Autumn on the front porch

Summer has lingered around here. But the calendar has turned the page, and it's October. . . and I'm ready to decorate my house in accordance with the calendar instead of the weather. Cooler days are coming, I know!

Here's how you'd be greeted if came to my home today.

There was a time when I wanted more, more, more fall decorations at the front door, but these days I'm happy with just a few. I filled my lanterns with gourds, hung a wreath on the door, then added a couple of pumpkins and a couple of baskets. One mum adds some fall color and I hope the doorway says "Welcome friends" as well as "Welcome Fall"!

One of my favorite finds this year is a tobacco basket. While I'm not a user of tobacco products myself, I live in Durham, North Carolina, and tobacco is a big part of our local history.

To the right of the front door is my favorite spot in our house--our outdoor living room.

This area of the porch is surrounded by house on three sides, open only to the North on the front of the house. It's such a protected nook that we use it in most seasons, but Fall is our favorite.

Here you can see how the sitting area is related to the front door:

I had new covers made for the outdoor furniture this year (click here for a helpful post on choosing outdoor fabric). I'm enjoying the fact that the furniture is now so neutral that I can do whatever I want with throw pillows. I've had this pillow fabric for years, and it seemed just right for Fall, so I used this simple sewing technique and stitched up new pillow covers in no time. Other than changing the pillows, I simply added a couple of little pumpkins and a Fall message on the chalkboard.

Here's a look at the whole seating area:

These simple changes took just a little bit of time, but I think they make the porch look welcoming for the season. Now if you could just come sit here with me and have a cup of mulled cider! Wouldn't that be a good way to celebrate the coming of Autumn?

I'm joining these fun parties:

Inspire Me Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

Thoughts of Home on Thursday

Master bathroom update

It's been quite a while since I've written about what I've been doing in our home, but today I'm glad to share with you the updates that we've made to one of the rooms we use the most: our master bathroom.

Isn't it funny how long it can take us to get around to working on spaces that aren't in the public eye? Yet room like this play a major role in our daily lives.

Here's what our bathroom looked like before. Not horrible, but a little dated and a little too much on the brown side.

The tumbled marble tile work was fine with me, which was a good thing since our budget wouldn't accommodate such a big change.  But I wanted to de-emphasize the brownish tones, so I painted the walls with Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter.  This "greige" color still works fine with the tumbled marble; in fact, it's a close match to the groutwork in the tile. 

Once the room was lightened up with new paint, we could move on to other changes. The one element of the old bathroom I really disliked was the shower door, so changing it was the biggest priority.  I really like the new glass door.

Unfortunately, replacing that door ate up most of our budget, so we had to prioritize other changes. I would have loved to have a beautiful claw-foot tub, but decided that the existing jetted tub was fine for now. I still love the Lichtenstein-style portrait of me that my husband had made (you can read the story behind this portrait here).



I also considered replacing the countertops, but ultimately decided that the Corian was fine. It's in excellent shape and is very neutral. But the sink faucets were in pretty bad shape, so we replaced those with these lovelies:



The new faucets are from the Cassidy line by Delta, and we're very happy with them.  The faucets for our shower and tub were fine, so we just replaced the sink faucets. We stuck with brushed nickel so that the new faucets would play nicely with the old ones.

The other big change was the mirrors.  As you can see above, we had huge expanses of plate-glass mirror. They were in fine shape, but I was ready for a change. I considered framing the old mirrors, but ultimately decided against that. I was especially tired of the L-shaped mirror over my sink and vanity area. After measuring three times to be absolutely sure of the dimensions, I chose a fairly inexpensive but substantial-looking molding and had the mirrors custom-made at my local frame shop.  I think the new mirrors make a big difference in the look of the room.



The other changes I made were all very inexpensive or even free.

I simplified and updated the accessories around the tub.  I filled one of my apothecary jars with gorgeous lavender bath salts that a friend made for me; aren't they pretty? They smell heavenly. The white soap dish I found at the dollar store.



