Merci Beaucoup XXXOOO

I wanted to do a little Oh La La post today.  Suzan from Simply Vintageous did a Paris theme giveaway on her blog.  Suzan invited several talented and crafty bloggers to do a giveaway hosted by her on their beautiful handmade Paris themed treasures.  I loved this.  It was a lot of fun and then when I saw I won one of the giveaways,  I was so excited.  I mean REALLY EXCITED and you will see why after I share the pictures of my beautiful win.

I won the 2nd giveaway on Suzan's blog and it was made by Tuula from Thrifty Rebel.

Tuula from Thrify Rebel has a great blog and a wonderful Etsy Site.  Tuula is very creative and creates the most beautiful treasures.  I was excited to learn I won her give away.

This is how the package arrived.  Look how pretty she wrapped this package. It is those little details that make things like this so special to receive.   Tuula it was almost too gorgeous to open.

She added this sweet little card to the package.

Toooooooooo Cute.  Loved it!!!!

Safely wrapped.

Not only was the outer wrapping beautiful the inner packaging was too sweet.  This was such a fun gift to open. Tuula you are too sweet and what a beautiful presentation.

There she is my win.  This  beautiful wind chime made from old french spoons and Tuula stamped them with french words.  I tried to hang them on a neutral door so you could see the beauty of this chime.

Look at those beautiful old vintage spoons.  They make the sweetest sounds I cannot wait to hang them out in the garden.

These are just beautiful.  Tuula a big hug from me.  I absolutely love this.  Thank you Suzan for hosting such a fun give away.  If you have not visited Suzan's blog or Tuula's blog or Etsy site you must jump over there now.
Suzan is the furniture whisper and she will leave you in awe of her beautiful furniture transformations and LOL after reading her posts.  Tuula you are so talented and I just have to say again I love love love my wind chimes.
Your talent and gift to me was so beautiful.
Have a great Sunday everyone.
Kris
:)

Spotlight The Real Life Behind The Blogger

Susan from Must Love Junk, and myself (Kris) Junk Chic Cottage 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.

Saturday September 21st
Roxie: Sweet Vintage Of Mine

It gives me great pleasure to introduce you to this week's spotlight blogger.  Roxie from Sweet Vintage Of Mine .   Roxie is not only talented but her spiritual sweet side comes across in her beautiful blog.  Please sit back and read about Roxie and her beautiful family her unique story of struggles and survival.  Have a kleenex along with your coffee.  You will be touched in a very unique way when you hear her story.  

 Hello my friends!  First , I would like to thank Kris from Junk Chic Cottage for inviting me to be part  of her  Saturday feature- Meet the person behind the blog

So come sit on my porch and lets chit-chat awhile!    Here goes...........................

I'm a southern girl at heart.  I love open spaces, my pick-up truck, junking and the simple things in life!

My faith, family and friends make life beautiful!

I retired  10 years ago after working 30 years in a family manufacturing business.  My Father started this business in 1968.  I was the office manager.  I learned a lot in these years and feel those years molded me in many ways.  It was a very important time in my life.

I am married to a wonderful man named Ken.  We have been married 7 years.   We were both divorced for several years when God put us together.  It's a good thing to wait upon the Lord!

I have a son Corey, and Ken has 3 children-Kenny, Ellen and Jason.  They are all wonderful young adults.

                             A man and his jeep........I couldn't resist!

                         A girl and her Vintage 1964 John Deere-he couldn't resist!

                                                   My son Corey at the beach...........

                                                           .............And baling hay

                                   I sold my Farmhouse of 17 years earlier in the year..........

                            ............And we are downsizing to this cute fixer-upper cottage

My FUN passion is Vintage and Junking!  This is canned ham "Sweetie" AKA "Sweet Sue".  I love to garden and decorate but haven't been doing that since before the move.  Sweetie has filled the void.  I enjoy potting plants in unique containers and she is adorable to decorate!

