Design Challenge

Debra at  Common Ground  has come up with a great concept for a new blog party.





Design Challenge will be for anyone who is in need of design advice or just a fresh new idea.  You are welcome to submit photos to Debra for a feature post.


You can submit a whole room or something as small as a mantel display or vignette.  How about advice on paint colors or fabric choices?  Debra will post your decorating dilemmas and then you can get suggestions  from the rest of us. 


Do you ever walk into a room, or see a photo in a magazine, and start rearranging it in your mind or making design changes?   Do you love a decorating challenge?   If you answered yes then this is the party for you! Common Ground  readers have the opportunity to give decorating solutions and offer constructive criticism on the featured spaces.


Sound like fun?  You can get more details at  Common Ground  and while there grab the party button  and help spread the word.


xo,
Sherry

Open House Party

Thank you so much for joining this weeks Open House party!  
The link to join in the party is at the bottom of the post.  Don't go there yet though...I have a fabulous home for you to tour today.


You may remember this post where I transformed a burlap covered demijohn and then the post where Miss Kopy Kat made her own burlap covered demijohn.  I was blown away by Gayle's creativity and I  become a big fan of  Miss Kopy Kat.  


My antique demijohn is on the left and Gayle's copy is on the right.  Pretty wonderful, huh?





Well,  Gayle keeps amazing me with her talent and creativity.  Her latest project is my favorite so far and I just had to share this with all of you.  Take a look at her wonderful "coral' collection.











Gayle created each of these amazing "coral " pieces from things she found at Michaels and the hardware store. You will have to check out her blog to see how she made these.


Gayle and her husband bought a twenty year old house six years ago and began the work to update it and make it their home.  The kitchen cabinets were painted, new appliances installed,  floors tiled and the tile back splash was painted. 





Six years later and the painted tiles still look wonderful!





















Gayle made the curtains in the master bedroom and she made the top mirror from wood skewers painted gold. 





Ann Sloan chalk paint was used on the bedroom dresser.




They mortar washed the bricks to tone down the color, replaced the front door, extended the sidewalk and porch and added new landscaping. 









I hope you enjoyed the tour today!   Please visit Miss Kopy Kat to see more of the before and after pictures and her wonderful projects.  If you are not already a follower I know Gayle would love to have you as a regular visitor.


Thanks Gail for opening up your beautiful home for the Open House party.















xo,
Sherry

Transferware Feature + Wins

 Sarah at  Upscale Downhome  does a weekly feature on Collections and this week her post is featuring my transferware.  When she asked to feature one of my collections I started looking around and realized I have a number of things I collect but my all time favorite is still the blue and white transferware.  I buy what I like and I have never worried about if the piece is highly collectible or valuable.  Even a few imperfections don't bother me.  For me the fun of collecting is in the search. 

Thank you Sarah for the feature! 


I hope you will visit Upscale Downhome and see more of my collection and this fabulous blog. 





I also want to thank Sharon @  Elizabeth And Co  for my recent win of her giveaway. She sent me the cutest things to make cupcakes with my grandchildren.





I was also the lucky winner of another giveaway sponsored by Ann @ On Sutton Place.  I had my choice of any of the fabulous prints from Barbara Rosenzweig  Etsy shop.  Barbara is a very talented artist and I chose a darling crab print for my kitchen.







Thank you to all these ladies for your generosity! 


The Open House party starts tomorrow evening and I have another beautiful home for you to tour.  Wait until you see how she "created" a gorgeous coral display.  I was blown away by her creativity!


I hope to see you at the party.
xo,
Sherry

Antiques, Beach and Birthday

Hi Everyone!


I wanted to share two of my absolute favorite antique malls.  Smith's Antiques and Antiques On Holiday are both located in Destin, Fl.  Every time we head to the beach house  these two shops are on my "must go" list.  When we lived full time in the area I had booths in both Smiths and the owner of Antiques On Holiday previous shop, Bienvenue.


Enjoy the tour!






This piece of coral was amazing! 



There were hundreds of these French Pickling jars but that didn't keep the price down.  Love them but at $125 each I had to pass.



The dresser is fabulous but my favorite piece is the cabinet above that was custom made for a flat screen TV.









Sorry about the quality of these pictures. Most of the booths have no natural light and the ceilings are painted black.  Don't they know this makes it more difficult for us blogger? LOL






Why is it when you are flying you always see BIG things you would like to purchase?  I would have taken those shutters home with me if Delta was a little more flexible about carry-ons! 


The main reason for the trip last week was our granddaughter's birthday and to visit with family. Here are a few pictures of our grandchildren.



Happy Birthday Abby! 
 Our daughter-in-law and son are in the background.  Can you believe my DIL made this Topsy Turvy birthday cake?   I thought she did a fabulous job and it was yummy too.



Two of our grandsons enjoying the ice cream.  This was a swim party and all the children had a wonderful time in the pool.


