Giveaway Winner

I interrupt the Patriotic Porches Tour

to announce the winner of the Country Sampler magazine giveaway.

I appreciate all the sweet and loving comments on the post - they mean a lot.

Everyone was assigned a number and I used RANDOM.ORG to give me an integer 

and the winner is Marilyn of Pink Paper Cottage.

I'm sorry that I couldn't share a copy with everyone, 

but I do have another giveaway coming up 

after the 4th of July.

Patriotic Porches

WELCOME

If you're on the Patriotic Porches Tour, organized by Amber of Follow the Yellow Brick Home,

then you are probably visiting from the beautiful home of Shannon of Belle Bleu Interiors.

It was easy for me to say yes to joining the Patriotic Porches Tour.

Living in a white house with blue trim and a red door

 pretty much means that our house looks patriotic year round.

It's easy after that to simply add flags

and call it done.

But, I rarely simply "call things done."

Peeking through the jungle of our back yard, you'll see that I've added a bit of patriotic decor to the back porch.

Even an old bicycle is dressed up for the 4th of July.

Basically red, white and blue can be seen throughout the house,

 but today is all about porches

and it's time for you to move on to the home of my friend Jann of Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson.

An InLinkz Link-up

9 Months Later

Nine months after our home was photographed for Country Sampler magazine the summer issue was released - it's fun to look back at how our home looked then because so much has changed.

The buoys are back on the fence and a tree now stands in place of the bench.

The red chairs have been painted blue, but surprisingly, the plate racks look much the same.

The kitchen shelves are still filled with blue and white dishes, but the display in the entry cabinet is not so colorful.

Considering my love or red, white and blue, it is surprising that neither of the bedrooms is done in bold colors right now.

The Adirondack chair holds the same pillow, but the basket of flip flops has been painted white and my cosmos plants are not so big and vibrant this summer.

There are a lot of fun ideas in this issue and they sent me a few extra copies so I'm doing a Giveaway.

Please leave a comment if you want your name included in the Giveaway.

In order to receive the package before July 4,

I'll draw a name on Wednesday, June 27.

And don't be surprised if there are a few patriotic items included in the package.

I should became I did ...

I'm always telling myself, "I should do that . . .", so in late May I came up with a list of all those "should's".

You only see a part of the list on my iPad, but you also see a lot of checks because the month of June has been spent turning "should's" into "did's".

I finally got around to painting the second coat on the dining room chairs - that's our house guest, Miss Violet.

I checked off painting red clay pots and also moving the baker's rack off the porch and into the garden.

Organizing the attic (not finished, but getting there) led me to an old basket which got a fresh coat of paint and polka dots.

And I was able to check off adding beach toys to our summer porch - now we just need some kiddos to drop by.

Two items got checked off when I repainted the bathroom shelves and created a cute vignette on one of the shelves.

 I bought the tall black candlestick last fall and finally checked painting it off my list.

Changing the message on the chalkboard in the guest room

 was an easy fix

as was painting a set of candlesticks.

For the longest time I have wanted to dress up a plain white set of pillow cases I found in the attic and I finished those last night.

No pattern, just crocheting away and not worrying about making the guest room pillow cases match.

And now, enough showing off my projects because that list just got longer.

Steve and one of my former teaching colleagues ( click here to see her home) are holding an Open Studio at our house and there are so many things I "should" do.