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8/28/2011

Dreaming of Autumn...and a New Treasure Find

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Hello my friends...I hope you're having a fabulous day!
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September is nearly here and I'm dreaming of autumn!  Autumn is my favorite season.  I love watching the trees turn their fabulous colors of yellow, orange, and red...simply breathtaking!  I also love the cooler days...throwing my windows and doors open wide...and letting the fresh breeze in!  Are you as excited about autumn as I am?
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A couple of weeks ago, I visited a few of my favorite antique flea shops.  I came home with several "treasure finds" and thought that I would share just one of those sweet treasures with you today.  I hope that you enjoy!
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My living room...fireplace mantel.
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This is the faux fireplace in my living room.  I thought I would throw in a couple of photos so you could see how it has been decorated over the summer.
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Silver and Creamy Whites
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Silver and creamy whites...the summertime decor theme in my living room.  Since my living room is done in darker colors...shades of olive green, deep reds, and gold...I like to bring white into the summer decor...to "lighten" things up.  This year I decided to pair a few pieces of my silver with the white.  I just love silver and have begun to collect it.  I love the "elegance" of silver and I also love the reflective quality of silver...another nice asset for bringing light into a room.
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My Newest Treasure Find...
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Sweet Spaniel Dog Figurines...
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Aren't they just adorable?  I seen this pair of Spaniel dog figurines a couple of months ago at the antique flea shop but didn't pick them up.  Well...while visiting again, a couple of weeks ago,  I noticed that these sweet dogs were still there.  I...may very well be...a "dog whisperer" because I know I heard them "whisper my name"!  Hehe!  I decided that I had to have them and that they would look fabulous in an autumn vignette...so home...they came with me!
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I decided to play a bit...and added the little Spaniel dog figurines to my mantel vignette.
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A Spaniel mama and her younger pup.
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After standing back...and taking a look at the new additions to the mantel vignette...I realized that the sweet little Spaniels gave the vignette a "transitional" feel.
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Summer...giving way to...autumn!
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I don't know...and maybe it's just me...but the Spaniel dogs remind me of autumn.  Maybe it's the lovely, rusty brown shade of their fur...or maybe it's because they remind me of hunting.  I AM a country girl and folk around here do alot of hunting during the autumn season.  Often times, dogs are used for hunting. 
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Hmmm...and there again...maybe it's just because I am dreaming of autumn!!!
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The Spaniel pup.
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Ahhh...sooo adorable.  It looks like the young pup may be a bit shy...trying to hide behind the leaves.
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Mama Spaniel.
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I really don't know too much about the sweet Spaniel figurines.  I'm sure they are a few years old...vintage!  I tried doing a little research on the internet and didn't come up with much.  A black stamped label...a garland-like wreath...with "Japan" written in the center of the wreath...is on the underside of the Spaniel's foot.  If anyone knows anything about this manufacturer's mark or the figurines, I would love to know.
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I'm so happy that you came by today!
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I am joining this fabulous party...
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Thank you, Marty...for hosting this sweet party for us!
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Well dear friends, I'm so glad that you stopped in for a visit today!  With autumn just around the corner...decorating for the new season is on my mind.  A few of my autumn boxes are sitting and waiting!  It's always an exciting time of the year at Happy To Design!
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Warmest Wishes!

8/27/2011

Sunday Favorites...No. 114

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Welcome to the 114th "Sunday Favorites" Party 


"Sunday Favorites" is a Sunday meme designed to give bloggers a chance to share a favorite post from the past!!!
For more information on how to republish a past post just click HERE.

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Hello my friends!
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Welcome to the 114th run of "Sunday Favorites"
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I hope that you're having a wonderful weekend, my friends!  Wow...can you believe that we are nearing the end of August?  Autumn is just around the corner.  I can hardly wait...it is my favorite season of the year!  It won't be long and I will be dragging all of my autumn decor boxes out of storage.  I just love decorating for fall!
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With the thought of Autumn approaching...today for Sunday Favorites...I thought I would share one of my "favorite" posts called "An Autumn Dining Room at Happy To Design"...originally posted on September 27, 2009. 
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Wow...as I was going through this post...I couldn't help but think of all the changes that have been made to my home since this was first posted two years ago.  It's fun looking back and seeing how far I have come...not only with my blogging/photography skills but also in my interior design skills!  I hope that you enjoy this post as much as I did!

