Cottage & Family:
Blog

I wanted to give you a quick

tutorial on how to make a burlap

rolled rose ~

Do you notice all my tutorials

are quick and easy :)

I don't like anything that takes

a gazillion years to do ~

The first thing you do is cut a strip

of burlap fabric or use burlap ribbon ~

My strip is about 2 inches wide ~

I forgot to measure the length but

it is about 1/2 yard ~

Tie a knot in the end ~

Kind of fold it in half and twist while

gluing with hot glue as you go around ~

Continue until you have made

it the size that you want it to be ~

Then take the end and glue to the

back of the rose ~

On this one I added a piece of

vintage jewelry for some bling ~

You can use these for tons of things

Here are just a few examples ~

Have fun creating!!

We would love to have you come visit our blog page where we hang out everyday!

I have been really bad about updating my blog
lately!!

We have been spending much more time
on our Facebook business page ~
It is just easy to add little tidbits
of things over there :)
So if you would like to hear from us a bit
more often, take advantage of sales or just a new thing
we have heard of or learned make sure
and come over and Like our page ~
You also have to make sure and do the drop
down menu under the like button and click on
the "Get Notifications", "Add to Newsfeed"
and the "Add to Interests" button ~

Click on the picture below to take you there ~

We are still going to blog too but just
not as often :)

We hope to see you there!
Lori, Kristin and Stephanie!

My friend Anne at Fiona and Twig
just did a blog post showing the amazing
Magnolia Pearl Ranch
that is for sale!!
It is truly breathtaking!

There is also an awesome giveaway
of 2 Magnolia Pearl outfits
valued at almost $2,000!
Oh my gosh!

Robin Brown and John Gray
of Magnolia Pearl Clothing
are selling their
beautiful Ranch located in
the Bandera countryside
of the Texas Hill Country~
It is 38 acres with
3 complete homes,
18 external structures,
3 outdoor shower baths
which are supplied by
on demand hot water heaters ~

Among the many features
of the 3 homes
there are 25 chandeliers,
iron beds, 3 clawfoot tubs,
stone fireplaces and
spacious porches as well
as many outdoor structures
like a chicken coop with
a chandelier!

The interior ceilings
are covered in antique tins
from an abandoned movie theatre
in New York City ~

This gorgeous property
has been featured in
numerous magazines as
well as being the subject
of a book published by
Country Living ~

Make sure and stop by
Fiona & Twig for many
more pictures and the
contact information ~
Enter to win the giveaway
too!!

Part of blogging for me
is so that we can not
only share inspirational
ideas but also so you can
get to know us too :)


If you don't already know
I have two daughters,
Kristin and Stephanie,who
also are part of
Katies Rose Cottage ~

They both have babies and
this was our first
adventure on an airplane
with them ~
Their daddies got to go too
so that was fun!


Alot of our family lives
on the central coast of
California so that is one
of our very favorite places and
where we headed ~


They were excited to have the
babies visit the beach since
it is one of all of our
favorite places to be ~
The weather was chilly but
it was still a beautiful
and sunny day!
We went to Avila Beach which
we love!


Ellie thought it was
just the best thing ever!
The swings were great...
The sand was great!

Isaac pretty much didn't like
it at all! We are definitely
going to have to teach
him that it is fun!
Mommies arms were great!

This is my mom and I
with Ellie ~

My son in law James
took the following pictures ~
It is awesome having
a photographer along :)

Ellie loved swinging!

Isaac loved hiking!

This is my most favorite picture of all .... My mom and dad
with their great grandbabies!!
What a beautiful and precious
picture!! I adore it!

It was fun and there
is so much more family
and pictures but
this is just a glimpse
of our time there ~

Thank you for visiting
with us!

Lori

I just wanted to give you
a sneak peek of a tutorial
we will be sharing in
the next couple of days
on our blog ~
We will have some kits
available too!!

Oh my goodness I kind
of feel like we have fallen
off the face of
blog world lately ~

This has been such a fun
summer with a new baby
in June and a new
baby in August ~
What precious precious
blessings they are!

Our family came from
California to meet
the babies ~ We have
made some wonderful memories!

While family was here
Kristin and I did a
little creating ~

Here are some of the
new things that
we added to the
Vintage & Handmade Category ~

We are on a roll!

Chat with you soon!

