A Thank You Give-Away

This thank you is way overdo! I have appreciated your support for my crochet work whether it be via your compliments, your comments, and/or your purchases. Selling publicly was a BIG, BIG step for me. Unbeknown to you, I used the profit from my Etsy sales to give an additional donation to my church for the building of a beautiful youth center. This wonderful facility was completed this past year. Many students from our community enjoy fellowship there and hear the gospel of God's love for them. Thank you so much!

As a small token of how much I appreciate you, I would like to give away this crocheted afghan made in cheerful cottage colors. It's a small size to keep your lap warm or decorate your cottage.

Some extra goodies will be added to it too.

To put your name in the hat, just leave a comment in this post. If you don't have a blog identity, you must leave an email address. I will keep the drawing open until Thursday, November 12; midnight, EST.

Again, thank you for your visits and comments.

I couldn't have done this without you!
XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

A Wedding Weekend

We spent the weekend in Orlando to attend the wedding of a couple very dear to us. The bride was as beautiful as I expected, and the groom was as handsome as ever. My youngest son served as the best man. He looked very dapper too......and I forgot my camera! All the photos were taken with our phone.

We stayed at a beautiful resort where the reception was held. Are you always eager as I am to see what your room is going to look like? I was not disappointed.



The weather was beautiful, as was our view from our 11th floor room.

We partied like we were 20 years old and woke up feeling like 80 years old. LOL No regrets. It was a grand event to celebrate. We would not have missed it for the world. Wishing the bride and groom God's very best blessings for their marriage.

I have the office to finish putting back together, tons of files to sort through and toss. Hello Monday. How was your weekend?

It is Very, Very Quiet!

It is very, very quiet in our office and my desk has been dismantled. I took an unintended blogging break while we redid our office with new carpet and desks. Mr. H and I could not take the clicking, clicking, clicking of the dog nails on the parquet floor any longer! He works full time in this home office and it was not making for a very professional atmosphere while on conference calls. It was also wearing on our nerves. We packed up everything in the office, and then placed it all over the house until the commercial carpet was installed--furniture, boxes, and zillions of books. My desk gets delivered today and I will do a full reveal next week when things are in place.

Here is what has been going on while we were busy working. The house was a mine field of fun for the cats. The kitties saw all of it as their personal jungle gym. They have played and played, and then played some more.

Finnegan wants to know how Chelsea got in that box. The poor dear kept scratching on the outside trying to get her.

They love playing under Mr. H's new desk. Our old desks were not accessible this way.

Here's a sneak peak of Mr. H's side and his new desk. Notice the Scotties are already back on their daily patrol. Construction did not deter them one bit. They were relieved I was leaving the bench for them so they could stay employed too.

Sawyer says come back next week to see the rest. No more clicking of 12 paws!!!! Yeah!!!!!!!

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A big thank you to Tina of Cherry Hill Cottage for choosing Lallee's Cottage in her top ten of cottage style blogs on blog.com. What a wonderful surprise!!! I love visiting her blog and seeing her wonderful decorating.....and then there are her wonderful recipes. I've made her Heavenly Cake three times recently. I now sport heavenly wide hips to prove it. Unbeknown to Tina, I invited friends over this evening to try her Chocolate Cobbler. My friends said, "Chocolate what?" They're British. I said I was sure we would need some vanilla ice cream to cut the chocolate ;-) Thank you, Tina. I will be saluting you tonight!

So What Did I Decide?

My dear, dear blogging friends. You are the best! Thank you so much for all your suggestions and thoughts for the two pieces of furniture I was contemplating painting. It was huge help in moving me toward a decision. So.......here is what I decided. The little oval table will stay just as it is. I agree that painting would make it too dark and it would be lost. I love the details around the edges and didn't want to lose that part. Next, notice that the desk is no longer behind the sofa. It has been moved to another room and this table has been ordered as a replacement. I think it will go nicely.

Becky asked what about putting some pillows on the couch. Well Becky, I snorted laughing when I read your comment because it was from you of all people. That's because I have a pillow bandit in the house. I actually do have an assortment of pillows that belong on the couch. I forgot to put them back on when I was taking the photos last week. You see, the Pillow Bandit continually knocks all the pillows on the floor!!!! You'll never guess who it might be--none other than Oliver. Ollie, put your ears back up, you're not in trouble. I just had to explain to Becky. Somehow I know she understands about my plain looking couch now ;-)

Now, let's go see where that desk went to. Let's walk back to the studio.

