Awaiting Hurricane Irene...

Okay... sometimes life gets a little scary. As I write this, at the Cabin, I sit and watch Hurricane Irene unfold on the news. Yesterday, the hubby and I returned (briefly) to New Jersey to pick up our cat and secure the house as best we could. As we drove up the Garden State Parkway, we both commented that the scene before us was reminiscent of a disaster movie... the road was bumper to bumper with cars, all evacuating the Jersey Shore. We turned on the local radio station and heard that a mandatory evacuation had been called in our little town... by 9 a.m. Saturday morning, all residents had to leave their homes... This is when the panic set in... even if we wanted to return to our home, we now had to wait until the township gives us the all-clear. Our plan to call the neighbours to check up on our little home also fell to the wayside...

So now, we sit and wait. Pray that the winds leave the huge trees that stand next to our house intact (the irony here, is that we had just contracted a guy last week to cut them back in the upcoming week... I guess nature might help us with that!)... Wait to see whether our roof (already a little leaky) stays on.... wait to see whether the windows which we only had put in 2 weeks ago are still there.... but more importantly, we pray that the water levels they keep talking about are over-exaggerated, and our poor little house stays dry...

I calm my eldest daughters fears, and tell her that her toys will be there when we return.... the hubby calms my fears and tells me it will all be okay... I sense his anxiety, as he nervously paces around.... and pray that he is right...

So, my dears, I try to be upbeat here, but I'm scared... I take comfort that we are all safe here in the Cabin... and everyone tells me that this is what matters... I know this is true... but I do so love my little home...
Take care all.
Lx

A festive bird

We're quickly approaching the end of November. Any leaves that were left on the trees have been blown off by last week's gales. The trees are bare and all of the rich colours of Fall have all but gone... not quite a winter wonderland yet, but I'm sure we're only weeks away... With this in mind, I decided to update the old cloche... so, the owl, pumpkins, and leaves have been relegated to the attic and I set about creating a new nature scene to commemorate the season...

Had this been the UK, I'd have definitely popped an English robin in there... Oohh, how I miss the English robin... it's beautiful, red fat chest adorning any traditional Christmas card... I have to say, I'm quite disappointed with it's American cousin... definitely not as cheery, little, and fat!

However, there is a festive bird to rival our little robin... the stunning male red cardinal... I have to say, there is nothing more beautiful than this scarlet bird against a snowy backdrop... With this in mind, I decided to create an American winter scene, complete with my own little cardinal. I'm really pleased with how it turned out... What do you think?

If you're requiring some more Christmas inspiration, pop over to the lovely Melissa... she's hosting a little Christmas Inspiration party... After reading her beautiful blog, I'm ready to get creating...

... and I'm also linking with the Christmas blog Tinsel and Company... They host a Deck the Halls Friday, giving us all the chance to share our Christmas creativity!

... and finally head over to Hooked on Houses for an impromptu Christmas Party!

Wishing you all a great start to the week!
Lx

I'm a self confessed style flip-flopper

I’m a serial flip-flopper when it comes to decorating. Now, for all you folks out there that are wondering what a flip-flopper is... it’s my inability to commit to any one style…

I thought that I’d pretty much settled on a 'look' for our home. This was after I’d dallied with a Spanish-come-Italian-come-Provence style. I finally stuck the proverbial flag in the ground and declared ‘English Country Cottage’ as the 'look' that I was attempting to achieve.

That is, until I was seduced by blogs…   Blog upon blog of home décor eye candy… each one more tempting than the other.  At the end of a morning of reading, I was drunk on a shabby chic, French, vintage, beach cottage…

... every blog bombarding me with sumptuous image after sumptuous image of glorious, vintagey white homes…  all effortlessly put together and dripping with a style that I could only dream of.
I looked at my mish-mash of home decoration and the only word I could garnish from any of the blogs that I’d read to describe it was ‘shabby’… unfortunately, not with the word chic alongside it. And so, in my usual flip-flop manner, I started envisaging turning this little place into a vintage, chic, beach cottage... and this is where I fell foul…

