In my little world...

The trails into the woods are slowly opening up with the seasons…

Hidden paths are coming into being…

And down the path beyond the old wooden bridge into the magical woods, I can now see new passages and corridors that until now were been hidden from the human eye. 

 

Branches and leaves are thinning out
giving way to wispy little lights into the thicket…

It is truly magical!

Tomatoes are growing in gigantic sizes… 

Some growing in strange and marvelous colors… 

Like luscious clusters of juicy ripe plums...

The key to perfection is knowing when to pick them...
that's, of course, before they get to be stolen, or picked up without permission...

Oh yes my dears... you see, right at the set of the mellow hours of day, there are times when ravens take advantage of their shape-shifting abilities and transform themselves into witches… I have seen them in our garden stilling away our tomatoes... those spooky ravens!

 And inside... I’ve been busy decorating my little white cottage in pretty pastels… 

Particularly the kitchen area

where the predominant palettes are the colors of sky,

 Caribbean Sea, and peacock… 

doesn’t it sound dreamy! 

 I know... I've been enchanted.

Lovely lovely summer days... 

Hope you are beholding all its goodness. 

Love

In my cottage

Rain… wonderful, marvelous rain. I am so thankful for the blessings rain bestows. And we had buckets full of blessings these glorious past few days… plants and flowers in my garden welcomed it with utterly earnestness as old thirsts were quenched abundantly and wholly… 

Then, this morning, glorious nippiness… rain had brought with them during the night hours the Northern breezes, moderating the coursing of summer with wonderful, balmy temperatures. And in the living room there was a glorious game of lights going on…. twinkling light on walls and ceilings; flickering wispy lights floating about the furniture in the quiet room like little fairies of light and wonder. It was the magic of cool morning breezes and sunshine filtering through leaves and tree branches outside the tall windows of our living room… as they were gently swayed and touched by sunshine, that’s what they created inside my little, magical cottage… I was enchanted.

I’ve been as busy as always… inside as well as outside. Painting more furniture, decorating and changing things around in my little cottage, which seems to be my absolute passion of lately. 

I have had this chair you see here for years. Love the uniqueness of it and combination of wood and bamboo/cane back and sit… but it was a bit too dark for my taste here in our little white cottage… 

So I painted it in my favorite chalk paint color “Primitive”, from Americana Décor.  Same color of paint I used on my master bedroom furniture.  Love it.

I added a coat of clear wax to the chair this morning and I’m thinking I should also use dark wax to age it a bit and add richness and depth to it.   Otherwise, it's looking marvelous...

Enjoying some baking...

My Elle rose is blooming again.  Not too copious in blossoms, but a joy nevertheless…

And my lime green hydrangeas are doing marvelous…

More lime green hydrangeas on the other wall, round the back porch...

This little mirror here is covering a multitude of sins—the not so pretty looking huge water hose behind it… what a lovely idea that was!

Thank you for being here my friend.

Enjoy something beautiful each day.

Create something beautiful each day. 

Imagine something beautiful each day.

This and that...

All sorts of magical and enchanting happenings are always taking place here… if it isn’t one thing is another… but always always—magic. 

Oh something was definitely going on in the woods at the edge of my garden this afternoon while I was out there watering my flowers... those witches disguised in ravens again!  Ah yes... but what was going on this time out there, really? A witch’s convention gone badly, I’m sure. The privet was a vivid turmoil. The witches were making such a racket... awful harsh grating sounds and creepy shrill sounds and squawking so loud, I got chills all over my body.

I'm sure it must have been some quarrelling among the witches in the midst of the very Grand Council.  And it was so bad that finally King Hawk need to be summoned. Was he the Ceremony Master?  Perhaps the witches’ trainer? You see, all of a sudden, above the commotion there came the eerie and powerful call of a hawk. I listened and marveled, and listened some more looking for clues in the air, and signs in the privet. The hawk must have done something to calm things down because soon after his arrival the ravens' squawking stopped, their fight ceased, and the privet recaptured its peaceful atmosphere once again.

Minutes later, two raven-witches flew from the thickets, above our little white cottage, followed by yet another one stretching across the sky on easy, flowing wing beats... all three filling the empty spaces with an echoing croak. It was pretty creepy, and enchanting at the same time.

I’ve been keeping busy inside as well as outside.
Painting paiting... painting all sorts of things that can be painted. 

Some in pretty pastels

 

Some in happy bright shades of sky and water...

