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We are so excited to start the
Creatively Made Home
e-course and wanted to share it with you!!

Creatively Made Home is an all new e-course about creating a home that reflects your heart in everyday living. It is about inspiring and encouraging you to create and style a home that you and your family love to live in...

This five week online course is hosted by 5 friends who want to help you to define your decorating style so that it is a true reflection of your heart.

Creatively Made Home is hosted by:

Tracey Leber

Sara Duckett

Kimberly Taylor

Jennifer Rizzo

and.....Jeanne Oliver

Here is the jam-packed schedule for the course:

* Each week you will have amazing truthful videos from not only the five teachers but other creative women.

* Each week we will take a room from one of YOU and all five women will give their suggestions telling you how they would transform the room with their style.

* There will be 50+ project videos.
These will be incredible videos that include everything from gardening, cooking, gift giving and decorating.

* There will be written tips from each woman telling you how she starts a room, picks paint, fabrics, etc. You will learn where to start when putting your own home together.

* Tons of beautiful house photos from each of the five women.

* Videos that truly reflect what life is like in each of their homes. The stuff that life is really about.

* Each woman will share their own truthful journey about how they started making their home a reflection of their hearts.

* Each person registered will get an easy entertaining e-book to download.

It will contain go to recipes for beautiful and easy entertaining (they do go together), photos of table settings that take the stress out of having people over, favorite drinks and so much more (and their funniest entertaining story).

* There will be a private Facebook group to connect with other class members.

* There will be a once a week live discussion with one of the teachers!

* You will get printables and pdfs to keep and use again and again.

This course is about loving your home, loving your family and blessing those around you....and having fun doing it.

This course will lavish you with ideas, beauty, inspiration, joy and encouragement!
Come and play house with us.

Class begins October 22.
Registration is now open!

The price of the course is $58 for all 5 weeks!

To sign up for Creatively Made Home, go *HERE*

We can't wait !!

I have always admired Jo-Anne Coletti's beautiful talent

and now she has a magazine which I am so excited about.

THE FEMININE HOME magazine embraces

the heart and soul of a woman.

It is a singular place where loveliness resides

and the language of romance and poetry lives;

a home that coaxes an extraordinary life

that is enduring, purposeful and distinctly feminine.

Flowers are painted with sweetness.

Decorative flourishes, ornamental borders,

penned verses and tender poems all mingle

to orchestrate a pensive bucolic beauty.

Cottons and velvets, crystal chandeliers

and whitewashed walls, scrubbed wooden floors,

simple furnishings and objects from the garden;

these are the elements that make a romantic home.

This is a gorgeous, full color 128 page

magazine with thick, high quality paper,

with superb printing (Best I have seen)!

A special edition, one-time only magazine

filled with beautiful romantic homes,

painted roses, poems, and inspiring devotionals

to nurture a woman's soul.

You can go to the Vintage Rose Collection

to purchase it or for any questions.

I am sitting at the airport waiting to head back home to HOT Texas ~ It has been really nice being in California but it is time to go home ~

I love to go to Paso Robles and wander around the shops there ~ One of the places we went was "We Olive" where you can taste everything and it is yummy !

This is my sister and mom trying something good I am sure ~

This is some of the olive oils and balsamic vinegars to taste ~

Another shop I love to go to is "The Cottage" ~ Sandi has wonderful antiques and home decor in her shop ~

I want to start carrying lavender items on my website so we stopped at a lavender farm ~ I always seem to drag my mom and my sister to a lavender farm when I am in California ~ You should smell my suitcase right now full of this ~

We went for walks every evening and it was stinking cold so I had to borrow warmth since it was hard to even imagine packing for cold ~

My mom and dad live on a mountain that overlooks 3 cities ~ It is absolutely a gorgeous view ~ I could sit on their deck for hours and wander around their gardens full of beautiful flowers ~

There are always deer roaming around which is so much fun to me to see ~

This is LAX today ~ Oh my gosh I think everyone is cramming the last trip in before school starts ~ It is a total zoo !

