Lucketts Love

I've found another store to love! Old Lucketts Store, just north of Leesburg, VA is like a cross between a junk shop and Anthropologie. Their prices are much more reasonable than Anthroplogie, but not as bargain basement as a true junk shop. It like they've taken the best stuff from a flea market, fixed it up, and displayed it in a way too cute to ignore. They call their style vintage hip.

Here's a sampling of some of the neatest ideas.

These adorable coat racks are made from vintage door knobs and levels. My dad said I can have my great-grandpa's level if I want to make one myself one day. I think the answer is, "yes!"

I LOVE this lamp, especially the shade. I don't think it would be too hard to make something similar out of an old shade.

I think this whole shabby Paris tablescape is awesome!

My favorite part is how they used these little letter plates to spell out Paris on top of a stack of maps.

These pillows are made out of old postal bags. I really love the big grommets on the corners. I'm now going to be on the lookout for vintage postal bags!

This whole scene appeals to me, minus the cherubs! Something about the blue grey paint job + sea scape (and you know how I love sea scapes!) really speaks to me.

Last, but not least, I love how the simple act of tossing jumbled silverware in an old wire basket creates such a classy centerpiece. The textures play off each other in a really nice way.

I may have left Lucketts empty handed, but my brain is full of new decor ideas!

be sure to check out their website, as it's just as adorable as the store!

<3

Hattie

Blueberry Bread

Because my love for blueberries knows no bounds, I'm back with one more blueberry recipe.



Let's talk about how awesome and easy this bread is! It has the texture of a humongous blueberry muffin and it slices really well. It is delish served warm with a little dab of butter and a big cup of tea. I pulled this recipe out of some magazine back in the fall, but haven't had a chance to try it until now. I've already made two loaves, because it is that good!
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To make this lovely loaf, you will need:
1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour ( I only buy unbleached)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. cinnamon ( I don't have a 1/8 tsp. measure, and I like cinnamon, so I just used an almost full 1/4 tsp.)
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries ( I don't think I'd use frozen. You can be generous with your 1 cup if you have a bumper crop of berries like my family does.)
1 cup of sugar ( I haven't tried it, but I bet you could use Splenda.)
1/2 cup milk (1% worked fine.)
1/3 cup butter melted (Smart Balance 50/50 blend worked fine.)
2 large eggs
1 tsp. lemon zest ( I didn't have a lemon to zest, so I used dried grated lemon peel I bought at a farmer's market and it wasn't a problem.)
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
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Step 1. Preheat oven to 350. Combine first four ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. Stir in blueberries.

Step 2. In another medium mixing bowl, whisk remaining ingredients until thoroughly combined. Add this mixture to the flour mixture. Stir only until just blended. Over stirring will make the bread tough.

Step 3. Pour batter into a lightly greased 8 and 1/2 x 4 and 1/2 inch GLASS loaf pan. Bake for one hour or until a tooth pick in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove loaf from pan and continue cooling on wire rack for an hour or until you no longer have any self-control.

Yum!

<3
Hattie

This Land was Made for You and Me!

Brad and I have some exciting news! As of 3:30 today, we are the proud owners of four acres of beautiful Louisa, VA dirt. My Grandma graciously and generously gifted us with four acres of the family farm. It's been a long process of surveying, trips to a lawyer to have a deed drawn up, and two trips to the court house to get our plat approved and our deed recorded. Today it's official, and we could not be happier or feel more blessed!







Here we are standing in our future front yard area. One day there will be a house behind us!



This will be the view if you stand on the front porch and look a little to the right.



If you turn to the left you'd get this view.



The side yard. Brad was measuring where our house might go.



My favorite, the view from our future back deck.



We are so, so excited! Owning land definitely makes us want to save more than ever for that dream house! Hopefully, in about two years, we'll walk in our front door and be home!

Thanks Grandma!

<3
Hattie

Price My Space with the Nester

I love the Nester! Her mantra, "It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful," is super reassuring for those of us with quirky houses and hand-me-down furniture. Last week, she announced a new link party, Price My Space.




The idea is to take a wall, room, or whatever and talk about where your decor came from and whether it was a bargain or a splurge.



As sort of newlyweds with our minds set on paying off all debt and saving for a down payment on a house, Brad and I have been blessed to have been given quite a bit of furniture by our friends and family. We have also picked up some pieces at thrift stores. In our living room, only two pieces of furniture were purchased new. I hope my post will show that even if new furniture isn't in your budget, it's still possible to create a warm and inviting room with the help of generous family members and a few trips to Goodwill and IKEA.



