My son built this cottage for Honey, Sugarwings picked out the colors, pink for the walls because it is her favorite and Honey colored shingles for the roof to match the dog. I thought of adding the pickets after we took out part of the fence to add the new addition to our house.
My boy designed it, from some vague, rambling descriptions I told him.
Thanks, Adam, it is cute as can be!!
It is pure chaos around here with the remodel going on.
Don't get me wrong, I'm very excited about the whole project and I have no complaints. It is going perfectly well.
But it isn't for the faint of heart. It seems like every corner of my world has been affected, so I'm trying to concentrate on the areas that still have some pretty left in them. Like this view.
If I'd turned the camera around, you'd have seen that all the plants and tables were pulled away from the house and the patio was a turmoil-ed spot too.
Because when we went to replace some siding that the puppy ate, we realized that a large percentage of the siding had to be redone due to water damage, and now we have to repaint the entire exterior, not just the addition.
In both photos, the tan boards are the new ones.
It will be wonderful to have a freshly painted home, once it is all done, but for now, it does add to the rest of the mess.
I think the process is starting to bug me now, because the level of chaos has quadrupled while the floors all get re-stained. Every bit of furniture, and all of my doodads have been stashed here there and every where. We parceled out our belongings between the bedroom, bathrooms, breezeway, studio, and garage.
The studio got off light, with only a chair and the sofa stored out here. Although, we are also using it as a temporary kitchen until the floor is done.
Which is very, very tempting to me as I work. All day, I keep thinking about the snack items right across the room from me. I might have strolled over to check on the cracker and treat levels a few times as I painted.
You know, just to make sure we had plenty.
Although, it is the studio itself that gives me the will to live through this current job. I look back at what we went through to build this addition, and know how very, very, very worth it that was. I adore my studio. And then I think about all of the other big redos we have accomplished in the 20 odd years it took to transform a 900 sq ft home into a 5,000 sq ft home a bit at a time, and think how much I love the final transformation.
Of course, some people might have just bought a bigger house.
Or moved (and I wondered at times when we had the floor open to the Hell Pit below our house, if moving was still an option).
We haven't done it the easy way. Every few years, we tackled another area. We have had a lot of tearing up and tearing down and adding on. We added rooms in the attic. We tore out walls and made rooms bigger. We added a second house and tied it on with a breezeway. We did it piece by piece as we could afford it (financially, as well as emotionally).
Our house is a weird, hodgepodge of meandering rooms.
And I LOVE each and every one of them. Just like I'll love the new hearth room this winter as I sit by the fire with a good book. The short amount of time the workers are here might feel like a lifetime while the house is torn up and we are camping in the office and eating sandwiches in the studio, but in a true lifetime span of living in a home we love, that is a small amount of time to sacrifice.
Soon, it will be done and I'll have the fun of gathering up pretty things to fill the space with.
I'll leave you with more in progress photos.
During our family gathering, and right after my son and husband rescued our foundation from falling into the Hell Pit below us, we had some visitors from Japan. Kia had just returned from there on a student exchange trip. And in trade out, a couple of 12 year old boys from Japan came to stay with her family afterwards.
Our house was (and still is now) pretty torn up, but we had space to set up another table to host a big dinner party for the boys. We fixed some traditional American, summertime foods- mac and cheese, potato salad, baked beans, hot dogs, and ice cream cones.
Then, we took them outside for a ride on the Gator through the woods.
Later, they went out on the boat and got to do some tubing. There were plenty of scheduled activities for them with their group, but we tried to show them a little bit of Kansas life in July. BBQ, boating, 4 wheeling, and family time, what more could a kid want, no matter what part of the world he is from?
When Guncle Randy was here, he spent some time with his life long buddy, Susie. I dropped him off at her Kansas City home and she gave us a tour of some of the murals I had painted for her what seemed like eons ago. We figured out it was back in 2002, not as long ago as I had guessed. This is the master suite, and at the time, Randy helped me do the rag rolling technique on the walls, then I added the palm trees.
The kitchen was also painted with a ragged on glaze over the gold color they had applied, and I added faux bricks along with a window onto a French countryside.
It was a pleasant surprise to see them still there.
I'd forgotten about the bricks, those were something I used to do a lot of years ago.
Yet another blast from the past was this little kitty.
Back in the day, even before I was a muralist, I painted tee shirts.
Garfield was a mascot for Embassy Suites, where Susie was head of sales, and she commissioned me to make up some painted tees for her staff.
She dredged this one up to answer the door in when I came to visit.
Funny thing, I had just met one of my son's friends the day before and got to talking about her dad who used to make wooden toys for Sliver Dollar City. I told her that the amusement park used to send me boxes of toys and dolls to do portraits of onto tee shirts to sell there. And she said that as a child, she had a hand painted teddy bear shirt from there. That must've been one that I had done.
