Happy Dad's Day

Good Sunday Morning.  It has been a beautiful sun filled week end here in the Midwest.  Loving every minute.

Hope all the wonderful dads have a great day today.

My hubby is on the golf course this morning and then our two daughters and granddaughter will join us later for dinner.

  Tim our son in law is working at his firefighter job today.  So I wish him a great Dad's day.  We hope to stop by the firehouse later to give him some hugs.  

 Terry is a wonderful husband and father and now grandfather and of course the most wonderful Mr. Junk Chic Cottage Ever!!!!!!

So Today I dedicate this post to him and all the  wonderful dads everywhere.

Thanks Terry for all you do for me, the girls, the community and our home.  You are a blessing in our lives.

Happy Father's Day
Kris
:)

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. 

Ana A Petite Cottage
June 14th 

Hi Everyone.

First and foremost I would like to thank Kris for the honor of "spotlighting" little ol' me in this week's Saturday Spotlights. Thank you Ms. Kris, it is truly an honor.

So here we go...

My name is Ana and I blog over at A Petite Cottage. I am currently majoring in domestic engineering and minoring as a Roadside Acquisition Specialist at the University of Life...Hee, Hee, Hee.

I have been married to Jose, the love of my life for 21 wonderful years this past May and we have a beautiful, smart and super funny daughter (currently attaining college but still living at home...Yay!!!) whose name is Briana.

The above is our most recent family portrait, commissioned and painted by me...It was just way too hard with work and school schedules, to get all of us together to get our picture taken in a studio so, I decided to take matters into my own hands. The only one missing from our family portrait is....

Cookie, our petite, 14 year old fur baby. She's soooo cute,  isn't she?

Anyway, we all share our very petite but very comfy and full of love cottage overlooking the bay. Over the years it has under gone many transformations...transforming from a simple little house to our Cottage Sweet Cottage.

Living room one side

Living room opposite side

Dining room.

Master bedroom one side.

Master bedroom opposite side.

Kitchen.

Computer room/petite den.

Little corner out on our front porch.

I am truly the happiest when I am with my family and when I am being creative and/or creating. I have a Fashion Design and Merchandise degree from FCC, so I guess you can say design has always been in my blood. Although I am a stay at home mom and wife...by choice I may add...I can still put into practice a lot of what I learned in my own home. I love to decorate and redecorate our home. There is truly nothing better than watching my family's expressions when they walk into a newly reorganized and redecorated room.

A few years ago I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and even though my condition prevents me a majority of the time from doing as much as I was able to do before, it hasn't stopped me completely. I love creating, decorating, sewing, crocheting and crafting way too much to let it stop me...I've just had to learned to rely more on God, less on me and to work around it. 

Some of my other loves include blogging, of course, thrift shopping and stopping at yard sales...Ooh, love the thrill of the hunt. I love, love, love Mexican food, the spicier the better, I always say :-) And on my down time I love to sit and watch television with my hubby. Criminal investigation/Detective and Sci Fi shows are our favorites. But above all and over anything else I love, love, love being a Wife, Mother and a Child of God.

As I close off, I would like to say that I have been blogging for 5 years and the friends I have made along the way have brought so much joy to my life. Never in a million years did I ever think I would have met so many kindred spirits, kind, caring supportive souls who I feel very blessed to be able to call friends.

Thank you all for stopping by and thank you again Kris for this opportunity. 

Wishing everyone a wonderfully creative day.

Hugs and Kisses,

❤️Ana

Thank you Ana.  I love your blog and was so excited you said yes to sharing yourself with all of us.  It was fun to get to know you better.  Your hubby, daughter and fur baby family are adorable.  Love the self portrait you did.  It is beautiful.

Now that you have gotten to know Ana please hope over to Susan's blog and meet another wonderful blogger Cindy from Cynthia Lee Designs.  Enjoy the week end.

Kris

:)

Midwest Summer

It has been a beautiful Midwest Summer week.

Hope your summer is fabulous so far.

My blooms in the garden are really taking hold.  They are loving this milder weather and lots of sunshine.

Loving my time spent on my deck lounger reading and soaking up some sun.

Midwest summers are the best.  After the harsh winter it is so nice to have our summer finally.



FYI:
A lot of you have emailed me about what kind of plants I have in some of my planters.
They are all sun loving annuals that need 6+ hours a day of sun.  My deck gets sun almost all day and all afternoon.   The front of the house is Western exposure so it gets sun from noon till sun set.  So both the back of the home and the front need sun loving flowers and plants.