Ken and I love taking 1-3 day road trips with very little planning.  We look for historic covered bridges and Ken loves old towns with ole' timey bakeries.....He loves his donuts!

And one thing about me, I don't want left untold..........

In May 2009, I was diagnosed with a baseball size tumor on my pancreas.  It was also wrapped around the main artery in my body.  The diagnosis was not good.

I should not be here........I am a true living miracle........"I am HEALED of the Lord"!

I have never been cut on, but took a chemo pill with only a 30 percent chance of working for 8 months. I quit taking the pill in June of 2010.  The tumor had shrunk  half its size.

The miracle is......it has continued to shrink since June 2010 with no treatment whatsoever! It is only an inch in size/diameter.  The doctors say it doesn't work like that!!

I am child of the King......a daughter of the Most High!   I thank him and give him praise!

I am sitting on the porch of the "inbetween" house and I love it!  I hope you have enjoyed your visit with me and look forward to meeting many more of you!  Blessings~~~Roxie

Thank you Roxie your story touched my heart and soul.  Your story of survival shows us we need to believe and have faith and that there is hope.  You are truly a living miracle and I am so blessed to know you.  Thank you dear friend for sharing your inspirational life journey with us.

Now please hop over to Susan's blog and read about Pam from Moments like These.  You will love learning more about Pam another sweet and talented blogger.

Have a Great Saturday.
Kris
:)

Summer or Fall?!!!!!

Fall is in the air but still is summer!!!!

I decided to start some outside fall decor.  It was not an easy task since my summer flowers are still holding on.  They are just not ready to say good bye.  So I thought ok what to do??? 

 I mixed what is still hanging on of summer with fall decor.  A little crazy I know but the only compromise I could find since I was not ready to throw away the flowers that still have some life in them.

So I moved all the summer that was still thriving from the back deck to the front yard under the tree.  This way I only have to water the front yard now.  They are starting to get a little scraggly from the cooler temps and the bad water we have in our town but they still make me smile so I am holding on to them a little while longer.

So we still have a little bit of summer hanging around.

Petunia's love and thrive in most weather conditions.  They like it hot as long as they get watered and they like the cool nights and cooler days too.  They are little troopers that do not want to say goodbye.

I got my front door decorated for fall.  I made a wreath.  I got a basic wreath at Michael's Craft Store and added all the pumpkins and flowers and burlap bow to the wreath.  This way I could mix in some white and burlap with the oranges and yellows.

I like the way the colors pop on my yellow cottage door.

These summer plants are still thriving too.  The sweet potato vine is taking on a life of it's own so I just decided to add the fall decor to the summer plants.  A  little crazy I know but this way my summer plants can have some more time.

I brought around my white wagon and the two plants in the wagon are going strong.  I can't remember the name of these pretty little yellow flowering plants but they are doing great and are fall in color so they looked cute in the wagon.  I added some faux fall flowers and decor to the wagon in with the live plants.  The sweet potato vine in my watering can and yellow petunias are still going great too so I just added them to the decor too.

Found this cute sign today at Home Goods.  Loved the colors and the shape of this sign.

So there you have it.  Summer is almost saying good bye and fall is moving in.  It is kind of fun having the live plants still from summer mixed with the fall faux flowers and pumpkins.
Have a great day.
Hope your fall decorating is underway.
Kris
:)

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The New "painted" Chair

Good Monday Morning.

I showed you the chair I got at a yard sale on Friday while out junkin with Anne from White Lace Cottage.  

Yep! good bones but mauve fabric not doing much for this old gal she definitely was dating herself with the mauve fabric. 

I dumped her cushion.  I thought she looked better without the old cushion.

So with a little help from my blog friends Anne and Nana Diana I took the plunge and decided to paint her with Annie Sloan chalk paint.  Ohhhhh paint fabric?!!! Yikes I thought.  I have seen this done before and the pieces have come out beautiful but I had never done this.

