Happy Anniversary White Wednesday!

Can you believe Kathleen at Faded Charm is hosting her 100th White Wednesday post?

I am so thankful to her for so faithfully hosting this "blog party" each and every week.  Although I haven't always been able to link up every week, I do enjoy browsing all the amazingly beautiful posts.  I've found some of my most favorite blogs, ideas and inspirations there.  I decided this time for my WW post, I'm giving my best shot at a photo collage, all whites of course.  Hope you enjoy.

Please head over to Faded Charm and join the celebration.

Happy 100th WW Anniversary Kathleen!

Have a super blessed week everyone!

Missy

Make Room for Mom

For my Mother's Day post, I'm finally going to share some before and afters of my Mom's new place.  We decided to call it "Grandma's Cottage".  It just happens to be located right in our own backyard so it's pretty easy for the kids to visit Grandma whenever they want, hence the name.

Like many of you, our family has been affected by the struggling economy.  A couple of years ago we moved our drywall business home after our office and shop lease expired.  We still had our little office out back so it worked out fine until work just kept getting slower and the insurance costs, etc. weren't worth it anymore.  That's when we had to make some difficult choices.  We closed our business which unfortunately put family members out of work.  It's not easy to tell your sister-in-law (who also happens to be my best friend of over 30 years) and your own Mom that they no longer have a job.  It's been a difficult road but the Lord is good.

Eventually, my "hobby" of painting furniture and having fun creating things turned into a needed additional income for my family.  I was going to turn that little office into my studio.  But the Lord had other plans.  One day my Mom faced her own reality and knew she didn't have many choices.  So the plans for my little studio were put on hold while new ones were made for Grandma's Cottage.  Come with me as I take you on a little tour...

Here's our little office behind our home.  I'm sure I have a picture somewhere without the pergola started but that was probably before I had a digital camera so I'm not hunting for it.  ;).

The entrance has always had french doors and sidelights.  Well, except for when it was really orginally built, it had a roll up garage door prior to transforming it into our home office when we first started our business.

That's what it looked like right before we took out the custom built-in cabinetry.

You can see that my Husband had to do a ton of patching after removing it all!

Aaaaaah, much better! With a little drywall, mud, new paint and carpet - it's all new again!

Mind you, we only had about 2 weeks to get all of this completed.  In the middle of it, my 3 kids and I came down with that awful flu.  We did ALL of the furniture moving and decorating the same night she was coming to stay so you may notice a few things that aren't quite perfect. (Like wires and a leaning mantle.)  While she was tirelessy trying to finish cleaning her rental {with a sprained ankle :(. } my Husband and I were cleaning windows, moving in furniture and hanging pictures, plates and chandeliers.

My Mom obviously knew we were fixing up the old office for her but she had no idea I had been sneaking things out here and there as we were packing for the storage unit.  She had no idea how much we were actually doing to make it really special for her ~ especially for her first night here.

And did I mention that my Mom also has 3 adorable miniature schnauzers (Spencer, Sophie and Bella) that were coming with her? We also had to build a picket fence and gate just for them. I'll share those photos in a minute.

We were on a super-tight budget so we saved every where we could.  I was so excited when I went through our moulding pile we salvaged from job left-overs and found we had exactly enough baseboard for the room!  The carpet was the end of the roll at Lowe's so we got a big discount, less than $50. for the entire room.  Sure we had cut and patch but it worked.  The room already had can lights, window casing, crown moulding and french doors so we started off a little ahead of the game.

We had the satellite company run a cable to the cottage and my daughter spent the whole day programming all her shows to record on the DVR.

 Here is the view from my back porch.

This is the first view my Mom was going to see as she entered the side gate to her new home, Grandma's Cottage.



This is where my Mom was crying.  ;).

We painted the walls the same color I had used when I surprised her by painting her living room at her old house.  It's Taupe by Dunn-Edwards.  I just LOVE their paint.

