Happy Easter

Some of you asked me to take a pictures of the Expand O Matic table in action!


Here is the Expand O Matic table closed and in it's cabinet

Easy Peasy to open up and pull out.  Then just add the leaves that hook together.
I needed seating for 8.

I added my new table cloth I got from Home Goods.


I love the soft bunny colors of this table cloth.  It match so well with my soft pinks and creams in my centerpiece.



Little Peggy was trying to nap on her chair.   She was a little upset with me that I was waking her up by setting the table and taking pics as you can see by the look on her face!!!!




We are a no fuss group.  We gather to eat, drink and celebrate our blessings on Easter.  Then we do an Easter Egg hunt.  This year with the weather here in Illinois being so "un spring like" will be doing the egg hunt in the downstairs family room.

My pictures are very cloudy and gloomy like our weather.  It would have been so much better if some sunshine would have come out.  Just take my word for it the table is looking very pretty.

Wishing all of you a wonderful Easter as you gather with family and friends tomorrow.
xoxo
Kris



Easter

Hello everyone.

Thought I would take this opportunity to wish all of you a wonderful week and Happy Easter.

Recapping my Spring and Easter Decor.
















































I am very excited to use my new Expand O Matic table this Easter.

Wishing all of you a wonderful week and Happy Easter.
xoxo



Vintage Hangers

Hello Everyone.

I was out in the garage digging through some old pieces I had in storage.   I found these great old iron hangers.

They were so cool with their scroll design.  I had two of them.  Yep these needed to come out of storage and into my house somehow!





 Terry screwed them onto my old french window in the entry way.  Now my french window has become a hanger for the entry way.






Gives my french window a new purpose in my decor.


Spring umbrella, garden boots and bunny wreath are more decor to welcome Spring into the house.

The birdhouse replaced the bunny and wreath on the door.  Thought the birdhouse looked cute with the picket fence.


Another bunny to welcome guests for Easter.



Do you see what is wrong with this picture?!! Yep an empty wall in my tiny cottage home!!! What?!!!!  Hoping to remedy that soon with a new piece or two.
My little design assistant Peggy is on her white chair that she loves.  She gets the window chair so she can see outside.  I sit and read in the other chair.

Hope you are all having fun playing with Spring and Easter decor in your homes.  I host Easter so I will be excited to use my newly re loved Expand- O -Matic dining table.


Have a wonderful weekend.  If you celebrate Easter enjoy getting ready to be with family and friends.
Hugs,
Kris




Switching Can Make A New Look



Sometimes I like to  switch things up and move things around I can get a whole new look for 0$ spent.

Plus switching things up can give new purpose to decor pieces.

This is one wall in my living room where I had the picket fence piece and the old architectural birdhouse and porch post.  They needed to come down and find new purpose.  Ignore the pile in my chair of all the decor off my table.  Keeping it real lol!

This picket found a new purpose on my front door.  I think it is cute and gives a Spring/Summer vibe to my cottage door.



It is so hard to grab a good picture with how the sunshine hits the front of the house.   This gives some cute curb appeal to my entryway.

I cannot wait to be planting flowers and enjoying some much needed warmth and sunshine.  Now the bunny in my wreath has a little picket fence below her.

I am doing some other decor change ups to things around the house.  I love changing things up to get a whole new look.  I love change and love that I can do it for no money spent.

Do you like changing things around in your house to get a new look?

Hope your weekend was fabulous.  Wishing all of you a wonderful start to the new week.

It was 50 degrees here in Illinois today.  Feels so good to us.  Just love when the sun comes out too. I am so over winter and need Spring to arrive and stay and then Summer!!!

Hugs,
Kris

Happy St. Patrick's Day




source

Wishing Everyone Irish or Not a Lucky Day Today.

Speaking of Luck the Winners of the Give Away are

Deb Mountain Momma
Linda Itsy Bits and Pieces


Congratulations.  Have a Wonderful Start to the New Week.
xoxo
Kris

Memories and Another Giveaway Wooo Hooo

Hi Everyone.
I have something fun to share with all of you today.

I got a call from Country Sampler Magazine about a month or so ago and they told me they wanted to run a home tour feature on my decor from the past.  Of course I said yes, It is always a honor.  So I agreed to an interview and them using the pictures that were taken about 4 years ago when we lived in the Lake Zurich home.  