So after talking to Anne and Diana I decided to try it.
Anne did her chair with three coats of chalk paint and then waxed it.  Diana told me she used regular water base paint and sanded in between coats to keep the fabric soft when she painted her furniture.  Diana also told me about adding a fabric medium to the chalk paint to help keep the fabric soft so I ran to JoAnn Fabrics and picked up the fabric medium and followed the direction of adding one part medium to 2 parts paint.

It covered beautifully and stayed soft.  I did three coats of Old White Annie Sloan chalk paint.  I did not sand in between but did do a light coat of wax in the end.  I loved the way this came out.

She had pretty legs but I wanted to dress her up a little bit so I added this ruffle skirt.

She needed a pretty skirt.  No sew Kris here so I took this ruffle off a drapery panel I had and just attached it.  Not too shabby for someone that cannot sew.  I love when I can repurpose something I already have.

There you have it a new "old" chair.  It is amazing what a little paint can do to change the look of an old chair bought at a yard sale.
I am still playing with pillows for this chair but I think she is fitting in nicely in my bedroom
Hope your week goes great.
Kris
:)

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Ok is it my Birthday? Nope is it Christmas? Nope

Hi Everybody.

Is it my birthday no  is it Christmas no, well why am I getting such beautiful surprises in the mail of late?

The other day I  got a sweet package from Carol at Art and Sand you can see that sweet surprise here.

Today in the mail I got another wonderful package.  It was from my good friend Susan at Must Love Junk.

She sent me a little package of goodies just to be sweet.  How nice is that?  I thought I would share with you what she sent and say a Big thank you to her and give her some bloggie hugs!!!!!

Look at all the sweet goodies in this box.

She sent me these adorable pumpkins made from recycled sweaters.  Tooo cute.  White chippy old keys, and the crown on stone. 

Look at this cute little calendar with my initial and the old keys.  So cute and those clothes clips with the bling, oh man love those.

I just love the friendships I have made in Blog land.  So much talent and so many special caring and sharing people.  Thank you Susan for my special package today.  You are the best and I love that you sent me this nice little treat.  You made my day.
Thank you sweet friend. XXXOOO
Kris
:)

Already found a home for the sweater pumpkins

Spotlight The Real Life Behind the Blogger

Susan from Must Love Junk, and myself (Kris) Junk Chic Cottage 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. 

Good Saturday Morning to all of you.  Thanks for coming by to meet and learn  about another blogger in the Spotlight Feature.  I have the wonderful opportunity today to introduce you to Jennifer from Town and Country Living.  Jennifer lives near me but we have not yet met in person but I am hoping that will happen one of these days.  I have been following Jennifer's blog for awhile and love her decor style. Jennifer lives in a 140 year old farmhouse that is so full of charm.  I am always excited when I see that Jennifer has a new post on a room in her charming home.  

 Please grab your coffee and sit back and get to know this special blogger on a more personal level and then jump over to visit her blog.  It is beautiful and so full of inspiration. 

Hello Everyone! I'm Jennifer at Town and Country Living and I'm so honored Kris asked me to be in the spotlight here on her beautiful blog. I've been following Junk Chic Cottage for quite awhile now and am quite envious of Kris' garden and home. So thank you, Kris, for this opportunity to share with your readers! My little blog was born on November 30th, 2011. †After stumbling across so many inspirational decorating blogs, I decided to try my hand at it. Was I nervous? Heck yes! I had a point and shoot camera and knew nothing about photography, but I was determined. My thought was that blogging would motivate me to get stuff done around the house ... so I'd have something to blog about!

This is my humble home, a circa 1875 farmhouse that lives where the suburban streets of Chicago meet the country cornfields of Illinois. I have the best of both worlds where I live - the suburban towns and Chicago to the east, and God's glorious country to the west. And that's why my blog is called Town and Country Living.