Well it is getting time to board my next flight on my journey home ~

I have always wanted to go to the Rose Bowl Flea Market and finally got a chance to this weekend ~ The only bummer part was that I didn't realize it is Sunday only and my flight back home left Sunday afternoon ~ sooooo I only had about 3 hours there which is very much not enough time because it is HUGE ~
It was alot of fun to see the difference in it and the Canton Texas Flea market that I go to ~
I was thrilled to see alot of Shabby Cottage Chic since that is my favorite ~ I zoomed through there as fast as I could but was dying to go up and down every aisle and take in every space full of treasures ~

I loved all of the whites, pinks and greens ~

There were tons of chandeliers and I really wanted
to take them home but not sure they would be an airline "carry-on" ~

This frame was gorgeous !!!

Well there is always next month and I won't be scheduling a flight home on Sunday ~~

We got home from California late last night but I wanted to share some more pictures from our trip ~

This is my daughter Steph and her fiance in Santa Barbara ~ we stopped by there on our way to Templeton ~

This is a picture of a vineyard right by my sisters house in Templeton ~ it is becoming a popular area to go wine tasting ~

Here is a gorgeous picture of the ocean in Cambria ~

This is at my niece's wedding ~ from the left is me, my sister and my mom~

And the beautiful bride Chelsey with her bridesmaids ~ they are all cousins except the two girls on the far left who are the grooms sisters ~

The last picture and the one of Cambria are courtesy of my son law who will have a website soon !! He is an amazing photographer ~

Now I am back home and listing some new treasures on my website ~ it is always fun to go but always fun to come home too ~

I got a wild hair to go visit my friend in Kansas this week for a couple of days and do some antique shopping ~ they have wonderful shops there that I love to explore ~ I always feel like I am at Mayberry because the towns are like stepping back in time ~

I just took a carry on suitcase with me and packed really light so I could carry my treasures home ~
We hit the ground running from the time I got off the plane until the next evening when I flew home ~

I found some gorgeous china and really could have left it for my next driving visit or ship it home but I wanted to see if I could carry it with me ~ I was so excited that I could put all of my fun treasures in my suitcase ~ It was sooo heavy, you should have seen me trying to lift it in the overhead ~

I was thrilled with the pretty pink rose plates and also loved the blues too !

On the way to the airport we stopped at a huge antique mall but only had a short amount of time to explore it ~ I will be headed there first next visit which has to be real soon !

This is a picture of one of the booths ~ there was so much to look in this mall and each booth was jammed packed ~ it was kind of overwhelming ~

It was a fun but quick trip so I have to go back soon ~

I will be listing the new treasures on my website in the Vintage Finds category this weekend ~

I haven't painted in forever it seems so I decided I better do a few days before the cold weather sets in ~

It is fun to find treasures at flea markets and then bring them home to recreate into something sweet for your cottage home ~ This is a really popular vendor, obviously :)

My favorite colors are any shade of white and pinks so today I mostly painted white with some pink~

The first step of the process is priming the entire piece ~ I use Kilz just because I like it the best ~

The next step is to let that dry and then apply the color and then I like to distress my pieces ~ The final step is a matte sealer coat ~

I am working on listing the items you see being painted ~ most are in our Vintage category but some are in the Romantic Home category ~

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 ~

The second half of our California vacation was visiting our family on the central coast ~

My parents live in the home that my grandpa and grandma lived in for a few years ~ They live up on a hill that overlooks 2 towns and it is gorgeous ~ there is something about having an amazing view from your home that is wonderful to a girl living in Texas ~ they also have deer in their yard that I love to see but my parents aren't overly thrilled with them since they tend to try and eat all of their pretty flowers ~

These are hollyhocks that my grandma planted years ago and every year they bloom ~

The area they live in is known for its wineries and olives ~ we didn't go wine tasting this time but we did go to some olive tasting rooms and they were so yummy ! We also went to some of my favorite antique stores and some fun thrift stores ~

Before we left I got to go through my grandma's buttons ~ I remember when I was a little girl loving to see her jars of color coordinated buttons ~ She even took the time with some to thread the like buttons together on a single strand of thread ~ I can't imagine taking the time to do that ~~ it is so neat ~
The jars that she used were old baby food jars and peanut butter jars with the prices of 49 cents still on them ~

Vacation is over for now and it is good to be home ~

Talk to you soon !! I am off to add goodies to my website and catch up ~

** Update ~ Pillows listing today May 15th **

We are home from Hawaii which is bittersweet ~ It is so much fun to go

on vacation but always wonderful to come home too ~

I will be getting orders out and listing new treasures on both of our websites this week !!

