Home Sweet Home #104

Hello and welcome to Home Sweet Home!  This week I made a Valentine's Day Wreath and showed you how to make it too.

I put some genuine pressed four leaf clovers for sale in my Etsy shop in Some Luck For You.

I made some Chocolate Chip Cherry Cookies.  They taste like a chocolate covered cherry in a cookie.

And I created this photo of a Sailor's Valentine from the inspiration I had in the latest Romantic Homes magazine.

I am going to feature again this week by the most viewed post.  Here are the top viewed post from last week's Home Sweet Home party.

Ann, Heather, and Shelia at Friendship, Life, and Style created this winter decor on a baker's rack.

Shirley at Housepitality Designs created this new table vignette.

Cindy at Beaux R'eves showed off her beautiful vintage guest room.

 So many great post each week and so many talented people!   It is really hard to feature a few!  Thank you to everyone who joins me at Home Sweet Home!  It is wonderful to have you here! 

Sherry

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I will join these ladies today:
Be Inspired Friday at Common Ground 

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Home and Garden Thursday  at A Delightsome Life 

Strut Your Stuff Saturday at Six Sister's Stuff 

Guidelines for Home Sweet Home Party:

Attention: To link up you must have a permalink back to this party in your post or you won't be featured.

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, delicious recipes, crafts, or whatever makes your home special!

 *If you are pinning a post submitted here, please pin from the original site. 

So you know how I feel about cleaning...

...But it actually just got a little better.  

And if you don't know how I feel about cleaning:  Although I love a clean house, I STRONGLY dislike the act of cleaning itself.  A lot.  I mean, like buying the better-looking cleaning supplies they now offer and I'm okay with a little here & there, but when it comes to vacuuming and mopping & all of that... ugghhhh.  There's something about doing the same thing over and over that feels futile to me.  No thinking required in cleaning really, just doing.  The same thing you did yesterday.  (Or let's be honest... with me, a couple of weeks ago ;) ;)

A few months ago, I was contacted by someone from Black & Decker about doing a post on a product of theirs with an emphasis on showing how I "embrace the luxury in cleaning" with their product.  (With the way I feel about cleaning, I thought this was laughable...  Cleaning has never been luxurious for me and usually involves sweatpants and a ponytail.) I often say no to product pitches, but when I saw what is was, I said, "send it to me!!!"...   I was definitely seeing how this product could make cleaning more luxurious for me...

It's a dust buster.  But seriously the best dust buster ever.  It's from their Platinum Lithium Series.  

What I liked about it when I saw the photo was that it's small and light...

There were no cords to worry about...

 (Do you see where I'm going yet??)

It arrived and we charged her up.

It can be used effortlessly.  

"Hey boys! Look at this machine we got in the mail!!"

"What is it mommy?!!"

"It's your very OWN vacuum!!"

{Merry Christmas Christian!!!}

"And it's for you too Justin!!"

"But you have to promise me you boys are going to share it."

I have really embraced the luxury in cleaning with the Platinum Vacuum because I can literally be sitting as my house gets cleaned!!

The boys use it to clean up their messes almost every day (why does it seem like we could feed a small army with what falls on the floor under their chairs??) and we keep it right in the kitchen.  It's so light & powerful that they literally just have to walk around with it in the right general area and it sucks up all the crumbs.

But in all honesty, I use it a lot too.  I love it because I can just grab it from the kitchen drawer to clean a quick mess...  which usually leads to an entire floor vacuuming (It's addictive!!) but what I like about it is that when I take it out to vacuum something, I'm not committed the way I am when I take out the big vacuum.   This way, I can stop whenever I feel like it.  And I don't have to deal with the plug.  I've used other dust busters over the years and haven't really been impressed before.  But I've had it for a couple of months, it's still going strong, and I love this thing.  (And especially how it involves my kids in helping with free labor chores.;)

If you want to check it out, here's the link to it: BLACK AND DECKER PLATINUM LINK
Feel free to embrace the luxury of cleaning too ;) ;)



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

Visiting Sadie + Stella

I'm over at my blog friend's Lindsay's today to be a part of her "Favorite Room" Series...  Lindsay writes Sadie + Stella and she's fun and sassy (yes I said sassy...  do people still use that word?? ;) and talented...

I shared more details on a favorite project of mine- the DC Row House that was recently featured in Small Rooms Decorating Magazine:

I'm thrilled & honored to be sharing over at Sadie + Stella today- thanks Lindsay!!  Click here to visit!

On another note, I've got some really exciting things in the works with the fabric line & I will share with you as SOON as I can!!!




