2nd TIME AROUND TUESDAY AND THREE OR MORE TUESDAY: PRESERVING THE PAST

Today I am joining everyone in Three Or More Tuesday, as well as 2nd Time around Tuesday, hosted respectively by Tam at The Gypsy's Corner and Diane at A Picture's Worth A Thousand Words. After you leave a comment, please visit these two ladies to see what they have to offer today. Then visit all the participants who have something to share for these events. Have fun!!

First off, for 2nd Time Around Tuesday, I am showing the before and after pictures of the God awful shutters on my house. Yes, God awful. I have had to live with these G.A. shutters for 23 years!! 23 God awful years!! Okay, you get the idea. Our house is a cream colored brick with brown trim. I have wondered and pondered and considered and prayed for ways to change the color without actually selling the house and getting as far away from it as possible. I mean brown!!! And the reason said shutters can't be changed is because all of the gutters and soffit are brown as well. And The Husband has declared that he is not going to have perfectly good material ripped off the house to change perfectly good brown shutters. So...

One day Future Interior Designer Daughter (FIDD) came to me and said, "Mom, I saw the most cool house the other day. It was the same color as ours and it had chocolate brown and blue trim." So I thought, you know, brown and blue look marvelous together. I mean, look at my blog!! Well, we knew we had to do it without The Husband knowing. Generally speaking, we had to "sneak around". So the plan was hatched. I'd whisk The Husband up to the lake while Emily did the deed. Well actually, we were going to the lake anyway, so there was no real whisking involved, but The Husband was out of the way and Emily set to work!

The G.A. brown before:




And the pretty blue after!!

Isn't it great?? Emily also put up flower boxes (as best she could), trimmed the shrubs and spread new shredded bark around them. She had to trim back some of the ivy but that's okay, it was starting to need it's own driveway. The house looks colorful and fresh and the blue goes well with the brown. And does The Husband like it? Nope. Now on to Three Or More Tuesday...

Back during the winter I went to one of my favorite antique stores, the one where The Husband scored the set of china in the auction for $40.00. Remember? I found the three items shown below and bought them on the spot. I knew they would look great together on the sofa table in my den.

Now, Florida Sue at Lux Lanai has the naughty habit of leaving price tags on everything and I am the opposite. So I can't tell you if I got a deal or not.

The lamps are heavy glass and silver with etched glass hurricanes. The only problem I have is that the faux candle is cracked at the top and I am wondering if anyone knows where I can get replacements. Otherwise they are in great shape.

The candelabra is heavy silver that is just starting to tarnish. There are no markings on the bottom.

So this is where I have the trio, in the den, behind the settee I won't let anyone sit on. I didn't notice that the settee is a little crooked in front of the sofa table, but oh well.

Lastly, I wanted to give a big thanks to Fifi of Fifi Flowers Designs for posting a picture of the painting she did of my Summerhouse up at the lake. If you didn't get to see it, go to her Outdoor Wednesday post of last week. She did a fabulous job and I can't wait to get the painting. She will also be doing a painting of the actual Cottage (the Summerhouse is actually a guesthouse) and I am really excited to see that.

Please visit everyone participating in Tam and Diane's events, as I am off to do. Thanks for stopping!!

xoxo

Jane

HOOKED ON FRIDAYS: BOOKSHELVES EVERYWHERE!!

Today I am joining Julia at Hooked On Houses for the very first time. The event is called Hooked On Fridays. Please visit Julie and see a bunch of things other bloggers just love with a passion. It's really interesting stuff!! Today I am showing off some of my bookshelves, which are just about in every room of my wee little house. Exercise caution though; this was a last minute post and I did not tidy up or stage one tiny bit! So, if you see cobwebs or dust or something I stuck on the shelf because I had no other place to put it, I will attest to the fact that organization is not one of my strong points and I am inherently lazy.