My home is one of the 5 home tours in the May addition of Country Sampler Magazine.

I am honored to be feature even though that decor style was from a while back.  It still was showing my style decor from that time period so I was proud and honored.

Actually it was fun to see the decor pictures from a long time ago and remember how fun that decor was in my home.

Glad Country Sampler feels that my style from 4 years ago is timeless and deserved to be featured in their magazine.
They quoted me saying how I love to repurpose old things with history into new things in my decor.  No matter how much my style has changed over the years I stay true to this saying.


They gave my home quite the home tour spread.  Lisa Sloan interviewed me and wrote a lovely article that captured my style and love for re purposing things into my decor.
The photo's were taken by Gridley and Graves.


When we bought this Lake Zurich ranch style home it was in a  lake town in Northeast Illinois.
I remember I wanted to feature one of my guest rooms to reflect that we in fact lived in a cute Lake Town.   Look at the color in my past decor.  Who says girls that love neutrals and whites cannot have a little color too!

They captured my farmhouse style that was prevalent in my kitchen and other parts of this sweet home.

They also caught my love of summer flowers and repurposing old vintage pieces into my garden decor.

Seeing these pictures makes me wish for an early spring and quick summer to arrive

I have an extra copy of this great magazine with lots of farmhouse and country style decor featured.  So if you would like to have a chance at winning one of these magazines please just leave me a comment.

Please this is only open to all of you in the United States.  Postage is way too much to send magazines out of the US.

My angel Grace is holding onto the copy for the lucky winner.

Good Luck I will draw the winning name out on St. Patty's Day.  Seems like a lucky day to choose a lucky winner.

Have a great day and wonderful weekend.
Kris

Before and After Kitchen

Happy Monday.

The past couple of weekends Terry and I spent time with our youngest daughter Kim re loving the kitchen in her new home she just purchased.  

 My daughter Kimmie works as a pediatric oncology nurse at Rush University Hospital in the city of Chicago and is also busy in graduate school. 

Even with all of this going on she managed to buy her first home.  Terry and I are really proud of her and all she has accomplished so far in her young life.

We were excited when she asked Terry and I to come and help her re love her kitchen from the stock builders kitchen to something a little more her style.

 Terry with his trustee tools and me with my designer cap on joined her to re love this kitchen.

Her kitchen had builder grade cabinets that were in good shape and laminate counter tops and a basic stainless steel sink.  The cabinets, hardware and counter tops were pretty dated.   Her place was built about 20 years ago.  

A nice galley kitchen with good bones but not her style.


We used good cabinet paint and purchased new hardware for the cabinets.

Kim purchased a new farmhouse kitchen sink and faucet along with some glass backsplash tiles.
 
We then were able to transform this kitchen to a more modern feel for Kim's taste. 

Sorry for the night time cell phone pics.  It was late when we finished up. 

The counter tops were in stock at Menards so that was easy peasy and pretty inexpensive.  Terry cut them to fit. 

We extended the counter top on this side of the kitchen to accommodate her wine refrigerator added at the end. 

I am sorry I did not get a picture of the wine fridge up close with the extended counter top.  If you look at the picture above you can see the wine refrigerator way over the the right in the picture under the counter. 

The glass tiles were in stock at Menards and matched perfectly with her new counter tops and cabinets.  Some of the gray in the tiles pulled out the color of her cabinets.

We had some butcher block counter top left over from our house and Terry made this small counter space on the other side of this galley kitchen.

  We will seal it with salad bowl oil so she can use this counter space for food prep.

The cabinets were painted with the Lowe's Valspar cabinet paint that I love.  I love this paint because there is no sanding and the coverage is great.  It holds up well in a kitchen.
Kim had them tint the cabinet paint to a beautiful gray color.


During the day this kitchen gets lots of great light and is so bright and pretty.  So for the cost of some cabinet paint $49,  about $40 dollars in glass backsplash tiles, $189  Ikea farmhouse sink and a new modern faucet $169 and in stock counter tops we were able to bring this basic somewhat dated kitchen to a new and pretty modern kitchen.

It was fun to go outside my decor style and help my daughter by designing this new more modern kitchen. 

Terry and his wonderful set of tools were the hero's of making this all happen.

Now that we have the kitchen finished Kim can move in this next weekend and begin enjoying her new home.

Have a great new week. 

Stay tuned later in the week I will have something special  to share with you.
Hugs,
Kris

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