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

Sailor's Valentine

image source: Romantic Homes Feb. 2013

I always love to join Debbiedoo's Copy Cat Challenge but, I can't always find something to copy that I have the supplies for.  But, this month I had the three items in this full page photo taken from Romantic Homes February 2013 issue. 

The article was on Sailor's Valentines.  Such a romantic gesture for a sailor at sea to craft a heart shaped box out of seashells for his sweetheart.  I think I could create another post on sea themed valentines.  I'll see what I can come up with.

 Sherry

I will link this to: 

Debbiedoo's Winter Knock Off Decor Party

Home at Rose Chintz Cottage

Rooted in Thyme Simple and Sweet Fridays
What's It Wednesday at Ivy and Elephants
Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style  

Chocolate Chip Cherry Cookies

After making Pineapple Upside Down Cake last week I had most of a jar of cherries to use.  So, I altered my recipe for Classic Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Cookies and created the Chocolate Chip Cherry Cookie. 

The cherries really made the cookies sweet.  Like eating a chocolate covered cherry in a cookie.  Here is the recipe.

 Chocolate Chip Cherry Cookies

1/3 cup butter or margarine, softened

1/3 cup oil (any vegetable oil)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar (packed)

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

1 3/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup quick-cook oats

3/4 cup chocolate chips

3/4 maraschino cherries (rinsed, dried, and chopped in quarters)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In a large mixing bowl add the butter, oil, sugar, and brown sugar and cream with an electric mixer.  Add the egg and vanilla, mix well.  Add the flour, soda, salt, and oats in a separate mixing bowl and combine.  Then mix the dry into the wet ingredients.  Add the chocolate chips and cherries mix by hand until combined thoroughly.  Spoon out teaspoonfuls of dough on ungreased, insulated cookie sheets (can use parchment paper) and cook for 8-10 minutes.  Take the cookies out when tan instead of golden and transfer the parchment paper with the cookies on it right to the counter to cool.  The parchment paper really helps when you take the cookies out at the tan baking stage.  Then the hot cookie doesn't fall apart as it cools undisturbed on the parchment paper.  It holds it's shape really well.  Yield: around 24 cookies

My mug is by Johnson Brothers.  The pattern is Old Britain Castles.  The cookie jar is by McCoy Pottery.

Sherry
I will link this to:

 Tea Time Tuesday at Rose Chintz Cottage 

A Return to Loveliness  at A Delightsome Life

Table Top Tuesday  at A Stroll Thru Life

Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm 

Strut Your Stuff Saturday at Six Sisters Stuff 

Old Time Party at The Old Time Farmhouse

Some Luck For You

A wee bit of luck for you for the whole year through.  I have for sale in my Etsy shop genuine pressed four leaf clovers mounted on vintage sheet music and vintage french Lesson book pages.  There are several styles to select from.  Feel free to pop over and check them out. My son is the four leaf clover hunter.  He is fantastic at finding them.  We have several patches right in our yard. 

I am linking to:

Marketplace Monday at Common Ground

Our Kitchen Island Continued... And a note on Honed Marble

Hope you had a great weekend!!  We got the teensiest bit of snow (not enough!!) and hung around home for the most part.  The guys worked on our island and I'm loving how it's coming out:

The reclaimed wood from Lorimer was applied horizontally across the drawer fronts.  It's almost totally flat when you look at it and the guys did an amazing job of keeping the wood flush on the sides of the drawers.

Here, Spiderman is investigating the newly applied tape "pulls" on the drawers:

(This means he can now get into the drawers himself which makes my life easier.   The kids can grab cups and get water from the spout on the outside of the fridge..  They can ask for a snack and I can say go ahead & get it.  Ahhh drawer pulls- who knew?!!)

Anyway, they still have three more sides to go, so we're only part way there, but I am so excited with the results so far!!  To read more abou the process, check out my last post here.  And finally, we have white honed marble on top of the island and I LOVE it.  It's super-easy to take care of  and looks and feels so good.  I really wish it didn't have such a bad rap.  (And I have two boys and a baby, we entertain a lot and we are faaaar from careful.)   In general I find that people (who've never been exposed to it & are listening to the stone companies)  are so afraid of using it & I feel like they're really missing out on something special.  Yes, some things can stain it (red wine is the only thing I've noticed when it's sat out for hours on there) but the stains turn into pretty gray marks... I don't even notice them with the movement in the marble.  I'm actually dying to dirty this thing up a bit.  I've left so much stuff on it in the hopes of seeing what it would do and not much has happened though it's definitely gotten prettier as it's seen more use of the past couple of months.   Like what I love about most natural things, life changes it and makes an impression on it.   I don't get why unchanging and perfection should equal beauty.  I feel the opposite.  (Except about my face haha!! j/k)

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

Black & White & Red All Over

What is black and white and red all over?  My Valentine's Day wreath is.  It can even be read because I made the hearts and flower out of book pages. 

Supplies:

12-inch straw wreath

3/4 yard of red taffeta, cut into 3 inch strips

stick pins

1/8 yard of contrasting fabric

Vintage book pages

scrabble tiles (I printed mine from a resource on Pinterest here)

pencil

scissors 

tape

glue

Here is how you can make one too.  First take the strips of taffeta and wrap the straw wreath.  I pinned each strip in place at the back of the wreath.  This is the beauty of a straw wreath, you can pin and disassemble later to make another wreath. 

Then make the hanger with the contrasting fabric.  I first cut the fabric into a 3 inch strip.  Then  loop it around the top of the wreath and tie a knot in it.  The fabric I used doesn't ravel.  If you pick a fabric that does ravel you will need to sew or glue a hem down each side of the strip before this step.

To make the hearts I hand drew a heart and cut out the four hearts from a vintage book.  I glued the four hearts on the wreath where I liked them.  I copied the scrabble tiles from the craft resource above and glued them onto each heart.  I hand drew the flower spiral on another book page.  I found this also on Pinterest here.

Cut the spiral design out.

This is the tricky part.  You start from the center and roll this spiral design up to create the flower.  I tried to loosen the flower up by taping the bottom as I rolled it.  In taping it you can stabilize the part you have rolled up and keep rolling.  My flowers always look a little uptight. I just keep working with the flower until it looks like I want it to.

I placed my flower on another flower base and pinned it in place.  I thought it looked like a daffodil.  I hand drew all my patterns, I am not a perfectionist so if it was a little uneven I thought it just added to the character of the design.   That is the fun of making your own wreath it doesn't look like anything in the stores.  Time to bring out the romance for Valentine's Day, it is right around the corner.  

Sherry

I will join:

Tweak It Tuesday at Cozy Little House

Seasonal Sundays at The Tablescaper

Sunny Simple Sundays  at Sunny Simple Life

Share Your Cup Thursday  at Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson

Cowgirl Up Party at Cedar Hill Ranch 

Make It Pretty Monday at The Dedicated House
Strut Your Stuff Saturday at Six Sisters Stuff 

Our kitchen island

In our kitchen, I went back and forth (over and over!!) on what I wanted in our kitchen, and I finally decided we needed some worn wood in it somewhere to add warmth and carry over the rustic feeling from the rest of our house into the kitchen.  I originally planned to do wood perimeter cabinets but then fell in love with a slab of black soapstone, so I liked the idea of the lighter-painted perimeter cabinets with the dark soapstone top and then a darker wood island with a white marble top.  Here you can see our mid-stage kitchen:

Our island is around 8 feet long & can sit four of us...  (Even though you only see 3 chairs above)

Our builders got the kitchen island fucntional and we've been doing this for a while:

This island is a WORKHORSE!! Oh my gosh, it's a beast.  I love it.  It holds our trash, recycling, junk drawer, pasta/rice/randoms, a little bar drawer, kids' snacks, my vases & mason jars, and then paper goods like paper towels/ plates/cups.  We've had parties where we've loaded it up with food/ drinks.  (And even beer pong I must admit ;)  For Christmas, it seemed like our entire extended family fit around it easily.  It's one of the most practical pieces I've ever had and I've never had anything like this in a kitchen of my own before.  It might be my favorite thing in my house...  And it's not even pretty yet.

{Reality: My dog is "vacuuming" up our crumbs.  Get it giiiirl.}

BUT... our reclaimed oak arrived this week!!!  It was an amazingly generous gift from David Ellison at the Lorimer Workshop who we often team up with for cour clients' projects.  David & his team are true craftspeople and everything that arrives from them is so much more beautiful than any photos could show.  Our clients are always over the moon with their Lorimer pieces and we were no less blown away when our reclaimed wood arrived:

(Don't mind the helicoptor ;)

The color was exactly what I'd asked David for...  It's stained sort of a warm (but still somehow grayish and not too orangey) medium walnut.  I love how it looks with our light white oak floors.

Here's a close-up where you can really see the saw marks: 

Eeeeek!

We are having the wood planks applied horizontally over the entire existing island & drawers similar to this:

 They're all random length, width & depths though, so it will be a bit rougher-looking.

I wanted something special for hardware on the island and on an ebay search Dave, my husband, found prettiest antique apothecary bin pulls:

{My computer is being evil and won't let me flip this photo around}

Thy're labeled with what the bins used to hold...

Here's a close-up:

They had the exact number of bin pulls we needed (7) so I'm convinced it was meant to be ;) ;)

Anyway, I'll keep you posted on our island's progress and can't wait to share 'afters' of it!!

Have the best weekend!! 

 

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