~My Hair~Goodbye Fall and THANK YOU'S~

IS THIS CRAZY OR WHAT???? >
This is my hair after washing and blow drying it. I promise to get a picture of it straightened....it's almost to my shoulders. This is only about 10 months of growth. My hair DOES grow fast, always has and everyone is asking me if I bought a wig....LOL

GOODBYE FALL.....I HATE WINTER and tend to stay inside because the cold cuts me to the bone. See how I still have PINK toenail polish on.....I just can't accept that summer is gone and winter is on it's way. THIS IS MY VIEW.....FROM THE "RED" SWING in the TREE looking out into the corn fields of Iowa. This is our front lawn that points to the North.

Yet another view....to the EAST

And the View to the West

This is from a sweet customer of mine (AND A TOTAL SURPRISE) Sara Sweet!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! I LOVE IT!!!

Below is the YUMMY HONEY and the BEST CANDY I HAVE EVER TASTED IN MY LIFE from winning a contest from JUDY at BROCANTE and ETC.

THIS IS HONEY FROM DENVER!!!! and HONEY STICKS FOR MY TEA....and guess what, LOL.....I just SUCKED the honey out of the sticks because it was so darn good!!!!

THE BEST TOFFEE in the WORLD and guess what, I could actually eat it with how bad my teeth are and it didn't hurt at all!!!! See the big bite out of the top of the piece!!!! YUMMY!!!!

ANOTHER SURPRISE!!!!

And to my surprise came the SWEETEST LITTLE FALL CUPCAKE pincushion from BETTY and SHE'S SEW PRETTY!!!!

A QUICK UPDATE ON ANNA.....She went home yesterday from the hospital, there will be more surgeries but they needed to get the bones fixed first. Bill has been keeping me updated and I haven't been able to talk to Anna yet. I so understand about needing your rest when you go thru something like that so I will let you know the minute I find out anything. If you would like to send her a get well card, PLEASE email me at FourSistersInACottage@msn.com and I will give it to you. She sure could use some cheering up.

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE for your THOUGHTFULNESS, PRAYERS and ENCOURAGEMENT!!!! You mean the world to me!!!!
Love and Hugs, Amy

~PRAYERS NEEDED for ANNA~AND OUR TROOPS

ANNA and I in MT. VERNON, IOWA.....the first year we got to meet in person way back in 2002

Please pray for ANNA from MyFlowerBed as she had an accident falling down the stairs and SHATTERED her leg. She will be going into surgery and Loma Linda Hospital TODAY to try and fix it. She needs as many prayers as she can get that the surgery goes well and that they can fix her leg.

I LOVE YOU ANNA and I know you won't be able to get online for awhile but please know we are ALL HERE FOR YOU and LOVE YOU!!! I will be coming to California soon. GET WELL and HEAL FAST....GODSPEED TO YOU!!!!
Love and Hugs, Amy

(QUICK UPDATE: I just got off the phone with Bill (Anna's hubby) and she won't have surgery until Friday as the swelling is so bad, they have to get that under control first. She broke her tibia bone and the knobs that hold it in place. OUCH!!!! She will have plates and pins put in and hopefully will walk again. Please say a prayer for her and for Bill....Thank you to EVERYONE)

GOD BLESS AMERICA....LAND THAT I LOVE!!!!

~MY NEW LIVING ROOM/DINING ROOM~

ALL BECAUSE OF THIS SOFA MOM FOUND FOR ME at SALVATION ARMY for $37.50....And not to mention, ALL THOSE BLOGS and FRIENDS who have given me INSPIRATION!!!! THANK YOU!!!!

PLEASE READ MY PAST BLOG POST click HERE Before you finish looking at the rest of these pictures.

