Saturday Spotlight: Life Behind the Blogger

Susan from Must Love Junk, and myself wanted to do a regular feature on our blogs, something unique that hasn't been done before.   So we came up with an idea to 'spotlight the real life behind the blogger' in a more personal way.

There is so much talent and inspiration in blogland, and we thought it would be fun to bring you a closer look at the person behind the blog.

Every week on Saturday we will spotlight a blogger and have them tell us a little bit about themselves and their blogs.  You will be able to see and read about each of the bloggers on both Susan's and my blog. 

July 26

Alessandra

From My Romantic Creations

I am so excited to introduce you to this next blogger in the Spotlight.  We are traveling across the sea to Italy.  Milan Italy.  Please sit back and get to know this international blogger Alessandra from My Romantic Creations.  Alessandra is my bff from Italy. I have loved getting to know her over the past year and we have become blogging friends.  Wait until you see the beautiful surroundings in which she lives.  Heaven! Enjoy getting to know this special blogger.

Wow…I was so excited when Kris asked me whether i’ d like to be a guest here… thank you very much, Kris!!!

Hello! I’m Alessandra. I blog over at MY ROMANTIC CREATIONS. I’ m 42 years old. My husband and i have been married for 10 years and we a such beautiful son. He’ s 7 years old and he is my joy of life and my most precious treasure. I’ m italian ad I was born in Milan, in the north of Italy. Let’ s have a tour in my city, now...

The Duomo and its square

   

The Villa Reale

   

The Sforzesco Castle

 

   

Arch of peace

Navigli

I hope you enjoyed my tour in Milan. I love walking along the streets of my city, looking at the ancient buildings and churches. I think they are so fascinating, aren’ t they? They show all the power of art, of the great ability of creative minds and artists.

I’ ll tell you a secret... I am a window peeker!

That’ s why i adore walking along the streets too.

But now, follow me in one of my favorite shops... Camomilla. Here you can buy many romantic items to decor the home or you can find many romantic acessories such as hats, bags, purses and so on.

I live in the house which was built by my grandfahter’s dad. For this reason my home is rich of important memories of my family and of my childhood. My home is what I am: a romantic dreamer.

I really adore to decor my home for Xmas...

Another my passion are the tablescapes.

I like very much to display my creations on the table and I like to create romantic atmosphere for me and for my guests.

I am passionate about everything is romantic and pink! Pink is my favorite color and it’ s my philosophy of life. It gives me relax, soothing atmosphere and it makes me happy. The same thing for all the romantic items: laces, ribbons, sweet fabrics, peonies, shabby chic style, tea and coffee cup, english cottages, sentimental movies...oh...I like too much things!!!

I was featured in the italian magazine “ CASA ROMANTICA “ two years ago... I was very honored to be featured in my favorite magazine!

I’ve got a romantic soul which helps me to look for beauty and perfection. For this reason, over years, my home has under gone many transformations. I’ d like to transform it in a shabby chic home... little by little!  American houses are fantastic and the american shabby style inspire me a lot. It is really awesome to see American houses ... just gorgeous! I love creating and decorating. Almost of my creations are in altered art. I adore to transform normal things into something full of romance. For me, the re- use is the “ second chance” , “ the second life” for everything inspire me.

Here few examples of my creations... trash into treasure! I love showing projects that began with treasures ( after) and finished with trash ( before).

Before...

I use many technics for my job: altered art, scrap art, decoupage, restyling shabby, sewing... but the most important things to craft are fantasy and passion.  Nothing can be made without them.

Before...

Another “ before”...

And “ after”...

My others loves include blogging, of course! I’ve been blogging for 2 years and I have made a lot of special friends. I've never thought I would have met so many real, unique, kind and sweet souls. Blog land is full of some the most special and wonderful people. If you want to relax, to listen to sentimental music, to have a cup italian coffee...visit me!

It’ s always a great pleasure to meet new blogging friends!

Wow…I was so excited when Kris asked me whether I’ d like to be a guest here… thank you very much, Kris!!!

Thank you so much Alessandra for doing Spotlight.  Oh....... to walk those beautiful streets of Milan.  Gorgeous.

Thank you for sharing your wonderful story with all of us.  Love that you live in the home your grandfather built.  Your decor is truly a "Romantic Dream".

Now that you have gotten to know Alessandra please hop over to Susan's blog and meet another wonderful blogger Tania from Little Vintage Cottage.

Have a wonderful week end.  Thank you for your visits to Spotlight.
Kris
:)

SOMERSET HOME MAGAZINE FEATURE AND A GIVE AWAY!

Happy Thursday!  