Now for my disclaimer...

you may notice the little heater next to the sofa, the dark rug with tulips (not the light pink and green Rachel Ashwell area rug with roses), the air conditioner in the window, the mini-kitchenette in the mirror's reflection, and what may seem to some people as a bit of nick-nacky clutter.  This tiny cottage is an actual living space, my Mom's home, not just a pretty place to take a nap or sip some tea.  She has to spend most of her time here and I knew she would want some specific, special sentimental things set out that warm her heart. 

She is living with her 3 dogs, getting dressed, putting make-up on, watching tv, sleeping, paying bills and cooking her frozen dinners in her tiny microwave.  Not that we don't let her in our house, but you get the idea.  After all, the only thing she doesn't have is her own bathroom.  We could only squeeze so much in there and not to mention that all that plumbing did not fit in the budget.

So here's a re-cap...

 Before

After

Before

After

 Before

After

Before

After

I think I'll save the picket fence before and afters for next time.  This is getting to be a lot of work.  Ha-ha!

Thanks for taking the tour with me.  It was actually nice to go back and look at all the photos of all the work we (mostly my Husband) did.  But believe me, I can work an electric sander that nobody's business.  Sixty-something rough and splintery pickets don't scare this girl!

Well, I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day, whether as a Mom, with your Mom, or someone that serves as your Mom.  Happy Mother's Day to you all! 

And most of all, Happy Mother's Day to YOU Mom.  I love you and it's been nice having you around.

Blessings,

Missy

A Show in Huntington Beach and a Reception in Riverside

Hello!

Just wanted to let you all know that we'll be in Huntington Beach this Saturday selling our latest furniture and decor.  Please join us and many other super talented and creative vendors at the:

Vintage and Handmade Marketplace

hosted by Behind the Picket Fence

This Saturday, April 30

9am to 3 pm

at Old World Village

Huntington Beach, CA

It ought to be a great time, hope to see you there!

Well, I'd better get back to work.  I'm afraid I got a little behind while I worked on a wedding reception the last couple of weeks.  It turned out beautifully but boy was it A LOT of tedious labor, more than I had anticipated.  I'm leaving you with only a few pics I took of the decor set up on my patio because  I'm waiting for the professional photos that my good friend, Michelle (Shellie) of Broad Division Studios, took.  She's almost done editing.  It'll be worth the wait, she's an amazing photographer.

Have a blessed week everyone!

Missy

Sweet Anne from Fiona & Twig

Hi all!  Just a quick post to share a giveaway offered by the sweetest and most humble blogger I know, Anne Lorys from Fiona & Twig. 

I'm sure most of you already know that she has a fabulous blog but one of her most recent accomplishments is that of a professional photographer.  Her work was just published in Romantic Country magazine!  I haven't gotten my copy yet but Anne has posted the beautiful pages and as a special treat, she is also posting many more amazing photographs from the shoot that weren't published.

Her giveaway is a SIGNED copy of the latest book by FIFI O'NEILL, Romantic Prairie Style! 

I sure hope I you win it!

Click here to enter!

And be sure to visit Fifi's blog to learn more about her fabulous book and Anne's blog to see just how wonderful she is (regardless of the giveaway!).

Have a super blessed week everyone!

Missy

P.S.  I promise I'm not a COMPLETE loser, I haven't forgotten about MY giveaway I promised!  I just have some serious disorganizational (that's a word, right?) issues to conquer.  ;).

Spring Shows!

I just wanted to let you all know where Chateau Chic Boutique will be this spring:

Behind the Picket Fence...Vintage and Handmade Marketplace
Saturday, April 30th from 9am to 3pm

I'm new to the show and I'm very excited to join them.  Many of the talented and creative vendors from Chateau de Fleurs will be there as well.  It ought to be a great show with over 50 vendors selling their vintage and handmade items.