 

Next to God, my family is the most important thing in my life. My 3 children are grown (upper left corner) and both my daughters were recently married. My daughter Bridget married Zac (upper right) at a country farm wedding while daughter Stephanie married Matt (lower right) in a formal hotel wedding. My son Cory is pictured at lower left with Amy, his adorable girlfriend of 3 years.

 

My grandchildren are the light of my life and keep me young. I always wish I could spend more time with them!

 

Here I am with hubby Robert walking down the aisle at Bridget's farm wedding. It was a gorgeous day! Robert is my soul mate and he really keeps me grounded. When I'm trying to make everything perfect, he brings me back down to earth and reality!

 

On my blog, I mostly write about my home. There's a lot of upkeep to a 140-year old house! Floors and doors are crooked, the exterior clapboard siding needs to be painted every 10 years, and it seems something needs to be done with the plumbing every year. But I love our charming old home and overall it's surprisingly solid.

 

In addition to decorating, I also love to cook! I'm a vegetarian but I do cook meat for the rest of my family. I'm a bit of a foodie and prefer making meals from scratch whenever possible. I also enjoy using fresh produce from local farm markets in my recipes.

 

Since I love to cook and eat, I need to work off those calories! †One of my passions is running and here I am at the start of the Fox Valley Marathon 2 years ago. A marathon is 26.2 miles and you burn a lot of calories training for this event! This November, I'm running my 6th marathon - the Naperville Marathon. I'm running it with my daughter Bridget, it's her first marathon!

 

Here are some of my running buddies (that's me in the orange sweatshirt), early in the morning prior to the marathon, which is why we're still smiling. We won't be smiling at mile 20. But once we cross the finish line, all the blood, sweat, and tears will be worth it. I absolutely love running and wish everyone would do it! It just takes that first step ...

So when I'm not running, blogging, or spending time with family, what do I do? I work here:

This is the home of Aquascape, Inc, the largest water gardening company in North America. †We call this building "Aqualand, a workplace utopia." I am truly privileged to work in this LEED Certified building (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) where we work with contractors and retailers to help create beautiful water features in backyards across the USA and Canada.

 

This is my view from work every day! I'm the marketing communications manager for Aquascape, which means I'm in charge of the company's social media, PR, and various communication vehicles like e-newsletters to pond installers, retailers, and consumers. I've written a book, The Pond Builders Guide to Break Even, and I write articles for various trade magazines in the landscape industry. I love my job and am so grateful to do what I love every day!

So ... back to my blog, Town and Country Living.

Last year my home was featured in Casa Chic magazine, which is sold in France and Italy. Remember when I was talking about that point and shoot camera? I traded it in for a Nikon D3000 and worked really hard on my photography. This all paid off when the editor of Casa Chic came knocking and asked if I would share my photos of my home with the magazine. Um, YES!! I was so honored to have my photos published! †And earlier this year, a photographer for Country Sampler Magazine was in my home taking photos, which should appear in their March 2014 edition. These are my biggest claims to fame from my little old blog!

 

My latest blog post at Town and Country Living showcases a Fall table setting in my kitchen's dining nook where I lined up Baby Boos and acorns on a French bread board for the centerpiece. My decorating style is a mix of farmhouse and cottage.

The last thing I'd like to share is ... keep working toward your goals and don't let anything or anyone deter you. In a marathon, you put one foot in front of the other until you reach your goal. The same is true with anything in life. When you hit a roadblock, learn from it and figure out what to do differently to overcome the obstacle. This is the stuff that makes you stronger!

Thanks again, Kris, for allowing me to share a little bit about myself, my dreams, and my goals with your readers!

I hope you'll visit my blog over at Town and Country Living.

Or you can follow me via email or on the social sites below!

†Facebook † † Pinterest † † Twitter

Subscribe to Town and Country Living via email and follow along on social sites!

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Thanks so much Jennifer. I loved getting to know you better. It was fun to see your wonderful pictures and learn more about you and your family. 

Now after learning about Jennifer on my blog you can hope over to Susan's blog and meet and learn about Jann from Have A Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson.