Happy Birthday to The Twins!

Memorial Weekend is always memorable for us

at The Cottage.

Brock and Trey decided it would be the perfect

weekend for their debut, four years ago.

{Despite the fact that they weren't due till July!}

You'd never guess they were 2.5 pounds at birth.

Gotta love us some All American Boys!



let's light the candles!
Trey (L) Brock (R)



Trey wants everyone to stop singing....

Brock, does NOT!

LOL!

And.... The wish!

We had a great time with great friends and family!

The boys made out with lots of new cars!

{They're Matchbox junkies}

I would have taken more pictures but as the Party Coordinator, BBQ Queen, Schedule Keeper, Score Keeper, Guest Rotator, etc., I let the Photographer job slip.

Ahhh well, there's always next year!

I'm gonna be hiding out for a few days...

LOTS to finish for

The Vintage Marketplace!

If you aren't coming because airfare is too high ;),

I'll be posting LOTS of pictures on Sunday!

Have a wonderful week/weekend and if you are coming,

COME SAY HI! (please!)

xo, Amber

Vintage Marketplace Teaser!

Just wanted to share a sample of what we're bringing to

The Vintage Marketplace

next week!

Marketplace info at the bottom of this post.

This girl loves her some Burlap...

Handmade Chicken wire Cloches...



 A Whimsical Chandelier

{she still in the works!}

Yummy Vintage Silver...

Our New Addition: Le Coq Noir...

Industrial Farmhouse...

 And... a Glimpse of the Wedding Dress

{she and I have a date this weekend for flower installation}

Plus so, so, soooo much more!

Stop by and say hi!

Off to work I go!

Have a Beautiful day, lovelies!!

OH! I'm linking up to

French Country Cottage

for Feathered Nest Friday!

http://www.frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/

xo, Amber



A Beautiful Day

Good Morning!

As I sit at the kitchen table typing away,

I take a look to my right out the window.

I love mornings like this!

Marine layer rolled in sometime last night (early this morn)

and settled in the valley, here.

I have the window open...

The cool air feels good.

I can hear the wildlife (birds) in the

creek foraging for food and

the little Falcon Hawk is swooping down

on the Red Tailed Hawk, for whatever reason.

They do this every morning.

{This happens in my favorite tree}

I hope everyone's day is as peaceful as this moment is.

xo, Amber



Working Some Magic

In two short weeks we'll be all set up for

The Vintage Marketplace

in Rainbow, CA

(just South of Temecula).

Needless to say, my fingers will be busy with paint, the sewing machine

and chicken wire (not all together on the same project-that'd be weird!),

and less on the keyboard!

Here's a sample of past shows and some items we'll be bringing along...

I have a new line of burlap pillows debuting at TVM, lots of fabulous furniture and a newly embellished wedding dress that is just the right shade of pink!

Here's the details:

Hope to see you there!

xo, Amber



Making Something...

...With Nothing

There's a Cottonwood tree in the creek behind our house that

I can see perfectly from my kitchen window

{if you know me, you'll know this is my favorite perch}.

Cottonwoods are thirsty trees and for some reason, parts of the them always seem to dry out and stop growing leaves, making them not so pretty.

"Our" tree was just like that until about 3 months ago.

Mother Nature must not have like it either because she rained and winded one day,

so hard, that the rotted/dried part broke off.

And it was BIG!

I got to witness it!

I love the rain so this particular morning

I just happened to be standing at the kitchen sink looking out

 (with the window open),

and BAM! there it went!

It was pretty cool!

The sound, mesmorizing.

My thoughts:

Oooh, there's alot of pretty dried wood to make stuff with!

My first project: Window Treatments!

(my idea and actual attempt didn't quite match up-Scratch!)

Next: Stars!

(this was~and is~a fun one)

I will have a few of these for

The Vintage Marketplace.

Call it my version of a

"Starfish".

{remember; I'm a mountain girl, not a beach girl~but I have to play along}

*Here's my star*

Simple and not much to it.

It's pretty big though.

This one sits at the top of the stairs

and is special...

True story:

This picture right above did a very strange thing

to my camera when I clicked.

It froze.

The picture remained on the screen, where it usually

stays on for a couple of seconds

then goes off,

it stayed.

I turned the camera off,

it stayed.

I freaked out!

I had to take the battery out to fix the problem.

Then guess what?

When I downloaded the pictures,

my computer froze on this picture!!

~????~

I think this is my lucky star.

:)

There's alot of history on the land that we live.

We'll touch on that another time.

Happy Monday everyone!

See ya soon!

xo, Amber

Oh, one more thing!

The girls say hi!

For Mother's Day

I've been thinking about Mother's Day and my post for it.

I was going to share my special thought for the day, but changed my mind.

Instead, I am going to dedicate this to someone that has made a forever stamp in my heart by being her.

Her actions (albeit I'm sure she had no clue she was doing anything at the time), has made me a better mom and a little more of a selfless human being.

...To Mrs. McGuire...

I met Mrs. McGuire in Elementary School right out of the gate...

Kindergarten.

