My First EVER Award!!

I am so incredibly flattered!  Sue  -Collectin in Texas Gal left the nicest comment about my recent post and...she gave me an AWARD!  Needless to say I'm thrilled.  Thank you so much!! Please visit her incredible blog!  You can find her here.

 

In Turn, I get to pass this award on to 10 other deserving bloggers!  These are just a few of my favorite blogs.  Please visit them and see what inspiring things they have to say about life, love and home! Enjoy!

Coralie @ Vintage Cottage Home

Tami @ Cottage Style Pinkbuttercreme 

Caroline @ Forever Vintage

Dolly @ From My Cherry Heart

Kim @ Happy @ Home

Stefanie @ Rose Petals and Rust

Cass @ That Old House

Sandy @ The Shabby Cottage

Lynn @ The Vintage Nest

Sandi @ Wayside Treasures

To accept this award: 1) Show the Image of the Award and State the Rules.

2) Post the Link of the Person who gave you this Award.

3) Display 10 Blogs in which you grant the Award.

4) Advise the Blogs Listed.

Better Late Than Never

You know how the saying goes...well, I FINALLY decorated my mantel for fall.  It takes a visit from friends to force me to find the items and make it happen and that is exactly the reason it's done now.  I am hosting our first ever Bunko night tomorrow evening so I spent the weekend with my dear friend Ann searching high and low for the items that complimented my decor'.  This is my first actual fall in my house, last year I was moving in at this time, so needless to say, decorating wasn't a priority.

In this house, I didn't want the expected fall oranges, reds, etc.  I wanted something a little lighter and decorations that would blend better with room colors, etc.; I think I found the perfect mix!  I spray painted the grapevine an off-white, added white lights and the remaining decorations are artificial items I found over the weekend.  I'm so happy with the end result.  This will take me through Thanksgiving and then it's on to the Christmas decorations! What do you think? 

Peace to all of you!

Pink Saturday

 Happy Pink Saturday Everyone!

For all the new Pink Saturday visitors, this wonderful event is hosted by Beverly at How Sweet the Sound.  You can visit her blog here, I promise it's well worth the click!


Today I put together a collage of photos I took of my teacup collection.  To me this collection speaks pure love.  It was given to me after my Mom passed away several years ago.  She collected these teacups for many years.  My favorites are displayed in the shadow box you see in the photo.  I included individual photos of most of those that have pink in them!


My wishes to all of you for a wonderful day and a relaxing weekend!

Pink Saturday!

Hello Everyone,

Here is my second PS post.  Sorry about the blurriness of these photos.  I have to work on my camera settings.  I quickly shot these this morning before I left for work and I didn't realize until I got there how poor the quality is.

This is a collection (that I never intended to start) of vintage pottery vases and planters. I found the first two at a garage sale last summer and from then on I was hooked.  They were the perfect compliment to the book shelves in my family room. I have no idea which (if any) are considered to have any value in the world of collectibles.  They were all under $30, and really their value doesn't matter, because I love the way they look! I will do my best to stop my collecting obsession...ummm, no guarantees!

I'm off to a local antique festival, the last for the season, and I WON'T look at vintage pottery.  No my fingers aren't crossed, really they're not!! hehehe ;-)

Have a great day and blessings to all!

Pink Saturday Rookie!

Hi Everyone,

This is my first ever Pink Saturday post! Beverly from How Sweet the Sound hosts this wonderful event each week. I've been following the posts for some time and finally got in ahead of the deadline (I remembered)!

I have many, many pink treasures to contribute in the coming weeks, but this week I decided to add a final glimpse of summer from a photo I took last month of my bucket of pink petunias.

Bask in the memories of the warm sunshine, the chirping birds, the laughter of neighborhood children, the warm breeze gently blowing the curtains, the aroma of freshly cut grass, leisurely evening walks, the smell of a BBQ wafting from a neighbors yard, a glass of wine on the patio, the sound of crickets in the still night, fireflies blinking so sweetly and...