So, after not thinking about those shirt paintings for ages, all of a sudden, two thoughtful remembrances came up within days. I found it very touching to know that artwork I'd long moved on from was a fond memory for another person.
During our mini reunion, I whipped up some centerpieces for a dinner party my husband was going to host in Chicago. Sadly, I had to cancel attending and helping with the decor, but I still wanted to do at least a little bit for it.
The theme for the dinner was "farm to table". I had big plans for the look, and had started a Pinterest board with all sorts of ideas and daydreams. It was disappointing to miss out on it all.
Well, I couldn't do it all from long distance, but I could send a boxful of things they could possibly use. So, I filled burlap wrapped peat pots with oasis foam, covered that in moss and topped it all off with one of our own eggs (blown out) and some feathers from our ladies our in the coop.
They are finished with twine and an acorn charm.
From "our farm" to their table.
While hanging out in the studio with Guncle Randy and Terry, I also made a bracelet for my daughter-in-law. With labradorite, amethyst, moonstone, ruby, and fluorite beads.
For this one, I added some dangled beads.
Typically, I'm rather prolific out in the studio, but I'm not quite up to speed right now. Randy made up for it, by whipping out one page after another in a book he was making.
As well as doing pages in a couple of other books that he brought.
This was the cover of the journal he finished while here.
It was a garden theme, and I made a little sign for him to color and add to the book.
I'll leave you with more pics from his pretty book.
When we invited family to visit, we didn't know this was what would be greeting them. Due to weather, our project has gotten behind, but our brave relatives came on in and faced the chaos of our home. What we didn't know was that we would be discovering a major foundation issue while they were here. Or that I'd be in the ER for most of the day when they arrived.
Did I mention CHAOS?
My sweet brother-in-law, Dale, was kind enough to refer to the madness as "adventure."
And while there was a lot of that adventure going on, we did manage at least one excursion out on the lake
to enjoy the sunset, and we had lots of tasty, family gathering dinners together.
Behind the scenes of most of the dinners, it looked like this on the other side of the kitchen. We had a slight snafu with the flooring guy, and to keep us from getting behind, my boy stepped in to do the job. We have a very old home, and our floors had some kinda sinky spots, that were going to make the new floors need some adjusted threshholds to match up the difference in the levels between the two.
Adam is not one to adjust things if he can fix them instead, so he ripped up some of the old floor to look beneath and found out that one of our foundation walls was nothing but dust and falling rocks.
Which meant that he, and my poor claustrophobic husband spent hours and hours in the Hellhole righting the wrongs time had wrought in the stone work.
Twinkle was fascinated and never left her post as a watch out. I think that meant that there were interesting smells coming from under the house, of old rodents and who knows what. I had some dreams about all of them coming up to visit us while the floor was opened up.
ugh
It was very impressive to see one guy who hates creepy crawlies and another who hates enclosed spaces work together to repair what could have been a costly, and dangerous problem. Before they started, there was over a 1" difference in floor heights, now the space is completely even and our home isn't going to fall into the pit of hell that lurks below it.
Plus, it is meaningful to have projects in my home that were done by family members.
This was also happening while we had company. 
Which made for a lot of pounding, and dust, and FLIES!!!!!!!
Doors open all day for workers let in flies by the billion or so. Guncle Randy and I were on constant swatter patrol.
It wasn't exactly the visit he had in mind, or the gathering that I had planned, but I was so happy to have them all here to see us.
And the evening on the lake was just what I needed. The reunion was supposed to be Randy, Terry, and I in the studio all day, while the other guys played golf then boating every evening.
We only managed one lake night, but they were all very kind about it. And we did squeeze in some studio time. 
And of course, we can't have Grandma Joan here without throwing a tea party.
Since I was under the weather as well as busy as a bee, Sugarwings planned and set the party up in the gazebo for her.
Although, I do feel bad that our short time together was interrupted by all the other things going on, I was sincerely glad to have them all here and I hope it wasn't too much turmoil for them all.
I'm feeling better now too, and everyone was helpful while I was down.
I just hope I get another shot at entertaining the bunch of them without all of the "adventure" happening around us. I could use a do over.
When the wall came down between the kitchen and the room we are adding on, I could see my living room from a whole new angle.
The wall with the vintage book pages now was highly visible along with the rose wallpaper on the stairs. Previously, you could see the stairs from the kitchen, and the wall from the living room, not both at once. Now that they were on view together, they clashed, it was way too busy for me.
So, I took some of the paint color that I'll be using in the new room (Sandstone Cliff) and washed over the too bright white with roses to tone it down.
See what I mean?