Her son TJ and I were in the same class for maybe

4 of the 6 years throughout our Grade School  years.

{He was one of the nicest boys I ever met.}

Mrs. McGuire was at school all the time!

I thought she worked there, but now, having a daughter go through the ranks, realize she was a Volunteer.

Every field trip, every party, every play, plus, I'm sure, so much more, she was there.

TJ was her youngest as her daughter was the same age as my Brother and Sisters, which were 5 and 6 years older.

Anyway, I always thought she was so pretty.

She was so nice, too!

I loved being in her group on field trips because she let me hold her hand.

My Sixth Grade year was the most memorable.

I didn't sign up for camp because we couldn't afford it.

That was okay because in Fifth Grade, I got to go for free!

I was on the "Safety Patrol" and was Seargent so our camping expedition was the reward for volunteering.

Safety Patrol=getting to school early and staying after to stop traffic with our candycane striped poles, yellow hard hats, neon orange vests and my trusty whistle, so the other kids could cross safely.

(I don't think they do this anymore)

Mrs. McGuire (she must have been on PTA), asked why I wasn't going, so I told her.

A few days later, I delivered a letter from school to my Mom.

I was going to Camp.

I don't know if Mrs. McGuire paid for my trip or it came out of some

special fund, but I was going.

Before our bus left, she came over and gave me a hug and told me to have fun.

Years later, thoughts of Mrs. McGuire would pop into my head.

I ran into her once when I was in my twenties.

I was on a date with my future husband and we were at a restaurant.

I saw her and she saw me.

She looked exactly the same!

I went over to say hi.

She remembered me!

We shared a hug, news about TJ and his family

and a story or two about Elementary School.

My heart smiled big.

Fast forward to my daughter and Elementary School...

I worked hard to follow in Mrs. McGuire's footsteps.

Those were some mighty big shoes!

I couldn't be there for every single thing,

but made the time to be there most of the time.

Maybe, just maybe I was a fraction of Mrs. McGuire to someone.

Middle School is harder because of my little ones BUT I still do what I can.

We aren't rich (who is) but still find a way to throw in a little extra for a

"scholarship" that goes to another student that doesn't have the funds to

participate.

Anyway,  I hope she knows how much she touched me.

Maybe there are more me's out there and feel the same way I do.

~You may not be the biggest and the greatest in your own eyes,

but in someone else's, you are.~

Happy Mother's Day.

xo, Amber



Our Style

Do you define the way you decorate as a Style?

I do!

It's called, US!

When we lived in our previous home, we completely

re-did everything (almost).

Our CPA had come over for the first time since the remodel and

just said, 'Wow'.

K, what's that supposed to mean?

He just stood there and looked around.

????

The words ECLECTIC

came out of his mouth and I was a little offended!

He then followed up with:

'It all goes together though'.

{feeling better}

'I like it!'

{sigh}

Still, I started questioning "our style".

It really made me think...

Who made the rules,

Designers?

{whispering: I think some of those people that classify

 themselves as such, need to find a new line of work}

Anyway...

I call our style, US.

It is Eclectic, and it does all go together.

It's definitely not boring!

I love the unsuspecting.

A few months ago, a Designer my husband does work for came over

to our house. We're just leasing so the house really doesn't have

our brand on it (flooring, paint, etc.).

She walked in and did her scan...

'This is soooo you, Amber'

I had the n*+$ to ask her what she meant
{because I really wanted to know, what that meant}.

'Your home tells a story of who you are. I work for people

all the time that don't know that.

This is so you.'

OH!!!!!!!

That just made my heart smile and put a grin on my face.

Not because I needed the approval of someone, well, I guess I did, but

because we have really taken the time to

think about how we want to live our life and live in our home.

It is who we are.

We've been patient and picky on what we buy.

It has to tell a story, and trust me, EVERYTHING in our

house tells a story!

I love our home. We love our home.

The style (shell) of this house isn't close to what we want,

but it is our home for now and what's inside, is what counts.

This topic could go on and on but I'll hush and show some pics.

We'll revisit this another time! ;)

The Black Rooster Cottage...

{this is the table I was talking about in a previous post~there's a good story behind it but I've talked to much in this post. I'll tell ya about this another time}

{bought at a Barn Sale, this was in a fire in NY in the 60's. See the char on the corner of the lid?
It's called a Coffin Chest. It now holds all of my cherished magazines~which means ALL of them.
Yes, it is full}

 This is just the living and dining rooms at the Cottage. There's a whole lot more but we'll save that for another time.

We ordered brand new couches for our family room that won't be here till

the end of the month. Our current leather stuff was bought on CL and is the most uncomfortable furniture ever! Every seat reclines so there is no coziness.

We'll be giving those away... any takers?

New stuff: Extra wide seats and plush!!

Can't wait!!

It looks like Burlap but is a Chenille.

Wanna see real life at the Cottage?

{This is definitely NOT the stuff you see in magazines!}

Projects....

more projects....

Oh! and more projects!

Our house is lived in!

Even Mia loves her space!

Hugs and a Smooch,

Amber