Yes, I do live by the beach, but, it’s New Jersey, and it’s cold, and on those long cold winter nights, I cannot commit to an all white interior… I know, I know... a cozy look can be obtained with white … I ogle Sarah’s place  every day… but, I do not have a natural talent for style like she does, and so, I think our place would look about as inviting as the local doctor's surgery, and nothing like the beach cottage home I was attempting to create. So, I’ll be sticking with cream… boring cream… Bleached Wheat… Swiss Almond… Churchill Ecru or whatever sassy name they call cream these days…

Secondly, I also recognize the fact that I have two toddlers running around this place, and, as much as I would love to source vintage china, I can’t even have my morning constitutional without one of the kids wailing at the other side of the door, as though I’d left them forever… and so, the likelihood of me perusing vintage shops and yard sales in search of that perfect tea cup, are slim to none. It would be torture to convince myself anything other than this… So, I'll have to stick with shopping over my "friend," the Internet... and, to think, I thought this whole Internet shopping malarkey wouldn't catch on... tsk, tsk...

Thirdly, I have to accept that this place is the size of a shoe box… a very small shoe box... and so,  I don’t have the room to have vintage scales on sideboards, stacks of vintage suitcases, or vintage knick-knacks popped on vintage chests at every given turn… I can just about squeeze the essentials into this place (and even some of those are missing…)

Anyhoo, I cannot afford to ditch what I’ve packed into this place already… and so, I’m going to stick with a style… you know, the English cottage style that I once loved… and, whilst I’ll keep reading all these beautiful blogs and continue to be in awe of their jaw-droppingly gorgeous home, I’ll take a deep breath and remind myself that, because of the reasons above, I shouldn’t try to pull this look off... admire from afar, and commit to one style...  I guess it’s a bit like window shopping…

A broken promise & some Fall decorating

Once upon a time, the hubby worked for a client whose house he would visit once a week... when he had been to this particular house, he would tell me about his day and preface the conversation with, "Laura, you would love this house"... You see, the hubby knows I am a house voyeur... I take him on new routes when I come across houses that I have fallen in love with... he doesn't mind... he just gets me...

Anyhoo, one of his pet peeves about this particular house was that the decor was changed with each season and holiday.... He declared the housewife a 'pyscho' and made me promise never to do the same... ever...
Well, I broke that promise... I did keep it for a couple of years, and then the kiddies came along... I became a housewife (is this noun even used anymore?), I spent more time at home, and, more to the point, I spent more time mopsing around Target.... my head was turned by the seasonal displays... and none turned my head more than Fall...

Fall (or Autumn, as I knew it pre-America) was a season that slid by unnoticed in the UK... gobbled up by Christmas. And, to be honest, the only memory I have of  Fall is decorating  mushroom baskets with colourful crepe paper and filling them with fruit, veg, and canned goods. These baskets were then passed out to the elderly as part of the Harvest Festival... I'm writing this with a smile on my face, as I remember picking out the pretty papers and proudly taking my basket to school... I wonder if they do this anymore? Or, has health and safety deemed it a hazard??

Anyways, we definitely didn't decorate our house (in fact, that was only saved for Christmas)... and so, I embrace this new found appreciation of Autumn...

I love decorating the house up with rich colours, distracting us from the gloomy days and nights that are creeping up on us. I also look at it as an opportunity to teach the little ones about the changes in seasons... My eldest and I had great fun today picking out the decorations for the cloche, and I'm sure she'll have as much fun picking out the decorations for it at Christmas time...

So, yeah, I broke a promise... the hubby can now add me to the 'Psycho Mum' category... I wear my badge proudly!

Happy Humpday everyone!
Lx
P.S I'll be linking my page to Julia today... I follow her blog every day, so I can get my fix of house love...
P.P.S If you're really interested in seeing my new haircut, check it out below... it was taken last thing at night (by my own steady hand)... feeling very foolish... devoid of any make-up and my p-jams on... jeez... never thought I'd have the courage to do that...

