanese Taverna. 

{Habeeb.com}

We stayed at my mom's all day Sunday and reviewed offers that night.  This (below) was the awesome note we came home to:

{The "Buy me" note was a last-minute attempt as I dashed out of the house before the open house}

...We are now officially under contract and are set to move mid-September!!!  I'm definitely sad to leave this place (getting teary honestly) but I am so happy that the people buying our house seem to love it as much as we do.  I think they'll take great care of this place we've poured so much into & I'm sure they'll make it their own in no time.  I'll miss some of our neighbors terribly but know that they're friends for life & moving won't change that. 

I'll be back this week to share some long overdue before & afters of our house...  sort of a little goodbye string of posts I have planned.  I am DEFINITELY making a video tour of my house before I leave so I can "visit" whenever I want.  (I know I have issues ;)

Also, thank you so much to all of the readers who came out to see our house!!  Hope you enjoyed & thank you so much for the support!!



If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Ironstone & Straw

Ya'll know about this time of the year I am itching to do something with a fall theme.  I couldn't think of a better combination than white ironstone and straw bales.

This was that little vintage ironstone teapot I found at the thrift store on clearance for $2.50.  Chari at Happy To Design  emailed me and showed me the rest of the dishes that go with this teapot.  I was amazed because I just happened to realize that this very set of dishes was down at our Salvation Army on clearance for $10!  Chari said she purchased her dishes at Green Stamps!  Do you guys remember those?  I have bought things with Green Stamps when I first set up house.  So, anyway I am a proud owner of 40 more pieces to this vintage ironstone set for just $10.  I plan on using it in one of my Halloween tablescapes, more to come on that later.

Mom had been storing a little spice cabinet for me for years.   I got it back recently and found this in one of the drawers!  I'm keeping it!  That is what I call interest!

Fall is so on my mind!  I will be posting more about summer looks but, the hay bales are starting to multiply in my dining room!

The label on the ironstone: Designer Group pattern White Dover Ironstone

Sherry

 I will link this to:

A Return to Loveliness  at A Delightsome Life 

Tea Cup Tuesday at Martha's Favorites

Tea Cup Tuesday at Artful Affirmations

Your Cozy Home Party  at Cozy Home Scenes

Table Top Tuesday  at A Stroll Thru Life

Tuesday Cuppa Tea  at Antiques and Teacups

Tea in the Garden with Bernideen's Tea Time Blog

Heart and Home with Trish's Heart and Home

Teacup Thursday at Miss Spenser's Blog 

Tea Time Tuesday at Rose Chintz Cottage  

White Wednesday  at Faded Charm

Late Summer Look for the Door

 

 scanned image from: Autumn Cottage

I was excited to join Debbie over at Debbiedoos for another Magazine Copycat Challenge.   My mind is full steam ahead for Fall decorating.  So, I was very excited to finally see  Autumn Cottage on the magazine racks this weekend.   I really liked this door arrangement.  I have been doing really great at decorating for this blog with using only things I have on hand already.  That's what I did with this. 

I just recreated the arrangement with things I had on had.  A hanging basket I got at an estate sale for $1.  Some faux hydrangeas, a pick of berries, and two picks of wheat.  For the decorative trim that was hanging down from the basket I used a fall garland I found at Hobby Lobby two years ago.

I love this garland!  I have used it on the mantel and draped across the top of a picture frame.

So, there you go.  A late summer into fall look for the front door!  Brenda at Cozy Little House has a new Tuesday link party called Tweak It Tuesday and you can still link up any past or present autumn decor at Whisperwood Cottage's Talent Scouting Party for Cottages & Bungalows magazine till tonight.  Just go check on the links at the button below, so many great fall decorating ideas!!

Sherry

Tweak It Tuesday at Cozy Little House

Copycat Challenge at Debbiedoo's

Before and After Party at Thrifty Decor Chick
Cottage Style Link Party  at Lavender Garden Cottage

Sunday's Best Party  at My 1929 Charmer

Seasonal Sundays at The Tablescaper

Sunny Simple Sundays  at Sunny Simple Life

Scalloped Tomatoes

This time of year the tomatoes are plentiful and this is the time of the year to make this dish.  This is one of my all time favorite dishes my Grandmother Patty always had on the Sunday dinner table.  With fresh tomatoes from the garden the flavor of this dish is unbeatable.

Ingredients:

6 fresh ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped up

2 cups of chopped up stale French Bread

1 tbsp to 1/2 cup of sugar (season to your taste)

Salt and pepper to taste

3 tbsp butter

Skin and chop up tomatoes.  Place the tomatoes in a buttered casserole.  Add sugar, salt, and pepper and stir.  Chop up the French Bread and layer on top of tomatoes.  Dot the bread with the butter.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes.   Take out of oven and let cool for 10 minutes and serve.

