Sweeeeet Give Away

Good Sunday Morning to all of you.

I want to thank all of you that weighed in on the  Social Media choices.  What I came away with from all your comments, is that we all agree blogging provides the more personal way to communicate out of all the choices we have.  

My true feeling is some people come into our lives and will be with us until we take our last breath and others will come in to our lives for a shorter time to teach us something or share a certain amount of time with us.  

I truly believe this in my own life.  Blogging has given me a way to form friendship with like minded people that I would probably never have had in my path if it were not for blogging.

 I think by sharing more of a story with our blog posts it lets everyone know our style, creative heart's, inspiration and most of all a little about us.  I am thankful for all your caring hearts and friendship you share with me.

I have a pretty give away.  This is from me and not from a sponsor.  Just a nice little thank you gift for coming by and supporting my blog.

How many of you love the sound of water running but maybe do not have the room for a big water fountain in your yard or on your deck.

I found this on Amazon.  It is a solar fountain.  I bought two and only needed one.  So I have one to share with one of you lucky peeps.

It is very inexpensive and it will give you a cute little water fountain in any container or birdbath, dish etc. that you have currently in your yard.

All I did was bought a very inexpensive plastic planter from Lowe's.  $10

I added some faux flowers around the edge of the plastic planter and then added put the solar fountain in the planter.  It has section cups to stick to the bottom of the bowl.  Then you fill  water to the edge of the solar fountain base.

Now I have a little water fountain on the deck.  It is a soft sound and very peaceful.  I will share with you that these do not store the solar energy so once it is not in the sun it shuts down.  Ok with me I like it on a hot sunny day when I am out on the deck in the sunshine.

This is my friend Sandy's pretty deck and how she set her fountain up.  Since she did a movie I thought if you want to hear the water sound you can click on her movie. 
Thanks Sandy for letting me share this.  If you think my flowers are big and pretty!!! Oh my I will have to take pictures of her beautiful flowers sometime to share.  She is the flower fairy and her flower gardens are just gorgeous.

I also have this sweet hand painted nozzle for your garden hose.  I will add this to the solar fountain in this give away. 
Isn't it pretty.  I found these cute pink nozzles on Amazon awhile back.  I contacted a sweet lady on Etsy that paints pretty roses and she agreed to paint up the nozzles for me. 

I kept two for me and gave the other nozzles for Mother's Day gifts.  Lorena @ RoseChicFriends on Etsy  used an outdoor enamel paint to keep them from fading and coming off with all the water it would be exposed too.

After I asked her to paint the nozzles for me she asked me if she could take my idea and make these to sell on her blog. 

I said absolutely they are so cute and pretty and you are so talented and you have the special paint lol! 
Lorena then purchased some of these pink garden hose nozzles and painted them to sell on Etsy. 
Here is her Etsy Shop in case you do not win this one in the give away and would like one of these.  The make great gifts for the gardener in your life.

The best is yet to be is a great saying and this cute little painted sign with the aqua blue bike is too adorable.  Adding this to the fun package for the give away.

Soooo cute.  They were cute and pretty in just the pink but then I thought they needed to be even cuter!!!! So I thought I am going to ask a few of those talented ladies out there that can paint pretty flowers to see if one of them wanted to make my vision come true.
 I was so thrilled when Lorena contacted me back and said she would love to paint them and had a special enamel paint that would keep them from chippy with the watering.  I love how they came out.
This one is going to be in the giveaway package too.

Yep super cute for any of you summer girls or garden girls out there. 

Normally all you would have to do for my giveaway is to leave me a comment.  Easy Peasy is how I roll!!!

I am going to add just a little extra step this time. 

I love when we can pay it forward.  So please do something really nice and kind for someone.  We live in a world that is scary and violent and sometimes we all feel we have lost caring and valuing each other.
Sometimes when you could not imagine someone doing something nice or they share some kindness to you we get back to thinking there is good in people.

Do something really nice for someone and come back and leave me a comment.  If you want to share what you did that is beautiful if not and you want to keep it private that is ok too.

I think you are all caring angels in my book and probably do so much for others everyday of your lives.  Just try and do one extra little thing for someone today.  We share so much kindness and giving at the holidays but I think it is great to try and do it all the time.

So my angel warriors go do a special kindness and come back and leave me a comment and I will enter you into my giveaway.

We were almost done with the "dungeon" yesterday and disaster struck!!!! Literally struck Terry.  Thankfully he just got a few cuts on his arm and wrist from the disaster.  I will get into the disaster more when I post the reveal and let you know how we had to scrap plan A and do a plan B.
Have a super fun week.
Hugs
Kris

Blogging Thoughts and Country Curtains

Happy Friday.