Building the foundations of a happy home

When we bought our house a couple of years ago, it wasn't love at first sight... not on my part anyway. But the hubby was hooked... He obviously saw something in this old place... his actual words were that 'it needed the love putting back in it and we were the family that was going to do exactly that'... I think I retorted that 'it needed a lot of money put into it, not love'... Always, the cynic...

However, after moving in, this place did strange things to me... it bewitched me... I started to look past the sinking roof, leaky basement, small rooms (I could go on, but I think that you're getting the picture), and I started imagining (with a whole lot of cash) what this place could be...

I resigned myself to the fact that this was our home... I guess that's the wrong word... I didn't resign myself, I wanted this place to be our home... even with all it's faults (and let me tell you there are many).

I now lie awake at night imagining this home as a finished product... a white, wooden staircase, with a jute rug running down the center, beadboard ceilings in the bedrooms, dormer windows with window seats in the girls' room, a dining room, a beautiful, white subway tiled bathroom, an English cottage garden, and a fireplace to sit beside with a cup of tea... I dream of the day our little cottage is finished, but then I hear that a house is never finished...

Why am I telling you this? Well, September the 15th was a pretty momentous day for our family... this was the day that our first major project was started. The foundation of the house is being fixed, and hopefully our flooding problem resolved... and, ultimately, we'll be able to open this place up... I love saying that phrase... I imagine our house being pealed back like a can of pilchards... Anyhoo,  it may not be at the frills and bows 'pretty' stage that everyone likes to look at, but it is the start of us making this place into our dream home!
Lx

Oh... I forgot to mention, I'll be posting a Friday Flower again this week. If you want to join in, there will be a linky widget at the bottom of Fridays posting... I'd love you to join in!
xoxo

A cork love story...

When I first met the hubby he was fresh out of University (I don't think I've mentioned, that he's my toyboy)... He had hardly put aside his college 'drinking game' days, whereas I on the other hand, had forgotten about them, moved onto hard liquor, before finally settling on wine, as my preferred alcoholic beverage..

I remember the first bottle of wine we shared.. judging by the way he swigged down his first glass in two seconds flat, I could tell that the young guy sat next to me, was more suited to a bottle of Corona... but it didn't matter because I could tell that this was going to be the start of something magical... Forget  the fact that I was pushing 30, he American and me English, with a house and a career under my belt.. Something told me that this was going to be different... and he must have thought so too, as he took the cork, and scribbled the date and our names on it (or was this something he did with all girls)?

Anyhoo, along our travels we collected many more corks... the saddest being from our last night shared together in Australia... not knowing if that would be the last time I would see him... But evidently, we did see each other again, and many more bottles of wine have been drunk (some good and some bad). Those for momentous occasions have been inscribed with the date and a little message... birthdays... weddings... Thanksgiving, Christmases and so on... There's a whole story on these corks... I felt it was a story that deserved to be shown...

As you walk into my house, you will see this collectors frame full of corks... corks telling a beautiful love story... the story of the hubby and I...
We've filled this frame up... but I'm hoping we'll just keep on adding... speaking of which, I'll open a bottle of red tonight... I'll think of an occasion to toast later...
Lx

Do you have a place for 'Stuff'?

I think I've mentioned before that my house is tiny... teeny weeny tiny... I think the neighbours are in awe of what we have managed to pack into this place... In fact, I don't think this, I know this, because one neighbour asked me, "How do you all fit in there?" We're packed to the rafters!
Anyhoo, this little old house forces me to be organised... The hubby even brought me an annual subscription to Real Simple... the bible for organisation freaks! Over the years, I've managed to use every square inch of this place and, more importantly, I have learnt to let go. With each change of the season, I have a clear-out... usually, it's in the girls room, as they seem to be the worse culprits when it comes to collecting useless bric-a-brac and tat... I think the girls call them toys..