Above are the shelves in my kitchen that hold all of my cookbooks. You may note that the shelves are sagging and it is not the fault of my carpenter. I recently cleared out about half of the books along with scraps from newspapers, magazines and hastily written down recipes from friends or bloggers. As I was going about this arduous task, I came across cookbooks that I had never even opened!! And I am a little ashamed to admit why. I have a bad habit of judging a book by it's cover! You see, there are so many cookbooks in the discount bins at bookstores and I go through them and think "Wow, this looks like a great book! And look at the beautiful cover!" I get them home only to find that one book involves cooking entirely with tofu, or one involves purchasing ingredients from a select and obscure Armenian food market. Looking at my shelves today I saw Jewish Holiday Feasts (I'm Catholic). The Black Pot (I don't own a lick of cast iron cookery). The Lazy Baker. (They got the lazy part right, but I abhor baking).

So I donated a bunch of books and brought a carton up to the Lakehouse even though we are pretty much "Throw some meat on the grill" people.

But truth be told, I really love to read cookbooks, especially one's where the author talks about how and when they made the dish (only to find that the guests at her dinner party generally shied away from beef tongue), or a little story about how they got the recipe from a medicine man in the mountains of Bali. Really interesting stuff. So my secrets are out.

Moving along, this is the shelf in the master bedroom. And these books belong to the Master of the house. If they have dust on them it is because they almost as old as him. I can't argue the point that he wants to hang on to them (I still have my first cookbook: The Clueless Baker...). He maintains that these are reference books. Some just sound so interesting, it brings me to my knees: Larrey: Surgeon to Napoleon's Imperial Guard. Larrey? Larrey who? And then this one, a real conversation starter: The Autobiography of Gordon Saltonstall Hubbard. Hmmm... maybe he knows Larrey. And some of us may be interested in this book: How Walmart is Destroying America. Gulp. This book might just destroy my love for one of my favorite haunts.

So there you have The Husbands books. I have shuffled them around the house so this shelf does not look so messy. A bedroom is supposed to be relaxing and soothing and I don't like to see the jacket cover with Larrey hovering over French soldiers with swords in their chests.

I keep most of my book in the den. It is a mix of self help books and Chick Lit. Maybe I could use a little self analysis to figure out why a married woman of my age wants to read about twenty~something girls romping around New York City with the very best of friends and a couple of cads thrown in for fun. I also keep a lot of note cards that have sat untouched since the advent of email and if you are of a queasy nature, don't look at the black container on the upper right side of the top shelf. It holds, er...my last dog, if you will.

This shelf holds a lot of my favorite children's books that I can't part with and a lot of my journals. You might be appalled at the fact that I leave something so private out on these shelves. Truth be told, no one here is interested in me. I could place one of these journals right on top of The Husbands morning newspaper and he would just swat it away and continue to search for the sports page. So no need to worry about anyone reading how much weight I have gained or how I fantasize explicitly about Harrison Ford. Nope, my secrets are safe!

And lastly in the den, a little row of books I don't want, but need to fill in this shelf. I do like the painting below. I bought it from an antique store. It has some French script I can't read, of course, and it shows women in tight corsets dancing with men in wigs wearing ruffled shirts. I was positive The Husband would somehow spot Napoleon (or even Larrey, if he wasn't tied up caring for the wounded soldiers), so I hastily hung it here before he could snatch it for his office.

Here we have a shelf in the family room. It is filled with books that I have read and would be willing to loan out because I didn't like them very much. The rest of my books are treasures, reference if you will. When family members come over and start to peruse my shelves for a book to borrow, I gently nudge them over here...

And finally we have the Boy's Shelf. These books are all about sports. I have been threatened severely to never throw away or so much as touch these books (and you will note I haven't due to the haphazard way they are arranged). Again; reference. Why can't a man just read a big old fictional novel? The guys in my house equate reading a book from beginning to end as a blow to their manhood. Men like facts. They like to read facts (as in the scores on the sports page). Have you ever noticed that when we argue with our husbands, they have that great capability of sticking to the facts, while we women just ramble on and on? I personally think they miss a lot of good stuff not reading like we do, but then again, I could use some help in the rambling department. Note to self: Look for self help book along the lines of Stop Rambling and Start Making Sense: A Woman's Guide to Understanding and Using Facts in Everyday Life.