Goodbye summer, you will be missed.

Before & Afters

I'm finally posting the before and after photos of some of the projects I have completed this summer. Earlier in the summer my neighbors had an estate sale. Their Mother had passed away in November and they had a LOT of stuff to unload. The family had lived in the house for over 50 years. I purchased a few treasures, one of which is this dressing table.

This is how it looked after a good scrubbing! It was painted to look "antiqued" over a dark wood veneer. It was very dingy and dirty looking! The pictures don't do its poor appearance justice.

After the first coat of paint. It took two more coats!

The finished product, complete with new crystal knobs, I love the wooden wheels. The drawers are really really hard to open, I even bought wax to run along the edges but their still tough to open. Any ideas? I think I may need to do a little sanding.

I now have the perfect place for the old dresser set I purchased in Raleigh last spring while visiting my daughter. We love to junk around together! I really miss her! :-(

The next project was painting the porch...ummm, do you think it needed it???

A couple of closeups of how bad it really was!

I didn't want a midnight black, I wanted more of a charcoal color. Do you think I could get it right the first time? Of course not...it took one coat of the dark grey that had a bluish tint. I thought for certain it would dry darker, um NO, it still looked blue! I took the paint back and asked the paint person if she could darken it. I told her about my blue concern, she said "hmmm I don't know why it's showing blue" she read off the colors and in no way did any of them seem BLUE. After a couple attempts we got it darkened up and I must say I'm about 90% happy with the finished product...maybe just a little darker/blacker would have been nice, but I'm not going to add a third coat (not this year anyway)! ;-)















These photos look much lighter than it really is...I think another coat next year may be on the agenda!

Anniversary Blog Give-away

These are my babies - Toby and Josie

Hi Everyone,

Check out Sandi's blog at Wayside Treasures. She's celebrating her one year blogging anniversary and she's giving away a great gift! You can enter to win and find her blog here:
http://waysidetreasures-sandi.blogspot.com/2009/09/blogiversary-giveaway.html

Happy Reading...

Tammi

Timeless Treasure

Patty and me August 25, 2009

I recently had dinner with a very dear friend of mine, Patty. She and I have been friends since we were 5 years old. Our friendship started when my parents moved from a family farm house to a country setting where finding playmates was a little difficult. Once Patty and I discovered each other, we became inseparable.

Patty lived down a very long driveway back in the woods and I lived down a quiet country road about a block away. I remember thinking it took forever to get to her house while my Mom and I walked down her driveway. Patty and I had completely different lifestyles, her father was an orthopedic surgeon and my dad was a farmer. Her mom was a doctors wife, with an active social life, my mom was farmers wife, cooking, canning, cleaning and working part-time outside the home. We both learned so much about life from each others family. We shared some of the greatest times of our lives as best friends, growing up together. We started as little girls in kindergarten and grew into women with families of our own.

Our friendship continued on into young adulthood. We planned our weddings together and had our babies together. In time we grew apart as our families took priority in our lives. We continued to stay in touch occasionally over the years, however, we didn't spend time together sharing our lives and nurturing our friendship. All that changed a few months ago when Patty and I ran into one another at a restaurant during her daughters wedding rehearsal dinner. A few weeks later we met for dinner and talked for hours! This past Tuesday evening was our second dinner date, this time we included her wonderful husband Dennis. Again we talked for hours, sharing, laughing and enjoying each others company.

Friendship is a true blessing and friends are a gift from God. I marvel at the fact that friends can lose touch for several years and pick up exactly where they left off , as if they had never been apart. Patty is dear friend and a timeless treasure! I love you Patty!

Michigan's Beauty!

Hello again, I just returned from an amazing weekend with the man in my life and had a wonderful time!! We live in the lower peninsula of Michigan and made the lengthy trek to the Upper Peninsula crossing the Mackinaw bridge. Our destination was Sault Saint Marie, Michigan, the home of the Soo locks just across the water from Sault Saint Marie, Ontario.

