Cape Cod Style

I don't know what everyone else thinks, but when I think of a cottage, Cape Cod comes to mind. I'm always trying to figure out ways to make our little house look more like a Cape Cod cottage, but our roof really isn't steep enough for it to qualify. Still, we've had siding that looks like cedar shakes, and we'll be adding window boxes and shutters.  Little things make a difference.

American Architecture: The Elements of Cape Cod Style

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I am still suffering with bronchitis, so I haven't been doing a lot online. It's been going on for two weeks now, and I'm getting rather tired of it. That's why you haven't seen a whole lot of me lately. I just haven't felt well enough to sit at the computer and be creative...and I definitely haven't felt like doing a whole lot around the house. I don't know how you ladies with children manage!!!

But I have big plans for when I'm feeling better. A friend gave me a whole bunch of flowers and plants from her garden. We temporarily planted them loosely in another area, so Jim could get my flower garden dug up and prepared, and now we're just waiting for me to feel better to put them where they are ultimately going to be living. Fortunately, they're doing okay...some look a little worse for the wear, but hopefully, they'll pop back up.

This is how my flower garden looks in my imagination.  Source

I haven't gotten my vegetables planted either... Probably getting too late to do it now, but I'll still give it a try. In my defense though, Jim still hasn't built the fence around our garden to keep the rabbits out either...

How I imagine the fence around my vegetable garden...NOT how it will end up looking.  Source.

Other big plans are for the living room. I'm impatiently waiting for my new sofa. It's been over two weeks, and they said three to five weeks. I'm really hoping it will only be three! I can't wait for it to get here!

Well... Time for more cough medicine and probably some more sleep!

Tweaked my pictures

After my post yesterday, I was really thinking about making those prints I made square instead of rectangular. Now I have them both ways.  I think what I'm going to have to do is have them all printed, and then decide which look better in the actual frames.

Here's the final look both ways:

Square

Rectangular

Now that I'm looking at them together, I'm leaning towards the rectangular shape. That just looks more vintage to my eye. They kind of remind me of antique seed packet pictures. But, then again, I did have a suggestion to go with something more contemporary, and the shape of the square ones would fulfill that suggestion.

I don't know. I'm more confused than ever now!  What do you think?

Quotable Thursday

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet..." 

William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet

Rather than sharing a quote that I've used in a graphic that you can download, I thought I share the artI've been working on using vintage artwork from Graphicsfairy and other sources.  I'm pretty sure are what I'm going to use above my sofa.


I used a program called Paint.net to create them. It's very easy to use and free to download. I used it to create the header for my blog also. I had a lot of fun designing them, pulling the different elements together. I don't know if this will be the way they will be arranged or not, but right now I kind of like this layout. I had a lot of fun designing them.

I just have to figure out where I'm going to have them printed, because I want them to be really high quality. That means I won't be printing them here at home, even though that would be less expensive. Any suggestions on where I can get them done on the cheap?

Now that I'm looking at them all together, I might tweak them a bit... The frames are 12"x12".  It might be nice to make these pictures square rather than rectangular. I hadn't even considered making them square until now. When I started designing them, I was thinking about using my printer paper. I just realized I don't have to be locked into anything since I was planning on trimming them anyway. They can be any shape I want, especially since I'm not going to print them here.

Well, I have a few weeks to decide, because the sofa won't be here for three to five weeks.  Whatever I decide, I think this is the feel I want to go with. They're cheerful, and I think they will help brighten the room. Plus it's cohesive with artwork that we already have in the room.

What do you think?  Do you like them?

I ordered my green sofa... Now what????

I'm so excited!  I ordered my beautiful sofa in Corey Herb fabric, and it will be here in three to five weeks. Now I'm unsure about decorating with a green sofa.  I've done some searching online, but there's not a lot of advice specifically for decorating with a green sofa.

I'm not sure why I'm unsure about this. In the past, I've had a sofa that was blue, I've had a sofa that was floral with lots of muted colors, and for the past three years, I've had a black leather sofa. Why am I suddenly nervous about having a green sofa that is actually a neutral color?

Here's a picture of the fabric, although this looks a little more olive colored than the actual sample looked. I think it is going to be very easy to coordinate other colors with, because it is a neutral. I am concerned about cleaning it though, as it specifies that it shouldn't be cleaned with water. It's a microfiber, which my research says is good to use with pets.

Anyway, back to my decorating dilemma. I think I know what my problem is. I've been working with dark colors for three years now, and my original plans for the living room were based on dark furniture. Now, all the sudden, all the furniture we're getting is light colored, but nothing else except the furniture is changing.

Jim has already said no the repainting the walls. And I can understand that. They were only painted three years ago, and he likes the TV against the dark color. But something needs to be done to make the light furniture look right in the living room... I was a little worried about the wall color, but I have pillows that are going to tie the color of the walls, the color of Jim's new recliner and the color of the sofa all together.

I think I will need to change the artwork above the sofa... This is what's there now. It looks great with the black sofa, but I think the pictures are going to be too dark once the green sofa is in place. The black frames are okay, because I have other pictures in the room with black frames.

I'm thinking maybe a group of pictures something like the one above. What do you think? I got the picture in the center off GraphicsFairy.com.  If I got some scrapbook paper for the background that pulled had a texture like the background in this picture with the black frames, I think it might look really good.

Well... In any event, I have three to five weeks to figure it out.  Any ideas would be so appreciated!!!

Spring is here!

Yesterday I stopped by my sister-in-law's house.  She wasn't home, but look what greeted me!!  I know the pictures are HUGE, but that's the best way to see all the butterflies!!!  These pictures were taken with my cell phone, so they're not the best quality, but still... It was so incredible to have all those butterflies fluttering around me.

Quotable Thursday - Inspirational

Here's a quote that I just discovered that I find rather inspirational, especially for all of us DIY'ers out there.  We're already great at doing what this quote suggests!  Feel free to grab this graphic and share it.

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