hello all! let me just tell you, i am having so much fun w/ blogging! you know how when ur house is all clean(by clean i mean everything ugly and/or dirty is stuffed away in some closet) and you have guests that have never seen ur cottage b4? and you start to look at ur house thru their eyes? and it looks so pretty and fresh and romantic??? well, i'm having that feeling from blogging as i anticipate each one of you- my guests! everything i look at now or photograph is new to me and i see it thru your eyes. it has made me appreciate my homey cottage and my garden all the more. so thank-you friends and loved ones!
now for the answer to my own question; what DO you DO w/ your fireplace in the spring and summer??? well, i grew tired of staring into a fireless black hole in the many months that we do NOT have a fire in the fireplace. soooo- i cut out a shape from a piece of luan ( don't know if i spelled that right, but it's that really thin wood board used for backing on dressers and whatnot) that i had lying around. and i painted this pattern on it i got from a mag. ( i think it was an old "creative living" mag.) so i put it up there for lack of something better. it was too small, but that's the only scrap i had remotely big enough at the time, so it would have to do.
so i lived w/ it for a while and it was fine- but who among us decorates to end up with fine? certainly not me. so i was always on the look out for an upgrade. later that year, my good friend and no. 1 client LL, spotted some old swinging doors they used to put on the pass thru of kitchens in the 60's and 70's. she immediately thought of me! she grabbed them and later gave them to me, hoping i could find a cottage romantic thing to do w/ them. and i did- well, if i'm being honest, my hubby did! the doors were already painted white, then i antiqued them and walked around the house carrying them and holding them up here and there (cuz they were just so cute i had to put them somewhere in my cottage!) and while hubby was sittin' on the couch watching football (and as i was in his way) he said, "why don't you use them on the fireplace?"-"hmmm", i said. (decoratin' wheels a turnin'). YES!!!! why don't i??? so the next day while the kiddies were at school and the hubby was at work, i got to work. i added some fabric
w/ my mom's trusty staple gun and used some scrap wood to attach them together . and put her in place and fell. in. love. i love it so much that i almost hate to take it down to have a fire in the winter! lucky for me we have more nice non-fire weather than not. :) i would love to hear/see some of your ideas and creative fixes for the fire place in your home! i am linking up toFaded Charm for White Wednesday and Trash to Treasure Tuesday at Reinvented so head on over and check it out if you have the time! until next time, make your cottage your home and your home your cottage! ~decorating diva :)
