Client's Kitchen: Sneakity Peek

 I wanted to share a little sneakity peek of a kitchen project we're working on.  My client moved into the house with the kitchen as you see it here...  She was SO ready to get rid of the pink formica countertops and green wallpaper...  I wrote about this project and its inspiration a little while back here.

And here's how it's looking now:

The cabinets& counters are in and the blue bead board has been installed.  I snapped this pic on my phone this week as we were bringing in the furnishings for the house.  (Hence, the plastic-wrapped chairs ;) The pendants for above the island came in wrong so we're waiting for them to arrive along with the barstools and a few more details.   I have to be honest, that this week's installation was THE nuttiest we've ever had.  It entailed me running down the street to pick up trash and not realizing I'd run back up to the wrong house...  As I struggled to get the locked front door open, a car drive up in the driveway to see me trying to get into their house.  hahah SO not good.  :/    I tried to explain but probably just scared her instead.

Anyway, I'll keep you posted and be sure to share final pics!! Have a great weekend and a happy Easter!!!



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

Home Sweet Home #112

Hello and welcome to Home Sweet Home!   I reflected on the season in The Love of a Mother for a Son.

I enjoyed an Easter Tea.

I also revisited a past post in the Children's Easter Table.

Now, I would like to feature some of the great blogger's post that caught my eye from last week's Home Sweet Home.   

Penny of Penny's Vintage Home showed off spring blossoms but, I have to show you this Hooiser cabinet she turned into a kitchen desk.  I love this!

Rosemary & Thyme created this Orange Sour Cream Pound Cake that looked divine!

Laura at Decor to Adore showed how to create a French Lantern the smart way.

 Carolyn at Aiken House & Gardens showed off her vintage style guest bath.

Kristen at Sophia's showed off Lily's Garden Bedroom.  Such a sweet space for a child!

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! 
And, everyone have a wonderful Easter!  

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 
G' Day Saturday at Natasha in Oz  

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. 

I need your help!

Ok., so here's my post on chickens and before I start, I want ask for your help!! Hear me out before you say no and feel free to laugh but we want to get CHICKENS!!! It's illegal to have them in Fairfax County unless you have two acres (and then you're allowed 64!!) (We have 1 acre) Anyway, we have a major tick problem in our yard (they have embedded their nasty selves in even the baby!!) so we've spoken with an expert because we don't want insecticides sprayed on our property and he suggested chickens. After my initial reaction of no WAY no HOW,  (that's not the way I actually speak but it's way more typable thatn what I rpobably said .)  I did some research (they will get rid of all of our ticks and mosquitoes and are actually great friendly pets!!) and spoke to some friends with them and am convinced that we need our new pet chickens!! (these are hens we want, not roosters so no noise issues for neighbors) .. So if you're still reading... PLEASE help!! It's up for review in Fairfax County TONIGHT so the law could be changed with your help!! I had NO IDEA how good for you pet chickens were until I did the research... They're not at all what you might think. We are SO BEHIND other areas!! So please, laugh and then sign this PETITION FO CHICKENS!!!

PETITION HERE

As I was googling different chicken coops, I came across some really special ones & wanted to share with you...

Loooove this one:

{Gorgeous chicken coop built by Karen at The Art of Doing Stuff - whose blog I just discovered today.  She seems like so much fun & definitely brilliant. I want to be friends!!}

I dream of one day calling my "Girls!!!" to come running to me!! hahaha

This Youtube video is hysterical.  

To be honest, once the County makes a decision and rules one way or the other, we'll make our chicken decision then.  But either way, I believe in the right to be able to own these pets.  (Fresh eggs?!! mm)   Dave is even more into getting the chickens than I am.  (He did the research on the insecticides and wasn't happy with what he found.  Definitely carcinogens.  not good.  And with all of the deer we have, Lyme Disease is a serious concern.)  My biggest worry with the hens would be the "mess" ;) 

The image above & the next couple of images are from Southern Living.  Sooo beautiful... 

I love all of the gravel paths...

I love the modern look of this one...

{Modern chicken coop from Stephmodo-- omgosh she's amazing!!! The coop belongs to her sister}

I'm not sure what type of coop we'd end up with.  We were only thinking of getting around 4 "sisters" for our dog, Ashby, so we would probably have a fairly small coop.  I visited my friend Brooke Giannetti and loved her cute little white hens..

{ Brooke's (of Velvet & LInen)  coop at their previous house...  Dying to see what their new coop will look like!!}

Brooke stressed the importance of getting a friendly breed of chicken.  Safety with my kids is first.  (Doesn't make sense to bring in crazy chickens that could hurt them if the whole point was protecting them from harmful ticks.  We've been doing a little breed research but got stopped when we found out that our lots size was too small for hens.)

I love this gorgeous coop built by Heather Bullard:

She sells the plans to build this coop online.  I love the little fenced in area..  So pretty & we might have to do something like that to protect our garden from the chickies...

And finally, my friend Seleta recently adopted a little chicken named Lucky:

I've loved following her on Instagram and watching Lucky grow.

Anyway, if you're still reading and don't think I'm AWOL, and are in Fairfax Country, will you please consider signing  here??

love ya

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

So I accidentally...

...Posted a half-written post!! Sorry about that to everyone who received it in an email & was totally confused.  It's been one of those mornings.  I must have hit "publish" instead of "save" when I left for my meeting. ;) ;)

{adorable baby chicky photograph by Julie Persons}

Anyway, my post was about chickens & it will go up when I actually write it!  We're thinking about getting some.  Our main impetus for thinking chickens was the tick problem we have at our new house.  They were CRAZY this past Fall and were all over us & our kids.  (The poor baby had one embedded in his ear and it took 20 mins of screaming & crying for me to get the thing's head out of his ear.)  After speaking with an expert, we learned that chickens are amazing with pest control.  (We're not too excited about using insecticides on our property where we are planning a veggie garden and drink well water.)