The weather was phenomenal, we were so lucky! It was in the upper 80's and sunny Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I must admit I was a little apprehensive to leave what little nice summer weather we've had this year in Michigan to travel nearly 4 hours north to a much colder climate. I was pleasantly surprised, the weather perfect!

Saturday we headed an hour northwest to Whitefish Point on the shoreline of Lake Superior. These beautiful rocks were everywhere; I collected a few to bring home for a lasting memory.

On our way back from Whitefish Point we stopped by Tahquamenon Falls and viewed the upper falls. These are a few images of the beautiful nature we experienced during our visit.

This was at the top of the falls. See all the pennies in the water? I hope all their wishes come true!

The falls...also referred to the Root Beer falls due to the brown water from the tannis leached from the cedar swamps.

What beauty God has given us to experience and enjoy! I feel so blessed!!

Have a wonderful day!

Blogging for Bliss...why?

Good Morning,

I recently purchased a book called Blogging for Bliss written by Tara Frey. Today http://www.artsymama.com/ hosted a blog party to celebrate the release of Tara's book. She asked those of us who attended the party to write a post about why we blog and how we got started. So, here goes...

I started my first blog named from House to Home last summer as a digital diary for a house renovation I was working on. So many friends and family regularly asked for updates and were curious about the progress. I decided a blog would be the perfect solution to keep everyone up-to-date. They enjoyed watching the changes (as slow as they seemed at times) and were eager to offer their suggestions and compliments.

As time went on, I began following other blogs that peaked my interest in decorating and collecting. Before I knew it, I had been consumed with daily surfing to satisfy my hunger for wanting more inspiration and enlightenment. I was so impressed with what I saw and what I was learning, I decided it was time for me to create a blog to share what I was doing. It doesn't matter if anyone finds my interests and inspirations meaningful, for me it has become a hobby and a journal to give others a glimpse of who I am and what I love - my life, my home, my family, my beloved pets and my friends! I share bits and pieces of all of these things in my blog.

My House to Home blog has now been converted to Visions Of Vintage at http://visionsofvintage.blogspot.com/. I hope you enjoy what you see and feel free to leave a comment!

Happy blogging...

Favorite Things...

So far, so good...two days in a row of posting to my blog. I have so much to share with all of you; today I'm going to talk about a few of my favorite things. Oh so many, where do I begin?

This sweet little canister was my Mom's. I filled it with antique cookie cutters some of which were hers and some that I have collected. My Mom passed away over 5 years ago at the age of 83. As you might have guessed, I'm the youngest of 7 children. I'm one of 5 girls so I feel lucky to have acquired this piece.

I love these little bird salt and pepper shakers I bought at Anthropologie! They add such a whimsical touch to my kitchen counter.

And...it wouldn't be summer without a luscious quart of fresh strawberries.

These photos show another one of my favorite things along with a plant stand I recently discovered at the local summer antique market. It is perfect for the Christmas cactus that I have been caring for over the past several years. This plant has NOT bloomed in 4 years until this spring when I moved it to the perfect location on this adorable vintage table.

Summer Love

Okay, it's time to get blogging! I hope to give you updates on a regular basis, in a perfect world that would be daily, however, I must be realistic and shoot for several times a week.

I haven't introduced you to my latest summer love - Mo! Mo was born sometime in March and appeared on Mike's front porch with his brother Rosco on April 15. They were so small they fit into the palm of our hands. Keep in mind I had no intention of adopting another pet, considering I already have two adopted golden retrievers (Josie and Toby) and an adopted cat (Gracie).

I agreed to help feed and pamper both kitties until they were old enough to go to their adoptive homes. Betsie my daughter intended to take Rosco back to Raleigh, NC with her in May and Leah a student from work was eager to adopt Mo and take him to Cincinnati with her. Needless to say, neither kitty ever left Michigan. Mike was convinced they couldn't be split up, they were too attached to one another. So, yep you guessed it, Rosco went to live with him and Mo stayed with me. I have become so attached to him and he is a true love boy! He and Rosco have regular play dates!!