I wish you all a great day!!

xoxo

Jane

OUTDOOR WEDNESDAY: 4th OF JULY AT THE LAKEHOUSE

We celebrated 4th of July up at the cottage with the Irish side of the family. Although our renovations are not yet completed, everyone had a warm bed and a meal on the table. I went on a scavenger hunt for cheap patriotic decor and much to my delight, The Dollar Tree had just about everything I was looking for. I noticed many of the same items out there in blogland and was tempted to go back a second time after spotting some things I missed!!

Emily was in "Future Interior Designer" delirium, playing with the red, white and blue garland, stars and flags. It's hard to tell in some of these pictures but she managed to make her mark on just about everything. She also rearranged some furniture and cleaned out my linen closet.

Food was aplenty. These pictures may not look very cohesive as I was using Emily's camera and most of the time she wouldn't let me have it. Difficult children. Above are my nieces, Grace and Trish, posing in front of a more healthy treat compared to some of the rest. The dip for fruit is made with marshmallow fluff and cream cheese. If you haven't had it before, let me know and I will post the recipe. It is wonderful.

Meals were simple; hamburgers, hot dogs, Italian sausage, and chicken on the grill. We also had pasta salad, potato salad and Papa's tomato, cucumber and feta cheese salad. Although there was an abundance of fruit available, I lost all sense of control and had banana bread and sour cream donuts every morning for breakfast. Holidays are about food, right? I haven't weighed myself since I got home.

We like our bonfires. You can't see the bonfire since I only took pictures of the people around the bonfire. Here is Emily and Mike, her boyfriend.

Mike, Papa and brother~in~law Marty's leg.

A picture of The Husband and Emily. I can't remember if this was before or after she showed him her new nose ring. Must be before~they look civil.

Grace and Trish playing on our beach.

"And my third wish is that I could stay here forever!"

Fun on the boat. For some reason Emily set the color on the camera to sepia. Not a great idea when you are on blue water under a blue sky. Above, Abby and sister~in~law Megan.

No more sepia!! The happy passengers!

Emily

The Husband and Trish...

...or the Captain and First Mate!

And my favorite boating pastime: looking at the beautiful lake houses!

We moved on to the wave runners. Note the three redheads. I told you this was the Irish side of the family!!

Sister~in~law, Karen.

A nice after dinner walk.

Cousins. Grace, Trish and Liz.

"I had a great holiday. How about you?"

For more great Outdoor Wednesday posts, visit our hostess Susan at A Southern Daydreamer and see what everyone else is up to outdoors!!

xoxo

Jane

THREE OR MORE TUESDAY: THREE THINGS I DID THIS WEEKEND!!

Today I am joining in on the fun of Three Or More Tuesday. Visit Tam at The Gypsy's Corner to see every one's contribution of three or more of anything. Participants should also visit each other! :-)

Today I am bending the rules a bit as I usually do and I am posting three or more things I did this weekend with three or more pictures. Clever, huh?

First off, it was "Take me out to the ballgame...". In Chicago we have two baseball teams, the Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox. Lucky, aren't we? It is a somewhat loosely construed rule that if you are from the Northside (where the Cubs play at Wrigley Field), you are a Cubbies fan. If you are from the Southside where the Sox play at US Cellular Field, you are a Sox fan. I am a Southsider, as you may well know. Every summer the two teams play in a series and The Husband and I were invited to Game 3, hosted by the Sox. Now, I live in a family divided. Some have broken the above loosely construed rule and are for the Cubbies. Being Blonde and of a "anything goes" sort of nature, I am for either team, depending on my mood. And i usually love the winning team. Cheers!! ;-)

It was a wonderful day. The temperature had dropped from 95 to 85 and we had great seats behind home plate.

The group Sister Hazel warmed up the crowd and sang the National Anthem.

