Christmas at Arbor House Lane

Christmas at Arbor House Lane

Christmas For My Fireman

Christmas for My fireman.

I wanted to do a special tree for my husband in the garage.

My husband is a volunteer fireman.

He has been a fireman for 24 years.

We were both on vacation last week.

So one morning while Mr. slept in, 

I put together this tree for him.

I found the idea on Facebook.

The tree topper is an old helmet and the garland is fire hose.

The kids no longer play with the little fire truck.

It now decorates the garage with my husband's other fire man stuff.

As you can see we have plenty of fire extinguishers in case of an emergency.

Every fireman should have his own parking space!

Country Living Found Arbor House Lane on Pinterest

A pleasant surprise.

I found my living room mantel was highlighted here on Countryliving.

This is the picture.

I found out accidentally while trying to show a co-worker some pictures of my home during Halloween.
 It was a pleasant surprise for sure!

If you did not already know, I kind of have a thing for Halloween!

I am getting excited to start bringing out the decorations soon. 

I hate to say.  

I only put out a little fall decorations,
a few pumpkins here and there.

I always start the beginning of September,
 thinking about if I am going to host a Halloween party.

I am tossing around the idea of a kids party.

The kids tell me it is their turn, since I had one for the parents last year.

I may have a few invitation ideas floating around in my head.



I know my skeletons are ready to come out of the closet.

I have not posted very much lately, work and busy with life.
Now that both are slowing down some.
 I am hoping to share the projects and finds of the summer.

Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

All Done In White

The only thing that was 

NOT 

on my to-do list.

Paint the kitchen.

But

That is exactly what I started last weekend.

I have finally painted the kitchen WHITE!
After 17 years of the green.
I convinced Mr. M. that it was OK to go white in the kitchen too.
He likes it.
YEAH!
The room seems brighter now.

Early morning in the sunshine.

I still have plates and paintings to hang on the walls.

So far, I love the change.

As you can see I chose an off white for the walls and bright white for the trim.

I have the same color white for all the trim in the house.

I love how my antique white furniture look against the new wall color.

I decided to take out the faux mantel and we will turn it into a shelf to hang under the mirror.

We have started looking for the granite for the counter top and tile for the back splash.

It will basically look like the picture below.

Except I have cherry cabinets on the bottom and distressed white on top.

source

We only have a small area that we would have to replace.

The cost will be minimal. 

Our large work area in the kitchen is the island.

As much as I would love to have white marble, 

it really would not go well with all the colors in the room.

Once the kitchen is done I will start painting my way up to the third floor.
After so many years the trim needs a fresh coat of paint.

Hopefully by the time I finish painting the weather will be warm.
I know the weeds need to be taken care of.



I am ready for Spring!

Slip Cover Twins

A perfect fit.

Another set of slipcover twins, well almost.

One is done and the other slipcover is in the process of.

This will be my second set of slipcover twins.

The first set of wingback slipcovers were made in 2011.

Both are sewn in two different fabrics, matelasse and cotton duck.

Twins in the dinning room.

This time I decided not to do piping.
As much as it is more time consuming, 

I think I like the look of piping better.  

That's ok because I see many slipcovers in my future.

I love a little pleat that shows off some leg.

I do know how to sew in zippers, but I think bows are so much cuter.

This is the pattern on the matelasse.

As you can see it will fit right in with the other furniture in the room.
The fireplace in the back is a future project.

This chair is the other chair waiting to be finished.

I usually cut all the fabric first and work on a little each day.

I should be finished in a couple of weeks, in between work, school and life.

The new chairs are 17 years old and some of the first pieces of furniture 

we bought when we finish building the house.  

They are well made, but I do not like the dark green color. 

 Slipcovers are far easier than reupholstering a wingback chair for sure.

These are Mr. M.'s favorite chairs and they will stay in our master bedroom.

The good thing about having furniture that are slipcovered in WHITE,

They look good in every room.

My other chairs have been in the living room, basement, office and dinning room.

Thanks for stopping by.
I will also be partying this weekend at;

French Country Cottage for Feathered Nest Friday
The Curator's Collection for Making Broken Beautiful
Thoughts From Alice for Sundays From Home 
Shabbyfufu for Share It One More Time
Elizabeth & Co for Be Inspired

The Wicker House for Create-Share-Inspire

It's Been A Long Time

It is done.

FINALLY!

I did get a few things done since you last heard from me.
Christmas passed by, Valentines and almost Spring.  I will wait until next year to share the ton of pictures from this past Christmas.

Working full time, going to school, being a mom and wife means there is less time devoted to being creative.  The need is still present, only time and energy are lacking. I enjoyed spending time on the computer being inspired by some many great bloggers.  

Finally after months of looking at the unfinished settee in my bedroom.

This is what it looked like when I found my treasure at Sally.  Good bones, ugly fabric.  It wasn't until I took the old fabric off that I had to figure out how to put the new one on.  This was a bigger project than I have tackled in the past.

The legs have such great detail.

First I painted it. White of course!

Same details but I like the color better.

I used two different fabrics. The plain white is just a simple cotton duck that I used for all the piping and cushion edging and bottom, back and seating areas.

The decorative fabric is a matelasse. 

Since this was my first settee and I have never upholstered a piece of furniture so large, I will give myself a break.  There are some areas I wish I had done better on, but, overall I am happy with how it turned out.

One of my favorite parts of upholstering this piece is the double welting.

It did a lot to hide some mistakes and it was easy to apply.  I would definitely

 use it again.

The design is beautiful and it was hard making that first cut in the bedspread.

I have since moved the settee from my master bedroom to the office.

It is a nice place for the kids to read and watch movies on the computer.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. 

It has been awhile since I posted so I thought I would do a little partying too!
French Country Cottage
you can also find me at
The Curator's Collection for Making Broken Beautiful

Thank you to everyone who stopped by from French Country Cottage!