The desk/dresser is now where I always wanted it to be. I already had the matching dresser and nightstand back here. I justed needed for hubby to remove some equipment he had back here to make room.

I still plan to do some furniture painting--bright colors painting. This is my cheerful get-away room, and the space I am really free to do just what I want. Let me say though, I am slow about getting furniture painting done. I'll get to it probably long after you've forgotten this post. LOL If you look in the dictionary, you'll see my photo by the word procrastination.

I did some cleaning up while I was back here--still playing with the set up. I'm going to try to keep the table under the window less cluttered so that it remains a true work space. I would like to remove the covers on it and then cover just the top with maybe some oilcloth. Right now I have shipping boxes stored below which aren't too pretty. I need to clean out a hall closet and then hopefully they will store there instead.

The studio remains a work in progress, but this made me feel a step closer to how I want it to look and function.

Again, BIG THANK YOU for helping me think all this through. You must come back because I am putting together a give-away for you precious friends! Don't forget!

To Paint or Not to Paint

To paint or not to paint--that is the question.

I've been debating for a very long time about painting my two white pieces of furniture in the living room black. My style has always been somewhat eclectic so my tables are a real mix of styles. The above photo gives you the overall look. So.....I bring the question to you my blogger friends because I want conflicting answers just to add to my indecision ;-) So let's see what you think. Let's start with the oval table which was a thrift buy I repainted many years ago. (You can click on any picture to enlarge.) This shows it with the accompanying tables.

And here is a better close-up. To me it looks kind of too feminine with my large pieces.

And then there is this dresser from my childhood that serves as a sofa table/desk. Ignore the lack of decor on it--something to do about it being a launching pad for kitties bounding over the couch.....but lets not go there. This piece bothers me the most being white (antiqued actually). It looks way too feminine ever since we bought the large leather couch. Besides black, a subdued red would be another possible color choice.

Here are two very crude photoshopped pics of the desk in black and in red. I do want to mention that this room gets lots of light. My pictures always look darker due to the light coming in from the porch area. (I would be changing the chair cover to something more appropriate.)

OK, let's have your thoughts. To paint or not to paint--that is the question. I'll answer first: I'm leaning towards black. Now your turn. Confuse me!

Chelsea Does Art

Remember when I was doing the bathroom makeover recently and part of the decision making was choosing a new toilet paper holder? Well I thought I had found the cat's meow with the above design. After it was installed I decided I would never have another holder that has the springy thing that you put the roll on. You know--the ones that spring themselves across the room when you're trying to put new paper on? With this style it just slips right on. No more wars over who replaces the roll. Well, it also rolls faster and Miss Chelsea Ann Babycakes discovered this little fact. The toilet paper is now a cat toy.

In addition to rolling off reams of paper, Chelsea has learned that she can do art with the tissue. The toilet paper is now her blank canvas. She's a real Picasso I tell you. Take a look.

She's especially into self portraits. You can see it if you look closer. Here, I'll adjust the levels of the photo so you can see the details better. Do you see her kitty face there?

I was a spoil sport and shooed her away......but she came back and finished her masterpiece once I was gone.

Anyone want a signed copy before her prices skyrocket? She's right proud of herself.

A Slice of Heaven

Please, won't you have a little (or big) slice of heaven with me? I found this wonderful.....gooey........oh my goodness.....delicious in your mouth.....recipe for Heavenly Cake over at Tina's of Cherry Hill Cottage. It is so easy to make and you might already have the needed ingredients on hand. You could make your own right away. I would love to share with you, but you better hurry real fast and get here. This cake doesn't last long. Oh, and I might add that I refrigerate left overs and then microwave a slice for 20 seconds before serving to get it gooey good again. And um, vanilla ice cream on top doesn't spoil it a bit.

My ladies Bible study group started back up this week and it was so good to be back together. It just seemed appropriate to take along some Heavenly Cake to serve and kick off the new year together.

Have a great weekend everyone! Enjoy your favorite team's football game. Hope you win.....unless you're playing the Florida Gators of course ;-) Tailgating? Take some Heavenly Cake but be prepared to beat the fans and foes off. Thank you Tina for such a delicious dessert.