Porch Pampering

Short, sweet, and to the point: our porch is in dire need of a rehab. I dream of the day that I walk onto my porch that has fantastic railings, a wooden banister, and wood floors that are weathered and worn because that is my faux-finish, not because it is the real deal.

This project of tearing down our porch and building a new one has been a year-long, non-event. Last winter was wet and very cold.  Spring was constant rain, wind and about 200 tornadoes (seriously, 200) through our area, and the summer was heat from hell with triple digits that even this Texan couldn't take.

So, this Christmas, I decided that my pitiful porch needed some pampering, even if only cosmetic, to get through the cold winter. It was sort of like dressing a wet, old, smelly rat in a fur coat and trying to call it a cute little mink. It only works from a distance...and luckily our porch is tiny, and our stoop is up high from the street some, so passerby's can only look up and see only some of our sad little porch. But with one afternoon of grunting, hauling, and setting out some goodies that I found with my shopping buddies (Little Debbie and Renee), I think I will convince most people (if they drive by fast enough) that I just might have a little mink up here after all...

Here is the before...I almost forgot to take the before photos...I was so excited to get out my new-found goodies and dig out my trusty old favorites...

Before:

After:

Before:

After:


What a difference a little paint on the mailbox and light fixture can make! And I grabbed the little matt from the inside and tossed it outside and put the black one down at the bottom of the steps. I just lifted my shade up a bit to show my Belgium curtain from the inside and it has a whole new look...

Before:


I didn't get out the ladder and stood on the sidewalk and just pointed my camera up quickly, as I was excited to just get started...

After:


Now, I got out a ladder to stand on to take the photo...I was in my sweats and as you can see the sun is getting lower in the reflection on the door and neighbors are now driving by as they come home from work. They slow down to see...but I think they are more curious about the woman on the tall ladder, leaning over, with her butt sticking out, wearing slippers, and an apron tied around her neck, as it was in the way as I climbed up and I took it off and tied it around my neck as I didn't want it on the wet grass....what a spectacle! 

Now for the details....

The tiny porch got its make-over in one afternoon.  The lanterns are hung by string and I got them from Ikea...for less than $4 each!

I had white branches in storage as well as this old Swedish chair that "someday" I would re-cane. So in the meantime, it makes a wonderful "stick stand" and I wrapped white lights inside as well. 

I had this little cheapie table from a local craft store for about $22 and it is worn wood. Never really liked it. It isn't functional and so it works perfectly outside with all the other worn wood pieces! My old heavy crock holds it place.

These scrim curtains are from Ikea and are a steal! $1.49 a pair...yes a PAIR. Can you believe it? My girlfriends have them on their porch and I just fell in love with the look...detracts a little from how much my tiny porch is screaming to be torn down.

Is this a great baby bed/bench or what? Got this at the Three French Hens market in Morris IL with my gal pals. It was the perfect size for our little window. The linen pillows are from Ikea...the linen covers with ties are about $14 each and the inserts are $6. They fit perfect. My "Dream" pillow and "Joy" pillow are beautiful gifts from beautiful gal pals as well. The Christmas basket hanging on the window, as well as the glass garland, are from Whismy and Traci is the owner. I love her store! Sort of reminds me of some store I used to know.....hmmmm...wonder why I love it so much??? :-) I added some extra picks to the basket to make it a bit fuller and to match my decor...but don't you just love it?

Had this lantern a very long time...another gift!

Love this coal bucket...another goodie I snatched up at the Three Frenchs Hens market.

I had these old crates for years. The wood is perfect and we pull them out and put our feet up on them.

Remember I said I collected pinecones this year? Well, I played around with them and decided to make a few swags. Here is the one I made for the front door....

I hope you liked my little "faux mink" of a porch. It will have to do for now until the hammer gets to it and the real deal is done. I love it when I can actually complete something in one afternoon. 

I know how I am and just in case I lose track of time and I don't get back to you before Christmas....I am going to wish you a wonderful one now. I hope to get back...but you know how things go...

