Christmas in June

Hello Sweet Blogger Friends!

I am so sorry it has been a while since I have posted anything. I have had a jam-packed week of vacation bible school at my church and I got to spend a lot of time with Miss Maggie and Miss Lucie. I hope to share some of our fun times together on future posts very soon. I will miss them while they are with their mom for several days! I was the coordinator for VBS this year, which meant I was running the whole show. If you have ever coordinated a VBS you know how much work that is. But it is also a blessing because I got to share the love of God with 35 precious little ones this week and it was wonderful!

So I was laying in bed last night and I realized that yesterday was June 25th. I can't believe that the year is half over! And guess what ladies? In six short months it will be Christmas! So in the spirit of that special and beautiful holiday I wanted to share some of my pictures of my house from last Christmas - to get you ready for what's ahead! I think this would qualify as a "Pink Saturday" post and I hope you enjoy it!

I love putting together little vignettes and this is one that was on my window sill in my kitchen. The candle smells like peppermint candies! And the sweet little snow lady was an ornament I bought that used to be hunter green, maroon, and navy blue. I painted her pink and green, added glitter, that sweet pipe cleaner scarf, and some silver bells. I think she is so sweet!

This is my sweet little "candy bar" with all kinds of sweet pink goodies for Christmas. I tied strips of shabby fabric on each jar to dress them up and spray painted the lids on glass jars for some extra sweetness.

This is a detail picture of the place setting on the Christmas dinner table. I think that pink and silver are so pretty together and will probably do it again this year!

I love the pink feather tree in the corner by the counter in the kitchen. It had pink and silver ornaments on it.

I love this picture of my dining room looking in to the living room. The centerpiece on the table is a silver tray with a bottle brush tree that used to be green but I bleached it, added "snow", pearl garland, small round ornaments, and glitter.

The mercury glass candle holders matched perfectly with the other silver items on the table.

My dining room is the perfect place for a spot of sweet pink Christmas tea!

The fireplace mantle in the living room is always my favorite place to decorate. I always save my most favorite and beautiful pieces for the mantle.

Christmas is a magical time of year and the decorations bring magic to every room they are in.

I love the candle goblets on the sconces above my fireplace. They are encrusted with pearls and mosaic glass.

Angels are one of my favorite things ever. This little angel came from a discount store and didn't look this way when I bought her. I added all of the embellishments to make her "fit" in with the pink decor. Now she is one of my favorite pieces.

I absolutely LOVE to make Christmas ornaments and I have made hundreds of all kinds over the years. This pink cone is one of my favorites and it was so simple to make! I just love how feminine and pretty she looks hanging on the tree!

This is my white Christmas tree that I bought this year. It is pre-lit and that is such a blessing. No more fighting with winding lights around the tree! I made the majority of the ornaments and cherish each one.

I made this "noel" sign from a plain wooden sign that I painted pink and glittered, some wooden letters I painted and added decorative paper to. I even made each petal and leaf from ribbon for the sweet pink poinsettia for this sweet sign. I think I need to get busy now making more of those flowers for Christmas projects for this year!

Here is the mannequin I showed you in an earlier post wearing a beautiful pink Christmas dress. She looks like she is ready for the winter ball!

This is the beautiful antique hutch that is now in my craft room. I used her at Christmas time to display all of my beautiful Christmas houses. They were paper-mache and I painted them, added snow to the roof, added a wreath to the front door, and covered the whole thing in glitter! I will have to take a picture of a close up this Christmas to post on the blog. You have to see them up close to see all of the detail!

The bedroom got a few Christmas touches too. I put this great pink tree on the dresser and added some sassy pink and silver ornaments to it. I love the pink feather boa that lines the dresser. It is so feminine and sweet.

This sweet vignette in the bedroom is one of my favorites in the house. I liked mixing the bright pink with the light pink on this shelf.

The china hutch in the dining room was my favorite Christmas decorating project and I loved how beautifully it turned out. I made everything but the dishes, the poinsettias, and the sled.

I wanted it to look like a sweet Christmas candy shop. So I made several different kinds of bon- bons and candies from foam and clay. They look sweet enough to eat!

My favorite thing I made for the hutch was this sweet pink gingerbread house. I can't believe when I bought it on clearance it was an ugly brown paper-mache thing! The bottle brush trees were also a lot of fun to make. They were green and I bleached them and added some sweet ornaments and glitter.

I even made "cocoa" in my tea cup with foam and clay. See the sweet marshmallows I made from white clay! I had a lot of fun with this!

Seeing all of these pretty pictures of my Christmas house makes me wish it was Christmas time again. I hope you have enjoyed them and you have been inspired to start thinking about what you will do this year when that special season comes around again - in six short months!

I hope you have a blessed weekend!

Much Love To You!

Love Tammy

A Sweet Front Porch Party

Hello Blog Friends!
I am so excited to share my sweet little front porch with you! Thank you to Rhondi at www.rhondisrosecoloredglasses.blogspot.com for giving me this opportunity! I knew I wanted to be a part of the porch party when I got the news that there was going to be one, but I also knew my front porch looked terrible and needed some sprucing up! After church this morning, James had a nap with his littlest, Miss Lucie, because they were both tired. That was the perfect opportunity for Miss Maggie and I to get busy decorating the front porch for a sweet party for two!

