Michigan House Trip and Flower Kick Off

Hello sweet bloggers.

I got back from our Michigan trip and it was so wonderful.  

The rain held off until Sunday afternoon when we were heading home.  

It was cloudy but we still walked on the beach and enjoyed the pretty cottage house.

I loved this front room.  It was decorated so cute.  As you can see not a lot of sunshine coming in those windows! No rain so it is all good with me.

All of her pretty furniture in each room was fabulous.

This was the other living room area.  I loved that this house had so many places to hang out.

You guys were all anxious to see what I bought.  Well it was these funky sunglasses!!!! 
Yep! no chippy shabby pretties found on this trip.
:( 
The purpose was to relax and enjoy the beach and house. 
I am not sure about you but when I go places like this I either find a million treasures to bring home or not much! 
I did get a few candles and little things along with the sunglasses. 
It was just a fun and relaxing trip.

The flowers are beginning at Junk Chic Cottage.  I got my flower boxes planted and also my bike basket done.  

The perennials are beginning to come back to life.  Pretty soon you will not see the dark mulch it will be filled with roses and hydrangeas and flowers.

It is a welcome sight to see everything coming back to life. 

We had a long winter and not too much of a Spring. 

Lots of rain but hoping the nice temps and the sunshine will start to be more often and the plants will thrive.

I will have to take pictures in about a month when everything fills in.

I am working on the back patio/deck.

 I am getting out my pretty lounge chair
and getting my flowers going back there. 

I hope to show you that soon.  With all the rain it has been hard to get everything planted.

Have a great rest of the week and a wonderful weekend.

Hugs,
Kris


PS:  I did find a beautiful treasure right before we went on our trip to Michigan.  I am working on it and hope to have that up to take pictures and show it soon.
xoxo

New Bedspread

Hello sweet friends.

I have another wonderful shout out to a very talented person on Etsy.

I needed a new bedspread and saw how she took chenille and ruffles and put them together to make an awesome bedspread.

This is the pretty pattern to the vintage chenille.

My bedroom is my sanctuary.  I love it to be calm and serene.  Using white keeps the room calm for me.

I love to have floppy white pillows that look messy on the bed.  No perfect placing for my pillows!

My photo bomber Buddy also wants to show you how much he loves the new bedspread.

Yep enjoying the softness of the chenille.

I love how the sunshine comes in this room in the late afternoon and early evening.

If you want to see some of the pretty items that Teri has to offer at her Etsy site called Simply French Market here is her card with all her information.

If white is not your thing and you need color this is not the bedroom for you.  I can add color like I did in the winter months with pillows and throws.

  For summer I love the white and sunshine for my room.  
Have a great weekend.  
Terry and I are off to Michigan.

If I do not answer back on your comments left it is because I am out of range of wifi.
I cannot wait to unplug and relax for a few days.

Hugs,

Kris

Flowers!!!!!

Hello Blogging Friends.

I am doing the Happy Dance and do you know why?!!!!

It is Flower Time here in my neck of the woods.

Finally Old Man Winter has let go of us here in Illinois.  Hopefully we will have a little Spring and then OH YES SUMMER!!!!

I went to my favorite nursery for my flowers on Mother's Day.
 
That is the tradition I have for My Mother's Day.
 
I start my planting on Mother's Day.

My two daughters and granddaughter's and I had pedicures and brunch on Saturday to celebrate Mother's Day.
That leaves us the actual day to rest, relax or do whatever we want.
I chose each year weather permitting to start my flowers.

This is my first trip.  It usually is two trips for me to get all the flowers.
Buddy was a bit concerned if there was going to be room in the car for him!

Okie Dokie!!! here is my Pottery Barn Story! 

As you know I custom ordered this sectional from Pottery Barn a while back. 
Almost all of their furniture is custom ordered.  Nothing in stock for immediate delivery.

I originally ordered it to fit in the room in a whole different way.
That did not work out as planned.

On top of it not really fitting in my small space the way I had envisioned,  I had some issues with the cushions and a couple of the covers.

To make a long story short I will never order something I cannot sit on or really have all the information on the warranty.

I ordered the high performance fabric for this piece.  It is guaranteed to hold up to every stain imaginable and clean like a dream!

Nope one of the cushions had a rip that I noticed where the pipping did not catch with the fabric.

Then Buddy ran in on a rainy day with mud on his paws and I used mild soap and water like they said and it took the mud off right away but I noticed as it dried it lightened the fabric where I cleaned.

Number 3 issue on the larger seat cushion it kept breaking down and going flat where we sat on it.  After only having the sectional for two months it looked worn and flat and uncomfortable.

I called customer service and they had me take pictures and send them the issues in an email.  Then it took them two weeks to get back to me on what they would do with the issues.  Their answer was to send out new covers and new cushions.
Ok good.
The problem is the cushions are doing the same thing.

