~Great Room & Art~

Happy Sunday Everyone!

Today I'm going to show you the other half of our living room/great room. In the previous post I showed you our T.V/family room, as I had mentioned in that post we have 700 sq ft of living space, with in that I had to make three liveable and functional spaces.

 In these last two spaces we created a formal dinning room and ladies visiting room. Remember our home is a very open floor plan, almost like a loft with everything in one room. 

Gary and I both enjoy our collection of art work that we have purchased through the years. I will show you a few of your collections hanging in the dinning and ladies visiting room.  

Please come in and stay awhile I always enjoy visiting with you.

In the last post I had a seashell wreath that I had made hanging above the bench, I moved it and now it's hanging in our bathroom. I know silly me, I' am always changing things around. Above the bench now is hanging this lovely cottage photograph taken in England, I love the thatched roof and the red door!. Gary purchased this photo  as a surprise gift for me while on work travel and had it shipped home. He really did surprise me! (he's such a sweetheart)

Moving on around the room the formal dinning area was placed right by the three windows that face outward towards the back yard pool and waterfall, I painted the table top white it use to be stained brown. With the two table extensions and the extra chairs we have we can comfortably seat 12 for dinner. The large painting in the dinning area is a Kincaid.

The Ladies Visiting Room, may I offer you Tea or Coffee with dessert?

The wall you are seeing has many of our favorite artists paintings or photographs displayed. The theme is "Cottages and Gardens" I would love to live in any of these cottages and stroll through their gardens. Come closer and I will show you the cottages and gardens.

The three painting above are by Dwight Hickman. Gary and I had the pleasure of meeting him in person. A delightful man! and so talented.. I have a few more of his paintings in mind to purchase for the master bedroom.

 I crossed stitched this little Welcome cabin in the woods sign years and years ago... to many now to remember (is this a sign of old age)LOL

These ever so lovely photographs were a gift from the very talented and sweet Monica, you can visit her here at "The White Bench". Monica is not only a photographer but she makes the sweetest teddy bears I have ever seen. Monica lives in Italy and I am so happy to have meant her through blogging.

I won Monica's give away in witch the winner was able to choose two photo's of their liking. I was so excited I think you could have heard me scream!. If you do not know Monica please go over to Italy and visit her at "The White Bench". I know you will love her as much as I do.

 

I chose the cross stitch "M" and flowers in the wash bowl because the letter "M" is the first initial of our last name and also that the "M" was crossed stitched and I love to cross stitch. It was just the most perfect photo for me to have in our home.

 

Isn't this garden just so welcoming! and look there are red flowers all in bloom.. and you all know how much I love red.

 

A closer look at Monica's photographs

The little bear in the card is one of Monica's creations 

 

Monica also put into the gift package as a surprise this Christmas wreath ornament she made for the "Green craft Magazine" the wreath was published in the current issue (volume 3). Thank you so much Monica for your talent and friendship!. The photographs bring me "joy" every time I see them and that is every day!

Today I am  linking up to Cielo at (Show off Your Cottage Monday) This is my first time linking, I hope I did it right. It was fun, I hope you try it sometime.

P.S I think I might be having some trouble with the size of my photo's. If they seem to be cut off to you, please let me know and if you would like to see them larger just click on the photo to enlarge.

Home is Where the Heart is ~ and any where you are is home~

~The New Front Room~

This is our front room in the new house (Cottage #12). Its one very large great room, 700 sq feet. I stayed awake many nights dreaming of how to decorate this room,  trying to use everything I already had. I also knew that purchasing new furniture was not in the budget. 

 Gary and I wanted to use every inch of the room and divide the room up into functional spaces. I was  used  to very high ceilings in our other home so getting use to a average height ceiling of 8 ft was going to take some adjustment in my decorating strategy.

I hope you can see the room well enough, it was hard for me to get a photo to show you, with all the windows in the room.  I love  all the windows and how bright the room is, also the french doors.

Gary and I still have a lot we would like to do with the room. But for now its comfortable for us and we love our new home.

Today I will show you the T.V area of the room. Gary wanted his T.V hung on the wall over the fireplace so we had to have the corner cabinet built to provide a place to hide all the stereo equipment and movies. We really debated over the decision to hang the T.V.

You can see Gary won this one. I really don't mind, because we are a family that enjoys watching movies, T.V. and listening to music. The new surround system Gary had installed can really rock this house.

Enjoy the tour of the T.V. room.  In a later post I will take you around to each space.

Originally the home had carpet throughout, we replaced the carpet with wood flooring, as well as there were no window coverings, so I did have to purchase rods and curtains.

There was a gas connection in the fireplace and we wanted to do something different this time rather than the traditional log burning look, so we went with glass marbles, the marbles come in many different colors, Gary and I chose a sea green. We really love the look and at night its so pretty and fills the room with ambiance.(Great for cuddling)

  

When the fire is flicking and reflects off the glass marbles it seems magical and it looks so pretty to me.

 

The fire place had been redone with a glazing and wash technique. I think its really different and seems to be  the center of attention in the room besides the T.V of course.

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This photo was taken looking back towards the front door. As you can see all the rooms are open to  oneanother and from every seat of the room there is something different to look at.

This is one of our favorite paintings, the colors are so pure and the rich red just makes me so happy. In one of our other homes we had a Tuscan room and this painting was purchased for that room. We had thought about selling it, but there's just something about it that sings to me. Maybe its the bottle of wine LOL.....

Well that's our little tour for tonight and this is how the room looks for now. Heheheh, for now! don't you just love those words, "for now". Things are always changing around (Cottage #12)    

~The Vintage French Hen's Give-a-way~

Oh my Lucky Stars! Look at what I won from Marcia at the Vintage French Hen Marcia and I do not live far away from each other, just right up the road. So Marcia delivered in person her French Give-a-way. It was such a treat and a shear joy to meet her and to spend the day together. This was the day Becky,Marcia and I spent together visiting and sewing banners.

Marcia made many of the gifts and I do love "hand made" to me it's so special to receive hand made. It means that someone took the time, care and thought enough about the gift to create something very loving and original.

 

I love all the little touches, this sweet box is so pretty I wish you all could see it in person.

The Tussie Mussie is so unique and vintage looking. I just adore it so. There are so many details, I will  try to show you closer up photo's.

Inside the Tussie Mussie were these adorable pink clothes pins! how  darn cute are these. I put them into a crystal bowl and placed them on top of the dryer in the laundry room, now I can see them everyday!Thank you so much Marcia for creating all these lovely gifts (you are a real sweetheart)

If you ever have the chance to meet a blogging friend, I hope you take the opportunity to do so. I have been so fortunate to have meant two of the sweetest and kindest ladies that live so close to me. I have been blessed with their friendship.