  Well my friends...I'm looking forward to seeing your Sunday Favorites posts this week and visiting with you!  You can sign up for the party at the end of this post!
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Many prayers going up for those on the east coast!
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Have a super Sunday!
Chari
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Sunday Favorites My favorite post from:
September 27, 2009
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It's Metamorphosis Monday!
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Hello my friends...I hope that you're having a marvelous Monday!
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It's time for Metamorphosis Monday hosted by our very own Susan over at Between Naps on the Porch! Thank you, Susan for hosting this fun filled Monday event!!! Please go pay Susan a visit today and see what she has for us and while you're there you can visit all of the other Met Monday participants!
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I am also joining in with Mosaic Monday today...I have a couple of photo mosaics that I would love to share with you! Mosaic Monday is hosted by Mary over at Little Red House! Thank you, Mary for hosting this marvelous Monday mosaic party!!! (Whew...say that fast 3 times! Hehe!)
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Autumn is Officially Here!*
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Last week for Metamorphosis Monday I posted my living room's new autumn decor. If you would like to see that just click HERE. This week I would like to share with you a few of the seasonal changes that I've made in my dining room!
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I love my dining room!!! It's a bit eclectic but follows the lines of French Country design. We have a very "open" floor plan in the living area of our home...the living room, dining room, and kitchen are basically all open to one another. I have decorated these rooms in shades of olive green, deep red, and gold...very deep, rich colors...which are very conducive to warming up my home for the autumn season! I love autumn and I love my home in all of its autumn finery!!!
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So without further ado...here is my French Country dining room!
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Happy To Design
Autumn 2009
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Autumn mosaic of my french country dining room...Autumn 2009
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I created this photo mosaic using the photo of my dining room (pictured below). First of all, I took the photo and used Photobucket's photo effect called "Sketch"...this made the photo look like a pencil sketch. Then I took the sketched photo and added the photo effect "Tint" to get the different autumn colored tints...then I used Picasa to make the mosaic. I have been playing with photo graphics alot lately and having so much fun! Hehe!
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An Autumn Dining Room
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My husband built this home in 1998 B.C. (B.C. standing for "before Chari"...hehe!) The original part of this house was built in 1927...honey added on to the front, the back and also added on a second story. It's a beautiful home...my honey is quite talented!!!
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The dining room is in the original part of the house and still has the old original wood flooring. I painted them a charcoal gray color...over time they have taken on an old distressed looking patina! Or in other words...they could use a fresh coat of paint! Hehe!
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Two of the walls in this room are olive green...two are a deep red color! I really do love these deep, rich colors...it's just me! I decided to use white furniture in this room since the wall color was already dark. I really do like the contrast of the white furniture against the red and olive green! The dining room table was a treasure find at an antique market...it also has a distressed finish! I love the old column looking legs on the table!!! The buffet was an old brown colored dresser that I refinished. I love the "frenchy" style of this piece!!!
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Autumn and the Dining Room Buffet
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An Autumn Vignette
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The runner on the buffet is perfect for autumn decor! It's the most beautiful shade of olive green and is emboridered with a floral pattern in dark reds and gold. Can you see the long fringe on the ends of the runner? Soooo pretty!!!
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The two buffet lamps come from Vanna over at Delusions of Grandeur. I just adore these lamps with their pretty crystal prisms!!! I think the lamps are a beautiful addition to the buffet!
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New Floral Arrangement
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I created a new autumn floral arrangement for the buffet...adding long stems of autumn leaves, wispy brown grass, and a few dark red flowers and cattails to a large gold colored pitcher that sits on a matching plate!
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Autumn and Antoinette...
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Hehe...okay, so I named my french girl bust "Antoinette"! Antoinette is sitting atop a couple of old books...an autumn garland of berries graces the bust...and a couple of little brown embossed birds and pumpkins make for an autumny vignette! I just love these little brown birds...they have little acorns embossed on the sides...found them on sale at Michaels for just $1.99!
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A couple of fun photo effects! I used Photobuckets "Color Sketch" on the photo above.
 On the photo below I used an effect called "fresco"! Pretty...don't you think?
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You can see the pretty buffet runner a little better in this photo.
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"Artsy" photo of the florals!
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This is the left side of the buffet. Using three silver candleholders with off white tapers...my silver teapot with patina, and a couple more pumpkins! Hehe...don't you just love the word patina? It covers a multitude of sins or...uh, I mean tarnish!!!
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Autumn Table Centerpiece
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Just keeping my table centerpiece simple since there is so much going on at the buffet! This is an old distressed looking french table tray...filled with autumn pears! To each side of the tray are my newest treasure finds...Roseville candleholders! My honey found these in a box of old things over at his Dad's house...they were so dirty you couldn't even make out the color of them! I didn't even know they were Roseville pottery till after I got them washed up! He found two candleholders and a small jardinare.
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This is Roseville's "Clematis" pattern in autumn brown...ca 1944. I am thrilled to have these pretty pieces and they are so perfect for autumn!!!
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My Window Bench
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This is a bench that my honey made in wood shop when he was in high school. I found it outside behind his shop when I first came here...of course, I saved it and brought it in the house! I painted it the same color of olive green that is in the insets of the buffet and then added a black glaze over the top. Oh yes, and I added a little french scroll piece to the front of the bench...just a little added interest!
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Pillows...Pillows...Lots of Pillows!
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Ohhh my goodness...this is probably "overkill" but I just love pillows and lots of them! The gold ambussen pillow was made in Germany...a souvineer from our honeymoon trip to Europe. I made the two red floral pillows to each side of the gold pillow. I found the pretty bolster pillows awhile back...fell in love with the color, fabric, and pattern!!! Honestly, I just threw the bolster pillows on the bench when I was doing my autumn decor in the living room...and here they still sit! I kind of like them here...no one really wanted to sit down here anyway! wink!
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Autumn Ambiance
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Here in Colorado...along with Autumn comes the cool, crisp weather! It won't be long and we'll have to build a fire in the old wood stove! In fact, our heat has already been running this week! Right now the wood bin is empty but it won't be for long. There's nothing like a warm fire on a cool autumn day or night...autumn ambiance! Hehe!
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Just a couple of "artsy" photos!
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I took this photo looking into the buffet mirror...this is the reflection you see in the mirror of my autumn dining room!
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*Autumn 2009 at Happy To Design
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This is a photo mosaic that I created using a few of the photos that you seen above...using Photobucket's "color sketch" effect! It really does show all the beautiful, deep rich, autumn colors of my little french country dining room!
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Well my friends...I hope that you enjoyed the tour around my dining room today! I'm so happy that you came by...please leave me a comment and let me know that you were here...I would love to visit with you!!!
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Happy Autumn!!!
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Love ya'll,
Chari
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Sunday Favorites
Instructions for Participating in Sunday Favorites
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If you are participating in Sunday Favorites, please be sure to add your permalink and not your general blog address.
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Please copy and paste the Sunday Favorites logo button to your Sunday Favorites post or your sidebar so your visitors will know that you are participating. Also...please link back to the host blog, Happy To Design. This is important because it helps those who are visiting your blog, find the other wonderful blogs that are participating.
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Please do not add your link below, until your Sunday Favorites post is actually published to your blog.
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Thank you so much for your participation!!! I am going to really enjoy going through your "Sunday Favorites" posts!!!
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***Just a little note: Sunday Favorites Criteria***
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When I first started the Sunday Favorites meme, my initial thought was to offer a solution for getting a post out on the weekend without having to spend alot of time doing so...weekends are just a busy time for most of us! Copying and pasting a previous post is so quick and easy. Not only is this a quick and easy solution to the busy weekends, but it's also an opportunity to dig back into our blog archives and share a favorite "past" post once again! Many of us spend alot of time and effort creating a post and it just seems a shame that it is viewed only once and then forgotten about!
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I would like to reiterate that Sunday Favorites is a meme about sharing or revisiting a post from the PAST!
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Thank you!!! *



8/24/2011

A Few New "Frillies" for the Tea Rose Bedroom

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Tea Rose Bedroom...Summer 2011
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Hello my friends...I hope you're having a fabulous day!
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Last Saturday I celebrated my 55th birthday!  Yeeeehawww!!!  You know...I'm getting to the age where I'm not sure if I want to continue having birthdays or not.  They seem to just make me old!  Hehe!
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Anyway...my honey...the love of my life...took me to the big city to do a little birthday shopping.  I had a great time...shopping at Hobby Lobby and a few of my favorite antique fleas...and he took me out to lunch and dinner to boot!  It just doesn't get any sweeter than that!
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Ohhh yes...I did find a few things while shopping...and I thought I would share one of those treasure finds with you today.
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A Few New Frillies for my Tea Rose Bedroom...
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Did you notice the new "frillies" in the Tea Rose bedroom?
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You can look at the first photo...and then the second photo (above) to see a couple of my birthday treasure finds.
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Treasure Find #1...
A frilly pillow...in cream...full of delicious ruffles...sitting in the rocker.
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Treasure Find #2
A frilly french footstool...done up in a french toile with all the same colors of the Tea Rose bedroom.
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I think my new treasure finds are a perfect addition to the Tea Rose bedroom!
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I found this french toile foot stool...done up in pretty pink and green...at my favorite antique flea market.  It was marked down to a mere $15...with a 10% discount to boot...making a total of only $13.50!!!  As soon as I seen this little beauty...I did my "happy dance"!  Hehe!
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I just love the pink and green toile fabric!  Pairing the toile with the pretty cream and pink rose fabric...gives this little foot stool a "cottage...shabby chic" feel.
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You can get a better look at the cream colored ruffled pillow in this photo too.
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A close-up of the toile pattern.
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A game of badmitton being played...in days gone by.  I love the way the ladies and men were dressed...so elegant!  And...look at the garden of roses...and that adorable candy striped tent!  Ahhh!!!
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A braided "rag" basket done up in different pink and green fabrics.  Another recent treasure find from the same antique flea market where I found the foot stool.  It holds a few of my favorite magazines...I think it goes nicely with the new foot stool!
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Yes...I'm loving my new birthday gifts!  Thank you, honey!!!
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Well my friends...hope you enjoyed my new "frilly" treasure finds for the Tea Rose bedroom.
If you would like a full tour of my Tea Rose bedroom...you can click HERE.
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I am joining these fabulous parties...
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Thank you, dear ladies...for hosting these sweet parties for us!
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Well my friends...I'm so glad that you stopped by for a visit today!  Please leave me a note and let me know that you were here...I would love to visit with you!
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Warmest Summery Wishes!

8/22/2011

My China Hutch...A Mini Metamorphosis!

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My french country dining room...August 2011
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Hello my friends...I hope you're having a fabulous day!
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Wow...seems like summer is winding down pretty fast and I still have a couple of projects that I would like to complete before autumn arrives.  My head is spinning and I'm still wondering where all of my time went this summer.
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I did complete one little project that was on my list of "summer to do's".
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If you look at the photo above...you will see a small china hutch.  This beautiful hutch belonged to my dear, sweet Grandma.  It is truly one of my most cherished possessions and I feel so blessed to have it.  This small hutch fits perfectly into this corner of my dining room...just like it was made for this space.
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My china hutch...dressed in summery whites and apple greens!
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As you can see...the interior walls of the hutch is composed of semi-dark wood.
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I have wanted to "lighten up" the interior of the hutch for soooo long!  Oooh...I just can't tell you how many times that I wanted to get the paint out!  But...since this hutch is a prized family heirloom, I just can't bring myself to make any permanent changes to it.
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Soooo....I came up with a solution!  Scrapbooking paper!!!
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I found this fabulous...frenchy toile...scrapbooking paper at Hobby Lobby.  As soon as I seen it...I knew it would be perfect for my china hutch!  It has all the colors of my dining room...red, olive green, gold, and gray...and I just adore toile!!!
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This was such a quick and easy project.  It only took me a couple of hours to cover the interior of my hutch with the paper.  I just used double-stick tape to adhere the paper to the walls.  It seems to be the perfect solution...I have lightened up the interior...and I can take the paper off whenever I would like.  Voila!!!
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**My China Hutch...."After"
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I have to tell you...I really had a difficult time getting photos.  I have a very large window on this side of the dining room...so I always get "glare".  I just couldn't capture the true color of the hutch's newly papered interior either.  The photos make the paper look like it has a pinkish tint but in real life...it doesn't look pink at all.
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Close-up photo.  This photo shows more of the "true" colors of the paper.  I love how it turned out!!!
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My hutch is dressed in summer white and apple green. 
It won't be long till I change out the summer dishes for my autumn dishes.
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My New French Script Pillow...
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I recently had the good fortune of winning a gift givaway that was hosted by Sherry over at No Minimalist Here.  Thank you, Sherry...I love, love, LOVE my new frenchy pillow!!!
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My honey made this bench, that sits under the window in my dining room, when he was in high school.  When I first moved here, I found it outside behind this shop...I saved it!  Hehe!  I added a frenchy scroll design to the front of the bench...painted it...and recovered the cushion.  It fits perfectly under the window.  I just love decorative pillows...bet you couldn't tell!  Hehe!  My bench is perfect for displaying a few of my favorites!  I change them out with the different seasons.  This spring and summer, I used apple green and white in the dining room's decor.
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My new french script pillow goes nicely with the summer pillows...don't you think?
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Well dear friends...hope you enjoyed my little china hutch's new "mini makeover"!
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I am joining these fabulous parties...
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Thank you, dear ladies...for hosting these sweet parties for all of us to enjoy!
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Well dear friends...thank you so much for coming by today!  Please leave me a note and let me know that you were here.  I would love to visit with you!
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Warmest Summery Wishes!