Okay, time for a bunny update . . .

We have this large wild white bunny (it is big) with brown ears and nose. I don't know where she came from. She just came visiting this spring. Of course, this is a great place for her. We live in a neighborhood of 9 houses, all on 2.5 acre parcels. Lots of room to roam around; there is flat grass land, flower gardens, vegetable gardens and a forest in our neighbor's yard. What more could a bunny want?

I know, most people are trying to keep rabbits out of their garden, but I welcome her with a smile. How much can one bunny eat???

Most of the time, she's just eating the grass . . .

She doesn't mind being in wide open spaces. Does she know she is white? and stands out like a snowball in the middle of summer?

She seems to like lying in the soft dirt of the garden.

Bunny bath time by the blueberry plants.

Our neighbor's forest on the other side of the vegetable garden.

[Sorry, for the blurry pics; these were on 12x zoom to get a good enough pic.]

I hope she stays around. I enjoy her humble existence, roaming around, enjoying life, eating whatever she finds, lying in the dirt, soaking up the sun, hiding under trees, enjoying the shade and hopping through flower beds. Maybe we can learn from a bunny; slow down (hop, don't run), enjoy what we have, soak up the sun, appreciate our shelter, eat what we have, stop and smell the flowers.
Have a great day!
~ Julie

More from the garden . . .

Enjoying a beautiful, sunny day! The rains have stopped, and the gardens look lovely. Now I can work on our patio furniture. I'm making new covers for the wicker in the gazebo and our new vintage table set we purchased this spring. Looking forward to summer BBQs.

 Purple and white companula with beautiful bell flowers.

 White mock orange; snowy white and very fragrant!

Lavender

 

French Country Mudroom

We just finished redecorating our mudroom. This is also where I craft, sew, scrapbook, wrap gifts, and do laundry.

We have reorganized the space so everything I need is in this room, and I don't have to take all my items for sewing or scrapbooking to the kitchen table (which my husband appreciates) or fold laundry on the sofa, or wrap gifts on the floor. Yes, I would often wrap gifts on the floor.

Here is what we did.  (I still need to add the black tile for the backsplash) . . . . .

 We redid the floor with checkerboard yellow and black Marmoleum tiles, and my wonderful painter husband, painted my oak cabinets red with many coats of paint. They are gorgeous, and I love them. We added the vintage chrome bin pulls and knobs from Rejuvenation and a black laminate counter because it was inexpensive and I really just wanted a craft counter that would be durable.

I blogged a few weeks ago about the curtain. It is a tablecloth that I made into a curtain. The tieback, which coordinates perfectly, was on a quilt I purchased for our family room. We added a white wood blind, and my window has a pretty view of our gardens.

We took out the old cabinet deep sink and 

put in this new vintage style wall mount deep sink.

I put a table runner on the washer and dryer, which just makes it look prettier.
{Yes, my washer and dryer are mismatched now that the dryer broke down this year, and it was only two years old ~ didn't see the need to buy a new washer when this one works great.}

My chair was a vintage find, already painted the perfect yellow; 
I just made the toile seat pad.

  

And, of course, added toile plates.

The Closet

The closet has bi-fold doors and a rod for hanging clothes from the dryer. The top shelf has drawers with my scrapbooking supplies and pretty French Country boxes for my craft supplies, paints and stamps.

A clothes hanger bag is used for storing rolls of gift wrap.

 

At the bottom is my, now vintage, sewing machine and roll out drawers full of ribbons and bows. I don't really like plastic storage, but it does keep everything dust-free, and I can just wheel it out of the closet.

The desk

The drawers on the left side of the desk hold scrapbooking projects, gift bags and everything else I need for gift wrapping. 

The right side of the desk holds a pull out ironing board and my sewing supplies.

 On the counter is a toile bucket with oil cloth for future sewing projects, some vintage yardsticks and patterns, and fabric for current sewing projects.

The french door exits to our family room.
I use the drawers by the door for future gift items, and the cupboard is a laundry chute.

There are many things I love about this space . . . the sink, the floor, my chair, red toile and my new red cabinets.

Thanks for visiting our mudroom.


~ Julie

Vintage Finds

Enjoyed the day estate/garage sale-ing with my daughter, granddaughter and a couple friends {hope we didn't wear you out Wade & Elizabeth!}. Saw many beautiful homes in Portland, Oregon, some great vintage kitchens and architecture; and I came home with a few treasures . . .
A gorgeous old picture in a wood frame, an antique brass lamp, antique toile lamp (love it! ~ I've been wanting one of these), 5 piece gold service set of silverware still in original box (to go with my china), an old small toile framed tray, a handmade 'sugar sack' kitchen towel, some vintage tree ornaments and a box of new/old poker chips (random).

DIY: How to reupholster a chair seat pad . . . easy!

I want to show you how to reupholster a chair seat pad because it is so easy. Anyone can do this, and what a change it can make ~ A great way to customize any chair!

 Before

 
1. Remove the chair seat from the chair and remove the old fabric (usually it is too old, stained, or yucky to use). If it's in good shape and it doesn't show thru your new fabric you can cover over it.









 [I had two old covers to remove :)]








 2. Cut your new fabric at least 2-3" wider than the chair seat on each side, depending on how deep it is. You will need to be able to staple it all around the edges on the back side.

3. Center your chair seat with padding side down on the wrong side of the fabric
(if your chair padding is in bad shape you can also use batting to add more cushion and staple it along with your new fabric).










4. Using a staple gun with 1/2" staples, staple the first staple on the front edge side. Put the next staple on the back side of the chair seat, pulling the fabric tight so it is not loose on the fabric side. Flip your chair seat over and check to see if your fabric pattern is where you want it on the seat and it's straight.











5. Staple about 5 staples along the front side of the seat and then the back side of the seat about 2" apart; making sure to pull fabric tight as you staple, to keep the fabric in place.

6. Now move to the sides of the chair seat and staple one staple on each side, pulling fabric tight.


 

7. Continue stapling all sides to within about 1" of each corner.











8. To staple the corners, tuck in each side and staple if necessary and then pull the corner toward the center and staple, making sure the front and side edge is not puckered and looks the way you want it.

9. Flip it over; reattach it to the chair and VOILA! YOU'RE DONE!!!
Doesn't it look great?!!!

After

[Our chairs may not be recovered with the fabric you would expect for their style, but it was intentional. These are going in a church coffee shop {startinggroundschurch.com}.]