Didn't we have great seats?

Let's chat a bit, shall we? I am not a big sports fan. I grew up with 5 sisters and 1 brother. Call it fate, but my brother left for college when I was 11 and never came back. Actually, he met his future wife down in Southern Indiana and he and his family have lived down there since. He is a sports fanatic, but he left before it could rub off on me. And I'm a girly girl~wait...that is a bad excuse. Okay, I bore easily.

And so, not knowing where I stood with the teams, I literally stood whenever either team scored, much to The Husband's chagrin. In the meantime I entertained myself eating peanuts and cleaning out my wallet.

Great game. The Cubs won. I think.

The 2nd thing I did this past weekend was go up to the cottage and work on my garden and potted flowers. Lazy Jane has just gotten around to it. I have my excuses; first the cold we had almost all of May, then all the rain and mud, then the intolerable heat and in between all of this I have had one bronchial infection after the other. I wish I lived during the Victorian era, where I could loll around on the sofa, feigning faintness, having people bringing me tea and toast and leaving their calling cards. The Husband frowns on my time travel fantasies. He is an "Onward!!" sort of person that never gets ill. Woe to me.

Above is a planter hanging from the new front porch. My procrastination caused more consequences... our local nursery was pretty much picked over in the flower department. I wanted pink flowers and I had to go with red, but I think the planters turned out nice, don't you?

I did solve the "lack of pink flowers due to chronic procrastination" by purchasing plants here in Chicago and bringing them up to the lake. Sometimes I think I am brilliant.

I found this plant stand at Home Depot for $23.00. That might be a little steep but it goes well with my wrought iron furniture. Note that there are no cushions on the furniture yet. Please refer to above lazy/procrastination issues above. To cause you more looks of horror, I ordered the furniture from Overstock.com last fall and it has been in the garage all winter and spring. Happily, I found beautiful cushions last night, again at Overstock. They are sort of a Victorian floral (oh no, here comes that fantasy again!) and to make up for the procrastination problem, I had them rush shipped for $30.00. That was using my blonde noodle, wasn't it?

My English garden is looking a little scrappy. At least Milo likes to hang out in it, watering the plants and getting tangled in the boxwood. This is really the first summer of the English Garden. I planted 28 perennials and I have some blooms but it is certainly not looking as lush as the pictures I have admired. I know it takes time and the cost of perennials is quite high so I am trying to postpone buying more until they go on sale. Last year our nursery was selling the plants 3 for $10.00. Patience, Blondie.

Milo is showing his boredom with the garden. But this picture is not about him. Note the planter in the background.

This was actually a bistro table we had on the balcony at one time. The top broke and we were ready to toss it out. The Husband, being ever ingenious, popped one of my planters in it. "Do you like this, Blondie?". "Brilliant," I answered. With that he began running around the garden, jumping up and down with his fist raised, shouting, "I shopped the house, I shopped the house". He is paying way too much attention to my blogging. We were also able to fit a smaller pots in the chairs, from which we removed the seats. It may be a little much, since we have four chairs, but I have some spray paint and a few ideas of my own. ;-)

This is a perennial called Lily belle Lady Slipper. I never heard of it before but it is almost as tall as me (5'2). I see hummingbirds around it all the time so I am quite pleased even though I don't know what the heck it is!!

This is my clematis that is growing up the black wrought iron arbor I showed in a previous post. I can't believe I am actually growing one!! I never had any luck in my yard in Chicago because of all the shade. It's a small miracle to me. It's pretty though, isn't it?

The Husband picked me up a hibiscus at Home Depot for $18.00. I was delighted since my hibiscus from last year met an untimely death over the winter. I re potted the new one in the poor dead one's pot and surrounded it with flowers. They should be sprawling over the side soon. I like the pink against the blue of the Summerhouse.

A close up of the new Mrs. Hibiscus...

HELP ME!!!! I thought this was a hollyhock when I planted it. At least that was what the plant marker said. But I just don't know what it is!! It has all these green balls and now this peachy colored stuff is starting to eek out! I guess we will have to see more next week. If anyone has a clue about this plant or what a hollyhock is supposed to look like, let me know.