However, just like Monica in 'Friends,' I have a dirty secret... hers was a whole closet full of stuff, tumbling out when the door was opened... I haven't got the room for that, so my clutter is compacted into this tub.... a tub full of 'Stuff'... I went through it today looking for some scissors and it consisted of:

• kids' paintbrushes
• wine corks
• World Cup 'England' clappers (we were knocked out pretty early, so these didn't get much use)
• 'England' bunting
• A mini American flag (no bias in this house)
• A glove puppet crafted by a teacher  my daughter
• Strawberry bubbles

There weren't any scissors in the tub...

The fact that these items are taking up valuable space in the kitchen just shows you that these must be an important part of my everyday life.. otherwise, why would they be sitting on top of the microwave?
The big question is... did I throw any of it out? Absolutely not... I'll be using it all again... at least if we get to the next World Cup in 2014 and there's always a need for strawberry bubbles in the kitchen!

Do you have a junk area in your house or is it just me with a guilty secret?

A little bit of home comfort...

So, my brother is here, and, as with all visitors from the UK, he very kindly agreed to be my pack mule and bring me some English delights across the pond!  I'd definitely say that my style has stayed true to my home country in that I try to create an English country cottage here in New Jersey. Unfortunately, the style that I yearn for is most definitely European, which often means an over exaggerated price tag here in the States. Trying to circumnavigate these budgetary and geographical restraints, I patiently wait for sales in the UK and ship to my mum's back in England, with the mindset that they will eventually make it to the US...  This does mean that I torture myself when I come across items that are just too large to be passed off as regular luggage.

Anyhoo, the worst part of this whole buying process is the waiting... waiting for a visit from a family member or my annual trip to the UK... I'm in home decor purgatory... imagining where I'll put my new purchases once here in NJ... Sometimes, I think that this shopping limbo is just not worth it, and I should just try a new look for our home... But, these thoughts soon disappear when my bubble wrapped goodies are handed over...

With this past visit, my brother carried this Union Jack cushion over with him. I brought it to sit on the shoe box by the kitchen back door. I recently read an article in the UK edition of The Times, stating that Union Jack emblazoned home accessories were soooo last decade... I hate following fashion fads or being told what is 'in' or 'out', so I brought this anyway, to remind me of home and make me smile. What's wrong with a bit of patriotism anyway?

Do you have any patriotic home accessories?
I know that some of my followers have left their home country too, and was wondering whether their decorating style reflects that of their homeland or, is it just me?

An oar.. No Boat... Any Ideas?

I have a question, but first I'll give you a little bit of background...
A few weeks back, I was shopping at my local farmers market... I say farmers market, but it also has the best garden center attached to it... Anyways, the garden center part, has beautiful seasonal displays selling home accessories... Naturally, being so close to the beach, the summer display had a nautical theme... this included some gorgeous tea-lights, wrapped in rope.. I wish I had a picture to show you, but because I procrastinated for so long (wondering where I could hang them from), they had sold out by the time I'd finally got my act together... They've obviously left a lasting impression on me, as I'm writing about them here...
Anyhoo, skulking away from the display, bottom lip hanging on the floor, I spied this old oar ( or paddle... I'm not in the know)... and it had a tag on it... it was for sale (a consignment piece and a bargain at $5) and so, I snapped it up... this time I wasn't going to waste any time thinking about where it was going to go in my tiny home!!

I wrapped the rope around the handle for decoration and to help steady it on the wall

My plan was to take the tag off and tell the hubby that I had found it at the beach... How could I justify buying a oar (even if only for $5)?  Unfortunately, life got the better of me (namely my two daughters) and the oar sat next to the back door (with tag), to greet the hubby when he returned home from work... Luckily, he didn't ask why I had brought  a oar when we don't have a boat, and agreed to pop it up on the wall in the kitchen...
It now lives here, over my laundry area... I can't say laundry room, because that would be stretching the truth to far, but behind these louvre doors, I can assure you is a washer, a dryer and a mountain of ironing to do...

The oar over the laundry area... yes our kitchen is that small

Now, here's the thing... Originally, I had wanted to get a wooden 'Laundry' sign from Ballard Designs, to hang in this spot... but then the oar came along...