Not Happy!

I thought this is not good.  I paid a lot of money for this sectional and was not happy with the quality of the cushions.

I decided to sell the piece and lucky for me I found a buyer that gave me almost what I paid for it new.  That was a welcome relief since I could not return a custom piece back to Pottery Barn no matter how unhappy I was.

So it has gone to a new home.

It was a sad lesson to learn on something so expensive.

So now what?!!!!!

I was on the site that I buy and sell items and saw this sweet Rachel Ashwell Shabby Chic Couture line loveseat up for sale.
This love seat sells for over $4,000 on her website.
I know crazy but if you ever sat on her pieces you would see how wonderful her furniture is.

Never in my lifetime did I ever think I would own one of her pieces with how expensive they are.

Well here she is.  More my style and fits so much better in the room. 
It opens up my window.

I am looking for a recliner for that open corner for Terry to be comfy and watch TV in this room with me.

I like having that window open it lets so much more light into this room.

Here is a picture of the couch from Rachel's Ashwell's site.  If you would like to see her collections you can go here.

Her furniture is made with down cushions and beautiful fabrics for slipcovers.

I have to say I lay on this couch at night and fall asleep many times it is that comfy.
Even Terry sat on it and said how comfy it is.

With how expensive these are I never thought I would ever own one of her pieces.

The lady I bought the loveseat from sold it to me for $400 and I tell you that was a bargain of a life time.

Finding this piece after being so upset with the PB sectional was a true blessing.

I still cannot believe I have this piece in my living room!

Now I am on the hunt for the perfect chair for Terry and I will add some pillows and fun decor and have that to show you in the future.

I debated on sharing my story but thought it might help one of you out there that might be thinking about buying a custom piece of furniture.

My suggestions after my experience is to make sure you can actually see the piece in the show room that you are ordering.  You can actually sit or lay on it.  Make sure you understand any warranties and company policies.

I got so tunnel visioned on the size being right for the room.  We measured and re measured and it was going to fit.  Nope not like we had hoped.

Pottery Barn also voids your warranty if you move or sell the piece to someone else.  I think that is terrible.
When you spend that kind of money and if they back their product the warranty should be in place no matter who has the sectional.
It blew my mind when the customer service person told me even if we moved from the house we are now and still had the sectional it would no longer be under warranty.

 What difference does it make where I live with the piece?  They should be guaranteeing the fabric and quality of the piece no matter where it is!!!!

That is crazy and one of the reasons I will never buy something so expensive from them again.

I have friends that have PB pieces and they love them. 
I am not bashing PB because I know they have nice pieces and probably many of you out their own something from PB and love it.

This was not my experience.
I should have never ordered something I could not see or sit on in the show room.  I also do not like their policy on their furniture and fabrics. 

 I hope my learning curve might help one of you thinking about buying something custom no matter if it is at Pottery Barn or another store.

My story ended well.  I was able to resale the sectional and was able to get the new RA Shabby Chic Couture Loveseat I have dreamed about.

Hope you all had a wonderful Mom's Day.
Enjoy the week ahead.
Off to plant more flowers.
Yeah!!!!
Hugs,
Kris

Small Business Shout Out

Hello Sweet Bloggers.

I ordered something new and wanted to share it with you.  

When I find talented small business's,  I like to give them a shout out if I really love their work.

  

This is one of those times.

I had an old ottoman. 

It did not have a slipcover.  That is way to sad!

 I went on Etsy to see if I could find one for my ottoman.

I found Becky from MyTymeCreations.  

She creates some of the prettiest slipcovers and pillows etc.

Becky is not sponsoring my blog in anyway for me to give her this shout out.
  

As most of you know that follow my blog,  I love to share people that are talented and run a small business.

This is the beautiful slipcover that Becky sewed for my ottoman.  I love the long drop ruffle. 

No judgements on the fact I let the wrinkles hang out instead of pulling out the ironing board!

 I hate to iron.  I may throw it in the dryer with my wrinkle remover setting!!!!

It is a light cream/ivory color.  Just perfect to compliment my beige sectional.

I am on the hunt for some pretty pillows to dress up the sectional. 

This sectional needs some pretty pillows to jazz her up a little!

I am thinking of prints to break up the plain.

I still have to keep to my love of neutral.

I threw this basket with some magazines and the beautiful angel gifted to me for my birthday from a wonderful friend.  I wanted to get some pictures to share so I just quickly did this vignette.  I am hoping on my trip next weekend I will find something unique to make a vignette for this ottoman.

Speaking of angels and special friends.  I wanted to show you another sweet angel gifted to me for my birthday.  She sits in my wreath on the kitchen window.  She makes me smile every morning.

If you like the slipcover Becky from MyTymeCreations made for my ottoman you can visit her Etsy Shop Here.  Thank you again Becky I love it.

