Just a Few of My Projects

A Sun-Porch Renewed!

Welcome!

Please come in and take a look around.

Back porch Entrance A great landscape we found tucked away in the basement. Simple pillows were added to the sofa for color and comfort.

Back Door drop area. I love these antique yard tools and this cute basket. Angie's brilliant Idea:

We had originally purchased a quilt to cover the ottoman in-front of the sofa. Angie went back to the store and they had got in the matching pillow shams. (Ding, Ding.) Great thought... we will make cute cushions for the adorable dining chairs. She bought a king sham for the bench and 3 standard shams for the chairs, we tied the backs with teal chenille ribbon and they really turned out cute and saved us a lot of money. Love these ornate white metal vases.

Angie and Aaron had this Larger Shelf custom built over the windows on the main wall. It is a great place to showcase some fun accessories that will help tie in with your room.

So we jammed it full of fabulous finds in all of the colors of the room.

The polka-dot books are just a few of my favorites.

Yes... This is a close-up of the fabulous wind chime that we purchased downtown. It was made by a local artist. I will try and get you more pictures of these wind chimes because I was totally impressed with these clever works of art. They are made out of all things silver. The shop owners husband creates them and he make them out of butter dishes, silverware, teapots, plates and so much more. You have the option of bird feeders or wind chimes. We went with the wind chime made with silverware, it's perfect over the porch dining table.

I just love it and I hope you do too! The porch dining table

I love these little clay pots, you can put anything in them.

So the corner of the porch was kinda bare, and was in need of texture and some height. So... we built this tree. It turned out pretty cool, we bought the copper bucket at the antique mall and Angie filled it with rocks. Blake and I pulled some branches that my hubby cut down a few weeks ago, out of the woods. I tied the branches together and attached them to the back wall with wire. Then, I tied small floral sprays to the smaller branches, added a nest and a beautiful wind chime that my adorable niece Taylor made at art camp and whalaa! Texture, Height and Free!

All things needed in Good Design.

The wind chime that Taylor made in Art Camp. Isn't it beautiful.

(Okay, I have no idea what happened with the next pictures and text. My layout is messed up so sorry if this next part gets a little confusing.)

This bench sits next to the door going out to the patio. This offers a great spot for gardening tools and a garden hat. This old painted shutter was turned into a set of hooks for the families hats, coats and what nots. Clever! This plate hangs over the french doors going into the house. If you noticed this from somewhere... http://lavenderhillstudio.blogspot.com/ you can find more of these pieces for 50%. She did a post on the small bird plates and mugs yesterday. We had purchased this platter at TJMaxx last week and loved it. We can't wait to get all of the matching pieces at Lavender Hill. You must check it out! Too Cute. We found this old farmhouse cottage table and chairs at a local store downtown. Angie got a steal for this table and 3 chairs, she only paid $200 for the set. The table is a drop leaf and it is all painted in a crisp creamy white. The same shop had the great painted white

Well, after a couple of days of hard work and hot and muggy weather, the sun-porch and the owners are much happier with a long awaited finished porch. This porch had great bones from the beginning, but with the accessories and the additional eating area added this porch will be enjoyed by this big family for many years to come.

Thank you Aaron and Angie for giving me the opportunity to work on the project and for allowing me to share with the rest of my blogger friends. This was a great project to work on and I enjoyed it very much.

I hope that you enjoyed the pictures and your time here today.

Please stop by again friends!

Many Blessings Always, Dana

Chicken Pot Pie

If you Bake it,

they will Come!

The smell you get from a Chicken Pot Pie can fill your home and bring people from all over to the dinner table. I got in the mood for comfort food the other day and what better comfort food than a Homemade Chicken Pot Pie. By the time is got done in the oven, people started coming in and we had a feast. The best thing about the Pot Pie was the company that I shared it with.

(This is not a picture of my chicken pot pie... I forgot to take a picture of it. Bummer... But isn't this a cute chicken picture. This is a centerpiece that was made in a MacKenzie Childs stainer. Chicken Pot Pie:

1 package (10 ounce) frozen mixed veggies for soup

1/3 c. butter

1/3 c. flour

1/3 c. chopped onion

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 3/4 c. chicken broth

2/3 c. milk

3 c. cut-up cooked chicken or turkey

Pastry for 9-Inch Two-Crust Pie

1. Rinse frozen veggies in cold water to separate.
2. Melt butter in saucepan. Stir in flour, onion, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is bubbly; remove from heat. Stir in broth and milk. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir 1 minute. Stir in chicken and veggies; remove from heat.
3. Heat oven to 425 degrees
4. Prepare pastry. Put first pastry on bottom of 9in pie pan. Put chicken mixture into the pan. Put the top crust on top and pinch ends all the way around. May cut pattern in crust if you want to be more decorative.
5. Bake about 35 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

*This recipe was found in Betty Crocker's New Cookbook 1996

I hope that you enjoy!

Many Pot Pie Blessings, Dana

A sun-porch re-visited!

A full day of shopping at our local antique shops and stores. This sun-porch is finally ready for re-visit. When Aaron and Angie built this house about five years ago, the porch was never really finished completely. The windows were never trimmed out and the plantation blinds were just recently hung. All of the walls are bead-board and all painted a crisp white linen. The furniture was from Summer Hill that used to be at mom's cottage. It is all painted in a beautiful shade of green and the cushions are upholstered in a yellow, green and Tiffany blue floral. We have been working hard and as soon as we get this project finished I will be sure to do a post.