I have been in love with creams for quite awhile now,

which you can probably tell by my website

and blog if you have been following me :)

For awhile we have had a pretty much

pinky and white shabby chic style home but I wanted

to redecorate so we are slowly

but surely taking room by room ~

I have always loved to change stuff!!

Anyway, so I decided to go from my complete

white white things

to creams but still keep some white here and there ~

I got a wild hair to tea dye

our white slipcovered sofa and chair in the bathtub ~

It came out cool but truly, a whitish couch with dogs and

well ..... pretty much people too, doesn't work too well ~

I also took some white wood pieces that I had and made

them a creamy color and

really love how they came out!!

Then I wanted to change my wall decor

behind my couch but am kind of

on a personal challenge to not spend alot of money ~

Sooo.... I dug in my own stash

of stuff I have had around waiting for a new home

and created something completely new with

stuff getting really dusty out in my shop ~

It has been so much fun and even more fun

recreating with what I already had!!

After Christmas is over and my decorations are down

I will show you

my new mantel decor and other things ~

Today is Monday and I was supposed to be flying home but.... I am dropping our daughter off to do her internship at Disney World ~ she still had some checking in and figuring out stuff to do sooo... I am in Florida ~ I am hoping to be fly home tomorrow and get some fun treasures listed on my website that are just waiting ~

This is a picture off the deck above the pool ~ the weather was gorgeous !!

I will chat with you soon !!

Yesterday my girls and I

went to the Dallas Home & Gift Show ~

Oh my goodness to say that I LOVED

the style of so many places is a total

understatement !!! It was somewhat

overwhelming ~

Here are just a few pictures of some of the

yummy stuff !!

The pictures are with my Iphone so they aren't

very good but I couldn't resist taking some ~

There is no way to see it all

in one day so I am ready

to hit the road to go back as soon as I

am done blogging :)

Stephanie and Kristin ~ My babies !

Dang they grow up quick!!

I got to go to the Dallas Home & Gift Show

the last couple of days and just loved

some of things that I saw ~

Whites, Creams, Greys and Flea Market find type

items were all over the place ~

I loved this light fixture and the

one down farther with the silverware ~

Spring is here, and you don’t even need to look outside your kitchen window or open your front door to know it. Just waking up to the sweet melody of a backyard robin cheerily singing outside your window is enough to tell you that life is renewed and spring is reborn. The birds of spring have returned and the earth reawakens.

Outside, in our fenced yards and open fields, brightly colored bluebirds and streaked song sparrows flit between tree branches and land carefully among the budding leaves. Singing songs of love to each other, chirping madly over jealousies. Bringing home odds and ends to build their nests - bits of bright string, broken twigs. Items insignificant to everyone else, but the stuff of life for the feathered set.
With the return of spring, we find our winged friends building homes in every unclaimed corner…. under the eaves of buildings, in riverbanks, on rocky ledges, suspended from tips of tree branches, hidden under flaps of loose bark. Even in the nest boxes we offer up with hope. Hanging baskets, mail boxes, old boots, flower pots. Any place that somehow looks like home.
No matter where we live, or what the season, avian accessories create eternal springtime in our homes too. Birds and their nests placed carefully upon our shelves, painted delicately on a wall, stitched on a delicate needlepoint. Perhaps we invite into our homes the same birds we see each spring.

Make sure and join Katies Rose Cottage and the participating shops at Make Mine Pink for Pink Friday "For the Birds" ~

The vintage images are from Lunagirl.com

I LOVE going to First Monday

Trade Days in Canton Texas!

Every month it is something

I so very much look forward to ~

Even though I knew it was hot,

I left my house with a good attitude

and told myself that I would

just stand the heat because

I LOVE Junkin' !

