My Dream Porch.....

As I was checking the blogs this morning, I found this porch over at Tina's at Cherry Hill Cottage. It is her sister's front porch but I would love my back porch to resemble this. I just love it!!!!
Blessings,
Trixi

What says summer to you?

We ended up moving to this house at the end of May, so we did not get a summer garden planted. That has caused me to have to visit the local farmer's market weekly, in order to get some fresh vegetables. This week I got blackberries. They are so big and juicy. Last night, we made fresh blackberry cobbler and homemade vanilla ice cream. Nothing says summer to me better than these two together.......

Blackberry Cobbler
4 c. blackberries
1 c. sugar
1 c. self-rising flour
1 c. milk
1 stick of butter

Melt butter in a 13 X 9 pan. Then combine sugar, flour, and milk in a bowl and pour over melted butter. Then pour blackberries over mix and bake for 1 hour in a 350* oven.

Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream
5 eggs
2 1/4 c. sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1 can evaporated milk
1 pint half and half
pinch of salt
whole milk
2 bags ice
Beat eggs and sugar, then add vanilla, evaporated milk, half and half, and salt. Pour into the ice cream maker container and fill to line with whole milk. Run ice cream maker as required.
*** It is important to mix eggs and sugar together first!!

This ice cream is so good and creamy!

Enjoy,
Trixi

BooMama's Before and After Challenge Part 1..... Weekend's project

As part of the BooMama before and after challenge, I am slowly but surely working on the transformation of my living room. Here was my weekend project. I decided to spray paint this hideous ceiling fan white. The fan has some beautiful detail but also had high gloss fan blades and was antique brass.



Here is the fan taken apart and painted.

And Wah Lah, here is the fan in place. I can't tell you what a difference a $5.00 can of spray paint made in this room. It really brightened up the room.

Blessings,

Trixi

Decorating a Mantel....

Ok so Kari & Kijsa are hosting a Mantel 101 Party. I so wanted to be a part of it but have a real mantel nightmare going on!!! So instead I was going to just sit on the sidelines and be inspired as to how to really improve my mantel decor. Then I thought why don't I join in and maybe get some inspiration and some help. So here goes.

This is the fireplace and mantel. These are my thoughts. The brick, while beautiful, is so overwhelming. I am thinking a huge mirror to really play the brick down. I am also thinking of painting the mantel bright white to go with the almost hidden molding and my wall unit. I want to incorporate that clock, as it was a gift to my father by my late grandmother and now gifted to me. I am not crazy about the very odd candle sticks but my extremely sweet and wonderful hubby gave them to me many years ago. He does not give gifts of decor so it makes them all the more special. They don't have to go on the mantel but if they can that would be nice. So tell me what your thoughts are and how would you improve this spot. Oh and as for the firebox area, we don't know if we are going to leave the wood burning stove part or not. If we do, we will freshen up the black.

Have a great day!!!

BooMama's Before and After

This is a great and I mean great one if I do say so myself. BooMama is having a before and after party. This will entail finding that project that really needs to be done and doing it. Oh, imagine. For me, I don't even know where to begin, but I really need to do this. It will give me some motivation and a starting point. I have decided to do my living room. Here is the list of to do's.

1. Paint the walls Tobacco Road.
2. Paint the wall unit bright white.
3. Paint the crown molding, that you can hardly see, bright white.
4. Accessorize my mantel. I will be going here on Thursday for inspiration, because as you can see in my Before pictures, I need inspiration.
5. I will also be doing some picture hanging. I think I want to do a picture wall but am not real sure.
6. I don't know that this one will happen but I would like to take down the ceiling fan and spray paint it white. It's a great fan with great globes but the base and blades are not my taste. In Mississippi you have to have a fan!!

That's my list. I would love new furniture but I don't need to do that this year. So I may add some pretty pillows and make it look a little spiffier.

Thanks, BooMama for giving this challenge. I think it will really help!!!!

Here are my befores: Don't even look at what I have on the shelves. It will all change. Except maybe my bully platter. I think any good Bulldog fan should be displaying a platter, right?!

If you want to join in then go over to BooMama's or just go check out everyone else that's doing it!!

Blessings,
Trixi

Our New Home!!!!

I guess I should say, our new to us, house. These are not great pictures. I took them about 2 wks. ago, right after we moved in. This is the outside from the road.





This is the front door that will be red in the very near future. That gothic looking light fixture needs to go, also.

This is a real plus to this house. The back porch spans the whole back of the house, almost. It is huge and my little measly patio furniture will not be nearly enough!!!

Here it is from the back yard. I don't know how we are going to get that rust off the chimney but we will.

This is the view we see from that wonderful back porch.

Here is the barn. It's not a huge asset to me but my daughters who have 3 horses love it!!

Then there is the very nice size dining room. I am not crazy about this blue color on the walls but my oldest daughter likes it up next to my yellowish hutch.

This is the huge downfall. It's my very tiny, hobbett size kitchen. The first time I saw it I wanted to run. My husband, who is very handy, assures me that he can expand it by about 4feet. That will give me room for a nice size island. So for the time being my girls and I just refer to it as the easy bake kitchen.

Here is the living room. I love this room. I plan on painting it Tobacco Road and the shelving a bright white. I have read a post on the Nester's site saying you should paint the brick on a fireplace, as it takes away from the room. However, my youngest daughter loves the brick. I don't know what to do?!

Well, that is all the pictures I have. There are 3 bedrooms and 2 baths on the other end of the house. It's a small house on 8 + acres. It was a long journey to finally deciding this was the one but at night when Dh and I sit on that back porch and watch our children run through those fields, we know this is Home. We are incredibly thankful and with a little TLC, all of the rough spots will be perfect too.

Blessings,

Trixi

My first post and It doesn't have to be perfect......

I had great expectations of my first blog post on this new site being lovely pictures of our new home. Then, as usual, life happened and I have just not had time to work on my site or any posts. So for right now plain jane will have to do.....

However, I could not resist getting in on the Nester's Imperfectly Beautiful Party. I can not tell you all of the ways the Nester has inspired me to do great and perfectly imperfect things in my home. I can't wait to share them all here. My husband even knows her now. I guess, as much as you can know someone over the blogosphere. She is my own personal interior decorator, you know. LOL

Anyway, here goes on the Imperfection.......
Here is my kitchen this morning after a weekend of keeping 4 of my sister's 5 children. I had 4 boys ages 12, 12, 11, and 11 and 3 girls ages 16, 13 and 8. We had a great time of swimming, playing, and eating tons and tons of great food. Although, my house does look like a war zone this morning, it was all worth it!!!



We moved in about 3 1/2 weeks ago. Even though most of the boxes are emptied and it really feels like home, here are some of my imperfections:

This piano sits in my dining room and those are my tons of pictures waiting for a new home. I don't wont to hang pictures until I get the walls painted. Does that make sense?

Here's a pile of clothes sitting beside my hutch. They are winter clothes and the winter clothes box is in the barn. I have no idea where to even start looking for it so I guess they will sit there for a while.

So that's my perfectly imperfection pictures for today. My next post will be pictures of the house and our forever long project list......

If you want to see other's imperfection head over to the Nesting Place.

Blessings,
Trixi