When it rains it pours.  Seems like a lot of my features for magazines all hit the news stands at once.  So I received my copy of Somerset Homes that I am featured in for August.

I am in good company.  I was so excited to see I was featured with so many fun blogging friends.

It is exciting we are all friends and are sharing in this magazine together.

This issue will hit the news stands August 1st. It is such a wonderful magazine full of wonderful features and DIY's

Remember my first project of painting fabric with chalk paint.  Christine the editor from Somerset Homes loved this and asked to feature the chalk paint garage sale chair Re Love in the August issue.  

My dessert bar made out of an old chippy door and repurposed legs made this issue too along with the cute stools.

Here is the exciting part.  On this page me and my bff's of blog world are sharing the magazine.  Kathleen from Faded Charm and Michelle from Petite Michelle Louise and Susan from Evelyn and Rose and Dore from Burlap Luxe and me all sharing the pages together.  It was fun that we are all blog friends and are sharing on the same page.

My bff Susan from Must Love Junk is featured too.  As many of you know Susan and I are personal friends and it is exciting for both of us that we are in the same magazine together.  Wooo Hooo Susan.

Blog friend Jeanette from Creating a Life Now has her vintage steamer trunk coffee table featured too.  That was such a sweet transformation of her steamer trunk.

Two other blogging friends Sara and Abbey from Sweet Magnolia Farm show how to make this wonderful milk bottle farm fresh sign.


So you can see that this issue is full of many of our blogging friends.

So now for the GiveAway!  I love that there are so many of us bloggers that know each other in this Magazine together.  It really is a super sweet issue.

I want to give away a copy of this to a lucky winner.

All you have to do is be a follower of my blog and leave me a message below that you would like to be in the giveaway and you will be entered.
Good Luck!

Be sure to come back on Saturday for Spotlight.  I have a lovely international blogger for you to meet and get to know from Milan and Susan has a really sweet blogger for you to get to know better too.

Kris
:)

My Decor Crazy Is Showing !!!!!!

Ok this is scary to admit on my blog but I am going to let some of my crazy show in this post.

As most of you that have followed me know I have gone through a few change ups in my living room this past month including the TV armoire.

I just could not seem to fall in love with that piece no matter what I did to it.

As much as I loved the new doors and vintage knobs it still was not right!! So one night while I was just staring at the piece LOL! It finally dawned on me what I did not like about it.  It was just to massive and tall for the space.  So it was not going to matter what doors I put on it or what color I painted I was not going to like it.

So............

Let me first say this is the main culprit.  Terry's large screen 60 inch TV.  How to hide this big hunk of TV is the issue.

So I asked Terry how hard would it be to cut down this armoire  and make it smaller so the TV would still fit but it would not feel so massive a piece of furniture in this small space?  

I was waiting for him to tell me to go jump in the lake if you think I am going to remake that armoire.  We live in a Lake town so there is a big lake he could have told me to go jump into!

Nope this wonderful man said he probably could do it.  So it began.

He used all the pieces he already had in the other piece and got to work cutting it down.  He still could use the porch posts which I was excited about.

I had these chippy shutters hanging in my guest room and thought hmmmmmm these might make for some great shutter doors for the new piece.

So my next dilemma was do I use the brown chippy side or the white chippy side.  You can see the brown on the left and the white on the right.  You will see in the end which side won out!

This is the new cabinet cut down and the first coat of paint.  Yep we could use all the pieces we had and Terry just cut and re loved them into this smaller size cabinet.  As I have said many times gotta love a man that has the right tools and knows how to use them.  I am so blessed this man puts up with all my decor crazy and helps my visions come to life.

So here is the new cabinet taken down in size and the old chippy shutters made into doors for the new armoire.

I had Terry put wheels on these two old dresser drawers for storage underneath.  I will put throws and magazines in the drawers.

Now this large screen TV has a home and I do not feel the piece is so heavy in the room.  The shutters are lighter weight.  The doors on the other armoire were so heavy to open into the room where the shutters fold on each other.

I moved a few things around on the walls.  Moved my old chippy door over to the chair corner wall.

Moved this old window over the armoire.

Where the door was on this wall I switched out my mirror to reflect the chandelier.

So there you have it  hopefully the final post on the TV Armoire!!!!! You know I love change so I will not say I will never change this armoire up again.  For now I am loving it and I finally feel like I have my vision for this piece done.

So now I think I can tuck my crazy away for now LOL!

Hope you are having a great start to the new week.  Enjoy.  Thanks for your visits and sweet comments always.

Kris

:)

Parties:

Wow Us Wednesday
Show and Share Tuesday
What's It Wednesday
Shabbilicous Friday
Show and Tell Friday