Speaking of Chateau de Fleurs....there are some exciting changes in store for the next show.  Christie and Rita have always worked so hard behind the scenes to make this a unique and charming show for our customers and for us vendors as well.  They have done such a great job making this show so successful that we've outgrown Christie's property!  Well, these incredible women have found a wonderful new home for the show at Rainbow Oaks CountyPark.  It's on the outskirts of Fallbrook and easier to find.  I am joining several of the vendors this weekend to check it out and have a potluck at Rita's.  I'll be sure to post pictures and more details about it next week. 
In the meantime, please take note that the show will now be known as:

"The Vintage Marketplace at the Oaks"

Friday and Saturday
June 3 and 4
9am to 5pm

Don't they always have the most beautiful postcards?  Like I said, Christie and Rita work very hard to make this such a great sale, down to every last detail. 

I hope to see you there!

Have a blessed weekend,
Missy

Another Chateau de Fleurs for Chateau Chic

Hello everyone!  I know I've been away for a while but I'll do a special post about all that fun stuff later.  For now, I'd love to share some pictures from the latest Chateau de Fleurs on March 4th & 5th.  I just love doing this show.  It's like a family reunion - great fun visiting with all the regular dealers, meeting new ones, and GREAT food!  I gotta show some feta burger and salsa love for Dean, Rita's Husband.  If you haven't had one of his burgers, you are SO missing out.  When you've got a bunch of women selling and shopping for 2 days straight, we've gotta be fed!  And Deano never disappoints.

Now for the pictures....

I've sold at Chateau de Fleurs three times now and I've been in a different spot each time.  I have to say I haven't really ever had a bad spot.

The first time I was in the back of the driveway near the pool, which isn't far from the entrance at all really.

The last two times I got spots closer to the front, underneath the trees.  It's such a nice environment and very unique for a show.  It's part of the charm that I love about Chateau de Fleurs.

I've owned this vintage patio set for a long time, I just love it.  I've brought it to the sale a few times but it hasn't sold.  I actually spent WAY to much time on a transfer technique recovering the seats.  I'm planning on doing a separate post about that.  For now it has returned to my back patio.

Have you ever been so excited about a make-over project that you loved so much you thought everyone else would love it as much as you, and wouldn't be able to resist buying it?  I mean, it would just be snatched up the minute you set it out?  Well, that's what I thought about this chair.  I didn't have time to finish it for the first day of the show.  I hardly had any sleep as it was that week, I didn't even go to bed at all the night before.  I knew I had to catch up on my sleep for day two.  But I was so determined to bring this fabulous, impossible-to-resist chair, I stayed up way to late to finish it because of course it took way longer than I had anticipated.  (Let's just say that as a mother of 3, I actually thank God that someone invented those Mr. Clean Magic Erasers!)  It originally belonged to a dining set I had.  It was originally one of four, the only one with arms and then one of the other chairs got broken.  I debated forever over separating this chair from the "set" of three but when I came across this awesome vintage style fabric I bought years ago (for a duvet I never had my Mom make made) I knew it would look fabulous on this chair.  Well, I guess I'm the only one that thinks it's that fabulous.  After it didn't sell at the show I took it to my space at Mission Galleria, we'll see how it does there.  But that's the great thing about doing what you love - if it doesn't sell, it's going in my bedroom for clothes to piles up on to look pretty.

 Here's  a little peak at that fancy $25. font I told you about.  Someday it will actually be on my blog!

I am so glad so many of the vendors go around taking pictures of everyone else's stuff.  I, on the other hand, was only lucky enough to quickly visit everyone at the very end of the show while they were packing up. :(.

But my point is that Sara from Sweet Magnolias Farm, actually is so good at this and got pictures of my space the first day before I sold this adorable old sewing cabinet I only finished the night before.  I remember after it sold first thing on Friday, I thought, oops, I forgot to get a picture of the after...again.  But thanks to Sara, I have a great picture now!



Well, that's it for the show.  There are some links in my post so you can see more posts and pictures from other vendors, some of them (like Rita and Sara) get all fancy and have slide shows.  I'm too tired to try something like that right now.  I should have been in bed 4 hours ago as it is (not to mention I should've done this post 2 weeks ago, too!)  I hope you all enjoyed it regardless!

Have a blessed week everyone!

Missy

Update: 
I joined Kathleen's White Wednesday at Faded Charm 
with my post so
Happy White Wednesday
and be sure to check out all the lovely posts!