How many of you were saddened when the news came out that Country Curtains was closing down and going out of business after many years of bringing us pretty curtains for our homes.  I for one was sad :(

They always had such a great selection of country style, cottage style, contemporary styles to choose from.  I have had their curtains in my home for years.  I always loved the quality and the prints.

Well no worries.  Country Curtains designs are back and sold now by Vermont Country Store.
So you can visit Vermont Country Store and look at the past and some new patterns of drapes that were carried by Country Curtains.
Yeah!!!

Please note I am not compensated for this shout out.  Just love their drapes and was excited to see they are now being carried at Vermont Country Store.  Just like to share great information with all of you.

The second part of this post I wanted to share some blogging thoughts with you and see what your feedback might be.

For a long time 

I have been thinking whether to keep my blog going.  A lot of bloggers I have come to know and have loved their blogs through the years have moved over to Instagram. 

I have found that in our life journey,  some people come into our lives and stay with us and others come along for a short time to teach us something or share some kind of life lesson with us.

I am amazed at the friendships formed with peeps you might have never met if it were not for this crazy arena called blog land!

I love Instagram but feel you lose something with the personal connections you have with blogging.

Just my thoughts on this.  

I love to post up on IG.   It is fun and you can capture a special moment and share it quickly.  I personally feel more of a connection with my blog posts.

Life is always changing and moving towards new and more inventive ways to get your story out there.

  

Blogging let me know there are others out there that like white, chippy and neutrals.   It also let me form wonderful friendships with people from all over the world.  

The crazy part is I have formed long lasting friendships with people that are not neutral and chippy lovers like myself.  

I have found their colorful styles are fun to see emerge in their decor.

I have met so many people from all over the world that I can now call friends.

  Without blogging these relationships would have never formed.  This is where I feel grateful to have started to blog over 7 years ago.

This is also why I struggle with the thought of  letting my blog go.  

It seems a lot of you are still with me and come to visit and share ideas and friendship when I post.

  So for now I will continue to post when I have something to share with all of you.

I know there are always struggles with social media and the always changing rules and issues.

  We bloggers are all dealing with the comment/email issue right now and privacy policies etc. but somehow we all seem to stay connected and help each other out when we can figure out solutions.

I am so computer not savvy!!!! When I get help from other blogger friends it always reassuring to know we all can share and help each other.

I have a personal Facebook page that I keep to stay in touch with family and friends but do not really get into FB as much as others.  

I feel comfortable with my blog and IG more than FB.  Saying this makes me feel like a dinosaur!  

I know everyone loves FB and it is the hip social media platform!  I just cannot get into FB on a full time basis.   I have the luxury to not feel compelled to be on FB because I do not have a business venture.  For some of you sweet entrepreneurs this is a big outlet for growing your names and  business's.

I still post pics on occasion on Instagram.  I just love blogging so much better.   

I feel a connection with others more here with blogging.  That is just my feelings on this.  What are your feelings about blogging, Instagram, and Facebook? Leave me a comment on what you think about blogs, IG, FB, Youtube etc.

We are getting to a good place with the "Dungeon" re love.  Unfortunately we have had a lot of rain which makes it hard to work outside on this project.  
I am hoping this weekend we might be able to finish up that area.  I will then show you how we transformed this Dungeon Staircase below.

Have a fabulous Weekend

Hugs,

Kris

Chippy Whites & Blogger Information

Hi Everyone.  

I had the old chippy porch column in the corner of the living room and it felt so lonely.  So the other day I found this chippy white birdhouse and beautiful angel wings to add to this space.

Lots of chippy white goodness on this sweet birdhouse.

It fills in this corner of the living room so nicely.

Some New Information and hopefully a little help to share! 

I want to share something that I have learned about the " Not getting comments from out blog posts into our emails" !!!!!

Apparently the powers that be are still working on the problem!!!!!  

Ok while we wait to see if this will ever get fixed.

  I was told that when you finish writing your blog post you can check Notify Me at the bottom of your post page and then each person that comments on your post will go into your email.  

Sounds great right?!!! Well it is except for the fact that when the comments come into your email they all come in as no reply bloggers.

 Again no worries!!!  If you have peeps emails saved in your address book you can just add the address to your reply.   So this is a almost good fix until they get the whole thing working right again.

Hope this helps any of you that are frustrated with not getting comments sent into your email.

Have a super rest of the week.
Hugs,
Kris

Best Nursery Flowers

A lot of you have emailed me asking me where I get my beautiful annuals each year.  

I have been using the same nursery for almost 25 years.  

