Happy June

Just a fun post on past summer garden pictures  from Junk Chic Cottage.

Gotta love an old chippy watering can and chippy iron bench for summer.  This was a bench I had on our front porch of the Lake Zurich Cottage.  Loved that chippy yellow watering can.

Speaking of watering cans here is an old collection of mine.  What is it about old watering cans?! Loved my pink garden boots.

A nicely painted watering can in a garden is a must.

There is nothing like an old painted birdhouse in a garden of roses.

Sometimes a birdhouse and picket fence make for a great backdrop for lovely summer petunia's.

I had this painted garden tour sign in a few of my summer gardens.

I loved my vintage bike which I  added into my garden decor each year.

These next few pictures are of the different looks and covers of my special lounge chair.  I have to say my most favorite part of summer is relaxing on this great summer lounge chair.

This was on my old deck at the Lake Zurich home.  I love that chandelier that hung out there by my lounge chair.  Was so pretty and romantic to have it lite up at night.

This was another summer with a different lounge cover on this chair.  I also loved those old vintage doors that I had behind my lounge chair that summer too.

It was always so much fun to try different decor and flowers around my lounge chair each summer.

This particular summer I used an old vintage headboard and foot board around my lounge chair.  It gave some whimsy to my lounge chair that summer.

This was my pretty cover that was made out of a twin coverlet.  I had this cover on the lounge chair when we moved into the town house.

I added this vintage side table next to the lounge chair.

Even with having a small outdoor space at the townhouse I still was able to create a small sanctuary space for my lounger.

This of course is my lounge chair this summer  on our new deck at out cottage home.

Of course a sweet garden hat and good reading material is always a must with a nice relaxing lounge chair.

Thanks for reminiscing with me on some of my past garden pictures.
Happy June.  So happy summer is here with great weather, relaxing on my lounge chair and enjoying my flowers.

Have a great weekend.
xoxo
Kris

OK I think I got this!!!!!!!

Hi Everyone.

Oh my gosh I have been so confused on all of this privacy policy stuff and what in the heck is going on with my not getting your comments left on my post into my email!!!!

I am not a computer expert in any way.  There are so many more of you out there that get this stuff so much better.

Since I have had a lot of people contact me about all of this since I put this issue up on my last post I thought I would clear up a few things I have learned since then and share it with all of you in this post.

Ok apparently we all have to have a privacy policy embedded on our blogs.  So I have done that with some help.

Here are a few places you can go to make up your privacy policy and add it to your blog.  I did mine on my blog in my header through adding a gadget on blogger.  For word press I am not sure.  Maybe if you are on word press you could contact another blogger on there that has done this to see how they put it on their blog.

The two sites that I know of are:

privacypolicies.com

disclosurepolicy.org 

Thank you Julie from Creative Lifestyle for sharing these.  Very helpful.

Apparently EU residents are  residents that are part of the European Union outside of the United States.  Not sure which countries this all involves but these people that read our blogs will automatically see the cookies footer.  Blogger has taken care of that automatically. 
From what I have been  told the privacy policy is most important and Google put up a banner that targets EU residents too, so supposedly we don’t need another cookie banner. 

The EU is being strict on the law that we must inform those readers about the cookies.  Apparently this is not a law in the US yet so by me putting the cookie footer on my blog was probably over kill!!!!!

Now for the email issue with blogger.  When you leave a comment on my post it usually would then come into my email and I could then respond to your questions or comments that way.  It was a perfect system.  

For whatever reason that is not happening anymore.  I have heard they are trying to fix this issue.  

So I want to let all of you know.  I so appreciate when you come on to my blog and leave me comments.  I have always loved that I could respond back to all of you through email.  I could answer any questions and most of all share friendship and let you know I read your comment and appreciate your kindness that you left through the comment.

So until that gets fixed if it ever gets fixed!!!!!  If you come back to my blog after leaving a comment I will reply to you on the post.  If I have your personal email I will then try to respond to your questions or comments that way.  