May your spirit be filled with peace. May your days be filled with joy. But mostly, may your heart be glad to know that you aren't the one in charge of the timing. Like the little pitiful porch...it just wasn't the right time this past year...and so we wait patiently. 

from my house to your house,

Ladles of Love

I am ladle lover. I always have been a lover of ladles, even though I only own one. 


However, I do own restaurant, "cooking ladles" and small serving ladles, but I own only this one silver ladle. I covet ladles at flea-markets, but usually, the ones I love are rare. I tend to like the non-fussy ones that are still very elegant, have a lot of class, that don't need to show off and still do a great service by just being.

I recently discovered why I have had this long love affair with such rare silver ladles and why I am so fascinated by them. They remind me of my very good friends. I recently had a couple of surprises bestowed upon me for no reason other than "just because." A couple were from friends that I never even have met. 

I have been busy these past few weeks doing a lot of things that I planned and even more unplanned. And I have been waiting on the weather to clear to shoot some "after" shots of a little project I did for the holidays to show you and I think today may be the only day I can shoot it... which I will as soon as I get this post out. I feel I would be missing the holiday cheer without sharing what is on my heart, even with all the hustle and bustle around me.

It started with my friend, Debbie (aka, my little Debi) who called me up and said she had a little gift for me from someone who had sent it to her and asked if Debbie would get it to me. Since Debbie, Renee and I were to meet in a few days at 6AM to head out to a great little Christmas Market, Three French Hens, in Morris, IL (about a 4 hour drive from St. Louis)I would pick it up then. 

Well, what a nice surprise! I am not a morning persona at all, but my eyes were definitely wide open when Deb hands me a beautifully wrapped gift and tells me the cutest story about how Ruth, from The Beautiful Life, contacted Deb and wanted to send me a little something, but didn't have my address, but didn't want to contact me for it, and yet wanted to surprise me. 

As most of you know, I tend not to read as regularly as I wish I could on everyone's blogs, and when I do, I don't comment very often. But I was thinking of Ruth not long ago, and went to "check up on her" and to make sure all is well (yes, I really do that with most of you, you just don't know it) and I just happened to pop her a little note and comment and I guess I made a little comment about one of her items and how I was "eyeing it" because I loved it so much. This is the story that Deb was relaying to me as she handed me the gift and it was all starting to coming back to me....and before I even opened the gift...I knew what it was....a little white bottle that I just fell in love with!

I have to interrupt and show you the lovely aged and vintage card...and I LOVE that ribbon color...the inspiration for my holiday decorating...

Isn't this a great bottle? She sent it "just because." I have never met Ruth in person, but I have been a great admirer of her for years. The first time we ever "met" was years ago, around 2004, I think, when she called me while I was working in my store and my article in Mary Englebreit's Home Companion magazine came out about my apartment above my store and she had questions about how I did my tin counter tops. If you have never had the pleasure of visiting Ruth's site, you are missing out. She has been in numerous publications, but her best quality? She really does live a beautiful life and passes it on in very classy, unobtrusive ways. She ladles out the love. Thank you Ruth for being such a beautiful person.

That same day, of our shopping adventure, Deb had a little gift for me and Renee. She had come across these super little French....? We think they were at one time just common general store packaging for maybe grain, or seeds? Not sure. But leave it to the French to make something so common, so exciting to us giggly gals. She only had three, and Renee and I were ladled out lots of love from Deb that day when she parted with two of the three....now THAT is a big ladle of love...

A little battery votive inside makes it glow so beautifully at night!

Thank you Deb for just being my Little Debi...you are the perfect example of giving. And then, a couple of months ago...nope, not done yet. You see, I am very blessed. My ladle is large. I get a really nice, very unexpected, and very timely surprise from someone else I have never met. I just got home from St. Paul, from the Creative Connection Event, and I have to turn right around and head down to Texas for Round Top, unplanned and the day before I leave I get this little package. It is from another blogger friend that I have known for some time and we have have emailed a few times and I admire her in so many ways. 

Melanie, from Lucky Design 7, sent me a beautiful necklace that she designed and you can see for yourself why it means so much to me. I wore it the entire time I was down in Texas (and continue to wear often, especially on shoots).