Welcome to our living room!




This is the view as you come down the steps. Our sofa was graciously given to up by Brad's parents. The colors work fairly well in the room, but I would really love to find a simple, white slipcover. I'm discovering that there are very few slipcovers available for large sofas with t-cushions on the seat and back. We might just save the money for a new sofa when we move in a few years. In the corner, behind the sofa, is a typewriter table given to us by my Grandma. The basket, box, and frame were all gifts as well. The large paint-by-number was a $15 junk hole find. I painted the ugly frame white with paint I already had on hand.




I love paint-by-numbers and coastal scenes! The top painting was found at the same junk shop for $5. I added a $9 IKEA frame. The little light and easel are also from IKEA. The light was around $15 and the easel was $2 or so. The boat oil painting was a gift from my parents.




This shelf was once a window valance. We found it at my favorite junk shop, Class and Trash, for $15. The other nautical scenes were all picked up at thrift shops by my parents. A $5 IKEA glass jar filled with shells adds a little more beachiness.




My mom made these two throw pillows from yard sale hankies and $1.99 IKEA pillow forms. The bookshelves originally lived in my grad school house in College Park. My roomie and I used one in the kitchen as a pantry, and the other lived in my teeny tiny bedroom. I think they were around $40.00 each from an office store and Wal-Mart. All vintage luggage on top of the bookshelves were gifts.




I don't remember where I found the vintage suitcase that holds our CDs. I made the newspaper baskets that hold our DVDs. They were basically free, but I have many hot glue gun battle scars.




I made the coffee table arrangement from stuff we had around the house. The Edward Hopper coffee table book was a gift from Brad the first Christmas we were dating. I found the Paris print for $3 at the Green Valley Book Fair. I have no idea where the hobnail vase came from, but I'm pretty sure my mom found it at some thrift store. The ivy is from our yard.




The coffee table is one of my favorite Class and Trash finds. I think it was $30. The top was badly scratched and needed a new piece of glass. A little paint and a new pane later, and I love it!



The winged back chair was a gift from my Grandma. Brad's Maw-Maw crocheted the red throw for me, and my mom made the hankie pillow.

The card catalogue (soooo perfect for a librarian's house!) was salvaged from a school that was being torn down. We bought the little bench underneath for about $25 at IKEA.

We found this vintage typewriter table at the Family Thrift for about $20. On the same day we also found our pumpkin colored filing cabinet and Brad's dresser. It was a really good thrifting day! My parents found the milk glass lamp somewhere, and bought the shade at Lowe's. I have no idea how much it was, probably under $20. The frames are either gifts or Dollar Tree finds.

This HEMNES Shelf unit from IKEA is our big splurge purchase at $109. Our old particle board bookshelf was literally crumbling. We were trying to spend as little as possible for the look we wanted and actually ended up finding this shelf in the children's area. the frames were wedding gifts and the milk glass vase came from Goodwill. The flowers are artificial, but they looked so real that I couldn't help the $15 splurge. They came from this great shop in Lexington, VA called pumpkin seeds.

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Looking around our living room makes me realize that God has blessed us with so much for so little money! I'm very thankful to have a comfy living room in our little roost that didn't set us back from saving for our dream house. It's true that the room may not be perfect, but you know what the Nester says!

Be sure to check out all the other Price My Space posts!

<3

Hattie

A little cottage by the sea

I'm pretty excited about today's post because it features so many of my favorite things: books, cottages, the beach, and a giveaway!

I discovered author Mary Kay Andrews when I was living in College Park, Maryland during graduate school. I was really missing home and things like hearing "y'all," and "Bless your heart!" I missed country roads and junk shops, and was longing for a shot in the arm of Southerness. When I picked up Savannah Breeze, it was like someone had given me a big bowl of homemade peach ice cream. Here was a book with romance, humor, junking, furniture restoration, and the beach. I was hooked on Mary Kay's books from then on.



When I discovered Mary Kay's blog, I became hooked on that as well. She writes about her books, antiquing adventures, and restoring her family beach house on Tybee Island.

You can view even more pictures of the Breeze Inn and follow Mary Kay's renovation process by checking out her blog archive.