With the sign in mind, I figured I would paint the oar off white, distress it, and maybe even stencil laundry on the paddle part... you know, just in case someone wanted to know where my laundry was kept and was baffled as to where it could  possibly be in such a huge house...

I figured I could stencil 'Laundry' on this part...

The hubby, however, likes the oar just the way it is... not painted, not distressed and not telling all and sundry where the laundry is...
So my question to you, is; Should I doctor up the oar, or leave it be? Or, do you have any other ideas for it?
I really would love to hear your opinions, as I'm torn...

Distressing Chairs... In more ways than one!

Well, let me tell you I have been a busy bunny. After posting the pictures of my kitchen last week, I decided to squeeze a spot of DIY (Do-It-Yourself), pre-brother visit... the night is wasted on sleeping anyway! My assigned project was to tackle those kitchen chairs... Yes, they had already been painted, but when looking back at the pictures, I decided to distress them. This had been my initial plan, when I'd first set about revamping them. Once painted though, they looked so clean... crisp... no drips... These were the product of meticulous painting. How / why would I rough them up? So, they remained untarnished... Now, this caused problems... I think I've mentioned before that I have two toddlers running around this place, and they just lurve to bash Little People, Little People paraphernalia,  Toy Story figurines and any other hard objects into all furniture... As you can imagine, this doesn't bode well for freshly painted chairs... Chairs just begging to be chipped or scuffed... It's a bit like when you got a new pair of trainers (sneakers) as a kid...all white and gleaming, and you just knew, that at some point, they were going to be 'christened' with a great dirty mark! Well, the hubby figured that he was going to be the first to 'christen' the chairs and unleash my wrath. In an attempt to get out of this self imposed fate,  he very gingerly exited after every meal, so as not to bash them into the table... and scooped up figurine yielding kiddies, when they ventured too close to the chairs. The poor guy was living on a knifes edge, waiting for that first dink...

Well, I was the first to do it... I bit the bullet and decided to age them... Let me tell you, it was a lump in the throat moment when I scraped that first bit of paint off... But that was it. I'd committed and so, I finished all of them before bed, had my cuppa and then decided that I'd ruined the chairs.... I told myself that they would look better after I'd slept on it... thing's are always better in the morning... right?  I reviewed my 'un-handy' work the next day with fresh eyes.... yep, still ruined...

The hubby loves them... the kids bashed them into the side of the table this morning... they love 'em... Me... I'm not sold yet, but I am warming to them. The tension in the kitchen has dissipated.  Looking on the bright side, I do think this shabby look fits in around this place... I wonder if I can pass the bite marks on my youngest's crib as the shabby chic look too??

Anyhoo, let me know what you think. Should I have left the chairs in their perfectly painted state or, are you loving the bashed and crashed look?.... Tell me the truth... I can take it, I'm a big girl now...

An antique box and a tatty old deck of cards..

The weekend is coming and it's going to be a frantic one for me... My brother and his family fly in from the UK and it's the first time they'll have been to this pad.. Anyways, because our home is the size of a shoe box, we're only going to stay here for a few days, and then we're off to the in-laws cabin in the Pocono Mountains...  I love my brother and all, but our place is just too tiny to spend 10 days here, with 4 adults, 1 teenager, 2 toddlers, a dog and a cat...

Going to the cabin has plus points for soooo many reasons... It's twice the size of this place... it's 10 degrees cooler... it has an authentic English pub nearby (a BIG plus) and, there are lots of antique places! The last time I visited these was with my mum and step-father. He's majorly into antiquing and passes on a lots of said antiques to me at each visit.. I'd hung my nose over these little dutch houses for an age and he finally sent them home with me (my eldest smashed one...Phew for superglue)...

He also gave me these antique bottles... I particularly love the little blue 'Boots the Chemist' bottle (being a Nottinghamshire lass and all)..

Anyhoo, while visiting one antique shop in the Poconos, I spied this beautiful card box... ummed and ahhhed over it and left the shop... My step-father met me at the car with the box as a surprise... Now this little gem, has a special place in my heart for two reasons... the first being that I will always think of my lovely step-father, and the second being that it holds a tatty old deck of cards... a deck of cards that travelled with me and the hubby, the length and breadth of Australia, and then here to New Jersey...