We are so grateful to Artful Blogging
for featuring us in their Summer issue ~

Check out our article on what
inspires creativity on our blog ~

We greatly appreciate all of our
followers and our fellow bloggers
for their support and inspiration!

We are working on a series
of video tutorials, so keep a look out!

Congratulations to
Sares
from Loveleigh Treasures!!
You won our giveaway
to Heather's shop!
We used a random
number generator ~

True Random Number Generator Result: 93 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

I am so very excited to be
able to host a giveaway for
Heather at Post Road Vintage!

Her blog and shop are
absolutely gorgeous!!

Heather is a soon to be mom to
six children and she is a wonderfully talented gal!

This is a little bit from
Heather's blog about her ~

"I believe when we create a home for our story to shine, our souls to rest, and our families to come together, life is simpler… and better. I am inspired to help you create this warm and safe spot in your own heart and home. My goal is to help you find joy and creativity in life’s perfect imperfections and to inspire you to create a home that is a reflection of you. {Beautiful + Unique }" ~

These are some of the
beautiful products
on her website ~

You can receive a
$50 gift certificate for
anything in her shop by
winning this giveaway!

You get an entry for
each of the following ~

* Signing up for her
free beautiful online
magazine "Homebound" ~

* Following our blog ~

* Subscribe to Heather's blog ~

The giveaway ends on
July 20th ~

What do we do when it is
104 degrees out and too hot
for pretty much anything else ?

We make a gazillion
tattered roses because
they dry in about 5 minutes :)

The HOT sun comes in very
handy for drying stuff fast!

The poor hydrangea blooms in
the background are on
their last leg ~ It
is funny to me when in
blog world I am seeing
some people just now
picking peonies and
my hydrangeas are almost
dried on the bush ~

We will be tea staining
the world tomorrow
and our backyard will
look like a big giant
drying rack :)

We have taken the last
few days off to welcome
my daughter, Kristin
and her husband James'
baby boy ~
~

Isaac James
He weighs 7.7 pounds
and is 19 inches long ~
He is one week old today ❤

He is pretty much
as precious as
life can get!

Isaac and his mommy Kristin ~

It is only a few days
later and my hydrangeas
are already dry ~
I decided to put them
in vases and go pick
another bundle~

Truly I cannot say
which "stage" of
flower on the bush dried
the best because they
all literally dried
differently ~

They did not keep their
color very well but
I like them anyway ~

The real dark pink ones
dried a darker purple
which is so interesting to me ~
Here are pictures of
how they look now ~

I am not thinking I learned
a whole lot about when to
pick the flowers and
where to dry them but
at least some of them
are not all shriveled up
and I have bouquets all
over my house ~ ❤

Who needs curtains
when you have a valance
of hydrangeas ?

I am totally on a mission
this year to figure out
how to dry hydrangeas~
This is my attempt
today ~ Actually these
bouquets are cut at different
times of the bloom to
see which timing is the best ~

I LOVE how the colors are
all so different ~
The bright pink are from
a completely different
plant but all the others
are from the same one ~
Next year I am going to
have some blue ones ~

This picture is some
I dryed in a vase of water ~
They were bright pink when
I cut them and they dried
kind of shriveled and not
really how I want them ~

These are some I cut at
a later time of the bloom
and put in water to see if
that makes a difference ~
So far they are not dry but
I am curious how they
turn out in comparison to
the hanging ones ~

Pretty soon every curtain
rod in my living room is going
have hydrangeas hanging
from them ~
I am thinking I kind
of love them!! I hope they
keep the different colors ~

Kristin and I have been busy busy with our website
the last couple of weeks!!

But ... in between the busyness there are
babies coming very soon!!

Kristin's baby boy, Isaac's room, is
in a vintage airplane theme ~ She wanted
to use one of her husband, James' photographs,
but wanted it to look old ~

This is a quick step by step but
you can get more detailed instructions on her
family blog ~

First we got the picture laser printed at
Staples in a 20x30 inch size ~
Then we went to Home Depot and had them cut
a piece of wood in to 2 pieces 10 x30 inches ~

Place the 2 pieces of wood side by side
( we attached it together at the end but
you can do that step ahead of time )~
Then brush on Acrylic Gel Medium
and spread pretty generously ~
Place your paper with the image face down
and smooth out ~
We had a couple of wrinkles and actually it
ended up adding to the vintage look ~