I re-used some of my old houndstooth fabric to cover an inexpensive X-leg ottoman from Target's Threshold line.



My vanity chair got recovered with some fabric left over from another project, and  I re-used my old lamp after spray-painting it with Valspar's Secluded Garden.

I'm so happy with our lighter, brighter space! The only big-ticket item in our mini-remodel was the shower door, but I think we succeeded in updating our space significantly with several small changes.

What do you think?

I'm joining these fun parties:

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

Brag-Worth Thursday at Bless Er House

Create a welcoming garage entrance

One of the things I most like to do in my home is to create a feeling of welcome.  I especially enjoy making the front porch say "Welcome!" to everyone who visits here.

Unfortunately, those of us who live here seldom use the front door.  We enter through the garage door, which greeted us with dingy paint and not much else.  So I decided to do something about that.

Of course, I knew that whatever I did needed to be extremely practical.  This is not the spot for decor that can get in the way when we're bringing in bags of groceries!

I started by putting a fresh coat of white paint on the door and giving the steps a good scrubbing.  I also bought a plain coir mat for the foot of the steps.

Then I used my word processing software to create lettering for the front door.  I simply printed off the words I wanted it in the fonts I liked, flipped the pieces of paper over, scribbled on the back of the lettering with a lead pencil, and then taped the papers to the door and traced the outline of the words onto the door.  (Click here to read all about that process.)  Here's how the lettering appeared on the door:



If I had a craft cutter, I would have cut vinyl letters for the door.  Or I could have ordered custom vinyl lettering.  But I like this process because it allows me to choose any fonts I like and to print them in any size I like--the options are endless!--and it's free!

I'm afraid that I'm not very good with a small paintbrush, so I colored in the letters with a black Sharpie marker.

Then to give the steps a little pizazz, I found a tan craft paint that was about the color of the coir mat I'd purchased.  I painted a "runner" on the steps with the tan paint (the dark brown on the sides is the original color of the steps).  I used three of the tiny bottles of craft paint, which was my only expenditure for this project other than the coir mat.  When the tan was completely dry, I used painter's tape to mark off 1 1/2 stripes on each side of the tan runner and painted those with black craft paint. This process was painstaking but easy.  Here's a close-up:

Since I had simply painted the steps with craft paint, I figured it wouldn't be very durable.  So when the paint was completely dry, I sprayed the steps with clear urethane.  

It's not perfect, as you can plainly see, but it doesn't have to be perfect to be great, does it?  Here are the steps with the coir mat in place:

The mat is great for wiping our feet, and I love the way our humble steps look with their painted runner!  

Now when we get out of our cars to come inside the house, here's our entrance:

Not bad for less than $20 and a few hours' work, I think.  Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home!

Do you do anything to make your garage door a welcoming entrance?  I'd love to hear!

I'm joining these parties:

Inspire Me Tuesday at A Stroll Thru Life

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

Your Turn to Shine at Bless 'Er House

Frugal Friday at The Shabby Nest

Things get worse before they get better

My life is chock-full of transitions right now.  For a brief moment in time, all three of my sons are at home again, each one awaiting a new stage in his life.

I know this big ole house is going to feel empty very soon.  Right now, though, it's very full.  And busy.  And kind of chaotic.

So, just for grins, it's time to do some much-needed work on the house, right?

Our timing is not so great, but this week carpenters began work on replacing our deck.  This is how things looked yesterday:



And this morning:



While we're doing the work on the deck, we're also changing the style of the railing all around the screened-in porch.  We've never liked the spindles that have always been there, so we'll get new ones to match the new deck railing.



Unfortunately, the deck is the route to the back yard for our doggies.  They've always let themselves in and out of the house via a doggie door, which is closed for now.  They're a little confused.

Innocent looking little things, aren't they?

I probably shouldn't have been surprised yesterday morning when Snickers the beagle knocked over the watering can on the deck while I was conferring with the carpenter.  She was nosing her way around, trying to figure out what's going on.