We put a white tablecloth on the table, and then a lovely rosy topper. We added some cushions and pillows to the chairs. Then we set the table with plates, utensils, and long-stemmed pink goblets. We added some flowers and a candle for a sweet touch.

Miss Maggie is the sweetest little girl with naturally curly hair. Sometimes when I look at her I think I am looking at a china doll. She was such a good helper in getting our porch party ready and she had so much fun. The best part for her came when we were finished and she got to enjoy everything!

We made sugar cookies with pink icing, and some sweet pink lemonade. We even added a candy lemon wedge for garnish and found some pink lemonade taffy for our party! So sweet!

We added some decoration to the ledge like the picnic basket that I decorated by painting it white (of course) and adding some lovely roses on top. I lined the inside with shabby rose fabric and it is so beautiful now.

I wish you were really here to sit on the front porch and share in our sweets! We had such a fun time putting it together and then enjoying our efforts. Thank you for stopping by today! I hope you have a wonderful week and I hope you have time to sit on your own porch with a glass of lemonade and count your blessings!

Many Blessings To You!

Love Tammy

Tammy's Sweet Heart Studio - Where Blogger's Create

Hello bloggers! I am so excited to be joining the party today and I am looking forward to seeing your creative spaces! Welcome to my little studio, where I create so many sweet, beautiful things (when I can find the time!).

The picture below is what the room looked like when I moved in to the house in 2004. The previous owners were using it as a bedroom, but I knew that I needed a special space to create, so eventually it became my craft room.

Have you ever had one of those days when you just wanted to pull your hair out? That's how I felt the day I took this picture. I wanted so badly for my studio to be ready for crafting and creating, but I had so much work to do on the room before it would be ready. Even the freshly painted door is off the hinges!

After a lot of hard work, my beautiful (and functional) studio is ready for creating! This is my favorite table to sit at. My sweet mom Ginger let me borrow this table and I love looking out the window at my little pond garden when I am crafting. I can see some of my roses out that window too. The shelf above is lined with pretty baskets waiting to be filled with crafting supplies.

I bought this cabinet for under $100 at an antique mall. It was in bad shape when I got her. I gave her a few good coats of white paint and added some sweet shabby rose fabric in the glass window. I have a lot of my crafting supplies stored in there.



This is actually a vanity that I took the mirror off of and am using it as a writing desk. It is the perfect place to write without distraction. I have another AMAZING writing desk in my utility room that will undergo a transformation and be moved into this room soon. I will take before and after pics and post them on my blog. You're gonna' love it!

One of my favorite things about decorating is piecing together sweet vignettes like this one on my writing desk. I like putting odd, random things together to display. My favorite thing on the tray is the "willow tree" angel with her hands in the air. She reminds me to celebrate my freedom and ability to create.

These are some wooden letters I got at a local craft store and covered with decorative paper and then went hog-wild with the embellishments. They are hanging on the west wall of the room. Look at the sweet pink butterfly on the "A". My favorite thing to do in my studio is . . .

I bought this file cabinet at Wal-Mart and it was black when I bought it. I gave it several coats of pink spray paint. Isn't it lovely? It could use some roses painted on it though, don't you think?

I bought a cheap and ugly cork board and painted the cork a light shade of pink. I put all of my ideas and inspirations on it for my upcoming projects. My mom had the great idea of putting all of her ribbon, buttons, and other embellishments in plastic storage containers and organizing them by color. Then when you need a pink button or ribbon it is easy to find!

This butterfly was a Christmas ornament and I glued an alligator clip on the back. Now I use them to hold back my curtains in my studio!

This is the infamous candle cupboard. It is my favorite piece of furniture in the house. I bought it at an antique store and it was a hideous olive green color. A few coats of white paint solved that problem! It has a mesh screen front and it holds my precious candle collection. That's why it's my favorite!

I hope you have enjoyed seeing my studio and some of my creations. I look forward to sharing more with you soon and I hope you have been inspired by something you saw!

I wish you a blessed weekend!

Much Love to You!

Love Tammy

My Rosy Cottage

For those of you that have been following the progress of the butterflies, I just wanted to let you know I am hunting for cocoons. The caterpillars have snuck off somewhere and they are hidden somewhere in the garden now. As soon as I find a cocoon I will certainly post pictures! I have been trying to think of things I could post on my blog and I knew that I wanted to show you my sweet house. I was going to wait a while and do some other things first, but I just can't stand it anymore. So here it is!

When I bought the house in 2004 (I can't believe it has been six years!) it had good structure, but I knew it needed a lot of work to make it look the way I wanted it to and to reflect my style. When you're decorating a house, I think it is also important to let a house talk to you and tell you how it would best be adorned. Lucky for me, this little ranch was begging to be dressed up like a sweet cottage on the interior. So I was happy to oblige!

