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 4th

Bonnie from White Lace and Promises

aka Vintage girl 901

I would love to introduce you to Bonnie from White Lace And Promises.  Please enjoy reading about Bonnie and her beautiful family and life.  Enjoy.

I have been a follower of Junk Chic Cottage

since I started blogging. 

When Kris asked if she could Spotlight me, 

I was like, "Oh my!  Me??? You have got to be kidding."

I'm really just a simple girl who grew up

in a small railroad town in Georgia.

The train always stopped us on the way to school.

And the water tower was an eye-sore.

I was the daughter of a preacher man.

The oldest daughter

the second born,

 with a personality to match.

The biggest heartache was when our baby brother

was killed at the age of  five 

I married my childhood sweetheart

when I was 17 and he was 18.

In the 70's, you either went to college or got married.

I laughingly admit, 

We were too young to fall in love, 

as Dr. Hook sang, 

and I was too young to know.

This too-young relationship 

has lasted for 35 years and I'd it all again. 

We live in a small 1960's ranch style home

where we raised our children 

in the neighboring small town 

from where I grew up.

My front porch is simple a slab of concrete 

that gives me a reason to create.

I love all things vintage, rusty, crusty, shabby, or chiccy.
I love crates and wooden boxes, 

small, large or medium.

I like galvanized anything.  

Putting a pot in a bucket is about as close 

to a garden as I will ever get.

A couple of years ago, 

we remodeled our kitchen.

After 32 years of washing dishes by hand, 

I think I deserved a dishwasher, don't you?

Our home is a eclectic mix of 

Shabby Chic, Cottage, and Traditional styles.

The pink room

in the Shabby Chic style
is my favorite place to be. 

It is filled with all the things I love

and it makes me happy.

I try to make my space home.

I like to pretend that I have a mantle 

so I create vignettes atop the cabinet in my dining room.

Mr. H never knows when he comes home
what he's walking into.  

Autumn

A different look for every season 

Winter

and my sweet man never complains.

Spring

Easter

And sometimes just a little of this and that.

Seasons change, so why not, huh?

The large homes in our small town

are truly magnificent.

 This is what a walk around my neighborhood looks like.

While I truly enjoy the luxury of others,

Sherman's March to the Sea made us "historical."

I prefer my 1000 sq. ft. house.

It is home.

If you ask me who I am...
I am a simple, small town girl
who's in love with Jesus

and adores my family.

Before the Grands, they were GRAND!

These truly capture my heart.

I love to laugh,

I live on either one end of the spectrum-
ecstatically happy or down-in-the dumps sad.

I write openly about my depression in hopes
that it will help someone else.

I am most HAPPY, ALWAYS HAPPY,
when I am with my family.

My daughter is my best friend.

And my son is "my baby."
My daughter agrees.

I have a daughter-in-love
and a son-in-love
for which I prayed.

A couple of years ago,
we added one who has been the joy and delight of our heart.

He makes my heart sing

with laughter and joy.

My heart is full to overflowing as God has
added a precious little angel who has stolen our hearts.

Our Big Boy is a great BIG Brother
to his sissy.

The greatest desire and prayer of my heart right now
is for God to give my daughter and her sweet man
a baby.  The IVF process continues.

This is the place I call home for now.

The is the courthouse on the city square.

This is my church.

This is what I believe in-
Every day is White Lace and filled with Promise.

Thank you Bonnie for sharing the personal side of you and sharing your beautiful family with all of us.  If you do not know Bonnie then please hop over to visit her beautiful blog and then please hop over today  to Susan's blog and meet another really wonderful and talented blogger  Alaina from Arbor House Lane.

Have a great Saturday.

Kris

:)

Happy 4th Of July

Some Flea Market Finds

It is almost the holiday.  Woooo Hooo and the 4th will be here on Friday.

I wanted to show you a few of the treasures I got at the flea market this past week end.

My first and favorite little find was these cute white boots.  They were too adorable to pass up.  So I brought them home and put a little glass vase in each one and filled them with some flowers from the garden.

Did you ever find something so cute like this that just makes you smile when you look at them. :)

We traveled over the border to Wisconsin and to Elkhorn's fabulous flea Market on Sunday.  I just love this flea market you can find the best treasures at this one.

Here are a few things I brought home.

As some of you may know I am a nurse and for the past few years I have been subbing in the school's nurse's offices in our school district.  So when Terry spotted this sign at the flea market I thought I had to get that chippy love to hang on my old vintage door divider to my home office.