It sort of unusual, isn't it? Maybe it is a weed!

Finally, the 3rd thing I did this weekend was relax in the Summerhouse. I have promised pictures of it for awhile but I really haven't done much with it. Behind the chair are doors that open to a pull~down Murphy bed. They have real twin mattresses and are super comfy. We sleep in here all the time. The Summerhouse has 7 windows and a ceiling fan. Sometimes I feel like I am sleeping in a tree house right out of Swiss Family Robinson!! I have wicker furniture from Orvis.com and the rug was imported from somewhere straight to Overstock.com. Can you tell I like to order from this place?

I found the lamp at L.L. Bean and the toile pillow is from a second hand shop. The vintage plant stand was found at a nursery in Michigan. I need to bring Monster Fern back from his winter get~away in Chicago to spend his summer in here.

The walls are quite bare right now. Home Depot is coming to measure for blinds and I am going to (try to) make bright colored valances. And, I have commissioned sweet Fifi from Fifi Flowers and Designs to paint some pictures with acrylics. I adore her work and I think it's perfect for the look I am trying to achieve in the Summerhouse. Please take a moment to visit her blog if you haven't already. You can see a lot of her work right in her blog posts. She is so talented and wickedly funny. Go. Now.

So after my busy weekend I relaxed. Layla relaxed.

And Milo, who was falling asleep in the garden...

...relaxed too!

Some important announcements... Kelee from Katillac Shack has been involved in the cause of dogs and cats being abandoned at an alarming rate due to foreclosures and job losses. She has started a project that will help and it's a win~win thing for we animal lovers. Go to her blog and click on Pet Shack. There you will find instructions on how to order a bandanna scarf for your own dog or cat. The first 150 scarves ordered are free and after are $2.00. The Oliver Wendell "Play Strong" scarf can then be decorated any way you want. Take a picture of your dog or cat wearing the scarf and email it to Kelee. A sponsor has offered to donate $2000.00 if $200.00 is raised. By ordering a scarf, your donation of $10.00 is free. Plus, your little doggie or kitty will appear on Kelee's blog and a future video and hopefull on your blog, and will help raise more awareness of this sad situation. I have Milo's scarf and I am getting ready to jazz it up with some fabric paint and little sparkly thingies. One size fits' all, but if you have a small pet, it can be folded. The deadline is July 6th and I heard last week that there were still free scarves, so hurry. This is such an important cause and I know we all love to show off our pets. You will find more details on Kelee's blog and you will see Milo wearing his scarf in all it's glory in a few days!

Lastly, I want to acknowledge the Beautiful Blog Award from Ashley at Too Jazzed To Sleep . I recently started following her wonderful blog. I don't have enough adjectives to describe Ashley. She has been battling cervical cancer for a long time and started her blog as a sort of release. But like most bloggers, she is having fun doing a lot of the events, posting about her life in Texas and meeting new friends. She has a great positive outlook and Ijust love her. I am honored to receive this award from her.

I was tagged by Leigh of Tales From Bloggeritaville to list 7 random things about myself. I am going to save that for another post. I can hear you sigh in relief!! :-). I also want to thank Karen from Shades Of Inspiration for painting and sending me a beautiful journal card. Unfortunately, my printer is not working and I can't scan the card, but I will at a later date. Her blog incorporates a lot of her watercolors into her posts and you will be hooked. Please try to visit this talented, beautiful artist. Lastly, I received an award from Lynn at It's a July Thing. For the life of me I can't remember what it is! LOL!! So please, Lynn, if you are reading this, let me know. And all of you~try to visit Lynn. She is a retired elementary scholl teacher who has traveled the world over. She is also pretty funny!! Love her.

Thanks for staying with me on this. If you do anything, order your dog or kitty a scarf today. If you don't have a pet, get one for a friend. You will sleep better tonight. :-)

xoxo

Jane