Most of the flowers are Bidens, Petunias and Verbena.  They mix very well together and enjoy each other's company.

Some of the front and back of the house have Lantana and Golden Stars.
Most of the flowers I pick have to be full sun plants and live amongst each other nicely.
So far so good and they are thriving.
Good meal of Miracle Grow plant food and bloom booster at least once a week helps them to get such beautiful color and size.

The colors are just so vibrant this season.

Hoping your summer is wonderful so far.  Make sure you come back Saturday for Spotlight.  Susan and I have two wonderful bloggers for you to get to know better.

Enjoy the week end.
Kris

Sharing with Fabulously Creative Friday Party

Casa da Sogno Feature

I wanted to share some exciting international news I received.  I was honored to have my home featured in the Italian version of Romantic Homes called Casa da Sogno. 

I was hoping when Francesca asked me to be interviewed for the feature it would involve some airline tickets!  Nope, we did it through the modern convenience of email.  Darn!

 You cannot get a copy of this here in the US but Francesca the editor sent me this pdf so I could view my magazine feature.  So I will share it with you what she sent me.

Grazie! Casa da Sogno and Francesca.    I translated some of the feature and Francesca said really nice things about my style and home.  So now I am feeling so international! 

  I just find it so amazing that we can all come from different life styles and customs, speak different languages and still share in common, the love of chippy and shabby treasures and we share the appeal of re-loving these wonderful things into our homes. 

Have a great day and thank you for your visit.  I am feeling the need to go now and cook some spaghetti and meat balls!

Kris

:)

Update On Painted Blue Porch

Hi Everyone.  Hope the new week is starting out great for all of you.

Just wanted to show a little update to the new painted pretty blue porch.  You can see the post on the painted porch here.

Painted the ugly cement porch blue over the week end and it needed a new rug.

Found this cute yellow and white one at Home Goods.

Yep I am liking the way it sets off the blue porch and brings out the yellow in the front cottage door.

Gotta Love Home Goods.  Only $9.99 for this great rug.

Have a great start to the new week.  It was so pretty today.  Sunshine and 80.  Gorgeous summer time weather for us.
Have a wonderful week.
Kris
:)

When Is A Porch Just A Porch And When Is A Porch Just Pretty

While I was out watering I

 looked at my front porch and thought to myself wow it is so boring and no character or personality to it.  I have all these pretty flowers, a yellow front door that screams summer and then this cement porch that is just, well a cement porch.

This porch is nothing special actually pretty dull and boring.  I hate to use this word but just Ugly!

This porch needs a little pizzaz to show off the chippy bench and flowers. 

Step One:  Power washed the porch and steps.

Then went to Home Depot and found some Behr restoration paint for decks and porches.

This is the product we used.  I was in no way given any compensation for showing you this. I wish Behr would since I use so much of their paints LOL!  We just loved how easy it went on and how well it covered.  So wanted to show you what we used.

I had yellow in mind with the yellow front door but could not get this product in yellow so went with Colony Blue that is almost the same color as the Vintage Cottage Nest Door with planter.  No primmer needed with this product which saved a step of having to prime the cement. This porch paint is just applied onto a clean

 dry surface.

This is the first coat.  It went on very easy and then we let it dry for a few hours before the final coat.
Pretty easy peasy to get a little bit nicer look on the porch.

There you have it.  Just a easy little spruce up to a dull cement front porch.
I need to find a cute rug now.  I will be off to HomeGoods and Target to see what I might find.

Love how the painted porch sets off the chippy bench.

Summer Bike Rental is available.

Oh how I love summer.

Just a little FYI before I say good bye.  There is a lovely family of baby sparrows living in my birdhouse.  I hear their little voices chirping in there.

This is Dad he watches intently to what is going on around his little family.  He is pretty good and leaves the roof of the birdhouse to sit on the roof of our home while I water.  Then when I am done he is back to guarding his wife and new babies.
Love all the new life in the summer garden.

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

Parties this week:
Show and Share with Linda Coastal Charm
Inspire Me Tuesday with Marty
Amaze Me Mondays with Cindy

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. 