Wishing all of you sweet Mother's out there a very nice day on Sunday.

Happy Mother's Day.

Hugs,

Kris

Bathroom Reveal

Hi sweet blogging friends.

I got my bathroom done to show you. 

I am sort of done.  There are some little things I still want to do in this tiny bathroom.

 It is amazing when you shop your house and just add a few new touches to the bathroom you can get a whole new look.

This is my offer up find.  Love this vintage dresser and mirror.  $85

I had a vision of this being my new vanity for the bathroom.

I finally found one small enough that would fit in my small space bathroom.

She got a new coat of white cabinet paint and some new hardware.

I know a lot of you loved this old vanity I had in this bathroom. 

I did too but the issue was storage.  

The only storage was the very bottom draw and the cabinet door area.
  
The other two drawers were blocked by the plumbing behind there and the drop in sink.  

I needed more storage!!!!

This sweet vintage dresser gives me all the draws and two sided cabinet for storage.

  Yeah!!!!

Along with her new white coat of paint she got a new vessel sink and new faucet.

 Keeping to a vessel sink did not take up drawer space below.

It gave us a farmhouse feel with the faucet I picked.

I had this mirror so I added it instead of the smaller mirror that was on the piece.  

This mirror was bigger and had a little more character.

Found this sweet farmhouse light in the clearance area at Menards for $15.

Yeah again!

I kept my same chippy post for hanging towels.

I was excited to find this smaller deeper vessel sink on Amazon.  

It left me with some counter space but still deep enough to wash up and brush your teeth.

I found these simple white handles at the hardware store.  Thought they matched nicely with the faucet and vessel sink.

I found this wallpaper at Wayfair.  Sale price $12 a roll.  
It is gray and white buffalo check.  

After I order it I worried it might be too big a pattern for this tiny bathroom.  

My fears were gone after Terry hung it.  

 I thought it was perfect since we did just the one wall.

The wallpaper gave this small room some character and pizazz! 

Not sure this old chippy piece I already had and the wreath will stay over this toilet.  

It is what I have until I find something fun and unique.  

Hoping I might find something when we go to Michigan for our weekend escape.

It fills in this spot until I can find something unique.

I might do some kind of cool shelves. 

The problem with shelves it starts a whole thing! Right?!!

 What to put on them in the bathroom that you want seen!! 

Plus what ever you put on them have to hold up to steam from the shower.

So here is a pic with me standing in the bathtub!!! 

Have you ever tried to get a good picture or a whole picture in a tiny bathroom? 

I think world peace might be easier!

I felt like I was standing on my head in the hall to get a shot of the vanity etc!!!

I am keeping my white shower curtain that I have had for a long time.  

I think from two houses ago.  

I am on the hunt for something with a pattern that will not clash with the wallpaper.  

If I cannot find a new curtain,  I am happy with the white shower curtain I currently have up. 

The most favorite part of the bathroom re do for Buddy is the plush bath mat. 

I find him rolling on it and napping on it quite a bit!
 
As you can see with the look on his face when I caught him rolling on the rug! 

"What I wasn't rolling on the bath mat"!!!!

With a new roll of wallpaper $12 and a $15 dollar light fixture, a new vessel sink and faucet under $70 and with a new vintage dresser for $85.  

I got a new look to my bathroom.

I think this is the first time I did a redo on a room that did not include painting walls!!!!!

When I find that perfect unique decor for above the toilet I will share it with  you.

Have a great Sunday and wonderful start to the new week.
Hugs,
Kris

Parties:
Dishing It   Digging It
Create, Bake, Grow and Gather Party

Vacation Rental

Hello sweet blog friends.

I am putting the new bathroom together to show you hopefully this weekend.  I am happy how it is coming together.

In the meantime,  I wanted to share with you a cute vacation rental that Terry and I will be staying at in a few weeks.  

We planned an escape from life weekend in May.  So need this!!!!! 

You know that I love the area and small towns along Lake Michigan in Michigan.  

It is only a 2 to 2.5 hour drive for us from Chicago.

This is the entry to this sweet cottage.  Hopefully in the middle of May when we visit some of this will be in bloom.

Gorgeous Front Porch.

So sweetly decorated.  This is definitely a "Kris" cottage!

It has beautiful doors and windows to let lots of light in.

This is just one of the sweet bedrooms in this home.

Lake Michigan at the back door.

This is a cute shop inside the old Fire Station in a neighboring town.  With Terry being a fire chief I thought this might be a fun place to visit. 

Fun places to eat.

Lots of the restaurants are right on the Lake.
I cannot wait to have our escape weekend in May.
It really does refresh your soul to have fun little trips like this.

Have a great rest of the week.
I hope to have the bathroom re do for you this weekend.
Hugs,
Kris