Creative Home and Garden Ideas From Our Cottage in The Woods
As you’ve probably heard all over the news, we’ve been getting more than our share of snow over the last few days here in Upstate, NY. We are VERY used to getting snow (and lots of it), but this year has been very mild with almost no snow until last week. Then… it all started coming in at once! We’ve been getting a couple ft of snow every day!
Here in the picture, you can see my husband trying plow out our country lane. My goal is to have a large tractor for this job next year 🙂
Kids inside with nothing to do? Why not make up a quick batch of play dough? You probably already have the ingredients on hand. It’s easy, contains no harmful ingredients, and if they decide to lick their fingers while they play, well, you don’t have to worry about that one 🙂
2C dry milk
2C creamy peanut butter
3Tbs honey
Mix together to make a play dough consistency. Add dry milk as needed. It might be good to bring out this recipe right before lunchtime. The smell of this dough is bound to make them hungry enough to eat their lunch like good little artists 🙂
Pictured: Here is a whimsical snowman from my collection. We’ve gotten so much snow over the past few days (approx. 18 inches), that I thought I’d share some snow with you today 🙂
Easy Curtains For Any Space!
Nearly 8 years ago, my husband & I decided to look for a bigger piece of land to move our family onto. We did a lot of praying & looking before we miraculously found our “perfect” piece. So… for several years, when I would find something that I loved at a great discount, I would pick it up & pack it away “for the new house.”
The piece of fabric that I made this set of curtains from is no exception. When I saw the bolt of fabric in the Walmart craft section, I knew I needed to buy some – especially at the $3 pr yard price!
When we were finally able to move into our new home, I had the perfect place to use that piece of fabric that I had secretly tucked away a few years ago.
There are 2 windows in the living room. Because the windows flank both sides of the love seat, I decided to make one panel per window. During the day I open them up to the outside of each window which makes them look like a “pair” from the other side of the room.
This type of window treatment is very easy to make! They remind me of a big pillowcase (except the opening is sewn shut 🙂 I like to line the curtains unless both sides of the fabric are pretty to look at. After all, you want the folks outside to see something pretty as they look at your house.
Here are the simple instructions.
– Cut each piece of fabric to length that you want
– Be sure that the pattern of the fabric is not upside down
– Put the right sides together (the side you want showing) so that the wrong side is facing out on the front & the back
– Pin down the sides for easy sewing
– Sew down both sides
– Sew across the top
– Sew across the bottom leaving an open space in the middle of the seem big enough to turn it right side out – Press flat
– Hang with sliding round hook clips
After looking everywhere for the cheapest hooks, I found JoAnn Fabric to be the cheapest. They have a 10 pack of iron ring hooks for $4.99! There are lots of different types of round hook clips, but the iron ones are my favorite. Not only do they look nice, but they seem to be much stronger as well.
I made another set like these for my bedroom with NO SEWING at all! I simply used tablecloths that I picked up as an end of season sale for a few dollars each. They were the perfect length for a luxurious puddle effect at the bottom.
You could also use a flat sheet, which would make it very easy to coordinate your curtains with your bedding.
You can make these types of curtains for any space. They are quick, easy, and most importantly – easy to open 🙂
I was able to sneak a few shots of our new little friends a few weeks ago & wanted to share them with you all. They look so cute, and they are right outside the windows! I know, I know, I think they are cute right now – but – come spring & we’ve have to work out some sort of deal concerning the gardens 🙂
You can see the little river behind the deer. This is an area that I want to develop into a woodland garden path this spring. I want to use lots of plants that the deer don’t seem to like 🙂
* This is our first year in our new cottage – so our feelings are still very warm towards these little creatures *Big Smile*
Because I already feel SO blessed, when my husband asked me what I wanted for Christmas, it took me a while to come up with something.
Some of you may remember my post back in October about one of my favorite antique pine cupboards that I picked up years ago for $2? Well, when I told him I’d like to have my cupboard painted as my Christmas gift, he painted it right away!
I really love the deep red, because it compliments everything in our home. Many readers wanted to see the finished result, so I thought I’d post it for you all to enjoy!
What a wonderful husband I have – and as I told him… he is my gift 🙂
Here’s a picture of the cupboard before
* From Pearl
Thank you all for the kind words!
Just goes to show you – one person’s trash really is another person’s treasure!
I picked this piece up at a yard sale. When I asked to gal if she had anything else inside
for sale, she took me downstairs to show me a few things – however, nothing really caught my eye. But when I turned around to come back up the stairs, I spied this cabinet standing up behind the door. When I asked her if she wanted to sell that piece, she said – “oh that thing, I don’t think you could even get it off the wall, because it’s been sitting down here in the basement for so many years!” When I assured her that my husband could indeed remove the piece from her basement (I was thinking piece by piece if we had to :), she said – well, you could have it for $2. No thinking on my part – a quick “SOLD” came out of my mouth!
It has provided a lot of joy over the years, and now with it’s new coat of color, it is ready for many more ahead!
Ok – for those of you who might be saying… well, that was many years ago, those things don’t happen today! I want to tell you – the same thing happened just a couple of years ago to me! I picked up a VERY large vintage pine cabinet for $17 at a local estate auction. Everyone was pretty much finished with the “good stuff” inside when they moved out to the garage. Most of the gals wandered on home, but from my past experiences, I knew that great treasures lay waiting for me out there! Sure enough, when everything was pretty much said & done in the garage, everyone started home. I went up to the auctioneer & said, I’d like to bid on that old cupboard against the wall. He said… who will give me $50, who will give me $20? But no one was really paying attention. I said, I’ll give you $17! Once, twice, sold to the lady. Now… how to get this huge beauty home? Well, because it had tiny wheels on it, my friend Kelly & I simply pushed it down the street 🙂
The moral of the story?
#1 Keep your eyes open, because most people don’t look through the same eyes of vision the way that you will!
#2 Don’t buy a huge cabinet unless you have a friend to help you push it down the street 🙂