But guess who was standing on the downstairs patio, directly UNDER the watering can?

At least the carpenter didn't get drenched.  And it was clean water.  Thank God for small mercies.

In the midst of the mess this morning, I'm reminding myself that things always get worse before they get better.  Right?  Right??

Home Goals 2012

I've stated here that I'm not very good at making goals. But I'm trying. And I was thinking about what I'd like to do in my house this year when I came across these words:

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; 

remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.

-Epicurus

Boy, is this ever true for me. Here's my house (this is how it looked all decorated for Christmas):

Here it is in the snow:

And here I confess that my attitude about this house has usually been one of two things: either I've felt guilty or greedy.
(By the way, this post is brought to you by the letter G.)
Seriously, I've tended to feel guilty that I have such a lovely place to live--I know I don't deserve it! Or else I've felt greedy--such as when I've looked at my kitchen and thought, "I really just don't have enough storage space." Sheesh.

When I really stop to think about it, I realize that neither of these attitudes is doing me or anyone else any good. So my house goal for 2012 is to adjust my thinking. I want to replace the guilty and greedy thoughts and feelings with two new "G" words:
grateful and
gracious.
I want to spend every day of this year being grateful for all of God's blessings, including my house. I think maybe if I stop to be grateful for this gift, I'll take better care of it. And I want to open my home to others. In any way I can, I want to share this gift. I want my home to be a place of grace.
So my specific goals include:

• getting rid of piles. (I'm a terrible piler. I need to break this habit, or at least go through the piles on a regular basis so that the piles don't become mountains.)
• adopting a regular cleaning schedule that I can and will actually stick to.
• keeping the house orderly enough to be glad to open the door to anyone, anytime.
• keeping the guest room clean, so that overnight guests are always welcome.

My hope is that I'll begin to recognize that the care of my home is an issue of stewardship. Maybe instead of being "house proud," I'll be "house humble." And then other home projects will be a bonus!

Yes! I have goals! Do you have any suggestions for how I might reach them? Do you have goals for your home? Join the Nester for her Home Goals Party!

Home is. . . sharing a family heirloom

Sandy at Reluctant Entertainer is having another Home Is. . . party today. Today's topic is "sharing a family heirloom."

The heirloom I love best is in my dining room. Actually, my dining room is the heirloomiest (that's not a word, but you know what I mean) room in my house. My dining room furniture belonged to my mom, several pieces of my crystal were my mom's, etc. All in all, I don't have many heirlooms: my husband and I both come from families who never had much. But we have a few prized possessions, and to me the very best piece is this:

It's a deacon's bench from my grandmother's little church in Belle Plaine, Kansas.

In 1876, my grandmother's forebears set out from Jamestown, Kentucky to seek a better life in the West. They settled in Kansas. Belle Plaine is one of those wonderful little prairie towns where the biggest attraction is the community swimming pool and the tallest building is the grain elevator. I have such fond memories of spending summers there when I was a child. Life in Belle Plaine was simple and fun, especially since my grandmother was one of nine siblings, all of whom lived close to her. Lots of cousins to play with; lots of aunts and uncles to keep an eye on us and make sure we didn't get into too much trouble.

The deacon's bench is from the church of which my grandmother was a member for all her adult life--the church where my mother grew up, was baptized, got married. I can still imagine the smell of that building. . . a mixture of flowers, old wood, and the damp earth of the deep basement. The old church building was torn down when I was a young woman, but a few pieces from the building were salvaged, including this deacon's bench, which became my grandmother's. My grandmother died in 1999, and this is one of the pieces my mother inherited. Then my mother died later that same year (not a good year, let me tell you), and somehow I was the lucky one who inherited the deacon's bench. I just love it.

Several years ago (and several houses ago), an interior designer friend of mine helped me with a few rooms in my house. It was his idea to put the deacon's bench at the dining room table. I've moved three times since then, but I've continued to use the bench there in every house. Now my kids argue over who gets to sit on it at holiday meals. I hosted a bridal shower a few weeks ago, and we moved the bench into the living room. Three young women sat there throughout the shower. It's pretty beat up, but still sturdy after all these years.