Please know I appreciate your taking time to leave your comments and share your thoughts.  It means a lot to me.  So until they get this issue fixed I will still try to check back to my posts and comments and leave replies there.

Hope this helped some of you that are like me and get so frustrated and confused with this stuff with blogging.

I wish they could just leave well enough alone.  I guess like everything else in life things have to change!

Have a great rest of the week.  

Hugs,

Kris

Front Gardens

Hi Everyone,

Hope the holiday weekend was wonderful.

It is nice to remember all those who are serving now and have served in the past to keep us free.

I want to show you my front yard flowers.

First before I show you the front.  I came home from vacation and my hanging basket petunia's on the deck area have doubled in size.  They love the heat, sun and rain we had last week.  So happy to see them doing so well.

My chippy iron planter's flowers are filling in  nicely too.

In the front of the house I planted a lot of perennials this year.  It looks pretty green right now but in another month the front of the house will be blooming with lots of new colors.

Terry and I are planning out a new project with the front steps that lead down to the street and the front sidewalk and porch.  As you can see in this picture the sidewalk and steps are cracked and falling apart.  They are original to the house and are in need of repair.  With cement being so expensive and the work to pull out all of the cement that is cracked,  Terry and I put on our design caps and have come up with a solution we hope to start working on soon.  When we get this done I will be excited to show you the results.  Sometimes you have to think outside the box!

I have been filling in with hydrangea's, flowering bushes, hostas and knock out roses.  As summer continues I know these plants will become bigger and fill in the open spaces with pretty color.

This year I planted my flower boxes with lots of greens and more natural growing annuals.  I liked the mix of yellows, blues and whites.

This is one of my special birdbaths.  I have had this one in all of my past gardens.  The robins love to play and splash in this sweet angels bath.

I have my sweet vintage Schwin bike I got for $20 out in the garden.  

You will be so proud of me!  I left this sweet bike all natural and original.  I was thinking about painting it but decided I like her in her original state.

These are the flowers this year in my tiny cottage garden.  I love that this little home is dressed for summer with some pretty blooms.  

Just enough to let me put my hands in the dirt and create a nice area for new life to bloom.  Very manageable.  Just a sweet little garden space in the front and back of my home.

How are your flowers coming along for Summer?  This is my time of year and I just love to see these pretty blooms growing and flourishing.  Have a great week.

PS:

Apparently blogger is having an issue with sending your comments into my email.  This is a problem across blogger.  So please know I am not ignoring your comments.  I am reading them.  Because they do not come into my email right now I have no way to reply by email to each of you.  It is frustrating and I hope they get this glitch fixed soon.

I also had to figure out the cookie notification footer and how to get that up on my blog. I also had to post a privacy policy.  Apparently I am learning that even if you do not advertise on your blog you still have to have the cookie disclaimer which you should see at the bottom of my blog.  If you click on it to acknowledge you saw it,  it should not pop up again when you visit.

We have been told if we do not do the disclaimer and the privacy policy,  blogger can shut down our blogs.  Apparently this is a law and they are being very strict about this policy.  For those of you that use advertising on your blogs will already know you have to have this cookies disclaimer.  It never was enforced with all of us regular and web press bloggers that do not advertise.  Now it has to be on all blogs.  Just happy I could figure out how to do this with the help of a blogger friend.

Happy Memorial Day

source

Happy Memorial Day
Hope you enjoy this beautiful day.
Let's remember those who fought for our freedom so we could enjoy this beautiful day.
Enjoy!

Summer and Flowers and a Deck

  I am so happy to finally have Spring weather and finally able to plant some flowers and get our backyard done.

This was our hot mess in the backyard before they poured the new driveway and built the garage.

After we had the new drive way poured and the new garage built we still had a mud pit in the backyard after winter.  We were literally walking the planks every time we had to go to the garage.  The little bit of grass that was left after construction was not good.