The nurse's office sign is hung on the transom of the old vintage doors.  The lady we bought this from said it was actually a sign that was above an elementary school nurse's office.  Gotta love that it is chippy and full of history and perfect for me since I am working part time as a school nurse.

I also found this sweet little drawer.  It was all by itself no dresser to live in anymore.  So I adopted it and brought it home and now I house some of my magazines in it.

I am in the process of changing up some things in my living room and this wonderful chippy half door is going to be part of the re do in there.  I got this lovely piece from Jeanine at her Shabby Chippy
booth on Sunday.  Jeanine is my chippy shabby soul sister.  She and I laugh because when I buy pieces from her she says "yep I had that in my house and now am sad to part with it".  "It was one of my favorites".  Now it is one of my favorites in my home.
Thank you Jeanine for parting ways with your chippy loves for me to adopt into my home.

This lovely old library table is going into my new living room after she gets a little make over.  This is from the Milwaukee Public Library.  Love the history to this piece.

It is hard to see but it is stamped with the manufacture and numbered from the library.

So these a just a few of the new treasures I brought home from the flea market last Sunday.

Hoping to have my living room reveal to you soon.
Be sure to come back on Saturday.  Susan and I have a couple of great bloggers for you to meet and get to know on a more personal level.

Enjoy and have a safe 4th of July.
Kris
:)

Parties:
Wow Us Wednesday
Treasure Hunt Thursday
Share Your Cup Thursday

Garden Sanctuary and New Lounge Chair Slipcover

Happy Sunday.

I wanted to share my new lounge chair slipcover I just got from a very talented lady in Etsy land.

Take a look at the pretty new lounge cover she made for me using one of my old lounge covers for a template.  

All I can say is she does beautiful work.

I will give you all the information on this slipcover and how you can get one made or have one made up in your own fabric at the end of this post. 

I did not receive anything for giving Karen this shout out just like to acknowledge talented people when I am a satisfied customer.  Love to help other women in business.

Here is my old and faded lounge chair cover. It use to be vibrant and full of beautiful color but over time with the sun and exposure it has faded.  My trustee assistant looks a little faded in the sun too LOL!

Karen Harmon to the rescue.  If the name sounds familiar to you well Karen is mom to another talented slipcover sewing queen Lisa Harmon/LHarmonDesigns.  Lisa is making my sectional slipcover for my living room.  That is on it's way and I will have a post about that hopefully this week.  Lisa told me about her mom having an Etsy Shop  Karen Harmon/DesignerStitching.  Karen also loves to sew so she wanted to take a crack at making a lounge chair slipcover from my old one.

So pretty in a light natural fabric that is washable and hopefully will not fade.

I just love it.  Karen did a wonderful job.

This is the back of the lounge slipcover.

Karen made all the ties to finish off the cover and have it look fitted on the chair.  

My trustee assistant still has not moved even after all the moving of the chair to get pictures.  I guess she is just so tired from all the decor change up with the lounger!


So if you would love to get one of these pretty lounge chair covers you can contact Karen Harmon/ Designer Stitching on her Etsy site.  She will give you pricing for this particular cover where she has the fabric or you can provide your own fabric (60 inch wide and 6 yards) and she will only charge you her labor and shipping to make up a custom slip just for you.

Thank you Karen. I love my new slipcover.

I cannot wait to do a post on the slipcover to my Living Room Sectional that Lisa is sending.  Stay Tuned.  This mother daughter sewing team knocks it out of the park on great slipcovers.


Now on to the Garden Sanctuary

Everything in the garden is getting very lush and pretty.  We have had a lot of  harsh rain but the flowers seem to be holding up well.

This petunia pot has tripled in size and has consumed the old chippy bench I had it sitting on.  They love the heat, humidity and sun they get on this deck.  Dead heading this is a chore but totally worth it.  It gives me gorgeous blooms.  I feed once a week miracle grow alternating between bloom booster and regular flower feed.  

Chippy seat anyone?

This is where the birds have their sanctuary.  They love to eat, drink and mingle in this part of the garden.  Some of the smaller birds actually like to get up inside the birdhouse and perch.

This is the old night stand with drawers that I filled with the flowers.  They have gotten so big you hardly see the dresser anymore. 

The back deck is where I love to spend a lot of my day.  I can fuss with the flowers and also lounge on my chair and read.  Love soaking up the sun.

How is your summer going?  Hope you are enjoying all that summer has to offer.

Have a great start to the new week.
Kris
:)

Parties this Week:
Amaze Me Monday
Show and Share Tuesday
Inspire Me Tuesday
Wow Us Wednesday
A Joyful Cottage

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. 