Here are a few more photos of my dining room. The walls above the chair rail are a deep, brownish red. I know, I know. . . red dining rooms are passe'. . . but I still love the color in this room. I guess I'm more of a tradition-keeper than a trend-setter.

How about you? Do you have any prized heirlooms? Join Sandy at Reluctant Entertainer to read about more--or share your own!

The way to a man's heart

It's not just a myth, you know. Men love for women to cook for them. Even men like my husband, who is an excellent cook himself. And there's something about wearing an apron while I'm cooking that makes me feel especially feminine and flirty.

Sandy at Reluctant Entertainer continues her "Home Is. . . " series today with a party about wearing aprons in the kitchen.

Now, I know that aprons are first and foremost practical. I mean, they're worn by butchers and bricklayers as well as by chefs. And sometimes I wear an apron just to be practical--an ugly, shapeless old thing that serves only to keep splatters off my clothes.

But my favorite aprons are my sweet little over-the-skirt aprons--the ones that tie around my dainty little waist and protect my beautiful skirt while allowing my pearls to show. You know the ones?

Like this red one I found on eBay. Look how cute it is:

And notice the detail on the pocket. All my skirt aprons have one pocket, on the right side. Good thing I'm right-handed.

Or this darling one that my grandmother made for me as a wedding gift, 25 years ago. See how she painstakingly embroidered a design, cross-stitching in just the white squares?

Or this little number. My mother told me that aprons like this were called "hostess aprons," and they weren't intended for day-to-day wear, but to wear when having guests. I found this one at a garage sale. My red-headed self couldn't pass up this Irish cutie.

And look! It's reversible!

Wearing aprons like these makes me want to make my husband something special. The truth is that my husband is actually a better cook than I am. He can create the most delectable culinary masterpieces. But when it comes to desserts--well, that's my department. And I don't suppose there's anything he likes better than pie. Here's the recipe for one of his favorites. The recipe is fairly long, but it's actually pretty simple to follow. And the results? Guaranteed goodness.

Coconut Cream Pie

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 cups milk

4 eggs

3 tablespoons butter

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 1/2 cups flaked coconut

1 baked pastry shell

Bake a pie shell according to your favorite recipe (or do as I do and use a Pillsbury All-Ready pie crust).

Separate the four eggs. Place whites in mixer bowl; place yolks in a heat-proof bowl.

For filling, combine sugar, flour, and salt in a heavy saucepan. Gradually stir in milk. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Reduce heat; continue to cook and stir two minutes more (use a timer!). Remove from heat.

Beat egg yolks slightly, then gradually mix about one cup of the hot pudding mixture into the yolks to temper them. Stir egg mixture back into saucepan. Bring pudding to a gentle boil. Cook and stir two minutes more, then remove from heat. Stir in butter, vanilla extract and 1 cup of the coconut; stir 'til well-combined. Set pan of pudding aside.

Make meringue by mixing egg whites with 1 teaspoon vanilla and 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar. Beat with electric mixer until soft peaks form (about 1 minute). Gradually (about one spoonful at a time) add 1/2 cup granulated sugar. Beat at high speed until stiff peaks form (about 4 minutes).

Spread pudding mixture into pie shell. Pudding will be very thick. Spread meringue over pudding mixture. Be sure to spread the meringue all the way to the edge of the crust to prevent shrinkage. Sprinkle remaining coconut over the meringue.

Bake at 350 degrees about 12 minutes or until golden brown.

Since the pudding in this pie is very thick, it can be served while still fairly warm, which is the way my hubby likes it.

You can head over to Sandy's to read all the fun apron stories. But first, tell me: do you like to wear aprons yourself?

****Special Announcement: I'll be hosting my VERY FIRST linky party on Friday, May 7. Please come back on Friday to read all about it!!*****