This is how the living room looked when I bought it. Isn't it scary? Please notice the ugly wallpaper, paneling, old front door, dark wood molding, and my personal favorite - the "popcorn" on the ceiling! I like popcorn in a bowl with butter and salt, not on my ceiling! So I knew right away that would be the first thing to go!

So after a lot of money, sweat, and tears, this is what my cottage living room looks like now! Car you believe the transformation? My ex-husband fixed that strange shelf-thingy in the wall and I scraped and painted every ceiling so there wasn't any more of that unsightly popcorn anymore. I also got on my hands and knees and painted every base board white and also every piece of wood molding around every window and door in the whole house. We also got a new front door that fits the house better and I painted it a pale shade of P-I-N-K!!!! It is so beautiful and I am just crazy about it! We also replaced the ceiling fan so it matches better now.

A few of these pictures were taken last year during the spring and the rest of them were taken just last month. I usually decorate with roses during May to celebrate Mother's Day and since my mom loves roses I do it to honor her (and because I love them too!)

This is my fireplace mantle. The house didn't have a fireplace so I bought one of those faux fireplaces that burns gel fuel. It's just like a piece of furniture and I can move it around if I want to. It also keeps me warm in the winter! And it is really romantic when I light a whole bunch of candles in it. I love doing that! When I got the fireplace is was a yellowy-ivory color and I painted it white. I think it looks much better now!

This is a sweet, springy vignette I put together on a coffee table that I have sitting behind my sofa. Isn't that garden angel heavenly!?

So this is what the dining room and kitchen looked like when I bought the house. There's that strange shelf-thingy again. I guess those were popular in the 50's. Don't you just love the olive green curtains and that fantastic beige linoleum flooring?

Here is the kitchen and boy did it need work! I was just thankful I had a dishwasher and that beautiful window over the kitchen sink. There is nothing better than having natural sunlight to do dishes in and a little window sill to put some of your favorite sweet things on! The thing I hated the most about the kitchen was the drop-down ceiling! It made the room so small and closed off!

And here is the way my sweet kitchen and dining room look now!! It's so different and so much better! I painted and put white wains coat on the walls in the dining room. We replaced the ceiling fans, took up the linoleum and put down ceramic tile, and I even took the doors off of their hinges and painted them so they would match. Then I did my magic with decorating! My favorite thing about my dining room is my china hutch. It was an ugly blue thing that I bought an an antique shop. What a difference a coat of paint can make!

When the drop-down ceiling came down I discovered that I had wonderful shelving all around my cabinets to decorate. I really enjoy displaying all of my pretty things on the tops of the cabinets like this.

I used stencils to trace out the letters, then I painted "Rose Cottage" on the cabinet over the new built-in microwave we installed. It is so handy to have that and it's not taking up any of my counter space! I just love the little nooks beside the microwave. When I decorate I try to find a pair of my sweetest and pretties things to display in them.

So now we're on to the bathroom. This is the "before" shot and I almost busted a gut I was laughing so hard when I saw it. There wasn't much of anything I liked about it except that the toilet worked. Who in their right mind puts brown AND yellow tile on the walls?

And after several years of transformation, this is what my sweet cottage bathroom looks like now! My walls are pink!!!! I have white wains coat on the lower half of the wall. My mom and I installed some Berber carpet and I painted the cabinets. Then I decorated!!! Isn't it lovely?

This is a sweet little vignette I put together over my toilet where that ugly brown cabinet used to be. That frame was brown and I painted it white. It was designed to put pictures in but I put glittery white chipboard letters in each one of the spaces where a picture goes to spell LOVE. My favorite part of the vignette is the chippy white birds on the shelf. I used them in a lot of vignettes and I love them.

Finally we come to the bedroom! This is how it looked when I moved in. I hated that ugly orange wood that was everywhere. All of it got several coats of fresh white paint. That's the closet and you can see the rest of the room below.

And here is my rosy cottage bedroom now. Everything got a coat of white paint, including all of the furniture, and I painted the walls ivory. I replaced the ceiling fan and then I even painted the new blades white so it would match! Then I did my decorating magic! I love my sweet, rosy bedroom. I usually stays rosy all year round. I add Christmas decorations when that holiday rolls around.

There is a story behind that mannequin too. I certainly didn't buy her that way. I found her in an antique store and she was in bad shape. I took her home and recovered her and now she proudly displays my favorite dresses. Watch for future posts dedicated to her story! I can't wait to show you the before and after of her!

So that is my rosy cottage makeover. I hope you enjoyed your tour. I have another bedroom that I have turned into a craft room, where I do all of my creating. If you are interested you'll have to visit tomorrow because I will be a part of Karen's "Where Bloggers Create II" party at www.mydesertcottage.blogspot.com and I will reveal my craft room then! I also have a utility room and it is a mess right now. It's the only room in the house that hasn't been redone. But I have big plans for that room! I'll be sure to show you the before and after when it's ready!

I hope you have a blessed weekend!

Much Love to You!

Love Tammy