At first, I'd contemplated changing the paper, but I did love the vintage rose wallpaper. With this fix, I still have my pretty flowers, but hopefully they are not competing with the wall covered in old book pages.
(In this picture, I've only washed the bottom two as a sample.)
And here it is all done, with an antiquing, bronze glaze over the paint. You can still see the flowers, but the paper has more depth now than it did with just the paint wash.
It was a quick fix, under a half hour to wash down all of the risers, then even less time for the glaze over that. And so far, I'm happy with it. I'll have to see once the room is complete and I can stand back and see how it all works together. It seems to match the text wall much better now.
This is something new for me. This spring, I'd been enamoured with the leather cord wrap bracelets, you can see some here and here.
Then, I read about memory wire bracelets and thought I could get a similar look even quicker. And they are simple and quick. But still very beautiful. Well, I think anything made with these beads can't be anything but beautiful, right? Even poured into a jar or onto a plate, they are just plain gorgeous.
Here are the ones I made for myself, the memory wire bracelet looks nice worn with the leather wrap one. These two have aquamarine, pearls, aventurine, moonstone, laborite, and chalcedony. I seriously splurged on the aquamarine, and went all out with it on these two.
A family member requested a mermaid themed one, and I made this blue piece. But thought it needed pearls too, so I experimented with vintage pearl beads on a single wrap, hooked with a silver clasp that could stack with the blue bracelet.
As tempting as it was to immerse myself into weeks of bead heaven like I did last time, I managed to limit my obsession to a couple of days, because I have so much going on with the remodel project.
Sugarwings joined me for one of those days, she did some beading and spent the rest of the time working with sculpy clay.
Remember that I said I thought memory wire sounded easy to do? It is, she had no trouble whipping up a few herself, with a little help bending the ends and attaching the charms.
She even made a couple for her sisters.
While I had the supplies out, I couldn't resist making a few of the leather wrap style ones for the guys in the family.
For some of the memory wire bracelets, I used vintage buttons as charms on the ends.
This one has 2 laborite and amethyst bead dangles and is made up of all semi precious stones. Which can get very expensive, a lot of beads quickly go onto the wires and before I know it, my stash from the gem show is dwindling! I do love the look of this style, but it takes more beads and less time than the other type. I think the leather woven strands are more of a challenge, too. Going back and forth to make some of each was a nicely balanced way of working.
Sadly, I had to pack it all up, there are too many other projects waiting for my attention right now, and it is hard to justify making bracelet after bracelet to give away. Maybe once the dust settles on the remodel, I can get back to beading and make some to sell. Because, I certainly enjoy creating them, and I can only wear so many at a time… no matter how tempting it is to fill up both forearms and admire the pretty colors.
Last year, we repainted and laid a new floor in the guest room. Sugarwings was smitten and kept asking me if she could sleep in there.
Then, her baby sister starting to sprout up quickly and no longer fit into her tiny, four poster, vintage, pink bed.
Sob!
I loved tucking the grand fairies into that itty bitty princess bed, and it was hard watching how quickly their feet began to hang over the end of it. It seemed like that happened overnight. One night, Sugarwings was all of a sudden too leggy for the pink bed, and we were buying her a twin bed. Now, it is Dewdrop's turn to spring up over night and need to move into the twin bed. So, our biggest girl will move into the guest room.
Who will get the precious, mini, four poster? Maybe the dog… if it fits nicely by the new fireplace.
This room was already freshly painted and I thought the aquamarine color was a serene background for a big girl room (although our big kid was still requesting lots of pink).
It is a small space, and I still need to use it for guests sometimes, so I had to squeeze in two beds, not just one. I usually shop at garage sales and flea markets, but sometimes when I have to get something of a specific size, I buy new. And luckily, we have a Nebraska Furniture Mart nearby, where I found a double and a twin sized, space saving beds. They have no headboards, so fit well in this slanted ceiling room, plus have storage built in, so I didn't need a dresser.
She wanted to keep the desk that was already in the room, to draw at, and has art supplies in the tins.
This chalk board banner was found at Hobby Lobby, and I wrote her middle name, "Joy" on it, but left some chalk for her to change the message if she'd like.
The other banners are from Hobby Lobby too. The cabinet was moved out of the living room when we started the remodeling. It fit ideally under the slant of the wall, to form a hideaway behind it.
Now she has a cozy nook to curl up in with a good book.
The lamp is one I painted years ago. I might trade the table out and use it in the new hearth room when I find one I like better for here.
The other lamp is one that a friend had mosaicked. I added a garage sale shade covered in polka dotted tissue paper and trimmed out in pom pom fringe.
Her daddy's family has a performing troupe called the "Sacred Circus" and Sugarwings wanted a circus style room, but I didn't want to go too literal with the theme. Instead, we incorporated mismatched polka dots and stripes, with a few banners around the room to give it a big top feel.