Thanks to everyone that joined this weeks Open House Party.
Have a great week.
xo,
Sherry


I'll be joining the parties at:
Savvy Southern Style 
My Uncommon Slice Of Suburbia 
Common Ground 
French Country Cottage 
At The Picket Fence

Open House Party Beach House Tour

Welcome to the Open House Party!
You will find the link to join the party at the bottom of this post.


We got home from the beach late last night.  It was a great week spent with family and it gave us a chance to get some things done around the beach house.  We have decided to put the home on the market for sale.  Many of you know we are trying to sell our Richmond home so we can move to Orlando to be closer to family.  It is just not practical for us to have a beach home that is so far away.  Once settled in Orlando we may look for a condo or another home on the beach that is within a couple hours drive.


For this weeks party I am featuring our Florida beach home.
Enjoy!







Front Porch








View of Gulf from front porch.  There is a paved bike/walking trail shown in front of the home.










Tile floors that resemble distressed wood planks





I know you are wondering why the coffee table is sooo far from the sofa.  This picture was taken before we moved out for insurance purposes.  I didn't even bother to shut the pantry!





Kitchen with custom cabinets, granite and tile counter tops.





Antique French shutters


.
Guest bath with vanity we made from old dresser.





View from Master Bedroom



Master Bath with antique tub.








  I have to brag on Steve because he made the chairs and potting bench after I saw similar ones in a local shop.  I came home one day to a pile of lumber and that's when he told me he was going to "try" to build these for me.   We didn't even own a saw then and building furniture was completely outside his comfort zone.  These pieces are ten years old and still study as can be.  I think Steve did a great job...though he never built anything else after this!


Back porch views of Santa Rosa Sound.





The house is now vacant so there are no longer plants in the pots.  I made the sign many years ago from a board washed up on the beach.





 Here is the real reason you buy a beach house!
The beach...







The Florida Panhandle is known for the sugar white sand and beautiful clear blue water.  These photos were taken just yesterday.



I know the power of blogging so please bear with me while I give you info in the hopes that someone might be looking for a beach home to buy.


Our home is located on the small island of Navarre Beach in the Northern Florida Panhandle. Navarre is situated between Pensacola Beach and Ft. Walton Beach.  It is approximately a twenty minute drive to Destin and less than ten minutes to Pensacola Beach .  The beach is approximately 200 feet from the front door and the back of the home offers wonderful views of Santa Rosa Sound.  There is approximately 2200 square feet with three bedrooms and two baths.  With minor alterations a children's bunk room could be added.  We are selling it partially furnished and we would consider owner financing or us holding a 2nd mortgage.


Here is the hard part for us...


The home was valued at  One Million dollars six years ago but with the housing market in Florida we are offering it now for $425,000!  Can you hear me hyperventilating?  The only consolation is we can probably buy a home in Orlando at a discounted price.  If you know of anyone looking for a Florida beach home please send them our way.



 


Now on to the Party...










I'll be partying at :
Savvy Southern Style
Faded Charm 
Romantic Home


xo,
Sherry




Blue Creek Home IMPORTANT NEWS

Hi Everyone.


Rhonda at Blue Creek Home recently lost her domain name and someone else jumped in to purchase it.  She has changed her url to  bluecreekhome.blogspot.com.  Unfortunately, this happens quite often and you need to be aware that there are people that keep track of popular blogs and just wait until your domain expires and then they move in. Normally they will try to sell you the name back at an exorbitant price.  I know of one case where a blogger was offered her domain back for $900!  These normally cost $9.99 per year through GoDaddy. 


I hope you will help Rhonda spread the word about the new URL and change your link address if you have her button in your sidebar.  I know she would really appreciate if you would copy and paste her letter below to one of your post.







Here is the letter from Rhonda.  




Hi, it's Rhonda from Blue Creek Home. Some of you may have heard that I lost my blog over the weekend. Thankfully, I had started it at blogspot.com before I purchased the domain and changed it to .com. This allowed me to continue to access the blog at the blogspot address with all of the contents intact. The problem is that any links you guys have do not come to me now and most of my internal links are broken.


The man who bought my domain (fair and square, I might add) has set up house at my old blog address (bluecreekhome.com) For the first few days when you visited, you were redirected to GoDadddy. Today, he suddenly has six or seven posts - a new header - some talk about interior design and decorating, and google ads.  Please if you go over, don't click on anything. I don't want this guy to make a cent from my friends!

Find me at bluecreekhome.blogspot.com for now and please change your link address to the new blogspot address if you have my button or follow me or saved me saved to favorites/bookmark.

This has taken the wind out of my sails. I am trying to decide if it's time for a break so that I can focus 100% on little Mason and family. I will keep y'all updated.

A few of my best blog friends have offered to post this on their blog for me and I appreciate you guys. Anyone else, please feel free to copy this and post it for me -I want to keep this man from getting my traffic!

And, a word of warning to those who may own their domains - don't let it expire!!! Domain squatters are waiting like vultures in the wings to buy it. One thing I WILL NOT DO is try to buy it back from him.

I sincerely appreciate each one of you,

Rhonda
 
 
Thanks for your help and I'll see you tomorrow night at The Open House party.
xo,
Sherry