AND IT ALL STARTED in January, the day before I left for California to visit Anna.......ALL BECAUSE THAT SOFA from the Salvation Army for $37.50!!!!!
THIS IS WHAT it looks like now after Mom and I redid it this past week. PLEASE UNDERSTAND, it is still a work in progress....I am still trying to redo some of the shelves in my big cupboards (keeping only what is near and dear to my heart....the rest is going to be sold on the website) Also, I just added the chandelier about 20 minutes ago and still not sure if I am going to keep it there or not. The rest of the light fixtures I WILL be painting, I just ran out of time. You have no idea how much work it was to take everything down (I had to wash it all and pack it away in boxes as I can't stand to put dirty stuff in storage) There is NO WAY I could have done all of this without my Mom.....The colors I used were Ballet Slipper, Petal Pink, Bright White, Queen Anne's Lace and Pitter Patter. (Did you know I have a TOTAL OBSESSION with the NAMES of PAINTS!!!! And usually pick them out because of their names.....LOL)
Mom painted 10 pieces of furniture and helped me with the walls. The longest day I painted was last Saturday for 14 hours straight. Needless to say, I am EXHAUSTED!!!!BUT IT WAS SO WORTH IT and there is NO WAY I could have done this without Mom!!!! SHE ROCKS!!!! Also, last week, I was without Internet for almost 5 days and it was the LAST WEEK my shop was open, so now I am trying to get that shut down and redone so I can get more pretties on the website for you!!!! Enjoy the pictures and I hope you get a kick out of what it looked like when we moved in, when we re-did it and now how I have it....THE WAY I WANTED IT in the first place!!!! All Bob wanted was his big screen TV and his chair....all the rest is cosmetic to him. He got what he wanted and I FINALLY Have it the way I wanted it all along!!!! I AM THRILLED!!!!

CHECK OUT THOSE SHUTTERS.....From an Antique Shop in Cascade Iowa. The coffee table is made from OLD BARN BOARDS in WISCONSIN...the bottom was blue (as you can see from the old pictures) and MOM painted it PITTER PATTER for me!!!!


With or without the Chandelier....I am still deciding

My chairs are all red leather (ALL BOUGHT SECOND HAND....yeah, like I can afford new furniture) So I took my old chenille spreads and quilts and covered them up. User friendly for the kids and I can just throw them in the wash to clean them!!!! YEAH!!!!


NOTICE THE CLOCK, My cousin Mark made that and my Mom painted it PITTER PATTER TOO!!!


View from the FRONT PICTURE WINDOW looking SOUTH into the BACK PICTURE WINDOW, my dream is to have this all knocked out and FRENCH DOORS added with a deck coming off of it. SOMEDAY when I AM RICH....LOL

Fireplace Mantle (it's 9 feet long!!!!) with Stone City Iowa Stone

The Silver Service is my Mom's....she gave it to me and I think it looks perfect there.

Corner of the Mantle (Found the LONG MIRROR in Temecula, California on my second trip out there, it's one of my favorites and always reminds me of Anna)

TWO old etched mirrors......some of many I have but these were my favorite above the fireplace as they are HUGE!!!!

Other side of the fireplace, with a STANDING ROSE BOUQUET and my GRANDMA VANHAL'S PINK VASE from HOLLAND

My NINE FOOT LONG Stone City, Iowa STONE FIREPLACE that Bob got up to code and works like a charm. I LOVE IT and I have already had 4 fires in it...It's SOOOOO COOL!!!!

View as you come down the hallway from the bathroom and the bedrooms.

Another VIEW as you come DOWN the hallway from the bathroom or bedrooms

Bob made the benches for me and they were painted Hunter Green to go with the old Camp/Lodge Look we used to have. Mom painted these PITTER PATTER for me (they look blue in this picture but I think it was just the angle of the camera and the way the sun was coming in the windows)

THE "CASHIER" Please Pay Here sign is going in my shop when it re-opens in April

THE KITCHEN IS ENTIRELY NEW....If you look back at the old photos, everything had to be taken down to the studs and the sub flooring...IT WAS REALLY BAD. I DID NOT paint my cupboards, they were bought this way from Home Depot!!!!

Coming in from the back porch.....go east and you go to the Living Room/Dining Room and down the hall to 3 bedrooms and full bathroom. To the west, you walk into my kitchen and the door to my shop (also, there is a little breakfast area where the kids have their computer set up) This will totally be different as I am going to sell all of my cake pedestals....I just don't use them!!!!

One of many pieces of furniture MY MOM BUILT!!!! SHE'S GOT TALENT!!!!

Close up of the cupboard MY MOM BUILT!!!!

Coming in from the back (south) porch

LOOKING OUT THE NORTH PICTURE WINDOW

Child Size Church Pew provides extra seating around the 7 foot pine harvest table

Bought this Child Size Church Pew from my Mom's Sale.....She painted it Petal Pink for me!!!! I LOVE IT and I got the wool tied blue vintage quilt from California when I was there visiting a couple years back.

MY BELOVED "PITTER PATTER" Vintage Table.....The PINK PEONIES are from HOLLAND!!!! Also bought from a moving sale. The lady told me about them and so I HAD TO HAVE THEM being my Grandma was from Holland!!!!

Bob's Big Chair and the shutters are "AS IS" I didn't touch them paint wise.