Mary from My dogs My Garden And Mary
June 7

This week's spotlight is of Mary from My Dogs My Garden and Mary blog.  Mary is fairly new to blogland and has a beautiful blog.  So after getting to know Mary in Spotlight please hop over to check our her blog.  Mary has become a very good friend to me and my blog.  You will love getting to know her.

First, I would like to thank Kris from "JUNK CHIC COTTAGE" for featuring me today as part of her Saturday Spotlight:  "LIFE BEHIND THE BLOGGER SERIES".  I feel so honored to be asked since I am so new to blogging.

My name is Mary Ferguson of mydogsmygardenandmary.  I was born in Clifton Forge, Virginia.  My mother was visiting her sister and the farm where she was born, when mom went into labor before she was due and I made my early entrance.  My parents were living in Cleveland, Ohio.

Every summer I would spend my vacation between my Aunt Nell's house and the farm in Springwood, Virginia.  Oh, what fun I had and the wonderful memories with my cousins, swimming in the James River, picking cherries and playing all day.

Graduation picture

After graduation and living in the cold Midwest, until I was 21, I wanted to go where it was warm - so being very adventurous my girlfriend and I hit the road for sunny California.  We had so much fun traveling across country and seeing the sights. I got a great job in Los Angeles and met my Prince Charming and got married.

But that only lasted 8 years and then we divorced.  We had a wonderful son, Shaun who lives in Los Gatos, CA along with his daughter Kelly.  Kelly will be 12 in October and of course is grandma's girl.

Kelly and Shaun in Hawaii having a wonderful hamburger.

I was a stay-at-home mom until Shaun turned 5 years old and then I had to go to work to support my son and father.  Eventually I worked my way up to Director of Sales and Catering in the hotel industry for 14 years.  I have to say I loved my jobs and my career path took me to many famous places and a introduction to a wealth of interesting people.  Met President Ford and numerous entertainers that stayed at the hotel.

My home is a little yellow cottage in Fullerton, CA, and was built in 1955.  My room mates are, Waldo - a Border Collie and Lili a Dalmatian/Lab mix.  Both of my dogs were rescued and are my best friends.

Waldo and Lili taking a nap

Waiting for their dinner - looks like they are starving LOL

Opportunity knocked on my door to go and work for a large manufacturing company that made

fabricating equipment.  They offered me the position of Trade Show Manager and Meeting Planner.  I also managed their Travel Department and set-up all in house shows, trade shows, and all employees and customers travel arrangements.  Through this job I was able to travel to many countries and throughout the United States.

I was appointed the first woman chairperson for the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and Metal Forming Association for exhibits.  I felt very honored to hold this position since it was a "good old boys industry", yea for women!

My employment lasted over 19 years and then I was laid off due to 9/11 and the very slow economy.  150 jobs were lost due to many of our customers losing their businesses.  I then settled into retirement (which I hated) so I threw myself into gardening and re-decorating my home.  But, after 4 months I needed to go back to work as I was so bored.  I had a little craft business "Fergies Fineries" , which I did very well, but I missed being around people.  So back to hotel sales for 5 more years.  I have to say I loved my job, and was very happy meeting people and traveling again.

But as fate would have it I became very ill and ended up the the hospital with pneumonia, kidney failure, asthma and bronchitis.  WOW was I ever sick!  But I got well only to find out that I now had COPD.  You know that commercial with the elephant is sitting on your chest - well when that hits you, you have to take it easy and rest.

My hydrangea's in bloom - very early this year - the white ones are the mopheads

Again, here we go  - I was so bored and my dearest friend Phyllis from"aroundthehouse" got me interested in reading her blog and a few others.  Loved reading all the blogs but I didn't know how to post.  One day Phyllis came over and we sat down at my computer and spent hours teaching me how to post.  I can truly say that I love this terrific journey, meeting so many wonderful, caring people.  I have only been posting for 16 months and I can't image not blogging.  It has renewed my interest in so many interesting things.

My dinning and living rooms

Just a few of my roses that the wind and HOT weather didn't destroy along with Feverfew flowers.  I like the Feverfew flowers as fillers for my bouquets.

Again, thank you Kris for Spotlighting me on "LIFE BEHIND THE BLOGGERS SERIES"


Thank you Mary for sharing your personal side with us.  Love Waldo and Lili they are too adorable.  Now that you have gotten to know Mary please hop over to Susan's blog and meet another wonderful blogger Donna Distressed Donna Down Home.
Have a great Saturday everyone.
Kris
:)