Melanie tells me that my writing and so on has helped her over the years and she just wanted to send me a little something. What she doesn't realize is that her timing on this little gift and HER words of encouragement meant more to me than she will ever realize. Heading down to Round Top was very nerve wracking for me as I was very tired and I was hoping to make a dream come true which involved my photography and writing. It was a very unplanned trip and having this little bit love around my neck was just the ticket. I don't have any contracts to date, but there seems to be some hopeful talk. :-) But it was Melanie's ladle of love that filled me up as I drove 15 hours down south, alone, with only my thoughts, my dreams, and it was this little necklace around my neck that basically told me that no matter what happens, this blogger friend of mine made me feel very loved and I love her back. 

And finally, just last week, as I was swimming through packages of goodies from our Three French Hens trip with the gals that included a trip to Ikea, a good meal at a little diner with our waitress, Janice, and with Renee "winking" at everyone who walked by with her ever-growing blurry eye that kept watering up and itching and later turned out to be pink-eye (Deb and I did not catch it, but we all did laugh all day and night at her dilemma of not seeing price tags...we are great pals...), I find another gift waiting for me...

This package of goodies was from my dear Texan friend and blogger, Anne of Fiona and Twig. We have never met either. I am a big fan of hers and to say the least, her photography. She just sent this for "just because." Just because she wanted me to know she was happy to know me...and that is what a ladle of love is. Has a ladle ever spooned out anything but something scrumptious? When there is a ladle around, aren't most people anxiously waiting for their turn to get ahold of it and scoop up and slurp its contents? That is exactly why my good friends are so special. They aren't showy, or fancy, or pretentious. They are probably embarrassed that I am blogging about them. They are just being who they are...loving and just wanting to show it now and then and I am slurping it up in pure joy...

These came just in time! I think there is only one left by now (I know...it has only been a week...) but I am blaming my barber husband for most of the damage. I have been so busy lately I haven't really had a normal schedule and these little cookies have saved my life. Thank you Anne for allowing me into your life and for all the sharing you do with all of your readers. I am truly, truly blessed.

What a joy it is to have friends that I have never even met. I am sure all of my readers can relate. We in blog land all have those, I am sure. Soon, I will share with you a blog friend that I am actually going to meet early next year...half way around the world! I think it is time that I go and meet my beautiful friends and I am saving that announcement for a special post later...

And what a joy when I do get to meet my readers. I met such a reader this year at The Creative Connection. However, she happens to live right here in St. Louis, but we can never seem to connect. She is a knitter and asked to interview me on various subjects for her Knitting Contrissmas, and she posted the interview recently and I thought you might enjoy reading it. I am not a knitter. Sometimes, a nitwit, but not a knitter. Not sure why I am on a knitting blog, but I am honored all the same to be with such talented and notable women. But mostly, read her other guests....they are super interesting and you most likely know of them! I learned a lot from them. Oh...my friend's name? Tina.  That's it...Tina. Like Cher. Her blog never says her last name, so I think of her like Cher. Just Tina. Tina the knitter. Really, go visit and see all the cool people on her interview list. I am on day one (of Dec). She does a new gal every day of December!  Thank you Tina! Tina the knitter.

In the meantime, I have to get back to work. I am still in the process of getting things done. I was down for four days with a migraine, which put me behind, but I did get some things done and below is a little sneak...and hopefully I can take some photos today of my holiday project. But I am looking out the window and it is starting to look rainy. You gotta be kidding me!  I better get hopping...I can't believe this, I have tried for a week to get photos for you readers about this project that I am so happy about.

Okay, here is a little of what I have been doing...

This year, I am going simple. I picked a lot of pinecones from the neighborhood and am keeping it simple at our place....taking this simple natural element and spicing it up just a bit...

That's a reflection of me, looking at you. I am wishing you were here with me :-)

Wishing you a ladle full of love and just enough spice to keep things interesting. Thank you for indulging me and for just being you. I will be back sooner than you think...!


from my house to your house,