We had new grass put in and some stone put down where the new deck was going to be built by Terry.

Terry decided to build our deck himself.  We got bids from different places to have a new deck or cement patio put in but the bids were in the high thousands to put in a simple deck or patio!!! Yep projects like this in Illinois and the area we live are soooo expensive.

So Terry said he would figure out a new deck area and build it himself.  So he began to frame it out.  He framed it over the stone and weed protection.

We wanted to use composite decking for the no maintenance it gives.  We have had decks in the past made of wood and every year it would need to be sanded and painted or re stained.  With our harsh winters and all the watering I did with plants on the deck it was a pain to maintain a wood deck.  So composite looks like wood but there is absolutely no maintenance.

Here is our new deck that Terry designed and built.   I love this man and his tools.  Now we have a sweet spot to eat El Fresco and I have my lounge chair space to soak up sunshine and read.  The new rails and posts leading to the down stairs entrance is made of composite too.  We literally have nothing to do to maintain this look.   I am so happy with how this turned out.

It is so nice to have space for my flowers too.

The composite railing system is a nice touch and maintenance free too.  This sweet chippy vintage planter was given to me for my birthday from a couple of good friends.  I love it out on my new deck.  It was fun to plant these flowers in this new planter.  Thank you Pat and Sandy for this sweet gift.

I found these cute little green and white polka dot boots on clearance at Target.  I thought they were so cute to put out on the deck.

Terry also built these arbor trellis's at each corner of the back of the deck so I could have a couple of hanging baskets.

He built two of these.  One on each corner of the deck.

Back view of the trellis.

I also planted rose bushes at each side of the arbors.  Out along the fence I planted several hydrangea plants along the fence.  

I have always wanted to have hydrangea's and now I have them.  I hope as time goes on they will grow to be big and beautiful.

I am so excited to have an area for my sweet lounge chair.  

I love to soak up sunshine and read.  This lounger is such a relaxing retreat for me.

I am looking for a water fall decor piece for the patio.  I love to listen to the sound of water.  Soooo relaxing.

I love my small sanctuary out here.

I brought a few of my angels out to the patio for  the summer.

We also purchased a new outdoor table to eat El Fresco this summer.

Nice and comfy to sit and enjoy dinner or sit later in the evening to just relax and have a glass of wine.  I want to find some fun lights to string out here. 

I am on the hunt for a really sweet and unique patio umbrella.  I want something pretty with a pattern.  So if any of you have seen any pretty umbrella's let me know. 

I saw a cute buffalo check umbrella at Target but it has been sold out in stores and on line.  Hoping they might get more of those back in.

So there you have it.  A simple deck sanctuary made by Terry and his handy tools.  I have a place for a few flowers, my lounge chair and we have a nice little area to eat dinner outdoors.

My tiny cottage home now has an outdoor space for our use this summer.

We have come a long way from this hot mess.

One more thing to share before I close this post.  Remember my chippy cute chair.   I found a sweet chippy table to compliment this cute chippy chair.

I got this sweet table from Jeanine at Chippy Shabby's  sale at her home a while back.  Just the most unique and cutest little table ever!

I am off to Orlando and the "Happiest Place on Earth"  Hoping the tropical storm that is moving through the state this past week will weaken and move out.  We are looking at possible rain all next week while we are there.  Ugh!!!

We usually go this time of year to Florida because the weather is so beautiful.  Not a lot of rain and it is not hot and humid yet.  So I guess it is crazy weather every where this year.  We will make the best of it.

Terry's grandmother always said to hang a rosary in the window if it looks rainy and you want sunshine.  So I have her special rosary she gifted me before she passed. 

I am taking it with us and most certainly will be hanging it in the window!

Prayers please for some good weather.

Have a great week.  I will have the front yard flowers to share with you when I get back from our vacation.

Hugs,
Kris

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