I also hung two framed family quotes. (Created on Picmonkey)
This one is very special to us all. Sugarwings said this on stage after this Sacred Circus performance the day of her daddy's wedding.
And my Handsome Husband made up a song for this little phrase he loves to sing to his grand fairies. He has us all join in, and link arms while singing it. The tiniest girls just eat that up. The rest of us groan a little, but secretly, we all find it as adorable as can be.
Typically, my home is filled with vintagey things, so shopping at Hobby Lobby, TJ Max, Nebraska Furniture Mart, and Ross Dress for Less for furniture and accessories was quite different than my regular garage sale excursions. It was an interesting challenge and I have to admit, is a little easier than searching at flea markets and estate sales where who knows what you'll find.
I didn't make much for the room either. I turned a couple of pillow cases into curtains, decopauged the lamp shade, and that is about it. I could've made banners for the room but the ones I found at the craft store were ideal and affordable, so I ignored my do-it-yourselfer's guilt and bought them as is.
Although, I still haven't found a rug that I like, I'm using an antique one for now.
So far, our little one has been taking excellent care of her new room. She makes the bed, then turns off her night light and fan each morning she stays there. With the heat we've had lately, she has been sleeping on the sofa a lot, tho. This attic room gets stifling. I've bought a small window air conditioner to install, but I hate to lose all the light, it is a tiny window to start with. But a hot room is no use to anyone, so it is better to have it a bit darker than not use it at all because of the heat.
The important part is that our lil fairy gal loves her space. And when her baby sis returns for back to school, she is going to be feeling pretty grown up herself, with a big girl bed of her own, and becoming a kindergartener!
Oops, we almost missed out on joining in on Karen Valentine's annual Studio Tour.
Ya know, you snooze, you lose, right? But I checked her site and it looks like I can still add myself to the list.
And I even have a few changes to show from past years. Not big ones, but some things did get shifted a smidgen. Since, sadly, I didn't host Birdsong this year, I decided to enlarge my office space. The whole studio is one big room, just under 1,000 sq ft. I divide into sections with hinged doors, and large pieces of furniture. So, the room is rather fluid, and if I decide that I'd like to allot more space to one area instead of another, all I have to do is shift stuff around.
So, I gifted myself with about 8' of extra room in the office. Normally, I'm stingy with the desk area, and save all the extra elbow room for seating in the main space. Since there are no guests now, I thought the space would be nice to make use of in the desk area.
The bluebird backdrop is painted on plywood and usually, it sits by the treat cabinet and serves as decor for my Peeps at Birdsong. Since (very, very sadly) there was not an art event here this spring, I thought I needed a bluebird view to cheer me up and moved it to sit behind my desk.
Very cheerful!
And the poor treat cabinet is looking lonely, since I haven't had company to feed. It is being used for storage, not goodies right now.
Well, this isn't typical, but for now, the studio is set up for sewing.
YUCK
I really do not like to sew. But…. sometimes it is the solution to a problem. I'd bought a boxful of old lace curtains at an estate sale (for $6!) and wanted to make them fit the windows in the new room we are adding onto our cottage.
The sewing isn't going well, but I'll get there. There have been a lot of breaks to save my sanity. Too much sewing is rough on me.
I've been painting frames and getting family photos into them to hang in the new room too. We will have a fireplace and mantel! That will be a great spot to display some special pictures.
Another job that I need to tackle is recovering this ($30) chair from a garage sale. I'll be painting the wood too. Lately, I've been recovering some other seating, and have painted a couple of tables.
Packing up the living room and kitchen had me in the swing of organizing and spent time going through each cabinet in the studio to straighten and edit the contents. While at it, I boxed and labeled all of the supplies in this one! Can you hear the sound of me slapping myself on the back? I'm pretty pleased with the outcome. And in the last couple of months, it has stayed nicely sorted.
The corner cabinet was moved from the kitchen to the office, that is what started all of the shuffling out there. My son built this cabinet for me, and while I loved using it as a china cabinet in the kitchen, I think I'll like it even more out here.
With all of the redos going on, I'm afraid that I've neglected my regular work. I look forward to getting some time at my craft desk soon. Here is a view from my workspace. I miss it!
This is kinda new too. The cabinet on the right was a wooden one in my office area, and I covered it in some of my very favorite and vintagey wallpaper, then moved it to my work zone to keep supplies in.
As you might notice, I have a collection of these style cabinets. About half are original, the rest are newer ones that I've covered in old paper.
Of course, in my opinion, any storage is better if covered in old wallpaper.
Thank you for stopping to look. And have a good time on the rest of the tour, you can find the link on Karen's blog, here. It is her 8th annual Where Bloggers Create Studio Tour. Thank you, Karen for hosting again.