Cindy from Consider It All Joy
June 28th

Good Saturday Morning everyone.  I am so pleased to introduce you to a really sweet blogger.  I have recently gotten to know Cindy and just love her blog.  Cindy gets my crazy and always leaves me a sweet comment on my blog posts.  Sit and enjoy getting to know Cindy and then hop over and check out her blog.

When I first received the email from Kris at Junk Chic Cottage asking me if I would be interested in being featured on her Saturday Spotlight, Life Behind The Blogger, I thought she had gotten the wrong email address. I fly my blog way under the radar so I was, quite frankly, shocked that she would ask. Thank you Kris for extending this honor to me and my little blog, I appreciate you so much!

My name is Cindy and I have been blogging at Consider It All Joy for 6 years. 

Born and raised in Southern California you might say I lived a fairy tale kind of life, spending all of our free time at either, Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm or the beach (Huntington, Newport or Balboa).  If I was afforded the opportunity now, I would definitely make my home on a beach somewhere in California.  But for now, I’ll just be happy to hang out in my own little piece of Paradise.  This fall I will be painting a full mural on the back wall behind the pool (now that I've announced it, I HAVE to complete it).

At 21 my family purchased a restaurant in a small town near Lake Tahoe, CA where I eventually met and married the love of my life. Because his family came from and owned a large portion of Bodie, CA he wanted to get married there, (it is now a State Historic Park), so on May 16, 1981 that is exactly what we did.

   

Just 6 months into our marriage I found out I would not be able to have children. After numerous tests, sleepless night and months of tears, we decided that adoption would be our option. Our oldest son came into our lives when he was 21 months old; we were his 4^th home and gratefully, his final home. Our youngest son was 4 months old when he came to us; we were told he was deaf, blind and paralyzed on his right side. We were told he would never walk, talk or live beyond a year or two. We were asked if we would just take him until they found an institution who would take him. Please, don’t get too attached they said, my heart was hooked, he is now 29, and even with all of his ‘deficits, I wouldn’t change anything for the world. 

Eventually life led us to Phoenix, AZ where we purchased our 1^st and only house together. It’s a tiny 1100 sq ft (vintage~lol) 1979 tract house. It’s nothing special, except for the fact that we purchased it together and made it home.

I first began blogging as an outlet for a tough season I was walking through never thinking anybody would ever read what I wrote, however I began participating in on-line Bible studies and met some amazing women whom I can honestly say have become great friends, even in real life friends.

On Christmas Eve 2010, I awoke to find my husband of nearly 30 years, had passed away early that morning and my life changed forever. My world, as I had known it, fell apart and everything I had grown to love was turned upside down, including my blog.

During that season of grief it was my son’s and My 3 K’s (my granddaughters) who kept me semi-sane and able to put one foot in front of the other.

   

It has only been in the past 6 months or so that I have begun to actively pursue new hobbies which include, writing, photography, junkin’ and reviving my blog.  Those are just the types of things you will find on my blog. Family, photography, junk finds, decorating attempts and the like. I love the #3, C’s and K’s and pick them up when I find them.  

So, that's a small segment of my story, the real blogger behind the blog.  Thank you for allowing me to share with you.
In the months ahead I do plan on updating my blog and re-naming it, it's a work in progress, as am I.  I do hope you will stop by and allow me to get to know you.  

  
Kris, thank you again for this amazing opportunity! You are a Gem... 

Thank you Cindy for sharing with all of us.  Thank you for opening up about the loss of your husband and how your family helps to bring you through the loss.  So touching.

Please hop over to Susan's blog and learn about another great blogger LeeLee from Paper Bag Styling.

Have a wonderful week end. 

Kris

:)

Armoire Doors

Happy Thursday.

I decided to stain the two armoire doors over the chalk paint to give a little warmth to the large armoire.

My goal is to eventually find two similar vintage doors to replace the stock doors my hubby used to make this armoire.

I just think if I could find two great old doors with lots of character and beautiful features it will give this armoire character and personality.  

So I am on the hunt for some old historic doors.  In the meantime this is how the piece looks for now.

I like the darker stain on the doors.  The other vintage door in the corner is going to be moved out.  I just was not happy with anything I tried with it.    So I will find something else for that corner.  

 I will hunt for two vintage doors to replace these stained stock doors.  In the meantime I like the stained over the chalk paint.  It just gives some warmth to this armoire.

Thanks for all the prayers for Terry.  He is doing so much better.  I appreciated every single prayer and good wish for Terry's recovery.  He is back to work today and doing great.

Please come back on Saturday for Spotlight. Susan and I have two really great bloggers for you to get to know.
Kris
:)