BUT-- Sadly. right now in Fairfax Country, where I live, the law states that you can only own chickens if you have 2+ acres.  (You can have 64 chickens on 2 acres... crazy) But you can't have any chickens if you have less than 2 acres.  There's a group of us who are working to have the law changed so that home owners can have pet HENS (not roosters) on their property if they have less than 2 acres.  (And not a crazy number like 64!!;)  We have an acre, btw.  So... tonight, there is a meeting at the Fairfax Government Center to meet and plead the chicken case.  We're collecting signatures for a petition and today's the day, so pretty pretty PLEASE sign this if you're in Fairfax County!!

PETITION HERE

Thank you so much!!

Pretty pics and an actual post to follow!


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

Children's Easter Table

Every Easter that I can remember we have been so fortunate to have so much family gather for Easter that there is always several tables set for the meal.  I thought it would be great fun today to celebrate Easter by showing you a children's table set for the Easter meal.

I love the flirty polka dot fabric that's hue is perfect for Easter.  

There is a pint sized bouquet of flowers that looks as if a child has picked it just for the table.

What would Easter be without a bunny hopping up on the table.

Mr. Rabbit is oh so curious about what lies behind the garden fence.  It is a vintage ceramic egg not the lettuce he was hoping for.

The little bunnies on the dessert plates have the best view of all.

Dinner plates are Pfaltzgraff.

Salad plates are from TJ Maxx.

Dessert plates are from Avon.

For little hands we are using thrift store sherbets. Children can feel all grown up with the fancy glassware and you won't care if they get broken.  The innocent eyelet napkins homemade.
 

Someone brought their Easter basket to the table too excited to part with it.  Thank you for having fun at the children's Easter table. 

This is a re-post from 2010.  I always loved this table and it never had many views 3 years ago so I decided to re-post it.  I knew St. Patrick's Day, Spring, and Easter were all going to sneak up on me so re-posting is a good thing!

Sherry

I will link to;
Wow Us Wednesdays at Savvy Southern Style 
Strut Your Stuff Saturday at Six Sisters Stuff 

Tweak It Tuesday at Cozy Little House

The Scoop Party at Cedar Hill Ranch  

Make It Pretty Monday at The Dedicated House
Rooted in Thyme Simple and Sweet Fridays
Tutorials, Tips and Tidbits at Stonegable 
Transformed Tuesdays at PJH Designs

Easter Tea

I am re-posting a tea I used in 2011.  That is hard to believe that has been two years ago.

It didn't seem to be complete until I put an image of the real reason for Easter.  I don't know why it only seems we pull the bible out to read the Christmas story, the Easter story is just as compelling and worth a reread every year.  

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!

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

Homemaking Linkup at Hope In Every Season

Rooted in Thyme Simple and Sweet Fridays
A Pinteresting Party  at Tutus & Tea Parties
Share the Shelter at A Sheltering Tree

Pear Spinach Salad

Like I've mentioned before, eating is one of my absolute favorite things to do.  I feel a lot better about it when I'm eating fairly healthy and I love making easy things at home with my family.  I threw together a salad last week that I'm still thinking about, so I thought I'd share it with you:

I start out with the empty salad bowl & mixed in my family's oil & vinegar recipe for the dressing (Plain Olive Oil -Filippo Berio- and balsamic vinegar... More olive oil than vinegar.  Slice up onions (I used red this time) thinly & let sit in the dressing for a bit with a little salt & pepper.)

Once the onions had time to soak in the dressing (5 mins or so)  I tossed in:
~Baby Spinach Leaves (& a few leftover Boston Bibb leaves)
~Crushed Walnuts
~A Cut up Pear
~ Feta Cheese
~More Salt & Pepper

It was Heaven and so easy.

Now that the baby's a bit older, we're able to be a bit more organized about our meals again, which makes me so happy.  We've been making tentative weekly menus before grocery shopping & have been putting together some yummy meals.  There aren't many things I love more than making food at our big island and feeding my family.  (including feeding myself-- I'm no martyr ;) ;)

If I can get a tad more organized, I'll try to start sharing some of the recipes!  Have a great week!!
To check out some other easy recipes I've mentioned on the blog in the past, click here  (or under categories at the top, Click "Food")

ps- Thank you so much for all of the encouragement about the last project I shared!!



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

The Love of a Mother for a Son

There is an enduring tenderness in the love of a mother to a son,

that transcends all other affections of the heart.

It is neither to be chilled by selfishness,

nor daunted by danger, nor weakened by worthlessness, nor stifled by ingratitude.

 She will sacrifice every comfort to his convenience;

 she will surrender every pleasure to his enjoyment;

 she will glory in his fame, and exult in his prosperity; and if adversity overtake him, he will be the dearer to her by misfortune;

 and if disgrace settle upon his name, she will still love and cherish him; and if all the world beside cast him off, she will be all the world to him.

Washington Irving

  Even He that died for us upon the cross, in the last hour, in the unutterable agony of death, was mindful of His mother, as if to teach us that this holy love should be our last worldly thought,—the last point of earth from which the soul should take its flight for heaven.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

 

 Sherry

I will link this to:

A Return to Loveliness  at A Delightsome Life 

Seasonal Sundays at The Tablescaper

Sunny Simple Sundays  at Sunny Simple Life

Make It Pretty Monday at The Dedicated House
Spiritual Sundays  
Blissful Whites Wednesday at Timewashed 
Make the Scene Monday at Alderberry Hill