These cards have played a lot of 'Palace' in a lot of beautiful places.. They have gotten me out of a lot of washing-up duties (I was always the better player.. cough cough), and they have kept the hubby and I amused when there was nothing else to do...
And so, to anyone else this is a antique card box, but to me it holds a lot of very good memories. Can't wait to trawl the antique shops to see what I find this time...

Wishing you all a lovely weekend. Lx

A Kitchen Re-do; Working with the colour of love...

Firstly, let me give you a little background, as to why the colour red features so heavily in our home...
It's the late 90's Philippe Starck, blonde furniture and white walls are the order of the day. Minimalism is at it's peak. Anything more than a couch and a TV in the living room is considered positively cluttered! The 'then' man in my life has brought into all this and so, my house is decorated white from top to toe... It wasn't the shabby chic white that I have come to know and love, but a stark industrial white... compete with weird modern art sporadically placed around said house... (what can I say? I was young and impressionable, and yet to find my voice)...


Fast forward 5 years, a failed relationship and many other life experiences under my belt by now. I've landed in the USA, and living with my new found love (the hubby). Life's exciting and colourful, and as far removed from my old life as it could be. I want our apartment to reflect this shift. White, is replaced with red and rich warm tones. Blonde wood is replaced with dark wood and even our appliances are red...no industrial chrome pieces for this gal anymore! I am colourful and vibrant now!

Flash forward another couple of years and we've been busy... a toddler running around and a baby on the way. Having finally scraped a deposit together, we turn the key in our new home, complete with the red kitchen.... err won't that clash with our appliances or are we going for the camouflaged look?? This is not the look I have in mind... Unless I'm thinking 'gothic chic'...

Flash forward to this past winter...We have 'major' structural repairs to do to the house and so the kitchen is nowhere near the top of any list... until I snap... Christmas is over, it is cold and I'm sitting in my coffin room and it's just not going to fly any more! So I paint the walls 'Bleached Wheat', a colour that will compliment the red accessories, and yet not make it look like a late night diner... (I knew those red appliances would come back to haunt me one day)... Have you ever changed walls from red to 'Bleached Wheat'?... It's not easy... not when you're doing it after the kiddies have been put to bed! Anyhoo, I go to the UK for a month to visit the family and stock up on new accessories for the kitchen...the hubby sands the kitchen cabinets and everything comes to a grinding halt...

Flash forward to this past June... I'm reading http://www.abeachcottage.com/ and feeling inspired,  I decide to paint the kitchen chairs... They're a darkish wood and, I don't have a sprayer, but I'll get these chairs to 'Swiss Almond'... All in all, this is a very proud moment for me!!! I even drag the neighbour over to view my handy work...  I pick out some cheery seat pads from Ikea (in an attempt to pull in those darn red appliances) and a picture is hung (to compliment the red... why did I chose red again)... I am on a high. Then the summer hits and I've pretty much done nothing else...

Painted chair; complete with cream cheese smears!

Present day, and it's now coming to the close of summer... the summer whereby I was supposed to paint the kitchen cabinets, but instead procrastinated over the colour, went on lots of bike rides and vacationed... Now, my brother is visiting from the UK and so, they're on the back burner again... The thing is, the hubby offered me a sweetener... If I can paint the cabinets before the end of summer, then he will spring for some new butcher block counter tops!!! (I loathe with a capital L, my current faux butcher block style counter top)... I need to get this job done by the end of August... I need all the encouragement I can get... I know this is a huge job and I'm dreading it.... but, oh, how I want those counter tops....

Have you ever been too hasty with your design choices and now find yourself trying to work them in with a new scheme... or is it just me that follows her heart a little too freely?

Oh, and for anyone still reading, here's the kitchen prior to the make-over (it's the only photo I could find). It was taken at our first Thanksgiving at this place... My youngest was two weeks old (hence the mess) and that's my eldest, she was not impressed with the turkey hat.... or maybe it was the kitchen...