I love this deep blue paint—so cottagy like the colors of an ancient village in blue French shutters…

I have painted a lot of stuff around the garden in this pretty color… 

Even the grass! 

Oh I think it looks so lovely… 

With a certain feel of UFO mystery included for some imagination too! ;)

I didn’t have a place for this chair inside our little cottage, but couldn’t seem to be able to part from it… so I took it outside. It’s been rotting out there for a while, but then I decided to dress her up in Krylon Ballet Slipper spray paint… the pretties and softest shade of pink. It looks so lovely now I may have to take her inside again…

Still no flowers on the Morning Glory and Moon Flower

but they are growing beautifully

My lovely tiny pink roses are doing marvelous… daily watering has helped them tremendously… soon it’ll be time for some dainty arrangements… 

This country gal got to go to the city today... visited Hobby Lobby and got some black and white pulls for the master room dresser I’m painting. 50% off on the entire section, in case you need to get some. And they’re darling. I’m almost done painting the furniture in our master bedroom, and I’m excited. It’s almost magical the way the room has lighten up with the lighter paint, which it also makes the room seem more spacious and opened and uncluttered… I just love it. 

As I draw to a close on this post, I can see ruptures of lightening through the sides of the closed window on my right… It is bound to rain during the mid-night hours. I'm anticipating the pleasures of a velvety cloud of a bed with the sound of rain above my dreams for a peaceful rest. 

Good night my friend. And thank you for stopping by!

Our master bedroom - A project in progress

Have I mentioned I'm painting our master room’s furniture?  

 Too chunky and definitely too dark for my taste. 

Back when we lived at the house in the roses I wanted to paint, but my husband was always against it, and I didn’t feel too confident about it either. We couldn’t afford to replace furniture, and they were still in perfect condition. So we kept them.  But now we live in a little white cottage and cottage style is light and airy with colors taken from a garden palette: shades of green, rose, sky blue, sandy tan and crisp white. And painting is permissible when you live in a cottage. So it was definitely time for some change.

The task is taking me a little bit longer than I had anticipated, but at least both of the night stands/bedside tables are now done… and I have started painting the bed’s headboard; a somewhat difficult task I should say… simply because I don’t know how to exactly proceed about it. You see, part of the headboard is leather and you wouldn’t dare paint leather, would you? Even if I knew how, it’s kind of a scary thing to do...

In any case, the leather is black and because our master room is done in black and white, I don't think it looks too bad... at least I'm liking it much better than before.  Thus far, I have only painted the visible part of the headboard, but eventually I plan on painting the whole bed frame… that will be whenever I can take down those huge mattresses and put them back in place again… all by myself. Ugh! For now this will have to do…

I didn’t want to paint the furniture in a bright white… because my bedding and such are mainly white, I wanted to use a different shade of white, to add wholesome warmth to the bedroom. So I used my favorite paint brand and color for now: Primitive, from Americana Décor. Chalk paint from Home Depot. Affordable. Fast. Awesome. No need to prime either. 

 I love this color. It's subtle and sophisticated, especially paired with the white and black…  

I am also spray-painting the original pulls in black to match the rest of the décor.
And adding mixed prints and patterns that are dominant enough… 

love it. 

An all-monochrome palette always sticks with a classic black-and-white combo, if you’re not confident at experimenting with color. Textures make black and white warmer.  I still have the huge chunky dresser to paint, but I need to remove the pulls first, something I’m procrastinating doing because it simply takes me so much time to do…

Here I had a large white vase with faux cherry blossom branches standing on the night stand...

But I think I’m liking those touches of hot pink from simple garden flowers so much better. 

It defines romance and a femininity beautifully.

The white and black flower curtains are new, but I’m still not too thrill about it and might have to change them to all white for a more peaceful-less busy feel to the room…
 What do you think?
Too busy looking?
Less patterns perhaps?

It’s nearly impossible for me to choose just one thing I love. Color schemes, themes, my overall “style”. It’s always changing. I’m never gonna have an absolute favorite anything when it comes to decorating. I just cannot decide! It’s impossible really.

Are you anything like me when it comes to decorating your home?
I'm always always changing...
But I' liking how my bedroom is looking thus far... ;)

Did you all get to see the full moon last night?

The first of three super moons this summer will rise Saturday night, July 12.  

 One of the biggest of 2014.   

Let’s go out and watch!

Love!