I just love this cottage, so you can image how excited I was to learn that you can actually rent the Breeze Inn through Mermaid Cottages . You have to go to this site and check out the 38 adorable cottages they have available for vacation rental. Clicking through this site is not only great for dreaming of an island getaway, but it is also a great way to get some cottage decor inspiration. Here is just a quick peak at a few of the gorgeous rooms in three other cottages.

Can I please visit Tybee Island as soon as possible?

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I'm hoping that maybe I'll get to stay at the Breeze Inn next summer for free because Apartment Therapy has a contest going to win a weekend stay at the Breeze Inn! The contest ends July 16th, so get over there and register!

So my likelihood of winning might not be that great, but at least I can spend this summer enjoying Mary Kay's new book.

A love story and a total house restoration? I am going to love this book!

<3

Hattie

All cottage photos are from Mermaid Cottages

All book cover photos are from marykayandrews.com

I'm dreaming of a white kitchen

I'm participating in Transformation Thursdays over at The Shabby Chic Cottage

Take a little look around my tiny kitchen. Do you notice something new?








See that nice, clean, white cabinet in the corner? On Tuesday it looked like this:











Ewww! I have been debating what color to paint this sucker for awhile. When Brad and I first assembled our IKEA/Goodwill/wedding gift/hand-me-down kitchen we had new white bead board cabinets from IKEA on one wall. A vintage white hutch in one corner, and these three mismatched wood finishes on the other side of the room.





I was not crazy about this look, but remembering that these pieces were free, gifted, and $20 at Goodwill made it easier to live with the mishmash for awhile. After I painted the table and chairs white over spring break, the little cabinet in the corner kept calling out to me for it's own paint job. My first instinct was to paint it white, but as you probably already know, my first instinct is to paint just about everything white. I worried that it would be too much white and make things look stark and cold. I pondered a cheery red paint job but rejected that as red overkill. I thought about a sunny yellow or pale blue, but never felt quite right about those colors with the rest of the room. After looking through my design idea book, I realized that all the kitchen pictures I had clipped featured all white kitchens and they looked beautiful and crisp. That was all the nudging I needed to grab my beloved white paint!







Ah! so fresh and so clean!




The old hardware also had to go. Brad and I picked up these simple brushed nickle pulls at Home Depot last night. They bring the total cost of this project to $8. The cabinet was a hand-me-down and we already had the paint.
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Let's take one last tour around the room for fun :-)



I've decided it's impossible to get a good shot of the stained glass window. It's much prettier in person.


I think things look much more cohesive now, and I love spending time in my cheerful retro kitchen!

<3
Hattie

Cut it out!

I have a super cool furniture re-do on the way tomorrow, and yes, it does involve white paint. While the paint is drying, I thought I'd show y'all another way I cut down on clutter and organize both my brain and the roost.

A few years ago I started keeping an idea book for our future dream home. Every time I see a room arrangement, color pallet, or decorating idea that I love, it goes into the book.

I use an old three-ring binder from high school.

Here is my somewhat chaotic system. As soon as new magazines arrive, I get out any magazines lying around from previous months and take my scissors to them. As I cut out things that inspire me, the clipping go straight into one of the manila folders above. Depending on how much time I have, the clippings either hangout in the folders for awhile, or I put them right into my idea book. As soon as I've finished clipping a magazine, it gets passed on to someone else or donated to my school's art department. The goal is to have zero piles of dusty magazines lurking in the corners of the roost.

The inside of my idea book is super simple, the clippings are just arranged by category with little notes. Because we will be building from scratch, we'll get to choose every little thing that goes into our home. As much as I love this, it can be an overwhelming thought! The idea book gives me a visual reference for everything from shingles to door knobs.

In some sections, like bedrooms, I've chosen pictures based on feel and texture more than furniture or room layout.

In other sections, it's pretty clear that I know exactly how I want to decorate one day. I've cut out over seven pages of white kitchens over the past two years!

I've also got about five pages of blue-grey bathrooms with bead board.

I even cut out storage ideas.

Near the back of the book I have ideas for holiday decorating and craft projects.

I also cut out source information for things like paint colors, flooring, and even local antique stores.

The very last pages of the book are inspiration pictures. If I see a picture I would like to step into for awhile, it goes into the book. These could inspire a color scheme or a mood for a future room. Plus, they just make me smile when I look at them!

I have another book like this in the kitchen that I use to store recipes. I hardly ever open a regular cook book, because most of my favorite recipes have been handed down or torn out of magazines.

Anybody else have an idea book or another way to keep paper clippings organized?

<3

Hattie