The nursery I use is close to our first home where we lived for over 20 years and raise our daughters.  That is where my love of flowers began and this nursery never disappoints with the quality of their very own grown plants and flowers.

As you can see the selection is great and the colors are stunning.

As we moved further north with the next few homes,  I would still make the drive down each Spring to get my flowers.  So worth the ride.

There selection of beautiful annuals and perennials is amazing.

The gift shop inside is pretty amazing too.  Lots of unique garden decor.

I wish I had a sweet space in my garden for this pretty flower cart. 

In the back ground you can see how small the hanging baskets are in the Spring right when they open up the nursery.  With lots of love and good flower food they will grow.  They get such a great start with this nursery.

This is about the size they are in May when I start to purchase them for my garden.  Once you get them home and love on them and feed them they will triple in size.

Sunshine and lots of sweet love these beautiful hanging baskets will fill in quickly.

Who doesn't need a Cinderella Coach in their secret garden?!!

Or perhaps a statue for your garden.

Every Girl needs a sweet purse with flowers in it for the garden.

The colors are so vibrant.

In the fall they have a sweet little petty zoo and pumpkin farm for the kids.  It starts in September.  I take my two grand girls and they love it.

I am so happy with the Hydrangea's I planted.  This is the first time I have planted them.  I have always loved seeing the pretty bushes in other peeps yards.  So this is so exciting for me to finally have some of my own.

I love the pretty blue color.

This is my first clippings.  Don't you love to go out into your garden and clip flowers to bring inside.

My flower boxes out front are doing very well.  Everything if filling is so full already.

With all the rain we have had my poor hanging petunia's have taken a beating.  I have been dead heading and trying to dry them out.  I am hoping with the hot temps and sunshine expected this weekend it will help.

The flowers I put in my chippy planter on the deck are thriving.  The vines are growing like crazy.  They love all this rain we have had.

 I am getting really vibrant colors this year with my flowers.  I am trying a new Miracle Grow bloom and color booster feed and it seems to be working.

When I took the girls to Morris the town with cute shops the other day,  I found this cute Bloom pillow for my lounger.

Every summer girl needs a sweet lounger to read and soak up the sun. 
Lisa Harmon (Fabric 8 Slipcovers)  that sews my white indoor slipcovers has a sweet mom that sewed this lounge chair cover for me. I tell you those two are sewing diva's.  Both are sweet angels and I am so happy they are willing to sew pretty slipcovers for me.  I wish I could sew but that is not in my DNA!!!! 

Karen did the best job on making this slipcover for my favorite lounge chair. Thank you sweet Karen.

I hoped to have pictures of the "Dungeon" Re Love for you but with the rain this past week Terry and I did not get too much done on that space. 

He put on two coats of the paint and the rain moved in and washed most of it off.  He is repairing some cracks and will attempt to paint again this week end.  I have some ideas on what I will do to decorate the "Dungeon" space.  Hope to show you this after the weekend.

Have a great Friday and wonderful weekend.
xoxo
Kris

Re Love of the Dungeon

Happy Saturday Everyone.

Right beyond these patio rails is a dark secret place.

Right beyond looking down from the rails of our backyard deck is a dark hole I call the dungeon!

These steps lead down to the dungeon!

There it is the Dungeon.  The pathway leading to the downstairs entrance into our finished basement.  Scary, ugly, damp and gloomy! 

 It is in need of a makeover.  So Terry and I are working on this project this weekend. 

That is in between some wicked rain storms and other yard work.  Stay tuned I will have the after re love of this space to show you soon.  Just need this rain to hold off and let us work our "magic".

On a more above ground and brighter note.  Have any of you ever planted Brown Eyed Susan's?  I got these and would like to plant them in the backyard.

This is the backyard area I am thinking about.  See that clearing under the trees.  I was thinking there and then around this tree they are sitting in front of right now. 


They get light all day.  Hot sun in the late afternoon to sunset. 

 Have any of you ever planted these?  Do they get big and spread out?  How far apart should I put them and do you think these areas will be a good fit for them?

 I am slowly getting more and more perennials planted.  I thought they would give a smile to this back part of the yard. 

I need a little color back there and thought these might be a good fit.  So if any of you have ever planted these please share your thoughts.

Looks like they still do not have the comments coming into our emails fixed yet.  Ugh!!! This makes things so much more complicated and frustrating.

 Please know I read your comments and will leave replies to your comments and questions back here on the post.  So if you have asked a question or just want to see I have read your sweet comment you can come back to visit to see what I have replied back to you.

I hope they get this fixed soon.

Have a good weekend and I will be hopefully back soon to show you what we do with the "Dungeon"!!!
xoxo
Kris