Variations on this include adding garlic, chopped onion, basil, and some grated parmesan.    If you make without fresh tomatoes you can use a #3 size can of tomatoes which equals 4 cups of diced tomatoes.

Enjoy!

Sherry

I will link this to: 

Friday Food at Mom Trends

Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum
What's It Wednesday   at Ivy and Elephants  
Thriving on Thursdays  at Domesblissity
On the Menu Monday at Stonegable 
Rooted in Thyme Simple and Sweet Fridays
Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style
A Pinteresting Party  at Tutus & Tea Parties
Food on Friday  at Carole's Chatter 
 Say G'Day Saturday  at Natasha in Oz
Food on Friday at Carole's Chatter

Open Shelving in the Kitchen- the great debate

Wow.  Our house is officially for sale today!!!  I'm feeling really great about it.  But putting your house on the market makes you take another look at it, from a buyer's point of view and makes you analyze every little thing.  I used to do real estate staging & a large part of it is de-personalizing the home vs. making it unique & personal (which is what I do now.)  One of the things I think that's more personal & taste-specific in our home is the open shelving in our kitchen. (In our kitchen we have a mix of open shelving and upper cabinets but the main wall is all open shelving.)

{our kitchen}

People seem to have very strong opinions about doing open shelving in the kitchen instead of upper cabinets.  They either seem to love it or hate it.

I thought I'd share my experience with them since I've had them for three years now.

I orginally opted for open shelving because I wanted to give my kitchen an open & airier feeling. It's a great way to make a kitchen feel larger.  My kitchen felt a bit confined & heavy to me so I wanted to visually lighten it up.  The assymetrical angle of my kitchen ceiling looked too awkward with a row of dark upper cabinets calling attention to it. 

{my kitchen "before" with the awkward angles}

SO.. I thought I'd give it a go, more for form over function but I ended up loving the "function" side of it too!

{my kitchen "after" with open shelving}

One of my favorite things about open shelving is that I can see everything at a glance.  Guests too can grab what they need easily or put things back without searching through every cabinet. 

One of the biggest "cons" I've heard brought up about open shelving is that your things "get dusty" and dirty with cooking grime.  Dusty & grimey things have never been an issue for us in our kitchen.  We use almost everything on our shelving daily or weekly and it comes off of the shelf perfectly clean because it's constantly getting use.  I store a few barely-used items on my upper shelf and when I take them down once or twice a year, there is some dust on them and I simply rinse them off before using them.  (Just as I have to rinse off the rarely-used items in my dining room sideboard before use.)  Friends of mine who have open shelving have said the same thing.  I find it's people who've never actually had it (or who don't frequently use the things on their shelves) who seem to worry the most about this "dust" issue.

I also love the look of functional beauty in open shelving.  A kitchen is for cooking and eating & so I love seeing my "tools" displayed around me. 

I have collected my platters and bowls and pitchers over time and love being able to enjoy them even when they're not in use.  I think they're beautiful and I didn't want to hide them in cabinets.

Working in our kitchen is so easy because everything is within reach and I can get to it quickly.  (In our house, we move like crazy people.  It seems we're almost always rushing -gotta change that- and I can grab things off the shelves like  a speed demon.)  Putting away the dishes now seems like so much less of a chore than it did when I was putting everything into cabinets. 

{Sally Wheat}

Another "con" I've heard about open shelving is that it looks cluttered.  I think this is more a matter of personal taste.  For me, I think the key to our open shelving looking good is that we've limited what types of items we put on our shelves.  (In our kitchen I have white ware, glass ware and stainless steel for the most part and I sometimes mix in other colors/ materials seasonally.)  I do have some patterned and colorful dishes on my open shelving but from standing in the kitchen, they are viewed from the side and from below, so they look white.  However, there are some open-shelved kitchens look great because the homeowners are less rigid with what they put on their shelves and they come across as charming and homey: 

I reserve closed drawers and cabinets for food items and kitchen appliances and my open shelves for the things we use all the time.

As with many things in design, I don't think think there's a general wrong or right in uppers vs shelving, just wrong or right for certain people. 

Personally, I won't ever be without my open shelving in the kitchen (and plan to do it again in our new house because it's perfect for our busy, casual lifestyle- once you go open, you never go back ;) ;)  but it's all in the eye of the beholder.

If you'd like help creating a home you absolutely love, contact me about our design services.

Home Sweet Home #77

Hello and welcome to Home Sweet Home!   I have been really looking forward to the first fall looks in the magazines.  I found about a great opportunity this week for anyone to enter a talent search for Cottages & Bungalows magazine and become the fall looks!  Just head over to WhisperWood Cottage for The Talent Scouting Party for Cottages & Bungalows magazine.
You have until July 30th to link up any original Autumn Decor.   I put five images on here today of some fall looks I have done here at TCOH.    

I enjoyed just visiting the link party at Whisperwood Cottage  just to see all the great ideas linked up.

Are you getting eager for fall decor?