My First Mosaic piece, a yard long window I placed vertically in the door window and gotta love those arched shutters

AND THAT SOFA THAT STARTED IT ALL......I LOVE IT!!!! This is looking out of the SOUTH PICTURE WINDOW. Door on the side is to the back porch (or the mud room...or the PIT, is what I call it....LOL)

THIS HUGE Cupboard was all primitive when I bought it....I got tired of that phase and painted it white (back at my old cottage house) then I painted it yellow when we moved in here, and now Mom painted it PETAL PINK by Martha Stewart. On the top is an OLD ROUND Birdcage I had painted Ballet Slipper Pink years ago and no one ever bought it in the shop (I only had $14.00 on it) so glad it didn't sell as I lined the bottom with vintage sheet music and added white twinkle lights. It's soooo pretty at night. And a few years back, Longaberger came out with PINK BASKETS for just one month only, I bought 3 of the 5 they were offering and wished now I would have bought more. They look so cute up on the big cupboard.

THE QUEEN ANNE'S LACE CUPBOARD MY DADDY BUILT

The Sign I got from Polly at PollyAnns Antiques in Mt. Vernon Iowa!!! I LOVE IT!!!

Another view of the of the cupboard MISS BECKY from SweetCottageDreams made the Pocket Pillow for me and I got the OLD HORSE TROPHY Ribbons in Cascade, Iowa, same day I got those awesome shutters. I got the other ribbons from Andrea, at www.OneHundredWishes.com I have an AWESOME OVAL Barbola Roses Frame that I will be putting them into, I was just waiting for the paint to dry on it (Mom painted it for me too)

Old ORIGINAL PINK Laundry basket I have had for years (I think I got this from Mom, she found it up in Rochester, MN one year when she was antiquing) I used it to HIDE ALL THOSE UGLY CORDS.

A better straight on view of the tall Queen Anne's Lace Cupboard my Daddy built.

Lots of pretties that I have had and some Austria plates that never sold on the website. The inside of the cupboard is called "CELERY" from Sherwin Williams, bought that quart at an estate sale for 50 cents. Got the BUNNY Rabbits from a sweetie gal Tami on ETSY, She has AWESOME STUFF, SUPER TALENTED and I have bought lots from her already.

Side View from Bob's Chair and Front Picture Window to the West. My Daddy build that tall cupboard, it's painted QUEEN ANNE'S LACE from Sherwin Williams (I picked up a quart of it at an estate sale for 50 cents). It has been painted so many different colors since I aquired it. It was originally all pine.....He would kill me if he knew how many times I have painted it....LOL. I bought that adorable Barkcloth Covered Stool uptown Marion at an antique shop and the Child Size Vanity is INCREDIABLE!!! Never seen one like it, probably never will. It too, was in my shop and didn't sell. YIPPY SKIPPY FOR ME!!!

I couldn't sell this vintage vanity in the shop for $68.00 (It came with the mirror too), so I took the mirror off and it fit the big screen tv perfectly, so glad it didn't sell!!!! I painted the vanity BRIGHT WHITE from the gallon of paint I used on the walls from Dutch Boy at Wal-mart and the BALLET SLIPPER paint is from Ace Hardware in Mt Vernon (it's spray paint)

Hope you enjoyed the tour of my home.....more to come as I get things tweeked.

DON'T FORGET TO VOTE!!!!
Pray for our troops, HUGS AND LOVE, Amy
(REMEMBER....you can click on any of the pictures to enlarge them for better viewing)

~I'm Here~ Just SUPER BUSY~

MISS MADDI....years ago....LOOK at the TIARA CROWN on her HEAD!!!! She was eating a graham cracker.....LOL

Hey Everyone,

I haven't fallen off the blogging block....I am still here, just super busy!!!! I was without Internet for quite a while as my virus protection was fighting with MSN and well, needless to say, I got it figured out and everything is back to normal.

While Bob was gone for 8 days to North Dakota hunting, Mom and I did a TOTAL MAKE OVER of the living room and dining room. IT LOOKS FABULOUS and I will post pictures as soon as possible.

KRISTI says "THANK YOU" to everyone who is writing to her and to "Please let them know there is no possible way I can write back as my time is so limited that by the end of the night from 8 to 9 pm when they can write home, I am so exhausted, I just fall into bed"

CLICK HERE -----> THIS IS WHAT OUR HOUSE LOOKED LIKE when we moved in and then all the REMODEL we did ourselves....I will post pictures of what Mom and I did while Bob was gone on tomorrows blog post!!!!

Hugs to everyone.......HAPPY NOVEMBER, Amy