Introducing...Moses - adopted date: 4/16/09
Rosco is the tiger guy in the lower portion of the photo

With his new sister, Gracie

The New Site

Hello Everyone,

I have moved the content from my old site (My House Renovation blog) to this site. I will be removing a great deal of the content and adding some of my decorating ideas and favorite things!

I just visited a site of a fellow blogger who creates amazing backgrounds/templates. Here is the link the her site: http://shabbycreations.blogspot.com/ Check it out when you get a chance. She is giving a way a pre-made template and custom site template to two lucky winners...wish me luck!

Keep Checking back, I will be making additions and updates regularly!

An update, FINALLY!

Hello Again,

As many of you know, it's been several months since my last post. I'm finally back with the "after" photos of my house. I moved into my house in mid October, however, I had several projects to finish up. Closets needed to be painted, touch up's here and there, etc. Once I unpacked boxes and made my way through the sea of "stuff" stored in the den, I began to make my house a home.

Shortly after I got somewhat settled, Betsie and her friend Karissa called my house their temporary home. Suddenly it was home of 3 females, two dogs and one cat. Our lives were busy and people were coming and going all the time. In mid December, Betsie and Karissa graduated from Nursing school at SVSU. They packed their bags and prepared for their big move to Raleigh, NC to begin their nursing careers at Duke University hospital.

I celebrated my first Christmas in my new house with a LOT of snow. I decorated with outdoor lights, decorated a real Christmas tree and had a cookie baking day with Betsie and her friend Nicole. Memories were being made!

Shortly after Christmas, I packed my bags, a rental van and Betsie's car with all her "stuff" and hit the road for Betsie's new home in North Carolina. Yet another move and another round of unpacking. She is settled in and I must say I'm very envious of the mild winter she is enjoying!! How soon can I move there???

I opened my home again right after Christmas for a friend and her daughter (Brenda and Lizzy), they had some housing issues and were patiently waiting for their new rental home renovation to be complete. They moved into their new home on Valentine's day and I became a single homeowner for the first time in my life.

I hope you enjoy the photos!

Tammi

The After Photos

This is outside which is waiting some additional improvements: landscaping, painted front porch, updated front door paint, new garage door installed and a picket fence to disguise the neighbors un-kept house.

And yet another Michigan snowstorm (Feb. 21, 2009)














My babies love the snow!














And Gracie loves the closet...



















Come on in...this is a vintage looking piece I found at the antique show last fall. I use it as a coat rack, etc. It's the first thing you see when entering the front door.



















Another photo of the front door/entry area. The key rack hanging next to the front door, I found in a cute little shop in Guelph, Ontario.

Dining Room and Kitchen

This is the dining room looking from the kitchen toward the front door entry. Notice Toby? this is his favorite spot to lay during the day and in the evening too! He's always ready and waiting to head out the door for a walk or car ride! Hoping for company too!

The chairs were a Christmas gift from Mike that I found in an antique store in Bay City.



















This is one of my favorite things...my vintage, white metal chandelier with tear drop crystals and tulip shaped candle holders for the lights. Notice the apple green shelf on the wall? I found that in Midland last spring at the antique show. It is the home to many of the treasured bone china tea cups from my Mom's collection that she left to me.



















The photo below and the one above are taken from the front door entry, the kitchen is to the right.














This is the dining room, this photo is taken from the kitchen, facing the front of the house. The front entry is to the left. The coat closet is also on the left.














Below is the kitchen, which I love! I found the island online and it is perfect for my pots and pans, conveniently located near the range. I love the checked floor and the kitchen layout!














This is a close-up photo of my milk glass plates and Virginia blue ridge pottery collections.














Another photo of the plates. This one shows the top of the refrigerator.














This photo is the right side of the kitchen. The doorway leads into a hall and laundry/utility room. The hall area opens into the family room. The opening above the sink opens into the family room with a bar/eating area on the other side.