Stop back for more on a sun-porch re-visited.

Many Decorating Blessings, Dana

A Clean Cupboard... Doesn't happen very often.

Just a peak into my kitchen cupboard.

I wiped them down today and they were so sparkly so I thought I better take a picture. With two little ones, clean and organized cupboards don't happen very often.

I just picked up this green wire basket at a garage sale I went to a few weeks ago. I got it home and didn't know what to do with it. I found out it is the perfect height to go under my cabinets for stuff! How exciting... I guess it was worth the $5 I paid for it. My wonderful hubby just bought me a few more pieces of my McKenzie Childs enamel collection for our anniversary. I love my new butter dish, salt and pepper and the covered cake carrier (not shown) Thanks Babe!

I love my courtly check things and would love to start collecting the plates and casseroles.

Well I better get back to my cleaning. Blake and Grandpa went to the Strawberry Farm this morning to pick some strawberries to make our jam. I better get something accomplished while the baby is asleep and the 3yr old is away!

Many Summer Blessings to you all, thanks for stopping by!

Dana

Basement Tour...

This is the Living/Play room

This room sits right next to the bar and goes right out to the patio overlooking the lake.

The patio is so nice to have downstairs. It really offers another space to just relax and enjoy hearing the boats and kids play.

This is the guest room where my mom stays when she comes. She has her own little apartment when she comes. It is nice when she comes for longer periods of time.

This is where I do all of my long distance running... I am a really big runner...

(Okay, you got me... I can't remember the last time I even turned that machine on. But I have big plans on becoming a really great and skinny runner some day!

Does anyone know how to turn these babies on?

Look out world... here I come!

This closet is in the laundry room. It used to be filled with old wood, dirty clothes, cleaning supplies and what-nots. This part of the room was not finished when we did the basement so the floor is concrete and the wall are bare studs. I got out some old fabric and the staple gun and created my own little hiding spot wrap and do whatever.

This is also in that same closet. I now have my own wrap station in my Laundry/Bathroom. I love to wrap gifts and this closet was a perfect solution for storing giftbags, cards, markers and wrapping supplies. This wrapping station I purchased a long time ago from Pottery Barn Outlet for $85.00. (What a steal!)

You may wonder what the jars on top shelf are...

My hubby bought those for me awhile ago to put all of our paint in. They are quite handy, you put all of your leftover paint in them from your house. They have a small brush attached to the lid and when you have to touch up your paint around the house you just get out your small jar and away you go with no brush or pan to clean up. They come with their own labels to put the paint information on. A great invention!

This is my sewing/makeup/folding table.

I created this out of an old plastic drawer unit, an old metal file drawer and a leftover peice of plywood. I had some fabric left-over from another room and wha-la!

A Sewing/MakeUp/Folding Table!

I love coming in here now to do Laundry!

I am trying to figure out how to camoflauge the ugly electrical boxes.

If you have any good ideas please feel free to share.

I always wanted custom cabinets above my washer and dryer... I waited and waited for my hubby to breakdown and finally get them for me. But now I am glad that we decided not to get them. Now I have all of my cute stuff out and it saved me so much money doing it with the things I already had.

(I am trying to be "Green")

More Shots of the Laundry/Bathroom

On the floor in here I wanted something that would be unique and easy to clean. I chose a laminate floor, but instead of just using the square tiles we mixed in a wood laminate to compliment the tiles. It makes a grid pattern on the floor and is definately a conversation piece.

Not much to say about a toilet... Can you call this pretty? Pay close attention to the little details (Hint: the toilet brush in the lower left corner...Nice.)

I love these white rose shower curtain holders.

Holders and Shower Curtain from the Shabby Chic collection at Target. These are the only things I purchased to do this Laundry Room makeover. Everything was from my drawers, storage closets and other odd places through out my house.

I think it is amazing what you can create with your own things. I have stuff, beyond stuff in boxes and storage. My husband is always saying we need to have a garage sale, but I love rotating my things. When I move things around and rotate my stuff it always gives my rooms a fresh new feel.

Living/Movie/Work Room:

When you walk down the stairs: this is where I blog, scrapbook

and do all of my printing projects.

How about a Nap: This is where I go to relax, read

and take long naps in the afternoon

Basement in Progress!

This is the bar area in the basement we had the cabinets custom built by a local craftsmen. I did the back bar in a clubhouse green stain. The bar and columns were made out of Birch and stained a dark rich walnut color. All of our trim upstairs is white and my husband really wanted the basement to be more masculine and dark. So I used a different color palette for the downstairs and went with: (Colorado Grey, Desert Tan and Rosemary Sprig)

all by Benjamin Moore.

This is just a spot for the kids to watch movies, play music. In this room is where we keep all of the kids toys and our kids favorite rocking horse.

This is the big movie room. There is plenty room for everyone and we all love to cozy up in here for movies and such. We put carpet in most of the areas in the basement except for in the bar area and laundry/bathroom. The carpet is made by Shaw and is sage green. The only thing we purchased for this room was the Smith Brothers sectional sofa and the TV stand. Everything else is what I call "green" reused, reused and reused.

The floral chairs and sofa were all pieces saved from my mother's home in Harbor Springs. After she sold her home, I kept a lot of her beautiful furniture that she didn't have room for and thank God because this huge basement would look bare w/o it. I love all of my pieces that my mom has given me and the stories and the history behind her antiques help make my house a home.

I Thank God for all beautiful things!

More to come on the Moore Basement and Laundry...