I hit the grounds with my

trusty cart {a necessity there },

my ginormous ice tea and anticipation

of the treasures I would find ~

I drove in and saw ohhhhh maybe

5 vendors when there are usually 75 ~

But....I knew there was cool stuff

even with the 5 vendors and there

was still another HUGE area to hit ~

The next area had about half of

the usual but still some neat things!

I NEED a chicken coop and that cute

little bicycle and all the awesome

galvanized stuff, a gazillion

old keys, a stack of drawers and

birdcage ~

COOL STUFF !

Has anyone done anything awesome

with a chicken coop ~ I want to see :)

I didn't buy any of the big stuff

because I was on a mission for my

website and big stuff is expensive

as craziness to ship ~

After about 2 hours I thought

I would die of heat stroke

so I went to my most favorite

place to eat because it looks healthy,

you get free refills on ice tea

and they have a HUGE fan!!

Ohhhh and the buffalo head rocks!!

{not really, I don't like dead animals

but it is so Texas }~

After I ate I was revitalized

and ready to hit the junkin' trail for

HOURS more ~

Well I lasted about one more hour,

saw sweet Daphne and Dorothy that were fun

to chat with and decided heat stroke

was definitely setting in ~

Dang it!! I so wanted to last

for sooo much longer but

it was kind of miserably hot ~

{110 degrees and it is humid...bleh!!}

Next month I am definitely going

on Thursday so I can visit

LaurieAnna's Vintage Home,

Girls Gone Junkin and some of

my other favorite shops that aren't open

on Wednesday and have air conditioning ~

I talked to my mom, in California,

while driving home and she

told me that she was kind of chilly

because the ocean breeze was blowing

in and it didn't feel like summer

{which she loves }~

I would be loving some ocean breeze

right now :)

My youngest daughter, Stephanie

and her husband Noah just bought

a cottage home that they

are going to redo and decorate

in a vintage cottage style ~

We went to the coolest store in

Dallas today called

Discount Home Warehouse Architectural Salvage ~

They go into old homes and salvage all of the

really amazing old things and then

sell them at their huge shop ~

I am thinking that would be the

Steph & Noah want to replace all of the

interior doors with old vintage chippy doors ~

This is the "door room" ~

There were some really neat old

pillars and columns but they

needed to find a vintage pedestal sink ~

They ended up with the one that Stephanie

is trying in the 2nd picture ~

Noah truly needs to be an

American Picker because he

rocks at it!!

Decisions .... decisions ...

They have a bunch of clawfoot tubs, mantels

for amazing prices, tons of old metal,

wood shutters for $10 each!!

Once again these are crummy pictures

with my Iphone ~ I am going to

start bringing my camera with me

on these adventures ~

Dallas has some really fun places to

explore ~ We went to some wonderful

antique shops too but they were kind

of pricey ~

Chat soon!!

I just got home from a few days

in Central California ~

Oh my goodness it was glorious

there! The weather was awesome

( it was great to get away

from the Texas heat )

and well I just pretty much

love it all ~

Family, childhood memories, the beach,

the mountains, the vineyards,

the weather... I could go on and on ~

It is funny how when we lived there

I completely took the beautiful

hills and ocean for granted ~

It has been 16 years since we

moved to North Texas and I am

a happy gal to have family

in California and flight privileges :)

I am a lavender freak so seeing it

all over is amazing to me!

This is a beautiful bed and breakfast that

a friend's wedding was at in Templeton ~

This is a really fun place in Avila Beach called

Avila Valley Barn ~

This is my sister and niece

picking yummy apples ~

I have been home a day and am totally

ready to go back ~

Hopefully in October for the

Remnants of the Past Vintage Show

and

Three Speckled Hens Show ~

Now it is back to work (fun)

for me ~

This week's theme for the Katies Rose Cottage and Make Mine's Pink Pink Friday shopping is "Harvest Home" ~

Can you believe it is already that time of year coming up ~ Oh my goodness ~ where does the time go ??

With every purchase today from Katies Rose Cottage you will receive a FREE Make Mine Pink Marketplace catalog ~

Yay !!! We are so happy that we could advertise in several magazines this month ~ Look for us along with my sweet friends at Make Mine Pink in Southern Lady, Romantic Homes Cottages and Bungalows and Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion ~ All of these magazines have wonderful ideas for your shabby cottage chic home ~