Let it sit overnight ~
Then dampen the paper with
a wet cloth ~
When the paper looks wet rub with your fingers and the paper kind of rolls off ~
Kristin cracked me up because her fingers
didn't have finger prints or something because
she was having issues with this step ~

You can keep dampening the paper when it dries out
until it is
all rubbed off ~ Some of the paper was left
and it ended up grabbing the stain and looked good ~

Next Kristin stained over the entire piece ~
Then she sanded the edges
and rubbed the edges with
Pigment ink with a sponge ~

Lastly we waxed it with Annie Sloan clear wax
but you can also use Mod Podge to seal it ~

After it dried the wood was attached together
on the back with metal flat brackets ~

The whole project cost less than $30 ~

It turned out great and looks awesome
in Isaac's room !!!

Then gather the each fabric strip
right on one edge
( don't gather the sheer strip )
~ I used my ruffler foot
which I pretty much love!

After they are gathered I cut snips
about every 1.5 inches randomly
and ripped each snip
almost to the gathered edge ~

Next stack all the layers with
the shear on top and stitch through all ~

Then cut a circle to fit out of canvas and
glue it on top of the ribbons ~

After that I tied a vintage skeleton key
to one of the ribbons and glued a pin on the back ~

That is it!
A fluffy tattered rose ❤

I am so excited to carry
Jeanne d'Arc Living magazine
on my website!!

It has been one of my very
favorites and is now more
affordable than it ever has
been~

If you have never seen one before...
the pictures are GORGEOUS,
the articles are so good and it
does not have any advertisements,
which is great !

You can get them in our shop
for $19 including shipping ~

Just click here to go there ~

We had my two daughter's baby shower
yesterday and I just wanted to
share some pictures of the day with you ~
My son in law, James took them for us ~
It is awesome to have a
wonderful photographer for
a son in law!

Both girls love the vintage look
so that was the theme of the shower ~
That was fun because I love it!

I will let the pictures do most
of the talking :)

{ Stephanie and Kristin }

There were little vignettes on the 10
tables sitting around ~

These were the game winner gifts ~

{Bethany, Stephanie,Kristin and me }

{Renee and I }

Thank you so very much to precious
Bethany and Renee for helping make
this a sweet and memorable day for
my girls!!

I was so excited to
open up the April issue
of Somerset Life and see
a couple pictures that I took ~

I love any of the
Stampington magazines
because they are all such
a wonderful quality and
always have great ideas
and tutorials ~

My pictures are the
open book and the other
book with fabric ~
Right next to me is
abbysgarden's tags ~ Abby's
blog is gorgeous!

Tomorrow is baby shower day so I will be
taking alot of pictures to show you :)

I am really still alive even

though it has been forever since

I have done a blog post :)

Life has been crazy the last few

months with my preggie girls ~

{Steph is 20 weeks & Kristin is 29 weeks }

Stephanie, my youngest daughter, is

20 weeks and has hyperemesis which

is crazy over the top morning sickness ~

She was literally in bed for 3 months

and in the hospital 4 times ~ She had

a subcutaneous pump in her stomach

for most of that time which

helps with the nausea ~

It was a good day when she could

just talk and smile ~

Needless to say my focus has changed

to my girls ❤

The pump came out a couple of weeks

ago and she actually can do things now

which pretty much is a total blessing

and an answer to many prayers ~

Last weekend we

flew to California for

our annual girls trip with my mom,

sister and niece ~ We just spend the

time shopping and laughing alot :)

{me, Steph, my niece Chelsey, sister

Kim and mom Sue standing...

Kristin was not in this picture :( }

{the shoe dilemma ~ I am not sure why it was a dilemma though since they were only $5 hehe! }

{Chelsey and Steph...bestest friends }

Sometimes life as we know

it stops and what is really important

becomes loud and clear ~

UGHHHH !!!

It came to my attention yesterday

that my blog came up with

a warning of malware ~

Apparently it was NOT dangerous

for my blog or yours if you

had my link but

was flagged by google as suspicious~

It was caused by a counter that

I had on my blog that has been removed ~

This is the current status from

Google who was tracking and flagging

the malware ~

"Status of the latest badware review for this site: A review for this site has finished. The site was found CLEAN. The badware warnings from web search are being removed. Please note that it can take some time for this change to propagate."

I apologize because I know

this can be scary because it was for me!