Now, I would like to highlight some of the posts that caught my eye last week at Home Sweet Home. 

 Kristen at Sophia's Decor took a simple little farm table and made it shine!! 

Bliss Ranch took an old dresser and turned it into a bar extraordinaire! 

Laurel at The North End Loft showed off her wonderful garden beds.

Stefanie at Rose Petals and Rust showed off her cottage hutch perfection.

Biljana at Biljana Shabby showed off a lovely box she created. 

Many great links each week!  Thank you to all who join me at Home Sweet Home!   It is wonderful to have you here.

Sherry

I will join these ladies today:
Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground 

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Home and Garden Thursday  at A Delightsome Life 

Creative Things Thursday  at The Vintage Farmhouse

Potpourri Friday at 2805
Gimme 5 for Friday  at Krafty Kat

 Guidelines for Home Sweet Home Party:

Attention: To link up with inlinkz you must have a permalink back to this party in your post or they will not allow you to link.  

Link up anything in your home or garden.  I love seeing neat shops too!

My button is on my sidebar for the party, if you want to use it.   If you are new here I hope you will become a follower. Please don't link up more than two posts.  No Etsy link ups or direct advertising, please.  Please visit some of the other blogs and get some great inspiration.  Thanks.:)

Now let's see your beautiful homes!

Cream Cheese Banana-Nut Bread

What could be better than Banana-nut bread?  Banana-nut bread with a block of cream cheese in the batter!  That is what is in this bread, recipe from a January 2005 issue of Southern Living.  The cream cheese makes a melt-in-your-mouth texture with a slightly tangy taste from the cream cheese.  

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 (8 oz.) package of cream cheese, softened

2 cups sugar

2 large eggs

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (1 1/4 pounds unpeeled bananas, about 4 medium)

1 cup chopped pecans, toasted

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating until just blended after each addition.

Combine flour and next 3 ingredients; gradually add to butter mixture, beating at low speed just until blended.   Stir in bananas, pecans, and vanilla.  Spoon batter into 2 greased and floured 8-x4-inch loafpans.  

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour or until a long wooden pick inserted comes out clean and sides pull away form the pan, shielding with aluminum foil last 15 minutes to prevent browning, if necessary.  Cool bread in pans on wire racks 10 minutes.  Remove from pans, and cool 30 minutes on wire racks before slicing. 

Makes: 2 loaves

 *Note- I eliminated all nuts, my kids don't like them.

Topping:

This is the topping I used.

Cinnamon Crisp-Topped Cream Cheese Banana Bread

 Prepare the batter as directed and spoon into desired pans.  Stir together 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar; 1/2 cup chopped, toasted pecans; 1 tbsp all-purpose flour; 1 tbsp melted butter; and 1/8 tsp. ground cinnamon.  Sprinkle mixture evenly over batter.  Bake and cool as directed.

I included this picture just so you could see the nuts in it!  Pic from: Southern Living Jan. 2005

Topping pictured above:

Orange-Pecan Topped Cream Cheese Banana-Nut Bread

Prepare batter as directed, and spoon into desired pans.  Sprinkle 1 cup of coarsely chopped, toasted pecans evenly over batter in pans.  Bake as directed.  Cool bread in pans 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks.  Stir together 1 cup powdered sugar, 3 tbsp. fresh orange juice, and 1 tsp grated orange rind until blended.  Drizzle evenly over warm bread and cool 30 minutes on wire racks.    

Enjoy!

Sherry

I will link this to: 

Friday Food at Mom Trends

Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum
What's It Wednesday   at Ivy and Elephants  
Thriving on Thursdays  at Domesblissity
On the Menu Monday at Stonegable 
Rooted in Thyme Simple and Sweet Fridays
Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style
A Pinteresting Party  at Tutus & Tea Parties
Food on Friday  at Carole's Chatter

Witchy Tea Cupboard

My love of Halloween comes from the creativity and fun I have had reading children's literature.   I can still remember the first Halloween themed chapter book I read in grade school.  It was called The Resident Witch  by Marian T. Place.  It was so different than other books because all the rules of human existence were altered.  Creativity grew to new levels in each chapter.  I will approach Halloween in this manner on my blog.  I will have fun with it and think outside the box of my normal decorating and tablescapes in a childish way.  So, if a witch had a tea cupboard what would she keep in it?

I can imagine she flew by some bittersweet vine in the forest and it got stuck to her broomstick.  So she brought it home and used it to decorate her tea cupboard.  

Leaves and even acorns get caught in her hair on her flights at night so she pulls them out and puts them on top of her tea cupboard too.  Oh, and bats hang out in her lampshades.

She has been hard at work in her garden tending herbs for medicinal uses.

She keeps her milk and sugar on top of her book of spells along with some harvested pumpkins and some unidentified berries.

And at last she has her tea set on the ready for when unexpected guest pop in.

And of course she has a candle ready for when the lights go out.  Which happens a lot around here.