The Great Blue & Brown Blog Bonanza

A busy week here means no time for home projects or new photos. I still want to link up with The Great Blue and Brown Blog Bonanza over at Cottage Instincts, so I'm using photos of our home that I have on file. Be sure to stop by Cottage Instincts to see all the links. I hope you enjoy a few peeks of Blue & Brown around our home.



Denim slipcovered chair and brown ottoman (before slipcover) in our family room. Walls are Stone House (BM), a nice tan:



 Aqua Crown mason jar and distressed little bench in hobby room:



 Antique bobbins and fabric in my hobby room:



 Denim and wood in many places:



 Aqua walls and blue and brown towels and facecloths in our ensuite bath:



Quilted flannel Autumn runner and nest on entry table:



Blue and brown entry rug at front door: 

 Thanks for stopping by!

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The Great Blue & Brown Blog Bonanza

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Hook Up Your Hutch Party!

I'm hooking up to Jennifer Rizzo's Hook up your Hutch Party! 

I love our dining room hutch. I had always admired the rustic pine hutches in a local country store. I wanted one to go with our Mennonite pine table and chairs we bought with wedding money (18 years ago) but they were always out of my budget.

I found this distressed black solid pine beauty on kijiji from a local lady who had bought it at the same Country Mile store that I frequented. She was moving overseas and I got it for a steal. It is so well made and the shelves are very strong. The drawers are dovetailed and double fronted.

I love seeing it from the front entry filled with my beginning collection of white dishes and vintage linens.

The little plaster impression piece was made by our youngest at an art studio and is very special.

In the kitchen we have a smaller hutch to hold my Cream Lace by Skye McGhee collection and some blue and white pieces (it is arranged differently now though.) It was plain pine but I painted it Cloud White (BM) and a mistint aqua back in 2008.

I've been searching kijiji and craigslist for a large, but shallow, hutch for this wall. I would love to store all my baking items in it. In the meantime, I plan to pick up a pair of taller shelf units for storage on my next trip to IKEA (when I find the perfect large hutch I can always reuse the inexpensive shelving in our cold storage room.)

Now I'm off to check out the other hutches at Jennifer's Hook up your Hutch Party! 


*** My Welcome Fall post is below. They both conincided and were scheduled for the same day.***

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Hook Up Your Hutch Party!

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Welcome Autumn!

Welcome  Autumn!

A black frame updated the Autumn cross-stitch I use in the front entry each fall. The green denim fabric was replaced with a simple black 8" x 10" frame. I used a thin piece of quilt batting behind the stitching to give it some softness. I'm still practicing with my new Nikon D3000 so sorry about the shadows. It is tough to take a picture in our small front entry on a rainy day.
Before:



These are the things I love about Autumn...
*fall decor * pumpkins * pumpkin pie * apple pie * sweaters and hoodies * jeans and boots * 

 * colourful leaves * cooler temps * fall fairs * crisp fall mornings * hot chocolate and tea *

* fall in Ontario * cozy throws and quilts * denim jackets * scarves * the smell of wood fires *

* chili, soups and stews * warm muffins * Thanksgiving * craft shows *
I hope you have a wonderful first day of Fall.

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Welcome Autumn!

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Little pin cushion

I've been working on my hobby room for a few months now. I try to find a few minutes each day to finish little projects and find homes for my supplies. It is a slow process, and the cabinets still need to be painted, but it is coming along nicely. 

I like to sew and quilt and have way too many pins for my one very sad little tomato pincushion. While I was sorting through things I came across this little cross stitched piece I made many years ago that needed to be finished off. I thought it would make a cute pincushion. I sewed and stuffed it and now it sits beside my machine. It works so much better than the hard little tomato!



On a recent trip to St. Jacobs, Ontario, I bought this pin cushion pattern and fabric kit to make a watermelon pincushion. We are into weekend 4 of 6 fair weekends so this larger pincushion will be for another day. The little cross stitched piece will work well for now.


P.S. If you are a friend of Pat from Back Porch Musings, and had trouble finding her blog, you will be happy to know that she is now on Typepad. You can find Pat here: http://backporchmusings.typepad.com/

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Little pin cushion

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Barnyard Bash

Today I'm participating in the Barnyard Bash at Happier Than A Pig In Mud.



We've been crazy busy here, and I haven't been able to take new pictures of farm or barnyard decor accents in our home, but I thought I would share some pictures I already have. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy your visit.
Cows and horses are well represented in many accessories in our home, including this scene I stitched several years ago. I recently painted the frame and mat to update it for our family room.


We have lots of horse art and accessories, and even a cowboy themed Christmas tree.

 



We are a 4-H family. I'm help out as a Rabbit Club leader, and our oldest son is in four 4-H clubs:.
  4-H Rabbit Club (Calli, a pure bred Californian, and yes her eyes are RED.)



Cows, cows and more cows. This photo reminds me of the stitching above our fireplace.

 4-H Beef Club

4-H Tractor Club


4-H Dairy Club


We live in town in a subdivision, but both our boys would rather be on a farm and hanging out with tractors and animals. We have fairs for the next five weekends. Have you had a chance to enjoy some fall fairs?
Be sure to stop by Happier Than a Pig in Mud to see the rest of the Barnyard Bash entries.

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Barnyard Bash

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Gray Ektorp at IKEA

I've been visiting lots of blogs where folks are falling in love with gray and white. Did you know IKEA now has Ektorp slipcovers in Gray? (or am I just slow in realizing this.) This would solve the 'white gets dirty' problem so many are worried about.
 I hope you are enjoying the Labour Day Weekend!


Edited to add: Gray wouldn't work in our home, and although it is not my favourite, I thought I would share this with those who are trying to incorporate more gray in their decor.

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Gray Ektorp at IKEA

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Giveaway Winner and Back to Work

Happy September! It is back to work time for me tomorrow and our kids head back to school on Tuesday. We have had a great and relaxing summer and are a bit sad to see it end.
As promided, tonight I am announcing the winner of my little giveaway of four cotton crocheted dish/face cloths. The winner of my giveaway is....





#2...Donna from Funky Junk Interiors. Congratulations Donna!
Thanks to all who commented and entered. I hope to whip up some more soon and share another giveaway.

{I used Tara Frey's random number generator. I entered 0 to 32 so that commenters 1-31 could be included. Go here to use it.}


For all peeps who host crazy cool giveaways and need to pick a winner...

Feel free to use this form to generate a random number!
Enter the numbers between which a random number is to be created.
Lowest Number: 0  Highest Number: 32
Result : 2

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Giveaway Winner and Back to Work

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